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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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This is a KU NV studios original program.
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you can see
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what's going great day,
Dave Washington 0:50
Las Vegas. Great day. It's Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. We have officer Williams in the house. We'll be talking to him shortly, and I'm going to get his rank, which I didn't get beforehand, but I'm sitting here smiling. He's smiling back because he's going to give it to us shortly. But look, I want to talk a little bit about certainly, want to acknowledge condolences to anyone who's lost family members, etc, since we were on air last week, and I definitely want to talk about just in a little bit more detail, the 35th anniversary of the Carl Holmes executive development institute. Our Executive Director, Carl Holmes, put out some information that I think is important to share, because in our listening audience, we have a number brother Williams, of people who graduated from the Carl Holmes executive development institute. We're getting ready to celebrate 35 years of existence, and we are 25 years at Dillard University in New Orleans. And Dr Holmes, along with Romeo spall. And these are the co founders of the Carl Holmes executive development suit, who, if he was a co founder, why is why does this have his name? Well, those founders, along with him, and fourth president of the International Association of Black professional firefighters, thought it was befitting to name this institute after Dr Holmes because of the work. He was a high level fire service consultant who made lots of money, and he put all that to side Brother Brother weeds. He put that aside to lead this particular institute that bears his name. And through that program, we have 25 to 3000 folks that have gone through the program, many like myself have went on to become fire chiefs, other executive officers. And I tell people all the time, one thing about Dr Holmes, he was just as proud of a person who went from firefighter to engineer or driver of a fire truck as he did for those who went from whatever rank up to become a fire chief or Fire Commissioner as an aunt Nance hope, second or third, largest fire department in our nation. She is the lead. She runs that department, and she came out of EDI, and I learned that the her predecessor, he was a firefighter when he came to through the Institute, and I just learned that Rich was a firefighter. I thought he had he was a ranking officer when he came through the institute, but he went from the rank of firefighter all the way up to Fire Commissioner for the city of Chicago. So we're proud of the Institute, and there's a number of things we're doing to celebrate that 35th anniversary, and I'd like to run through a couple of those real quickly. Certainly we're going to have special hotel and for those who want to participate, Carl, Holmes, edi.org, and you can see the whole schedule of those activities that we will have, starting on May 30. And I can tell you also something that I was given the opportunity to lead through the approval of Dr Holmes, and that is, we have a EDI golf scholarship that's held annually when we're in New Orleans. And this year is going to be May 30. And anyone who wants to participate, even those who live down in the New Orleans area, you're certainly welcome to participate. Once again, I gave that Carl, Holmes, edi.org, you can go on there and sign up or just make a donation to the institute. On Friday, we will have a welcoming reception at our host hotel, and all this stuff you can find online, but I'm just running over it real quickly before we get our guests on to talk about some of the things that he's doing with ROTC.
Dave Washington 4:55
Saturday, I mentioned the golf event, and then we'll have a social and. Then on Saturday, we have our worship service, then we have our 35th anniversary celebration, and during that time, on Sunday, we will we do what's called a student orientation, and after that, as a part of that overall orientation, kind of separate, but we will have what's called the wall of honor. It's a virtual wall of honor where we and it's not, and people sometimes say, Wall of Fame. No, it's not a wall of fame. It's a wall of honor. We honor those and in fact, I'm going in this year, and I'll be the, think, the third group to go into the to the wall of honor. We honor those who participated, who have assisted in growing that institute to include helping people to get promoted. So we're very, very pleased and honored to me and my family and I for being selected to go into to the wall of honor. So once again, we have golf, we have reception, and there's just a number of things that will be going on during the month, starting in the month of May, and going all the way down into to June, where we will actually start our our classes on that Monday. So again, if you're interested, 702277121, but once again, May 29 through the 31st we will be doing our 35th EDI anniversary celebration. Again, as I mentioned on last week's show, we will have we're under the leadership of Eugene Campbell, new president and Nance hope, new VP, the Vice President and certainly our Executive Director, Carla Holmes. So with that, we look forward to those who are wishing to participate, to come down and be involved with us, because it's going to be some exciting times for an institute that is now 35 years old. With that, I'd like to introduce our guest and have him to give us his rank. I know he's a ranking officer. He runs the ROTC program at, is it Rancho High School, Cheyenne. Cheyenne, oh, my goodness, my daughter will be very angry, because Amber, our youngest daughter graduated from, from Cheyenne. So how you
Ivy Williams 7:14
doing, brother, fine, sir. My name is Major Ivy Williams,
Dave Washington 7:19
so your major?
Ivy Williams 7:20
Yes, okay, I'm the senior Army instructor for the Junior ROTC program at Cheyenne High School, wonderful. And we are an honor unit with distinction, and we wear that very proudly. And before I go any further, let me say to you, sir, congratulations on your achievement, and thank you very much for having me here today, absolutely.
Dave Washington 7:40
Let me stop you and go all the way back. So where are you from? What branch and again, where are you from?
Ivy Williams 7:47
I was born and raised in Miami, Florida, Miami, okay and culture shock. I went to college at a small school in Iowa on a football scholarship. I then, you know, joined the Reserves while in college. Okay. Upon graduating, I became a 75th Ranger, and I was in the Ranger Regiment, and I went to OCS, and then became, after becoming a sergeant, I went to OCS and became an officer. And one of the reasons I did that, my father once told me, he said, You can't level a playing ground that you're not standing on, and if you're going to impact change, you got to be in a position to do so,
Dave Washington 8:25
you know what? That's, that's, it's not funny, but it's ironic that you would say that I was telling one of my children or someone the other day where one of the deputy she's he told me, said this, I'm a firefighter and I'm fighting with the city about discrimination, etc. He said, You should just go ahead on and get out of the business. I said, No, no, no, I think it's much better to fight from inside. I said, I got a family to take care of. I'm not gonna walk off my job to stand outside and fight you. I ain't got to listen to me. But as an internal employee that knows the ins and outs, I think you have a more respect for my attitude and my behavior, because I know what's going on, and the public will understand it. If I'm outside the window and I'm not no longer employed, they're gonna like, man, you just making up stuff. No, no, no, no, this is what's going on. So I appreciate that. So your father planted some seeds, huh? Yes, he did.
Ivy Williams 9:15
Right on. And I'm a proud father myself. I have two daughters, one graduated from Penn State, the other one graduated from the University of Georgia. Okay, so that's the running joke for a lot of people, because I graduated from a small school in Iowa.
Dave Washington 9:30
So what did you What was your degree in? And did you continue playing football when you went there to play football?
Ivy Williams 9:38
Yes, I played all four years, okay?
Dave Washington 9:41
And student athlete can see, I got grandsons, man, that were in college. I said, Put student in front of athlete, because this is your meal ticket. Sometimes they always think about the Pro. What if you don't make the pros and you need and you you wasted time and didn't get that degree and you will scholarship? What's wrong with you? So I encourage. Heard you, and I tell them, stay
Ivy Williams 10:01
on top of your game. It's always having been in a position where I came from a very large family. I have two older brothers, one older sister, an older half sister. My mother adopted two children under me, and she kept foster children for over 30 years, over 3000 kids came in and out of my house. So when I saw blindside the movie, and man said, never had one of those before. And she said, your own room. He said, No, a bed. I understood that, because I didn't get my own bed to myself until I got to college, I either slept on the floor or I slept on a couch bed, and if I slept on a couch bed, I didn't sleep by myself. I had four or five other people in that same bed with me, so I understood that, and I think that's one of the reasons that I have some success being an ROTC instructor, because I can empathize with them, because I was once them, and that is a major thing. It's a major asset to have. I'm not a big
Dave Washington 11:09
word person. I'm still working on my vocabulary, but I love that you said empathy. See, some people ain't nobody looking for no sympathy. But can you empathize and feel what I'm feeling? Sometimes you can't. I was talking to one of my because we did some golfing today, and I was telling one of my in fact, Herschel Clayton. He's an ancestor. Now, when my mother passed, he called me major, major. He called me. Said, I know how you feel. I call a give control. And then he stopped himself. He said, I don't have a clue. At the time, his mother was still alive in San Diego, California. He said, I can only imagine how you feel. He said, I empathize, rather than having sympathy for what I was going through, man, and your mind is twirling, man, you know, about things that you could have done or should have done with your mom and blah, blah, this, that and the other way. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I have major Williams here. He is the lead for ROTC program at Cheyenne High School, where my our youngest daughter, Amber, went. So I said, I mentioned Rachel, and he, man, he looked at me like he's go he's gonna see through the wall, see through my head to this back wall over here. So my apologies. Oh no, go ahead.
Ivy Williams 12:20
Go ahead. Absolutely not. Because one of the things that people don't realize is we as instructors, we come together. You know, we really we look out for one another. We're trying our best to model these kids, to motivate them to be better citizens. That is the mission of JROTC. The Army JROTC is to motivate young people to be better citizens. That's great. So I didn't tell them I was gonna make them a better citizen, but I would give them the tools. That's right. And see, we, a lot of people, misunderstand what Junior ROTC really does. We are not here to put your child in the military. We use a military model to teach life skills. So we deal with a lot of social and emotional learning and a lot of things, a lot of discussions other people don't necessarily teach. You know what?
Dave Washington 13:13
That's a misconception, even on my part. So please, okay, you were ROTC when you were in college? No, no, no, you were not, no. So let me, is there a difference between ROTC in college versus ROTC in high school?
Ivy Williams 13:28
Yes, there is. When you take ROTC in college, and you have to once you hit your third year of ROTC in college, then you incur a military obligation.
Dave Washington 13:41
See there, see that Las Vegas, all, all the folks out there, I have been educated today because I assume one thing, and it's totally off base, that's very
Ivy Williams 13:50
important to share. One of the things that one of the biggest misconceptions about Junior ROTC is they think that the moment their child enters that realm, they automatically have to join the military. And my first day in my briefing, I stand up and I tell everybody, listen, I am not here to put you in the military. I said I am not going to shave your head, I'm not going to yell at you, I'm not going to put a rifle in your hand, I'm not going to send you to war. Because the majority of people telling these kids that have never taken JROTC and have never been in the military, right? So you're getting your information from some from a source that does not know. Whereas here it is when they come in and they're inside, once they're inside, Oh, I get I get everything from I'm not wearing the uniform to I don't want to be here because I don't want you yelling at me. I don't want you making me do a whole lot of push ups. And I'm sitting there going, Did someone tell you? I said, am I yelling at you right now? And the guy goes, No, sir, I said, Did I do anything wrong? No, sir, but here's where the hook comes. Here's where we. Get them, I stand up and I point at them, and this is a factual statement that I'm making. I hand picked you to be here, and the kid will look at me and he'll be startled. I said, Yes, I hand picked you. You have to understand, every kid in your school is not the star athlete. That's right, every kid is not the cool kid. So I sought out, you know, and I say it like this, when we line dance, or if you do like the wobble, here's here's the biggest analogy. When you're doing the wobble, it looks good, because when you can do it by yourself, you have a sense of accomplishment. I got to dance now, but now, when you get in the group and you're doing it with the group, now you really feel good about yourself. But the definition, Webster's definition of wobble is an uneven movement from side to side. First day of school, you got a whole lot of kids doing the wobble, right? Because I don't know if I fit in. I don't know if they're going to accept me. Mm, accept me. They're the cool kids over here. I don't belong, right? There's the street gang over here. I don't belong. But here I am. I'm telling you I picked you.
Dave Washington 16:12
That is so interesting from the perspective of how you go about picking him and why you picked him. See assumption on my part, hey, because I want you to join ability.
Ivy Williams 16:23
No, but here's, here's the beauty of it. We as a people, period, there's two things we like. We like to be chosen and we love to be claimed. Yes, here is the thing. If we were picking teams to play, to play a sport or to play a game, the one thing nobody wants is to be picked last. That's right, because really, you didn't get picked. The only reason you're on the team is there was nobody left, right? So what I make sure these kids know is you want the last person picked, right? You know, you were picked. You were chosen. So now they're like, You mean you actually want me here? Yes, I want you here because I see something in you that maybe other people don't. Right. Here's where I run into a problem. I got you your ninth grade year. I got you your 10th grade year. Suddenly you become discovered because you're in JROTC, because you're out in the community, because you're doing something positive. All of a sudden, I got a football coach that walks by and they see athletic potential that they didn't see before, right? Hey, you ought to come out for track, hey, you ought to come out for football. Hey, you ought to come out for cheerleading. And all of a sudden these kids get confidence, and they can branch out. They can grow.
Dave Washington 17:46
So what are some of the minimum criteria in order to be accepted or brought into the program?
Ivy Williams 17:53
You have to be a student, and that's it. We bring you in now, of course, Gerald TC is not for everybody, right? And we get some cadets that wash out, and, hey, we have to sit them down. Look, this is not for you, but we have that tough conversation and say, you know, maybe you need to look at doing this, right? Maybe you need to look at being successful over here, but we do more community service than anybody else in the
Dave Washington 18:20
district, grade point average maintaining.
Ivy Williams 18:23
Grade point average not only maintains but the statistics show that if your child is in JROTC, their chances of graduating on time increase by 90% so you're 90% more likely to graduate on time if you're in JROTC, then you are if you were not, not only that, I currently, I've been in JROTC now for 12 years, I have a 94% success rate of getting kids into college.
Dave Washington 18:53
If there is a way to applaud, you are applauded, young man, for sure.
Ivy Williams 18:57
Thank you, sir. And not only that, we have what we call I have 100% life after and what that means is, most a lot of kids graduate from high school, and they sit around for a year. Where am I going? What am I going to do now, the military is still an option, right? If you want to get into the military, I can help you. I am not here to recruit you, right? I can point you to the recruiter, and I tell my kids right away, immediately after you talk to the recruiter, come back and talk to me, because I can tell you be lying to telling the truth, right? I have no skin in that game. I have nothing to gain or lose, so you're gonna get it. You're gonna get the straight, honest
Dave Washington 19:33
truth from me. And I think, I think that's good, because I think a young person would need someone, and obviously you build trust in them, that they can come back and talk to you and find out whether or not you're being blown full of smoke or here's the reality of what the possibilities are based upon what this this recruiter is offering you. Is it real, or is it Memorex?
Ivy Williams 19:56
And the thing is, the only sometimes it's a drawback. Right, but other times it's an honor when the kids can go anywhere for advice, but they stop and they come to you. The kids can say anything, and I'll tell you a quick story. It's kind of funny. Wasn't funny when it happened to me, sure, but one afternoon, one evening, I'm at home, I get a phone call, and it's the police. I said, Hello, this major Williams, yes, we have your daughter here, and immediately I'm going, What did you just say? We have your daughter down here. We're not going to arrest her, but you have to come get her. I get up and I run upstairs, and I knock on my daughter's door. I say, open the door. And she goes, Dad, I open the door. I'm looking at her. I go in the other room. I look at my wife. I say, hey, Taylor's in Tampa. She goes, Yes, so my other daughter's in Tampa. I said, Sir, I have accountability of both my my children. Who do you have? They give me the name. It's one of my cadets. I don't even know what, so I get up, I go down, I make the proper phone calls, I get the parents to come down. We get a release. I said, Monday morning, I want you in my office. She already knew I was upset, but she came ready for me. She walks in, and she's got like six other cadets with her. And the thing was, I asked the officer, how did you get my number? He says, You're her emergency contact. It's written, it's documented, and I'm like, I looked at her and I said, Why am I your emergency contact? She looked me straight in the eye. She said, Because you're the only father figure I know. And the kids are behind her, nodding their head and and I just got to pause, what can I say to them? And that's the that's the impact you have, and that really motivates you absolutely. And so one of the, one of the things is, if I'm absent for a day, and I come back and the kids are looking major. We missed you. We need, you know. And that's a feeling, you know. Oh, man,
Dave Washington 22:09
that is wonderful. It just doesn't go away Absolutely. Now, look something you said when we were in the control room, you talked about some of the achievements of some of the things that you guys coming forward. So I think that's important for the listening audience, you have, yes, you've got some, some
Ivy Williams 22:22
we just, we just received our certification to be a purple star school. Now, what that means is a lot of military children are in the area. Well, if you are the dependent of a service member, you're subject to move at any time, right? Well, sometimes when you move, you have to have that transitional period, sure. Well, if we're a purple star school, we have the resources available to facilitate your move. So if your child is coming, like we have kids that are coming to school their fourth quarter, nine weeks left in the school year, their parents had to move. Their parents had a permanent change of station so they get to the school. Do their credits transfer? Are their grades going to transfer? What resources are available to help them move? What resources are available to help them get their shot records updated? What purple star we have an entire team, and we have peer liaisons who are also dependents of military. So now that is a great achievement. As a matter of fact, Clark County School District is standing up 33 purple star programs. So 33 schools Excellent. Well, we'll now have that. And that is a very, that is a very big
Dave Washington 23:43
deal, absolutely, that helps the student to navigate all the things that will be good. Because I could, I could only imagine what they're thinking. Absolutely, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I have a great guy here who was obviously a leader without any question, major
Ivy Williams 24:00
Williams, so Well, I would say this the one, one of the things a lot of people, whenever they say, if there's anything we can do, people always rush to money, no presence and time, right? More valuable because you have no idea how many kids want to be in communications. How many kids want to have a life outside of athletics, right? I had, this is the most this is the most shocking thing. I usually sit there and brace myself when, when the kids come in and tell me what they made, I figured out what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna write a book to make you feel good. And I look at them and you know, major, I'm gonna be a baller. Major, I had one kid who was in the life, he says, major Williams. I figured it out. I know what I'm gonna do, and I'm just sitting there and I'm waiting. I'm like, okay, he's getting ready, and I'm gonna have to have this conversation. And he goes, I'm gonna preach the gospel. And I. Rose, I said, What did you just say? And ironically, here's, here's the key to it. This kid could barely read. He started learning how to read by reading a Bible. And I'm sitting there going, you're serious about and he really he turned his life around. He graduated right now he is in, I want to say Mississippi.
Dave Washington 25:29
Well, I can tell you, I have learned something that is very valuable to for me to share with others, and that is Junior ROTC is not recruiting for anyone, but you're molding and shaping lives, which is essential. Man. You know, I was a part of a group called Camp brotherhood, Camp sisterhood. We ran for about 30 years. I stopped participating fully about 15 years in because of my commitment to the Carl Holmes executive development institute. But one of our goals was, this was African American kids, boys and girls, 1014, 15 years of age, but molding them to be good people, it is so essential to life. Man, that there's some people they don't get it, and I can see the smile on your face. Man, when, when? When he told you that you probably know that you want to fall out the chair, but, man, you feel proud that you that you planted this seed in this kid about being a good person, and it's being cultivated by him doing some of the work to help him to get to where he needs to be.
Ivy Williams 26:28
Well, the other thing that we do, we're all retired professional military men, right and women. Here's the other thing that we try to do. We try to connect the dots right on in other words, a lot of times Gerald TC is sitting over here in the corner by itself. This organization is sitting over here in a corner by itself. This organization is sitting in a corner by itself. We try to connect with all these organizations. Excellent. So Wendell P Williams, and I think I mean first cousin, fraternity brother, mentor, friend, you know, you talk about standing on the shoulders of greatness, one of the things we make sure we do is we let the kids at Cheyenne know exactly who he is, right? So they so that level of tradition and that level of history is not forgotten. That's right. And how does he reciprocate? Cheyenne leads the MLK parade every year. Oh, that is good. And so, I mean, we we connected. And as we are walking up, we are shaking hands with one another. We are hugging one another. We're doing all this stuff. We're high fiving. We're rooting for each other.
Dave Washington 27:44
Give me, give me about 32nd closing remarks, because we're about out of time. I appreciate
Ivy Williams 27:48
you coming. Well, I will say this, if your presence has no impact, your absence won't make a difference. Hello, and we want to be impactful. That's why we're present. So again, Junior ROTC, we are about motivating young people to be better citizens. All right,
Dave Washington 28:07
all right. This is, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz or more we have. And I'm, I just met this young man today, but I will say the great major, ivory Williams, we appreciate you, sir, and I'm glad you brought up the former Assemblyman Wendell P Williams, he's a dear friend. So once again, Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Signing off. You're welcome here at this table anytime. Thank you, sir. All right. You
Music 29:00
Oh, all the smoke in the air, till the hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear.
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