Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Dave Washington 0:50
day Las Vegas. Good day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I have a colleague that will be joining us shortly after I make a few announcements. First of all, on behalf of my family, the Washingtons, want to express condolences to the Scott family, a family that's been around here for many, many years, as we the Washingtons have been. They lost Dave Scott Jr just a short time ago. So I know these going to have services. I don't have the location at hand, but you can look that up. Uh, it'll be 10 to two on 927, September, 22 it's 27th so check that out. And again, Dave was a nice young man, construction worker. And we appreciate and hope that God will be pleased with his accomplishments while here on earth. And he was a young man, also on the same weekend, will be the homeborn services of coach Evans, Mr. Bill Evans. He was a well known figure around the neighborhood, particularly over at Doolittle. So condolences to his family on that loss. He was, think he was in his mid 90s, if I'm not mistaken. So he was around for a considerable length of time and a mentor to a lot of young men within our community. So with that, I'm going to introduce and bring to our listening audience, Captain David Brooks, retired Chattanooga Fire Department. How you doing?

David Brooks 2:34
Dave? Doing good brother, bless How about yourself? Oh,

Dave Washington 2:37
I'm doing very, very well. I appreciate you, and I know you're visiting our city this this, this week, and pleased to have you on. And before I get you going, I fail to do a couple other quick things that I'll do real quickly. And that is, I always like to kind of announce birthdays. And certainly these are family members. Our middle daughter, Angel, her birthday is this month. Then we got Nathan Armageddon. We got Chris casara, and we got Amir Kathy Richardson, and that's my deceased sister and Stacy and Jaden Simmons. In fact, those are actually October birthdays. I'm all over the place here, Dave, I've been scrambling all day, actually, for this this time, because this will be the last show in our in September. Those birthdays are my aunt Magnolia, uncle, LC, long time Las Vegas, Linda Dixon and Pope. Francis, His birthday is in the month of September. A long time friend, political activist and president of the Hispanics and politics. Fernando Romero, his birthday, and one of our deceased good brother, Dr Sullivan, who was here at UNLV for many, many years and did a lot to to mentor and put young folks into some some great positions, some going on, and got their PhDs and got attorneys, got a couple of brothers work for the University. So we appreciate the work that Sherry Sullivan, her husband, Bill did well in this community. Sherry's birthday is this month, September, and then we have Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who was formerly the Reverend of former President Obama. But anyway, those are some September birthdays. The ones that I gave prior were actually for next month. And I'll repeat those so with that, Captain Dave Brooks, who is currently operating as assistant to our good brother, Agent Rutledge down at the Carl Holmes, executive. Development Institute housed at Dillard University. Dave, give us our listening audience a little bit about your background. If you would

David Brooks 5:08
okay my background. I'm retired from the Chandra Fire Department in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I've been retired for about four and a half years, retired as a operations captain. I did 10 years as Operation Bureau inspector and public educator, and at one time, was the fire marshal for the city of Chattanooga with a bachelor's degree, undergrad degrees in marketing from the University of Tennessee. I've attended far home executive Dave, I did my five years at Clark University in Atlanta. And since then, since 2011 I've been, as you mentioned, staff member, Assistant, your brother, Agent Rutledge in the photography department.

Dave Washington 5:46
Okay, so, Dave, where were you born and raised?

David Brooks 5:50
Born and raised, educated in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Okay with that area. It's about about an hour north of Atlanta, about hour and a half southeast of Nashville.

Dave Washington 6:02
And how long did you say you served with the fire department? I've

David Brooks 6:05
worked setting a fire department for 25 years. Okay?

Dave Washington 6:09
And you had various capacities. You mentioned,

David Brooks 6:13
yes, I said, when it comes to the fire service, I had a background in accounting. I was accounting associate accounting clerk, which you want to mention, with the Chandigarh gas company. And they did a buyout through the Atlanta Gas Company. And I was a young man, and I was still in college, I wanted to finish my college education with a with an easy career, not an easy career, but something that would allow me time. And firefighters, they convinced me going to the fire service. And best decision I made,

Dave Washington 6:44
great and born and raised right there in Chattanooga, and I know one of our colleagues this season, he just went into our virtual wall of honor. And it's brother Leroy Nour wood, one of our ancestors now, he did a great job in building our logistics department, so we will always be proud and never forget that brother.

