Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Oscar Mike Radio– Vicki Cody - Author, Pilot, and Army Wife

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Oscar Mike Radio– Vicki Cody - Author, Pilot, and Army Wife · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

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That's mvp.va.gov Thanks a lot. Hello and welcome again to OM
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Radio. I'm Marine Corps veteran and
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your host. My name is Travis.
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It's all good and we're getting to some really good stuff and I
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love. These kinds of guests coming up
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got approached, said, hey, I got this person I want you to talk
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to. She's an author two times.
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She's an Army wife, Army mom, and you know, comes heavy, as we
5:19
say, in the Marine Corps. And I started looking around.
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I'm like, man, we're we're just going to scratch the surface.
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Vicki Cody, Army Wife Author, Welcome to OM Radio.
5:32
Well, thank you, Travis. I'm glad to be here.
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I'm excited about this interview.
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I, I, I started digging in. I'm like, wait a minute, wait a
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minute. This isn't just, you know, some,
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you know, mom or some dad doing a little right?
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Like, like you're full throttle, ma'am, You live, you know, all
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gas, no brakes. This is amazing.
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So before we get into how you got you to be an author and what
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you do now, you got to start somewhere.
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And from what I understand you started.
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Over 50 years ago in this, this line of of work shall we say,
6:07
how did you get started in the army life and and what led you
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to say, you know what, I'm I'm in.
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I'm fully in on this. Well, Travis, I I had no clue.
6:18
I had no clue. When I met Dick Cody in the
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summer of 1969. I was at high school, 16 years
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old. I fell madly in love with this
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guy. He was a kinetic West Point.
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We started dating. I knew nothing about the
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military. None of nobody in my family had
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ever served. All I knew was he was, he was a
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cadet. And you know, I was, I was
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falling in love. And I thought, well, you know,
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we'll just see where this goes. And it just evolved.
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And we dated, you know, through high school, college.
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And then he was already stationed in Hawaii.
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We get. Well, we make plans to get
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married and then we have to postpone because of the fall of
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Saigon. He was on a plane to to go
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there. Anyway, Long story short, you
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know, I I think like with so many people you meet, you fall
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in love, you never know where it's going to lead you.
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If somebody had said to either one of us or both of us, you're
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going to be doing this journey for the next, you know, 40
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something years. I saw my husband go from Cadet.
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The four-star general. I never dreamed that that's
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where it would all lead and that we would have two sons, Both
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sons would go into the military. They're still serving on active
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duty. They're both Apache helicopter
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pilots like their dad. You know, I never dreamed, never
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dreamed any of this. And I think that's what's so
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much fun. You just kind of go with it.
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And that's what I did. I I just, you know, decided I'm
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going to go on this adventure with him and, you know, take the
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good with the bad, of course, probably back then I didn't
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think of it that way. You know, this is now me talking
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at, you know, the age of 70 and looking back at all of this.
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You know, at the time there were ups and downs.
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Obviously, you've been in the military.
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You know what it's like. It's not all smooth sailing.
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But I wouldn't trade one bit of it.
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It was it was the best thing for the two of us, for our sons and
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we just lived the life and and you know took the good times
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when they came and got through the challenges.
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And I think, I think that's mostly what has kept Dick and
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Vicki together for so long because we've been through a lot
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and and I think that just well, it either breaks you apart or
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strengthens you. Vicki, I got to tell you, you
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know, I'm at a point in my life where I I don't believe in love.
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Like I I think love is a mirage, you know?
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It is there. It's real.
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And then I hear something like this and I'm like, I'm just
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sitting here dumbfound. I'm like, if that's not love,
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Vicki, what is? What is?
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I mean through the hard times. You don't even sugar coat like
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there were hard times, but we made it.
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Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to say, I
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mean, there were times I, you know, maybe I didn't want to
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move to where we were going or he was leaving again.
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And I had two little kids at home and and I'm trying to take
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care of the house and the kids. And I didn't know, you know, he
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was in a dangerous business, flying Apache helicopters.
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I didn't know what the next day was going to bring.
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We had so many friends over the years die in crashes, not even
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in combat, Just, you know, out on a mission.
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And the helicopter crashes. You know you go through stuff
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like that And I I guess I was just we were always committed to
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each other. We really were from the from the
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very beginning. You know we weren't going to
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let. I always used to say I'm not
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letting army life come between us, even though it did a lot.
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But I tried so hard to keep it from doing that.
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And and you know, there were ebbs and flows, like in any
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relationship, but boy, you know. We look back now and we're so
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lucky and so blessed that we've reached this point in our lives
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and he's semi retired. He's still working at the
10:13
Pentagon off and on. He he's never going to give it
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up. He's had a job in the corporate
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world for 10 years, but he's he's always back at the
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Pentagon. But you know we have the the
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means now and the time to travel, spend time with the
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grandkids, our sons and their families.
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I mean it's life is good. We're very lucky.
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So I've read a lot of military books and you know, the officer
10:40
side of the house where they talk about going through the
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military and also most of the guys sometimes think the
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officers just live and with feather beds and you know, full
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staff, so on and so forth. And it's not always that way.
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And one of the things I was very curious about is some of the
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books and some of the men I've talked to have said, you know.
