 And welcome to another edition of Hawaii in Uniform, I'm your host, Calvin Griffin. And for those of you who may not have seen the program before, here we talk about a lot of different things concerning our veterans and military community and other related things also. We also like to share things or individuals who are veterans in the community who are doing a lot of great things. And one of the individuals who was working to make things better for his fellow veterans is Jeremy. Jeremy, go ahead. Hey, good afternoon actually. Aloha everybody. Good to be back on the show. Right. Yeah, you've been on the program before. Yeah, a couple of times now. Yeah. So, for those who may not have missed your segment before, tell us a little bit about yourself and what are you into right now? Well, currently I'm an 11-year military vet. I served from February 1995 to November 2006, served at two different branches, served with the Army, I served with the Navy, Army Reserves, Army National Guard, and did a wider range of different jobs and specialties within the military. Got out in 2006 and from that point on, I've been working actively with different veterans organizations. Currently, I've worked with the Fleet Reserve Association as a board of directors. Also I'm a part of Team Rubicon, which is a veteran organization that is crafted to do and perform disaster relief and emergency relief, not just within the United States, but also internationally now. So we can go anywhere in the world and provide medical assistance and rebuilding. We're rebuilding in Texas and we're also doing work in Puerto Rico. Okay. Is this the NGO or how does that work and what kind of organizations? They were titled a 501C3, so well, not a pure 501C3, but we are a nonprofit organization, but we're a veteran mainly. We have about 90% of us are veterans and the other, as we refer to as kick-ass civilians. So these individuals are like your EMTs, your police officers, your firefighters, other individuals with certain skill sets that make them assets in emergency situations such as natural disasters. Okay. So with the organization, do you guys work with the Red Cross FEMA, things like nature, or do you help to augment anything? Normally what Team Rubicon will do is they'll come in and they'll aid and assist if and where be they are needed. Mainly like within the hurricanes that was recently devastated Puerto Rico, we're currently going in and actually helping them rebuild, like physically rebuild shelters, hospitals, schools, homes. So we also provide those type of resources, manpower for free. So I mean, it's totally free. We go in and we just help out. Yeah. You say free as far as the volunteers that they supply most of their own equipment or how does that work out? Most of our equipment, like the larger equipment, from what I understand is applied through donations, but the military members, the veterans themselves, and the volunteers, the only thing that they're really compensated for is their travel. And Team Rubicon has worked out certain MOUs, Memorandums of Understanding with certain travel agencies and travel companies like Delta and America, airlines that provide tickets, free tickets for our members to go to the disaster areas. And then once we get there, we kind of just set up. We have tents, reefers, and the likes, or we might stay with the individuals there into the disaster area. Yeah. So. Okay. Do you look for people, if they want to join this effort, are there classes or what do you do to prepare people? Are you looking for people who are already prepared through their military experiences or other related? Well, the only real criteria would be your vet or you're one of those identified classes of emergency personnel that I've already had or received some type of training like police officer, firefighters, EMTs, doctors or nurses, which everybody's always in need of doctors and nurses. But on the military side, it doesn't matter what branch you served in, what your job specialty was. We also have in place online learning. And then periodically throughout the regions, because we're broken up in the regions like this is region nine, Hawaii and California and Arizona and New Mexico. We have training. So like we have chainsaw trainings, which is put on by the department of the Bureau of Land Management. So the wildland firefighters will come out and train us how to operate chainsaws. And then there's other training that's online to get you brought up to speed for, there's also background checks, but communication styles, how to operate comms, how to effectively communicate. All right. Speaking of communication, with the varied ethnic groups over here, are you looking for people with language skills because that's, of course, going to be very important in a emergency situation anyhow. Always. Always looking for anybody that has even the least bit of language skills because even if the individual is attempting to and has some type of rapport with the indigenous population, then that helps us with our job. I mean, it shows faith. It shows that we're actually here to help and we're trying, but we're always looking for people with any type of language skills. Yeah. Speaking of communication, it's also, I know, spoken word, but of course we have some people who are impaired as far as hearing. So sign language specialists, people of that nature, does that come into play also? Or could it? It could always come into play. The only issue with that is like if we're working in, say, a identified AO area of operation where there is limited resources as far as the individual's knowing sign language. Okay. Yeah. So, but anyone with any type of language skills, please look on our website, Google Team Rubicon, if you're a military, active, veteran, reservist, national guard, police officer, firefighter, EMT, divers, check it out. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, but I think we'd take an emergency situation, it would be obvious what help would be required in a lot of cases anyhow than afterwards as far as they had to follow up. That's when certain language skills or whatever would kick in, I guess. Definitely. Yeah. Especially if you're trying to find individuals, families. Yeah. You've got their displays like the tsunami that hit in the Pacific a couple of years ago where it devastated Madagascar and some of the outlying islands. People were just totally displaced. Yeah. And you've got to try to find where your family's from, you know, on the map, where you're from. So, yeah, you definitely need those language skills. Yeah. Okay. Well, I know there's a lot of things that we talk frequently, also offline and all that. Again, exchanging information, like there's a lot with the veterans. We try to share information. Some of it, of course, comes from official sources and other stuff is like through learned experiences because sometimes, like, say, you can go through a system and you can be instructed to be informed about one thing as far as factually how certain things go, you know, that also comes into play also. I know there's something that you wanted to share, but there's some piece of legislation that came out lately or something that affects the vets. Well, this one directly affects active duty members, but a lot of vets have family members that are active duty. And this also affects active duty members, beneficiaries and dependents. And what it is, is a couple of days ago, acting director of the consumer financial protection bureau, Mick Mulvaney, who is the acting, who is the director of the Office of Management and Budget has proposed a, I guess you could say watering down of the Military Lending Act. So the Military Lending Act states that military members and their dependents basically can't be taken advantage of. You know, you can't go in and say, hey, you know, I want to get a loan at one of these payday lenders or these quick loans or you go to purchase a automobile. They can't stick the military member with this outrageous fees and they can't put on these additive costs like gap insurance and the such and then tie it all in, because let's face it, automobile dealerships, especially around bases, you know, here at us, Schofield or Bliss or Bragg or wherever you're at, they know how much the enlisted member makes. Before they even walk into the door, they know exactly how much that man or that soldier or that woman that they make. And this is designed to protect them. So they're, the acting director of Mulvaney has came out and stated that he does not know if it is their responsibility to enforce. To enforce. The law, the act. So, which we all know with some common sense that all those agencies, they might not enforce the law. That's why we have the Department of Justice. That's their jobs. But at the same time, they're looking to, instead of being proactive, they're looking to become reactive. Instead of going in and saying, hey, we understand that you're this type of lender outside of banks. So anything outside of a bank, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can step in and say, hey, we want to review your lending policies. So that's a proactive state. And they want to move over to a reactive saying, well, we'll just take on complaints. Like if the service member files a complaint, which at that point in time, you know it's already too late a lot of times. Yeah. Because once it gets to that point, the next thing you know, it's a responsibility, or they put the onus on the service member to go ahead and prove that you didn't, that you were taking advantage of. And from what you're stating with this, is that it's plausible deniability on the part of the administrator or whoever this gentleman is to say, well, we'll get around to it if it happens or whatever and if one of them deals anyhow. Any unfortunate part is there are a lot of people out there who are more than willing to take advantage of service members because they know that if it even results in court, you could be legally right and morally wrong and vice versa. And I think that's a lot of people get into. Most people are trusting, but you have to redefine print. But the thing is, you don't want our service members to be put in that position in the first place. And like I say for this, it seems like the watering down or they're not living up to their responsibility as overseers or protectors of the military personnel here. Not at all. And several retired generals and acting generals and higher up officials have stated that it's just not about protecting the service member. It's also about our force being prepared to do their job. So if an individual has a top secret security clearance and they get upside down on a automobile loan, guess what's the first thing that goes? Their security clearance. So now that unit, that organization is a man down or multiple people down because they've all been taken advantage of. So it's a manning issue. And that's one of the things that we as taxpayers pay for these individuals to be trained up and to receive these security clearances to do their jobs and yet at the same time, if they get upside down in a loan, which is provided to them by some dealership and they get upside down in it, now where did that tax dollars go? Because now that person's lost their security clearance and can't do their job. Yeah, well in a way it would be like a form of extortion because if I, you know, came and claimed that you owed me a lot of money or whatever it was, you know, I'm saying I'm going to take you to court. In the meantime, let's say what's going to happen, let's say you get that interim, you know, by the time you clear your name. So I guess a lot of service members would say, okay, look, I can't afford to lose my clearance, my deployment options and everything else. So therefore I'll pay up. Exactly. And I think a lot of them have, you know, they know what's going on. They know how to work the system, like I said, to milk. And I don't say this loosely, but like I said, yeah, to take a full advantage of, you know, our service members, you know, and I think we need to have more advocates that will enlighten our members to what's going on, especially within the system. And Alexander, military side, you know? Well, one of the main parts of this piece of legislation outside of protecting the service member, it provides a service member with the ability to take these individuals to court on, well, in the severe sector, nine times I attend, the severe doesn't have the same protections. They have to go through what's called force arbitration. So the lending institution, whether it be a payday loans or whoever brings in their, for lack of a better word, their guy, their person, and says, you have to go through force arbitration. And this individual who might have a legal background might not. Yeah. Well, speaking of scams, we're going to take a short break. But stay tuned, please, and again, we're Hawaiian Uniform and we'll be here. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join me, where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaii Anna all across the sea from Hawaii and back again. Aloha. Hey, Stan the Energyman here on Think Tech Hawaii. And they won't let me do political commentary. So I'm stuck doing energy stuff, but I really like energy stuff. So I'm going to keep on doing it. So join me every Friday on Stan the Energyman at lunchtime, at noon, on my lunch hour, we're going to talk about everything energy, especially if it begins with the word hydrogen. We're going to definitely be talking about it. We'll talk about how we can make Hawaii cleaner, how we can make the world a better place, just basically save the planet. Even Miss America can't even talk about stuff like that anymore. We got it nailed down here. So we'll see you on Friday at noon with Stan the Energyman. Aloha. Okay, you're back with the Hawaii, excuse me, Hawaii in uniform. Excuse me. I will continue our conversation with Jeremy. Yeah, this thing about the continue along the vein of taking advantage. You know, it's one thing I found over here recently as far as like, we have a lot of veterans who are in situations like home, the situation, things of that nature. And it seems like there are a few of the, I can say, housing organizations out there. I got this thing going and this may not be as widespread, but I'm more familiar. There's quite a few people I talked to where the situation is you get behind on rent. And what they do is they'll serve you with papers. I mean, I know a guy, a gentleman that recently just he was walking up to the office and said, okay, I want to get things squared away. And they said, no, we're taking you to court. Okay. They take him into court. And what happens is that now he has to, if he is found liable, automatically he has to pay for the legal fees and everything else. So therefore what happens, he goes in the court. All right. Got the attorney there. All right. So what happens is the, if the judgment is in the favor of the plaintiff or the housing, on top of the legal fees that he has to pay to the, or he or she has to pay to the attorney, then there's the other part that goes on where what they actually do is the manager will walk them through, or you walk them through the apartment when they're evacuating, excuse me, leaving the place anyhow. And sometimes what would happen is that the manager will tell them to sign off on his document, will fill in and later on. All right. So you have to go to court a second time. And the second time, what would happen is that you'll have a problem with, they'll get you for everything. Whether you've got to go ahead and like say repaint the place, all kind of things that you did not originally, you know, that acknowledge that wasn't there. So what happens, the judge will say, okay, well, you signed off on it, therefore irresponsible. So on top of the back payments and the possibility of having your credit rating, you know, affected, all right, you got to pay these $800 like sorry, for the legal fees, you know. And therefore, you know, and this seems to be a commonplace because what happens is that they have a regular stream of veterans come through there, guaranteed like say with their retirement, everything else, this is what's happening, you know. And like say, it may not be as widespread, but it's going out there, it's prevalent enough where people have to be aware of what's going on. And I think that needs to be addressed also because in a way, that is a scam. You know, unfortunately there are too many people out there who are willing to take advantage of veterans, with all the veterans we have over here, you know, it's just like open season in a way, you know. And I think it definitely needs to be addressed. But there's something that a lot of veterans or people out there may be aware of. And if you are aware of anything that happened along that line, give me a call here. And like say, I'd like to know about it. And we're going to see about what we can do to address that issue also. And like say, there's many more things also. We don't want to be negative here, but the thing is if there are issues out there in the community that affect our veterans and even the other homeless people or people, viewers in general who have these different issues, we need to address it. I mean, we need to be more proactive in so many different ways. I think there's a lot of unsung heroes out there to try to do the best they can. But we need to network as far as the community to identify what the problems are and take it from there. So, you know. Well, definitely, you know, the old saying goes, trust but verify. So I mean, we can, as veterans, we can put forth our best foot and our best efforts. And when we're trying to take care of ourselves, and we're saying, oh, this is a great set up. These organizations say that they cater to veterans. If they say they cater to veterans, like I said, trust but verify, you know. Talk with the individuals, make sure that, you know, read the documents. You know what, in fact, if you don't trust them that much or even if you ran across them, go and talk to some other veterans. Go to find one of your local VFWs, find one of your local OVCs here, Oahu Veterans Center, or one of your veterans' organizations that you might be a part of and say, hey, do we have anybody here that has a legal background? Or at least can help me muddle through this contract or whatever, you know. But trust but verify. Yeah, gotta be very careful now, you know. Even thought of different organizations, even then, you know, trust but verify. Yeah, we have a bad apple. Yeah, we have a few, but that's another story there. Anyhow, I say a lot of things that they can wanna go ahead and get out there, but one thing I wanna