Jeremiah, do you know when you saw these two fighter pilots or why them in particular?
Nah.
It was a night mission, Operation Lima Mike, and they never came back.
It's just been on my mind forever.
Jeremiah, thanks for calling in today.
A good day to remember them.
Thanks for the phone call.
Thanks to all our viewers in this first hour.
We're going to keep hearing your stories this morning on this extended Washington Journal and also take up some issues about the VA and about the military.
Up next, we're going to be joined by reporter Patricia Kine of military.com to talk about some of her latest investigations and later a conversation with Mission Roll Call CEO Jim Whaley about his group's polling of veterans issues around the country.
Stick around for those conversations.
We will be right back this week
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For the past 10 years, Tess Owen has covered extremism, disinformation, and politics for several nationally known publications.
In the October 8th, 2024 issue of New York Magazine, Ms. Owen wrote an article with the title, Inside the Patriot Wing.
She talked with several of the over 1,400 January 6th defendants who have been spending time in the District of Columbia jail about two miles from the U.S. Capitol.
This is her story of how she got to know several men who have been convicted of, in her words, violent crimes.
We asked Tess Owen, how did she get access to these folks behind bars and what are they saying?
Tess Owen with her New York magazine article inside the Patriot Wing.
On this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
BookNotes Plus is available on the C-SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Washington Journal continues.
On this Veterans Day, Military.com's Patricia Keim joins us.
She's covered military issues for decades, focuses these days on military families and veterans and health care.
I want to start with your recent story about who might be VA secretary in a second Trump administration.
Who do we know is in the mix for the job?
What can we say?
Well, I spoke with the previous VA Secretary, Dr. David Shulkin, right after the election, and he likes to say it's sort of a fool's errand to figure out who it is.
But we do know that former VA Secretary Robert Willkie is very much involved with the Trump transition team, and he is actually leading the defense sort of transition at DOD.
But he has been at the forefront of some veterans, you know, just policy issues and being an advisor through this entire thing, the last four years.
He's been working on VA issues behind the scenes.
So he's definitely a person to consider.
Some other people that are interesting, there's Dan Gade, who is former VA for the state of Virginia.
He directed the state of Virginia's VA.
He's a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who's an amputee, and his name has been put out there.
There's Darren Selnick, retired Air Force officer, who has for decades been at the forefront of community care reform and just getting VA care outside of VA, strengthening the VA facilities, but also giving vets more options.
So he's a thought, too.
Remind viewers about the VA during the first Trump administration, what Donald Trump was looking for in his VA secretaries then and what he might try to build on in a second Trump administration.
So President Trump, you know, the Mission Act was signed under him, and that was an expansion of the VA Choice program.
And VA Choice was a response to a scandal over wait times over veterans waiting at Phoenix and then elsewhere not being able to get care.
So they passed the Choice Act and then President Trump expanded it, the Mission Act, which gave it shortened wait times for access to care and also drive times.
So it gave veterans a lot of bigger options for just going to the VA, not just going to the VA.
So I think we're going to see some focus on that.
And also just a re-look at just the structure of the VA.
And it's got aging facilities.
It's got a lot of veterans moving to certain parts of the Sun Belt, that kind of thing, leaving old VAs in the Northeast.
So I know there's going to be an effort to really look at the structure of VA and just see how they can make it work better for veterans.
When the Biden administration came in, was there parts of VA programs that they tried to unwind from the first Trump administration?
And are we going to see some of that come back or some Biden programs try to get unwind by the next Trump administration?
Well, one of the concerns has been the cost of community care.
So community care now is 42% of the medical care provided by VA.
And what is community care?
That's where a veteran can't get access at the local VA, so they just get a, you know, they get a referral and they can go, and it's paid for by VA, but it's in a private, yes, private.
One of Secretary Dennis McDonough's top priorities was to sort of rein in the expansion of community care basically by considering that now veterans have access to telehealth.
And so maybe the current metrics of 20 days to get a primary care appointment, you know, weren't as effective and they needed to be redone.
He wasn't able to do that.
So again, community care has become a very large part.
I think we'll probably see a continuance of that.
And also, you know, with any administration, there's focuses.
The Project 2025 was written, the veterans section was written by Brooks Tucker, who's a former chief of staff at the VA under the Trump administration.
And, you know, there's focus on some hot button issues like LGBTQ care, abortion, also unions, how broad unions are at the VA.
That's definitely thought to be a focus of the next administration.
We're talking veterans issues with Patricia Keim of Military.com and taking your phone calls as we do that.
Phone lines, we're going to keep them the same throughout our program today.
So continuing with the lines we set up in our first segment, veterans and their families, it's 202-748-8000.
If you're active military, 202-748-8001.
And then all others, 202-748-8002, will also look for your text messages and for your tweets, your Facebook posts as well.
As folks are calling in, the story I wanted to get you to explain to viewers here, and it's a long investigation that you did on this, canceled appointments, unexplained mix-up, veterans facing challenges getting VA mental health care.
What did you find in your investigation?
Well, we about a year ago started hearing stories of veterans really having trouble getting appointments once they got appointments at the VA facilities themselves for mental health care, just facing unexplained cancellations.
Now, early on, obviously in the early 2020, 2020, 2021, we had the pandemic and cancellations were more common.
Are these mostly face-to-face cancellations or just the illustration that goes with your stories shows a veteran staring at their computer in one of these Zoom meetings?
Right.
A lot of it was the Zoom meetings.
That was a theme, but also people going into a VA and showing up and either being told you don't have an appointment or, oh, the provider's not here.
We have to reschedule.
And so that was a concern.
And we did hear these stories as recently as 2023 and this year.
So it is a continuing thing.
The VA has said that they definitely have brought down the level of cancellations down to like roughly 8% of the facilities, sorry, 8% of appointments.
But for a person, a veteran who's experiencing a mental health issue, a cancellation can be a really devastating thing.
So about one out of every 10 appointments that is scheduled gets canceled.
How does that compare to the private sector?
It's really hard to, I tried to get at that.
It's hard to figure that out because it's not a centralized system.
But I talked with some experts who said that it seems to be a little high in terms of cancellations just because it is such a large system and there are so many veterans seeking appointments.
And this comes at a time when the VA, the government in general, the military specifically, has been pushing the crisis hotlines to get veterans to reach out if they're in crisis.
It runs counter to what they're trying to do here, it seems like, on mental health.
Yeah, it does.
So, you know, one of the, they did a huge hiring surge last year.
One of the main focuses is mental health providers.
They've scaled back a little bit on hiring, but they're still very trying to stay very focused on mental health.
And that was one of the, you know, we talked to some folks who work inside the VA, and they said part of the issue is provider shortages, no backup.
You know, if somebody goes on holiday, there's nobody to backfill and take those appointments.
And so it is a problem, and it does need to be addressed.
Several other of your stories I want to talk about, but let me bring in some calls already for you.
This is Jerry out of Long Island Up First.
You're with Patricia Keim of Military.com this morning.
Go ahead.
Good morning, John.
How are you?
Doing well, sir.
Good.
Just like to say that you're a fantastic person.
I can tell you care a lot about people.
I wanted to make mention of a thing that the Knights of Columbus put on recently called the Honor Flight.
My father was a Vietnam vet.
And it was, he said he had the time of his life, and I really appreciate it.
Jerry, for folks who don't know what an honor flight, for people who don't know what an honor flight is, just explain it real quick, Jerry.
They take a bunch of veterans from around the United States, and they fly them down to D.C.
And it is actually like a second homecoming for the veterans.
You know, because when they originally came back from Vietnam, they were treated horribly.
And they take them around Washington, D.C.
They give them breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
They take them to the monuments, to the tomb of the unknown soldier.
And it made my father's day.
What was your father's name?
My father was also named Jerry.
Jerry, thanks for telling us about Jerry.
Patricia Kaim, have you ever experienced an honor flight?
Have you ever watched one of those?
So I am blessed to live in this gorgeous city, right?
And running on the mall on Saturday mornings.
And you'd run by the World War II Memorial and see these honor flights, the buses come in with the veterans.
And a little known thing about for years, Senator Robert Dole, even until his very last of his days, used to get up on Saturday mornings and would sit at the World War II Memorial and just basically welcome the honor flight people.
He stayed there for two or three hours.
Not that it was scheduled.
He would just say he would, anyone who came.
Usually there's an honor flight almost every Saturday.
Like, they're really amazing.
It's an amazing.
If you go through National Airport, one of the gates there has all the flags up from the various eras of service with World War II, Korea, Vietnam.
And it seems like that's the main gate that they come through when they come to National.
Right.
It's an incredible program.
I wish I knew more of its history and how it came about, but it's just inspiring to see the buses.
Elizabeth is waiting in New York.
Good morning.
You're next.
Good morning.
Morning.
Yes.
I wanted to ask if she knows about the order or the order last time Trump was in office that he said he would have no trans people in the military serving.
Is there going to be that same position of his?
I have family who serve in the military.
Some of them are no longer with us.
A son who reached the rank of captain in my family.
I'm concerned because also my granddaughter received one of those racist texts 15 years old at school on Friday saying that she would be picked up by a brown van to take her to the plantation to pick cotton and to be ready by a certain time.
I'm very, very concerned about the possibility that trans people will not be allowed to serve because not just because they would possibly be in combat, But we have to realize there are trans people who are nurses, they're doctors, for others' service.
I would like to know what...
Well, Elizabeth, let me take the question and listen to Patricia Kime here.
I...
I understand your concerns, and I would say that, you know, at the end of the first Trump administration, trans people were barred from serving in military service.
You know, that went through the court system, as we know, and it was put in place.
And, you know, President Biden rescinded that on his first day in office.
But we hear repeatedly that, you know, Project 2025 is not necessarily the blueprint for the Trump administration, but it does specifically say that transgender conditions are just not compatible with military service.
So that is a real possibility.
And, you know, they have been pretty clear about that.
We talked about potential VA secretaries in the second Trump administration.
What are your thoughts on the next Defense Secretary?
I am really going to defer because I just don't track the DOD as closely as you would think I would.
I'm very entrenched in covering the Defense Health Agency and military medicine, but in terms of the politics of DOD, I'm going to pass.
Well, a lot of speculation right now on every of the cabinet administrations.
It's a speculation game that happens at the turn of every new administration.
We have plenty of time to continue to speculate.
Although we do know that Donald Trump's chief of staff, Susan Wilde, his campaign manager, and we're starting to look at some of these other positions as well as they start to get filmed, or at least names continue to float.
This is Ed in Jacksonville, Florida.
Good morning.
You are next.
Yeah, good morning.
I'd like to ask your guest why there's such a disparity in the VA system between the National Guard veterans versus the active duty component veterans.
We served right along.
The Guard has served right along the active duty component, but when it comes to veterans' care issues, whether it's their premiums for TRICARE, they're different.
So I would like to see if she could address that.
Oh, by the way, John, the National Guard Museum is right across the street from you.
I did do that, Ed.
Thanks for the thanks to the National Guard.
National Guard is a unique animal, right?
And that goes to the very heart of a definition of a veteran.
And in terms of VA, a veteran has to have served on active duty for at least 30 days continuously.
And there's a whole bunch of on active duty serving in federal service, which is very different than serving as a state component.
So there are differences and issues there.
They would have to, there would have to be a big policy shift in terms of deciding, considering who exactly is a veteran and how those benefits would be changed.
Based on that.
Let me go to John in McLean, Virginia.
Line for Veterans.
Good morning.
Good morning.
How are you today?
Doing well, sir.
You're on with Patricia Kahn.
Most people joined to be a veteran because of our Constitution.
Our Constitution to me means three things: rule of law, individual rights, and free enterprise.
Our forefathers that chased the English out when we beat them at Yorktown formed a Continental Congress.
It took seven to eight years to hash out the Constitution.
These men never had TV or radio.
They read the classics, Roman and Greek law, and applied it to our Constitution, which is the greatest piece of paper ever written.
And in the end, in 1789, they ratified it, and we became a country.
John, bring me into 2024 and some of these veterans issues we're talking about.
Right, right.
I'm not talking about veterans issues.
I'm talking about being an American and why we're veterans and why we have to protect the Constitution.
I don't want to talk to any pundit or bureaucrat inside the beltway that knows everything, that spends 30 years getting a degree working for a PAC or writing a paper and knowing everything.
You saw what happened the last election.
Those people inside the beltway are in never, never land.
Thank you and happy Veterans Day.
That's John in McLean, Virginia.
About 20 minutes left here with Patricia KeimMilitary.com.
A long series of stories in her writing career.
You can scroll through them at military.com.
But I want to ask you about one recent one.
What is K2 and who are K2 veterans?