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It's it's easy to think of the wife as the dependent, but he's
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like believe it or not though you know your wife is part of
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the package, there's an expectation of of service and
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behavior and accountability to help that person's career move
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forward. Now I was curious is, is that
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just anecdotal or or did you find that to be true where maybe
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you weren't? You know, flying, you know,
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front seat in that Apache, but you had a part in your in your
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husband's career on some level. Oh, absolutely.
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And and we approached it that way, you know, in the early
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years, because I married him in 1975, S in the 70s, even the
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early 80s, it was still very old school as far as the, you know,
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social obligations, responsibilities.
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Not that I never felt real pressure.
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I just. I enjoyed it.
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I felt like I was part of the team.
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My husband commanded a lot of different units to include,
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well, I mean everything from a company command battalion.
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He he commanded the 160th Special Operations Aviation
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Regiment. He commanded the division.
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But every step of the way, I loved the fact that I was part
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of his team, the two of us together.
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Were, you know, trying to have an impact on the whole unit, the
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soldiers, their families. I loved it.
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Now, not everybody does. You know, over the years I met
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other army spouses that chose not to participate as much.
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I found that by being part of his life, my husband's life, it
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made it so much more enjoyable for me.
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I didn't want to be on the outside looking in.
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I want to be in it all in. And and again, I think that
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bonded us too, because we went through these commands.
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We went through, you know, even deployments, you know, Desert
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Storm, He was a battalion commander.
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And so I was back home advocating for the families, you
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know, running the family support group.
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If I hadn't had that responsibility, that role, I
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think I would have been a little bit lost.
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I I just loved. I love being part of it, but I
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can't say that I ever felt like. Anyone put that on me, You know
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what I mean? I'd never really felt the
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pressure. And certainly as we evolved from
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the 70s to the 80s to the 90s, more and more I would see
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spouses that just simply would say I choose not to participate.
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So they would maybe have they would designate someone to run
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the family readiness group or whatever.
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And and more and more, you know, the spouses have jobs, careers,
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or they choose not to move with their spouse.
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The geographic bachelor, right? A team effort, yeah.
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Well The thing is, I I had Lieutenant Colonel, he was a
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Cobra pilot and and and talked about how you know his
14:11
commander's wife and some of the other wives in the unit.
14:16
Were were their right hand. I mean you know there were
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things that a wife could do to make things happen that and and
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smooth over things with you know the enlisted crew or the junior
14:29
officers in a way they couldn't and and it seemed like they
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really became to rely on them to your point like like they were
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part of it. They all knew each other.
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They all understood what was going on and the the senior
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wives. Were able to navigate the army
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system to to help out in the way that a lot of people don't know
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about. Right.
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And and also, I mean now that I think about it, since you
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mentioned that as my husband went up in rank, you know all of
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a sudden one day he's he's a one star general, then two that
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suddenly he's a four-star general and the Vice Chief of
15:04
Staff of the Army. And I had grown with him every
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step of the way, but as he went up and ranked, he needed.
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He needed me as his sounding board at the end of the day.
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He had a whole entourage of people around him, people that
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did for him, people that probably told him what he wanted
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to hear. He came home at the end of the
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day. I was that he always said that
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he was a general at the office and a Sergeant at the house or a
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private at the house, because I kind of ran things at home, but
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but I was there to to make sure, you know, that he was.
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Balanced and and his well-being that that's what I was looking
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out for in those last years probably the last 10 years he
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was in the army when he was you know high-ranking.
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I really wanted to be that for him that support that sounding
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board. So it's funny how over the years
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my role changed gradually and and by the time he was the Vice
16:07
Chief of Staff of the army. Well, even before that, when he
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was a two star general, that's when our sons started coming
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into the Army after September 11th and they started deploying.
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And my husband and I will travel around visiting the spouses and
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families at the different posts across the United States.
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And as we met with them, he and I, we had such credibility with
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these families because our sons were over in Iraq.
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I mean, they were. To get twice our sons deployed
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in the same unit. So we were living what they were
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living. And I think it was, it was a
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real positive, oh, I don't know the word.
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They look to us like, OK, those two get it.
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We weren't just a general and a general's wife.
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We had kids that were deployed as well.
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And I think that was some of the most important work that Dick
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and I did together as a couple. And is the parents of soldiers
17:09
during those war years. Yeah.
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Let me ask you about that because you know this is, this
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is you know not common for me or people.
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Your your husband flew the a 64 Apache.
17:21
My Miami W was was Hawk. He might know what this is.
17:25
It's a radar system to design and shoot down aircraft and and
17:28
helicopters. So we got the practice against
17:30
Apaches every now and then. But it's one thing to fly, put
17:35
yourself in danger. It's another thing.
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Now you commanded people. What was it like for him to
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realize that his sons were taking on the same risk, dangers
17:45
and hazards that he had taken on?
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And I mean, there had to be a different feeling for you both.
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But you're right, it was a turning point.
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I talk about that actually in each book.
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And that turning point came just after September 11th and our
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oldest son was in flight school at Fort Rucker.
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Our younger son was at Texas A&M and soon to go to flight school.
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They're only like 2 years behind each other.
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Anyway, our son that was in flight school called his dad and
18:18
said dad, I want to come to the 101st if you're going to war.
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This is literally probably September 13th, right after the
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attacks. He said, if you're going to war,
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I'm going with you. Can you get me to the 101st?
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And so my husband hung up the phone and he turned to me and he
18:34
said, Vicki, you know what do I do?
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And I said, well, if this is what he wants and and if at that
18:40
point I thought my husband will go with the whole entire 101st
18:44
Airborne Division. I said if you're going.
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And our son's going, I want you together.
18:48
So I don't want Clint in some other unit that I don't, you
18:51
know. So anyway, our son did come to
18:54
the 101st. He deployed immediately, but my
18:57
husband didn't. My, they kept the headquarters
18:59
back. They only took, you know,
19:01
certain units. But anyway, it was during that
19:04
time that we realized it wasn't just fun and games.
19:09
Oh, these these boys are going to follow in their dad's
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footsteps. I never dreamed it would.
19:15
Involve combat deployments. I.
19:18
Because when they were talking about joining September 11th
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hadn't happened. So in my mind I'm thinking oh
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this is wonderful. They're going to do like their
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dad, you know, they're going to fly helicopters.
19:28
This is great. But boy, after September 11th,
19:31
when the units started deploying and then the war started in
19:35
Iraq, you know that's when. And I remember many nights when
19:40
the war first started. And my husband.
19:43
I was at home. We were there at Fort Myer and
19:47
you know, the Pentagon was like 5 minutes away.
19:49
And my husband would be pacing and he'd say, Vicki, I don't
19:52
know what to do. I can't find out anything.
19:54
I don't know where Clint's unit is.
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And I'd say go into the Pentagon, just go there and and
20:00
find out anything you can. And how lucky we were that my
20:04
husband, you know, kind of knew what was going on.
20:07
But at the same time, we were like any other parent out there.
20:11
We had a son deployed. We didn't know what the outcome
20:15
was going to be. So at the end of the day, we
20:17
were like all those other parents out there.
20:20
And that was, that was, for me, such a a time of change in my
20:26
life. And that's when I started
20:28
writing. Literally.
20:30
I started, I wrote a handbook for the Army to hand out to
20:34
families, parents of soldiers, and then that led to the first
20:37
book Army Wife. I had to do something with all
20:40
that, you know, energy and you know all the the experiences.
20:44
I just wanted to get it down on paper.
20:47
So two questions before we go into the books, because the
20:49
books are army, wife and fly safe.
20:54
Your husband is a general journal.
20:57
Not a Brigadier, not a one star, but a true four-star general,
21:00
right? Yes.
21:02
And your sons are what? Colonels and Lieutenant
21:04
Colonels. OK, colonels.
21:06
So you've watched their careers. Let me ask you something.
21:10
As a wife and a mom. So I'm trying.
21:12
I'm trying to just do 2 for one, OK.
21:15
What was it like watching your husband get his bars?
21:21
You know his boot Lieutenant butter bars, the gold bars
21:24
versus when he got his four stars and.
21:28
Is it any different from watching your sons move up in
21:30
their careers and watching them get promoted?
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Did it feel any different? Yes, Yes.
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In that, you know, I look at our sons and I just think of them as
21:44
as my boys, I think of them when they were kids growing up.
21:49
And so it's it's just, you know like I'm always sitting there as
21:55
kind of an out of body experience because I'm thinking
21:58
like it it seems like yesterday my husband was pinning on new
22:02
rank. Now we're pinning on rank on our
22:06
sons and oh the the pride is unbelievable.
22:11
I mean I've, I've always been proud of my husband.
22:14
There's nobody more proud than me.
22:16
But I have to say, when it's your son's, you just sit there
22:20
and you're thinking, Oh my gosh, maybe we did something right.
22:24
You know what I mean? Sometimes we just, we'll say
22:27
that to each other. Like, we have to pat ourselves
22:30
on the back and say, hey, I guess we did good because there
22:33
were so many times during those growing up years when we were
22:36
moving those kids all over the place, OK.
22:39
They went to three high schools each.
22:41
You know, if ever there were kids that that should have, you
22:45
know, avoided the military, I was thinking these kids are
22:49
never going to want to do that. You know, they're going to want
22:51
to go settle down somewhere. But anyway, when we see them
22:55
doing this now and they're such good leaders, our, our oldest
22:59
son is a brigade commander at Fort Campbell.
23:02
He commands the aviation brigade there.
23:05
We're just so proud of everything he does.
23:08
And. And our younger son is at the
23:09
Pentagon, but he's going to go into command of a brigade next
23:13
summer. And it's like, wow, it's it's
23:17
just a kind of a a a good, weird sensation, yeah.
23:22
Because these are the boys you you that you know had ear
23:26
infections, stay up at night, you know got you know played
23:29
pranks on mom. You know, right, right.
23:31
All that stuff. If you'd be a lot of trouble
23:33
when their dad was deployed they were a handful.
23:36
I'm. Sure, I'm sure.
23:38
And then what is it? It must be like a switch and all
23:40
of a sudden you blink and all of a sudden you're pinning like
23:43
like the. Silver Eagle on them.
