Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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

Music 0:42
me what's going on. It's

Dave Washington 0:50
a great day Las Vegas. It's a great, great day. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. And I must say hello to my man. Wes because he keeps me on track. We have a guest in the studio. After I make a few announcements, we will have Mickey Armand to give us some feedback on community, as well as an idea that he's pursuing with the Martin Luther King parade. So with that, I want to say that condolences to all those folks who've lost a loved one, and we've had some, as we've already moved into 2026 Mickey and you know, want to express condolences. And also, anyone having a birthday this month, January, certainly want to express Happy Birthday to those folks. Man, we are we are blessed that we're still kicking. 2026 Absolutely. In terms of other announcements, the Carl Holmes executive development institute is under new leadership in the President, the Vice President and our executive director. We have Eugene Campbell, retired fire chief. We have sitting Fire Commissioner in the Chicago Fire Department. That's Annette Nance. Hope she's leading that big organization. And then, of course, we have Dr Carl Holmes, whom the institute is named after. We have his daughter as our executive director. And certainly we want to acknowledge our fourth president, Romeo spalling, who had the good sense to take and say, Dr Holmes, you take this program and run it. And just for your edification, Mickey, it is a Fire Service Institute, summer institute that's housed out of Dillard University in New Orleans. It's a five year program, and we help individuals learn the ins and outs. We don't raise ladders, pull holes. We don't do all that. They kind of work. We're into the leadership and management level type courses. And it's We're celebrating our 35th year of this organization, and 25th year. Thank God Amen at Dillard University. So we're very pleased that we will be doing it. Yes. Also I want to acknowledge, once again, my family is working with me. We are going to have a great fundraiser identifying, look back, cause we'll also be identifying the Carl Holmes executive development endowment and also the Dr William Sullivan and Cherie Sullivan Foundation that's housed here at UNLV. So this fundraiser is going to raise some dollars, and you'll hear some information. If you want to come, you got to pay. You will get an invitation I'll be sending out to a lot of folks, and we only have a number of spaces. But I certainly wanted to to mention that real quickly, and then also under the heading of the Carl Holmes executive development institute. We will have in April, April 8 and nine, we will have the these are two ancestors, Chief Herschel Clayton and Chief William Spike Jones. We've had their families allowed us to raise funds for our scholarship program. Mickey for this was for last year. They're good again. So we raise money again, because we try to scholarship at least four different fire service professionals to come down to the Institute and learn about the various levels, again, leadership and management in particular. So we people come in from all over the world. We've had people from Africa, from England, of course, the Caribbean, and then all over the United States of America, with 2500 to 3000 of them have gone through the program. Just a brief statistic, and we're compiling information now to determine how many have we actually got into the executive level? Because, again, I attended the program and became fire chief for the city of Las Vegas, Gene down in Missouri, city Texas. And he was a firefighter when he started the program at Dillard and Annette man so again, Fire Commissioner for a huge fight. Probably. Number two at the number three size department in the United States of America, and she was a lieutenant when she came through the program. So the program works. And we're very, very pleased. Amen. We're very, very pleased. So with that, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We have Mickey in the house, and Mickey, I'd like you to share with our listening audience, who is Mickey and where you from? Tell us a little bit about you.

Mickey Ormond 5:25
Well, I was born and raised here in West Las Vegas. Grew up on 8011 Doolittle, right across the street from El Rio, which is now the post. And then I became a teenager, we moved right on the border line of Las West Las Vegas and North Las Vegas on off of Carrie. Play sports for Western High School. Went ahead and went to college at Victor Valley and then UC Riverside. And that's who I am. Me and my wife have our own church. It's called God's house Las Vegas. I've been at the wind. I'm a limo driver at the wind. I've been there 20 years and seven months. I'm enjoying that. My passion still has just always been West Las Vegas. And the culture that was built, and I'm saying probably around 1967 to maybe around 1987 there was a culture that was built in the historic West Las Vegas that was second to none. It was just, it was only a few places to go, and the main one was Doolittle. That was number one. Doolittle. We hung out at Doolittle. Doolittle is such a somewhere that's very dear to my heart. I still go there to work out and still play basketball on Friday mornings with the old guys. Doolittle was really, Doolittle saved a lot of lives. And not only, not only did Doolittle save a lot of lives, Doolittle helped a lot of the athletes polish their craft, you know, polish their skills. We was a tight knit unit. We learned how to do everything was that Doolittle swimming,

