Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Oscar Mike Radio 504- Bill Brett &Paul Doyle -Boston Veterans Appreciation

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Oscar Mike Radio 504- Bill Brett &Paul Doyle -Boston Veterans Appreciation · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

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Am I in your arrest? He results in innocent man in
3:18
front of his wife and be in the groom.
3:21
Do you remember any of that? Does the defendant have any
3:24
priors? Resisting arrest?
3:26
DUI. Assault.
3:28
Hey. My client has been awarded a
3:30
Purple Heart and a Bronze Star medal for his combat service.
3:33
I'm ordering you to undergo a 60 day outpatient rehabilitation
3:36
program. Good luck.
3:41
No, I'm not doing that. Do.
3:42
You know what the VA put me through?
3:44
If you have a brain in your head, you're going to listen to
3:46
me right now. Because the next time you try to
3:47
provoke a lethal response from law enforcement, you might not
3:50
have an Angel sitting on your shoulder.
3:52
The courts think that you're going to fix me.
3:53
I hate to disappoint you, but I can't fix you.
3:56
That's your job, not mine. Did you know that your father
4:00
got out? He's a dangerous man, Calvin, be
4:03
careful. We came back and they spat on us
4:06
at the airport. No home calling parade.
4:08
No celebrations. You can't pretend like you have
4:12
any idea what it's like to be in combat.
4:15
No. But what I do know is this field
4:17
of work that I've dedicated my life to has helped.
4:20
A lot of people, when you got back, something was different.
4:24
It wasn't that you'd changed, you'd been replaced.
4:31
You lose your morality when you go to war, and the hard part is
4:34
coming back to a civilian society that doesn't have any
4:38
idea what's going on in your head.
4:40
It's hard to believe. My enemy is the man I used to.
4:46
Be you wonder, where's my tribe? And I ain't talking about no
4:49
friendship neither. I'm talking about brotherhood.
4:55
What is it that you truly want, Calvin?
4:58
I just want to wake up in the morning and feel something.
5:03
My pain is relative, son. Sometimes we got to fall apart
5:08
to find ourselves all over again.
5:09
Wait. For me there, wait for me there.
5:15
You are willing to give your life for your country now maybe
5:20
you can try living for it. The movie, music, news,
6:16
television, promos, trailers, and videos used by OM Radio are
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protected by the Fair Use Act, Section 107 of the Copyright
6:23
Act. One.
6:25
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use
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is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational
6:31
purposes. 2 The nature of the copyrighted work. 3 The amount
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and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the
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copyrighted work as a whole. 4 The effect of the use upon the
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potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
6:48
What does the life after service look like?
6:52
Kicking back, taking it easy. We believe it looks a little
6:57
different. It looks like leading for all
6:59
veterans, helping shape policies to make certain they get the
7:03
benefits they've earned, and ensuring every veteran's voice
7:07
is heard. It looks like advancing to meet
7:10
today's veterans where they are lifting them up and
7:14
strengthening the bond that unites.
7:15
US. It looks like rolling up our
7:18
sleeves, serving those in need, and cleaning up our communities
7:22
to make them better for everyone.
7:26
Because a veteran's mission never truly.
7:29
Ends. And neither does ours.
7:34
Thevfwstillleadingstilladvancingstillservinggetinvolved@stillserving.org. Hello and welcome to OM Radio.
7:54
My name is Travis, Marine Corps veteran and your host.
7:59
OM Radio is sponsored by TNT Pen Company and outright dot AI and
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supported by Caisson Shaving Company, Exceptional Parent
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Magazine and Fight Camp. Be your strongest combination.
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I get to do a show live with somebody who I've met a long
8:16
time ago. And if you're in the Boston area
8:19
or if you're into photography and news and media, he is a true
8:24
legend and it's just a special day.
8:27
This is a great way to take a day off and have some fun.
8:32
I'm just so excited right now. I can barely contain myself.
8:34
But calm down. I am with Pulitzer Prize winner,
8:40
Boston Glove photographer and current project manager for his
8:44
new project about veterans. We'll get into that.
8:46
Bill Brett and his can I call you a sidekick?
8:49
Sure. Sidekick Paul Doyle, who is an
8:53
artist in his own right with poetry and other things and
8:55
keeping Bill in line. Gentlemen, welcome to OM radio.
9:00
It's great to be here with you both.
9:03
I I have, you know, when I first moved to Massachusetts and I'd
9:07
get the Globe on Sundays, I would see your work in the
9:10
Boston Globe. And this is before digital
9:13
cameras really got going. I'm like, how does he do that?
9:15
Because I'm doing to just get the the shots steady.
9:19
That's that's still where I'm at.
9:21
But as I've gone on, I saw that you were out in the community
9:24
more and more. So just for the my my guests and
9:28
people watching, kind of tell us how you got into photography.
9:31
And then we'll go into this amazing book about Boston
9:35
veterans. Well, I started very young.
9:38
I was in high school. I started a camera club in high
9:41
school as one of the founders and from high school days I, my
9:46
brother Harry came back from Germany and he served in the
9:49
army and he brought it back a Agfa camera.
9:53
It was a, one of the first film cameras that I was able to use.
9:56
I was told just to look at it and I, I, I, I handled it well.
10:01
And a friend of mine introduced me to his dad and he purchased a
10:05
beautiful Rolly Flex camera and I ended up using that and I had
10:10
a nice Yoshika camera. The difference between Yoshika
10:14
and Rolly Flex. Rolly Flex was a Cadillac,
10:17
Musica was a Chevy. So I went up, I went up a couple
10:21
of grades and to get out of high school, I was very fortunate to
10:26
get on as a part time photographer at the Boston
10:28
Globe. And by the time I was 20, I was
10:31
I was had a full time job and I was the youngest.
10:34
I was like a kid there because most of the men, it was all men
10:37
at the time served in Korea. A lot of them were Korean,
10:41
Korean. Some were what, 2 guys and I was
10:45
just that kid that used to get coffee for them and I was The
10:48
Apprentice. And from there I just want
10:51
everything just mushroom for me. Over the years.
10:54
I was very fortunate to cover some.
10:56
I was 18 years old. I covered JFK's funeral in
11:00
Washington, DC and I never left Dorchester where I grew up.
11:04
I mean that was amazing story. And as I went through life, I
11:08
was I was able I had a front row seat of history.
11:13
They covered some major events, you know, snowstorms, we will
11:15
series, you name it, inaugurations, the Pope
11:21
inaugurate when the red the Scott, no log at his Red Hat and
11:26
Rome. I was there for that.
