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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.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves, life coaching services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. You
Unknown Speaker 0:42
what's going on Good
Unknown Speaker 0:47
morning. Good morning. Good morning. Las Vegas. I'm Gene Campbell. I'm sitting in again for Dave Washington. David L Washington, dlw, also known as David Lee Washington, as you know that they've been battling some personal health issues, and so he asked me to step in for him today, this beautiful Saturday morning to you from my studio here and bring on a special guest. So that's Veterans Affairs, plus we're at K, U, N, V, a radio at the UNLV. So I really appreciate them and the engineer West for doing a great job, for getting in settings in this moment. I just like for those that take just a quiet second and just put Dave and your thoughts and your hearts as he gets well. We all know that David is, is one of those dynamic people. It's always given to others. So I just wanted to have that quiet second with David as as I get into today's show, before I introduce our guests, I'd like to encourage everybody, no matter who you want to vote for, get out and vote. We have less than 30 days to the elections. We have a lot of election questions on the ballot here in Nevada, we have a lot of local positions up, including Mayor, as well as many other seats, Congress folks and such as well as we have Assembly people in the state senate also, in addition to that, we have some President up for election, and so I want to make sure everybody's aware of that, make sure I think the deadline might be passed already, but double check at the registrar and see if you haven't registered to register to vote, as well as make sure You get your ballot in before the clock ticks 7pm on election day. With that, I'd like to bring all my guests. This is Mr. Dwayne Morgan. I knowing Dwayne, wow, for for a long time, almost 40 years. I've been knowing Dwayne. I've been knowing him since I came to Las Vegas. So that's 37 years, and he's got a great history. He's a great dynamic person. One thing about Dwayne is he's got a lot of injury, a lot of energy, and he does a lot of things, and he's fun to be with. So without further ado, Dwayne, would you come on in and introduce yourself and tell us a little about about yourself?
Unknown Speaker 3:20
All right, thanks a lot, Gene. And I do have Dave with me and my thoughts and appreciate that little acknowledgement that you gave him, and thanks for thinking of me when you thought about the show today. Again. My name is Dwayne Morgan, and I have been here in Las Vegas for, I think it's over 40 years now, and I came here via the Air Force, and found the town to be a pleasurable place to be. I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and hey, once you figured out it don't snow in Nevada, it was easy transition for me to stay here. Once I got out of the military, I joined the lvmpd police department, and after that career, you know, I did a full career retirement on police department. I got started, you know, kind of working in the public sector right now. I'm the Vice President of compliance and security for the drays nightclub group. So thanks for having me on the show. Gene,
Unknown Speaker 4:11
well, Dwayne, thank you for coming on the show. And I'm I'm looking forward to getting back out there and playing some golf with you. We we played with a little a little bit when I got back from from Houston after covid, and we both got off and running. So I'm looking forward to that. Dwayne, would you? Would you tell me a little bit about your experience in the Air Force, maybe, if you were stationed in other places, give me a little bit of background on your service and what was your duty assignment. In other words, what did you do daily, day to day?
Unknown Speaker 4:49
Love talking about, you know, my military career, because it was absolutely, you know, one of the best moves I've made as a very young man. I joined when I was probably, like, 18. Years old, and it's quite a funny story, actually, because I was a dating a young lady back in Chicago, and her cousin had went in the Air Force as a security police and he came back, and he was over a house one day looking real sharp at his uniform on telling us a lot of stories. So me and her brother decided we're going to join on the buddy program. So we go down, we take the test, and we both said, Hey, we're going to join up and, you know, ride this buddy thing through together. Well, unfortunately for him, he didn't make it, but I did, and he was the one more motivated to go in than I was. So now I'm kind of, I'm kind of in program. I told the recruiter, I said, well, since John didn't make it through, that mean we both don't get in. And he looked at me, saying, Sorry, buddy, you're in. And it started a great adventure for me. So I went in with basic training out in San Antonio. Lackland is what they call the gateway to the Air Force. So everyone is joining the Air Force. Goes to Lackland Air Force Base after initial basic training, which was 16 weeks, I went to the Security Police Academy, which was at a place called Camp Bullis, which is also in Texas, you know. And after that, my first assignment, now, remember I said I was, you know, from Chicago. And I don't know how many people you know, been to Chicago, but it's a, you know, a very diverse town. And my first assignment was, you ready for this gene? Grand North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota. And I was like, first of all, I had to go to a map and even see where it was at. But was I am for a rude awakening as far as, uh, zero diversity, I think the town had probably 40,000 people, but what it did for me gene is it taught me how to coexist with people who didn't look like me. Because, as I still tell people today, it was only two types of music in Grand Forks, and that was Country and Western. And guess what? The military teaches you. You can't run from it. So what do you have to do? You have to adapt. So, you know, I learned that one of the things that's important in life is to learn how to be adaptable to environments that you may not be comfortable in. And it's a lesson I always try to teach my kids. And as I went to Grand Forks, I said, I need to do anything I can to get out of here. So I volunteered for a remote assignment, which they told me, Hey, if you do this remote assignment for a year, you can then go wherever you want. So I always had dreams of living in California. So I volunteered. They sent me to Kunsan, Korea. You guys probably, I don't even know if Kunst still exists, but I went to Kunsthal, Korea. So again, you can see I'm on this path of adaptability. First I go to North Dakota, where I'm probably one of seven black people in the whole town, other than the military base. And then I go to Korea. So I'm really learning how to adapt and adjust to being an environment that I'm totally not comfortable with. After that, I didn't get to go to California, but they sent me out here in Nevada, where, you know, I met some great people like yourself, and have made Las Vegas my home ever since. So, you know, it was a great thing for me joining the military and learning how to be adaptable. And I think over time, that's really helped me with my life skills and my career advancement. That
Unknown Speaker 8:12
is so beautiful. And I like the way you summarize that. But Dwayne, you know, I've been knowing you 37 years, and I forgot that that's one thing we had in common early in our careers, that we both were at Grand Forks at different times, so we both shared those cold winters and understand, even though you're used to it from Chicago and I've been from New Jersey, man, it was something special about that you in the buddy program too. My brother and I went in the buddy program. He we went in together. We went and we signed up by Sergeant Gant. Sergeant Gant was in my hometown of Plainfield, New Jersey, and we both signed up. My brother ended up doing 22 years in the Air Force, and I ended up doing five and getting out after I got here and joining North Las Vegas Police Department. So it's a small world to Wayne,
Unknown Speaker 9:04
but you know, what you see is that those commonalities that we had also led us to being people who could deal with different people, which helped us advance in our careers. Because I think that's a key element, is being a people person. If you want to advance in life, you really have to be a people person, no matter where you come from,
Unknown Speaker 9:21
people person, that is so true. Dwayne, that's so true. So, you know, you talked a lot about being a people person and how to get along and and changing and adaptability. One of the skills, or training education was beneficial to you in the real world. As, you know, as we, as we talk a little bit about that, you know, one of our focuses today is Veterans Affairs, plus. So for the folks listening out there, we're talking about Veterans Affairs, but part of it also is how people transition and how you start to change your resume. So it relates to somebody like. Like Dwayne being a vice president of of security for a major hotel resort, and his past experiences Metro, what kind of training experience that you had in the military transformed either into your private sector or public sector careers?
Unknown Speaker 10:19
That's a great question. Gene and, and, and I have an answer for that, because it's something I, you know, always tried to teach my children. The one thing that I know for certain that the military gave me, and it gives everyone, whether you embrace it or really identify that it's a key element to the life skill, is discipline. I want to say that one more time so the people that might not have been listening clearly hear it. It's discipline. You're going to get disciplined in the military, and once you learn to embrace discipline, you can achieve anything in life. And you know, I really try to get that drummed into my children to say that you know how you do anything is how you do everything. That's something my kids repeat to you that I've drilled that in their head, how you do anything is how you do everything. And the discipline that you know the military gave me really helped me achieve, knowing that, you know my skill set, I was military police, so you know you had to, you know, shape yourself to be disciplined. And I know you remember this because you did this in basic too, when it was your night watch, it used to make you go around putting your hand in front of all those the plugs on the wall. And we all know it didn't make sense, but it wasn't about it making sense. They were just teaching you how to be disciplined enough to do what your assignment was. So when you were out there on your own with some responsibilities, they knew you wouldn't falter. So you know, discipline is taught in the military and also camaraderie, how to work with other people, how to be a leader and how to accept being led. So those some key things, but discipline is the number one success tool that I learned in the military, and I think it carried me through my life. And of course, I'm still folding my clothes and squares
Unknown Speaker 12:02
Well, I'm I bet your wife appreciates that. Yes, sir. Well, that is great. Well, let's, let's, let's switch from your military now, as you transition to Metro Police Department, could you tell us a little bit how you prep for that? I know the test was a little different, maybe, but can you tell us a little bit about how you prepped for that and, and what was your career there? What are some of the things you did there?
Unknown Speaker 12:28
Yeah, so when I was getting out of the military, I started looking at, you know, going into LMPD, and, you know, you had to do the running test, which was, you know, I was still in pretty good shape being in military. So, you know, I was ready for the running part. And again, a lot of the things that had already taught me in the military, being a military police made it an easy transition to get it on the police department. And once I made it into the basic level of being a patrol officer, I went out, did my patrol duties. And quickly, you know, people on the police department, they're able to identify the people to show, you know, self discipline, wanting to grow. And I became a training officer. So, you know, I did a training officer after about two years on the police department where I trained other, you know, new officers coming on, and then I went off into, you know, my investigative path. Usually, when you get on the police department you you know, you have two paths, either you're going to go into investigations or you're going to go into administration, meaning you want to go directly to be a sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, moving up the chain that way. Well, always had a desire to be a homicide detective. So, you know, I worked my tail off, went through different details, and ultimately I did become, you know, one of the youngest homicide detectives ever on the police department and had a very successful career as a homicide detective with Metro, right,
Unknown Speaker 13:47
right? And I think there's some other things you did later in your career that might have helped you out, or might have gave you some insight into what you do now. Did you have another assignment after Metro, did you work with in the resort corridor?
Unknown Speaker 14:04
Well, actually, I thought, after I got off Metro, I started doing some defense attorney work. And while I was doing that, I got a call from one of my neighbors, and my neighbor was telling me that, you know, they were looking for investigators, you know, for Caesars Entertainment. And I said, wow, you know, I never really wanted to be in corporate America, but I gave it a try, went down there and, you know, talked to the HR person, and they looked at my background, and they said, You know what I think you would do excellent for what we're looking for. So I started with Caesars Entertainment in their legal department as a corporate investigator, and kind of moved up the ranks there to where I took over the nightclub compliance section. So I was in charge of all of the nightclubs for Caesars Entertainment, and that's where I landed, where I am, right now,
Unknown Speaker 14:55
right it's you never know what skills are going to translate to others. Things. And I guess, looking back on your military career, you adapted, you were able to get along with people, and you had some discipline, even though it was a different skill or discipline that you really worked in. A lot of the core things were the same, Dwayne. So that's beautiful. You know, one of the things we like to do, too, is we like to share some advice for the men and women that are out there and and I know Metro changed over the years, and I know the security field has changed. Matter of fact, there's so much more training that's going on now with Homeland Security, with the different venues that we have now compared to when we first came, not only do we have the Raiders, we have the Golden Knights. We look forward to having the A's here, but all the different concerts and things there Dwayne. So what advice would you give if somebody was interested in the military and or metro, or maybe they wanted to start off with security and see if that's something that they they love to be able to do that, and what attributes should they bring to the table? You know, I'm
Unknown Speaker 16:20
a firm believer that to me, and this is just my personal thing, that it benefits any young person to go in some branch of service. Now I 100% of think the Air Force is the, you know, the best service. But maybe, you know, you have a family member of somebody else that was in another department service, and you know, you find it interesting, but I think the Air Force is really good, because 90% of the things that you learn in the Air Force are transitionable to the real world, as we used to call it, when we was in the military. I can't wait to get back to the real world. But you know, the Air Force most of their things, you know, you can transfer, like you could work in aircraft and naturally transition to working for an airline. You could be military police and transitioning that. But you know, most of Air Forces support services, which is very transmittable to the real world, whether you work in the hospital. So that's why I'm big on the Air Force, but I think every young person, again can benefit from joining the military, learning how to be disciplined, learning how to accept responsibility for their personal actions, and then learning learning leadership. That's what it's going to teach you, is, you know, great leadership. So that was something I didn't realize when I went in at 18 years old, but as I look back, if I could tell young Dwayne all over again, I would definitely tell him, join the military, get some work experience, and learn how to discipline yourself in life. And it'll carry a long way. Because, as you know, Gene, as people go out looking for jobs, it always asks you, what's your work experience? And when you're a young person, where are you really going to get work experience, where they put you in charge of multi million dollar equipment, multi million dollar vehicles, multi million dollar environment at the age of 18 and 19, where you can come out and then share that you've, you know, been in charge of those types of things, and you you're not afraid to be responsible. So, you know, that's one of the attributes that I think is very important in life, and that, you know, the military gives you a stepping stone that's very hard, frankly, to get anywhere else. I can't think anywhere else where 18 year old can get a job and be responsible with that that higher level as you are when you get into the military. I hope I answered your question without going too far off.
Unknown Speaker 18:37
No, no, no. I really appreciate you answered it directly, because we really want to make sure that our guests have a wide variety of advice and value of information being shared. So everybody takes a little takes something away from our radio shows, a little something differently. And so I really appreciate that answer. I, you know Dwayne as a person who's probably dealt with a lot of supervision and hiring, what, what's a good profile? What is, what are you looking for? When somebody's coming up to you and they're saying, Hey, I, you know they have, they have, they should have their resume. We, we should have a resume. Give, give an idea of what you're looking for if you're sitting down with somebody, and what they should have if they're going to sit in front of you for consideration for the position.
Unknown Speaker 19:28
Yeah, well, first of all, like I said, if you're a young person, you're probably not going to have a lot of, you know, real experience at anything. So what people buy is you. So one of the things, you know, I see a lot of people come to interviews, they just look like they were just at home playing Xbox, and remember, they had an interview and rolled out of bed and and showed up for the interview, and that's all you know. That's something that I noticed between, you know, like non military guys or girls and just regular people, the. The military type individuals will come better prepared. But just in general, if you're going for an interview, you know, you got to prepare for it like you know you want to shine, so come in, be dressed appropriately. Make sure you guys have your hair done to whatever, whatever style your hair is, you know, have it look like you, you know, gave some attention to detail. It don't matter what your hairstyle is, it's just show that you, you know, took a minute to say, Hey, I'm trying to present myself in a manner that shows me in a positive light. You know, these are the things I look at and then preparation, you know, go online, find questions on, on on the internet that may pertain to the job you're going for. It's pretty easy. You can Google any job and have someone test you on the questions. You know, do a pre test. So when you show up, you're not nervous, because you're pretty much prepared yourself. You know, these are things again, that fall back on discipline. You know, you got to be disciplined, but, you know, prepare yourself appropriately. Come in if you got, you know, I don't care if it's 115 degrees in Las Vegas, you know, put on some business attire, you know, it's for a short period of time, and then you can take it off, because this is what's going to separate you from everyone may show up with two arms and two legs. Everyone may show up, you know, with a smile. Everyone's going to show up. Maybe they have, you know, a degree. But what's going to separate you from everybody else is how you present yourself to the interviewer, I've hired a lot of people that had less experience than some of the other people. Well, in today's economy, you have people with, you know, master's degrees, shooting for entry level positions, but they still don't properly prepare themselves, because they don't have the experience. So, you know, proper preparation will get you a long way,
Unknown Speaker 21:40
right? Well, I appreciate that, and I just want to make sure everybody knows what radio show this is. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on K, U, N, V, and I'm Gene Campbell with Dwayne Morgan, and we have about another seven, eight minutes. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask Dwayne some fun things, of some fun facts. So Dwayne you, being the vice president at Dre nightclub, you have an opportunity to see a lot of people. Could you give our guests a little snippet of maybe some interesting people, or maybe something fun that you had about their visit, or something special you like to share about about your venue?
Unknown Speaker 22:22
Well, as you know, you know, we get to see a lot of fun stuff in a in a nightclub at drays, especially, you know, we're probably the number one hip hop club in the world. And as a matter of fact, we just pre recorded the BT Hip Hop Awards, and the host is going to be Fat Joe, and that was one of the things he said his opening monolog is that, you know, he loved that particular nightclub because it is the number one in the world. You're never going to have the experience that you get there. And you know, I have a lot of a lot of personalities, you know, if you're listening to the young people, that little entertainer named the baby, he is a handful. And I mean, his life goal is to have a good time. And you know, he's very funny and engaging. He he loves to jump out in the crowd and interact with people. And you know, another person with Khalifa, he's, he's the same way. He's pretty much a people person. And you know, he always comes in, he's always in a good mood. And I respect the fact that no matter how many times he does a show, you know, he gives it 100% he has a lot of humor and something that always picked up from Little Wayne. Little Wayne is one of our performers, and he always starts out his show saying, hey, if this there is no you in the audience, there is no me. So he has a full understanding of what makes life possible for him, that he could do all the singing and anything he wants, but if the crowd is not blessing him with their financial gifts or their time or being there, then there's nowhere for him to exist in that space. So, you know, I get see a lot of these guys and girls that you know most people might only be able to imagine what they're like behind the scenes, and 80% of them are totally different persona than what you see when they're performing. Wow. That
Unknown Speaker 24:07
is so great for you to share where I guess all the people and then getting ready to see I guess in the next week or two, or month, whenever that show comes out, they'll get a chance to see the people that you just spoke about. So that is just so great, Dwayne, we're about four minutes out as we as we close, I just want to thank you so much for sharing your time, taking us through that road all the way back to Chicago and and to Grand Forks and over to Korea and Alton Ellis Air Force Base, and through your career as Metro and touching on your career there at Dre's and with Caesars. Is there any last parting words or any any other things you like to say, Dwayne, as we get ready to wrap up today's show? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 24:54
again, you know, I want to thank you and Dave for thinking about me. And you know, for those in your audience. May not know. You know, Gene had a very successful, honorable and reached the highest levels of the fire department. And, you know, we both knew each other. We were just young guys out there, just trying to figure it all out. So to say that we, you know, figured out the key to something is probably not it. I think it all started with our decisions. You know, decisions change your life. We both made decisions to join the military, and I think, you know, we were blessed by doing that, because the more you give, the more you receive. So we gave up our time to serve our country, and our country is kind of, you know, paying us back through karma. So it's a good thing and Gene, no doubt, you remember our early days. We no one would probably thought we'd reach the levels we reached, because we were just out there, just some young guys out here in Vegas, you know, it was the wild wild west back then, very small town, and you know, everybody knew each other. But I say all that to say the relationships that you make early in life, the relationships you make early in life, you know, can be key to your success. You know, always I remember, you know, I used to own a mortgage company. That's something me and my wife had owned together. We owned a mortgage company, and during the process of building that building, one of the things that almost tied us up from opening on time was our our fire inspection. So guess how many fire guys I knew who was able to help me out because of relationships. So you know, you never know like they say, Don't forget about the people on your way up, because they might be the same people you need on your way down. So treat people make good relationships. That's key. All right. Well,
Unknown Speaker 26:30
Dwayne, I like you. I appreciate you. Ending with that note. That was a beautiful note, and I'm glad you touched on you had also you were entrepreneur, you had that mortgage business, and boy, if we had some more time, we could touch on a few more things that you've done. So thank you for spending your time. I know you're a very, very busy man, and you're looking to spend a little time with your family before you have to get back to work. I am just going to touch on and say happy birthday for all those October birthdays, including my dear wife, Deborah, whose birthday is coming up this month. So for all the other people born in the month of October, very, very happy birthday. That's from me and Dave Washington. And then I also like to say to our veterans, don't forget, if you're a veteran and you're not aware of your benefits if you've served, and you're interested in finding out, do you have the correct benefits, or do you need some benefits if you don't have healthcare, and you've been honorably discharged, you serve 90 days. You're only discharged from the military one of your veteran service organizations. You got the VFW disabled veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars. There's a lot of those. You can look at the Nevada Veterans Affairs Office. You can you can Google that, go online and find that number in this reach. I'm following those service organizations. There's a full list of them there, as well as out there at the Air Force veterans affairs place just right off of Pecos and the 215 if you go in there to the veterans VA hospital there, and you go down to the Veterans Service Office, that's where all the offices are. So we encourage you to reach out, look online, or reach out to some of you feel comfortable with and talk to them about the possibility of you being reviewed for those veterans benefits. With that, I'd like to say good morning. I want to thank Dwayne Morgan for coming on today. I want to thank Wes for being such a great engineer. And I want to put David, David L Washington, in my in my mind again as we close, because I'm looking forward for him to get here, back from Houston. He went on there to see some doctors, and he's getting well now. I just spoke to him earlier today, before the show. And so with that, I'm going to go ahead and close this is Veterans Affairs plus at k, U, N, V, and that's it for today's show. Have a great weekend and look forward to seeing you next week. Goodbye. You.
Outro Song 29:44
All the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare all the pain that we bear, all you bear.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai