Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Announcer 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program.

Wesley Knight 0:04
You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves, life coaching services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. You

Music 0:35
Come on, tell

Music 0:42
me what's going great

Dave Washington 0:51
day, Las Vegas. Great day. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I got a chef Joe Cooper on the line. We him right away, because he's got a meeting he's got to attend, and I failed to call him earlier today to let him know that we were able to get on the show get it done today. So anyway, Chef, how you doing? I'm doing

Joe Cooper 1:14
good, Dave, and thanks for having me for sure.

Dave Washington 1:17
So Joe, what what branch of service did you spend time in I was,

Joe Cooper 1:23
I was the army us, Army,

Dave Washington 1:25
us, army. So when and how long did you? Did you serve?

Joe Cooper 1:29
I went in May 17, and got out August, 1777,

Dave Washington 1:36
okay, yeah, I went in seven. I was in 71 to 73 that's interesting. So and, and as we discussed the other day, you were a cook. Your MOS,

Joe Cooper 1:47
yeah, 90 4b 2090,

Dave Washington 1:50
4b 20. And I was a cook as well. And as I mentioned, I had an opportunity to go to gourmet cook school here, and then got a job at the MGM, the old MGM, and quit because the executive chef wouldn't give me another raise. But anyway, tell us a little bit about your experience as a military cook and then going on to be a chef.

Joe Cooper 2:13
Okay, yeah. Well, I went on when I was in the military. I went for Littlewood, Missouri, and we had a black Captain there. He knew I could cook and everything. So I end up on the weekends cooking for the for the captain at his home and everything. Wow. And then behold, when I got out, when I when I went to my duty station in Hawaii, I was tied to a general. Cook for a general. You see how things went that fast, but it was good. God is good. No doubt, I went on that tell the general retired. Then I went to a quarter, three quarter camp, Schofield barrack, Hawaii, you know, until I left. But everything was good.

Dave Washington 2:52
So I would imagine, just based upon your military cook training, you took yourself beyond that, even while you were in the service to be, to be cooking for a general, I can't see it just the plain Jane type as we were taught,

Joe Cooper 3:10
we cook for Jones politics, right? Yeah. But no, I got a lot of education while I was there at a different little schools and stuff around Hawaii. You know, I learned food and bells, got a degree in food and beverage management, and when I got out, I went to be executive chef on the script, started at the Silver Slipper, and then went to a lot of different properties. Matter of fact, I was one of the youngest black chefs on the script, you know,

Dave Washington 3:36
wow, that's pretty cool. So you were an executive chef to put all the stuff together for the for the main chef, because I know the executive chef is almost like an executive officer in the military. They really do they do the runner. They run the really, the day to day operations.

Joe Cooper 3:53
Well, you got to understand that a chef is not just the cook. You know, right? There's a lot of cooks out there, but they're not executive chef. You have to know the paperwork, do menu, food costs, you know, and stuff like that, labor costs, right? You know, yes,

Dave Washington 4:08
as I said, you run the day to day operations. The chef was out there doing his thing, doing other things. Because I know, even in my business, in the fire service, one of my goals was to have my deputies do a number of things to include, we added a senior deputy, because I watch how the police operate. Chef Joe, I tell you that under Sheriff really runs the day to day operations. The sheriff does a lot, but he's out there really politicking, as you mentioned, about just getting in to be a chef or cook for general in the military.

Joe Cooper 4:41
So, yeah, it's a lot of pressure, you know. But like I said, it's good.

Dave Washington 4:45
So, so where are you from?

Joe Cooper 4:47
Joe, I'm from Louisiana. Tallulah, Louisiana, born and raised, but I came here as a young man, you know. And like I said, from then I was just kept running because, like, I never did anything for food service, right? I know what's good. To pick your cotton. I went to a little small restaurant. It was a little small restaurant in Toulouse, how Dave is cafe where I learned to cook. I never stopped cooking. I never stopped cooking. I love it.

Dave Washington 5:11
Oh so you actually started before you went to the military.

Joe Cooper 5:14
I was round about, oh god. I was running about what seven or eight years old going to work with my mother, she worked at this podcast. And I, like said, everybody had a hand boy go get there. And what I learned, I learned it, you know, right? A cook. One thing I just said, back then, you always had food and stuff like that. You had money in your

Dave Washington 5:35
pocket, right? Well, I can tell you, you know, I was actually supposed to be a missile crewman because I had a marijuana possession right at turning at the age of 18. Then so when I go to to get out of boot camp, they wanted me to be a mechanic, and I told them I was not interested. In fact, I had taken auto mechanics in high school, at Clark High School, but I told them, I kind of like you. In this case, it was my mom, my mother, I used to watch my dick bake cakes, and I told them. They say, if you don't want to be a mechanic, what do you want to do? I say, I want to be a baker. They say, We don't have baking school here, but we do have cook school, and there's a chapter on baking. I say, I'll take it. So that's how I became a cook in the United States Army. But Joe, so when you came here to Las Vegas, was that after the military or before?

Joe Cooper 6:24
No, it was before, okay, I came here when I was young man, around 16 years old, okay? I started working at the showboat Hotel. See, I went in the military on a program called skill. I was a five. When I got out in three years, I made rank, you see, because I knew how to cook. And when I went out in the field, I did extra. I was doing the Vietnam War, excuse me, the Vietnam era, right, you know, but that's when it was winding down. But the thing is, when we went out on maneuvers, I got all kind of certificates when we came back, because I went overboard, not overboard, but a little extra when I was cooking. And they all loved it, from all the captains, lieutenants and stuff like that. They loved my cooking.

Dave Washington 7:07
So, so when you came to Las did you enter the military from Las Vegas or from Toulouse from

Joe Cooper 7:12
Las Vegas here? Okay, because when I went in, I was 20 years old. Oh, I was 20. Okay, all right. See, I had skills already. That's why I say I made rank, because I went in Scratch the skill they had that program.

Dave Washington 7:27
Excellent, excellent. So tell us about what you're doing right now, because I know, not only are you a chef on your own accord and doing your thing, you also doing some product stuff. Now, we can't talk about pricing. We can certainly talk about what you're doing and what you're trying to do in terms of marketing your product.

Joe Cooper 7:47
I've been here now, say, Las Vegas. I've been in here about 61 years. I have owned various restaurants around town as matter of fact, it was called Tallulah foods, a restaurant, and everything I did I had a to z catering, and then when the pandemic hit and everything. So my wife came to me, she said, Well, honey, it's about time you get those condiments out there. This is something been going on for over 37 years. I've been trying to get on a market. Right now we own in Toulouse. It's called Tallulah food distribution, in which we excuse me, in which we deliver our products all over. I have a hot sauce four different brands, and I have a barbecue sauce out there, different continents and stuff like that on the market in which we sell online. And I'm getting ready, hopefully I can get it into the market here in Las Vegas, to different stores, hotels and stuff like that.

Dave Washington 8:39
Excellent, excellent. Well, we certainly wish you well. And now, is there a means any kind of website information, or how can a person go about you say your district distribution actually comes out of Tallulah. How people make that kind of contact to to get your products?

Joe Cooper 8:57
Well, it's called to Luna foods distribution.org, okay, you can go on the website. You see my nice looking picture there doing demonstrations and stuff like that. If you want to make orders and stuff like that, it's available. You know, I don't know if I can use the phone number or not, but yes, everything is on the way. Food Distribution.

Dave Washington 9:19
You can give us the numbers if you, if you choose to, yeah, yes,

Joe Cooper 9:23
the toluda food distribution, the phone number is 318-235-9616, or you can call my number 702-526-5396,

Joe Cooper 9:35
and then we'll be glad to take the order. You can call it in down there, either way. But yes, like I said, you know, I'm looking to put together a distribution here in Las Vegas, and it's going to happen.

Dave Washington 9:47
Oh, no doubt. And let me tell you this man, it's something about them wives, isn't it, how they will push you forward to get things done when sometimes you just kind of dragging your feet along. But I know Marsh has prodded me on a number of occasions. Nations to do different things. Stop talking about it be a black so that's excellent. So I know you got to get to a meeting, and we wish you certainly success in what you're doing. So get that website and your telephone numbers again. Please share

Joe Cooper 10:14
this Tallulah food distribution.org and the phone number is, excuse me, it's a 702526, excuse me, 5565396, or you can call 318-235-9616, in Tallulah, Alright,

Dave Washington 10:32
once again, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We had a veteran. He was a chef, and he actually entered the military. He was already school and cooking, learning from his mom and grandmom, so that's really cool. Thank you, Chef Joe, and we wish you great success in your distribution of your products.

Joe Cooper 10:53
Okay, thank you, sir, and thanks

Dave Washington 10:55
for having me. All right. Take care once again. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Signing off, and we'll be back on the other side with former commissioner Richard Ford Chicago Fire Department.

Dave Washington 11:14
Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. As I mentioned, on the other side, we will have a dear friend and colleague, Richard Ford, former Fire Commissioner Chicago Fire Department. How you doing commission? I'm fine yourself. Great, great, great. Let me make a few announcements, and then we're going to have a little discussion about EDI, if you will. Absolutely, great, great. Certainly want to express condolences. And I learned from from rich that they had a loss there at Chicago Fire. So condolences absolutely go out to the current Fire Commissioner and at Nance. Hope so we love and appreciate your sister and keep your head up and keep doing the work that's necessary. Just take care of your staff and your citizens there in the city of Chicago, in terms of birthdays, and I was trying to get hold of my wife, I forgot that this will be the first show in April, so I'll get more of those birthday April birthdays out in the next taping. But for sure, so Karen, our grandson, he is, he's the brainy, one of the athletes in the family, good rebounder. Yeah, come in, she's a rebounder. He blocks shots. You know, he ain't the greatest shooter, but he knows how to, I told him, be a thinker, man. Smart guys do well in basketball, as well as those who are just, you know, pure athletes like two other grandsons. In fact, Chris was David KJ kaisen, but Karen's doing okay. So with that, I'd also like to announce that, once again, we're having a golf event on April 8. It's, we call it the Dave Washington Bill Parker skins game. And that will be at Las Vegas, uh, municipal golf course on Washington. And then on that Thursday, the day after the the skin game, we will have the the chief Herschel claydy, Chief Spike Jones scholarship golf event. It's a fundraiser for our scholarships there at the Carl Holmes executive development institute. So 70227771217022777121

Dave Washington 13:39
thanks. With that, I like to once again introduce and bring to the phone line retired, in fact, tell us how the retirement is going to Commissioner Richard Ford, Chicago Fire.

Richard Ford 13:55
Thanks for having me on the show, Chief, I do appreciate it. Retirement is going well, although there seems to be quite a few municipalities that are trying to bring me out of retirement, which I'm not interested in right now, I'm having a having a blast. It's, it's a beautiful thing not to have, as you can attest to, I'm sure, absolutely beautiful thing not to have two radios and two phones on 24 hours a day. I'm enjoying the fact that I have one one phone and no radio, right?

Dave Washington 14:29
So Rich. How long you've been retired now?

Richard Ford 14:32
I've been retired five years now, retired in 2021 wow.

Dave Washington 14:36
How time flies. I can tell you that I did get one offer to to apply for San Diego fire and I said, Look, I am not interested. I said, I've had, I had a belly full of fire service as an industry. I love it. I appreciate all that I gained and was able to do there, but I have no interest in being anyone's fire chief or Commissioner. Thank. You very much. So I understand where you're coming from. Brother, I got that my first six months to a year out. I'm like, Man, I ain't thinking I'm done, but doing a lot of enjoyable work at the Carl Holmes executive development institute. So I know you're a graduate, and you've also been a speaker there. Talk to us about your experience, because we're getting ready to celebrate this year, 35 years of the Carl Holmes executive development institute, better known as EDI.

Richard Ford 15:29
Absolutely, I was fortunate enough to have people near me that recommended EDI to to myself and several other young people, and without a doubt, it was a absolute change, life changing series of classes that took look, took place, right? It's one thing kind of read about something, and you got a general ideal of it. But when you go to EDI, you go to EDI, and you're dealing with chiefs who run or have invented that process, right? Have made it better, and you have absolute access to them. Now, maybe dating myself a little bit, but I do remember at one point we were looking for a process it would be the same for everyone coming in a physical saying for everyone coming into the fire service. And there was a young chief out of Texas, female chief, who came up with this CPAP. Right now, we were trying to find out about it. And information was very slow coming. And where you get it from the whole shot? Well, I go to EDI for my first year, and she's teaching the class you have no better access, but to the people at the at the top of the hill, the top the class in fire science, they're there. They're teaching this and they're freely giving this stuff to you so that you can better yourself and hopefully bring somebody back to take that information back and better themselves. I started that. I started at EDI as an engineer, and throughout the years of my time there at EDI, I went from engineer to lieutenant to captain to battalion chief the Deputy District Chief, the first deputy. And finally, I ended up as fire commission.

Dave Washington 17:26
Rich, rich, rich, hold on, hold on, brother, I had no idea you was a driver and went all the way up to come, I know, and that was a lieutenant when she started. Wow, I had no idea. Man, that's, that's, that's his. You know what? You're an inspiration, and that's why I think I was led to give you a call, as one of my guests today had to cancel. I can tell you that this is great man, because I can tell you that that we do have a number of firefighters and veterans of military who have children who are trying to enter the fire service. And I'm telling you, commission that is inspirational to say that you started out as a driver when you went through EDI next day. You know, you just kept rising through the ranks. Go ahead.

Richard Ford 18:12
Yeah, yes, absolutely. Matter of fact, there's a sister that was there with me my very first year. She was a she was a field chief, a paramedic chief, right in Philadelphia. She was really, Philadelphia is the place is sometimes a little difficult for firemen and paramedics. She was complaining about it. And she said, Yeah, I'd really like to check out LA. And I said, well, the chief from LA is right down there on break. Go down and find out. You know, would they be interested in, are they looking for? And they were looking for somebody to be paramedic chief in LA, and unfortunately, she got the job. Wow, but unfortunately, she didn't come back to EDI. And, you know, I wish the best for but, I mean, that's the access that you have. These are the people who are running these departments across, I can't say the state, because on my cat, my class, I had the chief who was the chief of Ghana. He was, in, he was in my class. So I mean, this chief, you have chiefs and access to them all over the world, absolutely.

Dave Washington 19:26
Yeah, that's a that is a great testimony, because, again, it is so important for us to invest in ourselves, because a lot of times departments won't necessarily pay for you, and in my case, they paid for me a couple of years, but I'm such a radical, militant type person, man. I said, You know what, I can't have them paying my way, because they probably gonna say, What are you doing down at slam dunking us for some of the things that we are not doing and you're down there on our dime? I said, You know what? Going forward, I'll pay my own way, and that's something that people need. To understand. Sometimes, I don't care what industry that you're in, sometimes you got to invest in yourself, and sometimes folks absolutely aren't willing to do that.

Richard Ford 20:09
Well, it's generally difficult, and majority of the majority of departments don't like change. And of course, anytime you're going to better yourself when you come back. Nobody can take that change from you and implementing that change, and then it becomes a positive thing, because not only you implementing a change based on the knowledge skills and ability you learn to display the EDI, but if you're able to then turn around and reach out, grab somebody else and bring them in, it's just, it's a win, win, and the doc yourself spike. You guys came out and took care of us when we were seeking how to go about learning the process of exam taking, because it is a process. It's not a memory to remember. It's not a memory thing. It's learning the process and using the process for your benefits. You still have to know the information that's right, but once you understand the process, that's that's like taking candy from a baby.

Dave Washington 21:15
Yeah? You know where you are, yeah. And to your point, one of the things that Dr Holmes implemented in our industry was the the process of going through the assessment center. And Assessment Center, for those who don't know, it takes you through you sitting down when you go into the room and present yourself to people, you present yourself as the rank that you're trying to achieve, not the rank that you're currently at. And some people make that mistake. They go in and they operate like a captain. They should be acting like operating as a BC. And it's a different mindset. But certainly, those things were very, very helpful to include like you say, you have access to so many different people, various ranks in different areas of responsibility within the fire service, because I can tell you that. And I mentioned this, as I said, celebrated my 75th birthday few weeks ago, and I happened to go down, and there was a, there was another function that I was at where, where I was at ed, and I told him how Kwame in particular, Kwame Cooper. Dr Kwame Cooper, now he sent me, we he and I sat on the back porch when they had these modules there at Dillard before they build the big facility that they have now, and he asked me about 10 different questions. Commission on three of them. I didn't have a clue. But the next thing tears start running down my eyes, and I'm like, Man, I got this job. I mean, it's crazy. I said I'm going back and these three questions that I had no clue on. I said I'm gonna figure out what they are and make sure I can deal with them in a proper way when I go sit before whomever the assessors are to include if I get that final interview with the deputy and City Manager, which was the case, and I was ready. I was prepared. And that's one thing you also get out of EDI. We have the formal classroom settings during the day. We have evening speakers, and then on top of that, people will call say, I'm going for Captain. And, you know, can anybody kind of give me a little, you know, a little interview process? Yeah, come on, we'll do this between dinner and the evening session. So there's always those opportunities as well.

Richard Ford 23:35
Absolutely, absolutely. And one of the things, I mean, I really appreciated was the fact that you could reach out to anybody if he would a problem or asking for a suggestion, and they were more than happy to reach out to you and say, Hey, listen, this is what I had. This is what the possibilities I had to do that. This is what we implemented, including writing additional policy to cover stuff that was kind of clear as much, how to clarify and clean up your policy so that it's crystal clear and you don't have

Dave Washington 24:11
to worry about it absolutely. You know, in terms of that, in the rigor that is required, semi along the lines of the National Fire Academy, I know it was a Kwame Kasi, Peters, Eddie burns, think bird. There were several of them who got together and they put they put together mod six, which we've had several iterations of mod six, but it's a lot more rigorous now, where they have to work on a project, and they get assignments, and these students have, they got to bring it, you know, and you can't just be, as they say, shucking and jiving. They will see, right? Because you also have to present orally what you have written up. And I'm telling you, if you got holes in there, man, they gonna pick you apart. But it also is an opportunity not just to pick you apart for the purpose of, you know, dogging somebody out. It's for the purpose. Something learning

Richard Ford 25:01
absolutely, absolutely well, unfortunately, we didn't have mod six when I was going through, but I could appreciate the fact that it was put together and was put together to be foundational and to benefit the program in total. I highly recommend EDI to everyone. As I said, I was just a simple guy to grow and sip water, water, switch on, water switch off. And the lessons that were learned were absolutely beneficial, and to be able to to not only get the promotions, but to assist the brothers and sisters that were behind me. So when a promotional test was coming up, we would prep them for that the same way we had you guys come in and show us how to do this. What is, what are the things that you need to what's your operator? What's your what's your operation on your administrative and all these different processes. At one point we had gone as far as we would actually start writing test questions. I can tell you this, we had more people say after the test, your tests were way worse than the ones that we took. It mandated. We had to know the information. And one point, we actually brought people in and sat them down and have them go through the whole process. We didn't want anybody to lose points for coming in and not presenting with your salute, not being sharply dressed, etc, etc. So we would come in and it wasn't that and we knew all these, these candidates that were coming in. We knew them all. We had been on the fire scene with them, right? We knew them all been in the firehouses with them. But what, what we would do is we put heaters underneath the tables, and it wasn't to be jerk off. We just wanted them to be uncomfortable. Because unless you're unless you're you know your stuff and you're comfortable, if you're comfortable, you're not learning. So we will put that heat on, and that heat will get into Okay, and then ask these questions. Now, you go through your administrator problems, you go through your discipline problems, and you go through your tactical problem, you still have to perform despite the fact that your environment is hot. That's right.

Dave Washington 27:27
That's right. Well, we certainly appreciate you coming on and sharing some of those experiences that you had at the Carl homes executive development institute, again, known better as EDI, but go to Carl homes, edi.org, and those of you who don't know or would like to learn more about it in terms of the different curriculums that we have, and it's an outstanding program. And I'm not just saying it because I participated it. I'm just saying because it's real. And when you hear from a former Fire Commissioner who came from the rank of a driver, guys like Eugene Campbell from a firefighter, and Aunt Nancy, current fire commission for Chicago fire came from Lieutenant, from the rank of Lieutenant. So the possibilities do exist. And I'm talking about when we talk about as 47 mentioned, oh yeah, merit, if anybody got thing on their merit, it was us, because we had to. We had to go in and bring it, bring it, bring it. Each time that we set before testing process. So commission. We thank you for your time. Man and I encourage people to, for those in the Chicago land, you catch him somewhere and pick his brain, you know, because he some of the tools that one will need to to enhance it to get that position, man of a and not everyone's going to be fire commission, not everyone's going to be fire chief, but certainly there's operational as well as staff level positions. That one thing I learned from Herschel claydy as well as Dr Holmes, not everybody's going to be the fire chief. And in Hersh was ladies play space. He wasn't interested in becoming a fire chief. He was an assistant chief. Very pleased there. But make things happen from the position that you currently hold. So with that commission, we thank you for particularly this short notice, I had someone to cancel on me, so hit the commission. She was just checking on me and my health, which I'm doing, fine. Commission, we appreciate you, brother, and hopefully you and pops, what you call Cortez pops, maybe I'll get down. EDF celebration.

Richard Ford 29:33
All right, brother. All right. Anytime, anything you need.

Dave Washington 29:37
Both for sure, take care. All right. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and Nourse signing out you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai