Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Wesley Knight 0:00
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Music 0:35
Come on, tell

Dave Washington 0:42
me what's going on. Great day Las Vegas. It's a great day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I have a guest coming on shortly, and I will properly introduce her in the meantime. Couple announcements. First of all, certainly I always like to give condolences, and certainly want to say condolences to those families who have lost loved ones since we last aired. And definitely want to acknowledge the family of Tim Shaw, He most recently, transition to the ancestor realm. So nice guy. I've known him most of my my life, you know, even from kids up to to adulthood. So anyway, to the family birthdays, have certainly got a and I know I've announced him a couple times before, but our youngest daughter, Amber's birthday is at the end of January. And also my brother buddy. We call him food, and he is a we also have a nickname of coffee because he drinks a lot of coffee. But anyway, I love them both, and happy birthday to both of you guys. Hmm. In terms of additional announcements, I want folks to know that I've mentioned this already, and I will continue to continue to do so my 75th party fundraising. It's my 75th birthday, y'all. So I'm gonna raise some funds for three different charity nonprofits. I don't want to necessarily call them charities, but good look back calls the bill and Sheree Sullivan Foundation here, housed at UNLV, and also the Carl homes executive development institutes. It the funds will go into their endowment. And this, these dollars will be split three ways, evenly. And again, it's, it's something that God has put on my heart. I'm always trying to use my flat platform to do something to help others. So with that, let me quickly say that the Martin Luther King parade was another great success. Had a chance to participate not with the group that I was to be with. I just walked down the parade path alone. But it was good. And certainly one thing Wendell Phillips Williams, the Founder and President and his team for another outstanding job. April, my daughter, oldest daughter, gave me a book. It's called veterans mental health. It's free. You can find it in the libraries throughout our city, but it gives a lot of different ways and means for veterans to get all sorts of assistance. So and then the final thing that I want to very briefly say is that my wife Marsha and I were back in Houston at MB Anderson last week. All of my medical evaluation processes came back just fine. So I'm grateful to God that I'm still kicking and cancer free. So thank you all out there to our listening audience for your prayers on my behalf. All right. Miss Carol Santiago, local businesswoman, how you doing?

Carol Santiago 3:49
Carol, I'm great. Dave, how are you

Dave Washington 3:52
I am doing just fine. Just fine. So, Carol, tell our listening audience where you're from and how long you've been in Las Vegas, please.

Carol Santiago 3:59
Okay, well, I was born in Dallas, Texas, but I was raised in South Central Los Angeles, and yes, and I spent most of my life there, in fact, all of my adult life, until 2003 when I retired to Las Vegas. Retired from I retired from teaching. I i I actually taught for 32 years for the Santa Monica, Malibu Unified School District, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Dave Washington 4:30
So did you have a particular grade that you dealt with?

Carol Santiago 4:33
Or yes, my 16 years at the elementary level, from second grade to sixth grade, that was before the reconfiguration into middle school, and I spent 16 years at John Adams middle school teaching seventh grade social studies.

Dave Washington 4:50
Oh, absolutely great. That was one of my goals, but I never get really got into it my when I retired 19 years ago, one of my goals was to become a substitute sub. Stitute school teacher, but I didn't finish the application process. Nevertheless, I'm working on something now called Africana Studies for young black boys between 14 to 1920 years of age. So that's something that I'm working with. But more interestingly, you all, I want you to hear about the fact that Carol owns a bookstore. Tell us about that, where it's located. How did you decide to go into that? If you would? Okay.

Carol Santiago 5:27
Well, Tamar Shiloh and I are co owners of the multicultural bookstore Las Vegas, and we are located at 2027, revere Street at 89106, and the historic west side of the town. We opened in November of 2023 and we were inspired by just the work that Sam Smith did in the community. And we pay homage to Samuel L Smith, who owned, as you guys, as you know, the Native Son bookstore.

Dave Washington 5:59
Absolutely, absolutely. So you have a partner, and you guys started, would you say 20 and 2320

Carol Santiago 6:06
23 right. We are just finished two years and starting year three. Tamara has a bookstore in Richmond, California, and she's been in business there for the past eight years. I watched her grow her store, and I am because of my work with the Las Vegas Urban League in the after school programs I believed in. Knew that the historic West Side students and the community could use a bookstore, and which we are really calling like a literary, literary hub for the community, a safe space for people to come and meet, meet and greet, book findings and all kinds of different activities for the community. Excellent.

