American Warrior Garage was inspired by a chance encounter in a department store parking lot. Scott Jones and his friend Vince Gibson had been restoring cars together for about 20 years. One day they noticed a Veteran who had lost both legs to an IED blast “wheeling around” Vince’s 1969 El Camino. A conversation about classic cars ensued with the Veteran saying “Man, I’d like to be able to drive one of those.” Both Scott and Vince are Navy Veterans [...]
Veteran’s Repertory Theater President and Artistic Director Christopher Paul Meyer had acting in his blood. He comes from three generations of theater performers. But the 9/11 attacks created a long detour from the performance arts. Chris found some success acting, including a small role in a television soap opera. He chose to focus his energies on stand-up comedy because that allowed him to be more entrepreneurial. His directorial debut was a one act “off-off Broadway” comedy. Opening weekend went well, [...]
Charitable organizations supporting Veterans & first responders is the topic of today’s show. Attacks on law enforcement personnel are on a record pace and the withdrawal from Afghanistan does not mean Veteran support needs are reduced. In fact, the opposite may be true. We talk with representatives of four charitable organizations that deserve your support during this season of giving. SPIKES K9 FUND – Founder & President James Hatch Military working dogs regularly spared the life of Navy SEAL Jimmy [...]
Volition is a powerful concept first introduced to John Sapiente by Air Force pilot Dan Rooney. Rooney advocates; “It’s the most empowering force in the world. Volition is the POWER of choice. Every day we wake up we have a choice; we can be positive, we can be negative. We can choose to love, we can choose to hate. We can choose to pursue our dreams and our passions in life. But understand, our choices will culminate to write the [...]
Veteran advocacy is a passion for Joshua Hosler. That is why he and his fellow Veteran Anthony Archer founded Veteran Sheepdogs of America. As disabled Veterans, they both have personal experiences within the VA system and recognized a gap that needed to be filled. Joshua served as an assistant platoon leader and bomb dog handler in the Marines. While he never had plans to enter the political arena, some of the things he saw overseas inspired him to get more [...]
Rita Cosby is one of the most respected broadcasters in America and an ardent advocate for our military and Veterans. She has practiced her craft as both a radio and television host and has been recognized with THREE Emmy Awards – the highest recognition for excellence in the broadcast industry. While she has interviewed over twenty world leaders, entertainment icons and even a serial killer, her greatest interview may have been with her own father. As a child she noticed [...]
Helping homeless Veterans find housing is a passion Ken Leslie feels deep in his bones. He is the founder and “Chief Advocate Officer” for the non-profit Veterans Matter. While Ken never served in the military, at one time he himself was homeless and living off the streets. As a traveling standup comedian in the 1980’s Ken began to notice a greater number of homeless around the country. This led him to start a homeless project in his hometown of Toledo. [...]
The Medal of Honor was presented to Staff Sergeant David Bellavia for his actions November 10, 2004 during the second battle of Fallujah. He would become the first living Iraq War Veteran to earn our nation’s highest military decoration. He also sits on the board of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation. While clearing a block of houses in Fallujah, David and his soldiers walked into a fortified ambush. He describes it as a “house ready to blow up”. [...]
Save the Brave Executive Director Scott Huesing was asked to give the eulogy at the memorial service for David White, a high school friend and Navy Veteran. David drank himself to death. Rather than fly cross country, Scott decided to undertake a 4,600 mile roundtrip motorcycle journey in order to honor David, raise awareness about the Post Traumatic Stress issues still bedeviling Veterans and raise funds for Save the Brave programs that help address this issue. Scott has never ridden [...]
Soldier Strong was originally established by Christopher Meek as “Soldiers Socks” in 2009. Chris was in the World Trade Center towers on September 11th and was responsible for getting 29 persons out on that day. Following those attacks Chris knew he had to do something to give back but didn’t know what form that would take. A few years later Chris learned from a Marine Corps mentor that some deployed troops were lacking essentials like socks and baby wipes. He [...]