David Brooks 7:09
Yeah, he left a huge footprint in our organization, our local chapter of the ibpff, which is brothers united, of the International Association, black defensive firefighters. Remember Nourse was he got everything started. He brought a lot of people into the fold with the fire service, and he was one of, one of the very first people that introduced to be EDI,

Dave Washington 7:28
Oh, great. All right, so now you started working with Adrian when, and you actually, you graduate, you, you did all five years. Did you say?

David Brooks 7:37
Clark, yes, sir. I did my five years after Katrina at university, Clark University in Atlanta and in my classroom, I've always traveled with a camera, and I took a lot of photos of my classroom instructors, classroom students eventually get held. And everyone kept saying, hey, look, man, you need to talk with Adrian, and just out of conversation with him and with the late brother, Leroy Norwood. They put it together, and I came on in 2011 and stopped since Adrian has been a huge influence to me. He's like that uncle that I never met. I've always admired after getting to know him, I admire his capabilities in photography. We've learned a lot from each other, and like, I tell people he was Star Wars fan. I'm like, Luca, he's my Obi Wan Kenobi. That's cool. I'm really and I've been at, you know, several family engagements. In fact, before a late brother, Dr Holmes, passed, I was at a birthday engagement in Dallas just Dallas, Dr Holmes is there for Adrian's 70th birthday, I think my 80th birthday. And, you know, before final days. Thanks, brother, Adrian,

Dave Washington 8:52
right on. So give us a little bit of background in terms of your your involvement as a student with

David Brooks 9:04
ADA, almost didn't happen for them. And the year I was a fire investigator, not fire investigate, the fire inspection at the time, and I've been putting off for a few years due to family responsibilities and job responsibilities to operate a real estate business also. And that year that I planned to go, I had a near fatal emergency. I had some really bad symptoms. Mr. Oscar, had to perform emergency surgery. And, you know, I'd already made commitment to go to EDI. And with that condition, man, I was kind of, you know, depressed. Didn't want to get out. I was off to work. But since I made the commitment, man, and EDI staff members call me and say, Look, you come on down. We'll take care of you. When I say they took care of me, I mean, like a family member would take care of you. My position so long, came to Clark University that first year, met the wonderful people, man, it opened my third eye to a lot of things about the fire service, about just being active in my community, doing things. Things that I haven't done, it can tell me to do a lot more I'm busy in my career. And also, man, I saw the excitement about all these instructors were volunteers. That means a lot to me to see people with that passion and how they achieve success in their career after being members of EDI and they came back to do it as volunteers. But I'm so impressed that it just, it just opened up a huge double door for me in my career.

Dave Washington 10:24
Excellent, excellent. So to those out there, go ahead,

David Brooks 10:30
enjoying that man after that first day. I mean, with all the excitement, I mean, I, um, I was embarrassed that I had let this go on my, you know, before then, I should have been a member of been a student and so and it just turned up the throttles and everything that I did, my personal life, family life, career life, you know, things as a community manager, it gave me some tools that I never been exposed to.

Dave Washington 10:54
Well, you know one thing they the saying goes that God will put you where you need to be at the appropriate time. So we are pleased to have you on our staff. And I tell people, a lot of time the work that is done by those staff volunteers is just out of love for wanting to help others make various moves throughout their fire service career, because none of us get paid. We're all there because we care about the profession that we spent a lot of time in. So we appreciate you. So now tell us a little bit more about the whole idea and your involvement, and work with Adrian as his assistant in doing the photography work around the campus that where we're we're currently at back at Dillard University. In fact, next year will be our 25th year on the campus of Dillard University, after having gone, as you mentioned, we started out actually at Florida am in the early years, and then we moved over to Dillard in New Orleans, and when Katrina hit we moved for five years over to Clark Atlanta, where you spent all five of your years, because it's A five year program, and then graduated, then came back a few years later to assist. So give us some some further indication of how that has been going.

