 Why are you in uniform? What could be more appropriate on the business day before Veterans Day 2018? Veterans Day, unless we never forget, Veterans Day is so important to this country. Veterans are the servicemen and women who defend us and who have defended us, protected our nation, protected our democracy, and goes through all of our history, should never be forgotten. And it should be remembered especially on Veterans Day, a lot of them died. Here's one who's very alive, Heather Elliott. She's the project coordinator for a Veterans organization called The Mission Continues. Welcome to the show, Heather. Thank you so much for having me today. So Monday, what does it mean Monday? It's Veterans Day. There are a lot of Veterans around this country. Some of them had bad times with PTSD like that fellow in California, the Marine, but others have come back to a community that was welcoming and that offered them great careers, great lives, but they stayed together, don't they? You have a bond, a bond of brothers and sisters. That's correct. What's it mean to a Veteran like you? Veterans Day, to me, I remember my family who have served in the military, my brothers and sisters who have either served or are still serving in the military. Just reflection. Yeah, reflection. A reflection. Where did you serve? Tell us about your career in the service. My career in the service, I was in the Army of course. I served. I mean, of course. I was in the Coast Guard. You know, you're supposed to be on the tell, you look like an Army person. Actually, no, I never got that, but I served at Fort Bragg, Fort Campbell, here, Fort Wichuka and in Germany with three combat deployments in Iraq. Those deployments, were they deployments you wanted or that was voiced upon you? Well, I actually volunteered for the first deployment. I thought I was going to Afghanistan and they said, no, your orders are changing. You're going to go stage in Kuwait and we're preparing for Iraq and I was like, oh, okay. Okay, I'm not going to argue that. Right. What was your designator? What did you do in the service? I was military intelligence. I was an imagery analyst. Okay. What kind of training did you get? It was six months of training at Fort Wichuka, map reading, report writing, interpreting imagery, you know, video and still computer type. So these are skills that you could use outside the service too? Absolutely. Yeah. So, six years you had, did you say? Or 12? 12 years. 12 years. Yes. How would you cast your, you know, your experience? Was it good? Did you enjoy it? Did you feel that it, you know, gave you a lifetime benefit? Yes. I did enjoy it and yes, it did give me a lifetime benefit. But, you know, I get asked a question, would I do it all over again? And the answer is always yes. I have no regrets. Yeah. Were you officer enlisted? Enlisted. What rate did you reach? I made it to E6, I was a senior E6, went to the E7 board but then was retired. Well, I tell you, I love the service. Even though I tell you, I really rather have a conscription than a volunteer service. I think the military was a better organization when you had that kind of transparency with the civilian community. Right. And I remember one time I met the guy who was in charge of deconscripting it, you know, of terminating the draft program. Right. You may have done a good job such as they assigned to you but it wasn't a good job as a matter of national policy. Right. And he agreed with me. Anyway, a bottom line is it's backbone of our country. It brings us together, you know, and we have all this contention now, all this polarization. I tell you now that if there had been a draft, more people had served together, brothers and sisters in the military, we wouldn't have so much polarization. They would be together. Right. Both communities would be together. Right. Yeah. Anyway, so it's important that we take care of our veterans. Yes. Because they save us. They save our lives. They save our country. They save our democracy. At the end of the day, you know, we need to have that. We need to be strong. Even if it's just in, you know, in presenting ourselves rather than actually doing violence to anyone. Right. Right. I really would like to talk with you, see, I would like to talk to you about how we do present ourselves, how veterans present themselves, where they fit in the community, where they fit in the global perception. One of the things you and I talked about before the show was Normandy. Right. Was the American Cemetery in Normandy. Right. And you went there. Yes, I did. So tell me about your experience there. My experience, we did a staff ride, my unit in Germany, did a staff ride there and walked along the beaches. And actually one of my coworkers found a set of ID tags from a World War II service member who was there on the beaches in Normandy. And we were, you know, we were like, oh, what do we do? And our guide was like, well, you would know more so, the tags actually got returned to the family. How nice. Yes. It's a closure thing. Right. Right. I went to, you know, it was probably, let's say, five or six years ago. Okay. My wife and I were taking a trip around the perimeter of France and we couldn't not go. We had to go. And we've all seen, you know, I'm sure you had the same experience. We've all seen pictures of all those graves. And you know, it's really a manicured cemetery in there. There's structures there. There's archways and walls and the like that are aesthetic additions to the cemetery. And we've all seen pictures of that, but when you get there. Right. It's extremely humbling and, you know, you're just, you're in the moment and you feel like you're walking in their shoes. Yeah. You're bringing a piece of the past into your present. Takes your breath away. It does. So that's the way we ought to feel. Right. You know, we, we saved the world. We saved ourselves in that war and wars are complicated, but at the end of the day they're going to happen again and again and I'm sorry to say, you know. So let's talk about, let's talk about your organization and mission continues. So veterans have the veterans administration, but you know, there's an issue there about whether the veterans administration is sufficient. Because you know, it's a federal agency. Sometimes it's funded very well. Sometimes it's not. Right. Sometimes it's managed very well. Sometimes it's not. Right. There have been scandals over the years from the, from the beginning I think about how well veterans were being treated. Right. And so you have to fill the pukas. Right. And one of the, one of the ways to fill the pukas is to have organizations of veterans. Yes. That take care of their brothers and sisters. Correct. And that's what you do, right? Yes. That's exactly what we do. Yes. Plus we take care of the communities in which we live. Yes. So tell me about how that works. You are a project coordinator for the mission continues organization, which I guess is national organization of veterans caring for veterans. Yes. And I am actually on at the Oahu level for our service platoon that we have here in Hawaii. Okay. As the project coordinator, what do you do for the mission continues? I seek out different community projects that we might be able to partner with. We have done work at Kaimuki High School for their t-shirt graphics design for in the vocational department. We have veterans or kids in school who might ultimately be in the service. Why? It was a whole group of us. It was the football team. It was a group of veterans from our organization. It was the Kaimuki community. Everybody pulled together to make like the grounds got mowed and taken care of the stairwells of pressure washed and swept and ready for school to begin. We went in and revamped their t-shirt graphic design classroom. So you did volunteer work for the school, for the community. Yes. Why? Why? These, a lot of the children are at risk, you know, and the communities need to see that we stand behind them and with them. You know, we're a partnership. We live here. We want to be involved. That's wonderful. How many of you are there? Well, right now I want to say we have about 60 to 80 platoon members within the Oahu service platoon. We are always looking for more. We have veterans. We have family members and we have community members. So you get together? Yes. And they're, aside from community projects like Kaimuki, you have picnics. I'm sure. Yes. We have socials, social events. We've gone down to Y&I and done stand-up paddle boarding for the day. And then whatever leftover food that we had from our barbeque, there were, you know, there's a homeless encampment there. We took the food around to the beach area and just offered hamburgers and hot dogs, leftover food. Oh, that's the great, great thing. Yeah. Project coordinator, were you compensated or are you a volunteer in that way? I'm a volunteer in that way. You're a complete, total volunteer. Total volunteer. We know about that here at Think Tank. We know how that works. So for our organization, the first step is, you know, just joining the platoon, becoming a platoon member and getting involved in some of the projects. We have social media. We post on there about things that we're doing. And then if you want to go a step further, we have what's called the Leadership Corps. Now what that does for veterans to get them involved, it's an application, an interview process. They go to a, it's like a three-day class where you receive proper training and you meet with peers at the national level. And they, those in the Leadership Corps, receive a stipend for six months. And they do, it's 80 hours of, that's a lot of training actually. Well, 80 hours a month in their community based on what their mission, they need to come up with, this is who I need to work with. Community projects. Right, right. Okay. So that sounds like a pretty active group. I mean, how often do you see each other? On the platoon or the national level? Break it down. Okay. Platoon level. It depends. We see each other at least once or twice a week, if not more depending on what we have going on. At the national level, at least, I want to say, two to three times a year. People stay with it. I mean, it's the kind of thing where a veteran will come out of the service and actually stay around in this organization and mission continues for decades or is it just touch and go? Well, it really depends on the veteran. It really does because what we want to do is, you know, when you get out of the military, you get a handshake, good job, handed your DD 214 and you're on your way. You know, and you're like, well, what do I do? You know, what is next? So what we try to do is we seek those veterans and even on the active duty side of it, this week and next week, I've been active with the Warrior Trial Games up at Schofield Barracks. And what that is, it's 12 of the 14 wounded Warrior Transition Battalions nationwide are here competing. Some of them will be returned to duty and then others will be medically retired. So we try to reach them and say, you still have a mission to continue. Our motto is Charlie Mike, continue mission. Yeah. So you have regular, you do regularly engage with active duty that with the military bases and commands here in Oahu. That's correct. Coming up on Veterans Day, we are actually coordinating with the USO on, within Hickam's terminal to construct a pantry and to do some painting, so, you know, to give back. That's great. That's great. It's a nice thing on every level. We can take a short break, Heather. Okay. And then we come back and I'd like to talk about the engagement of that service member that you talked about. Okay. The hypothetical service member. Right. When it comes out, holding his DD 214. Okay. I want to know how that works. We'll be right back. All right. All right. 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. Hey, Aloha. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii, live from the studios. I'll bring you guests. I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe, your co-workers safe, your family safe, to keep our community safe. We want to teach you about those things in our industry that may be a little outside of your experience. So please join me because security matters. Aloha. Hawaii in uniform, and we're talking about taking a look at Veterans and Veterans Day with Heather Elliott. She's a project coordinator here in Oahu for an organization, which is a national organization called the Mission Continues. So yeah, let's talk about the national operations, the national organization, and activities of the Mission Continues. What's it like, and how do you engage nationally? Okay, so on the national level, once you've become a platoon member, you have an opportunity to submit an application, and we have what's called a mass deployment. The next one this upcoming summer, the last week of June, is going to be in Baltimore, Maryland. The last one that we had last June was at the Watts Community in Los Angeles, California. So you submit an application, it's essays, to fill out your interview and selected to go, and for a week, you work hard and do things to enrich the community in which you're deployed to. Well, that's great. So it's kind of like I should talk, isn't it? Everybody gets a conference, right? Everybody gets together, and they share ideas, they make, what do they do? What's the activity? Well, we go in, we build things, we repaint. It's whatever the community, it's projects, it's the same kind of projects that you do here. Yeah. The Mission Continues do on the mainland. Yes, yes, we, it's working hard, getting your hands dirty, and learning the culture of the community in which you're helping. So tell me about the national organization, based in Washington, who are the people who run it nationally? Nationally, the Home Office is in St. Louis, Missouri, and again, it's veteran based. We have national contributors, we have local contributors. Oh, yeah, I wanted to ask you. So you're supported by contributions from the public, from organizations and individuals around the country, I guess? Yes, yes. One of our largest partners is Wendell Boyer Project. Boeing is a national contributor, Starbucks is a national contributor, and we work with Starbucks here on the local level as well. They come out and do service projects with us. That's great. I imagine that in order to belong to the Mission Continues, I have to be a veteran? Or can I be anyone? You can be a member of the community, or a spouse or family member of a veteran to be a part of it. Okay, and you have that here? We have that here. And why do those people join up? Why? They see what we do for the community. And we also, for the veterans, we offer them a way to adjust after military life and embed themselves in the community in which they live and to continue making a difference. Yeah, so there's a whole ethic in military service. You go into military service and it changes you. First of all, you see the country as your partner in life. You are more than ever a member of the national image, the national persona. And a lot of people go through their whole lives these days, this is why I like the draft. A lot of people go through their lives these days, avoiding the draft, bone spurs, what have you, okay, and they never engage with any national organization, any national military organization. So they don't have that connection. But if you're in the military, by definition, you have that connection. And you have a different way of looking at it. We agree. We agree. Okay, but you also have a different kind of different set of standards of ideals, don't you? Different set of values, because you've been in a structure where people depended on each other, where people really liked each other, where they felt the common bond, the mission and the common bond. Right. Can you talk about that? Well, the army values, and, you know, you live by them, those are your standards. And with the mission continues, we have our own set of values. You know, it's work hard, trust, learn and grow, respect, and have fun. Fun is important. Fun is important. You can have fun while you're working hard. Right. And you can have fun with others that you like. And trust and respect, you know, we want to earn the trust of the community, and we want to have the trust and respect from one another, you know, and the community, they, you know, people can say, oh, we can do this and we can do that. We don't want to make promises that we can't keep. Right. And so we earn that respect. And we deliver what we say we can do. You bring the same values that you learned and enjoyed in the service into your civilian life is what it is. Yes. Yes. And then you put them to the benefit of the community, which is an act of patriotism as far as I can see. And so the question is, so here I have my DD 214, which is a very important piece of paper. Yes. It defines my life in many ways, both before and after the service. And so I have it, and I walk out, walk down the street here and walk out the gate of the base, so to speak. Right, right. What kind of treatment am I going to get, here or elsewhere? Well, you're lost for a little while. You're like, who am I? And you know, the treatment, it varies, you know, and organizations like ourselves, the mission continues. We want them. We try to catch them before they're receiving that DD 214. Then that way, they're already a part of us, and they have something that we have active duty that will, once they get out, they're going home. And we can put them in contact with their prospective platoon leaders, or they're going home too, so that they can still be engaged with them. Because nobody understands a veteran as well as another veteran. Right, right. We don't want anyone left behind. Yeah, that's the, and I do want to, in these remaining few minutes, I do want to discuss with you that possibility, that risk of remaining behind, because you have a gap between walking out the base with the DD 214 and seeing a pretty threatening community out there that you feel you may not be prepared for. When I was in the service, they asked me to counsel senior officers about how it was after they retired. And a lot of them were very fearful and feel they were prepared for the civilian world. And so I guess that still happens, and that happens with everybody. Every day, all day. So in the worst case analysis, you have PTSD from a war situation, or an environment, and you also have the fear of not being up to the demands of the civilian community. Right. And then what happens to you? You're in that gap, that empty space. What happens to you? Well, you can, an individual can get lost in that, and that's, you know, one thing that we try to do, like even for myself, we try to network with other veteran organizations, and we try to help fill those gaps, find those voids, and reach out to those veterans. And this is who we are, this is what we do. You know, come see, come see it for yourself. Research us, you know, see if this is something for you. And nine times out of ten, we pick that member up. Yeah, that's great. That's great to hear that you can succeed in softening, softening the experience. Right. You're looking at your notes. You probably want to say something that is on your list of things that you need to say. Go for it. It is. Well, we were discussing the national level, and we have one that's called HERMISSION, and it's a women's summit. And applications are open for that right now, but something that I want to talk about is within the mission continues and female veterans, 94 percent of women feel more connected based on the 19 percent who were just part of the civilian community. And of that, 94 percent, you know, 90 percent of them have a higher purpose. So the numbers within our organization, based on just if they were in the civilian sector along, are drastic. It's below 20 percent. What's a higher purpose, Heather? A higher purpose. It means that we still have something to give. We learned what we learned in the military. We knew our purpose there. Our higher purpose being part of the veteran-based organization and serving in the community. That's our purpose. You feel that. And teaching the youth. You're doing that. I'm doing that. That's your higher purpose. Yes. Working alongside the next generation and hopefully make them stronger and better. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, on Veteran's Day, we ought to think about those people come out of the service and also who remain in the service and how you ought to feel about them. How we ought to treat them. We ought to make sure the Veteran's Administration is taken care of them. Yes. We ought to support, you know, your organization, the mission continues. And when you come for a job, when you come for some integration into the community, we welcome you with open arms. That's right. You are us. Thank you. Thank you, Heather. Thank you. Thank you for having me today.