Veteran's Affairs Plus discusses the issues that veterans in Las Vegas deal with on a daily basis. Your host, David L. Washington connects listeners with relevant community resources and information that they need to help veterans or themselves.
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what's going on? What's going on? Good morning, Las Vegas. This is Texas affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I'm excited about the fact that I got a longtime friend Mr. John Edmund, who will be our guest shortly. However, at this time, I'm going to make a couple of announcements to include the Sierra snowblowers they're having their fundraiser tonight at Classic jewels downtown at third and Bonneville at 6pm. Also, the laborers were having their function at the West Gate Hotel. And let me say this about the Sierras no ladders. Last week we had Carolyn Heywood, Leonard Lance sister, we had Carolyn read them and Ron read them on. And we talked extensively about the work that Leonard had done in our community, particularly working with young people. And I also did to get an opportunity to say much more about Leonard, as we all did, because of the wonderful work he's done. Dealing with young people in our community. A lot of people aren't aware of how Lynard in the Sierra snow Gladys took young people up to camp Lee Canyon, and indeed, and train him taught them how to ski. So very important work and, and I mentioned to on the show how when my grandson Chris went out to the to the LAL Ranch, we call it linner and, and Linda's ranch, and indeed horseback riding and the horse bucked him off and he got up off the ground and he looked at linen and said, Hey, does that make me a cowboy? And everybody knew how cool and laid back he was, uh, yeah, man, you a cowboy. Now, little fella. So anyway, those are the kind of memories we kind of discussed last week about our, our brother, our friend and fire service colleague, brother linen lead, he will be missed and certainly appreciate the work that he did in our community. And again, the laborers will have their annual Christmas party again at the West Gate tonight. So those who are able to get there I think it's a it's a great function at both. The CRS no ladders have as well as the the laborers out at the West Gate. Birthdays, my grandson Kyson, Herndon will be I don't know how Kyson be, but he's a heck of an athlete basketball in football, trying to get him into golf where John where I can show him how to do that. And then of course, as on the deceased side, my brother Clinton, Washington as well as Monroe Williams, this month as well. And we certainly want to say condolences to Deborah Holden and her family on the loss of her mom. And she passed away just recently as Pat Feaster, she lost her son, Larry, a couple of days ago, in fact, so we certainly want to express condolences to them. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. On the other side, we'll have Mr. John Edmund. He's a local businessman and activist and a longtime friend, who will be back shortly.
Unknown Speaker 4:02
All right, Las Vegas, we're back. This is Veterans Affairs again. And I have local businessman, community activist, Mr. John Edward. John, how you doing?
Unknown Speaker 4:12
How you doing, Dave?
Unknown Speaker 4:13
I'm doing good. Doing good as well. John, and I just wanted to get you on the program because I know you you've done a lot in our community. And for sure, John, where were you born and raised in Las Vegas? Uh, where were you born?
Unknown Speaker 4:27
I was actually born into but I've never really lived in Las Vegas. Wow. My own native Nevada.
Unknown Speaker 4:39
Right, right. You know, that's interesting. I never knew where you were actually from. I assume you because like, myself, for example, everybody thinks I'm from Las Vegas, but I told him no. I'm 20 miles west of Talulah Minh from Dale high Louisiana, but born and raised. Born in Louisiana and raised here in Las Vegas and proud To be a Las Vegas now for you. So, absolutely. So John, give her a little listening on. It's a little bio on yourself. Just give us a little background High School. That kind of thing up through some college I'm sure you've taken. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 5:18
I, you know, of course I went to Westside Baptist, Madison, elementary, Westside, you know, was elementary school back in the day and went from the kindergarten to the third grade. And it's fun to fourth grade through the seventh grade. I went to Madison, and they had just begin to start bringing in junior high schools. Right. I think Warren Martin was either first or second as a junior high school that I ended up going to go overboard and graduated Las Vegas High School.
Unknown Speaker 5:59
Now did you have at Madison? Did you have Mr. Pfister? I
Unknown Speaker 6:04
did have Mr. Pfister? Yes, he was awesome. So yes, Mr. Wales was depressible. Back in those days?
Unknown Speaker 6:23
But yeah, well, I know Mr. Fisher, had quite a history in and made his mark, he was a very, very talented guy. I know Ray Fisher used to speak a lot about him. I know, he taught classes that will help people use their hands, if you will, not only their brain, but also use your hand carpentry and all those types of things. I heard he was quite a guy. And then he was a well, well loved in the community. I remember Mr. physcial. And Becky has a school named after him as, as I recall. So John, you have a pretty extensive business background. So I want you to give us a little bit of talk on that, if you will. And then I want to go into what you're doing now, as as a means and a way of helping and assisting various businesses throughout the state of Nevada.
Unknown Speaker 7:18
Yes, well, you know, I went on to when I graduated from high school, I've had a brief, a brief moment where I've worked at Nevada Test Site. And I was working, like in the, in the office of a develop test site. But basically, it was a summer job and kind of learned a little bit about a county about keeping track of payroll and so forth, so on. So I ended up liking that, and pursuing the thought of accounting. I was accounting major graduated from Seattle University, in accounting, and I was asked to work for an accounting firm up in Seattle, and decided to come back to Las Vegas, came back home. And actually I started work at the frontier and in those columns, the cost of goods so working in the back all beer and keeping track of, of inventory and stuff of that nature. And, and I kind of when I first got back to Vegas down 2122 years old, they would go into the casinos, and I had noticed a game of Baccarat at the Las Vegas Hilton, and I inquired about it, and, you know, like what it was, what's, what looked excited because back in the day, they dumped the game it was dealt with paper money instead of chips like they have today's right. And there was a program that had just been established to EOB. And it was right after they had passed the consent decree to allow blacks to be gainfully employed, right. Back in the early, late 60s, early 70s. You know, they really was ironing blacks as dealers, basically just, you know, porters and Bates. Service sale, right. When they came in with the decree and tried to get the 10% of minorities and blacks, everyone that you know, into the game and business game and feel I I did like the art of what, what it would be to be a bike ride dealer. And although I was pursuing my job at a county, I go to the Golden West shopping center with another friend of mine, to look for a job. And that was one of the, one of the guys, one of the people that was, you know, help in trying to get people into the gaming industry. He looked at me and said, you know, young man, we got this program, who will be that you can go into the gaming school, and back in it was $150. But EOB will pay half if you're interested. And you would have to pay half, right? And he says, you know, and he happened to say, you know, you make a good backup, ideally, you know, you seem to be I smile and personality, right? And why do you say that, because I had checked around about the Viper. And it was two days one, the game was very fast. And the fact that there was no blacks at the baccarat band, so But I took his offer, and went to Las Vegas School of dealing, which was next to the lady luck do it and end up becoming the first African American baccarat dealer in the state of Nevada.
Unknown Speaker 11:41
You know what, John, what's interesting about your story is I was totally unaware is that you have an accounting background. And in the end, plus, when you say you worked, you know, were in the liquor department doing warehouse or inventory, etc, etc. So that helped to spur you on to one, one of your one of your next ventures which went for you at a nightclub.
Unknown Speaker 12:07
Yeah, that's true, you know, had one or two successful clubs around being Oh, still talked about ariddek. Clouds. Right. You know, so a lot of things, that kind of combination that people kind of don't, didn't realize, and one at the end had an accounting background. So when it came to the baccarat and the fact that you have to if you bet on the bankers, and there's a 5% commission and, and all of that have to be done very quickly. There's seven people on each side of the table, right, and you have to count the money, I'll pay to hand put the commission up and be ready for the next fan. All this has to be done within seconds.
Unknown Speaker 12:54
See, that's that's just wait, that's just way too fast. For me. I don't think that fast. John, I want to transition into to what you're doing right now. Because I think it's very important for our listening audience to hear be the veterans and otherwise, what are you doing right now, John, and I think it's fascinating that you were involved with the federal government, please give us some background.
Unknown Speaker 13:17
So of course, you know, some of the background leading into that. One is fact that after becoming a backward dealer and get involved in was in redevelopment and economic development within the community, and it just so happened that the guy that I went to college with five years ago, when the economy had went down and go to get hit, and the new administration came in office, and they was looking for a particular person in Nevada, that knew about economic development and creating jobs and so forth, so on and, and the Director of Economic Development, it's called EDA, which Economic Development Administration in Seattle, gave me a call. And of course, I was not necessarily interested because I had my own thing that I was doing, but they needed somebody right away. They didn't have a whole lot of time to try to show to out. And he asked me if I would take the job. And so I say, Yeah, I'll be glad to take and it's what it entails is that economic development is a tool that the federal government have out there to help small businesses to help communities that is interested in creating jobs. And it basically is geared to low income community, underserved communities of that of that nature. Right. So it kind of fits what I had already been trying to been doing, as well. I wanted to throw that in. Again, above development experience, because coming out of a county, but then I went into, you know, creating some properties in the community myself created a lot of jobs and a lot of businesses and, and created a lot of small businesses, right within the community. So when I took the job what EDA does is they only give out grant money. And so I've been working with Northern Nevada, as well as southern Nevada, State of Nevada. And what we do is, you know, solicit people that is interested in and doing business within low income areas. What are the what, what EDA does is like, you know, let's say, because we only deal in grants, but we only deal with in grants with small businesses, but you have to be non nonprofit, right? Schools, universities. University School?