David Brooks 12:10
I said I had very little engagement with a brother, Adrian Rutledge, prior to coming back as a staff member. You know when I would see him with camera, I would see him engaging with the late brother, Leroy Norwood. And any friend of Leroy Norwood is going to be a friend of mine. And just like the classroom was like, man, just talk to him, except what you want to do. Because I wanted to come back and contribute something to EDI for all that it done for me. And I slowly all that I am I owe. I live eternally in the red and I approached Adrian said, hey, look, man, if you need some help, I would love to come back and you know, you can vet me from whomever you, you know, choose to vet me from. And when he said, Come on back, little brother the first year, I just wanted to leave impression that I was worthy of helping him, because I know he had done this alone for right, probably 20 plus years, and and it's one of those things where it's not broke. If it's not broken, don't, you know, broken. But I think with my my age difference between my youthfulness, which takes a lot him to take it easy, a little bit more. So, um, you know, and I brought a little bit of electronic technology, current electronic technology, to the table that he had been exposed to. So, Sean, hey, look, man, it's amazing. You can kind of whip this thing into a bigger ball of cotton candy, and that's what, that's what we did. So helping them. You know, I've never tried to take the lead. I've never tried to overstep my boundaries. Always looked at I was his assistant. But, um, he did the he gives me plenty of leeway and a huge parameter to do. You know, what I feel like is right? And I feel like I've hated his, you know, his efforts in many ways,

Dave Washington 13:43
many ways. Yeah, I noticed we got several testimonials. We got about another couple of minutes. There's some testimonials that are on our website. Did you actually do those videos?

David Brooks 13:54
Yes, sir. I've got several customers. I've gotten some more from on the last year that Colin, how do you get together? I guess we'll do it at the retreat Oklahoma City, but I've got several more from some of the same students each time. You can just see their excitement about EDI each year, and also some of the new members that we got there. And just a variety of interviews with people who are excited, just like I was once excited, like he was once excited about EDI and Adrian, like said, We keep in touch every week. Man, we call. I call and check on him. You know, there at his late wife's funeral, I've been there for birthdays, planning on going back to seeing him. You know, this year, I tried to stay engaged with him, because even, um, you know, he's just that kind of a person where he brings rock to the table, man, he taught me a lot about photography, and he keeps telling me that one game has to do this by myself, right? And not looking forward to that because of our, you know, our relationship, but when I do, it's going to be a while before I continue somebody to fill in.

Dave Washington 14:46
All right. Well, we appreciate you, Dave, and I look forward to working with you, seeing you at the retreat, God willing, as a sand and Creek don't rise. This is Veterans Affairs, plus so 91.5 jazz and more. We just had a discussion with the. Great. And I say great because he's a dear friend and colleague. Captain David Brooks, retired Chattanooga Fire Department.

David Brooks 15:09
Thank you, Dave, thanks for having me. Brother. Be safe.

Dave Washington 15:18
Once again, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, got a long time friend and member of our community. He's a board member of the Armstrong Foundation, Family Foundation, and that's Victor Ingram. How you doing?

Victor Ingram 15:39
Vic? I'm doing awesome. How are you doing, Chief?

Dave Washington 15:43
I'm doing, doing doing. Well, I appreciate you coming on, because I think it's a goal and opportunity for us. So if you would be, I believe you're a military veteran.

Victor Ingram 15:56
I am a couple of times over. Okay, give us several branches of the military.

Dave Washington 16:01
Okay, give us, give our back, give our listening audience a little bit about your background, and again, just a little bit, because in this, in the next show, we're going to talk more about your military background.

Victor Ingram 16:15
Okay, absolutely. I've been the military since I was 17 years old, I signed a delayed entry contract after getting a call from a recruiter and Marine Corps recruiter, his name was, was it Teddy Smith? And he called me and he said, Hey, I heard you're going to graduate from college or super from high school. So I said, Yes. He said, How would you like to be a Marine? I said, What's a Marine? And then he went into what a marine was, right? And I was like, Okay, well, that sounds like something I can do. They offered to pay for college, and they offered to get me off the west side. So there was my opportunity. I went into the Marine Corps in 1986 as an infantryman, and then proceeded to go through the army, National Guard, the Army Reserves, and I've done a lot of active duty for combat. So I have an extensive military background. I've loved every minute of a

Dave Washington 17:16
Dave So born and raised where

Victor Ingram 17:20
West Las Vegas, hassle,

Dave Washington 17:23
one of the homegrown guys, huh? Where'd you go to school? Where'd you go to school?

Victor Ingram 17:29
I went to El Dorado high school for one year, and then I transferred and I went to vo tech. I'm a road runner,

Dave Washington 17:37
all right. So he moved around a little bit, and then join the military. Surely run the military. Oh, cool. So what kind of things did you participate in while you were in high school?

Victor Ingram 17:54
I loved basketball. I loved football, and I also ran track, and I was awful, awful at every last one of

Dave Washington 18:04
them. But you participated.

Victor Ingram 18:07
I participated. I showed up. And it's funny, Dave, I became a better athlete after high school. High School, I mean, I was working during high school, so I couldn't really apply myself to sports, but after high school, became more athletic. Of course, being in the Marine Corps, I was in the Marine Corps infantry, so it required a lot of physical prowess. We would march for like, days on in 20 mile hikes, 30 mile hikes, full gear. Yeah, it was, it was just an experience that really shaped and gave me a lot of focus.

Dave Washington 18:49
Well, once again, I hope you're available after we finish this discussion, I want to bring you back for the following Saturday show, because, okay, it just seems you You've done so much, and I just think that it'll be good for some of our younger listening audience members to hear about. So now tell us you're on the board of directors for and I had talked to dusty, and I tried to get on, she said, I can't make it, but Vicky's a board member. So tell us a little bit about how you got involved, and give us a little bit of background on the overall foundation.

Victor Ingram 19:25
You know, what's peculiar about is we met on Sunday, and dusty told me she had an assignment for me, not I need you to do something. And it reminds me so much of Sam. Oh yeah, that's it. That's the way that Sam was. Oh, yeah, but let me give you some history on my relationship with Sam Armstrong, sure. Directly out of college, I came out during 91 I graduated 91 during a recession. So little. Lee, I couldn't get arrested before I get a job. There was nothing available. Companies weren't hiring, so Sam Armstrong gave him my first professional job out of college. I was his assistant director of operations, and I know you're very familiar with the company, but at one point, Sam Armstrong had the biggest company west of the Mississippi, biggest black owned company, right? Black owned transportation company and and I started out doing just yeoman's work, a lot of clerical duties, some personnel duties, and I was getting frustrated because I feel like I'm not really growing right, and I'm just like a clerk, and I would go to Sam and complain, and he said, You need to start from the bottom and learn the business. Good advice and app and after I became more seasoned, the next thing you know, I'm managing $100,000 contracts. I'm supervising drivers. He just really gave me a chance to grow absolutely I would only be in meetings where they were discussing million dollar contracts. At that time, we had the test site contractors

Dave Washington 21:16
that yes,

Victor Ingram 21:18
we would take workers out to the test site. It was just a really nurturing environment to become a professional.

Dave Washington 21:24
So how were you about at the Tampa? 2223 Oh, yeah, that's some great experience at that age. Go ahead. Yes.

Victor Ingram 21:35
I mean, we're in the heart of the west side. Sam was very, very, he was very pro community. He was pro black, and just was an awesome man to be in the presence of. He was always giving to others, yes, and it was a spirit for me. It was very contagious. So in the early 90s, they stopped testing nuclear weapons, and there was a drawdown at the test site, so the business began to struggle, and I was laid off and went on to do other things. Ended up working for the Nevada Gaming control board, doing enforcement and doing some other career things, getting involved with business, in the military career and whatnot. But I would see Sam periodically, and we would just chop it up and talk about business. And I was just a sponge for the things that he would tell me, right? And he was just very, he was very giving with information.

Dave Washington 22:36
So how did the, how did the foundation actually start? And who, who who put that together?

Victor Ingram 22:43
The foundation started, I want to say, maybe in the late 70s, early 80s. Oh, okay, yeah, Sam. Sam was just from day one, a charitable man. So golf tournaments money to sports teams and the black community scholarships. Sam was doing this for many years prior to

Dave Washington 23:06
today, so actually, then this is just rejuvenating the foundation, basically because I know it hadn't, hadn't heard anything. That's why I'm assuming that it was brand new. But obviously you bring it back to my mind, because I remember all the different functions that Sammy and his team would put on, and I'm sure you were as involved in I know Elgin Simpson, some of the others were involved in that whole operation, doing things for the community, if you would.

Victor Ingram 23:32
I don't know if it's a rejuvenation, it's more of the baton got passed to dusty, okay? And I really want to applaud dusty, because it's like you have a vision, and to communicate that vision and to see that vision executed. I mean, that's dusty Armstrong all day long, right? When you're in a meeting with Dusty, it's as though Sam is still there. And I've committed I've committed her numerous times on just how flawlessly she has executed his vision.

Dave Washington 24:08
You know her and my daughters went to the dance school. I think it was over at Simba. But anyway, they danced together, so have a long history with her. And her sister was also an ancestor. Yeah, they were just great people to include. This is

Victor Ingram 24:23
that April?

Dave Washington 24:25
No, that was Amber and yeah, Amber and dusty used to dance together.

Victor Ingram 24:31
Yeah, yep. So I was with April. I don't know if you knew that you did what I

Victor Ingram 24:36
went to college with April. We went to community college

Dave Washington 24:39
together. Okay, cool. So So today, and so, how's it? How's the organization structured? And I'll get an indication of time here shortly, from from from West, my engineer and producer, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We got about five minutes. So we got time for you to. Give a little bit more background,

Victor Ingram 25:04
we have a board, and the board is made up of family members, the Armstrong family, my wife, myself, and we're going to have active committees as well, right to do special projects, but it's primarily your corporate board, 501, c3,

Dave Washington 25:25
excellent, excellent. So this the golf event that's coming up, and please give us an indication of those who will meet. So I trust you still got some some openings that. And again, we can't discuss price, but at least you can give them the the information, where people can go if they're interested, because this will air again this coming Saturday,

Victor Ingram 25:47
absolutely, we're going to be at the golf club, Aliante golf course, on October 4, 7am and we really want the community come out. All the proceeds go to supporting education endeavors, community endeavors within the Greater Las Vegas, greater West Las Vegas area. And that just speaks to Sam's vision of always being committed to West Las Vegas.

Dave Washington 26:18
Excellent, excellent, very good. Well, we appreciate you being a member of that board and coming on and actually talking to our listening audience. And again, if your time permits, I want to get you on the show for next week, which will, after we finished here, we'll just kind of take a break and get get into that. So once again, you guys meet, I assume, on a routine basis for the organization, and playing out what you're going to be doing to see funds to do different things within the community.

Victor Ingram 26:53
Absolutely,

Dave Washington 26:56
excellent, excellent. Well, Vic, any closing remarks, we're just about out of town. We just

Victor Ingram 27:04
want the community support. I'm looking forward to having an excellent time.

Dave Washington 27:08
Okay, all right, well, once again, Las Vegas, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and Morehead Victor Ingram, and we're going to have him on next week's show, because I want to give, I'd like for him to give further indication of his military background. I trust he did a lot to help to grow him as a professional. And he when you when he sent me his bio last night, I'm like, man, it's this young man, and I you know Vic. I've known you for a number of years, but some of the activities that you were involved in, I was totally unaware of. So but yet, I think it would be good for for some of the young folks out there in our listening audience to hear from you about directly. So once again, Las Vegas, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and we will talk to you next week where we will have Vic back on Victor Ingram, and when we're going to have a discussion with him About his military background. Talk to you next week. You

Music 28:35
Yeah, all the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare, all the pain that we bet on you bet.

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