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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
day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and have a few comments to make, and then I'll bring on our first guest for the first segment that's Miss Swayze and feel long time family friend and a long time resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, down here in the valley. Once again, Las Vegas, I want to encourage folks to first of all make sure your registration, your voting registration, is current. Get yourself educated and then be prepared to vote. And once again, I am not trying to convince anybody to vote for anybody, necessarily, but the important thing is get yourself up to speed on the various things that are going on, as relates to not only the Presidential but also the local offices as well, because they're all important to us as citizens. And I can tell you that once again, I will continue to use this platform, and it's called Veterans Affairs plus and the plus side is because sometimes I need to talk about things that are very important to our community that has nothing to do with the military whatsoever. So that's why the show was called Veterans Affairs plus. And on that plus side, once again, I want to encourage people in particular to study and you don't have to read the 922 pages, but take a look at what's occurring with Project 2025 and I'm talking about from the consideration that they have of getting rid of the Department of Education, gutting out the Veterans Administration, etc, etc. So be cognizant of that and study that with that. Ms, swayzeen Fields, how are you? I'm fine. Thanks. David, so swayzene, tell our listening audience a little bit about you, your background, where you're from, and that kind of thing.
Unknown Speaker 2:50
Well, David, I was born here in Las Vegas. My parents moved here from New Orleans, Louisiana and back in the early 50s, when there wasn't a whole lot here, right? I graduated from UNLV and Valley High School. So you know, obviously I've been here most of my life. Went to work for the federal government when I was 19, wow, yeah, I was playing school at UNLV and the Student Union and the recruiter came out see back then they were there. They had the affirmative action program. They were looking for blacks, and they were looking for blacks in accounting, and it was only one black every semester that graduated from UNLV in accounting, and I was the one coming up. And so the professors told them to ask around for me. So after a 30 year career with the federal government, which I moved five times, I moved from Vegas to San Francisco to Houston to DC and to LA, which is where I ended up retiring. I was a special agent criminal investigator,
Unknown Speaker 3:54
wow. And so they you were still in school when you were initially recruited by Yes, what
Unknown Speaker 4:03
they called the Co Op program. Back in the day, they would hire you while you're going to school, you had to keep a 3.0 average. You actually had to bring your grades to your supervisor to show that you had a 3.0 average. And when you graduate. So I worked part time. I worked summers and Christmas time, and then when I graduated, they put me on full time. Wow,
Unknown Speaker 4:25
that's I had no idea. I knew you had worked for the federal government, but I had no idea that you had been recruited as a, basically a teenager. And then while, while you're actually in school,
Unknown Speaker 4:39
yep. And my time counted, believe it or not, those those two years counted. So I was 19 when I started. I did 30 years until I was 49 when I retired. I've been retired 20 years now.
Unknown Speaker 4:52
Oh, my goodness. So you that is so cool. You know another person that in fact, encouraged me to join the fire department was. Dorothy Collins at the time, but Dorothy Smith, and Dorothy was very, very young. I don't think I'm 73 Dorothy can't be no more than a few years older than me, but she told me. She said, Look, I had gone down. I had gotten out of the army. I had been out for about, probably about a year. And she said, Well, a friend told me, he said, well, the city is hiring apprenticeship carpenters because I had been through a pre apprenticeship training, because they try to put you through some kind of training program as you exit the military. So I took pre apprenticeship carpentry, and a friend of mine told me they were hiring carpenters. I go down, they say. Dorothy said, Oh, that closed yesterday. I don't know what clothes mean. She said, come into my office. She showed me the platoon calendar and encouraged me to join the fire department. I don't want to join the fire department. I don't want to be away from my family. Blah, blah, blah. Swayzeam, she showed me that platoon calendar, and they worked 10 days a month. I said, Where do I sign up? She says, sign up right here. And I was lucky that I got in, because, as I mentioned on several shows, I had my honorable discharge, which got me five points, which put me into the 90s, because I scored like 8687 on the exam, and that that gave me that extra little boost to get in. So it's encouraging to hear that you got in as such a young person. See, I was 56 when I retired. You say you were 49 I love it. I love it. So what would you say to young folks who have have an interest in that particular profession?
Unknown Speaker 6:39
Well, my job actually required a degree in accounting, because I did white collar crime, right? I did money laundering, currency crime. But any good federal job, I think you have to pretty much, you need to be in school, you need to start your you need to at least go to school a couple years. And I say school, I'm in college, because that gives you the best shot at the best job. Now, I started as a grade four as a co op because I was just 19, and then I made it all the way up to a grade 15, but the USA Jobs, USA jobs.com that is the place to go on there and look and it'll tell you about intern jobs Co Op. They don't call them co ops anymore. I think they call them interns. You know, back in the day, it was Co Op. So you know what was funny, David, I really wasn't going to take the job. I said, No, my dear, is going to be an accountant. I'm going to be a CPA. And so I chose them all, basically. And I went home and my dad said, Girl, you better take that good government job, as long as my daddy only had a high school education, and he knew and so he says, lazy, I'm telling you, take that job. So I called the people back the next day, and they said, Okay, we did already hire a couple people, but we will, we consider you. And I got the job and and I told my daddy that was the best thing I ever did was the pension that I have when you retire in law enforcement, my pension is like $30,000 a year. I don't even have to get out of my bed so, but you have to stick with it. And this is the thing that the kids have to understand. You have to persevere, because somebody's gonna piss you off when you first start. You don't want to quit. And you want to talk crazy or whatever, but sometimes, you know you're going to have to, you know, get past a bad supervisor because they won't last forever, but you have to persevere. Because, you know, I went through the trials and tribulations with people challenging me, with bad supervisors trying to, you know, knock me down or whatever. But you know, you hang in there because it's like you have to see that pot of gold into the rainbow. Absolutely made a big difference,
Unknown Speaker 8:49
you know what? And I noticed you said that your family moved here in the in the early 50s. We moved here from from Louisiana in 1954 family moved here with three boys, and then had four girls here in Las Vegas. So it's interesting that your family, too has been here for had been here for such a long time, and like you said, there wasn't much going on. But one thing I do remember that I don't think we do a lot today. I remember people because, in fact, our uncle John, he came and lived with us for a few months, him and his wife before he stepped out, you know, got his own place. And I watch our Hispanic brothers and sister do a lot of that today, and where we don't do that, that I've seen at all anymore. You know, I think a lot of times we we think, Well, I got mine. I ain't worried about nobody else. But collectively as a group of people, I think we can do a lot more good if we give somebody a hand up, anytime, I know, hand out, as they say, give them a hand up, and we can be in a better place as a as a collective body, if you will.
Unknown Speaker 9:54
No, that makes a lot of sense, even when you're working, you know, you try to look down. And pull people in before your time is up. You know, if you get in a position where you can make a difference to bring more people on, like yourself, it makes a big difference. It makes a big difference. But, you know what I've been worried about lately, though, Davis is the growing gender divide. See, when you you got in the military, you got out, you know, the VA was great. You know, they pay for you to go to school and they pay for you to dollar down or no down to buy a house. But right now, I worry about the young men and what opportunities they have, because, you know what? Women are doing great. They're earning more college degrees and they're they're making more money, and, you know, they're buying more houses. After I retired, I got my real estate license, and I can't tell you how many young black women were ready to buy houses, single black women, and I just didn't see that with the men. And so I just wonder, you know, what's going on with our younger black men, because they just seem to be underperforming, you know, against the women and leading somewhat unhealthy lifestyle. So what can we do? Because we need something to make them have the economic equality that some of the women are having. How do we fix that?
Unknown Speaker 11:15
No, I think that's a valid point. And, you know, that's the million dollar question, but I do know that a lot of just watching some of the young people that I've interacted with, and you know, me myself. Dr weekly, Melvin B Lennis, we had a camp that we call camp brotherhood, and ultimately at a camp sisterhood. But some of the things that we try to teach these young men and women were to show respect for elders. And, you know, do the best you can in school. Always be respectful and handle your business. Now, I can tell you that from from my own experience and seeing again, a lot of these youngsters, they think they gonna make it in the in the music industry. And I'm like, Are you kidding me? There's nothing wrong with pursuing it, but you better have a fallback plan, because everybody ain't going to make it. I don't care what industry you're talking about. A lot of times when I know you've spoken at schools where the young people, oh, man, I'm I'm going to be in NFL. I'm going to the NBA. Do you know that your chance of getting in is like one less than one half or one half a percent. That's how you know how competitive it is and how fewer jobs there are out there. But sometimes they get, they get this tunnel vision, and we've got to break folks out of it. One of my grandsons, he just started in a training program as a plumber. I am so happy. He has some college but he's going to learn a skill that is still much needed around the world, in fact. And I've been just studying, you know, doing a little coaching, urging him to settle down and do that. And then I got another granddaughter, she's, she's going to bartending school, and I think it's important for us to continue to encourage these folks, but sway scene. That's something that we'll have to talk about, because I can tell you that that is a million dollar question. How do we encourage and keep them inspired in your business today, what would you say to young folks, just in general, about our world today, because we got a couple more minutes here, and I just want to get some some feedback from you, because you've been around the block, as one would say, Well, I
Unknown Speaker 13:30
think it's important number one, as you talked about at the beginning, that you know you you you look out for your future, and that means voting For the right people to make design policies that can impact you. That's number one, make sure you know what's going on in your community and you do what you need to do and vote for the right people. You can't let these fake brothers tell other brothers that women are in the way of their progress. And so let's go with the little, tiny man. So you know, we got to watch out for that, that divide, because, and I think it's important to figure out your feet. What do you want to do? Because as a man, you got to work, you're going to, one day get married, you're going to have a family, and so you need to start thinking long range. And what that means is trying to find a profession or correct. It doesn't have to be college. Everybody doesn't, are not, don't want to go to college, can't afford to go to college or whatever, but you got to find something, like you said, a training program, or something that you can do. Because women aren't distracted by, oh, I'm going to be an NFL or NBA player or be a rapper. Women keep their nose to the grindstone. They go to school, they figure out what they do, what they need to do, and they do it. And I just feel like, you know, brothers have to start thinking that way too, and not let these crazy politicians get in their way and have them do things that can hurt them at the end, like, go. For the wrong people, right? So it's important that they have a plan and work that put in, you know, and you don't start, you start thinking about it early. I mean, in high school, my senior year, I started thinking about, what can I do? And we got to start young, you know, and and have a plan for what we want to do. We got to get motivated and inspired, and so we just need other brothers to inspire, because the sisters are doing good. I mean, the sisters are figuring them out. They have a lot of role models out there that they do things. I can remember one of your little daughters told me, Well, I saw you driving at Corvette when you were young. I said, I'm going to be like her.
Unknown Speaker 15:39
Absolutely. Well Swayze inspired the kids to do it. No those words that were well thought out, and I think it's very important, and hopefully some folks will listen, because this show is heard around the world. So thank you so much, and I'm going to get you back on again, because I have some other things that I want to talk to you about. But what I appreciate you coming on the show. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and one we had Miss swayzene fields, long time resident, former federal agent and a good person to know in our community. And she is a real estate person. All right. Take care,
Unknown Speaker 16:15
David. All right. Bye. Bye.
Unknown Speaker 16:22
Well. Wes continuously educate me. I forgot to go out in the proper way. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz. Wes over there falling out, y'all, because we have, Hey man, you got to have a little fun as we do this. But I appreciate him so much because he keeps me on track. We have Vincent palmarian Jr, on the line. We'll have him in in just a second to talk about what he's doing. He's the Military Order of the Purple Heart. He is a commander, and we're going to talk to him a little bit to get an update, because I think it's important for folks to know what he's doing. He and his organization are always actively involved in our community. Just wanted to give him an opportunity to come on here and on Veterans Affairs plus and give us an update. So with that, once again, Las Vegas Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and more, and it's important for us to once again, remember if you have any issues or you're trying to get your benefit package together, we have Tony Marshall, our service officer. He can be reached at 301-537-9462,
Unknown Speaker 17:30
Tony Marshall service offer, 301-537-9462,
Unknown Speaker 17:38
if you got any issues that you and again, you have to call for an appointment with Tony, because he's a very busy guy, and we appreciate him very much. All right, Vincent, how you doing? Sir,
Unknown Speaker 17:47
I'm doing fine. Dave, thank you so much for this opportunity.
