Veterans Day special: The bond between vets, a new generation arises, how listeners plan to honor those who served
By Take Two Staff
Published Nov 10, 2017 9:00 AM
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 27: U.S. military veterans set up 1,892 American flags on the National Mall March 27, 2014 in Washington, DC. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America installed the flags to represent the 1,892 veterans and service members who committed suicide this year as part of the "We've Got Your Back: IAVA's Campaign to Combat Suicide." (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Though vets may have served in different times and places, a special connection is shared. New vets at American Legion Hollywood Post 43. Honoring those who served.
Though vets may have served in different times and places, a special connection is shared. New vets at American Legion Hollywood Post 43. Honoring those who served.
Though vets may have served in different times and places, a special connection is shared. New vets at American Legion Hollywood Post 43. Honoring those who served.
Surfrider report says California makes the grade protecting its beaches
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4:58
Surfrider report says California makes the grade protecting its beaches
California loves its beaches. And according to a new report from the Surfrider Foundation, the state is doing a great job preserving them for future generations.
The national conservation group gave California the only A grade in its annual State of the Beach report card. Based in Southern California, Surfrider graded 30 states on the legislation they have in place to protect their beaches from things like sea-level rise, erosion and sediment management.
"One thing that California has done very well, and I think everyone can take a page out of our playbook on this, is planning for sea-level rise," said Stefanie Sekich-Quinn, coastal preservation manager with the Surfrider Foundation.
She said that the amount of political will that the state has thrown at the issue stands above the rest of the country. "California has every level of government firing on all cylinders from legislative, executive and administrative," she said.
She added that California's legislation has been actualized into a number of practices that have made a measurable difference.
"It hasn't been easy," Sekich-Quinn said. "But for all intents and purposes, when you look at our coastline and juxtapose it to coastlines on the east coast, we've done a remarkable job of keeping undeveloped open space and a rugged coastline that's not monopolized by giant buildings."
To hear more about what California has done to preserve its beaches, click the blue player above.
Marine veteran says the best way to honor vets 'is by listening to them'
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4:13
Marine veteran says the best way to honor vets 'is by listening to them'
Saturday, November 11, is Veterans Day -- a holiday that honor those who've served in the U.S. armed forces. Take Two reached out to listeners to find out how they plan to honor the special vets in their life.
John Motter, Marine Corps veteran
John Motter is a Koreatown resident who's a veteran himself. Motter was in the Marine Corps from 2007 to 2011, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. He currently works with Ground Game L.A., a civic engagement community in Hollywood.
Marine veteran John Motter in Afghanistan.
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Courtesy John Motter
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"Honoring veterans, I just ask that we don't get tokenized. Don't just continue to use us a political prop. I don't need to see politicians saying:
'This is disrespectful towards veterans.'
Whatever it is, how about you ask a veteran what they think about it? That's really the biggest way I feel like we can honor our veterans is by listening to them."
Jessica Salans
Jessica Salans is one of John Motter's close friends. She and John work together closely with the organization Ground Game L.A. She explained why it's important to honor her friend and veteran in her life, John Motter.
Jessica Salens with military veteran and friend, John Motter.
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Courtesy Jessica Salens
)
"What John has brought to the table at Ground Game is educating all of us about the military-industrial complex and how it appears in our local day to day life. And it makes me want to honor veterans not just on a single day, but every day through this community advocacy work on the local level. And I'm really grateful to have him in my life."
Kenneth James, Marine Corps veteran trying to leave Skid Row
Kenneth James is a disabled Marine Corps Corporal. He's been homeless for years as a result of his condition and is currently residing in a low-income room on Skid Row. But he's trying to improve his situation.
Marine veteran Kenneth James when he was serving.
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Courtesy Kenneth James
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"For a long time I used to have to ride the train and the bus, and I'd run into a lot of people that would say, 'Oh, thank you for your service.'"
James explained that this seemingly kind gesture would upset him because it felt angry. He felt like the people saying it didn't truly care about his condition as a disabled veteran. He also suffers from depression, PTSD and anxiety, he said.
"Instead of saying, 'Thank you for your service,'" James urges, "maybe if they find out someone's a veteran, maybe ask how they're doing."
To listen to all three of veteran stories, click the blue play button above.
Hollywood's American Legion wants SoCal vets to think of the post as home
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4:23
Hollywood's American Legion wants SoCal vets to think of the post as home
Just down the road from the Hollywood Bowl sits a valuable piece of Southern California's veteran history: American Legion Post 43.
The post has been a sanctuary for service members returning home from combat since it opened in the late 1920s. It's a place to share stories, have a drink and connect.
But visits by veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam have dropped off.
Now, a new generation of vets has taken the helm with a multi-million dollar modernization to the meeting hall.
But inside the Art Deco bar, little has changed in the past nine decades.
"The corner down there is referred to as Bogie's corner," explains Post Vice Commander Michael Hjelmstad, pointing to the far edge of the old bar. "Humphrey Bogart used to sit there after watching boxing."
The Art Deco bar at Post 43
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Austin Cross/KPCC
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KPCC's Austin Cross talks to Michael Hjelmstead
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Libby Denkmann/KPCC
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Star sightings were not uncommon in the early days of the post.
The bar itself, with its checkered linoleum floor, has an underground feel.
"Probably the coolest stuff is the 'buy war bonds' posters in the back," says Hjelmstad. "[They're] actually from all the way back in 1928 when they built the building. Those are original posters."
These war bonds posters have been affixed to the wall since the last 1920s.
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Libby Denkmann/KPCC
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Much like those posters, very little has changed here – except for the regulars.
When the doors first opened in the 1920s, the post was a site for World War I veterans. They slowly gave way to veterans of World War II. Then Vietnam.
Several generations have now passed through its doors. The way Hjelmstad tells it, some never left.
"You see a picture of a guy up there named Marshall Wyatt. That's important to this building because Marshall Wyatt is kind of known to be the resident ghost around here," says Hjelmstad.
Portrait of Marshall Wyatt
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Austin Cross/KPCC
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But more and more of those who haunt Post 43 now served after 9/11, brought in by the new leadership.
"I came back from Afghanistan in 2011 and found it was a little bit isolating of an experience to reintegrate," Post Commander Fernando Rivero explains. "I went back to work, and people look at you like you had chemo, like, 'Oh, how was it? Are you OK?'"
Rivero says that reaction didn't help with the reintegration process. But then, Hjelmstad brought him to Hollywood Post 43.
"I walked in and not only was I was taken aback by the whole building and how beautiful it was and the history here," says Rivero, "but just the instant recognition of that camaraderie and that fellowship from other veterans."
He realized that he wasn't the only returning veteran who could benefit from a place like Post 43.
But at the time Rivero first showed up, the post wasn't as open to new members. The executive committee was made up of older veterans. The main office didn't even get emails.
Rivero wasn't the only new member frustrated by the old system.
"I started asking questions: 'Do we do this? Do we do this? I think this would be cool," says Second Vice Commander Jennifer Campbell. "People said, 'well, no' or 'well, maybe in a couple years.' I said 'I don't really like that answer,' so I just kind of took charge."
Jennifer Campbell
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Austin Cross/KPCC
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In fact, all three took charge.
In 2014, Rivero, Hjelmstad, and Campbell all ran for leadership positions at the post and won. Since then, membership has been up dramatically. The bar is open more, and the post offers more programs and activities for young veterans.
There have been many changes, but for longtime members like Vietnam veteran Luis Soto, Post 43 is still the place to come and share stories few others might understand.
"Going into my fifth month in a firefight, I got shot up," Soto recalls. "From there, I got a medical retirement."
He says his new friendships might not have been possible before.
"There's just a good energy between the younger vets and us the older vets. It's truly become a clubhouse anew," he says.
Maintaining a connection between the generations is central to the mission here now.
A quick stop by on-site museum serves as a reminder of just how much members of the past valued the connections they formed at Post 43.
One wall in the Post 43 Museum
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Libby Denkmann/KPCC
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Priceless war mementos line the shelves, some reflecting the carnage of war, others the people.
Grenades at Post 43
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Libby Denkmann/KPCC
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A case in the Post 43 museum
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Austin Cross/KPCC
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A Japanese radio captured during WWII, surrounded by old trophies.
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Austin Cross/KPCC
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Relics like these compel Post 43's relatively new leaders to do more to ensure the site continues.
And they have one more plan to do that: a $2 million improvement to turn the Post's old meeting hall into a state-of-the-art theatre, with seats for just under 500 people.
When construction wraps up in March, Rivero hopes to feature films for veterans and even by veterans.
It's all part of a bigger dream to meet the needs of the servicemembers returning home while continuing to honor those gone before.
"We understand that it's our turn," says Rivero, "so we're trying to do the best we can to preserve that legacy to make sure this place is around another 100 years."
Press the blue play button above to hear the audio tour.
The bonds of bootcamp defy decades, generations and wars
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9:19
The bonds of bootcamp defy decades, generations and wars
As America observes Veterans Day, Take Two brought together two veterans of different generations to share their experiences with one another.
Aaron Ward, 28, goes by Ward because he's still not used to being called by his first name.
Ward only left the Marine Corps Reserves just a few weeks ago. A veteran of the Iraq War, Ward has a warm smile and impeccable manners.
Ward sat down to meet face-to-face with 68-year-old Don Ray.
Ray is a Vietnam War who served 40 years before Ward entered the military. The Army veteran mostly travels with his German Shepherd Fritz: the Sassy Service Dog, which he named after the dog he served alongside in Vietnam.
Having never met before, Ward and Ray got acquainted.
Aaron Ward in combat fatigues.
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Courtesy of Aaron Ward
)
Aaron Ward: I was in the Marine Corps from 2007 to the 26th of October. I got out as a sergeant at about eleven years.
Some of it active time, the majority in the reserves. I actually enlisted in the reserves and I checked in my unit and they were like, hey, we’re going to Iraq. And I was like, wait, one weekend a month, right?
Ray laughed along with Ward. They shared a dry sense of humor as they quickly found parallels in their time in the military.
Fritz in 1968 at the Soc Trang Army Airfield in IV Corps near Soc Trang, below the Mekong Delta.
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Don Ray
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Don Ray: I was Army ‘67 to ‘70 and I was in Vietnam ‘68 and ‘69 as a dog handler.
Most of the time I spent at a little place way down the Mekong Delta called Sóc Trăng at a little target airfield they used to call "mortar alley." They’d always said that if you can hear the whistling of it coming down, you’re not going to survive.
I actually had one where I heard that and I thought, I’m dead. It hit very, very close, but it was soft dirt and I guess that’s all that saved me. I came out at a sergeant as well.
Ward echoed in agreement, remembering the sensation of bracing himself after hearing someone holler, “Incoming!”
Ward and Ray seemed to understand a lot about one another. It only took a few moments before the two began to instinctually finish one another's sentences.
Their connection was palpable despite having enlisted under different circumstances.
Aaron Ward: My decision, like a lot of guys from my era, was 9/11. Watching all that happen, I think I was about 7th grade. That’s a very real moment.
As soon as that happened I was like, cool, I’m set. That’s where I’m going after high school. I enlisted at at 17. Went to bootcamp 10 days after I turned 18.
Don Ray: I graduated from Burbank High in ‘67 and decided to join the Air Force. I was flipping burgers at the local burger place and one of my high school buddies came up wearing army fatigues. He said, oh no, you can’t join the Air Force. The Army, you get to pick your job – it’s only three years.
So he took me down to the recruiter and signed me up. My motivation was to get out of the house from my stepfather. A lot of people did that thinking you were going to a better place.
And the sad part was that my really good friend who had enlisted me – my mother sent me the hardest letter in the world just a couple months after I got to Vietnam saying that he had died there. But you know what that's like.
Ward and Ray paused briefly in quiet acknowledgment.
Turning home from war shared commonalities for Ward and Ray but they were greeted on American soil very differently.
Don Ray: A friend was going to school at UC Berkeley and I was scared because all I had seen from the news while I’m in Vietnam is all the protests and the burning down the R.O.T.C. buildings.
I pictured every square foot of every school, in every state, having protesters and hating us veterans and soldiers.
I walked around with this short hair in Berkeley ... you can feel the M16 in your hand, that feel that you never forget.
There was one of those backfires and I did go to the ground and it was embarrassing as hell.
Aaron Ward: I came back August 2009. It was interesting actually flying out to Iraq because I flew out of March Air Force base. I was born and raised in Riverside.
You know, you watch the states leave underneath you but like, I could actually see my house, my grandparents’ house…and I was like, oh man.
And then coming home, I distinctly remember just being extremely happy to be home. Then the next day I woke up and I was like where’s my weapon?
I felt pretty alone. All of the sudden I was by myself.
You have social media and all that, but it’s not the same as being with your buddies who are sleeping three feet away from you.
I’m still trying to grapple with, what do I do now? I spent my whole adult life carrying a pack and a rifle, and now it’s like, what’s next?
Ward and Ray both find comfort in the camaraderie they find in the company of other veterans.
Aaron Ward: I still am in contact with a lot of my buddies that I served with over the years. But I was also Senior Vice Commander at my V.F.W. post. It was fun getting to know these guys.
For me it was interesting because of how much in common we have. "I don’t know you right there, but we’re here having a pretty decent banter."
There’s this Marine phrase, "We went to bootcamp together but at different times."
We have that commonality. Anytime there’s a veteran that I know of in need, I’m more than willing to drop whatever I was going to do.
Don Ray: Very rarely did Vietnam soldiers or marines go over there as a group.
We went over as individuals on an airliner. So, you don’t make the attachments.
I don’t have a Vietnam vet buddy that I served with anywhere. I’m in touch with nobody.
While Ray isn't connected to those he served directly with, he still interacts with other veterans a few times a week.
Don Ray: I do and it’s thanks to the V.A. because when I finally learned what P.T.S.D. was, it was 20 years after I got back. It took me about five years to agree to go into a group. I just didn’t want to be in there with all those angry veterans and all that stuff.
Now, I’ve been going to a group for about nine years and it’s the safest place in the world to be. Things that they would never be able to tell anybody else about, they’ll share with us.
It’s the one time when I feel someone’s got my back. It’s remarkable the way veterans will look out for other veterans.
Ward and Ray shared some wisdom, but made sure to wish one another and Take Two listeners a happy Veterans Day.
Aaron Ward: To all the veterans, happy Veterans Day, go out and spend time with each other. Go visit those cemeteries, see your boys.
I like to leave a beer or two and just spend some time with my guys who are currently pulling guard duty somewhere else.
Don Ray: It’s a wonderful opportunity to get to talk with you because we have so much in common already.
That’s the brotherhood that veterans have and I think that’s what Veterans Day is about.
To listen to the whole conversation, click on the media player above.
Aaron Ward in combat fatigues.(Courtesy of Aaron Ward)
Fritz in 1968 at the Soc Trang Army Airfield in IV Corps near Soc Trang, below the Mekong Delta.(Don Ray)