go ahead and share is that on the 8th of November, we have the Hero, Remembered, Run, Walk, or Roll event that's taking place. If you wanna take part in this, it's gonna be again on the 8th of November and it starts at the Pacific Aviation Museum. If you're an ID card holder, there's no problem getting over there, but if you are a civilian or you don't have the proper credentials, what you can do is go to Nimitz Gate to the security office over there and they will issue a pass or give the appropriate documents to be able to participate in that. And again, this is open to everybody that wants to do this. Once a year, what they do is they have the boots. I don't know if for those of you who may not have seen it. This is a remembrance of all the individuals associated with Hawaii that were killed in combat or lost their lives in the service of the country. And when you see the rows and rows and rows of boots out there, it really hits home exactly, puts a human face on it. That's the only thing I can say, but it's really something worthwhile and it's a good chance for you to show your appreciation and thanks for those who have paid the ultimate price. Have you seen that? You've been on there, haven't you? I haven't been over to that one yet. Haven't been over that one yet. But to tag on to that one, also on August 26th, which is a Sunday, there will be a Spartan race. So this is for all your active duty members, veterans, friends and family. So it'll be a three mile sprint. It's an optical course. So if you want to get your mud on, as they say, they want to get out there and get muddy. It'll be at Kualoa, Kualoa? The ranch. The ranch. It'll be at the ranch. Kualoa Ranch, Kanye O'Aid, round, I think the start times around 7am, 0800. And there'll also be opportunity to meet Team Rubicon members and other veterans organizations that will be out there. So that'll be a nice one. I thought the Spartan run was just going down to Ala Moana during the holiday season and try to shop down there, you know? Yeah, either that one or Halloween. Try to get downtown through Halloween or Christmas. And it's a garlic. Also, as far as access to the base, effective one October, there will be some changes. We'll have some information up on that for you. Yeah, if you are a veteran and you've been trying to get on the base, of course, if you're retired, you have your ID card, that'll get you on. But there are policies to change now where you're gonna have to have a different type of ID. And you can go to the military base, either up at the Spark-Matsunaga Center, Ambulatory Care, and ask them up there and also the Army Garrison Control Center. And also you can call the Oahu Veterans Center, down at Foster Village, taught to Claire. And her number is 422-4000, and she can give you some more information about what's happening. But with this change, you wanna make sure you're prepared for this, that if you do need to have access to the base that you get this card, or the cat card as I call it, before one October. So that's a very important part. Then you have a card on you? Yes, I sure do. So for those service members, this is the one that's gonna get you on base for Tripler and the Veterans Center there. This one right here will no longer be accepted after October 1st, but you probably wanna keep this one, in case you do any traveling to the mainland, because this one is gonna get you into the other VA centers, if you find yourself in need within the mainland of the other 50 states. Yep, okay. So now, yeah, that's very important. The way things are changing anyhow, to be having access to the base or other types of services is very important anyhow. Hopefully there'll be more, we'll get some more information out there in the future about some of the other things. We're gonna try to keep it steadily updated on a lot of things, but there are a lot of different sources out there that the Veterans can go to. Again, I mentioned the Oahu Veterans Center. They have a website up there, and it's very informative. It's a great group to have down there anyhow. Okay, also, unfortunately, we have the issue of suicides. That comes up in one of the things that we have the Veterans Crisis Hotline. And if you know someone who is in immediate distress, of course, you always call 911. But if you're a veteran and there is time, like saying, to react or whatever, then the number they have is 1-800-273-8255. And that's 800-273-8255. But again, that's another issue, like I say, that it still needs to be dealt with anyhow. We're still losing a lot of not only active duty individuals, but also in the Veterans community, there seems to be a lot of unfortunate incidents that are not being addressed. I know they were trying to address these many issues, but sometimes it's still falling a little bit short. And if you have a family member or even yourself that is contemplating this, sometimes you don't have time to work for this system. We need something that is really more immediate, and yeah, no, okay. Well, there was a recent article that popped up on my radar, and it was talking about one of the things that oftentimes, as we as Veterans, as soon as we get out of the military, we tend to isolate ourselves. We're like, you know what, I just don't want to be around people, and then you start going down that rabbit hole that you don't want to be around any people. And that's one of the first telltale signs that, hey, you actually want to be around people. It doesn't have to be, as we say, civilians or civilians, but you need to seek out other Veterans at least. Okay, point that note. We're getting down to the wire. I want to thank you for coming on the program. We'll do some follow-up stuff in here. I think there's still a lot of very important things that need to be addressed, like I really stress that, can't stress that enough need, all right? Again, being involved in it, even if you haven't served a day in the military, find out what's going on, because like I say, we do over to our men and women who are serving us. There are very small percentage that represent all of us around the world. And I want to thank you viewers for tuning in to the program. Thank you to Jeremy, and like I say, to tune in next time. God bless, and until that time.