Dave Washington 7:23
ping pong, Mickey, I go all the way back with Mr. Joe. His brother played basketball. Oh, he taught Mr. Haynes. Mr. Haynes, that's right. Mr. Joe Haynes, that's right. And like you say, he saved a lot of folks. And then I remember Mr. Bass there, and most recently, who became an ancestor, got my mind going blank. You know him, he was a principal, a school principal, Mr. Evans. Mr. Evans, yeah, he just passed, and that's okay.

Mickey Ormond 7:51
He did. In fact, I had the honor of help doing the home going me and Pastor David Webb, we did eulogy. Mr. Evans was very dear to our heart. He was another historic West Side icon. I tell a lot of people. I hear a lot of people talk about the history of West Las Vegas, and I see a lot of people starting to really like it. That's from out of town, but I try to tell people and it's nothing against them. A lot of people study the west side. They talk about the west side, but the west side they talking about. It's not the west side that we knew there was a certain culture David L that we knotted together all the schools, Western Rancho Valley, Las Vegas, we all was on the west side. Together, Jackson Street, D Street, the Moulin Rouge, club rouge, the town tavern, all these places, we were just so tight knit, and we had so much fun that was the only place that we could go was on the was on the west side. And and I try to tell people that that's not from here, and nothing against the people from that's not from here, but the west side they see is not the west side, and that's why, a lot of times the people that's from here, we take it to heart, because the west side is very dear to our heart. It was such a culture. I remember when we used to play basketball at Doolittle on Saturday mornings and during the week during the summer, was there Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, right? And Bobby McRoy and Wendell P Williams, they was running the gym at the time. And k V o v, k V o v, with Geno balmore, when you talk about k V o v, Mickey, I know you've been here for a minute, because a lot of people. Don't have a clue. Kvov, who is that? Kvlv, and we just listen to the music and play sports and ball and laugh joke. And it was just such a culture that that we had and we built, and I'm proud to be a part of that culture that we built, and that's the reason why I've been my church. Has I've been feeding the homeless and going into different neighborhoods for 28 years. But I wanted to do some more, and I was asking, God, what can I do more to just show the appreciation I have for his story West Las Vegas. And how can I get all of the people that grew up here? They parents, uncles, aunts. And I was listening to the ML King, Martin Luther King Jr parade. It was a commercial on and I said, How about if I can get as many of us together to walk in the parade, and I try to come up, I'm trying to build an organization, but right now, I'm just trying to get people to come, and it's going to be the historic West Side brotherhood, because it was a certain culture that we built. And I want us. I want to celebrate us that the ones that can we can still walk and talk good and laugh and joke and we're not limping, and I'm just trying to get us all together so we can celebrate each other, because a lot of names that came out of West Las Vegas don't get recognized, and it's only because a lot of people just don't know. Now, sometime I post up different we call hero, because the heroes to us that had they boots on the ground. They didn't have to necessarily be a politician. They was just somebody that was just they did something in the neighborhood. They hung out at Doolittle. They was popular in their neighborhood. So I'm trying to get all of us together. I'm trying to get us all together and just walk in the parade. And the thing about it, when we realistically speak it, it's a lot of people that was from West Las Vegas that's going to be at the parade. So when they see a lot of us walking, and they're going to recognize a lot of the names. That's gonna make us feel pretty good.

Dave Washington 12:24
Mickey West just gave me the two finger signal that we got two minutes based upon the time that I asked him for us to run. However, I've not heard from my second guest, so we'll take a break and we'll come back. So keep your thoughts going. I got it once again. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We'll see you on the other side. If we don't have our other guests who will remain nameless, we will have brother Mickey back on the show. Thanks. Wes,

Dave Washington 12:58
once again, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more, I had another guest for the second part of the show who has not called in. So that being said, I don't like to keep Wes over his time, because he's a great guy. Keep me on point. So I asked Mickey if he would stay on and let's do the rest of the show. So Mickey, you mentioned Wendell P Williams. Let me tell you something about Wendell, former State Assemblyman. I encourage Wendell to take the firefighter exam. Wendell went down and West. He saw The Towering Inferno this movie. And I said, What minute? I didn't know till years later he was, he was somewhere talking, I say, you dog. He said, Man, when I saw that movie, I got to shake it in my boots, and I wasn't thinking about being no firefighter after I saw The Towering Inferno. Yeah, window. P great guy did a lot of work to ensure that Dr Martin Luther King birthday is honored by our state, and that's a lot of work. So we appreciate you Wendell, and we certainly look forward to you being back on the show to give us a rundown. He was here a couple weeks ago to give us an indication. He gave us a rundown on the agenda, and he had a young lady. What I appreciate about Wendell is he, he always looks forward to doing things with young folks now, Mike, he always looks forward to doing things and trying to uplift them, which is cool, you know, which is a great thing. So appreciate Wendell, tremendous.

Mickey Ormond 14:32
Yeah, I appreciate Wendell. A quick story about Wendell. P at Doolittle. He was him and Bobby May. Roy used to run Doolittle, that's right, and we used to play basketball up there, and we had a league up there in the summertime. It was all of the people who played ball in high school and went to college, and we came back in the summer. It was called the Doolittle summer league. And, I mean, every we were like. It was like a semi pro league, right? I'm talking about everybody that, oh yeah, the ballers were coming. The ballers, it was if you couldn't, in fact, at Doolittle, I'm gonna say this. David Ellen, you know this, if you were the chump, you couldn't come up to do little. Oh no, if you were the chump, you couldn't come up to Doolittle. I was a 581,

Dave Washington 15:20
45 150 chunk. I didn't mess around. Man, I go, man, and you know me and my brother in law and a good friend, that's Ernest fountain, and also the white dorm. We had a over 30 league that we played in. My knees started bothering me. I said, You know what I'm done. I used to jog. I used to play tennis, and I'm like, I don't need to do this. I will get on me a bike ride around the neighborhood. I won't even ride out in the street. But I said, Hey, I got this, but that pounding, yeah. And I remember Mooji head Roma, though, who, I'm sure you know, he said, Man, Dave, you can't be out there running with no Kmart running shoes. You got to go to the running not at Doolittle. You got to go. That's before they put that was before they put that soft track in there. But he said, Man, that ain't gonna work. Man, you got to get some solid code to the running store. And trust me, they will give you. They're expensive, but they'll save your needs. I say I'm done

Mickey Ormond 16:18
one of the things about Doolittle that's also dear to my heart. And I reminded Wendell about it when I talked to him a few days ago. We had an all star game every year too, and one of the all star games, and I'm bragging a little bit on myself real quick, I had 34 points, I missed one shot, and I got MVP of the Doolittle All Star game and win, lapey gave me my trophy at half court. And there was another following year. There was a lot of ex UNLV players. UNLV players that came up there to play from LA thought they was tough. They just didn't know they was coming to West Las Vegas, right, right. And I ended up winning the league scoring title. They had a guy named Willard Govan that played for you at a V he averaged 26.0 and I beat him out by 26.2 so those two historical moments I had at Doolittle, and that's why the west side is just so dear to my heart, and that's why I'm trying to get us to get in this parade, man, and enjoy each other, and because a lot of people, you know, I'm gonna take the residue that we had. That's why everybody that's from out of town love it. They might not give us the credit for but it's the residue from us. And, you know, and I'm excited to see how the next generation does, but I just don't want the next generation to forget about us because we don't get talked about that that much. I'll remove myself out of the way. But it's so many other guys, you know. And you mentioned Ernest fountain. Nobody does anybody have it? Has his name ever been mentioned on KCP or in the community, and he was one of the, one of the biggest mortgage guys we ever had, that's right, and John Edmonds, that people know about, John Evans, but I'm just remembering Lloyd Brown. They called him home boy and the new breed. His store was called the new breed. And I remember when my son going there with my older brother, and at home, his name was homeboy. We called him home boy, that's right. And homeboy would sell you the slacks and stuff. Remember, we had to have our initials on the slacks, and he'd keep you in there to try to win the money back. He was a tongue player. He was no he could play Tonk, right? So I remember so many stories about growing up in West Las Vegas, and I remember a lot of people really talk about this. And that's the town tavern, the breakfasts that they had. Oh, great breakfast. The breakfasts that they had, it people hung out mom's kitchen, mom's kitchen, Hicks, barbecue. Hicks barbecue. That was my cousin. Then the cove. Yeah, you know, in the community store, that's, that's on D Street, miss, gosh, I can't remember her name, hamburger heaven. Hamburger heaven, for sure. Skillet, yes. Skillet, the big guy. He didn't play. But, yeah. But my, my thing right now is this is getting these people acknowledged and walking in this parade. I'm gonna tell you something. I love the historic West Las Vegas. I'm so proud to have grown up here. If you notice some David L, when people come here from out of town, they don't leave. That's right, it's a nice. And a lot of them have gained careers here. They're doing well, you know, and stuff like that. But like I say, I'm proud, and I hope that the next generation does get pushed forward, right? But I don't think they I think a lot of us should be ignorant. They don't know who we are, and that's what I'm trying to do, is put some of the names out there, Bobby, Joe Jacobs,

Dave Washington 20:23
oh yeah, me and Bobby. I played with. Bobby, James McElroy, Mike Cooper, Ronnie was Ronnie's last name, but anyway, these are the guys I played with at High Park. I got that picture of us as teammates and Pat, pat.

Mickey Ormond 20:40
How about, how about Mr. Booker. You never remember Mr. Booker from Matt Kelly. Oh yeah. Remember Mr. Mr. Booker was very instrumental in our life. He got a school named after him. Even though he got a school named after him, many people don't talk about Mr. Booker. People don't talk about Mr. Jordan, another name, even though he was a politician, Mr. Mumford. Mr. Mumford was so instrumental in our lives. Man, growing up, he really loved us. He pushed us. Mr. Mumford listened to us. And these are the guys that I'm just trying to make sure people don't forget, right?

Dave Washington 21:18
No, I think it makes sense. I think that's a novel idea to get those. And as I mentioned to you, Mickey, I'm gonna give up my golf, because I golf on Mondays, man, but I'm gonna give it up and be there with you.

Mickey Ormond 21:32
I got some really good, famous, popular heroes, and I consider you one of them. And I know and I know, David L, you don't care much about publicity, but you can't help it. You're one of our heroes. I remember a time me and my wife was in this I can't remember exactly where we were, and you came up to me and you told me to try to find many people as I can to join the fire department.

Dave Washington 21:59
We should always be recruited, and whether it's police or fire, because public service, public safety is great career paths for people, and they make tremendous dollars. And until something changes, a high school diploma will do I'm gonna

Mickey Ormond 22:17
tell you something else real quick. When I went to Victor Valley College, one of my, one of my teammates, was Michael Lee. He's the, he's the coach now at Clark County Community College, he was, he can play a lick. Yeah, he was. But anyway, he was a captain with Clark, but he came out here, he joined the fire department. He did like 2830 years, and he's living life good, and now he's the coach at Clark County Community College. Coyotes. Very good guy, and that's another example of how people come out here. And there's so many opportunities. He took advantage of it, and he's a good dude, too. Michael Lee and I go support the basketball team as much as I can, too.

Dave Washington 23:05
Yeah, like I said, I know Mike. Mike worked for the County Fire Department. He came through to the rank of captain there. And like you said, he did 2530, years, whatever it was. I don't know exact amount of time he did, but I know he retired. And those public safety jobs they played, they paid pretty well.

Mickey Ormond 23:24
Yeah, yeah. Mike Lee, and it's so many guys. You look at Michael. Spider Man burns, oh, yeah, a lot of people don't talk much about Spider Man. Man, Spider Woman. Spider Man was a dog. Yeah, he was a dog. You look at Fly Man, you look at Freddy machine gun. Thompson, another one you look at, I mean, it's so many people that had they boots on the ground. You know, McNeil's quick check the store, Johnny's food basket. How about Henry's liquor? You know, the Brown Derby, big eight

Dave Washington 24:02
to the listening audience, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I am smiling from year to year because Mickey is calling out some names of folks that we should never forget, and I'm always about ensuring that names are mentioned because they are some of these folks are ancestors now and should not be forgotten, because he'd done tremendous work for

Mickey Ormond 24:22
Jimmy banks. Oh yeah, you look at Jimmy banks, Jimmy banks, Mario wouldn't be Mario's without Jimmy banks. And the banks family was very popular. Was a bunch of them, and they were such good guys, but they was tough too. They were some tough guys. Jimmy was tough too. He always wanted to be better than me in basketball. So he his calling was to be an entrepreneur, and he did pretty dang well. But it's, you know, it's another name I gotta bring up. I gotta bring up. Henry Thorne, hen, hen. Oh yeah, you gotta bring hen, hen up, you know, it's. You got to bring Spud. Coach Spud. Coach spud coached the kids for like, 30 some years, and he was a he was a great mentor to kids. He gave his whole life, and he's still doing something out there for the kids out in Arizona, because he moved out there a couple years ago. It's just so many stopping shop. Remember stopping shop? Remember Big Eight, that big A, that big A, closed at 10 o'clock

Dave Washington 25:30
Mickey I, my family moved here from Dave high losing Louisiana in 1954 December, 54 with three boys, and had four girls out here, and my oldest brother, buddy, Leon, whose birthday is coming up at the end of the month. We had a brother who got killed at McNeil's quick check the first kind of a drive by shooting thing. And we have

Mickey Ormond 25:51
a What was his name, dada, yeah. Everybody was scared of him. Everybody was scared

Dave Washington 25:59
I was a character. Thought I was a character, but also in that same vein of family, our sister tipo, she passed away. That's my my nephew, Cliff, Washington's mom, but she passed away. Then, most recently, our sister Kathy, she passed away last year. The Cancer got to it. Man, you know that's why with my case, so with what I've been going through, man, I keep a smile on my face. I keep it positive. I ain't got time to be moaning and groaning when I go down to MB Anderson, I see babies with one arm, one eye ball, hit it, and I'm like, they fighting for their life. And I've been and I'm feeling God willing in the creek. Don't ride March 2, 2026, I'll be seven. I'll be three quarters of a century old. You hear that West three quarters of a century? But you

Mickey Ormond 26:49
know a lot of West say, yeah, you old. You know where a lot of that fight comes from, being born and raised in the historic West Las Vegas, being born and raised in the historic West Las Vegas.

Dave Washington 27:03
People thought I was born here, but I told him when I came when I was three and a half, in fact, when I became fire chief. Remember when the little jet magazine used to come out? They had me in there. Whenever you see the cover with Michael Jordan on there, I'm in there in an area called people on the move. They asked me, Where was I from? Where was I born? Dave, how loose. Why you didn't tell them Las Vegas did. That wasn't the question. If they said, Where was you raised? I said, Las Vegas. But Mickey, they asked me, Where was I born? I was born in Man, I ain't denying my little country town. So by the time you read the sign, you beat them pass through. But that's

Mickey Ormond 27:39
my town. It's real small deal high from St Joseph, where window P was from, not

Dave Washington 27:46
very far, just a few miles. You can you can drive there. We got about two minutes. I want to cover something real quickly. It's called mental health spectrum. It's a resource for psychological wellness. And this is for veterans. So I don't have a number on them. But this is a free booklet, and if you go over to the new library, you'll find this because my daughter April gave that to me to share with the public closing remark. Close.

Mickey Ormond 28:08
Red Box is the historic MLK parade. If you was born and raised here, or you had family from here, grandparents, mothers, aunts, uncles, I have a spot for us in the MLK parade. It's gonna be fun. You're gonna see some old some old friends, some heroes, and we just gonna just walk humbly but proudly.

Dave Washington 28:35
Mickey, I'll be there if you insist. But you just said something that give me a little contra donation. Man, I wasn't born here, and as I mentioned. Man, I'm from Dave Louisiana, even though I was raised here, if it's for people who actually were born in Las Vegas, that ain't me well.

Mickey Ormond 28:52
And this is what I want people to understand. What I mean, got about 45 seconds. What I mean, if you was raised here, if you was raised in the historic West Las Vegas, and you got parents and grandparents and uncles and aunts come join us, everybody, we're going to have a good time. And thank you, Dave, David L for having me on. Man, I appreciate it. Man, I enjoyed it

Dave Washington 29:15
right on. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus On 91.5 jazz and more. You. Are

Music 29:50
all the smoke in the air, till the hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear on your way.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai