QC Veterans’ Roll Call Radio Show, September 25, 2016

Greetings Quad Cities!

Rich Darby was our first guest on today's show.  He is the founder of "Operation Honor Guard."  This is a non-profit group that exists to provide funds for Veteran Service Organizations , VSOs, to outfit their members who provide our deceased Veterans their funeral honors.  Rich shared with us that it costs approximately $800.00 to fully outfit a member of an Honor Guard and there can be up to 12 such members in a VSO.

On October 11, 2016, there will be a local "Day of Giving."  This is our community's opportunity to show support and raise funds for this endeavor.  There will be a telethon on WHBF-Channel 4 and there are three local collection points.  They are:

Trimble Funeral Home and Cremation Center, 701 12^th St.,Moline, IL

HyVee Northgate Shopping Center, 1823 E. Kimberly Rd. Davenport, IA

HyVee, 2001 5^th St. Silvis, IL

You can learn more about "Operation Honor Guard here.

Our second guest on today's show is former NFL and Iowa Hawkeye great Pat Angerer.  He stopped by the studio to talk a little local football and other subjects.  He is now the Linebacker Coach at Bettendorf High School.  We also discussed his transition from professional football to his new career with Saux Valley Bank.  Here is Pat's contact information.

Pat shared with us how he approached his transition from professional football and some advice for transitioning Veterans.  We also discussed Iowa football and his thoughts for the upcoming Big Ten season.

For me, the highlight of the show was recalling about a year ago when Pat was back on Kinnick Stadium's field helping his friend and teammate Brett Greenwood walk onto the field.  Brett suffered a tragic, disabling and almost fatal "anoxic brain injury caused by heart arrhythmia," as reported by HawkCentral. Despite overwhelming odds, Brett Greenwood stood before the Hawkeye faithful on September 19, 2015 as an Honorary Team Captain.  Four years and ten days after his injury.

And Pat was right there by his side, teammates eternal.

Please see the YouTube clip below (sharing authorized/fair use claimed) to re-live that moment at Kinnick.

Our final guest was Steve Grubbs.  This is a two-part interview, as we could not fit all of our discussion into one segment.  Steve is the former Chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, State Representative, candidate for the U.S. Senate and currently the CEO of Victory Enterprises.  You can learn more about Steve and his organization here.

We discussed a variety of topics on national security and personal liberty, with Steve's thoughts on the new Oliver Stone movie, "Snowden."  He shared some stories from his work on Senator Rand Paul's campaign.  We also discussed the proper role of government and its dual obligations to protect our liberties and keep us safe.

On next week's show, we will dive into politics and talk about the upcoming election.  And for those of you who are thinking about sitting this election out and not voting, Steve explains why your vote, especially in Iowa, is so important.  Please tune in next week to hear the rest of this interview.

I want to close out this post with part of "The Soldier's Creed."  It is more than just a bunch of words but instead a code that Soldiers, all our military actually, live by.  It is also a code the they carry with them for the rest of their days.  The whole creed can be found here.

"I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade."

For me, there is no better example of the letter and spirit of these words than Pat Angerer's support for his friend Brett.  You don't have to be a Veteran to believe in a cause greater than yourself.  Thanks Pat.

And thanks to all of you for supporting QC Veterans' Roll Call radio show!

Best regards,

Jeno