23:46
Yeah. Yeah, 'cause we just, the
23:48
younger son just got promoted less than a year ago And so
23:53
yeah, it is. It's but it's just it is so much
23:57
fun for Dick and I now to live through it vicariously and and
24:04
it's great because you know, we never wanted to be totally away
24:08
from the army. It was hard when my husband
24:11
retired. You know you it becomes a way of
24:13
life. So we're getting to live it
24:15
again through the eyes of our sons, our daughter in And thank
24:28
goodness we've lived this long. So I'll ask you a question about
24:34
your daughter in law's in a minute, but you're you're going
24:37
through this part of your life and and September 11th happens
24:41
and you start writing the book. What was your intention when you
24:46
started writing? Was it just to have a way to to,
24:49
I don't know, cope and deal with what was going on in your life
24:53
and record it? Or were you trying to achieve a
24:57
bigger goal? Well, initially it was the
24:59
bigger goal. Yeah.
25:01
So I was part of a group of of spouses here in DC when the war
25:07
started in Iraq. They set up these toll free
25:11
hotlines for families to call into.
25:13
Because you have to remember, you know, we had the military
25:17
had not deployed this many, you know, units since I don't know
25:23
when. Well, so I think since World War
25:25
2 and yet the National Guard, the reserves, everybody's
25:28
heading over for the big war. So they set up the toll free
25:31
hotline. So once a week I'd go and sit in
25:33
this little phone bank in Washington, DC and answer
25:36
phones. And every single week I would
25:41
come home and say to Dick, I'm answering the same kind of basic
25:45
questions with these, and it was mostly parents and grandparents
25:48
calling in. It wasn't spouses because I I
25:51
realized we've done a lot for the spouses over the years and
25:54
there's all kinds of pamphlets, handouts.
25:57
The spouse is usually somewhere near the unit, so they had the
26:00
information. But we were getting calls from
26:02
parents and grandparents, and we had this big thick notebook that
26:06
we would leaf through to answer the questions.
26:09
So I just realized, what if I wrote a small handbook that
26:15
consolidated a bunch of information that would guide
26:19
parents through deployments through the army?
26:22
It was all basic, the kinds of things I've been answering, but
26:27
at the same time give them personal experiences because
26:30
I've already lived through it with my husband and now with our
26:33
sons. So I wrote this little 64 page
26:36
booklet. It's called Your Soldier, Your
26:38
Army, A Parent's Guide. Now it's called Your Soldier,
26:42
Your Army, a Family Guide. And I went to AUSA, the
26:46
Association of the United States Army, and I said, would you
26:50
publish this and hand it out for free?
26:54
And they. And sure enough, they did.
26:55
They loved the idea. There was nothing out there.
26:58
That little booklet has gone out to over 500,000 people.
27:03
It's been printed in Spanish. It was it took off like and
27:09
that's when we knew people were starved for information about
27:12
deployments, about the the army, just all those things.
27:18
So as soon as I wrote that book and saw that how I could reach
27:23
people with the written word, then I started thinking, well,
27:27
maybe I should write a a big book about my life as an army
27:31
wife. And then this was also when our
27:34
son started deploying like repeatedly.
27:37
They would come back for 12 months, go back over and it was
27:41
pretty stressful. So that's when I decide.
27:44
So I realized then that the writing had become a coping
27:49
mechanism for me. It was a way to get all of that
27:52
out there. But that very first endeavor,
27:54
because I never knew I was going to be a writer, I didn't know I
27:57
could do this. But when I wrote that little
27:59
booklet and people from all over the world contacted me,
28:03
including soldiers, and they would say thank you for writing
28:07
this, you've you've given me a way to explain to my family what
28:12
I'm doing. That's when I knew, you know
28:15
what, the power of the written word, there's nothing like it.
28:19
You know you can do. Because at one point they said,
28:22
well, why don't you just do like put that on the Internet, the
28:26
information. I said no, there's still people
28:29
out there that want a handbook that they carry around with
28:33
them, that they can read and flip through from time to time.
28:37
And I want to do old school, you know, I didn't want just an
28:41
e-book. I wanted hard copy.
28:43
And anyway, so that's what led me down this path.
28:47
So that's your first book. Now now.
28:50
Correct me if I'm wrong here. Which one was second?
28:52
Army wife or fly safe then army wife.
28:55
I wrote that, you know, as a complete memoir my whole the 33
29:00
years of being an army wife. And and I loved doing that.
29:05
It took me forever. It took me years because I
29:07
didn't really know what I was doing at that point.
29:11
Once. That got published in 2016.
29:15
Soon after I came across all the letters that my husband had
29:20
written me when he was in Desert Storm and I had 94 letters that
29:25
he wrote me. And that's when I thought, you
29:28
know what, I want to write a book that is literally just
29:31
about that one year deployment when he was in Desert Storm and
29:36
and the title came from I I used to, you know say to him in the
29:40
letters or if I got to talk to him on the phone.
29:42
I've always said fly safe and I say it to the boys and so that's
29:46
how the title came to be for that book.
29:49
And that's based on his letters and my journals from Desert
29:53
Storm all. Right.
29:54
So let's start with army wife first before we get to fly safe.
29:57
Because I'm a big helicopter nut so I got tons of questions.
30:00
Oh, OK. You you write army wife.
30:04
Have you ever had another army wife, whether it's junior
30:08
enlisted or junior officer, come up to you and talk to you about
30:12
army wife and what that book meant to them?
30:15
Oh, yes, yes. Yeah, I I always, I get
30:20
feedback. Still, you know, my books I want
30:25
to say are are kind of timeless because there's always a new
30:29
group of spouses coming in or guys like to read my books too,
30:35
you know, because I make them historically correct and enough
30:39
action with helicopters and stuff.
30:42
But Oh yeah, I in fact, just last spring when I was at the
30:47
big Army aviation convention, I go to it every year and I set up
30:52
a little, you know, thing and sell my books.
30:56
There was a brand new Army wife. Her husband brought her over and
31:00
they'd only been married like six months.
31:03
And he was so excited. He wanted to buy a copy of the
31:06
book. And I mean, she just kept
31:08
looking at it and she said, I can't wait to read this.
31:11
I've heard from so many people that it's really going to help
31:13
me and that that just makes my day.
31:16
When I hear from, you know, a young spouse like that or
31:19
sometimes I hear from someone from my generation and they'll
31:22
say, oh, it was so much fun reading either of your books
31:26
because it takes them back to a time when, you know, their
31:29
husband was serving. And yeah, so I I want to think
31:32
that that my, all of my books, you know, give other military
31:40
service members and their spouses something to relate to.
31:45
But just as important, I love it when civilians read my books and
31:49
say, oh wow, you know, I never realized that's what it's like
31:53
or I never knew that about military life or about service.
31:58
So to me, it's it's I I like to have both audiences because I
32:04
want to shine the spotlight on this way of life and how great
32:08
it is and how great it can be, but how it also comes at a cost
32:13
often times. So I I try to be very relatable,
32:18
realistic, the good and the bad, and just hope that I'm reaching
32:23
people out there that need to read these.
32:26
Because it seems to me and I I I was not married fully when I was
32:30
in the Marine Corps. But it seems to me that the
32:33
themes don't really change from the Civil War, even to the next
32:38
50 years. You're going to have somebody,
32:39
whether it's a husband or wife, son or daughter, go away
32:43
somewhere, a long way away, and there's a void while that
32:47
person's away. They feel it because they're not
32:49
around. Their loved one and the loved
32:52
one feels it because they're not there and there's worry and
32:55
concern and and stress around anything from, you know, the the
32:59
the the car battery dying up to a kid getting sick and you've
33:04
seen that in in every flavor. I would have to imagine over
33:08
your time, what's how Have you looked at a problem or challenge
33:15
and said I'm going to deal with this and find that reservoir
33:18
strength to deal with it. I mean, I can't think of anyone
33:27
specific, you know, I think I must have possessed this early
33:35
on being able to adapt. And, you know, like from the
33:41
very first time that my husband deployed, we postponed the
33:45
wedding. You know, I I was at the
33:48
University of Vermont. I'm in my sorority house.
33:51
The phone rings, you know, hey, Vicki, you know, it's Lieutenant
33:55
Cody. And he says to me cancel the
33:58
wedding. I'm going away.
34:00
And I said, well, what do you mean, I'm deploying?
34:02
I said, what's deploying? You know, I thought Vietnam was
34:05
over. You know, this was April 75.
34:08
So anyway, that very first time, and I didn't really freak out, I
34:13
remember saying, well, OK, are you going to be OK?
34:16
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just watch the news.
34:17
I'll be fine. You know, don't worry about me.
34:20
And I remember thinking, wow, all my friends are getting
34:22
married that summer and I'm waiting around for, you know,
34:26
word to come back when he's going to, you know, finish over.
34:29
He ended up in Guam so early on, and I can't say I was happy
34:35
about it, you know, I mean, I was pretty, you know, I was
34:39
upset. You know, that's a hard thing to
34:41
do, to cancel your plans and think, you know, And then after
34:46
that it was like probably every few years something would come
34:49
up like that where just when I thought, oh, we're having a baby
34:53
or or, you know, we're having a second baby and then Dick says,
34:56
well, I gotta go do this. And then he would always get
34:58
involved in these special operations missions and stuff.
35:03
So I learned to accept it, adapt and and I would always tell
35:09
spouses whenever I was in a position, you know, of
35:12
leadership or whatever. As a commander's wife, I'd say,
35:17
you know, if you dig in your heels and say I'm not going to
35:20
do this or I quit, it's not going to go well for you.
35:23
I, you know, I would just always tell them, just go with it, get
35:27
through these rough times because when you come out of a
35:31
challenging time or a rough time, it's always so much
35:34
sweeter on the other side. So that's pretty much how I
35:38
always did it. I write about, you know, a
35:42
couple of times, like during Desert Storm in the book Fly
35:47
Safe. My husband, he actually fired
35:50
the first shots of that war. He went in with a team of
35:53
Apaches and and they went in behind enemy lines and you know,
35:57
blew up the radar sites and all that.
35:59
Luckily I didn't go in at the time, but I had some low points
36:04
when he sent all his belongings back.
36:07
So I knew something was coming up where he was going to be
36:09
doing something dangerous. And I remember a couple of times
36:12
where I just went in my room and thought, I can't do this.
36:18
I I quit, you know, And then it's like the phone would ring
36:22
and you know, it would be a spouse.
36:24
Hey, you know, Vicki, could you help us do this?
36:27
And then it's like before I knew when I was involved in something
36:29
else and I got through my rough patch and then I helped other
36:32
people get through theirs. So there were, there were times
36:35
over the years and and couple of times with our sons when I
36:39
thought, I can't do this anymore, I'm done, I'm tired,
36:43
you know. Then it's like you get up the
36:45
next day and I guess I tend to be a positive person.
36:49
I I try to put a positive spin on things and find the silver
36:53
lining in all of this, but. But it seems like it's it's all
36:57
the foundation is attitude. If if you have the fetus
37:02
attitude or I'm going to quit attitude, you're done like you
37:05
said, but you had an attitude that hey, I'm going to meet
37:09
this, figure it out one step at a time and go through this.
37:13
It's almost, it's almost like Vicky, that you truly are a
37:16
general. You know, you you are, you know,
37:19
fully Army strong. Yeah.
37:22
And you know, Travis, my husband is that way, too.
37:25
Dick Cody is probably the most upbeat person you will ever
37:28
meet. So that's infectious.
37:31
You know, it's like no matter what's going on, Dick will
37:35
always say to me, Vicki, you're not dying or Vicki, nobody's
37:39
shooting at me. He would, he would come home
37:42
from the Pentagon, like during those war years.
37:45
Maybe he got, you know, verbally beat up by Rumsfeld or somebody.
37:50
You know, it it was a rough time to be at the Pentagon as a
37:53
general because my husband was always fighting for the good of
37:56
the soldiers and and there was an awful lot of bureaucracy and
38:00
and political stuff going on. He'd come home from the office
38:04
and he'd say, I told my staff today, nobody's shooting at us,
38:09
so it can't be that bad. Or he'll just say nobody's dying
38:13
and then it's like, well, he's right.
38:16
So anyway, it's very infectious. He's a very positive person.
38:21
You know, when you think about it, that's, you know that now
38:24
that's a motivating speech from an officer.
38:27
Yeah. Hey, hey, Marines.
38:28
No one's shooting us like, so what's 130 degrees outside?
38:35
No one? Exactly.
38:36
Yeah. Yeah, that's what he always.
38:41
Says, Oh my God, that's a riot. That is an absolute riot.
38:44
I mean, I love it. And it was just good to see as
38:48
I'm I'm going through and reading about you and I'm really
38:51
glad you know Andy reached out to to connect us and I'm like
38:56
this is we need to hear more of this because it seems to me that
39:00
a lot of look you know even unless it I've watched the E6's
39:04
and E7's come in the barracks room with their C bag stuff went
39:08
bad and it went really bad and and it was just a really big
39:11
wake up call that. And there's other people
39:14
involved in this stuff. You know, as you got through
39:18
rotting fly safe, which, you know, my thing is the Apache to
39:22
me is, is everybody talks about the Osprey or the new F35 and
39:27
all with the toys the Air Force, the Navy have.
39:30
But the Apache is still a unique aircraft platform.
39:34
Like there's nothing like it. It takes a special kind of
39:37
person to fly it too, with what is required mentally to be able
39:41
to fly a helicopter. In the first place.
39:45
So the the reason I say this is I I read Robert Mason's book
39:48
called Chicken Hawk and it was about, yeah, I haven't read it,
39:52
but like my husband, both sons, everybody reads that, yeah.
39:55
I I read the Marine Corps and found out from Army guys that
39:58
that is like that was at one point required reading for all
40:01
army aviators. But he talks about how his wife,
40:05
Patience, would help him go through preflight checks on.
40:10
Did you ever do that with your husband?
40:12
You know, help him go through the.
40:14
No, but Travis, actually, I I became a pilot.
40:17
I at the at the age of I think I was 32 when the kids went off to
40:22
school, when I when the youngest one went to preschool and we
40:25
were at Fort Leavenworth, KS and my husband was finally in school
40:29
in a job that was dependable and he was home every evening.
40:32
I went through flight training and got my private pilot's
40:35
license. Because I wanted to be, I wanted
40:39
to be part of his world and and at the time we had just bought a
40:42
a small 4 seater Cessna and so I really did need to learn about
40:48
it if we were going to be flying our kids around.
40:50
But I decided to go ahead and get my license.
40:53
I wanted to be part of that world.
40:55
I wanted to know what it was like and it gave me a whole new
40:58
understanding of your whole company license.
41:01
No, I I've never flown the other.
41:03
OK, but but so. Airplanes.
41:06
I mean, just. I didn't know that.
41:08
Thanks for letting that slip. That's awesome.
41:10
That's an army wife, you. I think you need to read it.
41:13
OK, no, I I didn't get a chance to.
41:15
Go with your flight training. It was a riot because I never,
41:19
jeez, I never thought I could do something like that.
41:21
I wasn't a straight A student. I'm not mechanical.
41:24
But you know what? That was one of those cases
41:26
where I did everything I was told.
41:29
I practiced. I did everything step by step.
41:32
And then I did it. I had courage.
41:34
I didn't know I had all right, so I I didn't get a chance to
41:38
read Army Army Wife. What was it like when you took
41:41
your husband solo for the first time in the plane?
41:46
OK, he was really proud of me and he used, he used to get so
41:50
worried because I would go out with my instructor and fly.
41:55
And then when I reached the point where I had to do my three
41:57
solo little cross country trips, you know, go from state to state
42:02
and we're out there in Kansas and I had to go to Nebraska and
42:04
Missouri and all these places. My husband was so worried about
42:08
me. He'd pick the kids up at school
42:10
and then they'd go out to the airfield and he would pace up
42:13
and down on the tarmac waiting. And sometimes he would say to
42:17
me, Vicki, you don't have to do this.
42:20
And I didn't know I got to do it.
42:22
And then other times I'd get scared.
42:23
I'd say, Dick, I don't know if I can do it.
42:25
Yes, you can do it. And I remember the day that I
42:27
passed my check ride. We landed and I've.
42:31
Got my license, I get out of the cockpit, I'll never forget I'm
42:35
walking towards him. He had the biggest smile and he
42:38
just gave me this big thumbs up and he said, Vicki, you really
42:41
did it. It was great.
42:43
It was fun. That that is that is awesome.
42:46
I mean, this is what I'm talking about.
42:47
Vicki. Like if that's not love, what
42:49
is? You're like, you know, bring me
42:52
to the light. This is this is amazing.
42:54
This is amazing. So look, ladies and gentlemen,
42:57
I'm on with Vicki Cody, army wife, multi author, mom of two
43:02
awesome army pilots. You know, Vicky, do you have a
43:06
website where we can connect with you outside of this awesome
43:10
conversation? Yes, so my website is just
43:14
www.vickycody.com. That's VICKICOD y.com.
43:22
I'm on Facebook. Just Vicky Cody.
43:24
You can Google me, you know Vicky Cody, army wife.
43:29
But my website has you can read excerpts from my books and also
43:35
how to order that. That one that's free, that's
43:38
still out there. Your soldier.
43:40
Your army, a family guide. You can download that or you can
43:44
order it for free. It's still, you know, making the
43:48
rounds. It's still got some good
43:49
information in it. But you know, my books are
43:52
available wherever books are sold.
43:54
They're on Amazon. So I hope.
43:57
I hope people will check them out.
44:00
This has just been an amazing conversation, you know?
44:03
I mean. You're so nice.
44:06
I feel like I'm just chatting with an old friend this well I'm
44:09
I'm like this is just the best part of doing this.
44:12
It it is. And you know, I'm having a great
44:15
time and and I I wanted you to know that, you know, Well, my
44:20
first thought is like as an army wife or military wife, what
44:24
haven't you done? I mean, you you fly.
44:26
You're an author. You're a supporter.
44:28
You're you're a mom of two army aviators, husband's an army
44:31
aviator. So you've done all this stuff.
44:34
What's next for you? Are you are you're not you're
44:37
you're obviously not, you know, not moving.
44:39
You're definitely doing something.
44:41
What is that something? OK, so I just started.
44:45
Writing a new book, and this is so far out of my comfort comfort
44:49
zone. But this is going to appeal to
44:51
you because I'm writing about a Marine who was injured in Iraq
44:59
outside of Fallujah. And Adam Kislevski.
45:04
OK, he He was injured in 2005 and he ended up climbing Mount
45:11
Kilimanjaro about six months ago.
45:14
OK, so I'm writing about his journey.
45:17
He lost an arm and a leg. He's been part of our lives.
45:21
He helps my husband with some of the nonprofit things that we do.
45:24
And anyway, Adam has just been such an important part of our
45:29
lives, and he's such an inspiration that I decided I was
45:33
going to try to. I've written enough about Dick
45:35
and Vicki Cody and our kids. So I thought, you know what?
45:38
This is a story that needs to be told.
45:40
But it's so hard for me because. I don't understand the Marines
45:45
the way I understand Army, so it's taking me a little bit of
45:50
time, but I'm determined to see this through and get Adam's
45:55
story out there because I just feel like it's really important.
45:58
And my editor that's been with me for, for my other books, she
46:02
said, Vicki, you have to grow as an author.
46:04
You can't just go back to your comfort zone writing about you
46:07
and Dick. You got to try something new.
46:10
So it's a big challenge for me. And there's some days when I
46:12
think, I don't know if I can do this, but I'm determined I'm
46:15
going to try. And then Travis, I'm going to
46:18
contact you because when I get that book ready, that would be a
46:21
great conversation again. Yes, absolutely 100%.
46:28
And and don't worry, Vicki, you're not the only Army
46:31
personnel or wife who's looked at Marines and said I I'm just,
46:35
I got nothing. I'm drawing a blank here.
46:37
I mean we don't even understand ourselves sometimes.
46:40
So you're you're not alone. You're not alone.
46:42
It's. OK.
46:44
It's OK. It's, it's completely fine.
46:47
That is going to be an amazing story.
46:50
Yes, I'd like to have you back on.
46:52
Absolutely. I mean, 'cause that was that was
46:55
a real special story about, you know, him overcoming adversity.
47:00
Right. And and you know, to kind of
47:02
wind this down, I think this is the theme, you know, where I
47:05
started resonating with what you're doing is there is this
47:08
theme of attitude, adaptability through adversity.
47:13
And you know a lot of us veterans, a lot of active duty
47:17
people get, you know, in a in a bind.
47:20
Challenges overwhelm us and it seems like we can't move
47:24
forward. And I think you're a lesson that
47:27
that we can all learn from. Right.
47:30
Right. And that's what I'm that's what
47:32
I'm you know, hoping comes from this latest because my other two
47:36
books were about me or my husband.
47:40
You know what we faced and how we got through it, but for this
47:44
young? Marine What he went through is
47:47
unlike anything I could ever imagine.
47:50
And this kid, Adam, he went on to get his master's degree.
47:56
He's a, he's a pilot. He got his pilot's license with
48:00
one arm and one leg and he does all this work, nonprofit work
48:05
for other wounded warriors and veterans.
48:09
And I I'm just, I'm just amazed by this young man.
48:12
And so that's why. You know I'm passionate about
48:16
his story and hopefully I can do it justice.
48:19
Well, I gotta tell you, you know, Vicki, I, I, I'm, I'm a
48:23
little younger than you. I don't want to say how much,
48:25
but I'm thinking myself. You know, I've got no excuse
48:28
when I'm feeling tired or run down.
48:30
I mean you you're, I don't know what batteries you're using.
48:33
Maybe they're Energizer, I don't know.
48:35
But I mean you are truly OM. I mean, you're truly on the move
48:40
and it just seems to be something that that you've
48:43
really embraced. Oh, I I do my, I do my share of
48:48
sitting around and and procrastinating and thinking,
48:53
oh, why am I going to try to write this book?
48:55
Nobody's going to buy it. Nobody's going to read it.
48:59
No, I'm just, you know, I I try to be upbeat and I just actually
49:04
had hip surgery a couple of months ago.
49:07
Not a hip replacement, but some tendons.
49:09
I'm I'm an avid skier. We're skiers and I think years
49:12
of of skiing. But anyway, that was the
49:16
toughest challenge that I've been through to have an issue
49:20
like that where I had to stay on the couch for six weeks and I
49:22
was in a brace and all that. So I'm just coming out of that
49:25
and I'm like raring to go. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
49:33
Last question, to kind of wind this down, OK, your husband
49:38
served for a long time for his country.
49:41
Your sons are serving their country.
49:44
Do you see your grandchildren keeping this going and it do you
49:50
think so? I think so.
49:53
We have 4 grandsons. I have a feeling maybe one or
49:59
two out of the four. Yeah, I don't know that all four
50:03
of them will. But our our oldest son actually
50:10
married a W Pointer and she served two tours in Iraq as
50:16
well. And their sons are the ones that
50:19
I think probably would serve because they're just a little
50:23
bit more gung ho maybe, you know, having both parents,
50:27
having served. But you know what?
50:30
Whatever they choose, I'm all about, you know, I just want
50:33
them to be happy and find something that.
50:36
You know it. They're passionate about the way
50:39
my husband has been passionate and both of our sons.
50:43
You know, to find something like that in life and and for me, my
50:46
passion is my writing. You know it.
50:49
It's the the greatest blessing. If you raise kids that that find
50:54
something they want to do, if it's service to the nation,
50:57
that's great too. But if it isn't you know, I just
51:00
want them to have a passion and follow it.
51:03
Fantastic, fantastic. So look folks, Speaking of of
51:08
husbands and and relationships you know husband is on a mission
51:12
for Vicki right now and we'll be back soon.
51:15
So we're going to wind this down.
51:17
You know Vicki, one of the themes for this year in Austin
51:21
Mike radio has been realizing how much I don't know and and
51:25
being able to talk with someone like yourself and learn so much
51:28
and in this time we have together.
51:31
It is the best part about doing this.
51:32
I just want to thank you for sharing with me so warmly and
51:35
candidly and yes you are coming back on where we will make that
51:39
happen one way or the other it's going to happen and all the best
51:43
on on your running journey. Thank you.
51:46
Well, thank you. I, I really enjoyed it.
51:48
Travis, you're like a dream host.
51:50
I mean, you, you asked just the right questions, just enough
51:54
questions and and I, I hope I didn't talk too much because
51:57
it's like if given the opportunity, I'll just keep
51:59
talking. But you've been the perfect host
52:02
and I really enjoyed talking with you.
52:05
I felt like we were just having a conversation between 2 old
52:07
friends. Well, that's the whole point.
52:09
And just a little extra here is I don't wanna cut my guest off.
52:15
I want you to be able to talk about something that's important
52:18
to you if you really jive the question right.
52:21
So I don't wanna be like well hey, she got 9 seconds.
52:24
On the next one, I want you to be able to, you know, get in the
52:28
comfort zone and do that. So this this is great.
52:31
This is great and I it. Was very comfortable for me and
52:33
I I so appreciate the platform and and getting a chance to to
52:37
talk about army life military life.
52:40
So thank you so much. Well, I will have Vicky's
52:44
website and all the links to her books and OM Radio website post.
52:48
You've heard her here, folks. She's got another book coming
52:50
out and we'll be back on OM Radio Vicky, as we say in OM
52:54
Radio Mission Flight. Thank you and I'll see you soon.
52:57
OK, thanks. Join us on National Wreaths
53:01
Across America Day, December 16th, 2023 Each December on
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National Wreaths Across America Day.
53:09
Our mission to remember, honor and teach is carried out by
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coordinating wreath laying ceremonies at Arlington National
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local sponsor group. Thank you for listening and
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