Dave Washington 6:53
So give us an idea of your hours. And when do you do some special programming? As you

Carol Santiago 7:00
mentioned, okay, we are open currently for the 2026 year. We are open Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 to six I'm in the store Wednesday through Saturday. And we have programming. We have book findings, meeting greets, the poetic gems that's headed by Heru Dave Falcon. They come in twice a month, and the name of their group is the politic gym. We offer story time and and like I said, it's just a safe space for community groups and the community to come in and sit down have conversations, great.

Dave Washington 7:44
Well, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I have Miss Carol Santiago. Carol, do you guys have a website that one can take a look at?

Carol Santiago 7:55
Yes, our website, actually, Dave, is under construction. Should be up, up up and running in and next week. But you can find us at www, dot m, c, V, las vegas.com,

Dave Washington 8:12
All right, great. Any closing remarks. And let me say this before you do that, Carol, you're always welcome here, and it was took me quite a task to get you on because of your hours at the store, but I can tell you that you're welcome, and I think that what you're doing is admirable from the standpoint of not only blacks, but people in general, particularly Americans I'm talking about they don't read and Wes is a reader. He's always rest shows. This is my producer, director, engineer. I give him all the names, because he helps me out tremendously. But any closer, any closing remarks?

Carol Santiago 8:46
Carol, well, a couple of things. Just want to say that yesterday, the bookstore made history. We actually hosted our first day of service on MLK Day, and we were joined by three reigning queens, 2025, 2026, Juneteenth crown queens, Zion Briggs, Miss Summerlin, Sahara Johnson, a second runner up, Miss paradise and Aubrey Lily, Miss Henderson and they were. They join us with marquee Monday, who is the organizer for the Juneteenth pageant? Great.

Dave Washington 9:26
Well, once again, Las Vegas, this is Veterans Affairs, plus I had Miss Carol Santiago. And what's the name again, at your bookstore,

Carol Santiago 9:34
the multicultural bookstore, Las Vegas,

Dave Washington 9:38
all right, and it's at the corner of Lake Mead and revere. Thank you, Carol. Thank you. Appreciate you

Carol Santiago 9:45
today, for sure. I appreciate you. All right. Thank you, bye, bye.

Dave Washington 9:49
Take care. You too. Thanks, everyone. That was Carol Santiago, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. See you on the other side with Byron. I. Homes.

Dave Washington 10:06
Once again, Las Vegas, it's a great day, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to introduce a friend Mrs. Veterans Affairs, plus I have Mr. Byron Holmes. Hey, Byron. Oh, Dave, how are you, sir, pretty good. I am. Well, man, look, I know you can't get into it, but just I did want to inform people that you are a veteran. That's correct, right? And I know you're in a classified area, so we won't go into it. But what branch did you serve?

Byron Holmes 10:39
Well, I served in the Air Force, Air Force, okay? And Air Force, and the branch that you're talking about, we were known as intelligence,

Dave Washington 10:47
okay, in the intelligence, cool, all right, I don't want to go into any further that. I don't want nobody following me around. Byron. So where are you from, and how long have you been in Las Vegas. Originally.

Byron Holmes 11:02
I was born and raised in Chicago, stayed in most of my adult life in Chicago and transferred and transferred, moved to Las Vegas about, oh, 15 years ago, okay, and primarily because, primary, because my mother had retired there, so I was kind of taking care of her. That's the reason that I moved here. Okay, I'm glad I did.

Dave Washington 11:31
Yeah, well, we love having you, man, and you have been an inspiration. I hope you don't mind me saying to our listening audience, this brother had a stroke a few years back, and he's totally recovered. And one of the things that he told me that I was I cheer with other friends who had had that medical condition. Just do some reading. Do some reading, do some reading, and it'll help you. That's what Brian kept telling me. I said, Okay. Man, cool. But a man, we're grateful that God, restored your health. Man, for sure.

Byron Holmes 12:03
Yeah, very grateful. You know, he's not done with me. So plan out there for me. Yes, sir, and I plan that plan, but yes, it helped me to recover from a smoke. And I'm very lucky to do that. And you know, I just keep trying to exercise a little bit, walk more, read a little bit. Reading is very important, and sounds crazy, but read out loud. Even if you're by yourself, you're suffering with a stroke or recovery, read, but read out loud to yourself,

Dave Washington 12:41
great, great information to share. Now, one thing I know about you, you are an avid golfer like me. We're not that good. We love it. So when did you start golfing? And then I got some other questions along the line of golfing. In fact, that was the primary reason I wanted to get you on the show, because I want people, I want people to know how much fun we have with the Sunday ducks?

Byron Holmes 13:04
Yes, we do. And in answer to your question, it happened many years ago. I was working in corporate America, and I was in sales, and I lost a big account because the other guys took the customers to golf, and I knew nothing about golf, and that's when I picked it up. That's when I started for that reason. But then I fell in love with it because it's something you can do probably for as long as you can walk, right? So unlike other sports, and I played all of them, basketball, football, football, baseball, but golf is one you can play as long as you can walk. So that's why I like it,

Dave Washington 13:51
all right. Love it. Now we have a sunny group, the sunny ducks we call we call ourselves. Now a few years back, seemingly you kind of stepped up. And I want to know why did you step up? Because you're the principal coordinator today. So why did you decide that you thought it was something that you should do?

Byron Holmes 14:14
Well, it wasn't an elected position. Actually, the only reason that I guess I stepped up because I was closest to the golf course. Okay, so I'm very near to the golf course that we play most of the time, so it was convenient for me to check on times, and we do whatever is necessary to change reservations if necessary, right? So that's the only reason. It wasn't anything I want. I'm glad to do it.

Dave Washington 14:49
Well, one thing I'll say, and we do, and I acknowledge you in this way many, many times, and will continue to do so. And also, while on these airwaves, we appreciate you, man. And because I used to do golf setup, set up tea times at various courses, and guys start complaining, I told Nick, take it and stick it with a sun. Don't shine, man, I'm not gonna do this, and y'all gonna beat me down. Why you? Why are we over here? Why we this? Why we that? Come on, fellas, give me a break. But no, we totally appreciate what you're doing in terms of stepping up. And one thing I too, noticed that you have a great rapport with the folks at the front desk there in the pro shop.

Byron Holmes 15:26
Well, yeah, I've been going up there for about 10 years now, and, you know, we've always canceled in time so they don't leave lose any revenue. I think that's one thing they appreciate, right, that we don't leave them without a possibility of making up that revenue so that. And again, I'm close to the golf course, so I hang out a little bit more than probably I should. Other than that, you know that's really the only reason. And as far as the Sunday ducks, an incredible group of men, all walks of life, all different life experiences, I have learned so much every Sunday sitting down with these gentlemen and listening and participating is absolutely amazing. I feel very lucky to fall in with those guys. So if any of you guys out there listening, you're fantastic, and I appreciate each and every one of you guys.

Dave Washington 16:41
Well said, well, said, Well, again, we appreciate you as well, because, like I say, when you're trying to get everybody on a couple different tee times, and you know, as you said, it's very important for those golf courses to to get their revenue. And you can't just be just dropping out. And we do have, but we have enough people that if somebody drops out, somebody's just waiting to jump in. So once again, we do appreciate you and look forward to seeing you this Sunday. God willing, in the creek. Don't rise. I'll be there, brother and I know that it was several people, Lee, Daniel, Paul, pradia, Johnny Griffin, those are some of the guys who initiated and I'm probably missing someone, but certainly wanted to acknowledge them. But you have stepped up, young man, and you have done a wonderful job. And once again, on behalf of the ducks, we appreciate you. Any closing remarks from me,

Byron Holmes 17:34
I appreciate guys. Appreciate you, Dave, you're doing a great job with your show, and continue on. You know, just continue on, my brother.

Dave Washington 17:44
All right. Love. All right. Thank you, sir. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We just had Brian Byron Holmes, Byron Byron Byron Byron homes with the ducks, Sunny ducks up at Durango Hills. Thank you, Brian.

Byron Holmes 18:01
Take care. Dave, all righty, once

Dave Washington 18:10
again, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I have Anthony on the line. Pernelli, is that correct? Cornell, Pernell, sorry, I want to make sure I get it right. So how's everything? Anthony, everything is, well, it's a beautiful day today. Absolutely, absolutely look. I want to thank you once again for coming to the reception we had for our new president with the Carl homes executive development institute. Eugene Campbell, Jr, so you were present, said a few words, and greatly appreciated. With that, I'd like to to ask you, because I can't remember if I asked you, if you serve in any branch of the military.

Anthony Purnell 18:53
Yes, I

Dave Washington 18:54
served in the Navy. In the Navy, okay, what? What was your MOS and how long did you serve?

Anthony Purnell 19:00
So I was et three served for like, four years, probably four years in a month.

Dave Washington 19:06
So what is an ET, you say,

Anthony Purnell 19:09
electronic tech? Yeah, I'm an Etn. So it's like an electronic tech on a nuclear sub, or nuclear apparatus, which would have been a frigate, or, you know, anything like that. That was

Dave Washington 19:19
nuclear. And where are you from?

Anthony Purnell 19:21
I'm originally from St Louis, Missouri.

Dave Washington 19:24
St Louis, Missouri, you know, I know you're a retired firefighter as well. So did you know any firefighters back there in St Louis? No, I actually

Anthony Purnell 19:34
moved from St Louis probably when I was six and grew up in San Jose, California.

Dave Washington 19:39
Oh, well, you like me. I'm a country boy. I came from Louisiana when I was three and a half. Come to the desert. Cool, cool, cool. So tell us about your because I know you retired from a fire department in California. Give us the name and give us what kind of work you did there. What was your job? Class? Patients, as far as fire service is concerned,

Anthony Purnell 20:02
okay, well, I was fortunate to work for one department my whole career, Milt Peters Fire Department is right outside of San Jose, a smaller department, probably it might be 60 personnel, line personnel now got hired as a firefighter recruit, moved into firefighter, then moved into AE and then into engineer, then the AC, and became a captain before I retired. Also had background in light rescue, rescue systems. One, two fire prevention certifications, fire investigation certifications, and I was a hazmat one, which was a specialist.

Dave Washington 20:43
Wow, you worked in quite a few different areas. So how long did you spend with with the department?

Anthony Purnell 20:48
I was there for 27 covid years. Okay, cool.

Dave Washington 20:52
So what caused you? How did you decide to come out here to the desert?

Anthony Purnell 20:57
So I've been here probably about 16 months now. Kind of just wanted out of California. You know, had been there for a while, and wanted to change. And my daughters, I have three grown daughters, and they were actually all out of the house. And my youngest one is graduating from San Diego State this year. In her for undergrad, she pursue her Master's. So kind of figured that it was really no reason for me to stay there. So didn't want to go too hot. Arizona's a little bit hotter than Las Vegas, right? So Las Vegas won the sweepstakes, and so I decided to move here, and once here, you know, just like everywhere I've been, wanting to get involved in the community. So I got involved with this group, Las Vegas Valley firefighter retirees. Okay, went out. And what the purpose of that organization is, is that we help young men and women who want to pursue a fire career, and we basically help them get higher and we have roughly 89% success rate. We have pretty much, I think it's 18 people within the local valley that are on fire departments here. We have one in North Carolina, and then we have one in Seattle. So probably a month in of me being involved with that organization, I was approached to become president. They did their vetting process. I passed the vetting process, and I've been president from that day till today.

Dave Washington 22:17
So you are the president of the group, great, wonderful. And sounds like you guys are doing a great job in Orlando. Rice keeps me pretty much informed on what you're doing, statistically and just in general. And I, and I always say to the to the group, man, I don't care if the fire chief in the various departments around this valley, if they're black, white, male, female, keep the feed on their fire, so to speak, because we want to make sure that we have very diverse organizations. Because I've always been a proponent of your department will serve better if it reflects the community in which they're serving. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that that's the way it should be, and as a result, you have a better run department in them, in a more appreciated department by the citizens who we are sworn to serve. Yes, sir. So I agree. So you say, how long did you say you you have been in Las Vegas now?

Anthony Purnell 23:13
No, well, I was in San Jose for probably about close to 50 years, and moved here to Vegas probably about 1516, months ago.

Dave Washington 23:21
Okay, all right. So what do you do with your leisure time? I trust that you have some outside of, you know, working with the young folks, trying to get them prepared for the testing process for the various fire departments.

Anthony Purnell 23:34
You know, really close to my daughters. They're still in California, so I go visit them, have lunch with them on a regular basis, and I travel a lot. That's always been my dream. So going to Vietnam next month, in February, and pretty much want to live part time here in Vegas and part time in the Bahamas. So I've been visiting there a lot, trying to decide between Bimini and granite Zuma, which island I want to occupy while I'm down there for half the time.

Dave Washington 24:00
Okay, sounds like you got some stuff playing out. That's great, man, because they say if you don't have a plan, man, you just tread water. So that's great to hear that you're playing you're planning out some things. So tell me and to our listening audience, what was most challenging as far as your service in the military. And same thing applies during your your career in the fire service. What was, what's most challenging to you?

Anthony Purnell 24:26
Most challenging? Well, I went into the military, you know, it was volunteer, and I knew I needed structure and discipline, and it wasn't like I was lacking that, but I just know I needed another level of it. So I think the transition to the first day was the hardest day, you know, you're coming in as a civilian, and then everything stripped from you, and now you're the property of the US Navy. And so that day was probably the hardest day, you know, once I got over that, I was outstanding crude in boot camp, you know? And that's usually what happens. I excel once I get acclimated to the newer. Environment and with the fire department, it was the same thing, you know, just coming in as no knowledge of the fire department, just the honest desire to learn and wanting to serve my community. And once that took place, you know, the path to advancement, to promote, to get the certifications that I was interested in, to serve in a greater capacity than just being on the department. So I think in both situations, the hardest part was just, you know, finding out who to really have around me, in my circle, to mentor me to be really a positive influence, you know, because everyone's not, you know, everyone wants to help you, but sometimes the help isn't adequate enough, right? And so I had to learn how to, you know, go towards those veteran firefighters and those veterans in the military and tell them like, look, this is what I want to accomplish. How do I get there? Asking for help is probably the biggest thing,

Dave Washington 25:50
you know, and that's well said, because a lot of times, and one of your points was everybody's way of thinking in terms of assisting you may not work for you as an individual, so you have to pick and choose. I mean, there are some guys that that I watch what they did, and I consider them more of role models, if you will, versus me asking them to mentor me, and they happen to be white. And then I had two black and I had two black actual mentors. Now those two white guys, had I asked them, Chief Rex Shelburne, Chief John Ryan, had I asked them to actually be a mentor to me, I know that they would have and in the case with John Ryan, he, along with Al Nero, who served as fire chief in several California cities, those two guys not knowing each other. In fact, I had them on the show a couple months ago. They both, they both encouraged me, Anthony, they say you should apply for fire chief somewhere. You've worked. You got, we got four major areas responsibility. You work. We got five. Excuse me, we have five major areas of responsibility with Las Vegas Fire and Rescue and Al happened to be at the time. I think he was in Braille, but he said, You should apply. And they, they both, not knowing each other, asked me if I had a resume. Resume. When you put, you know, as well as I do, Anthony, when you start putting stuff to paper, you go, wow, I've done a lot. You don't even realize just going through your career and you're not paying very much attention. So I would encourage folks out there not only to develop a plan, but also journal, because that's something that God rest his soul. Reverend Jesse Scott encouraged me to do when I became fire chief, and I hit and missed at it, but now trying to write up my memoirs, if you will. You know, you have a little difficulty as you age, trying to recall stuff, but that's outstanding advice, young man, right? Thank you. Yeah. So are you familiar with the Carl Holmes executive development institute?

Anthony Purnell 27:55
Yes, I am. You know, I came into the fire service, and once I came in, there was a lot of individuals from my department that talked about it, but there was only a few that, you know, lack of diversity. There was only a few that attended. And so unfortunately for me, when I found out I was in my, like, last couple years of my career, right, right? I've learned a lot more about it now. And you know, actually, Chief Campbell is one of the members in our in our organization, the Las Vegas Valley firefighter retirees and so now I get to, matter of fact, most of our members have gone through EDI. I've actually met, I believe it was Senator. He's running for Senator, or something, politician. Luke McCarthy, oh, yeah, yes, yeah. And had a very interesting story, you know, he pretty much told me, you know, white gentleman told me about how he went to EDI and that, you know, the challenges that he had. So I definitely think it was a missed opportunity. But it's not, it's not really a missed opportunity, because I still have the opportunity to go. I mean, I'm retired, but I can still go there for the experience. I can still go there for the knowledge, and it's something that I'm considering. So all right,

Dave Washington 29:00
appreciate that. So once again, Las Vegas, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more, just had retired firefighter active in the retirees group here assisting young folks get into the fire service. So thank you, young man, and always feel as though you can come on, because as the new president, you can come on here and share with people what other departments are doing internal recruitment. So thank you so very much. All right, Veterans Affairs, plus signing off till next week. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai