 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. And welcome to another edition of Hawaii in Uniform. I'm your host, Calvin Griffin. And thank you for tuning in to our program again. In the past of individuals who haven't seen the program before, here we talk about things happening with the veterans in active duty community. And we try to get information out or get to the source of a lot of information. Right now, today, it's my honor to have the National President for the Fleet Reserve Association, Mr. William Starkey, and also the National President for the Ladies Auxiliary Fleet Reserve. In the past, we've talked about our local branch 46 here. And today, again, it's a real pleasure to have both of you come on the program. Thank you. It's a pleasure. May I start with Ms. Smith? Ladies Auxiliary, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your Italian with the Navy? Did you serve in the military? I did not. My husband served for 22 years, retired as a chief. He's been retired now for about 30 years. And so I became active when he joined the Fleet Reserve as an auxiliary member. Mr. Starkey, thank you very much again for joining us. Thank you for having me. Tell us a little bit about yourself. I know you're a former Navy. I'm retired from the Navy. I spent 23 years in the Navy. I retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer. Did you spend any time overseas or any tours? I spent time in Antarctica. Pretty cold out there, isn't it? It was very cold out there. Tell us what a national president does. What is your job title? We know your job title. What exactly do you do and how are you trying to promote the organization? I represent the organization on the national level and on the state levels. We have approximately 300 branches in the association through the 48 continuous... through the 50 states, Guam and the Philippines and in Japan. May I call you, Jean? Yes, please. As far as the leaves go, I know that both entities fall under the same organization. The ladies auxiliary is a little bit different than the main hub. I mean, it's all the same, but how is it different, the ladies from the so-called main... We have to have their support to become an auxiliary. And we take care of most all of the volunteer work for the branch and unit because they spend their time lobbying in Washington and doing different things. So we take care of the background. We do volunteer work at local VA hospitals. We take care of the homeless veterans and a lot of things like that. We do a lot of community service, so we're their support. Commander, how are things going? I know that with the different organizations, one of the problems they have is the membership seems to be dwindling in a lot of these organizations. What are you doing right now, like, say, as far as trying to bring up the membership or, you know, get the younger troops, you know, more involved in the organization? Primarily, of course, this is a Navy operation, but you have the Marines, Coast Guard. But I know that with the local branch, they have an affiliation with some of the other branches. Could you tell us how that's coming as far as membership and the future? Well, membership in the Fleet Reserve Association at the present time were down from what our membership was 20 years ago. And I believe part of that is due to the passage of try-care-for-life for the members who are on security. Previously, to try-care-for-life being adopted by being passed through Congress and the House of Representatives, the members would purchase their supplemental Social Security insurance through one of the insurance providers that the organization at that time had a contract with to sell low-cost insurance to our members who were on Social Security. The Fleet Reserve Association is a member of the Military Coalition in the Washington, D.C. area. And there are 35 organizations, which we are one of. We fought hard in Congress to get that passed for our members. And now this is only my opinion when that was adopted, the members who were purchasing their insurance through the Fleet Reserve Association for the supplemental insurance for Social Security, they didn't need to buy that insurance anymore. So they dropped the insurance, and not only did they drop the insurance, they dropped their membership. And it took quite a toll on the association. The funds that we would get from the insurance company for the members to purchase their insurance, we would use that funds when we got back for all of our programs. And right now, to fund those programs, we have to take that money out of our restricted reserve funds, and when that happens, the Internal Revenue Service declares that earned income. So we have to pay income tax on money that we earned previously, and it's at the tune of about 35% each year. So it's quite a big chunk of change we have to pay the federal government for using our own money, because we're using it for something that's not intended to be used for. The different funds were set up for different reasons, and different projects, and when we take that money out of our restricted reserve funds, then the IRS says you're using that money for something that's not intended to be used for, so then you have to pay income tax on it. We have a new membership director down at our national headquarters, and it's her job to develop new strategies for getting more members to join the association. A member can join the association if they're serving on active duty and a Navy Marine Corps Coast Guard, or they're retired from active duty, or if they're former members, or if they're members of a reserve component. But it seems like the younger members don't want to join any type of association. Why is that? I think, from what I see in my perspective, a lot of them feel that they have a lot of older individuals who are part of the organizations that sometimes seem a little bit reluctant to bring on any new blood. Do you see that, or am I wrong about that? I see part of the problem. If the younger members join and they have some ideas on doing things differently, the older members will say, we've never done it that way before, and they're on the branch level, and when that happens, the younger members as well, they don't want to consider my way of doing something, so they just drop out. And it's not only with the Fleet Reserve Association, the younger members don't want to join any of the veterans organizations. Take the American Legion and the VFW, they're having a membership problem also because the younger members don't want to join this organization, or any veterans organization. I know with the Ladies' Auxiliary, now with the inclusion of more females in all branches of military. What is being done to make it more inclusive, like if you say it's the Ladies' Auxiliary, sometimes you have a wife that's deployed and a husband who's not in the military that stays at home. Is there anything to bring them into the fold? We are accepting men now. We have changed our name basically to the Ladies' Auxiliary, also doing business as the auxiliary, so that when we take in men into our organization, they do not have to wear ladies on their hat that ladies has taken off. So it's just auxiliary, so it makes them more comfortable. They're very valuable to us actually, the men, and they give us a new perspective because having a man at home when you're deployed as a female makes a great difference because they handle home life much different than the ladies did in my age when our husbands were overseas. I think one of the course with all the organizations seems to extol the values of family and community. It would seem that the more inclusive it is, the better off for all the organizations. I think one great recruiting tool is to let them know that they are welcome. And again, as you see when you talk to different organizations out there that, again, we've seen what happened when the Vietnam vets, when they came back, how they were treated or not even wanted to be included in a lot of these different organizations, and it seemed like over a period of time, it's just like just calling on them, well, why should we even bother to be part of that when we're not really welcome within the group and they do their own thing anyhow. Well, they're very welcome. In fact, in Tennessee, in our little unit that we have, we have a young man who is in college there, the University of Tennessee, and we have already made him our secretary because he's very, he wants to get involved and we want more male components to come into our organization because we have so many females in service now, so much more than we did, I'm not saying really a lot, but we want them to feel comfortable with us. And I think if we start giving them jobs and things so that we can tell them, you're welcome, you do, if you want to take a job, we're willing to give you a job and we want you to feel comfortable. Yeah. One of the things that, I've seen a documentary recently called The Invisible War. I don't know if you're familiar with that one or not. Basically, it was about what's happening with some of my female soldiers, the sexual harassment, things of that nature. Now, they want to go negative, but the thing is there's still an issue that needs to be dealt with. Is there anything that, within the organization, from the national level, the policies that you're trying to change or enlighten people to as far as what's happening with our female members of the military? Well, this is, see, they would be considered as fleet reserve members because they're not spouses or mothers or fathers. So they're more of the FRA members so that they're taking care of that. You're working in Washington for that. Yeah, we have a large percentage of our members are female who have served in the Navy, Marine Corps, or the Coast Guard. Yeah, because I know that, you know, something that is very unique that needs to be addressed, you know, it's just a fact of life anyhow. But speaking of Washington, what is the attitude now with the new administration that's in place right now? We hear that there's going to be some changes within the VA. Do you see anything, or has anything happened that you're aware of that is on a positive vein? I have everything about any changes in the VA. Yeah. We have a legislative team that works on Capitol Hill for us, and they cover all types of issues relating to men and women in uniform and their health care and such like that. My husband goes to the VA. I can tell you that it has improved, not completely yet. There's a lot of work that still has to be done because it's very difficult to get in and see a doctor in the VA. And if they do, they're using a lot of secondary meds and stuff for them so far. So it is improving. I think they're going to have to do a lot more work. All right. We're going to take a short break and we'll come back and continue our discussion with the National President of the Fleet Reserve Association and also the National President for the Ladies' Auxiliary. Stay tuned. We'll be back. The host of Voice of the Veteran, seen here live every Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. on Think Tech, Hawaii. As a fellow veteran and veteran's advocate with over 23 years experience serving veterans, active duty and family members, I hope to educate everyone on benefits and accessibility services by inviting professionals in the field to make sure they're on the show. In addition, I hope to plan on inviting guest veterans to talk about their concerns and possibly offer solutions. As we navigate and work together through issues, we can all benefit. Please join me every Thursday at 1 p.m. for the Voice of the Veteran. Aloha. I just walked by and I said, what's happening, guys? They told me they were making music. And you're back with the Hawaiian uniform. And again, I'm Calvin. And again, we'll continue our conversation with the National President of the Fleet Reserve Association and also the Ladies' Auxiliary National President. And again, thanks for, you know, coming on board with us. I know some of the things we've already talked about. What are some of the things that are important, you know, to your respective positions? With the Fleet Reserve Association, we were founded in 1924 by Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy by the George L. Carlin in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The main objective for those Chief Petty Officers forming an organization in 1924 was to improve the pay and healthcare for the active-duty sailors at that time. The Marine Corps, we brought the Marine Corps into the Association in 1937 and we brought the Coast Guard into the Fleet Reserve Association in 1957. Our main goal is working with our representatives in Congress and in the Senate to improve on healthcare benefits for our active-duty and retired Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel and for the pay and benefit of our active-duty Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel. It's very important that their pay and benefits keep a stride of the ever-rising cost of inflation throughout the country. You mentioned the three branches, the Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps. What about Merchant Marines? Are they included in it? They're not part of the organization because they're not in the military. That's a private... There's members who are part of the Merchant Marine because they're civilian employees. Yeah. Okay. They don't... During the Second World War, the Merchant Marine had sailors on board their ship to protect them. Yeah. As far as the Merchant Marines and another point is that they were going to World War II. We lost a lot of Merchant Marines but I didn't know the clarification between the different branches if they were covered or not. Again, what do you foresee for the future for your component? As you said, a lot of us are older in this organization and we've got to reach out to these young people and the one thing that we balk about is that some of us older people don't know how to use a computer and all the new people that we want to get into our organization are very computer-wise and we are going to have to learn computer so that we can put everything online so that it's available to all of our members. So all they have to do is get online and check us out and see what is happening that day or that week and so it's just going to have to lay down the gauntlet and say we're going to get into the computer age and I think we're going to attract a lot more young people that way. You touched what's happening up on Capitol Hill with the legislators and everything else. I think with a lot of civilians we've got one percent of the population that serves the country or in the military if we ever take anyhow and sometimes there's a misconception that everybody in uniform is either doing dire straits or they're raking in the money and there's a lot of issues that are tied in with our active and veterans that could possibly use the support of the civilian populace because I think a lot of times when there's different issues that come up if they're not aware of what's happening they're not going to call the congressman or their senators and say well you guys made a promise to our active duty people or our veterans therefore you need to keep your promise. How do you bring the non-military community into as far as supporting some of the efforts that you're doing? I believe one way we can do that is to have more of this civilian employee serve in the military to defend our country I'm not sure what the percentage is now but the percentage of men enlisting in the in all the services are lower than it was 20 years ago you know when they stopped a draft that stopped a lot of people from enlisting in the act of military you know they can get the firmers now if they they go to school they'll get a firm and there's no draft anymore so they don't have to worry about that and the military is more selective on who they take in anymore years ago when I joined the navy at the young man went before the judge the judge will say either join the military or you're going to go in the prison well they would join the military and they don't do that now you mentioned a lot of people get the impression that almost anybody can get into the military now with the different changes of skin with the transgender issue homosexual issue all these same sex and all that stuff but it's still very selective on who is able to qualify for the military at this point they're more select now because the education of the members joining the military they have to have a high school education or equivalent the job classifications and especially in the navy is more difficult to find qualified people to take those take those courses I apologize I was very ready to get up in the salute I am so sorry that's cool it happens don't worry about it it's cool I'm serious saying that I'm sorry I don't know I've never heard the other thing is that we have a lot of ex-patriots over in other countries what's the membership look like overseas for navy and personal marines overseas we have a lot of people that live in the Philippines for example but obviously we have a lot of former service members who live outside the country do you have branches overseas we have several branches we have seven branches in the Philippines we have one branch in Guam we have one branch in Japan yeah as far as term limits and everything else of course this is your second term this is my first term you plan to go for a second term I have a resolution my branch has submitted a resolution for me to run for a second term as national president and we have another shipmate who is my national vice president he's running for national president so before I submitted my resolution for my second term as national president I called the vice president and I informed him that my branch had nominated me for a second term as national president because they didn't want blindside shipmate washington and I thought that was a fair thing to do put my cards on the table before he wouldn't find out through the back door that I'm going in through the front door this is your first term as national president yes do you plan to run again? I do not we have so many qualified members that are willing to step up and do the job I really am not interested I will help in any capacity that I am asked to do I'm very willing to do that but I think I need to just turn it over to someone hopefully younger people as we go along so again what is your hope what do you want to really accomplish for your term like say that something that has your name on I mean I know that you're doing it for the good of this has my name on it right here okay my project this year is Alzheimer's and 57 million people in the United States have dementia of some sort whether it be Alzheimer's or and the care that we're spending millions and it's going to go up to trillions of dollars for even just care for these people because right now there is no cure there is no treatment mostly right now the care is given by family members or relatives or someone so they're saving the government money that way but eventually that's going to be done as the dementia patients get older we're going to have to be put in a facility which is going to cost the government so we want to get either a marker that tells us that this is going to be an onset of this disease or in some way trying to figure out what is causing this disease so as my project I want to make enough money to make a little bit of difference right sounds good speaking of medical issues I know that one of the very few things are something very rarely talked about with your experience in the military there are certain issues concerning health of the dependents we're seeing issues where sometimes in someone serving in Vietnam or other areas Iraq Afghanistan things that are in nature when they may be exposed to certain agents then it's being carried on to the next generation I started this subject too far to the conversation anyhow we got about a minute left anyhow so we'll have to table that but I'll get in touch with you but in the time we have left 15 seconds or less how would you contact information or anything you want to pin out there yes prospective members can contact the fleet reserve association at the website www.fra.org toll free telephone number is 1-800-FRA-1924 National President Smith I'll give you the last word I want everyone to know that we are so glad that we're getting information out there about our organization because we really need some members to help support these shipmates because there are so many VA members out there that need help and that's what the ladies are more and less thinking about okay on that note President Starkey President Smith thank you again for joining us and serving the way you do anyhow I really appreciate it anyhow down to the wire thank you very much for staying tuned and God bless them until that time I'd like to thank you for taking the time to have National President Smith and I on your show here today we certainly appreciate that it's been my honor and pleasure to do so and again aloha thank you