Unknown Speaker 16:18
Well, you know, John, I got one of
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the, one of the key ingredients to that right, definitely.
Unknown Speaker 16:25
I got another guest on the show today, I'm going to get you back on Joan, because I think it's important for you give some more thorough, thorough detail on what your program is about, is there, is there a website you guys have? Or is there any way where people can at least take a look at what is offered to your program?
Unknown Speaker 16:44
Yeah, EDA, that, that go find out all about what the program consists of who's who qualifies under the program. And again, keep in mind is straight grants. And one of the things that, that I've done is we followed the put down about $300 million in the state of Nevada. Great. So last couple of years, in funding different programs here in Southern Nevada, as well as
Unknown Speaker 17:14
excellent. I'm gonna get you back on the show, because I think it's worth people hearing about, John, I want to thank you so much. This is Mr. John Edmond, ladies and gentlemen, he is with EDA, and he has a lot to offer in terms of nonprofits, getting some of those government dollars those grant dollars. So thank you, John. Appreciate you, brother. And I'd be interested to get you back on.
Unknown Speaker 17:34
Thank you for having me. Appreciate today be doing a fantastic job. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 17:39
All right. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. We'll be back on the other side with our final guest, Mr. Tasha.
Unknown Speaker 17:57
Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, chairs and more. I appreciate my engineer, Director keep me on track. Mr. Willis has our second guests on Miss Natasha. Ensign. How are you young lady?
Unknown Speaker 18:12
I was well, sir. Thank you for having me.
Unknown Speaker 18:14
All this will cuckoo. Look. I was informed about you by Miss teacher, Wilson. She told me you Oh, she's a veteran. You need to get her on your show. So tell our listening audience, what branch Did you serve in?
Unknown Speaker 18:32
And how long served in? Okay, I served in the active army active duty Army for a collective of two separate terms. So almost about nine years.
Unknown Speaker 18:47
And what was your MOS?
Unknown Speaker 18:49
I had several of those as well to Signal Corps and one in logistics. So 31 Papa was the microwave systems operator maintainer. reclass to 92 alpha, which is logistics specialist. That was first too. And the second term was 25 uniform, which is satellite communication. Wow.
Unknown Speaker 19:14
So you did a lot of work in that particular area.
Unknown Speaker 19:18
Yeah, absolutely. It was where, you know, the demand was needed.
Unknown Speaker 19:23
So how did it help you transitioning back out into civilian life?
Unknown Speaker 19:30
Beautifully actually, contracting was in full swing. You know, because I'm an I'm a combat veteran. There's a difference between veterans. People don't really know that. Right? So therefore, yeah, we were in demand. Yeah. Well,
Unknown Speaker 19:48
I tell folks all the time, and when I went in and 71 to 73 I am a Vietnam era veteran. I did not go to Vietnam. I did not see combat and And as you say, there is a difference. And one thing I had got into some trouble, but one thing I know they don't like you black, white male, female with a bad discharge Dishon was, as I told her right, honorable discharge is that you make up them for months. You make up the four months, you went to stock gate and you'll be fine. I said, well show me what to do. Now born and raised, where?
Unknown Speaker 20:28
Atlanta, Georgia, Atlanta.
Unknown Speaker 20:33
Georgia peach. So what are you what are you doing these days?
Unknown Speaker 20:38
Well, currently, I'm with one of the major aviation companies located in the United States. So we're global, we're all over.
Unknown Speaker 20:48
Okay. Doing what if you can say,
Unknown Speaker 20:52
I can I can. I'm in the lane of Program Management right now. program
Unknown Speaker 20:58
management. So are there a number of programs or a program that you that you run? Or are you just a participant in?
Unknown Speaker 21:10
So I actually support a project manager for one of our partners? North the list, I'll say it that way. And, of course, there's several different programs that we have globally, where we partner with our other project managers.
Unknown Speaker 21:31
So from the family side, sisters, brothers,
Unknown Speaker 21:35
I have two older brothers, no sisters,
Unknown Speaker 21:38
were they did they go in the military as well?
Unknown Speaker 21:43
Yeah, my older brother, he's nine years my senior now he will take that route. However, my younger brother of the two, he did serve in the active duty Navy for 20 years. To our country.
Unknown Speaker 21:58
He was a retiree out of there.
Unknown Speaker 22:02
So yeah, he was
Unknown Speaker 22:04
No, sister Wilson, informed me that you were a member of the Black achievement fund. Tell me a little bit about what role are you playing there or just a member what you got going on?
Unknown Speaker 22:19
Well, I am one of the founding members of the Black achievement fund, the BA program, basically looking for a family where we can progress as a people back in 2018. And to say the least, the program itself and the the family environment that VBA a family has a simply amazing.
Unknown Speaker 22:48
Excellent. So you were founding them. So you, would you call them chartered members? Cool. Yeah. So what do you think we need to do in terms of adding to the membership roles?
Unknown Speaker 23:06
Well, basically, it's going to be a network of individuals coming together to serve the black community. Whereas, you know, you have all of these other businesses that can come together, pull together, and they can be profitable and support, whatever genre whatever line of professionalism? Well, that's what the BASF model is actually trying to implement our own neighborhoods, our own communities, our own black dollars that we can circulate within ourselves.
Unknown Speaker 23:45
Excellent. Now, is there anything in particular that you would share, or, and I don't ask people to advise anyone always say maybe suggest to others in terms of military and or other things that they may get involved with, particularly young folks to move life forward?
Unknown Speaker 24:08
As far as
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anything it can be, it can be worth
Unknown Speaker 24:12
living or
Unknown Speaker 24:15
living, work, you name it. Whatever you choose to focus, definitely.
Unknown Speaker 24:20
Right. Definitely our youth. They're the ones who we need to rear you know what I mean? The I mean, it all starts at home. And with that home, there is a community. So going back to our grassroots of having a community to raise a child, I'm totally on board with that. You know, each one teach one. So with the younger people with today's technology, USE IT technology to your advantage, I would say there's so much out there versus, you know, regular social media tomfoolery. rather than pull away from that, make it profitable for yourself. So that way you can feed your family. You can feed the your next brother, sisters family, in your community, what have you. But use it to your advantage because it's only going to be changing here shortly. You'll be surprised. You
Unknown Speaker 25:18
sound like a young person. So I certainly would like to get your thoughts on AI.
Unknown Speaker 25:29
What a great segue. So that's what I was alluding to actually, and AI. People don't understand and have actually been around for decades. Without saying too much. Definitely no one understand that this technology has been studied for quite some time. And it was only a matter of time at a time when it was going to be released as always released in sectors or sections. No, just bit by bit. It can't be turned on all at once. Because then you create chaos. So just know that it's like everyone who's who's out there anyone who's listening, just be ready for what's to come. It's not if it's going to happen. It's when
Unknown Speaker 26:18
Yeah, you know, it's interesting that you would say that it's here and being here because I happen to see a gentleman I think he was he was prior military. And I know you were being careful on how you were stating things. But I can tell you that he said people think that AI just came about today. AI has been around a long time. Yes. And I happen to have, as Wes can attest to. We had the president of the college on the show, about a month or so ago. And he is this first president's job as president of a university. Think he said he had been Chancellor somewhere, done a number of other things. But, you know, when he came, people were concerned about AI, as you know, really coming forward to to us civilians out here. And his staff was kind of concerned, he said that, they would think oh, you know, what about cheating? Little how cheating you know, he was gonna, yeah, I was gonna do this. And he said, Look, did the cheating just start with AI? He said, What you do is you get them all in a room in a circle and just say, hey, all right. You wrote this, you wrote that. Okay, now explain this and explain that.
Unknown Speaker 27:33
Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 27:35
You catch people,
Unknown Speaker 27:35
grass roots. Yeah, go back to theory, take it back through, you know, the manual system. Therefore, you can test their knowledge. Right? Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 27:45
Absolutely. So as we wind up, I want to thank you once again, for for making the decision to be on this show. Again, it's Veterans Affairs. And I know that there's veterans out there that certainly want to hear what a young person like you have to say. So any closing remarks as we close out this session this Saturday, Veterans Affairs plus
Unknown Speaker 28:10
I would say first and foremost, thank all of our veterans and their extended families as well as their immediate families for all of their support and their service hands down. I've been beside some of the most talented veterans in the United States Army and I will not change would not change that one thing so thank you to them for their service. Nor does well
Unknown Speaker 28:39
we'll see it young lady, thank you again and we will be in touch. Again. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 Jas and more, talk to you next week.
Unknown Speaker 29:21
Smoking the tilde Hey. All the way
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