So K2, Karsi Khanabad, which was an air base in Uzbekistan that the U.S. used as sort of a way station during early on in the global war on terror.
About 37,000 people over the course of the time were stationed there.
And it being a former Soviet base had a lot of environmental pollution.
You know, the research done and talking to the veterans who actually lived there, they had one like a pond, a sort of a waste pond that was like, they called it the Skittles Pond because it was like bright green with who knows what.
There were signs that said, you know, radiation, don't pass this, you know, don't pass this point.
So there's discussion about whether there was depleted uranium on the base.
But there are, it's a cohort of veterans that uniquely were exposed to just a whole host of environmental exposures.
And they've been pushing recently for more recognition for the illnesses that they believe were caused by being stationed at that.
And this is another group of veterans like Agent Orns or Burn Pitts.
This is another group of veterans who's been exposed to something.
Exactly.
You know, Agent Orange, you know, that legislation, just landmark years ago, really did sort of expose how the combat environment is environmentally hazardous from lead to Agent Orange to burn pits to just the waste of being a troop.
It's not a healthy environment.
On K2, VA Secretary Dennis McDonough spoke at the National Press Club about this.
This was recently back on October the 29th.
It's about two minutes for viewers.
13,000 of the 16,000 K2 vets are enrolled in VA healthcare.
Nearly 12,000 are service connected for at least one condition, receiving an average of 30,000 a year and earned benefits.
All told, K2 veterans now have a higher claim and approval rate than any other cohort of veterans.
But we have more work to do to get this right.
Some K2 vets still understandably feel overlooked.
They've waited for 23 years to see their uniquely dangerous service recognized.
I say that again, uniquely dangerous, dangerous service recognized.
So we have to do better and be better for those K2 vets.
That's why today I'm proud to announce that VA will begin rulemaking to add bladder, ureter, and other genital urinary or GU cancers as new presumptive conditions for K2 vets and all eligible toxic exposed vets.
We're not stopping there.
Next week, we'll complete the scientific review of multiple myeloma and leukemias.
The preliminary findings are promising and they suggest that VA will be able to make those conditions presumptive for K2 veterans and all eligible veterans.
And once the final results are in, VA will look to expand that presumption to all biologically linked blood cancers.
This may include polycythemia vera or what a guy like I can pronounce as P. Vera, a condition identified by K2 vets themselves and shared with VA.
We will do so based on biological science and on the results of a PACTAC presumptive process without requiring vets to wait for VA to complete additional studies.
And moving forward, I'm committed to establishing service connection for any rare condition found in K2 vets which has plausible biological link to the toxic soup we now know and acknowledge was present at K2.
VA Secretary Dennis McDonough there.
Put that in perspective.
How significant are the changes that he announced?
And more importantly, how quickly did this happen compared to, say, the burn pits or going as far back as Agent Orange?
Well, it's interesting.
One of the biggest things he said during that speech was about the blood cancers, which were left out of the PACT Act, the massive legislation that was for burn pits exposure.
The blood cancer thing is not just for K2 people, it's for the PACT Act people too.
So that's pretty significant.
And it's fairly rapid.
In 2012 early on, there were a handful of families that were pushing for burn pit legislation.
They were sick.
They didn't know why.
And so between that and until 2022, when the PACT Act was finally passed, that's a decade.
K2 veterans have been sick for years.
But the reporting that actually exposed that, on that clip, they sort of showed a picture of Tara Kopp, who was the major reporter who covered that issue.
She started writing her stories in 2018, 2019.
And five years later, we're having some legislation, some movement, sorry, policy changes to help these veterans.
So things are moving a little faster.
Is there something out there right now that could be the next K2, could be the next burn pits, could be the next Agent Orange?
What is another group of veterans that has come together to advocate for another one of these toxic environments that soldiers were exposed to?
So a lot of these veterans that you hear about are serving overseas.
We know from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where it had for 30 years water that sickened people who live there, people who serve there, that there are places in the U.S. that have issues or stored things stored like Agent Orange, or they used Agent Orange.
I've previously reported on like Fort Ord in California, where they used dioxins to kill off just herbicides, that kind of thing.
Fort McClellan, there's a very vocal small group of people, and that's down in Alabama, that believe that they were sickened by those bases.
So I think the next group will probably be the folks on domestic bases who have gotten sick because of dumping or just poor management in the past of toxic substances.
Back to the calls.
On that line for veterans, this is Everett, Grand Junction, Colorado.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
Thank you.
And Patricia, thank you for just trying to answer some questions.
I served from 1970 to 1978.
And I did not go over and serve in Vietnam, but I knew an awful lot of people that did.
And those that came back and were trying to apply through the VA system for different types of benefits, either mental or physical, it just seemed it took such a long, long, long time for them to even get to somebody that could help them.
And I was lucky enough to, we have an old guard unit here that was turned into a veterans help kind of center.
And we do have a veterans hospital here.
And Brian Oney was a fellow that was a Marine that was injured, and he was making people's claims and trying to help them out.
And he did a wonderful job.
I was lucky that my mother during the time I was in the service kept all my records.
But I know veterans and servicemen that just at that particular time threw their veterans records out the window.
They threw their medals over the fence in Washington.
It was extremely frustrating to him.
But I was lucky to have all of my records, and I had to communicate back and forth between Denver and Grand Junction.
And one lady over there, I didn't know her, but she kept asking for forms.
You know, do you have this form?
Do you have that form?
I sent 13 forms over there.
It took five years to get somebody to look at my case.
And I'm looking at a shirt that I wear on Veterans Day, and it says, all gave some and some gave all.
And it has some boots and a flag M16 with a helmet on it.
I'm sure all the veterans out there know that particular one.
And even those that didn't serve in the military, my dad, he was a railroader during the Second World War.
He couldn't serve because he was needed to operate an engine and a freight train delivering tanks and military personnel.
So just a shout out to everybody and thank you for this program.
Everett, thanks for the call from Colorado.
Can you come back to the record keeping and that in a digital age?
Yeah, thank you for that and thank you for your service.
It's a complex system.
I think the VA between the paper records and the digital records, they have to sort of find a balance.
Sometimes they'll like promote the digital thing, but we still have a generation, the older generation, some of them have a real hard time with the digital system.
So we're sort of in a transition period where eventually we'll get to a point where we'll have all digital natives who are applying for claims and that will make it easier.
But the record system is hard.
There was a, you know, we hear about that there was a major fire years ago in St. Louis where they kept a lot of Army and Air Force records.
So if people didn't have their own copies of their own records, those all went up in smoke years ago.
So they're hard to find.
The VA has pledged to help veterans find their records.
Also, there are veteran service organizations out there.
They all employ veterans service officers who can help veterans like the American Legion and VFW and the disabled American veterans.
So many.
I can't name them all, but that will be, that can help veterans try to get their records and try to get those claims processed.
Let me go to Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, Dennis, Korean War veteran, Dennis, is that correct?
It's Second Korean War from 1966 to 1970.
We were exposed to many toxic chemicals, Agent White, Agent Blue, Agent Purple.
Agent Blue is the one that has given me the most problems.
I put in for an obstructive sleep apnea claim on May the 5th, 2016 with the VA, and I was finally granted a 50% rating for that on May the on, let's see when they did this.
They just did it, July 27th, 2023.
Now, if you do the math from 2016 to 2023 or 24, that was over eight years' time span for the VA to consider my claim, which at first they denied, and then I appealed it.
They denied it a second time.
I appealed that, and I finally had a judge hearing in 2023, but they took part of the claim and they gave me 10% evaluation for my COPD, and then they referred back to Pittsburgh VA the balance.
Now, they finally gave me a 50% rating.
Now, what they should have done originally, based on the VA's own guidelines, I should have been automatically rated at 100% back in 2016 when I filed this claim.
And I have appealed the judge's decision now because they have sent me two different checks.
They sent me one for 10% for the COPD, and then they sent me one for 50% saying they're combining the two, that my disability on breathing, I can't walk more than 60 feet before I have to stop and get out my puffers because I cannot breathe.
This is the way the Korean War veterans, the one that served from 66 on, that were exposed.
And these veterans were exposed up to probably the year 2000 when we came off of the DMZ.
To give you an idea of how the DMZ veterans were first treated, when I first filed my first claim, and that was probably 16 years ago, I included paperwork.
I included mimeographed copies of my orders sending me to Korea, from Korea to my artillery unit, from my artillery unit to the infantry unit in the infantry promoted to sergeant, and then my orders going back stateside to Fort Riley, Kansas in 1969.
When I filed my first claim, I had all those orders attached to my first claim.
My first claim was for frostbite, which I suffered in the winter of 1968-69.
My denial came back from the VA that said, and I quote, you were in Vietnam and you could not possibly have gotten frostbite in your unit in Vietnam.
Dennis, thanks for sharing your story.
Trisha, what do you take from that?
Well, it's interesting when he talked about filing appeals and going before the judge and the Veterans Court of Appeals.
There actually is a Supreme Court case that was just heard a couple of weeks ago about two veterans who There's something called the benefit of the doubt clause.
And in this, it's Buffkin versus McDonough as the name of the Supreme Court case.
McDonough being Dennis McDonough?
Yes.
Whenever they file a thing, it's against the head of the department, and it'll switch over to the next secretary, whoever that might be.
But the Court of Appeals is supposed to, when you have equal-looking proof, sort of weigh towards the veteran, give them the benefit of the doubt, and weigh in favor, grant a disability rating in favor of the veteran.
There were two vets that challenged this because they didn't get what they believe is the benefit of the doubt.
So depending on how the Supreme Court rules on that, a lot of these cases that may take forever, it could affect the Court of Appeals in expediting cases like that.
When somebody says they're a 50% disabled veteran or 100% disabled veteran or 70%, what does that mean?
It's a level of each percentage is a level of monetary compensation.
Is it on every bill that you get from a doctor's visit?
No, so claims are very different.
The Veterans Benefit Administration is separate than the Veterans Health Administration, so they're not tied, the bills aren't tied to your medical care or whatever.
When you apply for a disability claim, I mean, it's like applying for, say, Social Security disability.
You're filing, you're saying, I got this sickness when I was in the service or I was injured in the service, and now it's aggravated or it's getting worse.
So 100% disabled is obviously the highest rating you get.
And it's the most monetary compensation, but it also affords you some interesting benefits like now disabled vets can go shop at like military PXs and there's some other things like that that benefits that afford the veterans are afforded with a 100% disability rating.
Let me ask a question from Robert on social media.
Is there any word on adding cannabis-based remedies to the VA so VA doctors can prescribe them?
Interesting.
You know, there's a white paper that's been out by the VA.
VA has been trying to get that removed, get cannabis removed from what's called the Schedule I rule, sort of classification that restricts it from being readily used for research.
And what the VA would like to have done is have that removed from Schedule I so that they can then do the research that's needed to actually be able to, for them to be able to prescribe cannabis.
I mean, they probably would not move forward with that without having solid research that shows that it is beneficial to a certain number of veterans, proportion of veterans.
I know we're over our time.
Do we have time for one or two more calls?
Sorry.
Seattle.
Jenna, thanks for waiting.
Military family.
Jenna, are you with us?
Stand up for those things.
Jenna, do you have a question for Patricia Keim?
Hello.
Go ahead, Jenna.
You know, my issue was just because I'm the daughter of a 30-year veteran and three other military people in Vietnam, but I don't have any medical issues.
Is that okay?
What's your question, Jenna?
Does it relate to the VA?
I wanted to just, I thought they wanted to talk to families of veterans.
Sure.
Tell me about your family, Jenna.
And I've got about two minutes here, so I'm sorry to make you rush over.
My father was a 30-year veteran in the military.
He was an officer and took the whole, the first black troop, the only black troop into Omaha Beach.
And then he was in seven different wars over there in Europe and the Middle East before he came back.
But then I have two brothers who were in Vietnam for double, you know, when they went back twice.
And a sister who was a nurse in Germany.
And we did a lot of traveling with the military.
And I have a lot of respect for it.
And I have a lot of respect for our flag.
And when I moved to Seattle, the flag where I was in a senior home was tattered and torn and ripped and left out 24 hours a day, I guess for years.
And when I saw it, I know this flag's supposed to be respected and being light at night, which it was not, and taken out of storms and not in the snow and rain.
So I brought it to their attention.
They put a new flag out.
And when I asked this young man to just help me put it up, which was pretty easy, kind of light, he said, well, no, I don't want to help you.
He said, I don't care about the flag.
And so I think that's a really important issue that people need to know a little bit more about because there's a lot of rules for flying the flag and the flag means a lot.
Jenna, thanks for that from Seattle, Washington.
Patricia Kaim, a minute left here this morning.
