Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
In a world where storytelling has been our link to the past since the days of cave drawings, there exists a timeless tradition. It's the art of passing down knowledge, and for Military Veterans, it's a crucial piece of their legacy. Join us on the Veterans Archives Podcast, where we dive deep into the heartwarming and awe-inspiring stories of those who served, no matter when or where.
Here, Veterans get the chance to be the authors of their own narratives. Through guided interviews in a relaxed and safe environment, they paint their experiences with their own words and unique voices. The result? A memory card in a presentation box, a precious gift they can share however they please.
But that's not all. These stories find a secure home in our archive, a treasure chest of experiences for future generations to explore. The best part? It's all a gift to the Veteran – our way of saying thank you for their service.
Tune in to the Veterans Archives Podcast, where history, heroism, and heartwarming tales come to life.
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Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
Triumph Over Trials Vicki Cain's Story of Hope and Resilience
Vicki Cain's story is one of resilience, courage, and unyielding optimism. Born in Big Rapids, Michigan, Vicki takes us on an enlightening journey from her childhood filled with outdoor adventures on Drummond Island to her trailblazing military career. She shares vivid memories of her upbringing in a small, supportive community and the life-defining decision to join the Army, becoming one of the few women from her town to do so. Vicki's experiences in basic training and her role as a light wheel vehicle mechanic offer a candid look into the challenges and camaraderie of military life, highlighting her strength in navigating a predominantly male environment with grace and determination.
As we track Vicki’s journey from deployment to Saudi Arabia to her return home, she opens up about the trials and triumphs of adjusting to civilian life and the personal growth that followed. Her reflections on family dynamics, swift marriage decisions, and the challenges faced in reintegrating highlight the emotional complexities of life post-deployment. Vicki's narrative shines a light on the often-overlooked nuances of military service, from the strains it can place on relationships to the unexpected turns it can take, all underscored by the unwavering support of her family and community.
In the final chapters of her life’s narrative, Vicki speaks candidly about her career transition to a corrections officer and her battle with stage four pancreatic cancer. Through these challenges, she remains a beacon of hope and wisdom, cherishing the bonds with her children and grandchildren. Her story is a testament to the power of perseverance and the importance of maintaining joy amidst adversity. With an upcoming trip to Disney World symbolizing a cherished farewell, Vicki leaves us inspired, demonstrating that life's most trying moments can be met with courage, resilience, and an enduring belief in the strength of family and self.
Today is Monday, january 13th 2025, and we're talking with Vicki Kane, who served in the United States Army. So good afternoon, vicki.
Speaker 2:Good afternoon, how are you?
Speaker 1:Great, and you, I'm good. Good, we're going to start this out really simple. I'm just going to ask when and where were you born?
Speaker 2:I was born in Big Rapids, michigan, in 1970.
Speaker 1:Okay, big Rapids not really a big town, though, right.
Speaker 2:Not really. No, what I remember, I lived there until I was five. What I remember was big, but when you go back now and look at it like it wasn't so big, it's kind of like visiting your grade school, right Everything seems so big and it's not so much anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you were only there till you were five.
Speaker 2:Till I was five, and then our family moved to Drummond Island up in the UP.
Speaker 1:Okay, and why did you move to Drummond Island?
Speaker 2:I don't know. It was just a thing. I think it was a whim. My parents had this wish of moving up there and owning their own business. And they moved up there. They owned a laundromat Well, I shouldn't say laundromat, it was a commercial laundry.
Speaker 1:And what was it like for you growing up? What are some of your earliest childhood memories?
Speaker 2:It was fun living there the swimming, fishing, a lot of fishing, salmon dipping, smelt dipping. We did work in our parents' laund laundromat, which wasn't so much fun, but um building forts, climbing trees this sounds like a lot of outdoor kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:So do you consider yourself like an outdoors person because of that, or um, not really.
Speaker 2:I I don't. I love to go camping, but I still am afraid of the spider or the snakes.
Speaker 1:I guess that's okay. Okay, and so you, um, you grew up there, uh, your whole childhood, then up through school Yep.
Speaker 2:I graduated from Detour Village.
Speaker 1:High School, and what was school like for you? High school, and what was school like for you.
Speaker 2:Very interesting. Our class only had 25 students and the entire school because we had to take the ferry boat every day over. From 7th grade to 12th grade you had to take the ferry boat over to detour, so on days when it would snow or the ice, couldn't clear the channel. We didn't have to go to school, but the mainlanders still had to go to school, so we would get days off and they wouldn't, and it was kind of nice.
Speaker 1:So you had a lot of snow days. Then we had a lot of snow days. Well, that's not a bad deal at all, and you had brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2:I had one brother.
Speaker 1:Okay, and is he close to you in age?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's two years older than me, all right.
Speaker 1:Were you fairly close as kids.
Speaker 2:We were, because it was just me and him. We both were adopted from separate families, so I think that created a bond early on. We're definitely very close now.
Speaker 1:Right, well, that's nice.
Speaker 2:Do you have any favorite memories when you were a kid Going dirt bike riding with my brother, yeah, yep, like motorcycle dirt bike, or yeah, wow, okay, I used to have this little Honda 70 that I had and then, uh, um, yamaha 100. That was the biggest I ever got was 100, but it was fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the, the, the little Honda. So was that that little trail 70? Is that what? That was it had like the folding handlebars.
Speaker 2:Yep, okay yeah, but it was fun yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's always a good time and, um, you know what was. What was school like for you?
Speaker 2:School was fairly easy. Um, easy. We didn't have the cliques. We didn't have the group that shunned another group. We were so close-knit because it was such a small school and such a small community that everybody got along. I could tell you every name of every classmate I had. Right now I could probably look at an old picture and name them too.
Speaker 1:So that's a little different than some of the larger schools.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't have like you know, like they do nowadays, where the bullying and I think that, that even back then, when I was going to school, they had that, but not, not with us right.
Speaker 1:well, with that, with that few of people in the school, I mean, I guess if you started doing that, there's just not a whole lot of people to there's not enough people to make clicks. Right, very small ones maybe, but not large ones. Well, tell me a little bit about your parents. So they adopted you and your brother. Yes, what were your, your parents like?
Speaker 2:they were both very hard-working. They loved the outdoors. I know my mom loved the garden. She loved to go morel hunting mushrooms. My dad he worked a lot. He Was constantly there on the go or in the laundromat till late hours of the night. Vacation was on the island. We'd go camping. I think that's where I got the love of camping. We'd go camping for vacation, but just hardworking people.
Speaker 1:And then, how often would you take vacations? How often would you not be working?
Speaker 2:Well, the nice thing about living there we were a summer, like we only worked during the summer, so in the wintertime we would travel down to where my grandparents lived, which I had a set of grandparents that lived in Big Rapids and then a set that lived in Albion and aunts and uncles that lived down here. So our vacation would be once a year in the summer, but in the wintertime we would take bigger vacations. Okay. Like we went to Walt Disney World twice when I was younger.
Speaker 1:Pretty good memories of that.
Speaker 2:Loved it.
Speaker 1:For those listening, Vicki's getting ready to take another trip to Disney here soon, so we were talking about that earlier. So you really got to know. It sounds like you got to know your extended family then through those trips downstate.
Speaker 2:Yes, which they're all spread out. Now I don't even know where some of my cousins are right now. We're so spread out. I keep contact with about five, maybe six of my cousins and then they just kind of give me updates on their brother or their sister. You know, the ones I was closest to is the ones I'm still in touch with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's nice. And are they all like similar in age then?
Speaker 2:They are all like similar in age. Then they are um, we had two older cousins and then we had two younger cousins, so we were like right in the middle. But yeah, um, we had an older, older set of cousins that were just the age where they could drive and we couldn't, so they got to take us places and stuff which was fun, take us to the movies and things like that into the mall and they didn't mind taking the younger kids.
Speaker 1:No, oh, that's really nice yeah I know this. One of my cousins didn't appreciate hanging out with the younger cousins. That's, that is really nice. So how so did you? You lived, uh, you, you lived in the up then or the upper peninsula, all the way Peninsula, all the way through school.
Speaker 2:All the way through school.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep, all right. And then you said at some point you moved downstate to Albion. Yes, so tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Well, I was working on the island and there's just not a whole heck of a lot there as far as a future career type thing. So I moved down with my mom, who lived in Albion, and started working at Spencer's in the mall.
Speaker 1:I remember Spencer's. You could buy all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was crazy and it was a good job and I had fun doing it, but it wasn't getting me where I needed to go, it wasn't giving me any structure, it wasn't giving me any discipline, and so I explored the military, and the Army is what I chose. Now why the Army and the army is what I chose.
Speaker 2:Now, why the army? You know, I'm not really sure, because my dad was in the army, my grandfather was in the army, so maybe that's the thing. But I went to the Navy recruiter and didn't like what they were offering and so I went over to the army recruiter and I was ready to go, like I wanted to go now and the Army could offer that at the time.
Speaker 1:So now, did your um, your dad and your grandfather? Did they talk about their time in service at all? Not really so you just knew that they had been in, but they didn't really I knew they had been in from pictures uh-huh that's about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they didn't really talk about it okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So you go to the recruiter, you figure out I'm going into the army, uh, and so what happens from there? Do you? Are you in the delayed entry program for a little while?
Speaker 2:Okay, probably within a month. I was going to maps, went through maps and within two weeks of that I was on a bus headed to Fort Dix, new Jersey. Well, actually, headed to the airport in Lansing to go to Fort Dix, new Jersey.
Speaker 1:Oh, so very, very quick.
Speaker 2:Very quickly, very quickly, which is what I wanted. I didn't want to keep sitting on it, because, if I may have sat on it, it may have changed my mind.
Speaker 1:That happens, right, that definitely happens. So how did your parents feel about you joining the military?
Speaker 2:My mother was not happy. My dad was very supportive Back then. When we went in we had to supply our own. They gave us a list of stuff we had to bring.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So my dad made sure that I had all that stuff had to bring right. So my dad made sure that I had all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Um, he came to my graduation when I graduated from basic and so and my mom was supportive via letters and things like that, but she just wasn't happy about it right she didn't want her, her baby girl, going off to the army this was sort of still a time, a time time in our history where there were women in the military, of course, but it doesn't seem like it wasn't as many, wasn't maybe as accepted as it is today?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What about your brother? How did your brother feel about this?
Speaker 2:He was very proud of me. Yeah, he was very proud of me.
Speaker 1:He was very proud of me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was very proud of me. I do remember and this may be jumping ahead a little bit, but I do remember because I was deployed to Desert Storm, Desert Shield, and my brother told me a story that he was bowling and they had the big screen on the TVs and they announced the war had started and he said he fell to his knees and started crying. That's one of my memories, that he tells me that. And then there's another one that's quite funny.
Speaker 1:Well, let's hear that story.
Speaker 2:So back then we didn't have cell phones, we didn't have things like that. At&t built up call centers out there in the middle of nowhere. They just built these call centers and then, like you would have a food truck at these call centers, On the menu it would say hamburger, cheeseburger. You know all the luxuries that you would try and find at home. So of course I ordered a cheeseburger. You know all the luxuries that you would try and find at home, so of course I ordered a cheeseburger. And I'm talking to my brother on the phone then later tell him how good this was. You know I had a cheeseburger. It was the best thing ever. And he's like vick. Let me ask you something. I said what he said. How many cows have you seen over there?
Speaker 1:I said very funny never thought about that so you're pretty sure that wasn't really I'm pretty sure it wasn't.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a beef burger.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, not sure what kind of burger it was, but it was good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as long as it tasted good right, it tasted good.
Speaker 2:In my mind it was a beef cheeseburger, that's all that matters.
Speaker 1:You know, I remember the call centers, um, I remember, uh, being overseas and you had to have the AT&T calling cards and I remember spending a lot of money to call home at the time, which you don't even have to do now, it's just picking up a cell phone at this point. So let's back up a little bit. I want to ask you know you got on your flight. You fly to Fort Dix. I'm sure they picked you up in a bus and drove you over. What was it like for you stepping off that bus for the first time into basic training?
Speaker 2:Reality was setting in that I had actually done this and I didn't know what to expect, and that overwhelming feeling of anxious anxiety kind of took over a little bit because you just didn't know what to expect. I think I was in holding for two weeks before they built up a company to get us going, so that that was nice, because it was a little late. More laid-back kind of got you used to some of the rules and the regulations and stuff and when to salute, when not to salute things that will get you in trouble. Right.
Speaker 1:Now, when you're in like that holding company, when they're building up, that can give you kind of a false sense of what basic training is like, can it? I mean like when your company formed up and you actually started, it was quite a bit different from that.
Speaker 2:Yes, Okay, Because we didn't get like they didn't have drill sergeants, so there was no yelling in your face. There was no. You know you're dirt on the bottom of my shoe type person.
Speaker 1:Right, call your mom names, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Right, and when you get to your company, which was quite funny in itself and didn't realize they try to confuse you. And they ran us and ran us, and ran us, and ran us until we were exhausted Come to find out where we were compared to. Where we were going was maybe a football field away, but they ran us about 20 football fields.
Speaker 1:That sounds like something the Army would do.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, dazed and confused.
Speaker 1:Right, and were these co-ed companies or were these separated?
Speaker 2:No, these were separated. We sold separate companies. Now I did AIT and that was co-ed, but basic was all female.
Speaker 1:Okay, Well, tell me some of your like. What are some of the memories that really stick out in your head about basic training? Maybe some of the people or some of the interactions, maybe some of the people or some of the interactions.
