Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Kevin Krall 0:00
You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves life coaching services. The content of Veterans Affairs plus does not reflect the views or opinions of public radio K, u and v the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Come on, you can save town

Unknown Speaker 0:45
Good morning Las Vegas. This is making moves. sponsored, Veterans Affairs plus show on 91.5, jazz and more. We have a couple of guests that we will have on shortly. Our in studio guest is Mr. Cole Bartlett with the veterans of Vietnam Veterans of America. So we'll get with him shortly. But first of all, I'd like to say Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, certainly to my wife, my daughters and all the mothers and even fathers who acted as mothers raising children out there. So definitely want to say Happy Mother's Day Misoo Phelps of veterans reporters news is hosting a personal planning and survivor spouse symposium to occur Monday May 16 2022. at Clark County Library at 1401. East Flamingo call 702496513 for for more information. The firefighters Carl Holmes executive development is to is scheduled for June 6 218 at Deloitte University in New Orleans, you can register online. We'd like to thank our audience who participated. And I heard our my producer engineer, Mr. Kevin crawl out there raising that money. So we want to thank everyone for assisting with that. Mr. Frank Hawkins encourages folks to apply for the consumption lounge, consumption lounges that will be given out through a lottery system. So please take heed of that and watch out for that information. Condolences. We certainly want to send heartfelt sympathy to Sandy and Lionel Charles on the loss of her mom Gretchen. And also lost a longtime community member, Mr. Herbert Hampton to his family, we say condolences. And then finally on condolences to the families and soldiers and civilians who have lost their lives or been injured in these various conflicts around our world. Again, this is fetchers affairs plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. Now for our first kiss. Mr. Cole Bartlett, president of Vietnam Veterans of America. Carl, what branch Did you serve in? And how long did you serve in the military?

Unknown Speaker 3:03
I was in the military for two years. I got drafted. And I was in Vietnam from 67 to 68. With the First Infantry Division,

Unknown Speaker 3:12
okay, First Infantry. Yeah. us out there, doing the real fight on the walk and understood. Please tell us a bit about your organization. How long has it been in existence? Well, we've ventured main purpose.

Unknown Speaker 3:27
We've been in existence since 1985, or before we're chapter 17. And we there we own right. And so that gives us a lot of flexibility and what we do to help veterans, we first of all, we have veteran groups using our facility. Quite a bit of started about a year ago, we had nobody use it and now I got about five or six organizations in there using it and helping veterans which

Unknown Speaker 4:04
is type organizations are ones

Unknown Speaker 4:06
well, we have I do a little bit. I have a na s Narcotics Anonymous We. We have that in there. We have Korean war vets. We have Civil Air Patrol. We have the submariners. And it's quite busy around there. Oh, good. Yeah. That's why I always wanted it and it's that way, right. So and what's the address? And it's 6424, Cheyenne, West Cheyenne drive. And it's between North Torrey Pine and rainbow.

Unknown Speaker 4:42
So how long have you actually been in that building?

Unknown Speaker 4:45
Oh, well, they they bought it. I think it was way before me. I've been there since before to 2016. Okay. And it was way. Like I said, I don't know exactly when they bought so you you are the president. Yeah, I'm just starting My second term.

Unknown Speaker 5:01
So what's your role as president for this organization

Unknown Speaker 5:05
is maintaining, like we have quite a few things that we do. And one is we have a store. We have bands out there, we have a store called Charlson outlet. And what they do is, whatever we make, they fund our chapter to run our chapter. So they give us so much during the year to run our chapter.

Unknown Speaker 5:29
So you have various functions throughout the year. Give us an example. Well,

Unknown Speaker 5:34
we had we had our veterans fair, and that's a second annual one, it was a good name we had we have coming up in between January, June 28. And July 4, we're have we have a fireworks booth, we put up we saw a firework.

Unknown Speaker 5:55
So the first one that you mentioned, what is the purpose? And what are you what is done there at that one? That to just the first one that

Unknown Speaker 6:02
mean the veterans fair? Yes. Yeah. It's it's information for different types of needs for the veterans who excellent. We try to get if you need help with your claims, if you need help with your anything dealing with veterans, we try to get people there to help.