I did want to ask you, you do so many investigations for military.com.
What are you working on next?
Well, I think we're going to get through the next presidential transition and then dig into quite a few.
We've got some ideas, so I'm not disclosing.
And you'll be able to find them all at military.com.
Patricia Kaim, a reporter there.
Do appreciate your time.
Thanks for coming on Veterans Day.
Thank you for having me.
Up next, a conversation with Mission Roll Call CEO, Lieutenant Colonel Jim Whaley.
We'll talk about the group's polling veterans issues around the country, top issues impacting veterans.
Stick around for that conversation, and we will be right back.
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On this Veterans Day, we continue our focus on veterans issues.
To do that, we're joined by retired Lieutenant Colonel Jim Whaley.
He serves as CEO of Mission Roll Call.
And Colonel Whaley, what is the mission of Mission Roll Call?
Well, Mission Roll Call is the voice of the American veteran.
We have about 18 and a half million veterans across the country.
And what we do is help share their voice with important decision makers, great people like yourself in the media, and just make sure that the American people know what challenges and what advantages veterans bring to our great country.
What are, start with the challenges, what are the challenges facing veterans today, the top challenges as we sit here on Veterans Day in 2024?
Sure.
Well, veterans tell us in their polling that access to their benefits, quality health care is important.
They're very concerned about homelessness.
As you know, those numbers continue to go up.
And then I think the third one is around medical compensation, right?
And you've heard a lot of your call-in folks this morning go through their woes and challenges of getting the compensation after they served.
And so that's still a major issue for veterans.
And so what separates Mission Roll Call from other veterans groups out there?
And there are a lot out there.
How do you uniquely do your mission when you're here in Washington, D.C.?
Well, we are helping other VSOs, veteran support organizations, tell their stories.
So we do a number of podcasts, YouTube videos, blogs.
We use every platform and social media to make sure veterans know about some of the great veteran support organizations that are out there.
The second thing we do is we're their voice and in an apolitical way.
We ask polling questions, we take that data and then share it with the media and share it with elected officials.
We can break down those polls by congressional district and share that with elected officials so they know what veterans are saying in their districts.
We think that's very important because in some cases, veterans' voices are not being heard.
And when you think about 18 and a half million veterans, plus their spouses, plus their dependents, that's a sizable voting block, one that should be listened to.
We're talking with Colonel Jim Whaley this morning.
Mission Roll Call is the group, and the phone lines are as they've been all morning long.
202-748-8000 for veterans and their family members to call if you are active military.
202-748-8001.
All others, 202-748-8002.
Colonel Whaley, as folks are calling in.
When the 119th Congress sits in January, what should be their top priority when it comes to veterans issues?
Well, first of all, we need to take a look at how do we make sure that veterans make the transition to civilian life better.
We call it service to service.
That's the initiative that we have within Mission Roll Call.
We think it's very important that veterans make the transition to employment after their service.
And that's a difficult task for many of them right now.
The transition assistance program that all the services have falls short.
The fact is, is that veterans are underemployed.
65% of veterans tell us they're underemployed.
And why is that?
Well, they're humble by nature, right?
They're not going to brag about what they did and how many people they led and the equipment they were responsible for.
So it's difficult sometimes for them to make that transition.
So we'd like to see a national effort underway to make sure that we take transitioning veterans, use those skills, use those qualities that they gain from being in the military to help organizations.
I'd like to see the business roundtable involved, Chamber of Commerce.
We have a lot of veterans, about 200,000 every year that get out of the military.
There's no reason why they can't walk into a job the next day, either continuing to serve their country as police officers, firemen, elected officials, any number of things.
I think the second thing that we'd like to see is that we need to make sure that veterans are getting the health care where and when and how they need it.
You've heard your callers today.
Many of them are struggling getting the health care that they need because they have to go to brick and mortar locations.
And sometimes that's far away.
The line is very long.
There's a bureaucracy involved with that.
There's some efficiencies that could be enjoyed in the VA if they would manage that a little bit better.
So you hear a lot of frustrated people out there on your calls.
I think the third thing that the Congress needs to really think about, and this would seem odd because it's not a veteran issue, but it is a veteran issue, is that 24% of active duty right now have financial insecurity issues.
This is not a statistic that we came up with, right, through polling.
This is a Department of Defense statistics.
So 24% of active duty have food insecurity issues, which is really financial insecurity issues, because the only reason you're not getting the food you need is because you don't have the resources to do so.
And that seems abhorrent to us as a veteran community that you have many junior enlisted and senior enlisted having challenges taking care of their families.
It should be no surprise that we're struggling in recruitment and retention when that's the case.
And the reason it affects veterans is if you join the military and you're part of that 24% that have food insecurity issues, how do we reasonably expect after four or five years to get yourself out of that and then go into the civilian world?
And of course, that causes challenges when they get out, which affects the VA.
So the DOD and the VA need to work closely on this, and elected officials need to address the issue.
We live in a dangerous world.
We need a military that can take care of their own.
C-SPAN viewers familiar with this chart from the Pew Research Center.
We'll show it most every Veterans Day or Memorial Day.
It's the share of members of Congress who are veterans in the dark line, the Senate, the light line, the House.
Today, in the 118th Congress, it's about 17% of the Senate and 18.5% of the House are members with previous military service.
In the 119th Congress, we don't know the final numbers yet, but it's expected to be about the same or not move too much.
The question is, when you address these lawmakers, what does that mean?
That there's less lawmakers today that have military service.
Does that make your job harder?
And I guess the follow-up question, that is back in the mid-1970s, when the share was 81% or 81% of the Senate, 75% of the House, was Congress better at addressing veterans' issues when it was so high in the mid to late 70s?
I don't know if it was better or not, but I will address the first question: that is, does it make it difficult?
Yes, because now there's an education process to what the military is and what the challenges the military is face.
I think, you know, the economies change, demographics change, pay scales change.
And so there's a lot of factors that contribute to the quality of life that the military has.
I would say that the quality of life for the military when I was in the service from 1984 to 2004 was better than it is today.
And the reason for that is that pay hasn't gone up, benefits have not increased with the challenges of just maintaining a home and taking care of your family.
All those things need to be addressed.
I think the other contributing factor, of course, is we have been busy for many years deployed across the globe fighting the war on terror, and that certainly has cut into available funds for veterans.
So those things have all contributed to that.
But I do find that when I'm at the Capitol and we're meeting with congressmen and senators, there's a more welcoming feeling when you're going to someone who has served their country at any branch of service for any length of time.
That said, I think there's a lot of congressmen and senators that haven't served that know the importance of that are trying to fix some of the issues, but we need to make it a national priority, and hopefully that will occur.
Missionrollcall.org is the website for the organization that Colonel Whaley is the CEO of.
That's Mission Roll Call.
There's the website there.
You can check that out as you call in this morning.
He's with us for about the next half hour.
This is Jerry up first in Midway, Utah, Vietnam-era vet.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning.
Thank you.
Thank you for taking my call.
I want to see if you know about a program called MOVE, M-O-V-E.
And recently I had seizures and I ended up waking up at the VA hospital in Salt Lake City.
And through that, I got involved in this program called MOVE.
What it does is we meet once a week for 24 weeks and we discuss our problems and things together for an hour and a half and encourage each other and help each other and do follow-up.
And then I come to my little city outside of Salt Lake about an hour and we meet with vets on Tuesdays.
We meet together.
And I think this MOOC program is a wonderful thing to help vets.
And I would just hope that people would look at the VA and type in MOVE and check out this new program.
And do you know anything about this?
Or can you stress a little encouragement to get involved with the MOOC program?
Do you know about this, sir?
Well, I don't know the details of it, but I do know this: that anytime you bring veterans together, that camaraderie, that shared purpose makes a big difference.
And just having somebody that can talk and understand the things that you're going through is very important.
You know, at the end of the day, veterans really need two things to be successful.
They need a tribe, right?
A group of people around them, family members, supporters, fellow veterans, which is what you're talking about, to help them, like most people, to solve problems, to get connections to things, to find out about great programs like MOOC.
The second aspect of what veterans need is they need a hilltop.
They need a purpose.
They need something to go after, to defend, to be part of.
And so that purpose sometimes is missing when you leave the military.
I know when I left the military in 2004, I had a wonderful corporate job.
My transition from the outside would look absolutely seamless.
But inside, I still struggled a little bit with what is my purpose.
I'm not part of something bigger than myself.
And so I needed to address that.
And so I would urge every veteran to go to our website.
We connect other veteran support organizations.
And that's what separates us from a lot of other veteran support organizations.
Most organizations want you to come into their program and do their thing.
And that's great.
But what we do is we find out what you need, and then we address that and we guide you through our website to different various veteran support organizations, either geographically located near you or something that you can get involved with online.
So I love to learn more about MOVE.
I took note and I'm going to reach out to them to find out more and maybe we can bring them on to our podcasts and share it on our website so people would know more about it.
Lynchburg, Virginia, this is Zach, military family.
Go ahead.
Hello.
Yeah, I'm Zach from Lynchburg.
I'm a black American.
My granddaddy served in World War I. My dad was over in Germany, liberating Germany in World War II.
He was infantry for the 761st Black Panthers.
I need to, I'd like to, if your guests know anything about the infantry that was backing up them, like he was, they were following Patton.
He went through France, Germany, Belgium, everywhere.
And like my uncle, my uncle, he served in Vietnam three tours.
My brother was in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive.
So I just want to let people know that we fighting too.
You know, I just want to let everybody know, you know, we unserved our country.
I wanted to serve, but at that time, well, back in I graduated in 77, you would have to register for the draft.
And I register for the draft.
I was ready to go.
And then they went all volunteer.
And at that time, I like smoking weed.
So they didn't want to accept me, but I was willing and ready to go die for my country.
But anyway, that's all I got to say for today.
Just let people know.
Thanks for sharing your family's story.
Colonel Whaley, on the smoking weed aspect, there was a viewer in the previous segment that had tweeted in a question about medical cannabis and when the VA, where are they on that and whether they'll recognize it for medical treatments?
What do you know?
Well, I do know that you have people on both sides on that issue, right?
There's some people that have used cannabis and it's worked for them.
And I think there's others that are concerned about the effects of it long term.
I think it's important to study that and make sure that we do the right course of action.
But then again, we can't study it for five, 10 years, right?
We have to have a sense of urgency.
If we can help veterans today, we should be figuring out a way to do it today.
Even if it's on an exploratory basis or a test pilot program, that should happen.
I know that holistic medicine is something the veteran community is talking about right now.
If you think about it, a lot of the things that the VA does is you go in and you say, my knee hurts, or I can't think straight.
I have terrible headaches.
They go in and they solve that problem.
In many cases, some of those problems could be avoided if we had a holistic approach and make sure that veterans, when they leave service, are doing the things that they can do to make sure that they stay as physically fit as they can.
And there's great organizations that address that.
Team Red, White, and Blue, for example, is a nonprofit we work with that sees the importance of physical fitness and has veterans get involved, work together.
They have communities across the country.
They go for a run, they go for a walk, they go for a climb somewhere, and it really brings them together, gets them outdoors with fellow veterans and their families.
And it's a way to keep yourself healthy and fit and engaged.
And that's important because if you're not engaged with other veterans and you're not involved, then sometimes you feel a little separated and that causes some problems down the line.
And so we urge every veteran to reach out to a veteran support organization.
They can find them on our website and get involved.
And by the way, to that previous caller, just wanted to note the C-SPAN archives made me think of this book event that we covered.
It was from way back in 2004, but the viewer might be interested considering his father's story.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talked about the book that he co-authored, Brothers in Arms, the epic story of the 761st Tank Battalion, World War II's Forgotten Hero, published by Broadway, the book chronicling the all-black tank battalion of George Patton's Third Army in detail.
That battalion spent 183 days on the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge, and their service record goes on from there.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the co-author of that book.
Back to our calls.
This is Madeline in Georgia.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I'd like to say thank you to all of our veterans today.
And I would like to ask your guests this question.
Since our new president-elect has been so insulting to our veterans, the late John McCain, he, I believe, was deferred from going into the military five times.
None of his children have ever been in the military.
What is your opinion about that disrespect for our veterans?
And I'll listen to your answer.
Well, Madeline, thank you for the question.
I would say as an organization, we try to stay as apolitical as possible because we want to make sure that everyone feels invited to our organization to address the causes that are important to us as a veteran community.
I'm sure there's different opinions on the candidates, and we acknowledge that.
I mean, veterans, it's interesting, veterans vote or register to vote at the rate of 98%.
And we found that out through some extensive polling here at Mission Roll Call.
So think about that.
98% of veterans vote.
So that's an amazing statistic for a cohort of people.
So we're obviously passionate about what the future holds.
And we're hopeful working with the next Congress and Senate and the Trump administration that will address these issues in a way that will affect in a positive manner veterans and their families.
This is James in Buffalo, New York.
Good morning.
You're next.
Good morning, sir.
It makes me feel good hearing all these people call in thanking veterans for their families, just remembering them.
And I'm also going to check out your mission roll call website because I totally appreciate being on your own island.
It's really tough.
So my question is: Is the Major Richard Starr Act, which has been by Cameo for a couple Congresses, the government told us that we know who they care for by where they spend their money.
So why is this game being played out?
And is this thing ever going to pass to take care of the 50,000 combat wounded troops that were told that they had to leave the military because of being wounded?
Thank you very much.
Thank you for everything you're doing.
Colonel Whaley, can you explain what that act is?
Yeah, that act addresses the fact that a lot of combat veterans that have gotten out of the military were not getting the access to health care that they needed to get.
And so it addresses a whole myriad of issues there.
And we're active with advocacy up in D.C. and in local state legislatures as well to make sure that these and other efforts are being pushed.
It's important that they address these issues in a bipartisan way and quickly.
I mean, the Elizabeth Dole Act has been in Congress now for over a year, and that seemed like something that could have been done before the Congress in this election.
So it's disappointing that these things take so long.
It absolutely befuddles me why we can't figure out how to pay junior enlisted better.
I don't think any American is proud of the fact that somebody who's raised their hand, wrote a blank check for their country that they want to serve, and then can't buy groceries for their family.
If you think about the wealth of this nation, that is intolerable and something that needs to be addressed.
So I feel for the caller on that issue.
We, as many other veteran support organizations, work together to try to get audiences with their congressmen and senators to make sure that they push this legislation.
I would urge anyone listening to help us in that regard.
Just join Mission Roll Call.
It doesn't cost anything.
We send you some polls and you can decide which ones you want, which ones you want to answer or not.
It just makes a big difference when I go into a senator's or congressman office.
If we represent 1.4 million veterans, which is what we do now, if we represented 4 to 5 million, that's a different conversation and a much more powerful, productive conversation, if I can represent more.
So it's important for us to have our voices heard.
That's the challenge.
We're spread across the country.
There's about 40,000 veteran support organizations in our country.
Think about that.
There's no other secretary that has secretary of the VA that has 40,000 veteran support organizations that is trying to help.
But it also points to the fact that there's some serious problems.
You can imagine if you had that many non-for-profits for agriculture or for the Department of Defense, that would be a problem, right?
But somehow these issues are not being addressed the way they should be.
We should fix it and people should be upset about it.
I was upset in the fact that we had two vice presidential candidates that had a debate.
Both were veterans and not one question about veterans.
I still can't get my head around why the journalist didn't ask that question.
What should have been, if there was one question, which question should have been asked?
The question I would ask is how are you going to address important veteran issues?
And here's the veteran issues, right?
Suicides, which are still way too high.
We should be striving as a nation for zero suicides for veterans.
Right now, it's anywhere from 17 to 25.
Homelessness, on any given night, we have 40,000 veterans that are homeless.
And access to health care.
We know for a fact that veterans are waiting years to receive the benefits that they deserve.
All those questions should have been asked of what their specific remedy was for that issue, or at least how committed they are to solving those issues.
It was September, the Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Benefits, Joshua Jacobs, appeared on this program, took questions on a variety of issues from the host and viewers that day.
But one of the things he spoke about was trying to address the backlog of unallocated claims at the VA along with the challenge of veterans benefits in general.
Here's about two minutes of what he had to say.
We define backlog as any claim that takes more than 125 days to process.
Right now, we have an average of about 150 days to complete claims.
There are certainly claims that take longer and certainly claims that we can process more quickly.
And it really depends on the nature of the condition, the number of conditions.
The bottom line is we want to get to yes.
We have what is called a duty to assist.
So it's our responsibility if we don't have evidence to help us get to yes that we have to go get it.
And sometimes that just takes a little bit longer.
Washington Post Military Times reporting that there's been a surge in the rise of companies trying to work with veterans who are maybe eligible for these PAC benefits and then taking money.
This is a predatory business.
What is the VA doing about it?
It's a really concerning trend.
And we see it happening at a greater frequency because there are more veterans accessing these earned benefits.
What's happening with these claims predators or claim sharks as many call them, they're making false promises to veterans that they can provide a more timely decision, a higher benefit, and that's simply not true.
So what we've done is we've worked with the Biden administration and our fellow agency colleagues to launch a new program called vSafe, vsafe.gov.
Veterans and family members can go online to learn about it.
We have launched a campaign to make everyone aware that they should not pay to file a new claim.
There are plenty of folks, VSOs, state departments of veterans affairs, county VSOs, and the VA who can help you do it for free.
And then ultimately, we want them to know, and you can find information on the website, that if you feel you have been a victim of one of these companies, to know what your recourse is and how to contact law enforcement.
Are veterans reaching out to these type of businesses because the process for applying is complicated?
It is certainly complicated, and there's a lot that many people simply don't understand.
So we're working to try to get information out to better explain the process.
What's really important to know is that we want to get to yes.
But in order to do so, we need military records, we need health records.
And so we help veterans obtain those.
But there are also many, many veterans organizations that do it for free and do it very, very well.
That was Joshua Jacobs, the VA Undersecretary for Benefits.
If viewers want to watch that, they can do it on our website in its entirety.
But Colonel Whaley, a lot there.
I wanted to get your reaction to some of what he talked about.
Yeah, certainly in the best of worlds, you know, veterans could go to the VA and this would be a seamless process.
But the fact is, that's not the case.
So that's why VSOs have had to pick up the Slack.
And in some cases, the backlog and the ability to do that has been limited.
So you can understand why veterans feel so frustrated and they go to outside sources and they pay to help navigate the labyrinth of regulations and paperwork that the VA has.
Listen, there's no doubt there's great people working in the VA trying very hard to fix this problem, but it's moving at glacier speed.
And people are waiting for years to get their claims looked at.
So when they talk about it takes 150 days, in many cases, they get back to you in 150 days and say you're declined, or it's 10%, or you need to do this and that.
And then the clock starts over again.
So you can understand why the frustration is there from a lot of veterans and their families.
So that needs to be addressed.
I mean, they need to think about customer service, right?
I mean, how do you reach out to veterans in a positive way that's going to help them navigate this and make it easy?
So, I mean, it's a huge organization.
And I understand if it was an easy problem, it would have been solved a long time ago.
But the fact is, is that we've been talking about these subjects for 25 years.
Take you to Marcus in Texas, San Angelo, Texas, that line for veterans.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Navy CB here.
I just have a comment on the, I guess, what we're calling shortage of food for our military.
Something I observed when I was active duty all the time was a lot of these young people coming in to the service have never had any budget training at home and they got very little budget training on active duty to know when and where to spend their money.
And, you know, a lot of them get paid for the first time to get to keep their entire check.
So they go and blow it on nowadays games and fast food and junk like that.
You know, but they never really had any training on their budgets.
It was out there, but it wasn't like mandatory or something that really needed to be learned, some kind of criteria.
Also, a lot of people that I would run into were enlisted because either legal problems and that was a way to get out of that area or a teen pregnancy or something like that.
So they were coming in with luggage to begin with.
So, you know, I may be way off, but that's kind of how I saw it back then, and I still see it now.
Anyway, that's my comment.
Marcus, thanks.
Happy Vaiders' Day to you all.
Same to you, sir.
Let me let Colonel Whaley weigh in.
Yeah, there's no doubt financial literacy is an issue for the general American public, not just veterans, right, or active duty military.
A lot of benefits can happen by sitting people down and explaining how to manage their budget, how to save, how to make sure their dollar is stretched as far as possible.
But I would say that the majority of the issues that veterans or active duty are facing that have food insecurity issues, getting food from a local church or from another VSO, is because they're not getting paid at the level that they should to have a livable wage.
It's just about the poverty level, is what junior enlisted are making in the military.
We're asking an awful lot of them.
We're deploying them throughout the world.
We need to make sure they have a livable wage, and that's something that should be a no-brainer for Congress.
Karen, in Arkansas, veteran family, go ahead.
Yes, I just wanted to get some information out that my husband was in the Korean War, and he died of ALS, Luke Erickson.
And the military, the veterans has declared that as a service-connected death, an illness.
So not many people know that, but there's no wait hardly for the process of the claim because there's no care for it.
There's no treatment much.
So I just kind of wanted to put the information out for people that may have Luke Erickson that they can go to the military in service-connected illness.
Karen, thanks for that.
Stephen in Ohio, good morning.
Good morning to you.
Good morning to you.
Go ahead, sir.
You're on with Colonel Whaley.
Mr. Whaley, listen, my name is Stephen L. Willis.
I'm a very proud Vietnam veteran.
I served in Vietnam during November 1967 to November 1968.
I was located in Chiu Lai area and was a member of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, United States Army.
I'm 77 years old.
My grandson right now, Stephen L. Willis at 30, is on active duty in the Air Force in the Pensacola, Florida area.
And he's been in the Air Force for about now eight years.
My uncle served in the all-black 92nd Infantry Division in Italy.
My benefits have been very good concerning the Veterans Hospital.
Believe me when I tell you this, education and job opportunity.
God bless America.
And I'm receiving my PACT Act, too.
Thank you, sir.
That's great to hear.
And sounds like your family has a history of service.
And we've had a lot of those calls today of families with a history of service, some going as far back as the Revolutionary War.
This is Dave in Pennsylvania up next.
That line for veterans.
Go ahead.
Good morning.
My family is from Pennsylvania, and our family goes all the way back into the Revolutionary War.
We have genealogy all the way recorded back from then until now.
I am a veteran.
I think I'm a veteran.
I want to get some definition on that.
But I was drafted in 1968, and the lottery messed up my numbers.
I was told that I had a month to find a place unless I would be drafted.
And I was fortunate enough to get into the reserves.
And then I joined the Pennsylvania National Guard.
And they offered me a full-time civilian military position as a full-time technician for the Pennsylvania National Guard.
I was in the Guard and a full-time position for 35 years.
I'm 76 years old, and I've retired, and I'm getting TRICARE, which is wonderful.
I have a question.
I've always been confused as far as being a veteran.
I was always under the impression you had to have active service.
Now, the lady before us, before you, said something about you needed 30 days, I believe, to be considered as an active member.
I'm a little confused with that.
Right now, I get my TRICARE.
I live in Pennsylvania.
I drive to Carlisle Army Barracks for my prescriptions, and I go to there a few times a year, and I live about 10 miles away from a veterans hospital.
Has things changed as far as benefits for people that are in the National Guard?
I never consider myself as a veteran because I didn't really have a lot of active duty.
Well, David, I think we've got your point.
Let me let Colonel Whaley jump in here and see what he has to say.
Yeah, it would seem to me that you would qualify as a veteran, but, you know, sir, don't take my word for it because I'm not an expert in all the rules and regulations of the VA as much as I've tried to be.
But I would think because you're getting TRICARE and what you just outlined to me that you would qualify.
But again, I don't know for sure.
So I think the best thing to do would be to either circle back to us and we can try to find out for you, or I would go to the VA hospital and have them pull your records.
It should be in there of your service, and they can figure out on your DD Form 214, if you received one of those, what your active service was or is.
I want to get your thoughts on the changing face of American veterans, the Pew Research Service, taking a look at that 18 million strong veteran population in the United States now and trying to project what the veteran population will look like 24 years from now and in 2048.
Here's just some of the results of what a quarter century shift will make the veteran population look like.
The share of women veterans will increase from 11% this year to 18% in 2048.
The overall number of women veterans also expected to increase from around 2 million to about 2.2 million.
The number of male veterans, on the other hand, is projected to drop from about 16.2 to just under 10 million in 2048.
The share of non-Hispanic white veterans is projected to drop from 74% to 63%.
The share of Hispanic veterans is expected to roughly double from 9% to 15%, while the share who are black Americans is expected to increase from 13% to 15%.
And then today, 28% of veterans are younger than 50 compared with the projected 34% in 2048.
What does that mean?
What do some of those numbers mean for what you're going to be working on in the years to come?
Well, we know that in the next few years, the majority of our veterans are going to be post-9-11 veterans.
It's sometimes difficult for us to put our head around that, right?
The time goes by so fast.
The demographic changes are representative of the fabric of our country, right?
The military comes from the general American public and represent that.
So you see a growth in different communities, and you're going to see a growth in those veterans.
I'm buoyed by the fact that we have more women in the military.
I have two daughters on active duty right now.
So I see that they're continuing to meet the challenges and exceed them and flourish in the military.
So that's great to see.
And it's great to see people from every walk of life serve in the military.
What makes our service so great?
Because you go in there and you come from different demographics, different economic statues, different locations within the country, and you come together and now you're on a team.
And you're all concerted part of that team and you work together.
And that's what makes the military so effective.
And so it's good to see those numbers continue to increase for a lot of different groups.
The number goes down, as you had stated.
And so we'll have to address that as time goes on.
But I think it's important that we make sure that we're skating to where the puck is going to be when we think about the VA and we think about the services that are needed.
So you're one of those generational military families as well.
How far back does your family service go?
Well, on my wife's side, all the way back to the Revolutionary War, my side, a little less, but we've had grandparents, of course, that served in World War II.
And my wife also was on active duty as a fellow helicopter pilot like I was.
So we had two of our daughters serve on active duty and one works for a VSO that helps active duty military.
Is it an expectation in your family?
If you have a grandchild, is it an expectation for a grandchild?
No, it isn't.
In fact, we never encouraged our children to serve.
We just kind of let it happen organically.
I think, you know, they were very young when I got out of the military, so they really didn't have too much time moving around, although they were born in different parts of the world, one in Panama, one in Germany.
So, but I think they just kind of see who our friends were, what our background was.
And of course, those discussions kind of led to where it is today.
And I'm very proud of them.
But I had no expectations for them to serve in the military.
I think that is absolutely a personal decision because it's such an important decision.
Time for maybe one more call.
Martin's been waiting in Louisville, Kentucky.
Navy vet.
Martin, you're on with Colonel Whaley.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Yes, I was in the Navy in San Diego out in the 80s, and there's a new VA hospital opening up here in Louisville pretty soon.
It's good to know.
But I would just like to make an observation and see if this guest has anything to say about it.
A lot of people in America, the best thing that politicians, I'm sorry, can do for military people is to keep them from having to do their job.
And a lot of people in America think the worst president we've had in modern history was Jimmy Carter.
And when he left Bobby, he pointed out that no American servicemen lost their lives in battle when he was president.
And to this day, that's been true.
And you'd had to go back 100 years before you could find another president to say that.
So I'd like to know what this guest has to say.
Thank you.
Well, I refer you to my earlier comment.
Of course, with my family serving on active duty right now, no one wants to see their children in harm's way.
On the other hand, I'm very proud of their service and know that it's important to have a strong defense, so we don't have to do that.
Colonel Jim Whaley is the CEO of Mission Roll Call.
It is missionrollcall.org.
If you want to check them out online, how else can they find you besides online?
Well, you can go to our Facebook page, LinkedIn page, almost every platform we're on.
And we're talking about what some great services are for our veterans.
We have a class on our MRC University on YouTube where we help veterans navigate the VA.
That has been a great series that we've gotten a lot of great accolades from our veterans in their community, as well as other VSOs.
We do podcasts, the lasting mission that people can go to, where we bring in guests from other VSOs and veterans, folks that have started businesses to help veterans figure out a way to start a business, navigate the VA, overcome challenges, things like that.
So between podcasts, YouTube channel, and platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, we're reaching veterans from every walk of life.
It's important for us to share those positive stories.
I would mention that, you know, about 85% of veterans right now are actively employed.
They're involved in their communities.
They're coaching Little League.
They're leading Boy Scout troops.
They're serving in Congress.
They're firemen, police officers.
They've integrated into the community seamlessly.
They play a vital role in our community.
A vast majority of veterans volunteer in their communities.
They continue their service.
That's why we think the service to service initiative is so important.
I'd like to see the administration and Congress work together to find out ways that we can increase ways that veterans, once they get out of the military, four years or 25 years, and get into continuing to serve their country, either as working in the community or businesses being involved.
I mean, there's a lot of great businesses that hire veterans and value the service that veterans bring to the community.
And they celebrate that, and they have veteran support organizations within their companies.
But many do not.
And so those companies need to think about that because I would say that every company in the United States has benefited from active duty military and people that have served in the military.
We enjoy the freedoms we have because the military has served all over the world to make sure those freedoms are secured.
So companies need to think about how they can make sure that they're hiring veterans.
And I will tell you, if you hire a veteran, you won't regret it.
They bring a lot of loyalty.
They bring a lot of leadership skills.
And it's something that as a country, I think we should put a national effort to that and make sure that business leaders, Chamber of Commerce, business roundtable, as well as others are involved with that.
I think it would have an enormous effect of our veterans and would have a positive impact on our country.
And we know that if you can get out of the military and get a good job and integrate into the veteran community and into your community as a whole, then you're going to be very successful.
If you have a challenge getting in the military or getting out of the military and you can't find a job and you're struggling financially, and then that leads to homelessness, and then that leads to abuse of alcohol or drugs, then you're on a different path, a path that costs this country a lot of money and anguish.
And I think we can do a lot better to solve a problem in the front end than dealing it with in the back end.
Lieutenant Colonel Jim Whaley, CEO of Mission Roll Call.
Thanks for telling us about it and happy Veterans Day to you.
Thank you, sir.
You too.
Coming up this morning in about 90 minutes, we are going to take you to Arlington National Cemetery.
It's a wreath laying ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier and a address from President Biden.
Until that time, we're going to take your phone calls on this Veterans Day asking what Veterans Day means to you.
Veterans and their families, the number to call in is 202-748-8000.
Active military, 202-748-8001.
All others, 202-748-8002.
Go ahead and start calling in, and we'll get to more of your calls right after the break.
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And it's an extended Washington Journal this morning at 11 a.m. Eastern.
There will be a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery to mark this Veterans Day.
And we're going to take your calls up until then, asking you this question we often ask on Veterans Day.
What does it mean to you?
Phone lines split a bit differently this morning.
If you are a veteran or family member of a veteran, 202-748-8000 is the number to call.
If you are active military, 202-748-8001.
And then all others, 202-748-8002.
Your calls from now until just about 11 a.m. Eastern.
This is Benjamin in Clearwater, Florida.
Good morning on that line for veterans.
Good morning, sir.
I'm a retired veteran.
I was in the military from 1962 to 83.
I applied for disability in Indianapolis and I moved to Florida.
I was rejected.
I have never used the services, but I thought there was people who needed it more than me.
I'm almost 86 years old now, and when I try to get some help, I haven't been able to get any.
I just like to make a comment about that, but it's a shame that I listen to veterans who are getting $8,000 and $10,000, $20,000 a month from the system.
And I talk to guys, and they broke fingernails and stuff.
I just like to make that comment, and it's a shame that I can't get any help.
Thank you for letting me express myself.
Benjamin, have you tried going through one of these veterans organizations out there that like the one we just spoke about in the previous segment?
When I went to my disability is less than 10% when I got out of when I left Indianapolis.
I went to Bay Pines and I did file over there.
There was a representative here in Tampa, some Navy, I mean Marine person.
I filed and then I talked to him.
And every time I've used a facility, have I had to pay $50 copay just to use the facility?
And that's, you know, it's been miserable.
Benjamin, thanks for sharing your experience from Florida.
This is Pete in the Badger State of Wisconsin, a veteran.
Good morning.
Yeah, how you doing?
Anyways, this is kind of a complaint against the VA.
I didn't get a chance to talk to your other people that you had on there, but I hope now that President Trump is back in office or once he gets in there, I hope he makes the VA be held accountable for the things that they do.
I'm going blind because of what they did to me.
So I just thought I'd, and nobody does anything about it.
I've called congressmen, senators, talk to their veterans, liaison people, filed multiple White House investigations against them.
They just lie about everything and they get out of it.
They're not held accountable.
So I hope once he gets in there again, he does something about it.
That's all I got to say.
Pete, did you think he did something about it in the first term and that there's more to do?
Yeah, he did do something about it.
Made them be held accountable, because when I was in the VA in 2019, I was inpatient at one of the VA medical centers here in Wisconsin and two people got fired because of what they did to me and because of what they were doing to other veterans and then they retaliatoried against me and it's been going on ever since and I know it.
I know it's a fact that it's been going on because these investigations have been done.
The advocates, the social workers, everybody knows about it and they don't do anything about it because when these people lose their jobs at the VA, they're good, cushy jobs.
You know they retaliatory against people and I'm sorry I had to say this, but it's just my bad luck.
I guess I'm Vietnam-era, I was in 74 to 77 and I have all the benefits, but yeah it's, I'm going blind because of what they did to me and they they could care less.
That's Pete in Wisconsin to Michigan.
Hail Michigan.
This is Dave.
Good morning, you're next.
Yeah, thanks.
Good morning John.
All you veterans out there.
You know I wanted to talk to Mr. Haley.
I want to.
My aspect is, every time I look at the Veterans Affairs is we're talking about shortage of funds and money.
Why is it?
Every time that we have a war going on or conflict, you might say it's all and it's an international problem.
Uh, we go over and try to liberate these countries, do what we think is best, and then it comes back and all of a sudden our veterans are sitting home complaining they don't have enough funding and it turns into a national problem.
Now, if I was trying to consider something, I would like to see them have a green card, automatic green card, if they want to go back to the country that they helped liberate and fight for, under our good faith that they would be able to go back to that country if they wished and work there, and they also would be able to come back here,
and that country would be responsible to a certain percentage of the costs that our veterans give up and for, whether for life and limb.
And that's all I got, John.
Thank you, veterans.
Thank you very much, Dave in Michigan to the Old Line State.
This is David in Maryland, Annapolis.
Good morning.
Good morning, happy Veterans Day.
I just wanted to say that I've had actually a very good experience with the VA system in in Baltimore and I found that in the past couple years they are as easy to make an appointment and keep it.
You know, as the civilian side of things.
I've seen both sides of it and and yeah, they are just as responsive.
One thing I would say yeah, for any active duty person is to keep your records, and it's much easier today than it was 25, 30 years ago.
You know you can scan those things.
And I guess the last thing I want to say a person called a few callers back about whether he is a veteran or not generally, and I'm not 100% sure on this, but you have to have a DD 214 excuse me, a certificate of discharge generally, and Which means that you served at least 30 days, I believe.
So, but again, every case is different.
So, that's what I want to say.
Thank you.
Before you go, David, what about this question that we're asking here as we wait for the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery?
What does Veterans Day mean to you?
Oh, well, yeah, it means a lot, to be honest.
I serve with a lot of great people, hundreds of them, and so in the Navy in the First Gulf War.
And yeah, it's a great way of, you know, documenting or remembering generally.
I mean, I know it stems back, I believe, from the First World War.
But, yeah, I think, you know, with the lower number of people serving these days compared to, let's say, World War II, you need to have that in place to remember people's service.
Thank you.
David, before you go, serving in the Navy, what's it like living in Annapolis?
Did you always want to be in Annapolis by the Naval Academy?
No, I actually, I grew up in New England, but yeah, Annapolis is a great town, and obviously a lot of it revolves around the Navy.
So, yeah, a lot of great people at the Academy.
And, yeah, it's a very, you know, vibrant Navy sort of town.
Yeah, boating in general.
But I come from the bigger ship side of things, but Annapolis is a big boating town.
Were you always going to live by the water after the Navy, David?
Yeah, I think so, really, for sure.
I love the water.
So I think that's correct.
David, thanks for the call from Annapolis this morning.
William is in Virginia.
It's Emporia, Virginia.
Veteran, good morning.
Good morning.
How are you today?
I'm doing well, sir.
Good.
I volunteered to went in the Navy in 1955.
And I've had a lot of discrimination against me.
No problem with their ranking enlisted, but some of the officers didn't want me to make a rank.
You're a case in point.
We had one ship that was going to the Middle East and they needed a barber.
That was my MoS.
I was a barber.
And they sent me to this new ship.
They didn't want me to cut the hair.
They had a little store there.
They didn't want me to work in the store.
So I was an E4.
They gave me a guy in Broom sweeping the roar for compartment cleaner.
And they had an E2 that just got out of boot camp.
Taught him how to cut hair.
Put him in the store.
He went to AWOL.
The store was closed for two weeks.
And so one of the guys that were working up in the office said, Moore, they're going to put you in the store.
I said, man, no, they're out here.
Yes, they are because the old man told us about I want the store open if you have to go in there.
Next morning, they come down and got me out of the compartment.
We went to the went to the store, cut the lock, and did an inventory.
I never forget it, went down to the stockroom and cut that lock and did inventory down there.
And while we were there, something funny happened.
He asked me to spell nickel.
I spell nickel.
Spell quart.
I spell quart.
Spell orange, and I spell orange.
And he said, uh-huh, I don't know what the heck was going on with that.
But anyway, they put me in the store.
And the first inventory we had, that same officer told me, said, I've never had a man run a store as efficient since I've been aboard this ship.
Okay, it got transferred and made it go up for 85 for second class penalty in the lady.
William, thanks for telling us about it in Emporia, Virginia, taking calls from viewers this morning on phone lines for veterans and families and active military.
All others on this Veterans Day, letting you share your stories.
This is Danny out of Texas, also a veteran.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I was just curious.
You know, I served in the Marines for 20 years, active duty, and 10 in the reserves.
And at 6:30 this morning, I took my grandson to school.
And I don't believe that schools should even be in session during Veterans Day.
I think that it should be a national holiday.
I know the post offices are closed and also the banks, but we should be celebrating that, and especially with the kids, so they realize what veterans actually do.
There's only 0.5 of our population that serve in the military at one time.
And I just wanted to voice my opinion that, you know, I just think that it should be observed by everyone, not just the banks and the post office.
Danny, it's a federal holiday.
If your son wasn't, he didn't, your son didn't have to be in school today, what would you be doing with him?
Probably going to a ceremony.
You know, there's ceremonies everywhere.
And there's a museum, military museum.
I think that they should be educated.
I'm not telling them to go into the military because it's not for everyone, but I just think that they need to be aware of the patriotic duties that they have growing up in the United States.
And Veterans Day and November 11th, of course, dating back to the First World War, it was November 1919 that President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11th as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words.
To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in Councils of Nations.
Armistice Day eventually becoming Veterans Day and always being celebrated November the 11th.
This is Ed in Decatur, Georgia, a Vietnam vet.
What does Veterans Day mean to you?
Veterans Day means a whole lot to me.
I'm a proud veteran.
I was in Vietnam in 69 and 70.
And I want to quickly say, if I may, that I think it would be fitting if President-elect Trump would take out a full-page ad, or not an ad, but a full page, and write a letter to the American people.
And if he would apologize and he would own, if he would, if he would mention the fact that maybe if he'd have been a little bit stronger and suffered on through and kept on going with his bones first, maybe we'd have won the Vietnam War.
If he'd have been there, I think he should have mentioned that to us and apologize to the 53 plus thousand people that gave their lives for this country.
And by the way, I killed the commies I killed in honor of trying to preserve freedom of the press in the United States.
And it's kind of offensive to me that so much airtime on C-Span is wasted by people asking you how you're doing today.
I think for you to say how you're doing today 10 times should be enough.
And then people, when they ask you how you're doing, their call should be dropped.
So maybe somebody can get through to say something worth hearing.
Thank you so much.
And if I'm still on the air.
Yes, you are, Ed.
Happy Veterans Day, Ed, in Decatur, Georgia.
This is Larry in Gallup, Minnesota.
Good morning, Vietnam-era vet.
Good morning, Yate.
I'm calling from Gallup, New Mexico.
New Mexico.
Go ahead.
Sorry.
Yes.
And I want to acknowledge and remember the Navajo Code Talkers who served with the United States Marine Corps during World War II.
And they were part of 1st Marine, 2nd Marine, 3rd Marine, 4th Marine, and 5th Marine, 6th Marine Division.
My late father, Harold Y. Foster Sr., served with the 2nd Marine Division in the Gilbert Islands, and with the 5th Marine Division in Iwo Jimia, 3rd Battalion, 27th Marines, Company I, and he was a Navajo code talker.
So I want to send him a small message here in the Navajo code.
Depe and Sotte Ana Cax Ado Ma'i Ado Chin.
That says simplify in the Navajo language.
Thank you.
Good morning and happy Veterans Day.
Happy Veterans Day, Larry.
Cindy is in Tennessee.
Good morning.
I just wanted to call and say thank you to all the veterans.
I am retired, and I have volunteered at our local VA clinic for nine years now.
That doesn't really have to do with me, but our veterans are so special to me.
And it's just amazing the people that I get to work with every day.
And I want to say thank you to all the veterans today.
Cindy, why did you start volunteering there nine years ago?
A friend of mine who was a veteran when I volunteered, he was there volunteering.
He said, come on over.
And it's been the best thing I've ever done.
Who's somebody that you'll always remember that you've met over those nine years?
I would have to say the Air Volunteer Supervisor.
His name is Josh Green, and just a remarkable man.
Cindy, thanks for the call from Tennessee.
Yvonne, back in New Mexico, this is Cimarron, New Mexico.
Good morning.
I would have to say to you.
Yvonne, are you with us this morning?
Hello?
Go ahead, Yvonne.
You're on the air.
Oh, yes.
Sorry.
Good morning.
I just want to say I honor all our veterans, past and present.
And I have a great incredible respect.
I had an uncle that fought at Battle of the Bulge and lived the rest of his life with shrapnel in his leg.
And I remember his pain from that.
But last year I was in the Netherlands and was able to visit two cemeteries, one American cemetery, and one Canadian.
And the local populace in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe so love our persons who died for them during World War II.
And they teach the children to honor our veterans that are still over there in graves.
And they teach them to respect them.
They bring flowers.
They even connect the families.
They adopt a grave.
And just wanted to mention that I was quite moved when I went through those grave sites.
Yvonne, this year.
I'm sorry to bring something political in, but I think our president-elect needs to apologize for calling those who served losers and suckers, especially John McCain and so forth.
Yvonne, this year will be the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in December and January.
Do you think that particular battle will people will learn and remember that more this year on this anniversary?
Ramagan, that battle every night of the year, rain, you know, sun, winter, terrible winter weather.
A veteran every night goes across that bridge and 58 lights come on as he walks across that bridge in remembrance of the 58 soldiers who rode across that river and were killed.
That bridge every single night of the year is in remembrance of our veterans.
It's Yvonne in New Mexico this morning.
This is Larry out of Los Angeles, an Army veteran.
Good morning.
Yes, good morning, John.
Thank you for C-SPAN and all you do for the nation.
And what Veterans Day means to me is quite a bit.
I listened to your calls, and I'd just like to say that the VA, there are some areas I'm sure that there's problems, and there's areas where there are no problems.
I go to the VA in Long Beach, California, and you can't walk down the hall of the VA hospital 10 feet with a kind of a puzzled look on your face, and someone will ask you, where are you going?
What do you need?
Can I help you?
So there are good and there are bad things that occur, but I'd like to say that they do a wonderful job to help people.
And I'm sure, like I said, that there are issues.
And Veterans Day means a lot to me.
And I think if more people would serve, I think they would have skin in the game when it comes to the country and the things that the country stands for and what the country means to them.
When and where did you serve, Larry?
I served, oh my goodness.
I served, I went in Fort Bliss, Texas.
And actually, John, I called in last year when Mr. Parrington was on.
And Lieutenant Colonel Whaley, he was a helicopter pilot, and I was a helicopter pilot instructor.
I served at Fort Rutger, Alabama, the Army Aviation Center.
I served at Fort Bliss, the Missile Electronic School.
And I was also an air traffic controller, so I did quite a bit.
But, you know, I served in Korea.
I served at Fort Lewis, Washington, Fort Bliss, Texas, Fort Rucker, Alabama, and also in Tule, Greenland, as a ballistic missile early warning system contractor and contract manager.
So I just want to thank all the veterans out there for their service and thank their families too, because they sacrificed just as much.
Well, maybe not as much, but they're right behind those veterans deserving, and I think they deserve credit too.
Larry, thanks for the call from Los Angeles to Paul, Springville, Tennessee.
Good morning.
Morning, sir.
Morning, sir.
Go ahead.
No, I served in the military 33 years.
I was in the National Guard and I was in the Army twice and I was in the invasion of Iraq.
And what does Veterans Day mean to you?
Well, sir, I mean, it used to mean a whole lot to me because I knew men from the first war that they're buried around the country in different places.
And I knew some guys that died of Agent Orange even.
But now I don't do much with the Veterans Today festivity stuff anymore.
I thank the government to a large extent and some of the bigger politicians, they more or less abandon us.
And one of them called us deplorables, some of them call us baby killers.
And I heard the other day we're supposed to be fascists.
And then another man said we're all garbage.
So I don't even fly the American flag anymore.
That's all I got to say, sir.
Paul, do you think you'll ever fly the American flag again?
Maybe.
I don't know.
What would it take?
I think people need to stand up and help us a little bit more than they're doing.
I've got no quarrel with the VA.
The VA's been very good to me.
But some of this other stuff going on, I don't understand anymore.
It's Paul in the volunteer state.
A caller from New Mexico a couple calls back was speaking about his father being a Navajo code talker in World War II.
This story from the Associated Press from October 21st, just a couple weeks ago.
John Kinsel Sr., one of the last remaining Navajo code talkers who transmitted messages during World War II based on the tribe's native language, died.
He was 107 years old.
Navajo Nation officials in Window Rock announced Kinsel's death that previous Saturday.
Tribal president ordered all flags on the reservation to be flown at half staff at October 27th to honor Kinsel.
Mr. Kinsel was a Marine who bravely and selflessly fought for all of us in the most terrifying circumstances with the greatest responsibility as a Navajo code talker.
The tribal president said in a statement, With Kinsel's death, only two Navajo code talkers are still alive.
As of October the 21st, former Navajo Chairman Peter McDonald and Thomas H. Beege is the two that are left.
This is Bill in Quincy, Illinois.
Veteran, good morning.
Yes.
Thank you.
Hello?
Go ahead, Bill.
Yes, sir.
Thank you for taking my call.
I appreciate it.
I listen to you folks every day just about.
I'm a veteran of the Vietnam conflict.
I was a member of a National Guard unit from the state of Illinois from Quincy here.
We were the only guard unit that was called up from the state of Illinois back in 1968.
It was the night that President Johnson said he was not going to run for office again.
However, he was going to call up 125,000 Guard and Reservists.
We were that Guard unit that was called up one of them.
We served in Vietnam.
There are 144 of us that went over.
We all came back home.
We all served as a unit and we served our country.
And I think Veterans Day is a day that we should be remembered by.
And it was a pleasure for us to serve.
We still meet once a month.
We have a meeting once a month.
A bunch of us guys get together.
And we also have a Christmas party.
And we have a big fish fry in the summertime.
And the camera on it is good.
The guys, we all stay in contact with each other pretty much.
Some of them are spread out non-different areas, but we came from all walks of life.
And we signed the joint.
When we signed to go to Vietnam to go to the National Guard, we knew that someday we would be called up for service somewhere.
This unit from the city of Quincy, Illinois, was called up for every conflict they've ever had in this country.
Do you remember what day or what month you got to Vietnam?
We went to Vietnam in September in 1968.
It was the Tet Offensive.
And we went, we landed at Da Nang and we were stationed at Chuai.
We ran jet fuel and supply and service.
We were a supply and service company.
And we ran supplies out to the field to different places.
And our main object was to support the Americilla Division.
And, you know, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that just means a lot to us.
And, Bill, do you remember the day you came home?
I came home in March of 69.
I was a short timer.
I had six months to go before my six-year duty was up, and I got orders, and I still went to Vietnam with six months to go.
Another guy in our unit had three months to go, and he still went.
And our first sergeant was a veteran of the Second World War, the Korean conflict, and then he went to Vietnam with us.
Did he make it out of Vietnam after surviving World War II in Korea?
Yes, he did.
Yep.
We all came home.
All of us came home.
All 144 of us.
And we've lost some.
We've lost 63.
We've lost 63 since then, you know, due to Agent Orange and other things.
I'll be 84 years old this month.
But when he got on a plane and shook the hand of a general and he wished us good luck and everything, when we left Fort Carson, Colorado, we all went together on two Air Force jet carriers.
Bill, thanks for telling us about the 144 out of Illinois.
This is Ann in Portland, Oregon.
Good morning.
You're next.
Ann, are you with us?
Yes.
Go ahead.
Yes.
I grew up in Arlington, Virginia, and my dad had a drugstore four blocks from the White House.
So this was a really exciting time to grow up there.
Our immediate family were not in the service.
However, my nephew served on the DMZ border during the Iraq war for three years.
And when he came back home, he didn't receive all those awards that the people did that had served at Iraq.
However, he was right there on the DMZ border, and he told me yesterday that they had one of the honor guard in his company.
And every night they did the honor guard ceremony and folded the flag.
And if there was any red on the flag, it had to all be blue.
He would say, Don't bloody my flag.
So my nephew, Spencer Clark Williams, retired as a major with many years in the National Guard.
And he would have been the Arnold Schwartzkoff of the service because he knew every single battle, every single troops, all of them.
But unfortunately, when they downsized the Army, he was let out and he became, he was in the National Guard to retire.
Also, I have a friend in a writing group, and I graduated from high school in 1952.
Many of the people that graduated that year went straight to Korea.
And my friend Duade Owens went to Korea and they asked him if anybody knew how to type.
And he knew how to type, so he ended up being in the general's office procuring all the good food for the general.
So he never actually served in battle.
But everybody told Tim Waltz that he never served in battle.
When you go into the service, you go where the Army or the Navy or the Air Force sends you.
And I thought that was unconscionable that people should say that he didn't serve in battle, therefore he was less than.
And John McCain was one of my heroes.
I think we need to have more movies that are showing the valor of our service people and less movies on monsters and violence and all this other stuff.
And you said you lived in Arlington, Virginia.
Did you ever make it over to Arlington National Cemetery?
I did many times, and I went to the tomb of the unknown soldier when I was there.
And that's what viewers are seeing on their screen now.
It was so fantastic.
You take the little trolley and you go all around, and there's special celebrities that are there.
The Confederate soldiers have a tombstone that has a peak to it, and that tells you that that is a Confederate soldier buried there.
So I can't say enough.
Go to all the museums in Washington, D.C.
But if you only pick one, go to the tomb of the unknown soldier.
That's Ann in Oregon.
This is Frank out of Fairport, New York, Line for Veterans.
Good morning.
Good morning, sir.
I want to let you know that I was a proud Marine in 1956 over in Okinawa, served for two years over there.
It was known as the Cold War.
And today I'm honoring all veterans wherever they are at.
And I want to let you know that I put a green light on my front porch every month of November.
And I'm hoping everybody does that in the United States, honoring our veterans.
A green light on your front porch and have it go all day, all night.
It doesn't cost very much.
Or a light bulb, a green light bulb honoring all our veterans.
So you have a very nice day and collect all your veterans.
Frank, do you know where that tradition, that green light tradition, started?
Or how did you come about deciding that you were going to join that tradition?
I have no idea.
I heard about it about six, seven years ago in Port, Rochester, New York.
And I've been doing it every month of November since then.
A green light on the front porch.
And I have a go 24-7 honoring our servicemen.
Franks, thanks for the call out of Fairport, New York, to Shreveport, Louisiana.
This is Homer, Line for Veterans.
Good morning.
Yes.
This is Homer out of Shreveport, Louisiana.
I'm going to raise the hip count of jails in Texas.
And I went in in 1961.
I was in high school one day and then served the next.
And it showed me nice when I walk out the grocery stores and somebody said, you know, happy Veterans A, thank you for your service.
Because when I got discharged back in 1965, all they could do was get me with a book out the bill.
And so it showed me nice.
I want to thank America for that very thing.
It sure was nice to hear.
And thank you very kindly for your time.
Homer, thanks for your service.
Thanks for the call.
Stuart, Lake City, Florida.
Good morning.
You're next.
Good morning.
Good morning, sir.
I spent 20 years in the Virginia National Guard, thinking I was going to get a retirement.
When I went to the VA to ask about my retirement benefits, they said you don't have any benefits.
Being as you're in National Guard, you've got to stay here for 30 years.
I was in the National Guard until the very end of the Vietnam War from September of 69 to the very end of the Vietnam War.
And I didn't get squat for it.
I'm mighty upset about that.
So, Stuart, with that experience of the VA and your service, what do you do on Veterans Day?
Is it a special day for you?
Is it a special day?
Well, yes.
What are you going to do today, Stuart?
What am I going to do?
Right now I'm in the hospital.
And the VA is not doing anything to take care of me.
So I'm in here on my personal insurance.
Well, Stuart, wishing you the best in the hospital this Veterans Day.
This is Rudy out of Chicago.
Good morning.
You're next.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I just want to call and acknowledge all the veterans, but my dad was drafted in North Fork, Virginia in 1943 at the age of 17.
And sometimes the public, the American public, don't understand that these men, as well as the women who have served in all these wars, probably sometimes as young as 13 and 14 years of age.
Hello, good morning.
Rudy, I've already heard you keep talking about those who have served.
Right.
You just got to turn down your television.
Okay.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
What I'm saying is that we want to acknowledge all the veterans, particularly those people as teenagers who were drafted in World War II, Korean, as World War I.
But our family, being from the state of Georgia, that my family has served the country since the American Revolutionary War.
But my dad was 17 and his brother's officer in the Navy.
So I just want to acknowledge people for this particular service, and thank you very much.
It's 10:15 a.m. on the East Coast and Extended Washington Journal this morning because at 11 o'clock, we're expecting a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery at the tomb of the unknown soldier there.
President Biden will participate, also expected to give remarks this Veterans Day.
We have been told that Vice President Kamala Harris is set to attend the ceremony as well.
We're going to bring you live coverage when it does happen here on C-SPAN.
We'll keep taking your phone calls until that ceremony begins.
Meanwhile, also tracking other news for you this morning on the ongoing Trump transition.
This is the headline within the past hour from Voice of America.
Donald Trump taps Elise Stefanik to be UN Ambassador, choosing Republican Representative Elise Stefanik for that position.
He said in a statement that he shared with Reuters, I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Elise is incredibly strong and tough and a smart America first fighter.
The New York Representative and House Republican Conference chair has been a fierce Trump ally in the House.
They write the story coming out within the past hour there on Voice of America, Reuters, and other news sites as well.
Gordon is next in Rockville, Maryland.
Veteran, good morning.
Good morning.
I was just calling this morning to tell you that I served in Vietnam two deployments with Mobile Construction Battalion 4.
And that was at first it was in Da Nang and An Wa and Ka San.
That's where we had detachments.
Then during my second deployment, which began with the Tet Offense, with being mounted out during the Tet Offensive in Central Phu Bai.
With regard to earlier discussions of VA, I've had no problems with the VA.
They've treated me with dignity and with grace and with a very helpful hand when I needed them.
And the other thing I wanted to say is I was one of three Jewish men in Mobile Construction Battalion IV when we deployed our second time.
And I want people to remember that in these times of great distress for members of the Jewish religion, that we served in America's wars also.
I'm a member of the Jewish War Veterans, and I attend meetings as often as I can, and I contribute.
Just wanted people to remember that while there's an awful lot of hatred in this world for Jews, that we've served this country honorably in all our wars, dating back to the Revolutionary War.
That's what I have to say.
Gordon, you might be interested to hear that the feature article from the front page of USA Today on the 100th birthday of World War II veteran Robert Bud Sabatay, it focuses on his service, but also on his Jewish background and being a Jewish soldier during World War II, fighting in the Battle of Bulgar under George Patton, a feature on him today in USA Today.
What did a mobile construction battalion do in Vietnam?
We built things.
We paved roads.
We built airfields.
We built bridges.
We were engineers.
Have you been back to Vietnam since the war?
Excuse me?
Have you ever been back to Vietnam?
No.
I have no desire to go back to Vietnam.
Do you mind if I ask why?
I carry certain bitterness.
I've seen guys die unnecessarily.
I visited the memorial in Washington, D.C. several times, and every time I shed a tear for guys that I deployed with but never came home.
Do you know how many never came home from your mobile construction battalion for?
We were an 800-man battalion of which there were three Jews.
One of them was our company, Doctor.
Gordon, thanks for telling us about it this morning.
This is John Next out of Wisconsin.
Line for Veterans.
Go ahead.
Thank you for taking my call.
I served in the Korean War, 1951 into 1952 with the 3rd Infantry Division, 9th Regiment, the AC Company.
I remember today, especially for two of my buddies, Willie Craig and Harvey Brockert, who didn't come home.
They were in my battery with I was a mortarman, and it brings back a lot of memories today for those two fellows who never had a chance to live out a good life, but gave their all for the country and for so many others as well.
And so, well, that's my feelings today about Veterans Day, especially, even though I think about them almost every day.
John, what's life been like for you since coming home?
I've had a good life.
I've had a good life.
I came back, got married, went to the University of Wisconsin, graduated, got a good job with an insurance company, worked my whole career, and I was very fortunate.
John, the stat from the Pew Research Service is that there's only around 767,000 veterans who served during the Korean conflict still alive today.
That's right.
And what do you think we lose when, as we've seen, we're losing that generation of World War II veterans this D-Day anniversary this past year?
The commentator saying this is probably the last one where many World War II veterans at all will show up, that we're getting to that point closer to that point with Korean War veterans.
Yes, we are.
I was 19 years old when I went in to service, so I'm 93.
So pretty much anybody who has served in Korea during the war is going to be 93 or older.
So yes, the number of veterans coming that you find from the Korean War, they're getting fewer and fewer.
I went on the honor flight 2014, and it was already at that time quite evident that there were not that many Korean War vets left to go.
What's your feeling of how this country remembers the Korean War, especially compared to whether it's World War II or more recent wars?
What are your thoughts on how we think and talk and how much we remember the Korean War in this country?
Well, the best way to remember that is to remember what we call the Korean War, the forgotten war.
And it was basically forgotten.
World War II was such a dynamic five years in the history of this country that five years after World War II was over, 1950, when the Korean War started, no one wanted war.
People in the United States didn't look favorably upon the servicemen that went in.
We didn't get treated as badly as the Vietnam vets did because that was a different kind of situation.
But, for example, I went and served in the military for two years.
I was drafted.
I served almost a year in Korea.
And when I came home, people said, gee, I haven't seen you for a while.
Where have you been?
They didn't know that you were in Korea.
They had no idea.
But a very small sample of people in my family and maybe a few friends.
But, yeah, people just weren't ready for a war at the Korean War time.
Do you think it's so soon after World War II?
Do you think it's still forgotten or thought about that way today, John?
Do you think it has gotten its prominence, especially when they erected the wonderful memorial in Washington, D.C.
And I visited that when I went on my honor flight?
And I think that awakened a lot of eyes.
I think a lot of people who had maybe forgotten about what had happened at that time, if they saw that memorial, they would see another side of the war and have better appreciation.
Describe the experience of seeing that memorial.
For folks who may not be familiar with it, it's a unique memorial down on the mall.
It is.
It is.
And I would love to be able to go back, but I won't.
I'm just not up to it.
I'd love to go back to see the wall with all the names of the departed.
But I know it's there and it's well received, I know.
And John, can you just talk about walking to that memorial for the first time as I show viewers from the National Park website the picture of what you see there when you walk up?
Well, when you walk up and you see that squad coming through, like we did back in those days, it brought back a lot of memories.
And I have to say that I was very teary-eyed during that visit.
My son was with me as my sponsor, my aide.
And yeah, you're showing the picture of the memorial right now.
It's dramatic.
It is so moving that it brings tears to my eyes even now watching it on TV.
And whoever, whoever the people were that designed it are to be commended.
It is representative of all the services.
That's more men in a patrol than we had, but because they wanted to include Air Force, Marines, Navy in that depiction because they all served in one way or another during that war.
John, thanks for telling us about it this morning.
Happy Veterans Day.
Doreen in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Good morning.
You're next.
Good morning.
Good morning.
It's so nice to be able to speak with you.
First of all, I would like to give all honor to all veterans of all wars going back to the Civil War where my grandfather served.
I'm calling because I want to give some honor to women veterans.
During and after the Vietnam War, I became somewhat involved with our local VVA chapter.
And from there, I became very involved with doing a lot of research on the women, the women who served, a lot of women who served during the Vietnam War.
And also, the eight did some research on the eight women who died.
We don't hear so much about them, but they were quite unique and special.
Even also all this time, they remain very special to me because of their service.
All of them were nurses and died during the Vietnam War in Vietnam.
The other thing, I am the person, I was married to two men who had served in Vietnam.
My first husband was in the Air Force at Cameron Bay.
And my second husband, he was an Army grunt with the 1st Infantry Division.
He recently passed away about 0-4 years ago.
But I've always honored all servicemen and women of all wars because they have done so much for us.
And the other thing I'd like to say, there was a caller who commented the fact about someone telling him that kind of making some kind of differential because people who served in combat and those who didn't.
They really should remember, and someone told me one time, for every man on the battlefield, there are three people supporting them off the battlefield.
And I think that's a good thing for everyone to remember.
I guess that's all I wanted to say.
Thank you for taking my call.
And I hope this is a wonderful day of remembrance and gatherings of veterans all over America.
Thanks, Doreen.
This is Jim out of Indiana.
Good morning.
You're next.
Good morning.
Thank you.
Thank you, John.
I just want to first of all say a salute today to all the veterans that have served.
And then I wanted to especially mention that my grandfather served in the Spanish-American War, which wasn't a very long war, but at least he did serve.
And I wanted to know it was very honorable.
Then my brother served in World War II on a minesweeper that went into Japan after they dropped the atomic bomb.
And that was a pretty dangerous mission.
Now, mine was in the Air Force Kentucky Air National Guard for 1961 to 1968.
But anyway, I just want to mention that, and I want to thank everybody that are veterans.
And I just wish we could make some kind of a rule that each person that's able could serve their country for at least two years, whether it's in the military or, you know, some kind of position, which I think they would appreciate our country more.
Thank you very much.
Shirley in Kansas, good morning.
You're next.
Yes, I was calling in regarding World War II and to the families that had a veteran that served.
I was 10 years old living in England when the soldiers came to England.
And I just wanted to say thank you to their families.
What do you remember about U.S. soldiers coming to England staging for the invasion of the mainland of Europe?
Oh, my goodness.
We lived where we were heavily bombed.
And my father was 32 that died during the war.
And serving England, he worked in airfield there.
And I can remember the soldiers coming down our street and how safe we felt, you know, having them there.
Then my mother later married an American soldier and came to the United States.
I didn't come until several years later.
And because during the war, she was bombed, or a piece of the bomb did damage to her leg, and after she came over here, it turned to cancer.
So I came over to help and never went back and never regret it.
And that was mainly why I was calling to say thank you to the families that lost a veteran during World War II.
Shirley, do you remember finding out about D-Day on June 6th?
Oh, yes.
And everybody, you know, celebrated.
I don't remember a whole lot about June 6th.
I remember when the war ended and several of my friends back then, people brought things, anything that would burn out into the street and celebrated.
And if there was pianos, I remember my mother playing a piano.
And I remember more about the end of the war.
Shirley, thanks for sharing those memories this morning.
This is Claude in Camden, Nevada.
Camden, New York, excuse me.
Line for Veterans.
Good morning.
Good morning.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing well.
Thank you for letting me speak.
I was with the 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade, in Vietnam.
I was a cross recipient of that brigade as a combat medic.
And I'm just proud of my service, and I'm proud of the service of all the men that served with me.
We trained for a long time in Hawaii before we went.
And the training was tremendous because it hit every point we needed when we got in country.
And we built Coo Chi Base Camp.
We were the first unit at Coo Chee.
We arrived there in January of 1966, took our first casualty, Everett Miller, on the 17th of January.
He was our platoon sergeant of my platoon, and I was the platoon medic at that point.
Later on, I became company medic for A Company.
And on 19 May, we took many casualties, and that's the day that I got my cross.
But I sure like to put out a hello to all the veterans out there.
I've got a lot of friends that are also cross recipients through the Legion of Valor of the United States, and I'd like to say hello to all of them today and wish them the best holiday because some of these guys, they've been through some terrific events.
The Medal of Honor recipients, especially, they've seen some awful things.
And I am sure glad to have been able to meet them and be able to get to know some of them through my experiences myself as a cross recipient.
Thank you for your time now.
And God bless everyone out there.
Before you go, Claude, do you mind sharing the story of the day you got the cross?
Well, I'll make it short.
I was a combat medic.
We captured an enemy hospital facility.
And the 17th of May.
We held it for three days.
On the third day, I was treating casualties and I was wounded several times.
And then we got pinned down as we tried to withdraw from the hospital and support one of our other units by a battalion of machine guns.
And a whole headquarters element was hit.
We took numerous casualties.
including our artillery officer, Lieutenant Cadets, first officer of the class of 1965 of West Point to be killed in action in Vietnam.
He was a terrific officer.
He could put a shell in your back pocket.
You wouldn't know it was there until something went boom.
And Captain Blackwell was our company commander.
He was wounded in the arm.
Our first sergeant was wounded in the legs, and most of the command element was down.
It took me about two hours to get everyone evacuated, pulled out, and then I saw two officers as I tried to get Lieutenant Cadets' body out.
And as I went to get the two officers, I hit a tripwire and laid down on a hand grenade.
And what do you remember next, Claude?
Someone screamed medic, and I got up and went back to work.
That's the only thing I can say is it took the word medic and the scream, I need help, medic.
And one of my other medics had lost his arm by the name of Forrester.
And when he was injured, he started running toward the enemy positions.
I said, tackle him and knock him down.
They did, and I got to him, and I stopped the bleeding in his arm.
And then we withdrew from that area from the intense fire and got back to our battalion complex.
Then the next morning, General Westmoreland came in and picked me up on the helicopter, flew me over the battlefield, and then took me into Coochie to get medical treatment at the medical center there while he got briefed on the actions that were going on in our field area.
Claude, thank you for sharing that story on Veterans Day.
Appreciate it.
Welcome.
Have a good day.
And like I say, God bless all our veterans out there.
And the Veterans Administration is fantastic.
I've got a friend that was once the head of the Veterans Administration.
And he was also the Chief of Staff of the Army.
We went to Vietnam on the USS Walker together when he was lieutenant.
And he was an artillery officer with Lieutenant Cadets at West Point in 1965.
Claude, thanks for sharing.
What's his name?
Shinseki.
Claude, thanks for sharing that.
As our viewers can see on screen, the ceremony here is about to get underway at Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.
We'll let you watch and listen for a little bit.
More time.
Left wheel.
March.
That ceremony taking place at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
It's going to be a wreath laying ceremony in the next five or ten minutes here.
We'll, of course, go there live when it does happen.
President Biden is set to speak at that ceremony.
Guests are gathering.
You just saw the presentation of the colors and the arms there.
So we'll continue to monitor it and show you live images as we continue to hear from you on this Veterans Day, your stories and your thoughts of what Veterans Day means to you.
We've been doing it all morning long, a special extended Washington Journal this morning as we hear your stories.
This is Joy in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on that line for military families.
Go ahead.
Can you hear me okay?
Yes, ma'am.
Okay.
I'm the daughter of a World War II veteran, and he grew up in Chicago and was a very reluctant, he was a pacifist and he wasn't going to go to war.
And then when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he knew he would be called up.
And so he and my mom quickly got married in a chapel and wedding dress and all that.
And he volunteered to go into the Navy because he liked water a lot.
And I suspect, from the little I know, that he might have wanted to avoid actually hand-to-hand combat or killing somebody because he was a pacifist.
Anyway, on his ship, the USS Tuscaloosa, he became first-class radio man and he did the Morse code.
And I have, when he came back, he didn't really talk a lot about the war, hardly ever.
But I feel a lot of pride that he was part of saving Europe from Nazism and, you know, the greatest general generation.
I went up into the attic one day and found four telegrams from Dwight D. Eisenhower that he had taken off the ship, snuck off the ship.
I don't know.
But one of them was from June 5th.
And that was supposed to be the day when the invasion occurred.
It was canceled, I think, because of the weather.
But I have three other telegrams from Eisenhower after that in June.
And I would be interested in knowing if there's any way or anybody I could, any place I could donate these to.
I have no particular use for them except interest.
And I don't know.
Is there a local historical society in Myrtle Beach there you could reach out to, Joy, or even a maybe?
Yeah, maybe.
I think I took him once to an appraiser and he said, oh, they're worth about $100, these sorts of telegrams, but I thought they were really good.
And Eisenhower mentions the Army-Navy game in law, and there was a little bit of humor.
Thanks for sharing that.
This is a few of your tweets and text messages.
This is Tony from Florida saying, I have a grandson who just separated from the Army after six years of service.
This is his first year as a veteran.
I'm proud of his service and of the man that the Army made him.
This is another viewer, Martha, saying, So many people sacrificed so that I could go to the church of my choice, so that a woman can go to a university, so that someone can speak out on an issue because they served, because brave soldiers served.
Thank you, veterans.
A few of your comments this morning as we await the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery should be getting underway in just a couple minutes here.
More of your phone calls.
Until then, Marcia in Vermont, a family member of veteran.
Good morning.
Hi, good morning.
Can you hear me all right?
Yes, ma'am.
Oh, great.
You know, my dad served in the Korean War.
He wrote for Stars and Stripes.
And he enlisted after graduated high school and was promoted to corporal.
He became a writer after that and certainly went to college for four years at Boston University on a GI Bill, in fact, later law school.
Yeah, I remember when I was a kid, just reading very little about the Korean War at that time and knowing very little.
And I asked him, did you cross the 38th parallel?
And he looked at me and said, yes, we did.
And I mean, they, of course, went all the way up to the Yen River and, you know, border China.
I mean, right straight through North Korea.
And so it was something.
He was able to further his career, of course, but I mean, he served for two years, and it really made a difference for him and for myself, because we certainly were able to enjoy his writing and his stories.
And I just need to share that.
I don't feel there's enough happening for veterans, really, or their families in terms of fostering education.
I mean, there's the GI Bill, the families, of course, daughters and sons.
Hopefully it can be grant funding for college education made available to them.
And in fact, benefits that currently exist.
Hopefully, you know, there can be a little more in the information highway for families and for veterans in terms of what's available for the Connect.
I just can't thank them enough and these brave men and now women, of course, that are serving this country.
And they're just, I know there needs to be more information in terms of acts of heroics and medals awarded and letting people know all the work they do.
Marcia, thanks for that out of Vermont.
This is Jean in Florida.
Good morning.
You're next.
Good morning.
How are you today?
Doing well.
I was a VA nurse, Air Force nurse during Vietnam, but I was not in country.
I spent eight years in the Air Force and I took care of the guys before and after and their families.
And I'm very proud of all of it.
And what are you doing today on Veterans Day, Gene?
What does it mean to you?
I'm 84, so I'm sitting here doing nothing at the moment, watching you on television.
Well, I tell you, you can watch this ceremony coming up in a little bit, this wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Have you ever been there?
Yes, yes.
I did a lot of traveling around.
What was that?
When did you go and what was that experience like going to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?
I can't give you the date, but I was in the military, so I really felt very proud watching the men do their changing of the guard.
I was very proud.
Proud to be a part of our country.
And that's one of the things I find most upsetting, I think, these days is when I hear people talk, it's like they don't know what's in the Constitution.
And I think, my gosh, we lost something when we stopped requiring civics in high school.
We've lost an ability to understand what the laws of our country are.
And the other component is one of the things we lost with the loss of the draft was men and that time it was mostly men from all over the country living together and getting to know each other instead of being in their own bubble from their own section of the country.
It would be nice to see some of that come back.
Gene, thanks for that.
As we continue to wait for this ceremony to begin, it's a wreath-laying ceremony.
President Biden is going to be participating.
We understand the vice president is there as well at Arlington National Cemetery.
President Biden's remarks will follow the wreath-laying ceremony.
It's about 15 minutes afterwards, is when we're expecting his remarks to begin.
We're expecting to see the president come up that path on the far end.
And when he does, we'll take you there for that live ceremony.
Until then, your calls, this is Ron in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Good morning.
Yes, good morning.
How are you doing this morning?
Doing well, sir.
All right, I'm a Vietnam-era veteran.
I served in the military, the Army, from 1965 to 1968.
Today is a Veterans Day, but it really doesn't put any emphasis on the real value of the day itself.
Because if it did, the VA would be open.
Today, the VA is closed.
So they're not honoring us by being close so we can't get to their facility.
It's just like voting.
If voting is that important for this country, and it only comes around every four years, it should be a national holiday.
Everybody should be shut down and pay attention to voting.
And my argument also is with the VA itself.
It's a money pit.
Their budget for next year is going to be $415 billion, which is a huge amount of money that the taxpayers are paying.
And very little of that $415 billion gets down to the veterans.
It's consumed by the VA to run that place.
The VA is, my opinion, is really not user-friendly for veterans.
It's for the employees.
You know, it's their way of making a living to send their kids to college, pay their mortgage, and whatever off our backs.
It's a disgrace that they spend all this money and crumbs get down to veterans themselves.
If you have any questions, I've got an attitude that I think is pretty much widespread as far as a lot of veterans in the country.
That's Ron in Daytona Beach.
This is Howard in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Good morning.
You're next.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
I think I have somewhat unique experience.
I was in Vietnam from early July 67 to middle February 1968.
I worked in what was called the Officer Replacement Division of the Directorate of Replacement Responsibilities in the United States headquarters.
We processed on a daily basis about 150 officers who came in country and about 150 who left the country.
It's about a 40-unit organization.
I have some comments to make as follows.
One, I invite every single military veteran who was in a war to write a remembrance of their time in war.
A few years ago, I sat down at my typewriter and for four hours I wrote a 28-page remembrance of the things that I remember from Vietnam.
I have to say, if you were involved in a war, I'm 84, you were involved in a war today.
If you're 50 years later, you remember every single day of that war experience.
Write it down.
Give it to your family and friends.
It's something to get off your chest.
It would be just terrific to do.
Now, regarding what I was doing, on a daily basis, I would see the list of officers who came in country.
I would say it's an estimate.
Something like 80% of all officers who came in country were United States graduates of West Point.