 If you watch Common Ground Online, consider becoming a member or making a donation at lptv.org. Late April of 2017, Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot and author Jim Krigler invited me to film him at Itasca State Park as he began a canoe journey of the Mississippi River. His endeavor was to raise awareness of Gold Star families. Even Gold Star families are immediate relatives of members of the U.S. Armed Forces who have been killed in combat or in support of certain military activities. The air at Itasca was just above freezing, but Jim's mood was warm. I'm going to throw everything in there quickly. Follow me. You got us. That's okay. How's it going? Good brother. Good to see you man. You know what? Give me a couple of paddles and follow me now. Thank you. Appreciate it. Well, that's a member of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association. He came up to wish me off. His name is Bob Godar. It's a beautiful morning out here. I think it's a crisp 38 degrees springtime in Minnesota. You couldn't ask for a better time to be out in the woods. Halfway. It's all downhill from here. I'm Jim Krigler. I'm an ex-Vietnam helicopter pilot. In 1972, I was in combat in Vietnam and I had a wonderful roommate named Tom Shaw, First Lieutenant Tom Shaw. And Tom and I became very close. He became my mentor, like an older brother, and the two of us had a pact between us that if one of us was killed in combat, that the other one would escort their body back to the United States. Bruce. Thank you for waiting. You're welcome. Thank you very much. Jim Krigler, sir. Kelly, nice to meet you. I was both honored and burdened with that duty. But it was the first time that I met a Gold Star family was in May of 1972 when I met Tom's wife and his mom and his dad and his brothers and his sisters. You know, I'm just honored that you guys would all show up. I didn't expect this. I expected Bruce and I was going to apologize to you and I got to apologize to everybody. Oh, I got a poppy for my hat. So I decided to do something about it. I decided to go find all the Gold Star families in my community that I could. I didn't find them all, but I found some of them in the surrounding area. And I gave about 20 honor coins out to those families. And with each one, I put that coin in their hand and told them I thanked them and honored their sacrifice. And then I hoped they'd keep that coin and remember that there are thousands of Americans that appreciate and honor their sacrifice. None of them could speak to me. They were all overcome with emotion. It took us both a minute. I'm getting emotional just talking about it. It took us a minute to recoup our emotions, and then they were able to talk to me. But the reason they got so emotional is that in 45 years, no American citizen has thanked them for that sacrifice, 45 years. I'm a little nervous right now because of the, it's like a race. You know, you get nervous right before a road race. You get a little, you know, so it's kind of like you want to get yourself going. But I don't want to go too fast because it's more important to have everything that I want on board, you know, because you're going to, I can't stop at a store. You got the, you know, I won't, I won't have communications for a while. Most 67 year old guys would never consider paddling for 2250 miles to make a statement. But I'm making a statement, and I want to wake up some people in America, and I want to cause a movement to happen. I would like those of you that are watching this video to go to your VFW or go to your American Legion and ask them, who are the Gold Star families in our community, especially the Vietnam Gold Star families? Who are they? How can I get in touch with them and go out and get a 49 cent stamp and an envelope and a little piece of paper and write them a note, write them a thank you note for that sacrifice. Tell them how much you appreciate the freedoms that you have today because their son or daughter died for those freedoms. Shared with me is moral compass on life, and I don't mind telling you what it was. What he said was, we're all coming to forks in the road of life and which fork we choose determines what our life's going to be. And the easy fork is not always the one we got to take, so you got to have courage to take that fork. You got to do the right thing. You got to focus on what's right, not what's wrong. You got to tell the truth. You got to be truthful to yourself and to other people. You got to trust in God. This is a book that I just finished. It's about my time in Vietnam. I am donating some of the proceeds. I got to pay for the book, but besides that, I'm donating the proceeds to my charity 501C3 American Huey 369. The book is called Mission of Honor. Let me test my water to make sure it works. No, it's pretty light. I'm going to make a difference in some lives with some Gold Star families, buddy. That's pretty much it. Mistakes in life, they make the best stories. And this is about mistakes that I made as a young man and meeting my roommate, Tom Shaw, that I mentioned earlier. And a sort of a moral compass that Tom gave me in life that I've used to navigate through those forks in the road that we go through. And it's also about my time in Vietnam and it has a message for America. So if you're interested, missionofhonor.org, a website, you can buy it there. You can also buy it on Amazon. And again, proceeds go to a very, very good cause. So appreciate your support there.