Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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0:00:00
This is a KUNV Studios original program.

Wesley Knight
0:00:04
You're listening to special programming sponsored by Making Moves Life Coaching Services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz & More, the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Dave Washington
0:00:51
Good morning, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and More. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I have a long time adopted, I believe, family member in the house today, Mark. He is a good guy that's been around this town for a number of years and he's a veteran. So we're going to have him to talk to us about a few things here shortly. I certainly want to announce again the passing and condolences to the family members, all of our family members on the loss of our sister, Kathy. We call her Kat. She passed away and we had her memorial this past weekend. So I think it was, well, the main one, of course, was Belisha, but she had some assistance from her sisters. So we are grateful for having a great outcome for her at the Church of Reese, Pastor Reese at the Majestic House of Worship, a nice little church right on H Street. So we're pleased that he was able to allow us to have her services there. So with that, I'm going to talk about a few birthdays that will occur and have occurred in the month of September. Uncle LC Kennedy has a birthday this month. My youngest sister, Monita Armstrong. God bless her always, a busybody and a long time waitress downtown. And people love her because she does such a great job. Then, of course, Fire Chief Eugene Campbell, one of my colleagues, birthday is this month as well, and gone but not forgotten is my mother-in-law, Mary Fountain. So again, to those folks who were here. Oh, and belatedly, Aubrey Campbell. He was, I cover a lot each show, Mark, about the things that are going on in the lives of veterans, and I don't try to tell people who to vote for, but certainly I encourage them to study the issues, make sure that their registration is current, and then go vote when the time comes. So with that, I have some other things to say in between the end of the show and finishing up with Mark here. Mark, how are you, sir?

Dave Washington
0:03:19
Good morning, David. I'm blessed. I'm blessed and really glad to be back in the city. I left here, lived here for about 26 years, and you're correct, your mom was my sister. So I was adopted into this family over 40 years ago, and one of the greatest gifts that God ever gave me was your family. Moved to San Diego about 20 years ago and I came in for Kat's funeral that you just got done talking about. It just was a blessing to be with all the family and I'm honored and privileged to be here with you today.

Dave Washington
0:03:51
Now as I mentioned, you are a veteran. Tell our listening audience what branch and how long did you serve?

Dave Washington
0:03:57
Yes, I am a veteran, a very proud veteran. I served in the United States Air Force from 1984 to 1985. I had signed up for a four-year term and I had a very serious automobile accident active duty. I was stationed in Victorville, California which was a small base then called George Air Force Base. The government has since dissolved it and the Air Force Base is no longer there. But it was about a three-hour drive from Las Vegas. So a bunch of us buddies on the base that were from Vegas, we would drive home every weekend, spend time with our families here in Las Vegas, and head back to the base late Sunday night or even early Monday morning to be there at our duty station at the time. Well, this one particular weekend, nobody was around to ride with, and I was on my own. And on the El Cajon Pass, I was hit by an 18-wheeler Peterbilt semi-truck. And he hit me in the driver's side rear, and I spun out and did a donut, and then he hit me again in the driver's side door. And the car just folded up like Saran wrap and Reynolds wrap, and glass broke and shattered, and the car rolled and donated. And I cracked my spine and just a lot of injuries. So I was discharged from the military military and given thankfully 100% service-connected disability VA compensation.

Dave Washington
0:05:21
Wow. Man, I had no idea about the accident. You know, you get to know things as you live later on in life or as you get later in life. So that accident, how long had you been in there?

Dave Washington
0:05:36
About a year, not quite a year. When I was discharged I had just passed one year. So it was like one year and two days or something that I had served. So what was your job classification? I was a 702, what they call a 702, 30, I don't even know if they still have it. It was an admin specialist. Basically I was a secretary in the military.

Dave Washington
0:05:54
No, I know a number of people who've had those particular types of jobs in the military and that is one that's more easy, if there's such a thing as easy, to transition from the military into civilian life. And what's Kat's granddaughter? The one that looks like she's about 12 years old, she's 18 just joined, and she is an air traffic controller. Wow. That's what her MOS is. In fact, that's her advanced training she's in now. And I told her, I said, you will be, there's always a shortage of air traffic controllers. So you picked a good job classification that could roll into civilian life.

Dave Washington
0:06:35
Yeah, I did. And you know, it's funny you said that because the Lord used that, that little bitty training I had. And when I got out of the military, some years later, I went to work at a bank. I started out part-time as a teller and I left as a vice president. So God just elevated me all the way up to the top. You know, couldn't do no better than that.

Dave Washington
0:06:54
I'm telling you, for sure. So you're the administrative type, OK? So where were you actually born and raised?

Dave Washington
0:07:02
David, I was born in Chicago. Born and raised in Chicago, in the hood, on the south side of Chicago. Lived there until I was not quite 18 years old. And then I left and came out to Las Vegas and that's how I ended up getting in your family. I ended up going to a church on the West Side. One of my buddies, I had already joined the Air Force and my duty station of takeoff, intake station was in Phoenix, Arizona. So I came out here to visit my buddy that was already stationed in Nellis and then he invited me to go to a service on the West Side Morningstar at the time. And long story short, I went to that service, and at the end of that service, this woman hollered out, wait a minute, tell that white boy he can't leave here yet. He hadn't spoke to me. And I turned around, and she had a Bible under one arm and a purse under the other, and she came up to me and she said, Rena Watkins is my name. I just want to tell you that Jesus loves you, and I do too. And the rest is history. That was the beginning and that's how I got adopted into this great family and 45 years later I'm still here.

Dave Washington
0:08:10
That is very interesting. Yeah, Grandma Reno was a very forward person, you know.

Mark
0:08:15
Yes.

Dave Washington
0:08:16
She get right on and my mother has similar characteristics even though she was my mother's, what would you call it, stepmother. Correct. Step mom correct because my mother's mother passed when she was I think eight nine years old, but yeah, miss Rena What if it and you know what and my daughter makes tea cakes? But miss Rena's tea cakes were the absolute best Oh, yeah, April makes a good tea cake But I still can taste the ones that grandma Rena made back in the day

Dave Washington
0:08:46
Oh and you talk about bold if you remember one of her famous infamous I call it mama isms was she'd always say, Rena Watkins is my name and I don't throw a brick and hide my hand.

Dave Washington
0:08:54
That is wild, man.

Dave Washington
0:08:55
So from Chicago, huh?

Dave Washington
0:08:57
And then you joined the Air Force from Chicago and then came here? Correct.

Dave Washington
0:09:01
I joined from Chicago and then they told me that my intake, as you know, when you join the military, certain intake centers across the country, and the intake center for the Air Force at that time was in Phoenix, Arizona. So I had to come to Phoenix to go through intake. And then after the physical and after the processing center in Phoenix, then they flew us to San Antonio, Texas, because Lackland Air Force Base is the training center still to this day for the Air Force. So that was the process. So I thought I'd kill some time and come out here and hang out with some buddies from the Air Force right God had another plan David He had another plan and he had set it up so that I'd meet your grandma and and and and not only meet her I'll add I also met him so that's the one thing that that that your grandma and you all the Jenkins and the Watkins family have done for me is They helped introduce me to Jesus Christ I had My life was messed up and I didn't even think the military was going to take me because I had so many issues

Dave Washington
0:10:03
But to God be the glory. I'll say this. I am still trying to find my way as it relates to Religion, I've been baptized my dear my mother Eugenio Watkins white. Oh, man. She used to take us to church a couple times a week, you know, and I know how important it is to give yourself to God and try to follow that lead in terms of doing the right thing, etc. But I'm still a work in progress, if you will. And Marsha, my wife, she thinks I'm crazy. She says, you just listen to anything that anybody says. Not really, but the bottom line is I'm a God-believing and a God-fearing man, no doubt about that. And in terms of where you were inducted, I was inducted as well in Phoenix. You know, we can't-

Dave Washington
0:10:57
Interesting.

Dave Washington
0:10:57
Yeah, I got drafted and the intake station was there in Phoenix, Arizona. And from there, I went to Fort Ord, California, where I took my basic training and advanced training. Cause my advanced training was to be what's called a missile crewman. I had a marijuana possession just as I turned 18. So they said, no, we can't give you a top seat.

Dave Washington
0:11:20
Misdemeanor, misdemeanor.

Dave Washington
0:11:22
Right.

Dave Washington
0:11:23
So anyway, the next thing, they sent me the mechanics. I said, I don't want to be a mechanic. And I know you fellow veterans out there have heard this story a few times, but I must tell it for the sake of Mark to just let him know how I arrived at where I arrived. I said, I don't want to be a mechanic. And I had taken auto mechanics in high school, so I wasn't afraid to get my hands dirty. But I said, look, I watched my mother bake cakes and I want to be a baker. Cause they said, what do you want to do, Washington? I said, I want to be a baker. They said, we don't have baking here, but we have a cook school and it has a chapter on baking. I said, I'll take it. So that's how I became a cook. And it was a good ride. You know, like I said, I got court martial, but I said to myself, I'm not going out here with no bad discharge. So I asked him, how do I get out with an honorable? They say, well, you go back through your basic training and, you know, get a new assignment, blah, blah, blah. So I did all that. And thank God I did that because otherwise I would have never got into the fire service because I scored like 86, 87 on the test, got my five military points and there I was.

Dave Washington
0:12:29
Yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, David, but we were so proud of you because you were the first African-American fire chief in the city of Las Vegas. Is that correct or am I wrong?

Dave Washington
0:12:39
No, that's correct. And one thing people sometimes, they get it kind of twisted. They say I was the first black fire chief in the state of Nevada. No, I was not. That would be Chief Earl Green with the Clark County Fire Department. So I always want to straighten it out with people. But you know, like I told people in my role and my responsibility. I just happen to be a black man who was the fire chief, you know, don't be calling me the black fire chief. You know, I got into with the press. I got into the press and said you guys don't call Mark Vinson the Caucasian finance director. So why y'all calling me the black fire chief? I'm the fire chief who happens to be black if you want to state it that way I can deal with that They look at it. This dude is a firecracker. Yes, I am I expect to be respected and like I say it had nothing to do with my race in terms of my leadership from my standpoint yeah, I was about to do the good for for the All the staff as well as the citizenry and that's the dear to the best of my ability for six years

Dave Washington
0:13:34
And you know, it's interesting that you brought race into it because I myself or your listeners, I'm white. I was born and raised in Chicago and with your family, obviously being black, African-American, when your grandma adopted me and helped raise me up and rear me up in the Lord, I was never identified as just Mark. It was always Miss Rena's white son, Miss Rena's white son, the white boy that hung around. And I didn't mind that one bit. As a matter of fact, it kind of enabled me even more to understand the need that I had to understand what God was doing in the relationship between she and me. Because you know the story about them when they came from the South and the way they were so mistreated in their generation, and then for God to put a white person, a white kid, into their lives and put them into mind it was never a struggle it was God fit from the beginning It was just your grandma Rena used to say she and I had a hand and glove fit We never had any color any racial issues, so you know for anyone that's listening I just want to say that you know of course there's races. That's a fact We're all a race of some sort But we can get beyond that and look into each other for who we are who the people are as human beings rather than the race and we'll live in a better world, it'll be a better place.

Dave Washington
0:14:55
No doubt. In fact, I had no idea how far back you had gone. Met her when you were 18. Yes, sir. My goodness. Yes, sir. My goodness. Yeah. So you mentioned that when you got out of the military, you went into the banking industry for a while.

Dave Washington
0:15:12
Correct, correct. When I first got out because I had a cracked spine and when they discharged me I was in a back brace for a while still under physical therapy, etc, etc And and unfortunately my body had shut down to where? Basically, I was like a little wimp is the best way to describe it. I couldn't lift any more than five pounds, right? Well a feathers five pounds, you know, so basically I couldn't do anything It took a couple of good years for that healing process to take place into my back and my spine and my lower body, etc. So I bopped around doing whatever kind of jobs I wanted to do until I had the full healing. I was working part-time. I think I worked at Wendy's and Charleston part-time and McDonald's and that kind of stuff, you know. And it took a good about 10 years before I really went to the bank. And then when I went to the bank, like I said, I started out as a teller and then they liked what I did and then they put me over to tellers. And they liked what I did. And they put me in the personal banking. And they liked what I did. And they put me over to personal bankers. And then they put me as assistant branch manager. Then they put me as branch manager. And then they promoted me to regional vice president.

Mark
0:16:16
God be the glory.

Dave Washington
0:16:18
So what are you doing these days?