11:28
I was just, you know, I was there for a lot of a lot of
11:30
beautiful events. And I was very lucky because I
11:33
every day was a gift. I never.
11:36
It was a front row seat of history and as I tell my
11:39
children, if you find what you love, you don't go to work.
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And that's how it was with me, and every day was a blessing.
11:45
So you've loved it from day one. From day one, yeah, from day
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one. And my whole career was at the
11:51
Boston Globe and you know, I had to actually had just been
11:55
published just recently, my 60th year, I had a photograph
11:58
published in the Boston Globe. I don't think there's anybody in
12:01
the Globe that can never say that they were published 60
12:04
years. And these are pictures that
12:07
where I've taken a party lines, there's a feature I started in
12:11
the Globe, I started a social column in the Globe, and then I
12:14
started the a wedding album in the Globe.
12:17
I mean, I was really lucky because they gave me a lot of
12:20
freedom to do what I wanted to do.
12:22
And as a result, I met some wonderful people.
12:24
And as I said earlier, the front row seat.
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And when I took an early retirement, I had 38 years on
12:31
the staff and then just didn't go.
12:33
They kept signing me contracts for other events and I was just
12:37
able to document. My first book was 20 years ago
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and I've got 8 of them since then.
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People of Boston, men and women, all walks of life.
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And I think it's important to document these men and women
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because they've done some wonderful things.
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And my the latest book that I'm out with now is it's a salute to
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the veterans, the men and women who served our country.
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And it started off as a project and end up as a mission.
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And it was one of the most joyous times of my life because
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to listen to some of these men stories that they and women,
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what they had to tell me, it was just fascinating.
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And I was very lucky. I had the, as I call it, my
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sidekick Paul Doyle, who was able to be with me for this
13:21
journey. And he loved interviewing these
13:24
people. And I'm all done. 10 minutes, 15
13:28
minutes, my photo shoot. And I had to say, Paul, we're
13:31
ready to go. Yeah, Just give me another
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minute. And that was a full time job
13:34
kind of yanking him out. So who was managing who, Paul,
13:38
Because you all took a picture of me.
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It's it's, it's actually in the book.
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And, you know, you come over and you do this.
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I didn't know what's going to happen.
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And I thought you're going to go this way and you want a
13:52
different kind of look. But you really started building
13:56
the bridge between the veterans, and that's before Bill got
13:58
there. How did you get involved with
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Bill in the first place? Well, we, we were having coffee
14:03
one day at at Dunkin' Donuts in Weymouth and Bill said nobody.
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I said to him, what are you doing today?
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He says I have actually have to take a ride up to Beverly and I
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have to interview this guy and take a picture of this guy.
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I'm doing a book on veterans. He said, you want to take a
14:18
ride? I said sure, I'll take a ride.
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And off we went. And we I think it was an
14:23
assisted living place. And the fellow's name where Bill
14:27
was in the photograph was the name was Larry Kirby.
14:29
He was on, it was in the Marine Corps in, in the 19441945 in the
14:34
Pacific. And we got there and he
14:36
recognized who we were right away because Bill had the camera
14:39
around him and he was across the room and he came marching
14:42
across. Look at this guy's night was 93.
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And so I shook hands. He gave me a firm handshake and
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we got the photo. And I started asking him some
14:52
questions and, and, and turned out he was, he was on Guam and
14:57
he, he received a Silver Star on Guam.
15:01
And then he came back and then he went back again and fought on
15:04
Iwo and received a Purple Heart on Iwo Jima.
15:08
And out of 200 men in his group battalion, there was only 8 that
15:12
survived and, and he was one of them.
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And when we finished and we came back and we got in the car and
15:19
heading back to Weymouth, I said, Bill, you got any more of
15:22
these? And, and that's how it started.
15:25
And three years later, it was a a joy, what a joy that was to
15:30
interview and research and do all and some of the nicest,
15:33
greatest people I've ever known. Just wonderful.
15:38
We met at a book signing. Oh, that's right.
15:42
A long time. I did.
15:43
I, I, I was with the Irish Cultural Center in Canton and I
15:47
did all the author readings and signings for a number of years.
15:50
And, and I got billed down several times.
15:53
And there was earlier books and we hit it off.
15:57
We got friendly. And that was 25 years ago or so,
16:01
you know, close to it. And yeah, yeah, we we have.
16:05
So this is not a small book. No, it's the biggest book I've
16:10
ever done. Like this, this has heft to it
16:12
like, you know, oh, it's. 4 lbs Four pounds.
16:15
Well-being the Marine that I am, I'm like, you know, I could put
16:18
this on my coffee table and if an intruder came in.
16:22
I give you this as a weapon. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:24
But I'm looking at this book and there's some people here I
16:27
recognize and I just. What was it like going through
16:32
making your list and then bringing their story to life
16:36
through? Film it started off slow and
16:38
then the word get out to a lot of people through Facebook and
16:43
Instagram that I was looking for veterans in the Boston area S
16:48
northwest that served our country.
16:51
I didn't we didn't put specifics.
16:53
You know, where do they serve. It was just if they'd like to
16:55
participate into this book and it just kept growing.
16:59
It just kept growing. Somebody would tell me about
17:02
him, her and then I'd go visit the one.
17:04
And there were some that backed out.
17:06
They didn't want to be in the book.
17:08
My my own brother Harry served in Germany and he didn't want
17:12
to. But he said I will help you get
17:14
people for the book. But I'm not really.
17:17
He's a very quiet guy. He just wasn't him.
17:19
I said it's OK. But I did trick him.
17:21
He's in the acknowledgement. So I got his name in the book
17:23
anyhow. And it was just when I meet
17:27
somebody, some backed out for different reasons.
17:30
And when I get to talk to him, I understood and I'd say to the
17:34
word appreciation means thank you.
17:36
That's all I'm doing. That's an appreciation book.
17:38
And once people understood that I did XM out, it made it easier
17:43
because they they felt better about it, you know, and, you
17:47
know, like some of the men said to me, I don't know if I belong
17:50
in a book or Medal of Honor recipients or Silver Star
17:52
recipients. Well, to win a war to be in the
17:56
everybody has to participate. Not everybody as a general, not
17:59
everybody would say, you know, would not win award at the Medal
18:02
of Honor. And it's like a company, when
18:05
you build a company from the top, you just have a good CEO.
18:07
But if he doesn't have a good team down below, he doesn't make
18:09
it. And the military's the same way.
18:12
You know, it has a we're all looking at it after each other
18:15
because we want to make this successful.