Speaker 2:So I remember there's a lot of good memories. It's called the Confidence Course. I wish I had my. You know they have like the yearbook type thing. I wish I had it with me.
Speaker 1:I could show you. I'm not going to lie. I was looking at my yearbook the other day, were you?
Speaker 2:Where the confidence course there's. Like this, I call it the ladder and you go up and as you go up higher, the feet and the hand grips get further apart and you're supposed to climb to the top and come down. Well, when I got to the top I went to go back down and I couldn't reach the the bar, so I just sat there and said I wasn't coming down, and two drill sergeants actually had to climb up onto that confidence course to get me to come down. Oh no, so then I got the nickname private benjamin uh-huh which was very comical, but I did fairly well.
Speaker 2:I did expert in rifle, okay, and then handgun grenade, did things like that. That was fun as far as buddies I had. Once her name was McDonald. She would smile on her face 24-7. And it used to get her in trouble all the time. Why are you smiling? Why are you smiling this big old smile?
Speaker 1:It's just who she was right. So actually two questions. The first one is I'm guessing that eventually you figured out how to climb up and down the obstacle course.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:No, no, okay. Well, the second one is what was it?
Speaker 2:Very scary Because you're holding this live thing that could kill you in your hand, but it was exhilarating. It was kind of powerful. You know what I just did and things like that, so it was fun.
Speaker 1:Probably not. A lot of your friends back home got to do that.
Speaker 2:No, no, I think out of everybody that I graduated high school with, I was the only female that went off to the military. There were some males that went off into the military Air Force Army but I think I was the only female.
Speaker 1:That's something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, again, we were from such a small town.
Speaker 1:Right, that's true Very rare. Do you find that a lot of your friends just kind of stayed around your hometown or did?
Speaker 2:they disperse. I talked to them on Facebook, you know and keep contact through Facebook and out of the ones I talked to, they are still on the island. They stuck around. There are a few that moved away down towards Lansing. I have a friend that lives in Kalamazoo but for the most part they stayed.
Speaker 1:They ran their family business and things like that. Yeah, now is your family's business still there being run by anybody else, or it's gone now.
Speaker 2:No, it did for a while. Somebody had bought, my dad had sold it and then my dad had passed away and just with everything, that was the logistics of everything they ended up. Just they turned it into something else. I'm not even sure what it is.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, okay, I was just curious. So you get to basic training, you sound like you did really well there, and then when you got done with basic, did you come home or did you go right to AIT Went?
Speaker 2:straight to AIT.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then what was your job?
Speaker 2:63 Bravo, which is a light wheel vehicle, mechanic.
Speaker 1:Okay, so at a time when a lot of women didn't join the military, you joined the military and became a mechanic.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's kind of pushing it, so to speak. All all right. So was your AIT right there at Fort Dix.
Speaker 2:it was okay yeah, we had some classes at um McGuire Air Force Base. Those were the best days, because they're right when they say the Air Force and the Army eat sleep different. We'd go to the chow hall for lunch while we were doing AIT and we got to eat in the Air Force chow hall. It was like eating sirloin steak compared to chopped liver.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, that's a whole different lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Oh, it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it certainly is. Now, how long was your AIT?
Speaker 2:If I remember correctly correctly, it was eight weeks. It was eight weeks I graduated um number four in my class, so I got to stay back and get a second MOS, which was a vehicle recovery class okay, which was kind of an honor to to get that, because not everybody got it. Only the top six got to stay and get that extra MOS.
Speaker 1:And so vehicle recovery. Basically, that's towing these big vehicles. When we talk about light-wheeled vehicles, we're not talking about cars, though we're still talking about… no, we're talking about Humvees.
Speaker 2:Deuce and a Half.
Speaker 1:Good-sized machines.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So you know I got to ask you You're really… I don't like to use this term, but you're kind of in a man's world at that point. How was that for you? Did that motivate you to try and do better than everybody else? I'm just trying to get a feel for what that was like, because I can't really relate.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure how to put it the way that I want to explain it. I paid attention during class and everything was by manual. They would show us how to change a battery in a vehicle. Here's a manual. All you had to do was follow that manual to a T and you could do it yourself. So it was easy, as long as you paid attention to that manual, and then the day before, they gave us the answers to the test the day before. So as long as you paid attention the day before, you're passing the class, and that's probably why I passed so high in the class. I had a good memory.
Speaker 2:And you paid attention I paid attention, but it was a little difficult at times. They treated the females a little bit different. They got special treatment, things like that, which I did not like. Right.
Speaker 1:But that did happen. Now were there a few, so I assume there's a few other women in your group, so it wasn't just you.
Speaker 2:No, there was probably 15 of us maybe, so yeah, Okay, did you tend to stick together? We did, we did, we did. There was one private chapel I'll never forget. I met her on the bus going to Basic. We ended up going to Basic and then AIT together and then we both got stationed at Fort Stewart, and when we got deployed over to Desert Shield she was in a different company, but I ran into her over there too, so her and I were pretty close.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's interesting too. I don't know if this happened to you. Have you like run into people that you were in basic or that you had been in AIT with other than her, than her, you know, kind of throughout your time in the military or?
Speaker 2:not. No, not really. That's the only one that I've ever ran into. Okay, yeah all right.
Speaker 1:So you finish up with AIT. You did really well. You got the additional MOS, and then at some point did you come home or did you just go right to your unit.
Speaker 2:No, at Christmas time we got Christmas break. I was still in AIT, I was still in schooling, so we got to go home for Christmas. So when AIT was finished, we went straight to our duty station. Okay, which was in March, I believe.
Speaker 1:So what was it like coming home for that first time after being in the military? It was nice, was it?
Speaker 2:It was nice. I lost so much weight. I was so thin, I was so thin. But back then. I don't know how they do it now, but they made us wear our Class A's to travel in.
Speaker 2:I don't know if they do that now or not, but um, so back then it was kind of nice to be in an airport or to be on a bus and you know people are like thank you. Um, coming home from desert shield, the storm was just tremendous, overwhelming feeling. But going back to AIT and stuff, yeah, Okay, and then did you.
Speaker 1:so you were home for what? Two weeks then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, about two weeks yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, did you see some old friends? Yeah, okay, and what was that like kind of sharing what you're doing and they're sharing what they're doing?
Speaker 2:They were proud of me, were they? They were proud of me, a lot of them. When I did get deployed, a lot of them did end up writing to me and sending me care packages and things like that. So a lot of them were stunned just because I didn't seem like the type of girl that would go into the military Right, let alone become a mechanic, uh-huh. But they were pretty proud of me and some of them wish I've heard one of them wish that they would have done something like that when they were young enough to do it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wish I would have stayed in long enough, longer than I did now that I, if I, could go back and do it again.