Unknown Speaker 6:20
So is that an annual function? Oh, yeah, sorry.

Unknown Speaker 6:22
Second one. We're gonna Yeah, we're gonna keep on

Unknown Speaker 6:26
at least once a year. Yeah, at least once a year. Now, again, you mentioned fireworks.

Unknown Speaker 6:31
Yeah. We've been doing? Well, I've been doing fireworks since five years. And what we do is we're very fortunate fest before they build our fireworks booth. It's a nice one. So we put that up every year and we don't have to pay for land or the use of the fireworks. All we do is pay for the right. So we make a profit on

Unknown Speaker 6:58
that. And as a as a retired firefighter, Carl, you know, I'm interested to ensure that you are using what is called Safe and safe works.

Unknown Speaker 7:06
Yeah, we go through TNT. And we go through the fire inspections and everything else. And they're strict about it.

Unknown Speaker 7:13
Great. That's that's good to know. And again, those funds that you make doing the fireworks you actually give out through various programs. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 7:22
Yeah, I just want to we go to ROTC the high school. And I just did my first high school last week. And, you know, we got a war through the Vietnam vets, Americans and East kids.

Unknown Speaker 7:38
So is there a fee for membership? Or how does that

Unknown Speaker 7:42
it's all all I need. If you if you're interested in joining and I need you fill out an application and Camilla you bring a DD 214 And it's $50 lifetime.

Unknown Speaker 7:55
So is it is it for only for Vietnam veterans or Vietnam era veterans, both both Vietnam and Vietnam era. Okay, because I'm here I was 71 to 73. Yeah, you

Unknown Speaker 8:06
could join. So I expect you to come and join.

Unknown Speaker 8:10
Carl, we are so pleased that you were able to come on this morning because I think it's one of the prime responsibilities that we have with this show that I kind of put together after falling the lead of American Legion Post 10 is to get word out to veterans, things and possibilities and organizations that can assist him as they have need. So any closing remarks from you, sir? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 8:32
I think any any vet that qualifies to come over to our chapter, we have our meetings of the second Saturday of each month that not in the morning, try it come and try us out and see if you like it, we have a bunch of great people. And things are going well at the chapter and we if we can help you in any way, just come on to that meeting and we'll see what we can do

Unknown Speaker 8:54
for okay, you have the address and a contact number. Yeah, it's

Unknown Speaker 8:57
6424 Cheyenne Boulevard at and between rainbow and toy pine and my number is 702-401-8038. You can get a hold of me.

Unknown Speaker 9:12
Great. That's the president of Vietnam. Veterans of America, Mr. Cole. Farley, we thank you for your time sir.

Unknown Speaker 9:20
Thanks for inviting

Unknown Speaker 9:26
Good morning. Once again. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. I am Dave Washington. Your hosts. Our next guest is Dr. Granville Brown. Hey Doc, tell our listening audience about which branch and what timeframes you serve.

Don Fuller 9:43
Well, I served in the United States Air Force, I was assigned to the 19/61 communication group and the Philippine Islands. I only served the year I was relieved the duty for what an honorable discharge because of a hardship

Unknown Speaker 10:00
Okay, so what was your use in communications group? You say?

Don Fuller 10:04
Yes as communication expert.

Unknown Speaker 10:06
So let me ask you this. When did you start your pursuit of education degrees? While in or did you wait till after you had got your honorable discharge?

Don Fuller 10:18
Well, it was interesting. I didn't start my pursuit of higher ed until after I was discharged from my military service. It was very interesting. In high school, as a senior we had to write a, a paper on what we wanted to do after we graduated from high school. Well, myself being thinking, I'm gonna be an aspiring athlete. I just went to the library, grabbed the book. And the book talked about tooling God making. So after I get out of the service, my ex high school varsity coach, called me up and asked me was I interested and applying for an apprenticeship program at General Motors. And so I went into General Motors took the test. And I did not work in the plant, I was outside, but I scored the highest score. So thus, I was able to serve a tune or apprenticeship at General Motors. After the completion of that tonight, apprenticeship, another ex instructor asked me what I was doing and said, I needed to go back to school and already enrolled in Western Michigan University. He said, No, you need to go up to Ferris State University. I went to Ferris State University, obtain a bachelor's degree in technical education. And then I went to Western Michigan and got a master's degree in education. And I went to Michigan State University and did all my coursework, everything but my dissertation for a PhD at Michigan State, and went to Jacksonville University and obtained my educational Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Jacksonville college.

