 Hey, hello everybody. It's Brian Lead with DAV, coming to you again from my home office in my basement of my house in Northern Kentucky. And today I have a very special guest that I'm going to introduce to you. He's a DAV past national commander. He's been chairman of the board of directors for DAV. And he's also been a veteran of the year in his home state of Texas on two occasions. And if I have my factory, the outside also has a elementary school now in his home state of Texas named after him. And that's the past national commander, Bobby Barrera. Bobby, thank you very much for your time today. First and foremost, how are you doing? How is your family? We are doing well. And in fact, in the middle of this crisis, we're going with a personal crisis with my mom. She's almost 98 years old. And my sister who generally cares for her had hip reclation. So now me and my brother are the backup. So this is my week off. And then Sunday, I go back and my brother goes back to his town. So we're handling it well. And we have lots of support from other family members, which makes it certainly much easier to deal with. No, good. I'm sorry to hear that, obviously, about your mom. I'm glad you guys are able to be around and try to help her as much as you can. And obviously, we're all thinking of her and sending her our best wishes. So best of luck with that. Thank you so much. I'm much appreciated. No, of course. I failed to mention in my intro, but Bobby is a Vietnam veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He'll simplify and move off. You have to fly. Would you like to tell our audience at all about the injuries you sustained in Vietnam before you move forward here? Okay. Let me briefly mention that I was in my sixth week of dating Vietnam. And we were going out on a mission that intelligence could plan. And we were at the tomboy of tracks and we hit a 500-ton bomb that was rigged as a landmine. And when we took out from the staging area, I was in track three with two and one, two in the back. So I felt kind of secure. But what I didn't realize when I first known it on the track was that I had the Marine Corps top sniper, gunnery sergeant Carlos Hathcock, riding in the same track. And gunnery sergeant Hathcock had a $30,000 bounty on his head to whether he put him out of condition. At that point, he had 93 confirmed kills. So they were after him, they got us. We grew up. All of us that survived and we're all taken back to the United States and continue with different careers. Wow. Wow. There's a lot to unpack there. I would love to discuss that more. But first and foremost, you know, we're glad you're okay, obviously, and all that you've done since and all the lives you've impacted. Welcome home. And also, thank you for your service. And that's, that's a mindboggler one there. Any Marine knows that's night for well. And just glad you're here and able to spend some time with us here today. You know, with that in mind, obviously, we're going through some unprecedented times, we're all kind of dealing with this COVID-19 sort of unprecedented. And as you've kind of touched on with some of the injuries you sustained, but you know, many veterans are whether it's TBI PTSD or other ailments, being isolated at home is not the ideal situation. Not for that. And I'm wondering, you know, how you dealt with it. Do you have any examples of things you've done? And do you have any advice for veterans to try to help them kind of get out of their bubble a little bit stay as normal as possible? Yeah, I think the first idea that has to be grasped by all of us, whether you're a veteran or not staying at home with all this isolation, is that because we're separated physically, doesn't mean that we need to be separated emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. In fact, it's more of a time to stay together to stay connected, whether it's social or, or like one of my neighbors lives across the street, I was outside yesterday, he's on the outside and from his side of the street to mine, how's it going? Do you need any help? Those are the kinds of things that we need. Whether you're a veteran or not, the fact that we're isolated, that we're separated, we need to stay connected. And I think that is the first step is we can accept that and we can work on it and work on it together, because you can be together and be isolated without having that connection. We need to stay connected. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't have said it any better. It's part of the human condition, wanting that human interaction. And like you said, it's more important now than ever, it can be easy, I think, to kind of be reclusive in situations like this, especially if you're somebody that might be battling anxiety or depression, or maybe you have social anxiety, or all this even started, it might be easy to go into that show. But I think you just hit a home run with that. People do need to push through that the best they can. And part of the reason we're liking to do these videos is one, to get as many perspectives as we can, but to encourage other people that are watching these, to do things just like this, to call veterans. And as you pointed out, you don't have to be a veteran to do that. Make a phone call, check in on them, see how they're doing. Don't let them become reclusive and retreat into their own corner. I'm glad to hear about some of your stuff with your neighbors. Anything else that you would want to tell a veteran as far as your advice and through your experience to push through this current situation? Yeah, I think I mentioned at the beginning, accepting the fact that we were separated physically, but not emotionally. And I think that's what carries me and I hope and I would almost that that carries all of us who are isolated. You mentioned PTSD as one and that's certainly a factor. They are sometimes isolated even within the family. They isolate themselves and because more difficult. So I think having that support system becomes critical. I think it's doubly important that now that we are separated physically that we need to develop some kind of support system. And as a PTSD individual myself, I understand that it's difficult sometimes to accept help. And I think the key step and you mentioned the body check system. And I think that is a key to surviving to older coming to live through this difficult time with this virus that's going on. And I think a simple phone call. In fact, a couple of days ago, I got a phone call from a fellow veteran. He's a Vietnam veteran as well. He lives 80 miles from San Antonio from from my home. But once a week, I get a phone call. And Alex says, are you doing okay? We share stories, we share concerns of other individuals. And that's what I mean by having that support system being there for each other. I have a group. There's a group of those some of us are veterans and some are not. That we we used to go out and can't do it any longer. We used to go out. Every Friday we have breakfast together. Start out the day at seven in the morning and enjoy the camaraderie and the friendship that we have. Well, now that we can go out for breakfast, we still stay connected. Do we share text? I got a funny cartoon from my sister yesterday. And immediately what did I do? I share it out to the others and they all say keep them coming. We keep we need to maintain that that sort of sanity that will allow us to survive. And whether it's a joke, a vital piece of information that we need to share with each other, a simple thing as a phone call and saying hey, like my friend did. The I mentioned at the beginning how I got injured. One of the individuals who shared that 500 pound bond with me, it was a captain Highland. He was an intelligence officer. And he and I have stayed in contact. And once a week, I either mail him in texting, or he texted me how's it going? He knows what we're going to do with my mom and a little extra. Making sure that that I'm not alone. Making sure that we're in this together. And that to me is critical, Brian, because if we don't have the support of each other and we don't have the compassion of each other, if we don't have the time to send a text to send an email to send a phone call, a little short note, this all it takes. Kelly, I care about you. I love you. I'm concerned. And together we will survive. Yeah, Bobby, thank you very much for sharing that I think you're dead on. And for those of you that are watching, if you're looking for ways to get involved and kind of take some of the advice that Bobby is giving, it not only could be life saving, but it could be life changing. And we have during our DAV Centennial, we do have a volunteer initiative called 100 acts of honor. We are considering these phone calls to veterans, whether you're a veteran yourself or you know a veteran in your family or you have a friend that's a veteran, even if it's a friend of a friend that knows a veteran, please try to track down that phone number, give them a call, see how they're doing. You can post it on your favorite social media platform, you can tag DAV with the hashtag 100 acts of honor, we're trying to highlight that story and let people know about your efforts. Bobby, I think I've taken enough of your time for now. I really appreciate it. I will be bugging you. I'm sure in the near future. Hey, I'm here to help anytime. I mentioned the word compassion and to me, the DAV and its memberships have that compassion. They know they've lived it, they've experienced it. So now we want to share it with each other and that's the bottom line. No, amen. Bobby, thank you for everything you've done. Thank you for your service and a lot of that compassion that you talked about with DAV came from your service in the organization. So thank you very much. I appreciate your time today. And like I said, I'll be reaching out sooner than later and I'll be bugging you for more. I'll be here to simplify our simplify.