Speaker 1:Right, right, you know, and I think that, like for me, I was in the Navy for just about 10 years but I missed it and so I went into the Army National Guard because I liked the military and ended up retiring from there. But yeah, I think a lot of people do kind of get out and then they think, gosh, if I had just stayed in. You know what would that have been like.
Speaker 2:It's funny that you say that because I had three, three. Well, I had two boys at the time and I was going to sign up for the national guard, myself gonna go back in that way, and I found out I was pregnant oh so they wouldn't take me at the time. And then by the time the third one come around, I'm just like I'm good this is enough work.
Speaker 1:I'm good, right. So you, uh, so you, you pack up, you go back to ait and you finish that out and then head to your duty, your first duty station. So where was this at? Fort stewart, georgia fort stewart, georgia yeah where it's hot year round, right yeah, it had it.
Speaker 2:You know, it actually snowed there but it never touched the ground, it was just kind of like a flurry or two once in a while. But, yeah, hot, and I had been down south on vacation, like to Florida. But to actually live in that kind of environment was a shocker because I had never done it. I mean, I grew up in the UP of. Michigan, so it was a big culture shock for me.
Speaker 1:And what was a daily routine for you when you were there?
Speaker 2:PT Mondays, wednesdays and Fridays, and then formation, and then you would go do your job.
Speaker 1:And I think a lot of people don't realize that when you're in the military, you have a job, yeah, and you go do your job. You know and I think a lot of people don't realize that, like, when you're in the military, you have a job, yeah, and you go to your job. You do PT, which maybe you don't do like in corporate America.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you go. If your job's to work on vehicles, you go work on vehicles.
Speaker 2:Work on vehicles, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so, what kind of a unit were you at?
Speaker 2:I actually got stationed with a military intelligence unit, okay, which, when we were over in Saudi, proved to be a nice place to be because they were bilingual A lot of them were bilingual and could speak Arabic, and so they could translate a lot of stuff for us.
Speaker 1:So how long were you there before you deployed?
Speaker 2:I got there, I believe, in May, and then that August I deployed.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this all happened again. All happened very quickly.
Speaker 2:Very quickly.
Speaker 1:Very quickly.
Speaker 2:At first we didn't think we were going to go. Then we're going, then we're not Just this back and forth. And then we started taking our vehicles to the shipyard. I said it's starting to get real Right.
Speaker 1:So and then, what was it like for you to deploy you?
Speaker 2:It was very, very surreal. Yeah. I think at first it didn't really bother me. I think I was scared. I had that lump in my throat. But it wasn't until you actually set foot in Saudi Arabia that it was like this is the real thing, Right, and when you're walking around with a loaded M16, you definitely know it's the real thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's no longer a drill, it's no longer training. It's all those things you would train to do Train to do yeah. So when you're in Saudi Arabia, they brought all their equipment with them, I'm assuming. So you're still really doing your job there. You're maintaining the vehicles for them.
Speaker 2:The routine was pretty much the same, other than if you were an enlisted E-form below, you got what they called Am I allowed to swear.
Speaker 2:You can swear Perfectly, okay, our audience is used to that you got shit duty where you had to burn the barrels of shit, and that was I probably got once a week. Maybe my name came up to do that, but other than that it was a normal day. You did PT, you did breakfast, you did formation, you went and you did your job. Now, if there was anything special, like sometimes, um, if we didn't have any vehicles broke down or whatever and the company commander needed to ride Somewhere or whatever and his driver was busy doing something else, then We'd step in and do that, which was kind of interesting because I got to go and see different places and things like that.
Speaker 1:What would you say was your favorite part of, uh, that deployment? I'm guessing it wasn't the shit duty.
Speaker 2:No, it wasn't the shit. Duty, my favorite part, that's hard to say. Um, getting mail was probably my favorite part. Care packages, the bond I think that grew I am. We were stationed like in the middle of the desert, just like any normal duty station. You had your outhouses, you had your showers, you had everything. Well, the day after Christmas we packed up everything and we lived out of our vehicles from that day on really yes and uh.
Speaker 2:So the guy that I was, we drove the fuel truck we got assigned to the fuel truck, which was which was not fun to think about. But, um, him and I grew a pretty good bond Potter was his name, I'll never forget him and he had kids at home and he used to worry about his kids and he used to show me pictures and things like that. We established a pretty good bond.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now you weren't married at this time, right?
Speaker 2:No, I was. Oh, you were, okay, I was.
Speaker 1:All right. So, before we go any further, how did you meet your husband?
Speaker 2:In the military, of course.
Speaker 1:Yes, were you stationed together.
Speaker 2:We were stationed at Fort Stewart, I met him. We were waiting at the pay phones to call a cab because I didn't have a car. Me and this other girl that I had met were going to go rent a hotel room for the weekend because we had a weekend pass and just kind of relax and whatnot, and met him at the payphone. He says I'll give you a ride because he had a car. Oh.
Speaker 2:And then he ended up asking me out. A couple of dates later he asked me to marry him and I said no. And then a couple of days later he kind of wore me down. Okay, I finally said okay.
Speaker 1:I feel like things move quickly in your life.
Speaker 2:Yes, they do, they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you uh, did you you get married there on base or did you come back home?
Speaker 2:We actually had to go to South Carolina Dillon, south Carolina to get married because we did a um justice of the peace and they don't have that in Georgia. So we had to drive all the way to Dillon, South Carolina, which is probably about a two, three-hour drive, to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's commitment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess you could look at it that way.
Speaker 1:Right Now. At some point did your parents or your family get to meet him?
Speaker 2:His parents came down, my dad came down and my brother came down, okay to meet him, yeah, and for me to meet his family and, uh, I should have, I'm a big michigan fan. Now go blue, um. But back then I didn't. I didn't really watch a lot of football, I just knew that I liked Michigan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And my father-in-law my new father-in-law is a Penn State fan.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So he brought me this T-shirt that had a Nittany Lion on it. It said Penn State Nittany Lions and I'm like what in the hell is Nittany Lions? Oh, that was not the right foot to get off with him. He's like what do you mean? You don't know it in any line.
Speaker 1:Right, he expected you to know all about the Big Ten and all about football, right.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, all about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't really learn much about that until my kids got into football.
Speaker 1:So you got married and then you deployed pretty quickly after you got married.
Speaker 2:Got married in May. Yeah, and we married in May yeah, and we deployed in August.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we were not married very long.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so you're just kind of writing back and forth while you're.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:While you're deployed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, talking on the phone.
Speaker 1:Mm hmm, so you got married quickly. So you got married quickly, but do you think how?
Speaker 2:do you think being apart impacted your relationship? It wasn't. I think I realized it wasn't a good decision to make Uh-huh to make just because of the fact that you know, if my husband was over there I would have probably wrote a hundred times more, I would have sent a hundred more care packages, you know things like that and he wasn't very supportive because he didn't go over. So that put a bad taste in my mouth when I came home and at that time I said I wanted a divorce. But then I found out I was pregnant with our first son. So I said I would try and work things out and we would work through this and raise our son.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I want to talk a little bit, too, about coming back, because you said earlier that coming back was like this really good feeling when you came back from overseas. Tell me a little bit, tell me more about that.