Unknown Speaker 17:50
Oh no, you know, sometimes if I don't get to you, call me and say, Hey, you got any space? We got a special function coming up. So give us, give our listening audience an update of what's going on in your world and what projects you guys got that you may be embarking upon at this time.
Unknown Speaker 18:07
Okay, first, I want to say thank you for mentoring Tony's name. Tony is also a member of our purple Hawk chapter. I also want to mention, since the last time we spoke, I have been elected as the junior vice commander of the Department of State for the Purple Heart. Oh, congrats. I'm getting more busy every day.
Unknown Speaker 18:30
Congratulations. Hey. But you know what Vincent, what did he always say, if you want some to get something done, ask a person who's already busy doing other things, and Jillian has been and I've learned over time. At 73 now I've learned to say no, but this seems like an excellent opportunity, and I think you are a great guy to have in that role, because we know you'll get some things accomplished. So tell us a little bit about what that role will be about, and again, give us an update on just things that you guys are working on, as far as projects? Okay,
Unknown Speaker 19:02
well, I think many of you know that back in February, I started a petition to keep our veterans memorial here in Las Vegas, and through the hard work of people in my chapter and other veterans organizations like post 76 VFW, we've collected about 2500 signatures that memorial is staying here in Las Vegas. It's going to be at a place called Thunderbird sports complex. And I think groundbreaking might be in October of 2025 I'm not 100% sure. It's not a locked in date yet, right? And what's going to happen? Dave is on September 13, and everyone is invited on some September 13, we're having a farewell. A ceremony to the memorial sponsored by nvds. It will begin at 9am sharp at the Grand Sawyer building. So please, we'd like to have 100 200 or even more veterans show up for support, and then when the memorial is built, we will have another ceremony. So I'm happy about that, and I want to say thank you to each and every veteran who signed that petition. Without you, it couldn't have been done. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 20:33
There's nothing wrong with you, know, getting a collective body of people who believe in the same thing and and your initiative to even start. You know, collecting signatures just says a lot about your character, because a lot of times when people have a few obstacles that they are challenged with, they just fold the tent. So we commend you for for your your due diligence and handling this whole matter and making it happen. So congrats to you. Well,
Unknown Speaker 21:01
thank you. And last well, two weeks ago, on a Wednesday, our Veterans Memorial Committee was honored by the mayor of Las Vegas for the work that we've done to preserve the memorial and about the Purple Heart, there are a lot of purple hot veterans out there that don't belong to any chapter, and we were likely to reach out to us and become a member. There are special privileges for purple hot members, one such as parking and getting a purple hot license plate right many places now, not only handicapped will have a Purple Heart sign that says parking for Purple Heart recipients only. And also, when it comes to education, your education benefits here in the state of Nevada don't expire, and I believe now they're working on passing down those to your siblings. Oh, wow. So please reach out to us so we can give you more information.
Unknown Speaker 22:07
So Vincent, is there a website or contact information you can share with our audience?
Unknown Speaker 22:15
Dave, I wish there was one place for people to go. I'm posting it on whatever information I have. I post on the state's purple hot page, and also on our purple hot page. And we've also started a Facebook page. It's, if I may give the address. It's purple hot Chapter 711, greater Nevada, Greater Las Vegas, Nevada. We'll post a lot of information there.
Unknown Speaker 22:45
Give that again. Vincent, for those of you share that again,
Unknown Speaker 22:49
sure. Purple Heart, Chapter 711, of Greater Las Vegas. So
Unknown Speaker 22:55
this is where they can find further information. Okay, cool,
Unknown Speaker 23:00
yeah, and they're always welcome to email me or text me. I don't mind, because we need to get information out there. I didn't realize, Dave, until I came to the state of Nevada, that I was entitled to buy a home with no money down, or even get a purple hot plate or a disability plate. I lived in New York all my life. I never knew this information. I was in the VA system back then.
Unknown Speaker 23:32
Wow. Well, this is good information to share, because I think, and again, that's that's part of one I feel as a responsibility of this Veterans Affairs plus and as I mentioned on the previous show, I've been doing a lot of plus stuff lately, but I always be looking out and reaching out to people such as yourself, Benson, because I think it's important for you to be on this show to share information that will be helpful to a lot of veterans out there who just aren't aware.
Unknown Speaker 24:02
And exactly, and I think it's up to us all time as Dave to pass the information down, because we were not as fortunate, really, as the younger generation coming out of the military, they have programs now where they can go to class before they they get out of the military and find out what to do, how to get a job, how to write a resume, and even help with the with PTSD. Well, back then, when we were in there was no such thing as PTSD in black and white, right?
Unknown Speaker 24:35
Yeah, you know I was, I was telling some on a previous show how, when I was we had a fire, a group of firefighters get injured, and I I just dismissed our incident debriefing person, because I'm like, I'm good man, I was carrying around this thing on my shoulders for a number of years before I finally got deep. Grief, and it just seemed like the weight of the world came off. So these types of things that you guys are doing is so important, and a lot of times, I know police, fire, military veterans, sometimes we had it. We want to have that hard shell attitude that I got this. But sometimes we need help. Man, yeah, we need help, and we got to stop thinking that we're Superman and that we don't need help. Because, yes, we do. Because sometimes you don't realize how you're affecting your family. You're coming out brazingly at times because of the pressure that you're feeling. Et cetera, et cetera. So your point is well taken.
Unknown Speaker 25:38
Yeah, I think I read once Dave, where it said that having courage is knowing when to ask for help and how to ask for help. Yes, sir, that that is a person who has courage, and that's why our purple heart chapter is very involved with the North Vegas and the Las Vegas Veterans Treatment Court. We help these veterans out with the gift card when they graduate. It's an excellent program. Our chapter supplies them, I won't say supply. We get someone to sing the national anthem at the ceremony, and we also get a color guard to present the colors. It's really a nice ceremony. It's very emotional at times, when you hear the stories for some of these guys, and then you know why we need to reach out
Unknown Speaker 26:26
absolutely Vincent, do me this favor. Because I know I've had a person from that program on my show. I don't recall the name, but if you would just do me this favor, whoever your contact is, say, Hey, I think you need to go on Veterans Affairs, plus sometime in the near future, and you can give them my number, because I definitely, I think it's so important for us to get folks who are running these types of programs so we can share as much information as we can out into this spear, you know, This radio spear, to let our brothers and sisters who former military know that we're here to help.
Unknown Speaker 27:06
Yeah, and the last Veterans Treatment Court, I had a good friend of mine. Her name is Genevieve du. She sings at a lot of places here in Las Vegas and around on cruises. She sang the national anthem. It was the first time at the court, and she said to me, Vince, I had no idea what you're doing. This is impressive. People need to know, that's right, that next time we're at the Italian American club, I want to speak about this. So this morning, I got an email from nvds, and I said to him, I spoke to Genevieve, and we'd like to make her our celebrity outreach to the veterans community. And they said, That's a great idea, absolutely. And I think maybe you should have her on your show one time, even though she's not a veteran, every time I've asked her to do something when I have an event, she's always there to sing for us and entertain us,
Unknown Speaker 28:06
sure. Well, please have her to give me a call, because, like I said, Any anyone, they don't necessarily have to be a veteran, but the kinds of things that she's doing is going to enrich the lives of veterans, and that's part of that's part I feel, is the charge as well so we can make those contacts. I like
Unknown Speaker 28:23
to mention another I like to mention another thing that's going to happen this coming Saturday. Okay, we have reached out to Congresswoman Susie Lee, and she is going to be pinning Vietnam veterans at our monthly meeting at IHOP at 9651 trailwood drive. If there are any veterans out there, Vietnam veterans that have not received the pin right, please contact me so I can put you on the list. It's in a meeting room. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of space. Please reach out to me so so you can be recognized. And as you know, we were not recognized for many years, and in my opinion, we're still not recognized.
Unknown Speaker 29:11
Very true. Look, Vincent palmerian Junior, we're going to get you back on the show again. We got to wrap up out of time. But this is Veterans Affairs plus, and Vincent is with the Purple Heart organization, and what they are doing is so important. So we're going to get you back on the show to talk more about some of the different programs that you're going so God bless you. Keep doing what you're doing, young man.
Unknown Speaker 29:35
Thank you sir, and keep your radio show strong and going all right. This lot of information on your show.
Unknown Speaker 29:42
Sure. This is Veterans Paris plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Talk to you next week. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai