Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Kevin Krall 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:45
Good morning Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs plus, on 91.5, jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. Once again. Good morning, have several announcements. First of all, I'd like to express condolences to all families who may have lost loved ones over the past past month to Steve's towers, and his family. We'd like to ask God to give them the strength to to get through what they've just gone through in the loss of his special uncle. And that's Henry dollar. He lost him just a few days ago. And you did a great job with the eulogy Steve so we just want to acknowledge that Valleyview golf club will be hosting his 63rd annual golf tournament. October 22 and 23rd at Shamir golf club, man I got some birthdays to share with family members birthday this month. Amira my granddaughter, Angel, my daughter, Chris, my grandson Kasara my granddaughter, Nathan, my son in law, Kathy, my sister, Bonnie, Janelle, and Charlotte, Janelle. Also I like to acknowledge that EOB the economic opportunity board is celebrating 50 years of service to our Clark County community. And then finally, I want to say to my daughter, Amber in sunny LA Nathan, congratulations on your anniversary. 19 years keep rolling. And also another piece of information I want to share with everyone is that to remember to check out the Wellness Center dispensary at 9030 West flamingo 9030 West Flamingo. To all the vets out there who may need some help, please contact Service Officer, Tony Marshall at 301-537-9465. Tony Marshall. We have a ninth annual three on three basketball tournament, October 22. at UNLV. We have Mr. Earl and Mr. Walt, they're going to go into some details about that in this in the second segment of our show. But our first guest whom I've known we were public safety officers. I'm in fire he's in police. Jeff Jones, he is the new commander of American Legion Post teen. Good morning.

Unknown Speaker 3:20
Good morning to

Unknown Speaker 3:22
tell us a little bit about yourself. Well,

Unknown Speaker 3:26
again, Jeffrey Jones, I am the new commander for Peter Gunn Memorial post number 10. Here in Las Vegas, I'm originally from Louisville, Kentucky. graduated high school in 1980 and 1981 join the Air Force and I served 20 years in the Air Force itself. One of my highlights a couple of my highlights. I was a member of the Air Force Thunderbirds for four years. So that was a big thrill to travel with them all around the world doing air shows, and I am a data stolen veteran. I did go all the way over to Saudi Arabia. But after my 20 years with the military, I got home with Metro Police Department as a corrections officer. And I retired in January this year, after 20 years, four months of serving.

Unknown Speaker 4:14
Okay, great. Now you said you were you worked with the Thunderbirds? Yes. What capacity was

Unknown Speaker 4:23
this all one big team. So we kind of share all the jobs my career field I was weapons. So the aircraft have to be able to be turned back into fighting aircraft, not just for their demonstration. So what my job was to position team on personnel on a team. And I was one of those individuals therefore the impulse carts the missile launchers, bomber acts and things of that nature. But we have have to have those people on the team itself. Right. And I was doing more of the technical tech data, tools, tools and everything else supply.

Unknown Speaker 4:54
Great. So you recently became the commander of the post. So when did that occur?

Unknown Speaker 5:00
That was in June, the first Saturday of June, it was June 3 of this year. Like I say, my vision for the polls itself is trying to not only give it a facelift, but to try to get some of the programs and things that we should be doing as opposed back together for the community, an example of the types of programs that you want scouts, we need to work with our youth for one, so we're trying to get a Boy Scout group over at our post itself, we're going to be doing food distribution, for the community, not only food, but household products and things that they'll be needing. For that, again, you spoke with Tony, Marcia, oh, Fidel, the veterans that come through to try to get some of their disability claims through him. We provide an avenue for them to come by, because he was working at his house. So now he has a place within our facility to do that. So we're just doing things of that nature, you know, raising money if there's a veteran out there that needs help, right now, and we get ready to give away for wheelchairs, this coming Thursday for we actually going to give them to our church, but it's going to come through the post itself. So wherever the community, you know, asked us to do if there's something we can do, we're looking to do that folder.

Unknown Speaker 6:12
Outstanding. So you got a few projects? In fact, you got something coming up, I believe, at the end of the month for you.

Unknown Speaker 6:20
Yes, well, at the end of October, yes, we have our trunk or treat, or we're going to have an out in the parking lot. This is one of the annual events that they put on as well as we do for Christmas. But our Excel, we have a utility, and it's majority Ladies, are they going to be running that but I will be out there and help it in any capacity. I can give it away candies or if it's just security or helping a kid across the street, want to make sure that safety is our main concern.

Unknown Speaker 6:47
Sure. You have a number of programs. That's that's good. Now, tell me what are you going to do with respect to recruitment? Any any particular goals or ideas you have along those lines? Well,

Unknown Speaker 7:01
we all as veterans, like I said, it's just the stories we tell. So if we have members that are out and about, we can always share that. Right now on October 22. We're going to be out at Craig ranch Park for the annual Veterans Military Appreciation. So we will have a booth out there. And we'll be giving away some pamphlets and talking to the individuals that come out about our posts itself. And if there's another post somewhere closer to where they live about joining that. So it's not all about post standards. It's about the veterans getting together. That's closer to them.

Unknown Speaker 7:32
Excellent. Excellent. I really would like to know as well. What you did, I know you recently had a attended a national convention, if I remember correctly,

Unknown Speaker 7:47
yes. Earlier in September, and went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the 103rd annual American Legion convention. That was my first time on a national convention level SSBN. Commander, I have done two district meetings in the state. But that was the first time on a national. But it's different than what I'm used to because I'm part of the Masonic body, pass grandmaster. So I've been around to a lot of national conventions. But that was a little different. But it was just good to be around other veterans and seeing all the different avenues that are out there that are there to support us. But a lot of times that information doesn't get fed back back into the community. So our job is to go get it and bring it back home.

Unknown Speaker 8:27
Excellent. So you were the only one to attend? Or were there others from from posting, I was only one from posting. Okay. So I trust that we help to take care of your expenses, I hope as a member because I am a member there. And if we are doing it, we need to be

Unknown Speaker 8:44
a little stipend. But like I said, it's one of those things that lead by example. So if it comes fine, if I don't have to be the person, I said I would be being in that position. I can't base it on money. So whatever it is, God has blessed me. So do things out of my heart and it comes back around.

Unknown Speaker 9:00
Sure. Well, we certainly appreciate you coming to spend some time with us and sharing information with our audience. And we're trying to continue to build that audience of particularly of veterans who may have need and again, I always try to mention, Tony Marshall each time we have the show because we want people who need help to get out there and get it. So any closing remarks from you, sir?

Unknown Speaker 9:22
No, I appreciate what you're doing. I appreciate you reaching out to me. I know we've been a while trying to get this done. Like I said, I've known you for a long time and your capacity but the fire department and me coming through Metro and it's good that we can connect together to work together on something. So I'm just looking forward to it. I can do anything for you. Just let me know. And American Legion posts where our doors open. Wednesday through Sunday. If anybody wants to come through from one o'clock to 10 o'clock and cuddling we can talk and what's the address again? It's 1905 H Street. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 9:55
great. All right, Commander, Jeff Jones. We appreciate your service. as well as coming in and talking to our audience, so we appreciate you we will have you back on again sometime in the future

Unknown Speaker 10:14
once again, good morning. This is Veterans Affairs plus our next guests got a number of things, as I mentioned early on, about the three on three programs that they're involved with. Mr. Earl white and Mr. Walter waiters. Please tell us a little bit about what you guys got going on. Walters Walters. I said waiters quality.

Walt Walters 10:36
You call me anything?

Unknown Speaker 10:37
I want. I want to be straight.

Earl White 10:39
Well, listen, first of all, thank you for having us on your program. Dave. We're excited about our upcoming ninth annual Three On Three. CO Ed boys and girls basketball tournament safe neighborhood youth basketball tournament on October 22, at UNLV at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, this is ninth year, and I'm gonna let Wall share how we how this all came about how this was birthed because it came from an idea that he had.

Walt Walters 11:15
David, thank you for having us. Appreciate it. This started 12 or 13 years ago, Earl and I I own a security company here in town and half since 2002. And Earl and I will we're driving around town one day, and noticed all the campuses that we went by that were elementary school will soon were empty, no children. This was at some time between 230 and three o'clock in the afternoon. And we felt from our past. That's someplace that we always went we were in our schools, playing football, playing basketball doing something at the school. And we didn't see that. So we we talked with Metro Kevin Mcnay Hill and some other folks. And we developed we wanted to have a basketball tournament that wasn't designed to have the best basketball players in Las Vegas. It was just kids and parents that could bring their kids to an event that didn't cost them an arm and a leg. It's all free. Everything here is free. Even the food they eat the water they drink. The kids are coached by Metro and other law enforcement. A north north Las Vegas Police Department with Henderson Police Department who's a partner of ours valued partner, and they get to play. And the the officers officiate the games as well. Not really. Oh, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, to see how competitive now how competitive they are.

Unknown Speaker 12:54
Let me ask you this. So do the children. The young folks, do they know that these are officers? Yes, sir. They already know that the officers before they do the referee.

Walt Walters 13:04
That's correct. In our whole point there. At that time in our history, there was some unrest in terms of the way police officers were looked at there, there was a certain amount of disrespect and we want kids to be able to begin at an early age to develop a relationship with a police officer. Good point. And it's it's it's been super where we're really appreciative of everything that's gone on over the last. This is our ninth annual would have been our 12th but the COVID stepped in there.

Unknown Speaker 13:39
In the real a whole lot of stuff. That's right. You know, one person that you mentioned, you mentioned earlier, that is I feel as a colleague, I said on metros multicultural committee, Kevin make me he'll, what a good man. Amen. I

Earl White 13:56
agree with you. And you know, Dave, real quick. The kids don't have to have a skill level. We just want them to come out and play. So when the cops referee, they're not calling Pilates. And then if the kid takes the ball and runs and dribble, right, it's okay. Right. You know, I mean, the older kids, you know, but the little kids know. It's the scrum that makes the soccer Scrum. Yeah. So we have a lot. And then the other thing like Walt mentioned, you know, we wanted to address we didn't want a kid to grow up and see a police officer when it 12 and 13 and take off and run or do something right because of how they've been raised or trained on how to interact with a police officer. One of the greatest things we came out of this is a kid now this is six to 12 boys and girls, right? Right. We've had some keys have been playing almost for six years. Okay. I mean, they and they feel comfortable around a police officer. They know what the police have and then the other benefit It is the family comes out. And they have a different take. Right.

Walt Walters 15:03
And you mentioned co Ed, which is cool, because I think we have to keep girls engaged to things as well. That's right. It's important for us as well. The other thing, Dave, that I want to bring up is that UNLV is our main partner in this along with the law enforcement. And it's then the parents, and the kids can it talks about they have college readiness activities, campus tours, Parent Resources, all kinds of different things. And we believe that the academic piece of this is just as important as the athletics probably more absolutely kids need an early age start to begin to ask parents to plan financially, what they're going to do with college and look at a college

Unknown Speaker 15:48
and look at you guys do a full family matter? Pretty much.

Walt Walters 15:52
Yes, there is activity. Yes, sir.

Unknown Speaker 15:54
It is great. So Earl, tell me. Would it be in Kogi? And what's the what's the mix? if you will? Is it 3037 D? Or do you have a general idea what the mix is between the boys? And I think David's

Walt Walters 16:09
got it about right? I've tried to figure that out. But it's about 3070 females to males, and they get along great. It's

Unknown Speaker 16:19
so age wise, you get the gamut on the age for the young women,

Earl White 16:22
six, six to eight, eight to nine, and nine to 10. I'm sorry, six to eight, nine to 1011. Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 16:33
great. So any other requirements and and you do the tournament annually, but there's other activities, I'm assuming throughout the year?

Earl White 16:43
Yeah, we have we have a for after school, and whatnot, we just concentrate on elementary school, all our programs that deal around the elementary school days, because we found that we get greater parent involvement and participation with the parents and our whole thing is connecting the parents to kid to school, the whole game and on having a healthy community and part of doing things like this. They have a healthy community and a healthy outlook. And so we you know, we are we do a track, a track tracking field,

Walt Walters 17:18
track meet the greatest event, I'm gonna literal finish, but I want to talk to you about what I think is the best, best thing we've ever done.

Earl White 17:25
We do track we do. We did soccer this year, because of the Hispanic population wanted that and man that that blew up, you know that we did that here at UNLV. We get the basketball tournament soccer and,

Walt Walters 17:39
and the academic Olympics. day we started that program. I thought that, you know, there's some kids as we went around to the elementary schools that really aren't either. They don't like sports, or they're not as good at sports. And they, they don't have the opportunity to play. And so we started the academic Olympics in the same age groups, and it's up at UNLV. The kids sit at a table just like they would if they were in jeopardy. They're asked questions by a professor at UNLV parents are in the audience and have buzzers and they buzz in their answers. And it's just a wonderful event. It's terrific. That

Unknown Speaker 18:22
is excellent. And one thing you said earlier, it really just piqued my thought. And that is you say, you know, as you guys are riding around doing your jobs, Hey, man, these schools are vacant. Why are we let these schools city and vacant? Which is which is which is novel, but, you know, like, we should think about that we have facilities that are open and nobody's doing it. I mean, not open but but vacant?

Earl White 18:47
Well, they're they're available for use, right? And they're right in the community, right? The kids call it they just like, go play just like you're going to school. Excellent. So

Walt Walters 18:57
we always felt David that they're an asset in the community for for the community to use, right. And that's why it spiked our interest. So much.

Earl White 19:06
Okay. And I would like to, you know, while and I spent a lot of time together, and we're both from Southern California, and we were both community, we just that's in our blood. It's just like when I met you years ago, right? First thing I asked you to do is help me coach football. Remember that doing? Those kids in the house is dirty. And then you turned around had me coach basketball,

Unknown Speaker 19:27
girls basketball, and I also said I don't care how good this guy is because he was just a natural talent, right? That's the coach. If he plays in the first half, I'm going home and I won't be bad. I mean, he was so good, but he was just always ending up. He was a perfect talent. But you have to character, your character, you know, use better judgment to get things right. That's right. Look, gentleman, you know, time runs very quickly. So closing remarks from me and again, you're doing a great job and I will do what I can to support what you're doing.

Walt Walters 20:00
Well, we thank you for having us on today so that we can get our message out even more. We want to thank all of law enforcement, the good people in the community that help us every day with this, the teachers that are on board, and the Clark County School District, they're, they're trying to help more this year than they ever have. Great. And so we're happy with that. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 20:22
Absolutely. Hey, thank you. Hey, thank you guys for coming in. And you're gonna thank Galaxy Liam, because I heard you guys had to get these guys on my show. Thank you, gentlemen.

Walt Walters 20:30
Thank you, Dave. Thank you. URL gives you

Unknown Speaker 20:33
great job. All right. Now,

Unknown Speaker 20:35
once again, this is Veterans Affairs. Plus, I'm Dave Washington, your host. We're in our final segment here. And we're going to talk to a cousin of mine shelf, Albert Washington. Yes, we are kin folks. You know what, Albert? I didn't realize you were a native of Las Vegas. Yes, I am. Yeah, cuz I'm like, my initial question. Where were you born in Las Vegas? So how are you doing today?

Unknown Speaker 21:04
I'm doing great. How are you?

Unknown Speaker 21:06
I am well, I am Well, I appreciate you calling in and I have a couple questions for you. And one is when and where? And how did you decide to get into the culinary arts? Well,

Unknown Speaker 21:21
it started at a young age. Of course, you know, my older sister Hattie. He, my aunt and my grandmother's taught her how to cook. And they actually make good food. And I said, Wow, that's kind of a nice and I it was something that I always gravitated to. And then when I was in high school, I started working in a casino. And I was a busboy. I was actually reading the culinary handbook. And at that time, in the back of the book, they had the wages in there and wages were higher wages were bartenders, and then the cooks too young to be a bartender. Well, I'm gonna be a cook. And we have a young chef on property. The executive chef was actually about 23 years old. And I started communicating with him and talking to tell him about how to actually be a chef and he took me under the wing and became a mentor. And I went from there.

Unknown Speaker 22:32
Oh, great. It's interesting. You know, when I was serving in the army, I was a cook. And when I got out, I went to gourmet cook school because I it was my goal to be a gourmet cook. And I got it was at the Oh, MGM. And I went, they placed you out of this gourmet cook school, and I was a food runner to the hilt saw eight hours a day, man, I don't know, eight hours of fuel, no pantry. I did it in about four hours. I did about four hours. And Chef Pierre, he said, Alright, Washington, I'm gonna give you a raise. You're gonna be additional meaning to help solve. Okay, great. And then he found I knew how to flip the meetings and I saw his pain and he knew I had gone to cooks. I want you to relieve the cooks. Are you going to give me a raise? He said no. You just got to raise Washington. Albert, you know when you're young and and wild and crazy as I was I quit on the spot married with children at the time as well. I mean, we had we didn't have all four then I don't think I think we had two or three children. But anyway, dummy quit but I had already taken the fire department exam and and got in there. So I know that you were down in Louisiana one time. We were down south and and you were I think it's report somewhere.

Unknown Speaker 23:48
I was answering for it. Working for Caesars Entertainment at the horseshoe bow your city. And it kind of expanded what I was doing. That's where I learned a lot of the down home southern type cooking and a lot of the Cajun cuisine from the three years that I've actually spent down in Louisiana.

Unknown Speaker 24:11
You know what I admire about you as a as a chef is you know I've been to many functions that you have catered and the way you because one thing that they say particularly in Cormier school is the presentation, man you for you for that stuff, man make you want to eat the table. I mean, no, seriously the way you lay it out, man. It just makes it that much more appetizing just from the look of it, if that makes sense.

Unknown Speaker 24:41
It does. And I that was again from the mentor I had at the marina thing was chef Edward came and he had a big portrait in his office. And it said Your work is a portrait of us. myself. And every day I go in and speak to Chef, how we see that it says your portrait is, you know, your work as a portrait of yourself. So he taught me presentation. Wow, okay. i There's always and I wrestle with it because I have a pet peeve of being perfect because no one is right, right. But I always wrestle with making things look very appetizing and multiple tastes good. And that comes from when I went to school and I took a class called aromatic. aromatics is something that a class where they put all the spices on the table, you learn about the spices, and the final exam was you're blindfolded. And then you had to taste the spice and tell the instructor exactly what it was. And it was 25 different spices and you had to get 20 to 25. All right. Well, that he can make some food tastes good,

Unknown Speaker 26:03
right? Well, look, you know, my mother had a restaurant for a short period of time back in the day. And I know that you have a restaurant and I admire you taking on that task of being a business owner. So how did it come about? And the name we want?

Unknown Speaker 26:20
Oh, it came about going to pet Well, it was always a dream of mine to have my restaurant. But when the pandemic started, and everybody was being laid off, and things are closing, and so my wife and I started looking around for places to open the restaurant, we can start out with doing it and delivering it, right. And that's exactly what I did. I started with a ghost kitchen. And we were a pickup delivery business. Unfortunately, I lost my wife to breast cancer. And our restaurant was going to be called Fat Albert. It's going to be Fat Albert. And when I lost her to breast cancer and honor of her when I decided to change the name to Dallas. So that's how we came up with Dallas, Southern Cajun bistro named darling. And my niece is called her TT Darla. So that's where darling

Unknown Speaker 27:31
You mentioned you named it after your wife after she passed away. So what's the cuisine and give us the location if you

Unknown Speaker 27:40
were at 1100 North MLK Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada. 89106 is our zip code. We specialize his modern approach southern Cajun cuisine. So it's not the old type of Cajun stuff you see. But it's a modern approach. We have gumbos we have poboys catfish smothered pork chops, pork chops, fried chicken. So that's the southern part. And then the Cajun part is of course, the poboys and the Gumbo and we have Cajun pasta on the menu. So our main focus was to create a dining restaurant that was compatible to the Hotel Casino when you go in and write down and you have a great experience. That's that's our approach to to do something like that in the community where we live

Unknown Speaker 28:39
right? Well we'll get you back on the show again, Albert because I know that there's a number of things that you are planning to do at your location. In fact I'm gonna call you at once we get off the air because I got some some thoughts that I want to share with you that I got from Mr. Frank Hawkins. So thank you, Sheriff, Albert Washington for your time with us today. And I trust that people will come by and visit and thank you for allowing several of us to have a book signing there which was very successful. So thank you as we move into our fall season, we ask that God continue to bless all of us and thank you for your time. This is Veterans Affairs plus on any 1.5 chairs and. The smoke in the cylinder Hey

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