Speaker 2:Well, when the when the ground war was over, in the few days that it lasted, they sent a group of people back home early to get the, because we had National Guard staying in the barracks and things. So they sent probably about 100 of us home early to get everything ready and stuff for when the whole company comes back. So we flew from Daharan to Dover Air Force Base and that was, there was people, you know, with flags and they had food. Well, we stopped in Spain, I do remember that, and they had a hangar. Red Cross was there, got a shower because I had not had a shower since December, remember, yeah, because you were living in your truck. Yep, got a shower because I had not had a shower since December, remember.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you were living in your truck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got clean undergarments and everything, so that felt amazing. From Dover Air Force Base we'd bus to Philadelphia Airport. We flew commercial and people would just pat you on the back, buy you a drink, thank you for your service, things like that. I wasn't even old enough to drink and I was drinking why not? And on the airplane. You know, they recognize us on the airplane. So it was pretty, it was a nice feeling. And then you think about the way they treated the Vietnam vets. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they didn't have any other choice to be where they were at other than we did. You know Mm-hmm. So it kind of hurt for me. It hurt me to know that they went through that Right, to know what happened to them, what happened to them, to know that they went through that.
Speaker 1:Right To know that what happened to?
Speaker 2:them what happened to them? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you think that we learned something?
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:About bringing people home? I think so yeah.
Speaker 2:I really do. I mean, people always say that young kids that join the military are the kids that don't have the money to go to college which isn't always true, right. Isn't always true, but the thing is. Without those type of people, where would you be today? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I agree. I think that one of the things that I do now is, if I see someone with a Vietnam veteran hat on, I always go over and welcome them home.
Speaker 2:Take the time and do it Even now. They still appreciate it. They do, they do. I always felt it was a little awkward. They still appreciate it, they do.
Speaker 1:They do, they do. I always felt it was a little awkward when people thanked me for my service. I didn't know how to respond Right. But as I've talked to more and more Vietnam veterans, I'm thankful when people are thankful.
Speaker 2:Yes, I just say thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know you thanked me for my service. I thank you and that's my way of recognizing the fact that you took the time to come over and shake my hand or pat me on the back and thank me for what I did.
Speaker 1:Well, I can tell this really touches you deeply and I think you're absolutely right that to be thankful for the people who make this country what it is is very important.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I do want to ask a little bit too about your time. So you were living. I've got to ask this question. You were living in your vehicles? Yes, this is because the war was over way more quickly than they thought it would be. No, what happened?
Speaker 2:We went on a convoy and drove into Iraq. Oh.
Speaker 2:And so that's why we were living out of our vehicles for that long. If you look at a map now, we seem to take the longest route around, so that's why we were living out of our vehicles. We weren't stationed just in one spot anymore. We did get water and they said you can either drink it, wash with it, wash your hair, whatever you want. Well, of course, everybody's going to drink it over there. I did wash my hair once in a while, girls gotta do what a girl's right.
Speaker 1:And that was that all just a function of the Intelligence gathering or whatever it was your unit was doing? Is that's why you were, yeah, okay, yeah, all right. And then they, so they said they sent a hundred of you back home, yep. And then so what was that like to get back? And I'm so I'm just kind of going about what you said but it sounds like you had realized that this marriage was maybe wasn't the right the best move you could have made. So what was that like for you when you came back?
Speaker 2:move you could have made, right, um, so what was that like for you when you came back was um, there was a couple things that got said that will stick in my head forever and um, one of the reasons I went back and told you the story about spain because I got a shower, got clean undergarments but we had to put on the same dirty uniform right and, um, we flew into savannah airport and family got to meet, if they were able to, they got to meet, meet us there.
Speaker 2:And uh, my husband gave me a hug and kind of pushed me away and said god you stink. And so my whole persona just went right. You know, like nice to meet you too. And then I'm thinking about all these people I was in contact with all day and like, did I stink that bad that they could smell me and you know? And then just to have him say that was just, it floored me, it absolutely floored me. To say, you know, for him to say that Not hi, honey, not welcome home. It was god you sink, right, yeah. So staying in that marriage was very tough.
Speaker 2:Um, we ended up having three boys together wow we were separated um after the second one and then kind of tried to make things work and then I found I was pregnant. That's when I was going to join the National Guard and I found out I was pregnant with my third son.
Speaker 1:All right, so you come back. That happens and I don't care if you're a guy or a girl. No one wants to have someone tell them that right when they get home Right. That's just not good. So you got everything ready for your unit to come back, and they came back. How much longer were you stationed there and did you go someplace else, or did you?
Speaker 2:No, I stayed there until I got out.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, and did you have your first son while you were still in the army?
Speaker 2:Nope, I got out. I found out that I could get out due to a pregnancy. Uh-huh. And I had found myself in a little bit. I've got two Article 15s, okay.
Speaker 1:Do you mind talking about those?
Speaker 2:No, that's fine Okay.
Speaker 1:I always wanted to ask Full transparency. I've had my fair share of those too. And I find that some of the best people in the military have had Article 15. So let's talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Well, the first one I got was for going AWOL. I hadn't been able to go home or do anything since I had come back to go see my family and I put in for leave, had ample amount of leave, and they denied it. So I said heck with it, and for the weekend I went to Florida and I visited some family that I have down there, went to Disney World.
Speaker 1:Might as well make it worth it right, right.
Speaker 2:And when it came to Judgment Day, I was honest with them. I said, yeah, I went AWOL, yeah, I wasn't here.
Speaker 2:They gave me two days of no pay, two days of extra duty, and they took rank right so okay the other one was a little more complex and this is what really gave me a bad taste about the military and decided for me to get out. Um, our second lieutenant that we had at the time did not deploy with us. He was brand new, brand new to the company. Nobody liked him. You know, just this young kid, you know, nobody's given him any respect whatsoever, Right, but he dropped a generator from a Humvee on my hand. He didn't mean to, he just it was an accident, yeah, and they only did. They couldn't do anything for it. They just wrapped it up the next day before formation. You know how you kind of. You know gaggle around and you smoke that last cigarette and stuff. Yeah, One of the girls had asked me what had happened and I told her. Well, he overheard the conversation and gives me an Article 15 saying I degraded an officer in front of formation and that one I fought and I lost that one.
Speaker 2:And that just gave me the bad taste in my mouth about being in the military. I'm like you know I did something wrong before I admitted to it. I took my lump like I should have. But when I'm right, you're, I admitted to it, I took my lump like I should have, right.