Dave Washington
0:16:19
I'm doing ministry. I'm a chaplain. And I minister with all kind of people. Anywhere that Lord opens our doors. We go to prisons, we go to jails, we go to rehab institutions, we go to NA meetings, Narcotics Anonymous, we go to AA meetings, we go to different associated meetings with anybody that has any type of addiction that they're helping to get recovery from. And we're blessed to just sit in when we're invited and we just go in and pray for them and let them know, whatever their struggle, whatever their issue, whatever their addiction, Jesus Christ is the answer. The world today is looking for help. They're going to various rehabs and they're going to various therapists and they're looking and searching and seeking constantly, how do I get out of this mess that I'm in? And I just want to share with your listeners today, Jesus Christ is the answer.

Dave Washington
0:17:14
Okay. So what recommendations or suggestions would you give to anyone that's considering joining the military?

Dave Washington
0:17:21
Wow. It would be the best decision that you could ever make, in my opinion. If you're disciplined enough and if you can handle the discipline, let me make sure that's clear, because the military requires a lot of discipline. And if you can handle that discipline, it'll be the best decision you could ever make. If you go into a branch, let's just say you want to go into the Marine Corps, and if you sign up and you're one or two years and you don't like the Marine Corps anymore, you can cross over into another branch. You can go into the Navy. You can go into the Air Force. You might be able to try all five branches. Now there's the Space Force, the new branch. So you can cross-train into those if you want, but the perks and the benefits are unbelievable. The military will take care of you for the rest of your life. And also, if you get married and have a spouse and have children, they'll take care of your spouse and your children. So it's an honor to serve your country, but in return, the country will recompense back to you for your time that you put in the military.

Dave Washington
0:18:21
Well said. All right. We had Mark Simon. He's a good guy. I didn't know how long he had been a part of our family, but I know now, back since he was 18 years old, thank you, Mark, for coming on the show. And I trust that people take to heart what you said about following Jesus Christ. For sure, you've got to have some kind of base spiritually for your life.

Dave Washington
0:18:45
Thank you, Mark.

Mark
0:18:46
Amen.

Dave Washington
0:18:47
Thank you for having me, David. God bless you. Thank you. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and More. We'll talk on the other side.

Dave Washington
0:18:52
Good day once again. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and More.

Dave Washington
0:18:56
I'm your host Dave Washington. I was hoping to have Faye Duncan Daniel on this morning report on how her event turned out in July that she had down on the river. I spoke to her, and it was a very nice affair. And I want to soon get an update, and I'm hoping that it will be an annual event, but she's not very sure if that will be the case. She had some group to actually reach – some group actually reached out to her and asked her to run this project. But it was about the river and its importance to the city of Helena, Arkansas, as well as Arkansas in general. So certainly want to get a fade on sometime in the first half of the show and Mark is a veteran and I didn't realize he had been adopted by my grandma Rena when he was 18 years of age. So Mark's been around our family for quite a number of years. Also in that vein, he did remind me of one of the birthday in September that seemingly had failed to mention, but I was going to mention on my next show, but I'll mention it right now. And that's the matriarch of our family, Magnolia Kennedy. She is a star worth and keeps us all on point and we love her very, very much. And I wanted to acknowledge you, A-Mack, for your birthday coming up at the end of September. So we appreciate you more than you'll ever know. And she's done some wonderful things for Marsha and I as I transition in this whole issue with my health issue with this cancer, but we continue to pray and continue to try to be a good patient is what I'm trying to do by doing some things to help myself. With that, I'm going to roll into the whole issue of, again, voting, not telling you who to vote for but I encourage everyone out there to make sure that you check out and ensure that you are registered to vote because sometimes you get purged and don't even know it so number one make sure your registration is current get yourself educated on the various issues particularly that are important to you as an individual, and then take the appropriate action. And by that, I mean vote. I think it's November 5th, if I remember correctly. But the bottom line, our votes are important and they do count. I want to talk a little bit more about and you guys know that I've read certain parts about Project 2025. Well, there was another one I happen to be going over last night, and it's called Schedule F, Executive Order from the former president. And essentially what they're talking about doing is they want to put some restrictions on overtime. And I urge you to read that. I forget what page it is on in the overall project. Project 2025 document, but they are looking at putting some hurt on the whole interest of overtime. And certainly we talked about what they want to do to VA and a number of government workers, they want to take them out and put in folks who are basically, I guess they would be more like political appointments versus civil servants where you get certain classifications and you're a long-term and knowledgeable in most cases government employee. Because I think it's important for us to be aware of what they, and I'm talking about the folks of Project 2025, are hoping to do. Another thing I talked about some time ago, and that's the Department of Education where they like to get that out, take it out and do a number of things that I think will be harmful to our overall population. So these things we must make ourselves knowledgeable of and take the time to address these things. Because if we don't, you're gonna look up and say, man, what in the heck happened? Where did things go wrong? Because I believe that we as a community, and I'm talking about a world community, because America, we are part of the world, and I think we all got to be considerate of one another. And, you know, as I go about my day, I see a lot of homeless people, and I know a number of them are veterans and I think that we can do a better job With that, but again, I just want to reiterate how important it is for us to one make sure your registration is current Educate yourself about the various issues related not only on the national but on a local level as well And then vote when the time comes and I believe it's November 5th. So please, please, please get yourself in a position where you won't go there on the day of the election and say, I'll come to vote. And they say, oh, your registration is not is not current. So get on top of that now, because it's very important. And also, as far as this show and West brought it to my attention a couple of shows ago. I've done over 100 shows, you guys. And you can go to wherever you get your podcast information. Well, I guess there's different ways to access podcasts. And this is a podcast that you can listen to the various shows that we had. And like I said, West said, over 100. Well, if you're on the other side of the world, you can listen to this show. And we come on on Saturday mornings at 7 a.m., every Saturday morning. So we appreciate our audience for listening to the shows. And again, it's called Veterans Affairs Plus. And the last couple of shows, I've been doing a lot more on the plus side is so I have the ability to talk about things that I think are important to our overall community. And I'm talking about not only us as American citizens, but us as world citizens, because to me, one thing that I keep encouraging people to do is pray for peace in the Middle East. We can talk about who's right, who's wrong, but there is a lot of lives being lost. And I know in war, you know, there's a lot of civilian casualties that occur. But when we can eliminate that, we should be about that because some kind of way along the line of living life, we have lost our humanity. I think it's people just don't seem to care about one another. You know, as long as I got mine, I'm not concerned about you, your health, or anything else for that matter. So, the bottom line is I think that we need to recapture our humanity because it's important for us to have a love and appreciation for all human beings. And we're going to certainly have our differences. Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that an organization that I have been a member of since I became, since I served as fire chief for Las Vegas Fire and Rescue, is the Metro Chiefs have put out a document showing support and encouraging fire departments that are members of Metro to certainly do things and in fact, do a survey in support and just recognize D-I-E, what, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity. They are in full support, and I'm pleased to hear that. So those of you out there who are firefighters, we need to make sure we get on top of that and make sure we support it. And I can tell you that in an upcoming show, we're going to have Sheriff Kevin McMayhill. Kevin is just an outstanding guy. And one of the things that he's embarking upon is looking out for the interests of those police officers, those public safety officers who are having problems a lot of times. And I mentioned this on this show several times where when one of our engines rolled on its side and we had four of our personnel to be injured and one more serious than the other. In fact, he became a quadriplegic. And I can tell you that Brenda Donahoe, our incident debriefing person, she came by my office at least three, four times. Chief, we need to talk. No, we don't need to talk, I'm good. Unbeknownst to me, I'm carrying the weight of this whole accident on my shoulders because it happened on my watch as fire chief. And I take those things to heart because our firefighters, men and women, they put theirselves on the line for our citizens every day. And when that occurred, again, it was on my watch. So I felt obligated to be there for those individuals. But by the same token, I didn't even look out for myself. In fact, it was at in a class at the Carl Holmes Executive Development Institute down at Dillard University, where one of the fire personnel, one of our students, she was the captain. She said, Have you ever been debriefed on that whole incident? And I start crying. And the tears just came and they came.

Dave Washington
0:29:07
But you know what?

Dave Washington
0:29:08
I never cried after that again because the pressure that I didn't realize I was carrying was now off of me. But God rest his soul that that officer who was a paraplegic, Captain Theo Adams, lived 15 years. And we want to say once again, we appreciate his service for Las Vegas Fire and Rescue. wrap up. So we will talk to you next week on this show Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 wrap up. So we will talk to you next week on this show Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and More. We appreciate Mark for being on the show this morning. Talk to you next week.

Transcribed with Cockatoo