 Welcome to another edition of Military in Uniform, here in the fight. And my host, Calvin Griffith, I forgot my own name. Anyhow, for those of you who may not seen the program before, here we talk about what's happening with the veterans in the military community. A little bit later in the program, we're going to be talking with Kim and Leah Lavelle. They have an operation dealing with wound care that's really revolutionary. They're trying to get into the VA system. And we'll give you an update on what's happening. But today, what we're going to do, we're going to be talking with Jeremy, who's a former military member. And I want to welcome you to the program. Thank you, Calvin. Great to be here. Aloha. Konichiwa. Buenos dias. I see your multilingual. Well, you know, you got to be these days. You got to get around and do some things with what little time we have here. That's for sure. A little bit about yourself. Like I said, your previous military, Marine. My military service started in August 1995. It was with the U.S. Army. It has a 91 Alpha, which is Biomedical Equipment Technician and Medic. I left the military. I left the Army in January of 1999, joined the United States Navy, active duty as a fire controlment, ages computer weapons technician. And then I went back to the Army after 9-11, after an incident, which I was involved in a motorcycle wreck. I went back to the Army as a civil affairs specialist, doing cultural area analysts for the civil affairs airborne brigade. You did a couple combat tours? Yes. I did one combat tour with the Navy. I was deployed to the Northern, what we call the NAG, the Northern Arabian Gulf. After the attack on the USS Cole, I was on the sister ship, which is, my sister ship is in the news right now, which was the USS Cheryl DDG-62. We always hear about what's happening with the veterans and other related issues with their active duty. As far as the dialogue that you hear, what do you think is good? Is there an honest dialogue that's going on concerning the veterans and the military right now? I think the majority of honest dialogue is being done at the lower levels. Okay, what we're talking about? We're talking about your regular soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines that are sitting around having conversations at picnics, barbecues, day in and day out conversations, where I think maybe one of the major disconnects, in which the VA and the Veterans Administration has at least attempting some form of outreach through their surveys, maybe the disconnect is the higher up branching, where they've kind of stepped back and, at now, they've kind of stepped back and just like, well, let's send out some surveys and see what they say. Yeah, well, let's stick a finger in the wind and see how it flies anyhow. There's one of the things that I talk about here in the program is some issues that make some people in the higher up uncomfortable. Because in the past programs, we talked about birth defects in the military. Also, the DD 214s usually would see codes, things of that nature. And it seems, you know, it really, we see it reflected sometime in a lack of services. I guess some good stuff out there, but we all know we've heard of instances of suicides, things of that nature that, you know, affect the family members of the veterans in the military that aren't actively talked about. It seems like every time there's something that hits the news that they can't control, then there's some new program that comes up where we're taking proactive steps. And then after it fades away, then we're back to business as usual, as far as not really addressing the real issues that concern a lot of military and veterans. You know, with your personal experience, because I don't want to sit here and say, you know, trying to beat up on the VA, because there's so many hard stories going on. But with your experiences with the VA, how has it been overall? My experience with the VA has had its ups and downs. I was actually turned away from the VA initially. This is prior to the institution or the verbiage being used of PTSD. This is prior to 9-11. Shortly after I left the airborne in 2006 from a unit in Jackson, Mississippi, I had some issues with the VA. A lot of them dealt with claims. It took almost five years to finally actually get something on paper. Some of it was PTSD related, some of it was physically related. And even that in and of itself took some time. Yeah, that's the problem that seems to be prevalent where getting back to the code, you mentioned PTSD. Nowadays it seems they have so many different syndromes. They got one in particular called the immature personality development, something like that, where they're discouraging people who, you know, one instance I know of, where a gentleman has spent three combat tours. When he came back, it's like, oh, you know, we found out that you're not mature enough for the military, you know, and lost most of his benefits, you know, we've got it. And all these different things that, you know, they're not talking about, and it makes a lot of military members wonder and are concerned for their future, is this going to happen to me, you know? And I know we talked offline and we talked to different, you know, service members out there, and there's a major concern, like say that am I next on the chopping block, you know? And a lot of people in the vegan side, the only thing they hear about, you know, is high pay and everything else, but not everybody in the military or, you know, veterans are suffering, but there's too many that are who have fallen through the cracks. And, again, the dialogue doesn't seem to be there, and that disconnects with the people who are making the policies and who those are being affected by it. And again, it translates into all kind of, you know, social ills, you know, because if the military or the VA is not taking care of the veterans, then when they go back to the communities, then they become sort of a burden on, you know, the taxpayers in a different way. So it's just been shifted from one, you know, dynamic to another as far as with the services. And any comments on that? Well, the main comment and concern that I have is, you know, we've been at war since August 1990. And if you look at any VA document pamphlet, it'll state the criteria to be considered a veteran. You had to serve at a time of war, and then it'll give you the dates of those wars. It'll tell you if you served from World War II from this state to this state, if you served in Vietnam from this state to this state. And currently, the VA pamphlet will show you that the Persian Gulf War, August 1990 to a date yet to be set by presidential decree or congressional or whatever have you. So my main concern is from August 1995 to current date today and moving forward without an end in sight, we're talking about a lot of veterans, a lot of veterans. And I can train or be trained or you can be trained as you were. And any individual can be trained to a certain level to perform a certain task. In the military, it is easier to train you to do the job than it is to prepare you for it. Because you can't get prepared until you actually do it. Now, once you actually do it, and we've talked about the individual that was identified with the immature, you can't do three combat tours and be unqualified. That should have been handled early. And that's one of the things that's on the military side of the house. How do you sit there and say, well, we're going to screen for this syndrome. With PTSD, especially with post-traumatic stress disorder, some of these instances and ailments don't even show up until after some type of event. So they could be latent, we could all have it. It could be a certain mental structure, foundation, how we go about our thinking process of how we relate to an event. How do I relate to you as a veteran? How do I relate to you as a man? How do I relate to you as a friend? If something was to happen, that might change that. There's nothing saying that that can't happen and it doesn't happen or it does happen within a military setting. But the VA, going back to the VA's part of it, they're just now getting an understanding of there are different degrees to this. But identifying different syndromes and saying, oh, well, you had this beforehand, that's not going to fly. I think that, I mean, from what I see, it's like they make it up as they go along. And you're being in no wonder, what is the rationale behind it? Is it to cost-cutting savings where when you go ahead and dump a lot of people out of the military, then you don't have to pay them? Because there's so many different agencies or levels in the government. What being counter is sitting where determining who's going to get what, when and how much? Because it does affect the families in a major way. We both know, I'm quite sure with your experiences, the people we've talked to. Again, it reflects with the suicides, the divorces, and it's not only with the individuals who are actively serving in uniform, it has a major impact on the dependents. There's one thing I mentioned a couple of shows back in 2013, something like that. We had more suicide with dependents here in the state of Hawaii than we lost combat troops worldwide. And you don't hear about things like that as just the tip of the iceberg, you know, where all these different things, and again, it's about the dialogue. What I see for the most part, and my opinion, you can please disagree if you feel like, is that we have people who are charged or asked for the responsibility of representing the veterans, whether they're locally or on a national level. And then when they don't perform a new standard or the mission that they set for themselves, then it rolls back on those individuals who are unreceiving and of all these policies, you know. And that's what disappoints me, you know, that we do have quite a few people, there's quite a few people who are dedicated, but there are people who are in positions of, again, responsibility who ask to be there, who want to play the political game, who are not willing to be forthright and open and address the issues that concern a lot of veterans, because when you're out there and you're hurting and you turn around and you expect somebody to be there for you, and then at some point you say, what's going on? By myself, I'm out here alone, you know. And that wears on an individual when you know that you served your country in an honorable way and they're not living up to the promises that they had prescribed. If they came out and said, okay, look, we don't have any money, whatever it is, you know, there'll be a lot of veterans out there who say, okay, I understand, you know, but just don't jerk me around, you know, and that's what I see, you know. Well, actually, I concur with you 100% on that topic. A lot of my generation, which is the ex-generation, and now the millennials are picking up from where we left off, especially with this war. The ex-generation, you know, most of us were raised by our grandparents in certain settings in a lot of war, two veterans, and then our parents were the Vietnam veterans. Through my matriculation through the military, I saw a lot and experienced a lot of different genres of veterans and what they were saying to me over and over and over and over again until it kind of just imprinted upon my psyche was that at the end of the day, as veterans, we're going to have to look out for each other. Don't sit there and rely on the, not so much the government, but the administration under the government that's been tasked with making sure that we are okay. Don't always rely on these individuals, you know, but what we have to do is we have to be solid. We have to be as a group and we have to be on our, basically on our P's and Q's. We need to know exactly what we're doing and then moving forward on a particular issue. Case in point, the blue water or brown water veterans. Another case in point is the Agent Orange veterans from the Marines in Parris Island where they were exposed during the formulation and creation of the chemicals. We need to, hey, if you're a vet in Parris Island, if you're a vet in Minnesota, you know, and we have the technology available to us that we can all at least be on some sort of sheet of music, which is a term that we love to use, and sit there and say, all right, well, what are you doing? Where are you at on this? Down in Alabama, where are you at on this? California, where are you at on this? And actually have an ingrained and grass root movement. And this falls back on what you talked about, community involvement. Where are our community involvement towards the veterans? We're going to leave the VA out of this for a minute. Where are we helping each other? Yeah, that's the thing. As you mentioned, you know, being on the same sheet of music, you know, we have certain government entities want us to dance to a certain tune, you know, and getting back, you know, you're absolutely right. Whereas far as getting the involvement of the veterans, because there's so many different programs that have been proposed to help the veterans or help them, you know, supposedly help themselves. But then it seems like when you get to a certain point, when it started looking like it may be productive, and they feel that they're losing control, it's like we got to stop this thing, you know, and that's the problem I see with, you know, you're right. We need the grassroots involvement, you know, because for whatever reason, whatever shortcomings the government entity has who are charged with looking out for the vets, if they're not doing their job, and you and I can get together and we can exchange information that's going to augment what's not being provided to us, you know, that's what we need to do. Instead of sitting around waiting for determination from someone out there in the cloud, you know, trying to determine our fate and the fate of our families. Because, again, it gets back to the fact, you know, as far as recruitment and even national security, if you have someone that comes back to the neighborhood and family or friends, they want to look. You get screwed over, why the heck should I go into the military? You know, it doesn't make any sense, you know, and it does have a ripple effect, because I mentioned this before, I think George Weiss was attributed to this quote, that a country is judged by the way it treats its vets. And again, we're going to be judged very harshly, you know, and it's time with the movement of foot, because anytime you start trying to do something, you know, a lot of people, they get tamped down where you start talking about self-reliance, community involvement, working together, then at some point it looks like somebody crawls out of the woodwork and says, okay, you better stop that talk, all right? You're starting to rock the boat. We do not need that here. If you want to continue getting your benefits, you want to continue, like say, your lifestyle you're used to, you better keep your mouth shut, sit back in the corner, and forget what you're thinking about doing, you know? And that's the one thing like they are not talking about. So as you and I know, again, when you listen to these people who are supposedly represented in those, they have feet of clay for the most part. We are dedicated people, but too many people, we have the wrong people in the right places that's affecting all of us, you know? Most definitely, most definitely. But in the same sense on the other side of the coin, these individuals that we have elected, do I expect them to do everything? No. That would be a shortcoming on myself, on my side, to think that an individual, regardless of elected power position or whatever authority, to sit there and do everything, it's not going to happen. I'm not going to put forth that effort. I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to sit there and say that that's ultimately what's going to happen. What ultimately is going to happen is, as I stated, we've been at war since 1995, and this is not even counting the Vietnam vets. We have within this state alone a huge number of veterans, and not just veterans, active duty military personnel that will eventually be veterans. And what they need to see is us doing something. It doesn't matter what we're doing. One of the organizations that I'm affiliated with is Team Rubicon, and Team Rubicon came out of two veterans, two Marines, saying, hey, let's go down and help out in Haiti. This is shortly after the earthquakes, the devastations. So they went down there and guess what they run into? Other veterans. Army, Navy, Air Force, Rangers, Special Ops, whatever. But they were U.S. military down there saying, hey, we wanted to help do something too. So they got together and what did they create? They created Team Rubicon, and now Team Rubicon not only does natural disaster relief within the United States, they've also been identified for the United Nations to help. Okay. We're going to take a short break and then we'll come back and we'll continue our conversation I think we have a call. Awesome. We all play a role in keeping our community safe. Every day we move in and out of each other's busy lives. It's easy to take for granted all the little moments that make up our everyday. Some are good, others not so much. But that's life. It's when something doesn't seem quite right that it's time to pay attention. Because only you know what's not supposed to be in your everyday. So protect your everyday. To see something suspicious, say something to local authorities. Okay, you're back with me and Jeremy. It's military in Hawaii. I keep getting my own program names screwed up anyhow. I'm just so excited about being here. But to continue our conversation. So, okay, we do have a caller. Okay. Hello, Calvin, this is Lee Lovell. How are you doing? Hi, good, Calvin. I'm with Optimal Wounds Solutions. I just want to let you know some good news. Recently we were allowed to go to Yukio Kuzo, the veteran's home in the Big Island. And we're assisting them with their wounds needs. And just letting you know that we're really trying diligently to get into the VA. We'd love the opportunity to assist those on Oahu as well. So I appreciate anything that you can do for your end and assist. And Calvin, I also wanted to let you know we sent you some information about a friend of ours that's active military Navy talking about that ship that was collided into. And there are a number of those that have lost belongings and they're trying to get collections together. Right. Okay. I have Jeremy here. And he is the station ownership and assistive ship to the Fitzgerald. And just to recap, we have a slight technical difficulty right now where Jeremy can't hear me. But I have Lee on the line and we're talking about wound care and we're talking about what's going on with the Fitz. There's an effort afoot right now to set up the port thing. Lee, is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Okay. Just to recap anyhow, like say you came on the program a couple months ago anyhow, for those who are not really familiar with your operation, did you recap that and then we'll fast forward back to the Fitz and some other efforts? Certainly. We are a new startup company, Optimal Wounds Solutions, and we go into facilities and we manage and assist with consulting for their wound care. There's a huge amount of dollars spent annually of like $40 billion on wounds. And we go in and optimize what we do by using the proper dressings and techniques. And our goal is to improve the healthcare in Hawaii and obviously the wound care. So part of what we're doing because we have a son that he is active and he's in the Marines and we want to help. We know there's needs with the military. So we've got to start fortunately just a few weeks ago on the big islands. So we are working and assisting with the UKO and we would love to expand to Oahu. So any assistance there would be greatly appreciated because we want to help the military out. Okay. One of the things I know you mentioned that you had to do at some of the times getting through the paperwork and getting to the right people. Jeremy and I were just sitting there talking about sometimes where there's the efforts of what to go ahead and do something for veterans or military on the grassroots level or a lower level. Sometimes the efforts are thwarted by people who had the attitude where this is my area of expertise and you don't need to intrude upon the services that we're providing. I'm not saying these people are evil or anything maneuvering that's going on. But there are some people who are very territorial and protective about what they try to provide and sometimes they make the impression that you're questioning their ability. And I know that the way you explained it to us before, that's not the case. And if you'd like to reiterate on that, I appreciate it. Certainly. Our golden desire is to partner with the doctors that are out there. We want to, again, use the term optimize. We want to make sure they're getting the ideal care for what's needed. Not every wound is treated the same. And I think what can happen at times, they get similar treatments for dissimilar wounds. And so what happens, the healing process is not going the way it should go. So we want to try to improve that. We'd like to have some conversations with some VA doctors to kind of present what we do and to try to work with them and help them. Okay. Lee, we're getting close to the end anyhow. But before we go, you mentioned about the Fitzgerald and, as I mentioned, Jeremy was... He served on it. He served on it. Okay. He served on the Fitzgerald. What's in the worst right now? I know that you mentioned that there was some sort of relief effort that's being made to help alleviate some of the stresses or problems that some of the crew members currently are having. Yes. A friend of our who is active Navy, Tracy, she wrote this to us. Let me just read it real quickly to you. It says, if you have any spare items, clothes, soaps, razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, anything you need on a day-to-day basis, please send them to the USS Fitzgerald. Many of the junior sailors on board lost everything they own. If you live in the Yokosuka area, the American Red Cross is looking for as many volunteers, donations as it can get to assist those sailors, and the USO requires assistance as well. Anything to be mailed to the Fitzgerald sailors can be mailed to USS Fitzgerald Unit 100173 Box 1, FPO AP 96665. I hope that helps. Okay. One question I have, and I know you may not be able to answer this, but I understand and I appreciate, a lot of people appreciate the effort that's being made to go ahead and help these individuals. But the question comes, if you're in the military, why is there a need to go and make a public call for assistance for active duty military members? That kind of throws me off, but I'd say, I'm not quite sure you may not be able to answer that, but it's just something that comes to mind. But I'm quite sure as far as the response that we'll get from this, you know, they're in need. We need to help them out as much as possible, and I'm quite sure it's going to happen. Right now, Lee, thanks for calling in. I want to get back to Jeremy, but stay tuned if you're listening, and I'll get back with you. Okay? Thank you very much. All right, thanks. You weren't able to hear that, but the thing is, right now, there's a effort to go ahead and collect items for the service members on the ship. Are you aware of that? No. That's been pretty much traditional, though. I mean, any unit in the Army, Marines, any ship in Harmsway, Air Wing, any time that there's been incidences, the USO and other organizations have always done some type of say, hey, you know, let's help them out. Yeah. Okay. I was just curious, because just thinking of that from a lay, someone who has never been associated with the military, they hear that, okay, well, you know, we've got people who there's unfortunate incident that happened, but why is the military not stepping up and taking care of their needs, instead of having outside party entities trying to help to alleviate it? It's just playing the devil's advocate, not trying to make a big thing out of this thing, but I know that as far as from the standpoint of showing moral support, I think that's really very important when you have individuals who are going through all this, you know, and even if they don't need the material things because there should be provided, it's just the fact that you know there's people out there that do appreciate and care for your efforts. Most definitely. You know, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force, the Army, these individuals are part of a larger component. You know as well as I do. I mean, it's a machine. Those individuals in the Navy right now, they're looking at the Fitzgerald incident as a hey, how do we fix this? And unfortunately, this runs across the gambit, across all spectrums of the military service and governmental service included, is the individuals will be set to the side for a moment not to discount them as individuals and their issues and the problems that they're going to, but they will be set aside for a second until the investigation can be concluded by the higher-ups to get it squared away with and that's just the nature of the beast. Okay, we're getting down to the wire anyhow but Jeremy, I'd like to have you come back on the program. We're going to do something in the future about some kind of tribute, you know, so we'll get more information now about what's happening with the Fitz. I want to thank you for your service to our country. I want to thank the viewers for tuning into the program and I think I can say, if you've got any questions or responses to anything we say here, call in, let us know. Whether you agree, disagree, but the thing is we're here to be informative, not to incite. And I want to thank you. God bless until that time.