Speaker 1:But when I'm right, you're still going to punish me, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the lump you didn't deserve. It was his word over mine, right that's all it was, and they took his word Right, probably because he was a lieutenant and I was an E3 at the time, because I got demoted.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I can see that. Yeah, All right, so you um. She ended up getting pregnant then. Yes. Uh, and then you got out as a result of that. Yes, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, did your husband stay in the military?
Speaker 2:No, he got out as well. He got out. He? Um didn't get deployed because? Um he had a back injury while he was in and they wouldn't take him on medical status right. So um he didn't get deployed and then he got out. He? Um was waiting for me to find out what was going on with me, and he just ended up getting out?
Speaker 1:do you think that, um, do you think the fact that you deployed he didn't impacted how he treated you?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah, I think there was a lot of jealousy. My kids to this day will tell me stories that their dad has told. And they're stories and they're not true.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I kind of laugh about him, like your dad didn't even go over there, so where's he getting this story from? You know he did have back surgery while I was in, so he has a scar. They opened him up in the front, they took bone and they fused it to his back where he had a disc that needed to be adjusted or whatever. But he tells the kids that that's a bullet wound.
Speaker 1:So there was some jealousy between your husband and you regarding his service and not having deployed when you both got out of the service. Then where did you go from there?
Speaker 2:We moved to Pennsylvania. That's where he was from. Okay. I wanted to move to Ohio to kind of make it an in-between thing. So I was close to my family in Michigan and he could be close to his family in Pennsylvania. But we ended up in Pennsylvania and I spent the better part of 30 years in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:Okay Now. Did you both work or did he work? How did that work?
Speaker 2:He worked. He started off working. I went back to work when our first son was about eight months old. I went to work at a daycare and continued doing that working at daycare all through my second pregnancy and he was still working. And then we had our third son. Now, mind you, we were separated and he came home one day from work and said he wasn't going back to work, he quit. Yeah, he just quit.
Speaker 1:What kind of work was he doing?
Speaker 2:Working at the post office. Okay, he had a decent job. Yeah. So I ended up going to work and worked at the post office. Okay, I had a decent job, yeah, so I ended up going to work and worked at the post office, which put a big strain on me and my family dynamics, because I wasn't always there for my kids, because they had to get babysitters, they had to you know, it's unfortunate that my ex-husband he was living with me.
Speaker 2:When I told him that I was going to see a divorce attorney and we got divorced, he just he had no ambition to do anything. But kind of my fault, I didn't know him very well when I married him.
Speaker 1:Right. So how long were you married then? Eight and a half years, eight and a half years, yeah, okay, I want to back up a little bit and talk about your boys, though. So your first son, what's his name?
Speaker 2:His name is Andrew.
Speaker 1:Okay, tell me something about him.
Speaker 2:He was in the military. Okay, he did four years in the army stationed in Hawaii. He did four years in the. Army stationed in Hawaii, schofield Barracks, and I could kick myself in the ass for not ever going out there to see him. Yeah, it would have been nice. He got out for about a year and then reenlisted in the Air Force. So he did totally. I think, about eight and a half, nine years in the military. He has a beautiful wife, three beautiful babies my grandbabies and they live in South Carolina.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what does he do now?
Speaker 2:He works for some company for logistics. Okay, he does logistics, which is kind of what he did while he was in the Army. He did the human resource aspect of things. Okay, and I take it you're proud of him aspect of things.
Speaker 1:Okay, and are you proud? I take it you're proud of him.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely yeah, I'm proud of all three of my boys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I saw your face light up when you said grandbabies.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, they're my world. Yeah, they're my world.
Speaker 1:Now, and he was born in what year then? 1992. Okay, and In what year then?
Speaker 2:1992.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then your second son was born.
Speaker 2:In 94, September of 94.
Speaker 1:Okay, so just about two years apart then.
Speaker 2:Yep, because then the third son was born April of 96. Okay, yeah, so every year from 91 to 96, I was pregnant at some point.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, During the year. Well, tell me about your second son.
Speaker 2:My second son. He lives in Florida. He has one grandson of mine Getting ready to have number two in July. He works construction, he loves it. He says I don't know how he does it in the heat, but he loves it. He's a great father. He was having his challenges in life and he had that baby, and that baby turned his life around, Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sometimes that happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah. And then what about your third son?
Speaker 2:My third son. He lives in Pennsylvania. He's the only one that's still in Pennsylvania, uh-huh, he's the reason why. Well, he's not the reason why, but I stayed in Pennsylvania until after he got out of college. He graduated from Shippensburg University. Okay, he played football. That's where I got.
Speaker 2:All three of the boys played peewee and pony football and then Stephen went on to pursue high school and things like that and got oh, what's the word? I'm looking for you get a scholarship yeah, you got a scholarship for a d2 school, so, but he lives in Pennsylvania. He has one grandson right now uh-huh pride and joy of him too.
Speaker 1:So there must be something when you all get together with the grandchildren and the boys.
Speaker 2:We just did it Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:How was that?
Speaker 2:Very chaotic. Yeah, the age range is seven years to ten months of kids, but it was fun. I mean it's well worth it, it's well worth being exhausted at the end of the day, yeah. I can believe that.
Speaker 1:I got to ask. So if I do my math correctly, at some point you had a two-year-old, a four-year-old and a six-year-old all boys under one roof.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And I know that you were working as well, but what was that like as a mom?
Speaker 2:having three boys that are all very close in age Very challenging. Yeah, very challenging, because two would always get along with each other, but not all three. So you would have these two that were getting along and they were both fighting with this one, and then an hour later it would be these two were fighting against this one, but it was having boys. I mean. Mean, I always wished I had a girl. I cried when I found out steven was a was a boy. He was my last one does.
Speaker 1:He know this.
Speaker 2:Yes, he does um, when was I going with that? Oh, but boys, they're just. There's something emotionally connected with boys that you know. They say that you know a son. His first love is his mother yeah I feel that and um, with everything I'm going through now, they've been very supportive of everything with that, um. But yeah, growing up with three boys, there was never enough food in the house. The house was always dirty. I don't care how much I cleaned it, there was always dirty clothes.
Speaker 1:And they all three, so at some point they were all three playing football at the same time, right?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That must have been very busy. Yes it was. Do you feel like your time in the Army maybe helped you?
Speaker 2:Maybe a little bit helped me be a little bit more organized and structured and things like that. Yeah, I do, I really do. I think the military helped me with that in a lot of aspects of life and the way that I handled situations and things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean, if you can stir a barrel of shit that's on fire and not completely lose it overseas, I mean that really does say something, though.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right. And so what did you do at the post office?
Speaker 2:I was a mail handler. I actually the trucks would come in with carts and stuff of mail and we would unload the trucks, Okay, and just kind of designate to where they had to go parcels this way and letters this way and but I enjoyed what I did there. I worked 3 to 1130. I did not like that because when I first started I Was what they call a part-time flex.
Speaker 2:Oh so they could work you as little as four hours a day, or up to 12, and that 12 wasn't like. You didn't know that ahead of time right you knew that night, and so I'd have to call the babysitter and I'd have to say I got work an extra four hours. And, um, waking the kids up in the middle of the night started to become a toll on them, let alone me, because then I'd have to turn around and get them up and go to school. Right.
Speaker 2:So their dad wasn't working. I didn't know he would never go back to work, but for the time being I said why don't we do it where you have the boys? That way they're going home to their own home after school. They're not going to the babysitters, and that was a hard thing because I saw a lot less of them. But they know now that I did what I had to do to pay my bills. I had to pay and put a roof over my head.
Speaker 1:Right To some extent take care of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, take care of them, yeah.
Speaker 1:Did you have a certain amount of guilt over that?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, did you. Oh yeah, I still do a little bit.
Speaker 1:Do your boys help you get past that.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have found with my own children that some of the things I feel guilty about and I talk to them, they either don't remember or they just laugh at me like it wasn't that big of a deal Dad, you carry that around, but it really wasn't anything to them, right.
Speaker 2:I think the one that it impacted the most was my middle son. Yeah, and I think that's why he's faced the challenges he's faced growing up. The other two, I don't know, they're not nonchalant about it, but they're like they're over it, you know, like we understand you had to work, you had to this, you had to that. So they get it and they're over it, kind of like. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, so how long did you work at the post office then?
Speaker 2:Till 2007. Was it 2007? From 97 to 2007.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you were there for a while 10 years I was yeah.
Speaker 2:I went with a state job and became a corrections officer at a prison.
Speaker 1:Now, were you still in Pennsylvania at that time? Okay, yeah, so you stayed there, was that because that's where your boys were at? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:All their friends were there. They were established in school, yeah, and it was hard because all my family was here to get the support, but the good thing was I had a good relationship with my in-laws and they helped out a lot.
Speaker 1:That's nice.
Speaker 2:Yes, very nice. They were there a lot of times when I couldn't, or if the babysitter couldn't babysit, they would step in and take the kids.
Speaker 1:So and your boys had a good relationship with them.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and, and so you um. So when did you actually, when did you leave Pennsylvania then? Um, Pennsylvania then 2019. Okay, and so did you retire from the corrections field.
Speaker 2:I did. I'm trying to think if it was 2019. Yeah, I retired from the corrections field. I got to buy back my military time and all that stuff, so it was kind of nice to have that opportunity to do that and, financially wise, be able to retire altogether Right, because the VA was working on my claim and things like that.
Speaker 1:What was it like working in corrections, I got to ask. Well, it was a maximum security, all-male prison. Uh-huh, what was it like?
Speaker 2:working in corrections, I got to ask Well, it was a maximum security, all-male prison. Uh-huh, and the first year I will not lie I was scared to death. Every day of my life, every day. And then you learn, you establish a rapport with the inmates, you learn how to handle yourself with them. You know how to talk with them Because you don't have to talk down to them just because they're an inmate.
Speaker 2:You know right you can talk to them just like a person, um, and that's how you earn their respect, because you want respect from them. But just like any other, but anybody else, you have to earn it, you know. But I've seen my share of fights and some stabbings and some other things.
Speaker 1:Those guys will test, you, won't they?
Speaker 2:Oh yes, oh yes.
Speaker 1:Now were there a lot of women in that prison.
Speaker 2:At that time. No, I want to say maybe 65, maybe on all three shifts. There wasn't a lot of. We had nurses and stuff that were female. Yeah. But it's in corrections, it was about 60, 65, I would say I think there's more now than there ever was.
Speaker 1:That sort of opened up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So when you retired, did you immediately leave Pennsylvania then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, me and my best friend had this great idea we were going to move to Florida.
Speaker 1:I kind of felt like, when you giggled, that there was a story behind this. I got to hear this story.
Speaker 2:Well, my best friend for years, love her to death. She's my ride or die girl uh-huh we moved to florida together and she bought a place and so I was just renting from her. And, uh, when I got to florida and we started living together, we found out we could not live together we were just, oh no we were like polar opposite.
Speaker 2:It was completely polar opposite, and so I ended up getting my own place in Florida, and then, when my son got out of the military and decided he was going to stay in South Carolina, I moved up to South Carolina. Okay. That's where I came. Now I'm here in Michigan.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:So do you mind talking a little bit about why you're here in Michigan now and what you're doing at the VA home? Well, I have stage four pancreatic cancer. Okay, I actually found out in 2021 that I had had state at the time I was stage two, did the surgery, did the chemo treatments, did everything I needed to do radiation and um, I was in remission for about a year and a half, bounced back, I was back to myself, my hair grew back.
Speaker 2:I you know, felt great and then I went for that routine putz skin and they found that it had metastasized to my lungs and, um, so I was on hospice and things like that and wasn't able I wasn't able to to regulate my meds. I'm on morphine and things like that, so sometimes it was hard to be on that type of medication and function. Yeah, so I looked at other VA homes to go to in Pennsylvania near my son, the one in South Carolina near that son and my brother's affiliated with this one, and he knows the ins and the outs, he knows that I'm going to get good care, he knows that there's not going to be any issues, and so, um, we applied here and here I am.
Speaker 1:Okay Now, how did you find out initially that you had cancer?
Speaker 2:I had jaundice. Oh.
Speaker 2:And I didn't know. Me being me, I was like it's nothing big, it's no big deal. I'm Googling what causes your eyes to turn yellow and things like that, cause that's mainly where I could tell it was that. And they said go into a tanning bed without the goggles, which I did. So I'm like, oh, that's all it is. Um, then I just I um I hadn't been able to go to the bathroom for about a month and the jaundice was causing all that back. It was causing it to back up, and so that's how they found it.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what was that like?
Speaker 2:for you and your family to find that out Devastating. Uh-huh. At first I didn't know much about pancreatic cancer. You don't hear a whole heck of a lot about it. So then I started reading and they say people with pancreatic cancer or who diagnose pancreatic cancer have a very short lifespan. And I'm going strong for four years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say when you said that, that I was going to get you a tissue.
Speaker 2:Over there.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll just set the box right over here. Thank you, you're welcome and I'm sorry if these questions upset you.
Speaker 2:No, it's okay.
Speaker 1:But it sounds like you've decided to do what you have to do. I mean, you're getting ready to go to Disney, you've spent time with your family. You seem like a fighter to me.
Speaker 2:I am, and I keep saying that this Disney trip is my last hoorah. It's the last thing I'm going to be able to do, because it does take a lot out of me. Yeah, but if I still feel good, I'm still going to want to do things. I don't want to be the type of person that's just laying in the bed waiting Right. You know I want to just go to bed one day and, you know, not wake up and not prolong it, but they do take very good care of me here.
Speaker 1:This is probably one of the nicest places I've been. Yeah, as a veteran, I can't think of a better place to go. Honestly, what gives you hope?
Speaker 2:every day when you get up. That it's gone Every day that. I don't feel any pain is a good day. My grandbabies keep me going. I talk to my one son. Good day, my grandbabies keep me going. I talk to my one son every day. He calls every day so I get to talk to my grandson. Yeah, just hope that it's not my time. Right.
Speaker 2:I don't know why it's been so long. I mean it's been four years. It is four years in January that I've had it. So I am, like they said, the walking miracle, because normally people with pancreatic cancer would have gone a long time ago. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe there's just something else that you have to do.
Speaker 2:I guess Take my babies to Disney World.
Speaker 1:Are you excited about Disney? Let's talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:I'm very excited.
Speaker 1:Disney has popped up throughout our conversations. Yeah. You went to Disney when you were a child and you skipped out on the military for a little while and went to Disney, which I don't think is necessarily a bad choice. So is Disney something that like? Is this something that you've always enjoyed? Talk to me about Disney.
Speaker 2:When I was a kid and we got to go for the first time, it was just the most overwhelming feeling and the most joy that I had ever felt in my entire life like to be there with my family and just the awe like they say, the Disney magic. That's what it was. It was a Disney magic and I started, you know, winnie the Pooh was my favorite character at the time. Um, then I went back with my parents. I was a little bit older, I was about a teenager, um, but each time that I've gone I get that same feeling. I get that same magical feeling. And people may say I'm crazy, but it's, it's true. It's like oh, and it's well worth the money that you spend. You know, some people say they wouldn't spend that kind of money on a vacation and I'm like you spend that kind of money on another vacation, but you don't get all the ins and outs. Like Disney World is just Disney World. I don't know what to say about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:My wife cries every time we walk into the Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Every time.
Speaker 2:Really, yes, love it. Yes, every time we walk into the magic kingdom, really every time.
Speaker 1:Really, yes, love it, yes, but she's, she went there with her family and she went there with her parents and um, it's just, it is. It's hokey, right, it's the most magical place on earth. It just is. But yes, every time we go, when she walks through those gates, initially she cries, and when we drive to the hotel and we drive past the Magic Kingdom because we're not going on that day, she cries too. So I understand, through her kind of how that feels. But I don't meet a lot of people, especially my age, that, you know, feel that same way about going there but this has really been a part of you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, and just right, this trip I took my boys when they were younger and that was just unbelievable. That's the one thing and my kids will tell you. That's the one thing that they really remember about their childhood is the Disney trip, and that's Stephen saying that and he was the youngest at the time and he remembers that. And I know two of my grandbabies aren't going to remember this trip. Two of my grandbabies aren't going to remember this trip, but just to see the smiles on their faces when they see that for me is a memory that I get to keep and get to hold on to forever. You know, yeah, so yeah, this trip is definitely about my grandbabies and making them happy and you know what they want to do. It's a Christmas, it was a Christmas present. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's an amazing Christmas present.
Speaker 2:I've been blessed enough to be able to do it. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you said so. You said your favorite character is Winnie the Pooh.
Speaker 2:It was.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:have a new favorite character. Well, I like the Little Mermaid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I like Finding Nemo, nemo probably those are my top three.
Speaker 1:So do you go to Epcot, to the Nemo exhibit there at?
Speaker 2:all.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:We're doing the four-day. We're going for five days, but we're doing the four-day park're going for five days, but we're doing the four-day parker, park hopper pass yeah so we're doing um, animal kingdom, first hollywood studios, then we have a, then we're taking a day off, then we're doing magic kingdom, we're doing epcot last. So my son, my youngest son, you know, they say drink around the world. Everybody wants to drink around the world.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:He wants to eat around the world. That's his big thing.
Speaker 1:That's what we do when we go there at Christmas time, they have their special cookies. Okay, so you get a cookie pass and every time you get a cookie from one of the places, they stamp it, and then, when your stamp's full, you get a prize, which is another cookie.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so yeah, I can understand eating around the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he wants to eat around the world.
Speaker 2:Well, good for him. He's a big boy. He's the one that played football. Yeah, he's a big boy.
Speaker 1:So what is your favorite? Like I know, it's going to be great to have the grandchildren there, but what's your favorite? Like part of, like the magic kingdom when you go there, what's the one thing that you really look forward to?
Speaker 2:well, one of my favorite rides is the haunted mansion, but the biggest thing I look forward to is at night the fireworks at night and just the way they set the music to the fireworks. It's just amazing and I tear up every and I tear up every time. I tear up every time. But I like that feeling when you're walking down Main Street. You just like I said, you can't describe it. It's just this magical feeling that you feel when you're walking down that street.
Speaker 1:Like, no matter what you're going through, it doesn't even exist anymore. Yeah, it's like walking into some sort of machine that erases all of that, like in a different portal somewhere, exactly, exactly yeah. So what about the other parks though Hollywood Studios? What's your favorite park outside of the Magic Kingdom?
Speaker 2:My favorite park outside of that would probably be Epcot. I like Epcot, I like Spaceship, earth, and one of the reasons I like that one is I remember going as a child and there was a boy and a girl and they're talking on the computers FaceTime. Now this was when I was a child, yeah, and to think nowadays it actually came true. So I'm anxious to see if they ever change anything and see, you know, down the years if that changes into real world happenings. You know, because who would have thought back in this was the 80s, probably maybe late 70s, their 80s when they first opened that you'd be able to talk to somebody on the computer.
Speaker 1:Right, right or talk to people on your watch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when we go to Epcot that's the first ride we get on the spaceship Earth. Like we don't do anything else. We get right on that ride, yeah, and there's never a line.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Ever, but it's just a great ride. It's a neat ride yeah, and my wife is Greek, so she likes all the Greek stuff that's in there, okay, so I think that's why that's her favorite right there, Her favorite, okay, but yeah, so you have a lot to look forward to going to Disney and being with your family, and that's coming up very soon.
Speaker 2:I leave Friday, friday morning, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to ask. So we've covered a lot, Is there?
Speaker 2:anything that we haven't talked about, that you want to talk about? I can't think of anything, okay.
Speaker 1:All right, I always like to ask because I don't know if there was something that you wanted to reserve. So you know, you've lived a very interesting life. You've done a lot of things, maybe that a lot of people wouldn't have done. You've got some great stories.
Speaker 2:I did Some great stories. I could sit here all day and tell you stories.
Speaker 1:You've got an amazing family. Yes, so, as we kind of close out our time together here, what would you like people to take from listening to this story about your life? What's a lesson or what's something that you would like them to know as we close out our conversation?
Speaker 2:Just to never give up, to always believe in yourself and believe in your dreams, that it may get hard but it's worth it at the end. I guess that's about it.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thanks for taking the time out today to sit and talk with me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And to answer all my questions. I loved it.
Speaker 2:It was enjoyable.
Speaker 1:Good, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