18:17
And as I talked to different men and this and women, Melody Cox,
18:21
who just passed away recently, I mean, I was so inspired
18:24
listening to this woman. I mean, she was 100 when I
18:26
photographed her. I mean, just an amazing woman
18:30
that had a great story to tell. And, you know, then the oldest
18:33
person on Pearl Harbor is in the book.
18:36
He's 106, lives on the Cape and there's only 10 left of of from
18:41
Pearl Harbor. He's the oldest.
18:43
Oh, wow. Yeah.
18:44
I mean, it's amazing. And some of these men and women.
18:47
And I went down to him. I gave him a book.
18:50
I presented a book to him about a month and a half.
18:52
And I went to his house and it was like he couldn't believe it.
18:55
He says I'm in the book. You made the book.
18:57
It goes like this. And I opened the page for the
19:00
book and he was it tears in his eyes.
19:02
It was very moving. And he said, I don't know how to
19:05
thank you. And there was one example,
19:08
General. It was a Captain Tom Kelly is
19:12
the reception of Medal of Honor. And he called me a week ago.
19:16
He was in Duxbury at a friend's house.
19:18
And he gave him this book and he called me and he was so moved on
19:21
the phone. He said he's the only one alive
19:23
in Massachusetts. And he was there with Tom Hudna,
19:26
who was the the with him. He passed away a couple of years
19:29
now and he was so inspired. I mean, he made me feel so good.
19:33
And he says the nicest project that I mean, anything I can do
19:35
to help you with this book, I'll be with you.
19:38
I mean, coming from a man of, of what he's been through and very
19:42
low gay guy, he's from Somerville, you know, it's just
19:45
amazing. One of the things that I, I just
19:49
want to go back is, is you're doing this and you're, you're
19:51
mobile, you have to go to people's houses.
19:55
Photographer, photographers are going to want to know like what
19:58
kit do you use and how do you haul your equipment to get the
20:02
shot that you want? Is there?
20:04
Are you still refining your your, your, your craft?
20:07
When I go into a house, I have to look around.
20:10
I was where the light is coming from, what's in the background,
20:14
you know, I study where I am. It's a it's committed to look it
20:17
over. And once I feel like there's the
20:19
picture and Paul was with me many times with the reflector.
20:23
Yeah, reflector was always good because it kept the window, the
20:26
light, give me more light into the subject.
20:28
And I wanted the Moody pictures, you know, I wanted something
20:31
that these people are going to remember.
20:33
And I'm I'm pretty quick at it because I can size it up fast
20:37
what I want to do. We we took a photo.
20:39
Bill took the photo of of Paul McLaughlin.
20:42
He was a retired Boston Police Department, a bomb squad
20:46
detective. And we went out there and they
20:49
he's retired, but they drove out the bomb squad truck and there
20:53
were two young cops there on the bomb squad.
20:56
And I had this reflector in my hand.
20:59
And Bill kept saying you got to catch the light, you got to
21:02
catch the light. And I said, Bill, I'm trying.
21:04
And this, when I first started with him, I'm trying.
21:07
And one of the young cops. Maybe if you turned it around to
21:10
the reflecting side, it might. Get a light.
21:13
And I said I was just testing you guys.
21:15
I'll. Observe it to work.
21:17
I'll observe it. Yeah.
21:19
Yeah, that was fun. He was a, he was a Marine, Yeah,
21:22
he was a Marine and he was a debt dater in, in Vietnam.
21:24
Bango Bango, Paul McLaughlin. Great guy.
21:27
And now he continued his whole career in the Boston Police and
21:30
the bomb squad. Yeah.
21:31
Yeah, yeah. Is there anything else you did?
21:35
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was an interesting group of
21:37
men and women. When I came to their home, some
21:41
of them had a lot of people in there that went in, in Hull.
21:44
It was like it was, you would think that I was the president
21:47
was coming to their house to take their picture.
21:50
When these men said to me, you come to take my picture, I mean,
21:54
they were like honored because nobody ever took my picture.
21:57
I mean, it was nice. It was a nice feeling.
22:00
Well, for me, I'm like, why does a Pulitzer Prize winner, Boston
22:05
Globe photographer with a storied history want to come and
22:08
take a picture of me? I, I didn't believe it.
22:11
I'm like, there's just come on. Well, the Pulitzer Prize was I
22:17
was part of a team. It wasn't just me.
22:18
It was a whole team we wanted for.
22:21
And actually twice. I was nominated twice.
22:23
And it was when I think of, you know, the things that I was
22:28
nominated and I did win. I'm the youngest photographer,
22:31
the youngest and oldest, as they call the Ransdell Trophy.
22:34
It's a spot news. It's given to the best picture.
22:38
And I was 20 years old when I won it and I was 55 when I won
22:42
it. So I'm the oldest and youngest
22:43
to win, to win the Ransdell Trophy.
22:46
And that's, that's pretty good. But this is where the teamwork
22:49
came in because Paul's like, hey, you know, we, we've met, I
22:53
met you guys in Somerset, you know, taking pictures of the
22:56
veterans down there for the breakfast.
22:58
We've met at the New England Centre and Home for Veterans
23:01
Gala. You've come through there and
23:02
taken pictures a couple times and other events.
23:05
And you're like, you've got a voice.
23:07
We want to capture the essence of that.
23:09
And you know, to your point, Paul, I'm thinking, OK, he's
23:12
going to want to take a picture this way.
23:14
I I got all set up. No, no, no, I don't like the
23:16
light. We're going to take it this way.
23:18
I'm like, really? And now look at him like, OK,
23:20
yeah, he was right. You know that's the.
23:22
Well, light makes it is very important, you know, factor in
23:26
making a good photograph. You got to have the the
23:27
lighting, if you get the right lighting, any other subjects
23:31
that works with you, like and Saul, you know, Saul, the light
23:35
was just just, it's in the book. It's just barely hitting his
23:38
face, just his eyes. And it tells a story and you
23:42
look at it and people are going to say, what is this guy?
23:44
Great photographs. Yeah, it's, there's some nice
23:46
photographs in there that have made me very proud.
23:50
And you know, this General Dunford, I have to give him
23:53
credit. He said to me, Bill, he says
23:55
you're going to be inundated with a Marine Corps luncheon.
23:57
There's one of them that people would because you know, a lot of
24:00
these men. Why didn't I make the book?
24:03
And I thought you and I were friends.
24:05
And your answer is I called you and left you a message and walk
24:09
away. The only times I had to use that
24:11
expression. I use it every day, people say.
24:13
They got going. They got going and they say, and
24:16
I'll never forget the Marine Corps Lynch and this one, Jimmy
24:19
Wise, he was a Marine and he's sitting at the table and when I
24:23
have friends and he's, he gets up and he says, Bill, how come I
24:27
didn't make the book? Oh, a couple of the other guys
24:29
sitting here. So I thought he's a friend of
24:30
yours. He is.
24:32
I thought he was my friend. So I said to Jimmy, I called you
24:35
and I left you a message and I walk away and they're all
24:37
saying, well, he called you. I mean, it's up to you.
24:40
And I said that so many times works.
24:43
Even today we read the Globe and there's a lot of veterans in
24:48
there that have passed away and, and Bill would say to me, I'd
24:51
say to him, how do we miss this guy here?
24:53
How do we miss this person? But there's so many.
24:56
Yeah, there's so many, but there's less and less of World
24:59
War Two guys now. It's only a handful now around
25:01
here. There's not many of them, but.
25:02
One thing I want to ask you, growing up in Dorchester and
25:05
South Boston and, and being from this area and I didn't grow up
25:09
here, is I moved here and I was surprised at the sheer number of
25:14
people from this area of Massachusetts.
25:17
This area is a country who served our country.
25:20
Big, big time. It's a.
25:21
What? What do you think that is?
25:23
I don't know. You know, it's interesting now,
25:24
Dorchester there wasn't the best thing.
25:26
I know there's nobody that became a general in Dorchester.
25:30
Quincy had nine of them, nine people, if they grew up in the
25:33
city of Quincy, which is small, nine men became, you know, the
25:37
generals, you know, Admiral or general.
25:38
I mean, I don't know. It's a good question.
25:41
You know, that they were able to to gravitate to this down South
25:44
Boston, 29 men at the Gold Star Park in Vietnam, Most of them
25:50
were Marines. And there's a picture in there.
25:53
I invited all the ones who served from South Boston and how
25:57
many showed. Up.
25:58
Oh, that was 30. The 40 of them all showed up,
26:00
who all went there and came home.
26:03
It's in the picture That's a great.
26:04
It's a nice picture of these men and women and it's just
26:08
fascinating. I, I don't know what the answer
26:09
is on that because when I, when I talked to the like Tommy Lyons
26:13
and he started this thing, you know, it just kept mushrooming.
26:16
I remember him telling me about this 40 years ago, him and a
26:19
group of guys, two or three guys were going to put a monument
26:22
over there and that just mushroomed, you know, and, and
26:25
Tommy Lyons is only a corporal, but he's got the best roll decks
26:29
of any corporal in the military or his serves or whatever it is.
26:32
He can call the general up tomorrow, you know, like an
26:34
Admiral, whatever it is. And they usually get back to.
26:37
Him and oh usually yeah, they do they better.
26:39
They better. Yeah.
26:41
Yeah, I know he, he does some good things.
26:44
And he he's very proud of, you know what He served.
26:47
And a lot of his buddies never made it back from the class.
26:50
You know the high school class, all from South Boston High
26:53
School. You, you take all these pictures
26:56
to create this, this gift, this gift of appreciation.
27:00
I got to wonder though, like, like out of all the thousands of
27:04
pictures you took, how did you all decide which ones to
27:07
actually put in the book? Well, that was it took time.
27:11
We have AI had a great designer thought I had a designer, a
27:17
writer, an editor, you know, we tried to narrow it down to the
27:23
best and some of them didn't make the book because we lost a
27:27
few. There was power surge and and a
27:30
on the computer. So there's maybe about 5 that
27:33
should have been there, but they, they disappeared and it
27:36
was hard to, you know what we had so many, they could fall
27:40
through the cracks and we were able to, we went back and forth
27:46
on it. You know, which ones we're going
27:47
to use because of why? And it was, you know, I want to
27:52
mix it up. I didn't want them all from
27:53
Dortch, just out of South Boston to quit Quincy, wherever they're
27:56
from. I tried a geographic, you know,
27:58
but a book about men and women from different areas of the, of
28:01
the Commonwealth And I went back and forth.
28:05
I, I have Sean Goss is my lab man.
28:07
And he was like, well, you should make this one bigger
28:10
because he's more important. Well, they're all important.
28:12
That was the whole thing. And but some of the bigger ones,
28:16
because graphically they were nicer pictures and some of these
28:19
people photographed better than than the other person.
28:23
So to get them all in there in the book at at some point, I had
28:27
to shut it down because it's 284 pages.
28:29
I. Can tell by the size of the.
28:31
Book I said this thing has got this thing.
28:33
I'll have a cloud I. Could have been 8 lbs.
28:35
I could have been 8 lbs. Yeah.
28:37
This is a. And, and the The thing is, and
28:39
it's in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of our
28:42
country. So the timing was good.
28:44
I actually wanted it last year, but, you know, it got a slow
28:48
process, but it came out this year, which I was thrilled.
28:51
You know, it's like it's a celebration of the country and
28:54
it's a celebration, you know, thank you to the military.
28:57
So, I mean, I was really honored to do it and it was good.
29:01
I mean, I have no complaints. It's been of all the books I've
29:04
done this, this is going to be the best seller.
29:06
This thing is moving quick if different people want me to
29:09
speak and you know, they want you hand a book to him.
29:12
I hear, oh, I got to get off my brother, my uncle.
29:14
I say that's just which is great because everybody has a story to
29:18
tell about a military person and and they lost 20 of them have
29:23
passed away since the project started.
29:26
The average age was late 90s and and the first question the
29:33
family would tell me or ask the question with my grandfather, my
29:36
uncle, does he still make the book?
29:38
He photographed and he was made the book.
29:40
He made the book. And I said, and they were so
29:43
thrilled. That would be a piece of history
29:44
for our family. Well, that's the thing, history.
29:47
You know, I think about this project as I'm looking at it,
29:49
and I always wish we could have gotten more stories from World
29:53
War One veterans. Yeah, I don't see any of them.
29:56
I, you know, they had to find they're gone.
29:58
They're gone, but there's also very few stories about them.
30:01
And Korean War Veterans are hard to.
30:05
And so I try to tell veterans I talked to that, hey, to your
30:09
point, you all matter. Your story is is is extremely
30:13
valuable. So how did you sometimes bridge
30:16
that gap? Because some of us don't want to
30:18
talk about it at all. Well, that was a problem.
30:21
There were actually, there's a poem that I wrote that's in the
30:26
book at the beginning and it says, and part of it, one of the
30:30
lines reads, a lot of them came back and we're ready to talk
30:33
about it. And then there were others.
30:35
It was very rare and I was fortunate enough to get some
30:40
stories from a lot of these. That the families.
30:42
Didn't know that the families didn't know.
30:44
They opened up. And some of these would tell
30:46
tell me because I was sincere. I was truly interested in the
30:50
but there were others who just went about.
30:53
They came, they went out, they did their job, they came back.
30:55
They didn't look upon themselves as anybody special or
30:58
extraordinary, came back, raised their kids, grandkids and and
31:03
moved on with their life. And, and, and, and when I think
31:06
about some of these stories, they tell me and I say to
31:10
myself, how, how do you do that? But they did the Greatest
31:15
Generation. It really was the greatest
31:17
generation they were able to do. That in all the wars, including
31:19
Vietnam and Korea and and even the Middle East, you know.
31:23
Yeah, well, the Middle East, they, you know, they went
31:25
through, they all went through something.
31:27
And as I, you know, when I talked to these men and women, I
31:30
go, it's amazing how they, you know, they're functioning, they
31:34
function. They had families, as you said,
31:35
you know, and they had, some of them had great careers.
31:39
But when we started to talk to some of them, no, I don't
31:43
remember to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it,
31:45
you know? And then all of a sudden they
31:46
start talking, you know, and the families would be in the other
31:50
room. They're all looking through the
31:51
door. The grandfather thought, what is
31:53
he saying? And they'd say to me, I didn't
31:57
know anything about that. Have you gotten any feedback
32:01
from Say, You Know, so you have a grandfather who's telling the
32:04
story, that child and their grandkids, you know, hey, you
32:09
know, Bill Paul, I got the book and I read the story.
32:12
And like, I didn't know that about my grandparent.
32:15
Yeah, I've had that said to me. Yeah, yeah, I've had a few of
32:17
them say that to me. And they, they were so proud
32:20
that their grandfather, grandmother, grandparents are
32:23
going to be in the book. And now we can have it for our
32:26
generation, for my children, so I can have a show with their
32:29
father. Grandfather went through and it
32:31
was just an interesting time with some of them because they,
32:35
you know, some of them just didn't want to talk.
32:37
And we were able to. Paul, the way he's handled them,
32:40
he handled them so well that they, they wanted to tell their
32:43
story and nobody asked them about us.
32:45
You know, we were there to ask them and photograph them.
32:49
Now you, you know now ladies and gentlemen, Paul is a very
32:52
talented poet. Got a chance to read some of his
32:56
poetry. Where did that come?
32:57
Where did that part of you come from?
32:59
That's funny, you I don't know, I have no idea.
33:02
I just I started writing some things a few years back and, and
33:08
as I said recently to you before we came on air that I've been
33:11
having stumbling a little writer's block lately and but I
33:16
I don't know. And a lot of them were well
33:18
received and some weren't, but I don't know, I just thought I, I,
33:23
I'd like doing it. And I was never, I never wrote
33:26
anything before. And it like, and I wrote when I
33:29
was writing the captions, you know, with Bill's book.
33:33
And I said, I kind of like doing that.
33:36
And I said maybe I could put a few things together.
33:38
And, and I wrote that poem on veterans appreciation and that's
33:42
came out OK. And I started writing out and I
33:45
did a couple of World War, I did a World War 2 poem and the World
33:49
War One poem and Veterans Home, come home, you know, veterans
33:54
and and then a lot of other humorous stuff.
33:56
I try to write a lot of humorous stuff.
33:58
They started off with four pages, end up at 60.
34:01
I said just you'll have to do that.
34:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, as I said, General
34:05
Dunfit was kind enough to do a beautiful forward Admiral Hall.
34:09
Are you familiar with Admiral Hall?
34:11
He's from New York. He he has a podcast.
34:14
He was decorated. He was in Chad here.
34:17
I think he was the commander of the USS Eisenhower for a while
34:20
and he had some big commands and he, he asked my, my daughter was
34:25
friendly with them and he said I'd be more than happy to do a
34:27
blurb. He's in the back of the book.
34:30
And I told him that, you know, General Dunford, he said you
34:32
don't need me. Is, is an interesting man.
34:37
He's got a podcast. He's got over 1,000,000 people
34:39
followers. Yeah.
34:41
I mean, he's been doing this for a while.
34:43
It's all over the country. General Dunford wrote a
34:44
beautiful. They did a beautiful and the
34:49
dedication is to my late wife who passed away, that my
34:52
granddaughter who's 22 now, when her parents got divorced, she
34:58
lived with us for a number of years back and forth, back and
35:00
forth. And she did this dedication to
35:02
my wife because she felt that my wife was more than a
35:06
grandmother. She was like a mother to a tall.
35:08
I mean, they were very close. And she passed away say recently
35:12
and my wife got to see the dedication, just beautiful and
35:16
all the kids were in the room and she's reading the
35:18
dedication. And I said to my wife, this book
35:21
got delayed because Morgan, her name was Morgan Hurley, wants to
35:25
wanted to do 2 more pages about you and my wife's laying there.
35:28
Oh, that's plenty. That's plenty, you know.
35:32
So let's just say I'm in a bookstore or at a book sign.
35:36
I see this book, Boston Veterans Appreciation and I didn't serve
35:41
and I have no family connection at all, but I pick it up and I
35:46
start going through it. What do you want that person to
35:49
see or feel as they're looking at your?
35:51
I think that person will be surprised what information is in
35:55
there about even though they don't have any family and the
35:59
military, I think they'll get a good feel for it and say, wow,
36:02
these men and women went through, we have to thank them.
36:05
I mean, I think I've, I've talked to several people who
36:09
have no family in the military and they have the book and they
36:13
said it was just so inspiring to read about these men and women
36:16
and thanking them because they made it possible.
36:19
So we can walk around in freedom.
36:21
And sometimes we take it very lightly that, you know, that's
36:24
like nothing. But it is important, you know,
36:27
and it's important to know your history and the schools.
36:30
I've been invited to a couple of high school classes after the
36:34
Labor Day that they have classes.
36:36
I was surprised, you know, and it's called veterans
36:38
appreciation classes to talk about the veterans.
36:42
And they asked me when I come and talk about the book.
36:46
And I mean, I'm really, I'm moved by some of these young
36:50
people that want to know about it right now.
36:52
They know nothing about it. But as I tell them, I tell one
36:55
of the teachers when I finish the class, they'll know
36:58
something about it. Well, I've always believed
37:00
that's important because they're going to be making laws or going
37:03
to be decided about veterans, you know, benefits and issues.
37:06
Or if we go to war and I find that they're hungry for it,
37:10
almost. Yeah, but I asked General Dunn
37:14
for the question. I said if something at war, at
37:16
the conflict has, you know, hit us tomorrow, will the young
37:20
people be ready like the people of World War 2 Korea?
37:24
He said they'd be ready. First thing you do is throw the
37:26
phone away. They'll be ready.
37:28
Yeah, they said. Yeah, they'll be ready.
37:30
And he should know. Yeah.
37:32
I mean, he's been there for a number of conflicts and it's.
37:35
Now remind me, Jim Dunford's from this area, correct?
37:37
He grew up in Quincy. Oh, wow.
37:39
Yeah, he's a Quincy guy. He went to PC High.
37:41
He's a local kid and lives in Marshfield now.
37:44
And his father was in Korea and his brother Michael was in not
37:47
Vietnam. And he's not that old.
37:50
Yeah, yeah. Afghanistan.
37:53
That's a relative military family.
37:56
And as it went, quick story, I, I knew the father.
37:59
He was a Superintendent of Boston police for years.
38:02
He's Joe also and I was at his house in Marshfield and I said
38:07
to the general, I have a nice picture of, you know you.
38:10
I have a nice picture of, of, of the dad.
38:14
And he says to me, do you know what?
38:16
It'd be like the World War Three around here?
38:19
I don't know. Where was he going with this?
38:21
What is, I mean, I don't quite understand what the question is.
38:24
He said, is those two pictures getting in the book without my
38:28
brother Michael, that'd be World War Three.
38:31
Well, I didn't know Michael. I'd never met him until that
38:33
time and Michael appeared in the book picture Dad, Michael and
38:39
Joe. I said I'm not here to Cosgrove
38:42
1 three but way he said it to me, what is the man talking
38:46
about? Do you know what it be like?
38:50
Like I can understand that. Now where can I get this book?
38:54
Is it Amazon in the usual places or is there?
38:57
Not yet. It's a, it's a, a website that
39:00
there's a store in Dorchester called College Hype.
39:02
It's a, it's a memorabilia that's they do shirts, they do
39:06
everything all over the country for people.
39:08
And it's called my city gear, my citygear.com.
39:14
Just three words. My city gear.
39:17
OK, I'll have that link in the Austin Macarina show post.
39:20
I went by there and checked out the Irish Pastoral Center.
39:24
That's right beside right next. Door.
39:25
Yeah, it was. It was a funny Delays put me in
39:28
the right spot. Oh, yeah, She's right next door.
39:31
Mary Swanton. Mary Swanton.
39:33
Yeah, go next door. He has sold a lot of books for
39:36
me, and it's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing that he's got
39:40
a big following, you know, and it's.
39:43
I have to say I'm, I'm happy. I'm I'm surprised that the
39:47
reaction has been so big, bigger than I expected.
39:50
And I've already done just, I call it dripping advertising
39:53
here and there just popping, but it's carrying itself very well.
39:57
So we'll be about 3500 copies were sold now we're coming into
40:00
that. Oh, very nice.
40:02
That's a lot of copies like that for sure.
40:04
The average sale on the picture book in this country is 125
40:08
sales. That's it.
40:10
That's the average, yeah. So this really connected with
40:13
people here and their families and the memories that you
40:16
captured. Right, that's exactly what it is
40:18
and I and I, my next book project I'd like to do once I
40:22
finish this project is to honor the Goldstar families.
40:27
Oh wow, that would be my next project 'cause I think it helps
40:31
this book. It's like a sista book to it.
40:34
Yeah, it's like a sequel. And I think that, you know, we
40:37
used to be referred to as Gold Star Mothers, but now they refer
40:39
to as Gold Star Families because fathers and children are
40:42
affected by it also. Absolutely.
40:44
And I've got probably the 40 names already.
40:48
Every time I mentioned it, somebody emails me, you know,
40:51
which is, which is great. And it might be a harder project
40:55
to do with pictures because, you know, if you leave some family
41:00
member out because he's. Trapped, you have to gather them
41:02
all up at the same. Time they got at the same time.
41:04
So. They could be scattered, you
41:06
know, And yeah, the mothers, I I met some brother, the mothers at
41:10
this book signing. So but I'm doing at different
41:13
events. And then right away when I tell
41:15
them I'm doing that and they slide up to me.
41:16
This is my number. Give me a call like OK?
41:21
That they're referring to the book though.
41:23
At the time, I think they were, yeah.
41:25
Yeah, I thought it was. Maybe they want to meet me
41:27
first. I am single now.
41:29
You know this. Is a family show.
41:31
Yeah. Well, he's your wing man, I
41:34
guess. That's it.
41:35
Oh, he's been the wing man. Oh yeah, He's done a good job.
41:38
We're very proud of him, you know?
41:39
Very nice, very nice. The No, it's been a great, it's
41:45
been a great project. And as I say, it was a mission.
41:47
I was, I never thought it was going to go like this.
41:50
I had no idea where it was going to go.
41:52
But as I could start to see it halfway through, I said, I think
41:55
this is going to be OK. This is going to be.
41:57
So to go back a little bit, if you had no idea where it was
42:01
going to go, if you had no outcome or end goal for the
42:04
project, why did you start it then?
42:08
Well, it started from a luncheon.
42:10
Paul Wahlberg. That's one of the Wahlberg's
42:13
brother. That Donnie's brother, we had
42:15
the lunch at the his restaurant and hang on with my friend Jack
42:19
Doherty owns college type Jay Valentine, another close friend
42:23
of mine and Jim Fagan was there and Paul Wahlberg said did you
42:27
ever consider doing something about veterans?
42:31
I said not really. He said, well, that's a, you
42:33
know, a group of men that should be recognized.
42:36
Next day I started Louis Pascali was my first subject.
42:39
Luigi. Luigi That's how it's sad.
42:42
It's just, you know, and they and they'd all say, how's it
42:45
going? It's going pretty good.
42:46
I got about 12 done already. Oh really?
42:49
And it just kept going all by. Now, and you still enjoy the
42:52
craft, you still enjoy the creation process.
42:55
I'm. Lucky, I'm a very lucky guy.
42:56
I have every day is a challenge. The questions always after asked
43:01
of me. What's your best picture that
43:03
you've taken? And my answer is I haven't taken
43:05
this yet. I'm still looking.
43:08
I'm on the hunt for that great picture.
43:11
Yeah, I didn't think looking at the book that you had a favorite
43:14
because to to your point, they all seemed important.
43:18
Well, that's what I tried to explain to them all.
43:20
Everybody, you know, when I come to their home, they'd say, why
43:23
would you come to my house? I was only a corporal.
43:25
I said, well, you're you're very special because you were part of
43:29
a team and that team was successful.
43:33
OK. You know, then they kind of all
43:35
right, you know, You know, some of them said I'm going to be in
43:37
my generals, you know, and these big guys, I mean, that's just
43:41
me. And I said, well, you're a part
43:43
of it. And that's so true, you know?
43:47
Well how can people connect with you all if they want to learn
43:50
more or have you come speak or just understand the work you all
43:55
do? Well, you can get me on my, my,
43:58
my e-mail is billbrat1verizon.net and, and
44:03
you can get me on Facebook. Bill Brat Boston.
44:05
You know that's I'm easy to find.
44:09
He's easy to find. He's.
44:10
Usually out. Just how do you keep track of
44:13
him though? Because he's out everywhere.
44:15
That's what my wife says. He says how, how come you guys
44:17
are about to she's the same age and you're like, and he's hey,
44:22
come on, let's go. You know I.
44:24
Don't know how he does it, but he does.
44:26
It I've always been like that, you know, my wife would always
44:28
say that he's out somewhere. He's out somewhere, but he says
44:32
he always comes home. I'm very lucky, you know, as my
44:36
wife always said that if we ever get divorced, my wife would keep
44:40
the house and I, which is wonderful.
44:43
And she was telling us, a friend of hers a couple of years ago, I
44:45
could sell sitting on the chair. She's laying there listening to
44:47
it. And she said, Bill, we'll keep
44:49
the summer house. And this woman, Patty says, I
44:52
know, where's your summer house? She says in the driveway he's
44:55
got. The car this.
44:56
Is his car. He's obvious woman at it.
44:58
This is the woman. Didn't know what the summer
45:00
house was. Well, the book is Boston
45:03
Veterans Appreciation, photographed by Bill Brett Ford,
45:06
by General Joseph Dunford Junior, you know, afterward by
45:11
Rear Admiral Gary Ball, U.S. Navy retired.
45:15
You know, Paul, Bill, it's just been a real pleasure and honor
45:18
to talk with you. Well, it's an honor and I
45:20
appreciate, you know, the opportunity to talk with you
45:23
about this book because you were one of the advocates for
45:27
promoting the the veterans. And I feel that this is this is
45:31
appropriate for you. And I had to talk.
45:33
Well, I really appreciate it. It's just I've learned so much
45:36
and I think it's my sons will appreciate something like this
45:41
more than you know. That's what they do.
45:44
I'm sure they will. Sure they will.
45:45
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
45:46
Yeah, we had some fun, Paul and I finding houses and we address
45:51
and we have lots of the house and the person says well no,
45:54
this is we're looking for so and so 35 Spring Rd. he said.
45:58
This is not 35 Spring Rd. that's on the door, says 35.
46:02
Yeah, I think I was in a bathroom.
46:04
He was in a bathroom. I said well it's all fairness
46:07
though. There's 2 spring roads in the
46:08
town. I came back to the car.
46:10
I said that's not the right house.
46:12
The guy said it's 35. He said.
46:13
Bill says what's it say on the 35?
46:17
This isn't 35. See you later.
46:19
But it was another Spring Rd. in the same town.
46:22
It was on the Cape. Yeah.
46:24
And we're laughing at each other.
46:25
Jesus Christ, we were. We.
46:28
Is this thing going to be? Is this for real?
46:31
And he was pretty adamant about it.
46:32
You got the. Wrong.
46:32
Oh, he was. Oh God.
46:34
Is this 30? 5 for you, that's why I got out.
46:36
Right on the 35. Yeah.
46:37
Holy God. So we have some funds.
46:39
You know, the left to right, there's a left.
46:41
No, no, it's on the right, you know, left to right.
46:43
The other guy I would tell like to learn the women mostly that
46:47
you know. What was your favorite?
46:48
I didn't have a favorite, but it was Morrissey, you know, he
46:53
tells me and I'm talking with him after Bill takes his career
46:55
and he's he's in there and was in the Navy.
46:58
And he says, oh, yeah, he says, I was 18 to 21.
47:02
I was on a ship all the time. I was, I never had a girlfriend
47:06
in three years from age 18 to 21, he said, and imagine that
47:10
for a young guy, blah, blah, blah.
47:11
I said, well, how to be tough, you know?
47:13
And he said, yeah, he said, but we ended up in San Francisco,
47:18
three days to go. And I was taking the train, he
47:20
and the buddy back to Boston and they, his boss or the chief
47:24
Petty Officer, somebody said, I'm sitting there as close as
47:27
you and I, Travis. And he says, he says, yeah,
47:30
yeah. So he says, you guys, you 2
47:33
guys, you got two nights and three days here.
47:36
I'm leaving San Francisco and then you got to get on a train
47:41
on Wednesday morning and head back to Boston.
47:44
OK. So I said to him, so Richard, I
47:47
said, what do you do in the two days and three nights you were
47:52
in San Francisco? And he thinks for a second and
47:56
he says. He winks.
48:00
You know. Was that time?
48:01
To say he winked. I looked at him, he says do I
48:04
need to say anything more? I said no.
48:06
You're all set. No, you don't.
48:08
I thought that was great, the way he winked.
48:10
He goes just. Give me the big wink.
48:14
Well, hopefully he was successful.
48:16
Oh. Yeah, yeah, me too.
48:18
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a great, great
48:22
three years. It was long three years.
48:25
I had to pull the plug at some point because it had to end.
48:29
And, you know, people were saying when is this book coming
48:32
out? I mean, from the time I took the
48:34
picture, people would be asking me.
48:36
So it was a lot of asking when is.
48:37
That book coming. Out.
48:38
But we're still working out. We're still working out.
48:40
You know, a lot of people don't understand, but Tom Kelly, as I
48:44
started earlier, who was a Medal of Honor recipient, great, great
48:47
guy. And he was Navy Captain Vietnam.
48:50
And he said to you, call me there a week ago.
48:53
He got the book. And he said, Bill, I know how to
48:55
thank you. I mean, you know, coming from
48:58
somebody like him. And he said, if you need any
49:00
help, you know, I'm here. I'm there for you.
49:03
You know, it's just really nice. Well, just looking through the
49:06
book and some of the people that I've met before, like Sean
49:09
Campbell here, I've, I've known him quite.
49:11
Yeah, yeah, I, yeah, I had a long talk with.
49:14
You. Yeah, nice guy.
49:16
Nice guy, you know he was a Marine.
49:18
Yep. He was in that big.
49:20
Oh my God, I know Andy McCauley from Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:25
We we've done some stuff. Together but but you know a lot
49:27
of guys in. There, you'll know a lot of guys
49:29
in there. Now those two guys there, that
49:30
there's a story in there. I put those two guys together.
49:33
Oh, really? That's yeah, You'll read that
49:34
in. There, Yeah, it's a nice story.
49:36
And, and then Joe Dunford's forward, he writes about that
49:40
one particular picture and he says, he says a very poignant
49:43
story about Doc Cassidy. He was a good Palomar.
49:46
In fact, he's coming up here in a couple of weeks, staying with
49:48
us a couple of days. He lives in Vermont.
49:49
He was a he was a corpsman in Vietnam in in this one of the
49:54
guys whose names who was on the monument South Boston Gold
49:57
Meadow Park is Donald Turner and Cassidy.
50:02
He and another guy came dozen years ago come up to visit me
50:06
and we're driving around. I said, you want to go see this
50:08
monument over in South Boston? Sure.
50:11
One was a Marine, the other was a the corpsman who attached to
50:15
the Marine. So he he looks in Cassidy, Doc
50:17
Cassidy says, Jesus Christ, He says, I was with this guy that
50:22
was with Donnie Turner the day he was killed.
50:25
Really. He said, yeah, he says, and he
50:27
had his wife had a baby on in December of 68.
50:31
Donnie was killed in January of 69.
50:35
Never, never, never saw the son. So I said, did you ever try to
50:39
contact it? It's so chaotic back then.
50:42
And then I got out and then went up to Vermont and all that.
50:46
So I started doing a lot of digging, you know, and, and I
50:49
find this guy, I find the son to his wife, former Donnie's wife.
50:54
And, and I sent him an e-mail and I said, I said who I was.
50:59
And I said Doc Cassidy, Navy Corpsman, was with your dad when
51:03
he was killed in Vietnam. He would like to meet with you
51:06
and tell you what kind of Marine his father was.
51:10
And I get a note back in a week, about a week from him.
51:14
The son, Dear Mr. Doyle, I would love to meet up with Doc
51:18
Cassidy. So I drove up.
51:21
I, I met in a, in a parking lot in of a Target store in Reading.
51:25
That's where he lived. He's a he's a property manager
51:27
somewhere and he gets out of its car.
51:30
He tells me what he's driving and I get a big, big, good
51:32
looking kid and we drive to New Hampshire.
51:36
Cassidy came down from Vermont and we met in this restaurant
51:39
and Cassidy has some stuff pictures back in in the jungle
51:43
with his father and Jesus. And he says, let me tell you.
51:46
So your, your your dad was replacements would come up and
51:49
the Sergeant would say, you take the point and you know, scary
51:54
part, you know, new young Marines.
51:56
And he'd he'd say to I'll take the point and things like that.
52:01
And they looked up to him and all.
52:03
And he says, and the day your father was killed, he says there
52:07
were six guys went this way and six guys went that way.
52:09
I stayed with this Group A patrol and we heard him.
52:13
There was an explosion. We were running over.
52:15
They hit a tripwire. All six were down.
52:19
He's telling the son, he says four were dead, including your
52:23
dad. Never know what hit him.
52:25
There were two guys left. One of the guys, Bob Mannion
52:29
from Albany, NY, was down. He said one of his legs was over
52:33
there. The other one was just hanging.
52:36
He said I leaned over Mannion and he didn't know about the
52:41
other guys. And he says that leg's gone,
52:44
Bob, but I'm going to try and save this leg.
52:46
And he looked at me and he said, forget me.
52:50
Save Turner. And the Sun looks at him and he
52:55
says, what? What did he say?
52:58
He said save your father. And Cassidy says, yeah, you're
53:04
thinking right. If I did that, if your dad was
53:08
still and I went over, he'd have died.
53:10
And the kid starts crying. I started crying, pretty
53:14
emotional. And since then, this was about
53:19
10 years ago, I see him every year and he still he goes, he
53:22
brings his kids to the Gold medal park in September for the
53:25
Vietnam Veterans thing. And we go I dinner with him last
53:28
year with his mother and and all that and we kind of formed a
53:31
little relationship. Yeah, yeah, that was something
53:35
and and and and the foreword Dunford references that he says
53:39
a very poignant story is you'll see.
53:42
And he writes in the in the poor doc Cassidy and about Turner and
53:46
writes a little bit about that, you know, and it.
53:49
Was nice. It was really nice.
53:50
Did a good job in that. That was, yeah, that was great,
53:53
yeah. I I just appreciate getting to
53:57
see other veterans service realize what they've done and
54:00
then they come back and, you know, start families or get
54:04
involved with the community here and they almost serve again.
54:07
You know, Tommy Lyons, the perfect example of that.
54:09
Andrew McCauley is perfect. It's Sean.
54:11
All those individuals not only serve their country, but
54:14
continue to serve in some form or fashion here.
54:19
And I think the thing, you know, closing this out is, you know,
54:22
Paul and Bill, they won't be forgotten because of your book.
54:26
They will not be forgotten, I think.
54:28
That's what the that's the message I'm trying to bring out
54:30
to these, you know, families. Make sure you read my latest
54:33
poem that's in the book there. I'm going to read it and I'm
54:36
going to voice it. I'm going to make a part of the
54:38
show. You won't finish this book in
54:39
one day, so it's a book that you can pick up or put down because
54:43
it's a good. I read, I mean I know all the
54:45
captions. I reread it, I read it and.
54:50
Sometimes I read some of them and I say, but I write that.
54:53
Then I think, well, maybe not all of it, but because we had an
54:56
editor, Carol, she was great. She's fantastic.
55:00
And I'd, I'd send her everything that I wrote and then she'd make
55:03
it look like I, I was pretty. Smart.
55:05
Yeah, she made you look good. She made me look good.
55:10
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Travis with OM Radio with my
55:14
guest Paul Doyle and Bill Brett, photographer, you know,
55:20
archivist is extraordinaire, if you will.
55:23
Gentlemen, just again, thank you for talking with me.
55:25
Thank you and. Thank you, Travis.
55:28
I can't see what's next. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited next,
55:31
but I got to finish this, get this out there.
55:33
I have a whole year to sell it and the way it's going, it's
55:37
going good I guess. We are mission flight.
55:40
We'll see you next time. Thank you again.
55:44
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55:48
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55:51
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