Unknown Speaker 12:00
So did sounds like you got two PhDs?

Don Fuller 12:04
No, I did not do my dissertation. Okay. at Michigan State. I did all my coursework, I need to do a dissertation and I just went to Jacksonville and finished up alright, the easiest route for

Unknown Speaker 12:17
me. So in your experience, what can we do? From your personal opinion to get boys more engaged in education? Because seemed like there's sometimes a loot and they think about it as even you did, I did, I'm gonna be an athlete, here I am a five eight ain't ain't got no serious hops either. So, you know, when there'll be too much of basketball going on in my life that I thought it would?

Don Fuller 12:44
Well, I think the key thing is letting them see models of black males in different fields, and seeing the success they have. And then putting together the work and desire that is needed in order to get to that area. Not everybody is going to be professional football player, professional basketball player, everybody is going to be a professional writer or a professional singer. So what I used to tell students when I was in my education endeavor was to what do you like to do? You know, maybe you like to take pictures with like, take pictures, make, make it a career, and learn how to take pictures, mentor with someone who actually does that for a living, and see the successes that you can have. I was director of occupational education in Grand Rapids communicating community colleges for 10 years. And my job was to guide those individuals who were interested in vocational hands on occupation and jobs. That said, show them a very successful path of lifelong living experiences. And you can make a lot of money, a lot of money. Great.

Unknown Speaker 13:56
All right. Now, one thing I do know is that you are very passionate as I am about the game of golf, once you develop your passion. And then also I want to ask you about your responsibility. And tell us a little bit about our audience with regard to any major goals that you may have, with the WS GA, the Western States Golf Association,

Don Fuller 14:24
golf, well, you know, as a young male going up, everybody in my area, my school, was interested in track football and basketball course. So those are the sports. I played in high school. But after getting out and getting into my educational career, 30 years I actually coached basketball and high school and community college and being very competitive. You always wanted to do something They measured your skill against some someone else. My wife, actually really get me involved in golf, I used to go to golf outings, played nine holes, didn't really care what I did how I shot. And then I found out it's very competitive. Sport absolutely requires a lot of skill and development. So I actually started golfing, I'm gonna say 2530 years ago, but didn't really take it serious to about 15 years ago. And with all my friends at the age that we are now, it's a lifelong sport that you can really do as long as you can walk. You can go off, it can hurt a little bit, right?

Unknown Speaker 15:42
Like I'm sitting you're aching right now from yesterday's golf. Kevin sitting there laughing at me said, he said Yo, Dave. Well, I should.

Don Fuller 15:54
Actually, the NFL draft was hit just in Las Vegas. And I didn't think I could, but I actually played five straight days of 18 holes of golf. So I think my body might be a little bit better shape than I thought it was.

Unknown Speaker 16:09
Excellent. So what is the major goal of the WSG?

Don Fuller 16:13
Well, what's the state Golf Association has been around since 1954. It was an organization started by a group of people from seven state and nationally to promote, and progress golf in the minority communities. We have three main missions that we really support. One is scholarships, we give away. Scholarships, we have five areas and so we give out five area scholarships. We also have what is called a wigs program, a woman in golf program. So we actually promote and recruit women to our golf club, provide instructions, and whatever's needed to promote them into the field of golf. Okay, out of our 26 clubs, six are all email golf clubs. We also promote Junior Golf, junior golf program has been around for 30 years.

Unknown Speaker 17:15
So Junior Golf is a third program.

Don Fuller 17:19
Yes, the third one is women golf scholarship. And the last one is Junior Golf. I junior golf champion, both girl and boy qualifies for the junior PGA Championship. Wow. And that you the unique thing about our program is that as in any sports, because you an athlete in that sport, doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna play that sport, right? But we have individuals who've gone through a junior golf program, who are college coaches, high school coaches, teaching professionals very successful in everyday life, because of those skills and developmental processes that they learned in the junior golf program. Right. We are very, very proud of what we've done in that endeavor.

Unknown Speaker 18:07
Absolutely. In fact, I know Jean Jackson's daughter is, is a teaching pro. And I know she came through the program I remember correctly. Yeah, absolutely. Look, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you in closing thoughts, but before that, how about your grandson, undrafted? But he said he's just got a contract. Right? Tell us a little bit about Yeah.

Don Fuller 18:29
Yeah. My grandson is was a high school football player where he really played football, basketball and track. I mean, I'll stay on track. His football team. I mean, his basketball team went to the quarterfinals. And his football team won the state championship against the Troy country date. He scored the winning touchdown 46 yard reception. From there he went to Miami of Ohio actually played five years because of the COVID. Right. I think junior year. Tied for leading the nation and pick sixes you also hit three interceptions that same year. Sign a free agent contract this past weekend with the Minnesota Vikings now the woodworks will work starts to make their 53 team roster right. So hopefully we'll be able to see Michael C. Brown Jr. Soon with the Minnesota Viking uniform.

Unknown Speaker 19:32
Great. Now you did mention your wife your wife is and how many children? How many children you guys got?

Don Fuller 19:40
550 Yeah, we have five kids. And home live in Michigan, one live in Texas. All of them. I guess at this age, it taking care of themselves. My daughter just completed her math master's degree in data analytics at LSU. And she's a data analytics manager with the ICE T Corporation. So,

Unknown Speaker 20:11
doc in 30 seconds, give us some final thoughts. And again, we appreciate you coming on because you're, you're a veteran, and you're doing wonderful things, in terms of educating our youth. And those are applaudable things.

Don Fuller 20:26
Well, I always say we all need to make sure we mentor and talk to our young youth. Show them the good ways in which they can do things. If they can be very successful when they look at us. We just have to look back at them and talk to them. Talk to them, communicate with them, and telling you mind them, do the right thing all the time. Great.

Unknown Speaker 20:49
All right. Dr. Granville Brown, golfer extraordinaire, president of ws GA, we appreciate your time my friend. See you soon.

Unknown Speaker 21:05
All right. Good morning. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. With Kevin Kroll as our engineer, producer, director given keeping me on track. I am Dave Washington. I'm pleased to be here with our final guests of this morning show. We have Mr. Nathan Aragon good works. It's a staffing organization. You are on the show a few months ago. Nathan. Tell us a little bit about what's been going on lately.

Unknown Speaker 21:34
Well, first of all, looks like I got promoted last time I was made to navigate this summer. Mr. Nate.

Unknown Speaker 21:45
You've been on a lot of programs. Nathan, you've been on? You've been on TV shows, you know, so we want to hold on anyone for five years and more. We want to play you know,

Unknown Speaker 21:59
it's it's a privilege to be on the show a lot has happened since last time we spoke as you mentioned, we were featured on Bloomberg and CNBC. Our company was along with some of our partners, we we've had some coverage on some of the Hispanic television channels University on and some coverage in the review, journal, etc. So definitely what is being spreading about our platform. From a business perspective, we've tripled our user base since we last spoke. So a couple 1000 People that have registered on the app, we're putting people to work, which is most important, people who are unemployed, unemployed, you're looking for extra income and looking for, you know, in a more seamless and convenient fashion. And that's really, what's most exciting for us is that we are able to put money in people's pockets. Right. And I think that's really our mission is to do it in a responsible way that protects workers rights, and we've added new customers, we've got some of the biggest players on the on the Las Vegas Strip, you know, engaged with us and helping to put people to work. So a lot of really exciting developments.

Unknown Speaker 23:25
So you mentioned areas of employment. So what give us a few of the areas that you guys actually get.

Unknown Speaker 23:31
Okay. All right. So, you know, we've had just recently I'll just use the NFL draft as as an example. You know, banquet event cooks, dishwashers, convention porters, bartender apprentices. I think I said dishwashers, you know, we've we've employed clerks, you know, we've employed housekeepers, and, you know, the list of, of job classifications is growing as employers in the city begin to see the the power and the value that this platform can offer to them as well. You know, we're constantly adding new job specification that was just a few of the roles that we've been actively filling.

Unknown Speaker 24:19
Excellent. So Nathan, as far as somebody wanting to apply, what's the process? What did he do?

Unknown Speaker 24:27
And that's the beauty of our platform right? Unlike going through the traditional channels, where you have to go in and you know, fill in long forms, whether there be paper forms, online forms, being herded like cattle in in a ballroom for a job fair, or, you know, relying on peer referrals, etc. With these processes are very laborious as lot of friction. A lot of times, people just abort the process. Our process is much simpler. You can go to a As an employer, as someone who's seeking work, you can go to either the Google Play Store or the iPhone app store and download our app, which is called Good Works lead, good work find you again, G double o DWRX. That good work finds you. It's very simple process to download the app. And then you have all of your documents, health cards, alcohol cards, you know, social security cards, your driver's license, and whatever other required licenses, you know, for your particular job preference, it takes I've seen people finish up the the onboarding process in 10 minutes, you compare our process to, you know, the some of the existing processes that people have to go through, it's a lot more seamless, it's a lot more user friendly.

Unknown Speaker 25:49
Well, I'd say this, to our listening audience, particularly those veterans out there, we certainly this, the primary responsibility of this show was to try to engage and get things done that will assist veterans. So for those of you who are looking for some additional employment, this is a great opportunity. So this is a tremendous program that you guys put together. Let me ask you this, Nathan, I don't know if you're at liberty to share. But it would be interesting, I believe, for folks to know that no part of your staff was in Russia, part of your staff was in Ukraine. Could you? Can you? Do you have the liberty to say a few words about that?

Unknown Speaker 26:27
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I, you know, obviously, the crisis in the war in Ukraine really is definitely unfortunate, in many ways, and you know, our team have been impacted. Personally, for the Ukrainians, we thankfully, all of them are physically in good health, many of them have had to relocate to the other parts of the country, primarily the west of Ukraine, many, some have been lucky enough to actually leave the country, and then find refuge in Europe, in Germany, in France, in Turkey, etc. And others, you know, others have actually decided to, you know, to join the fight. So others have joined the resistance either from a logistics perspective, others have taken up arms, and I'm telling you, you know, one thing I realized about the Ukrainian people, they are a very resilient, and I've met many of them over, in work with many of them over the course of setting up this business, they are very resilient, very proud. People that, that have a tremendous amount of courage. And, you know, I've been very principled, and I'm telling you, these guys, you know, even in the midst of all of this, these challenges, and, you know, the war that's happening, they still, you know, find ways to deliver great work, and it just just, you know, just keep moving on, I guess, just keep, keep on keeping on and just, I think it's a credit to, to, you know, to them, and I think just the nature of people are rushing stuff, you know, these are, again, not to be confused with any of the political decision makers in the country that decided to manage Ukraine, but these are very well meaning individuals want to do the right thing certainly had a have a great amount of empathy for the other team members across the border. We've had some challenges, obviously, you know, from, you know, just, you know, like in terms of payment, etc. That's been sort of the biggest challenge, but nonetheless, you know, everyone is, you know, alive and, and trying to be as well as as possible given the circumstance.

Unknown Speaker 28:46
Well, that's great news. Nathan, we will certainly have you back on the show in a few months and just continue to get updates. So we want to thank you for this opportunity for you to get the word out even more about your organization to our listening audience. And we thank you. We think Mr. Bartlett and Dr. Graham Hill Brown and Nathan Ommegang Mr. Nathan Aragon as we close out Veterans Affairs, plus, we want to certainly encourage those vets who need help to contact our service officer, Tony Marshal at 301-537-9465. Thank you all have a great day. Thank you. Thanks, Nathan.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai