 This is a program that's going to be bringing the information about what's happening in the veterans and military community. For those of you who may be familiar with me, I've been on a couple of different mediums and one of the things was my piece here. One of the things that I try to do and I try to make abundantly clear to the public is that any program that I hold, if there's any information that we provide either myself or my guests, that you may feel that is an error, they think there's a contact number that you can contact here and, you know, express yourself anyhow. But here we're trying to be informative, not inflammatory. There's a lot of things we will be talking about that we have a lot of good people in the military and veterans community who may not be aware of some of the programs that's available to them and some of the organizations. Like this morning we have my in-studio guest, Mr. John Ebert, who is the past national president for the Fleet Reserve Association and also a member of branch 46. And also we'll be talking to Mr. Don Larson, who is the current national president for the Fleet Reserve Association. And right now I want to introduce to the program Mr. John Ebert. And John, thanks for joining us on the program. It's my honor to be here. Thank you for having me. Good. Could you tell our viewers and our listeners some of the things that you're past. I know that you were the past national president for the Fleet Reserve Association. Oh, okay. And could you tell us a little bit about the organization and its mission before we talk to Don? Okay. Well, my name is John Ebert, as it's been already stated. Retired from the Navy in 1986 and the Fleet Reserve Association is another way for me to serve the military and serve their families. The Fleet Reserve Association, which I've been a member for 30 years now, is a military service organization and we have a strong advocate on Capitol Hill for elected representatives and we represent the enlisted portions of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, both the reserve, retired, and active duty components of them. As a member of branch 46, we have a lot of things going on, but maybe we can talk about that a little later. But as far as I'm concerned, this has been my passion for the last 30 years and I always do whatever I can to promote the Fleet Reserve Association. We've done a lot politically over the years. My involvement when I was national president 2014-2015 is I got to meet with Vice President Joe Biden on Capitol Hill for a breakfast on Veterans Day. I met with the Secretary of the Veterans Administration, Secretary McDonald, and other members of our staff in Washington speak daily to our congressional representatives in Congress to promote issues concerning enlisted sea service personnel. I think a lot of things. Over here, we have more than 120,000 guaranteed veterans here in the state of Hawaii who may not or are not aware fully of something like the Fleet Reserve or some of the organizations. As you mentioned, as far as with the different groups, they do go to Washington to represent the interests of the veterans and also address certain issues concerning our active duty people because one day they're going to be veterans also. Like I said, I learned the longer I've been out here, the more I learned about the organizations. I'm really impressed with some of the dedication of individuals like yourself and we have a lot of unsung heroes like say within the veterans community, you know, that help to do what they can. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. I tell you, right now I want to introduce to the program is the Don Larson who's a current national president for the Fleet Reserve Association. And Mr. Larson, thank you for joining us. May I call you Don? You may. Please. Thank you so much. Yes. I'm Don Larson and I'm down here in Corpus Christi, Texas. Howdy. Hola from Southern Texas, a little chilly day down here, but yes, I'm the national president this year and it's a great honor to be part of the Veterans Association, especially the Fleet Reserve Association. Right. I feel like many from your listening audience this morning, I belong to several veterans associations, about seven all together, and I'm active in three of them presently. Obviously very active in the Fleet Reserve Association, but it's the veterans associations that are the voice on Capitol Hill for the veterans, their families, the active duty personnel. For the most part, I know we'll have a discussion here, but for the most part, less than one in four of our congressmen ever served their country and several of those, no disrespect, they were, that our veterans were in serves, and they didn't quite, not disrespect anyone, they didn't go through what a lot of the active duty veterans went through themselves as far as deployments, time away, coming back from a deployment, having their son or their daughter hiding behind their spouses backside because they didn't recognize their father or their mother. You can't imagine how heartbreaking that is for your own child to be afraid of you, and it's the veterans that had you put in a full day on the ship at their command at their post and then do the part-time job that night to help bring money to the family. That's the veterans associations that educate Congress, tell them what it's like, why they need to push the bills, and why they're pushing these bills for our military. Yeah. Thank you. I think that with the, as you mentioned, like I said, there's very few relative, compared to past generations, there's not that many elected officials who have served anyhow. And I know that even with the general public, like, was it two percent or the population serves in the military right now or has any type of connection with the military, is that correct or am I incorrect about that? Your spot on. Okay. Because I think that, yeah, it's one of the things, as far as it seemed like a disconnect, a lot of people think that people in the military are living high on the hog, as far as with their benefits and everything else, but there's a lot of issues that come up that the public is not really aware of that. I know that you and John and a lot of the people are trying to make our elected officials aware of, but also I think it's also incumbent upon the public to take upon themselves also to learn about what's happening with our military because these other people, the men and women who serve our country, a lot of them are not, they're not in it for the, you know, for the accolades or for the money or as they, a lot of people are misinformed about the big benefits and all that, but they're there to serve their country. And I mean, they actively, I mean, we hear all kinds of stories about people who gave up different lucrative careers to serve their country. And I think that, you know, we as members, of course, of the veterans community and also the general public need to make sure that our elected officials hold, we hold their feet to the fire to make sure that all the benefits and rights that these people have earned are given and not taken away. And I don't want you to correct me on either point that I missed her. Good job, Calvin. One thing that a lot of another going along with what you said, what people don't understand is it may seem lucrative. Some of the pay and allowances they're getting now, which believe me is below what comparable civil service person might get. But when you spend a year away from your family, like I did when I was in Vietnam and others now in desert in the in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places where it's two and three deployments about six to eight months each. That's something you can't quantify. But it is a sacrifice they make. And a lot of them go back more than just once. And it says a lot for their character and their patriotism. Yeah. Don, I know that with each new administration, everybody brings something personal to the table that they have or that they're concerned about as a national president with your tenure. What are some of the things that you're going to zero in that, you know, are really close to your heart or that you've been made aware of by your association with the members on the local levels? Local levels on a national level, first of all, if I may, is that we're concerned. We've been in the concern for many years now, and it's not just our associations, all the associations. And it's a lot of the public associations and gatherings as well as the lack of membership, the peace membership. That's our primary concern. And because with that, it's it's like Christmas season, just being, well, not Christmas season, but we're losing our voice. And with that, there's no little Dr. Seuss Fabe with Horton. Here's a who and it's that little Susie. The Fabe, it's not saying that we are here. We are here and the wards not getting out. We're not getting out. And that's the veterans associations were to Congress, to Capitol Hill is not getting out. We are here. We're putting our lives on the line. We're committing ourselves to our country and our fellow citizens, and we need support. We need support for ourselves. We need support for our military, our equipment, beans, bolts and band-aids that we need to complete our mission. And with that, we need support for our family who you've left behind as as John stated. Yeah, yeah, increasing membership. Yeah, yeah, I can think because, you know, with the membership, it seems that, yeah, it's just suddenly and overall, you know, and of course, like, we're all trying to work to, you know, get more people into the organizations, make them aware of what's happening. But also, you know, like I said, besides what's happening with the with the veterans and, of course, the active duty people, the one thing that a lot of people fail to realize is that the dedication and the sacrifices that the dependents make, you know, in support of the of the troops, you know, and, you know, active duty-wise, and like I say, on the civilian side, I mean, with the veterans community, of course, we have a lot of issues of being going on with the VA that the more we talk about it, seems there's more things that develop. And, you know, I think, again, like I say, it takes some public awareness, like I say, to put pressure on those who are in power or have the influence to make sure, like I say, to all these different that are people taking care of, you know, because again, these people, you know, they're not asking for anything in the majority of the time. When you talk to a veteran, no matter how bad off they are, the majority of them will say, well, look, why don't you help out another veteran, you know, or help out my battle buddy, something like that, you know. But what is... Kelvin, if I may, you're spot on with that. You are spot on with that. The misconception of the Fleet Reserve Association is that with our active duty and our is that you must be retired to have retired from the military and transferred into the Fleet Reserve to be a member, and that's entirely incorrect. Back in 1924, a bunch of our chiefs and senior enlisted personnel went to Congress. We got Congress to recognize the Fleet Reserve Association desired or want as far as enhancing the benefits of the then enlisted male sailor. And to go forward, our primary purpose is to keep our men and women in the sea services in uniform, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. And of course, any benefits that we get through Congress go through to all the Air Force, the Army personnel and the officers as well. But it's to keep them in uniform so that they have benefits to after they retire, after 20 years in the service, 20, 30 years in the service. And with that is that we're educating, we're trying to get the bills passed. As you mentioned, as far as the veterans saying, I don't need that, give it to another veteran, that's one of our problems we're facing, too, with the VA. We're all very aware of that. There's a lot of problems going on with the VA. There's a lot of great things with a lot of outstanding things the VA does for our service members and their families also. But a lot of our veterans say, well, I'm not going to sign up for VA Health there because I have my tricare or I'm a teacher. I have my teachers' insurance. I have firefighters' insurance. I have some other kind of insurance policy. But that's fine and dandy, but we still need these numbers. It's all about numbers. We still need those veterans to sign up, enroll in VA health care so that the VA sees the need for the veterans. Come in once a year and get a flu shot. But the more people that are signed up and enrolled, the more money that is put into the program for health care, for doctors, for buildings, for research, for people. Go ahead. Yeah. There's one that I mentioned in the video as far as getting people signed up. I think actually some people here may be better off than some other veterans or whatever. But they just say, they'll be able to say, and use it or lose it. And I encourage people who have benefits or are entitled to them, go sign up for them. I mean, even if you don't want to use them, at least they're aware of the numbers that's out there and the possibility because sometime in the future, anything could change where you may need the services, you may not be able to afford it or whatever. So by being in the system, it does something to recognize, like I said, the numbers is out there. One other thing I wanted to touch on also, we have of course our female military personnel active in the veterans. Is there anything that you see any changes coming about because there's some very unique issues related to our female service members and veterans? Are you or the organization or organization in total trying to do something to make more of awareness? I'm like saying something positive that's going to help our female personnel. John, you want to answer that one? Okay, thank you. Okay, we're going to take a short break, I guess and we'll be right back. Hi, I'm Stan Enigaman and I want you to be here every Friday. Noon, thinktechhawaii.com. Watch the show. Be there. I pity the fool who ain't. Hi, I'm Jay Fidel, that's Ted Ralston. You know, Ted is the host of Where the Road Leads. It shows every Friday from four to five PM. It's about technology. It's about how people collaborating and solve problems with modern technology. It's where the road leads. We all know that. We should all be listening. Join us there, four to five PM every Friday. Now, what about that you agree with all of it? I knew we'd say that, aloha. Say aloha, aloha, good. Aloha, my name is Danelia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman, welcome. We are co-hosts of a show called Keys to Success which is live on the Thinktech Live Network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 AM. We're looking forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Okay, and you're back with Hawaii Uniform and again, my host, I mean, I'm host Calvin Griffith at this point right now. And my guest, John Ibrick, Pat, the former president of the National President for the Fleet Reserve and Mr. Don Larson who's the current president for the Fleet. Okay, we're gonna continue our conversation as I brought up about our female veterans and military personnel. John, you had a comment on that? Yes, several years ago, I might be dating myself maybe 20 years ago, the thought of having a female in the Fleet Reserve Association or on submarines or even combatant ships was unheard of. But it's happening, it's happening. It's quite routine now for surface ships and they're just now allowing females onto submarines. It's happening, it's gonna happen, it's a fact of life. And as far as the FRA is concerned, there was a reluctance initially to put, have females be members of the Fleet Reserve Association considered a good old boys' club. But a lot of us said, no, that's not the way it is. In fact, we were instrumental in having one of the first female presidents of a local branch back in I think it was 1994 or somewhere thereabouts. And the way we try to promote females is to lift them up and make them more inclusive in what we do and they have a voice in how we do things. And they've been very instrumental in that. We've had a number of females over the past several years that's filled major leadership roles at the regional and local levels. And we certainly are proud of all our shipmates, male or female. Yeah, like I said, a lot of very dedicated female, I mean, females that are out there to do with their thing. I mean, it's been going on for the history of the US military in our country. They didn't have the recognition that they needed. And nowadays, of course, with so many political things going on, we don't want to get into that right now, but at some point we're in future programs anyhow. But politics aside, it's not a social experiment. These are people, these are individuals who happen to be a female persuasion that really want to do something for their country. And we need to do the best we can, of course, to make sure that their rights and interests, unique, are properly addressed. Don, is there anything on Horizon? What's new on Horizon overall, like say with the organization, or something you want to impart to us? Well, overall, as I mentioned, Calvin, is the membership without the voice. It's hard to move forward. We need that for the mobility. Okay, I know we're also getting a little bit down to the wire anyhow, but I want to zero in right now on Branch 46, the local fleet reserve association. I know that there's a different foot right now to go ahead and I guess to say to save the branch. Could you tell us a little bit about that and how the public or the, not only the veterans, but the public in general could help out. Right, first of all, our branch is located at the corner of Valkenburg in Nimitz, 891, Valkenburg. And we've been there since 1988. The Navy leased us to land and we built a permanent residence on it. It cost a million dollars. We were able to raise the money then, but we had a lot more members then. Three years ago, approximately three years now, maybe it's three and a half. The Navy decided, and our lease is up, they decided that the land was excess and they wanted to get rid of it. They gave us, so they were gonna sell it and they gave us first right to refuse. So we're in the campaign right now to try to raise money to keep our branch. The Navy won $650, $1,000 for the land, which is reasonable. An acre on Nimitz in that area. Yeah, it's very reasonable. However, we are a grassroots organization that doesn't have a lot of rich people in it and so far we've only been able to raise around $250,000, so we're short. So our land acquisition committee is in the process now of coming up with more and more fundraisers and collaborating with national headquarters to involve other regional presidents of the FLRA to see what they can do monetarily. Businesses in the area, the Holy Family Catholic Church has offered to help us out. But still, we're far short of our goal and we only have a year and two months left to make that goal. So any help anybody can give us either through your knowledge of marketing or financially or any other way, volunteer to help with fundraisers. Just contact me at 371-684-3 and I'd really appreciate it. 808-371-6843. Okay, Don, speaking of what the branches what they're going through here across the country, there are other branches, excuse me, that are going through similar problems or because of lack of awareness about the global situation. VFRRA like American Legion, like the VFW, like the other branch associations. Yes, a lot are going through the same problems or the mean age of the veterans, people in the Veteran Association right now is in the 80s. The younger, the older shipmates, they're tired, they're worn out, they've been doing this for many years and younger veterans aren't getting involved with this. So the branches are having to shut down just because they cannot continue to do business without that younger veteran. So yes, it's not just money, but it's manpower, it's someone to do the job, to do the position. I'd like to invite your listeners to look at our website and it's the old www.frra.org, that's frra.org. They can find more information of the association on there. There's an adversary where they can go in there to see the girls that are going before Capitol Hill. I'm gonna guess that a lot of your listeners have no idea who their congressmen, congresswomen are. This will help them identify who they need to contact for bills. Yeah, okay. Yeah, because one of the things I noticed that, excuse me, with the fleet locally, the people that gather there, come through there, these people are very community-minded and a lot of people may not be aware of, like say the extent that veterans get involved in local organizations, helping to support the general population because one thing is about the service, giving back, because when they take the uniforms off, that spirit or that sense of wanting to give back doesn't end, you know? And I think that's one thing that a lot of people don't realize how fortunate they are when they do have veterans in the community, you know, that because of their past experiences in other countries and everything else, they have a reference point in dealing with certain social and economic things that are deprivation that they've seen in other countries. And it's like, you come home and you wanna give back, you know? And again, a lot of people, and again, they go unsung, they're gonna go unnoticed because many of them do not want to be recognized, you know? But at some point, you know, it doesn't hurt, you know, like say to acknowledge that they are a veteran or, you know, you walk up and say thank you, but the veterans have a major impact in our communities, you know? Not in a very positive way. We hear about a lot of the, some of the negative things that happen with the homelessness and things of that nature, but again, that's a different subject matter to talk about. But overall, when they do come back, they do have that spirit, they maintain that spirit of giving and patriotism that they try to impart to the children and the community. And they do it, they walk the walk and they talk to talk. Absolutely, yeah. And I believe, Calvin, too, you'll find that before your firemen, your placement, your volunteers, the civil servants, you'll find that a lot of these men, women, are part of military, you are spot on. All right, okay. Calvin, if I may, I forgot to mention, I mentioned my phone number, but we also have a local website. It's called www.frabranch46.org. And that also has a donation page and other information about our situation. www.frabranchbranch46.org. Thank you. All right. Now, I think we're going to be down to about 20 seconds in the hell. Any final messages in 20 seconds or less. Now, I just want to thank you for this. And I just want to thank all the veterans. And as you mentioned earlier, I want to really want to thank all the veterans, the spouses for all you did to keep the home fires burning so that your husband and your wife can go out there and take care of the country and do their job. Thank you for taking care of the home and the family. God bless y'all. Okay, President Larson, Don and John, thanks for joining me on the program. And I want to thank the viewers for tuning in and hopefully in the future, we'll bring some more programs that will be informative and beneficial not only to the veterans and military of our community, but also the community in general. And I'm glad I have the opportunity to be here.