Vietnam Veteran Honored By Family Friend
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00:00Tampa Bay's Morning Crew want to honor and thank those who protect and serve our country.
00:05Time now for Military Monday on 99.5 QYK.
00:10Well, it is Military Monday, and today we've got a special one.
00:14We've got John on the phone today. He's going to tell us about his friend Steve.
00:16Good morning, John. How are you doing?
00:18Great. How are you?
00:19I'm doing awesome, man. I'm excited to hear about your friend Steve.
00:22So tell us how you know Steve, how he served our country, and just a little bit of his background.
00:27Absolutely. So I had the honor and privilege of serving as a guardian for Steve through the Honor Flight program.
00:35I was assigned to him, and I went with him up to Washington, D.C. to see our nation's monuments and memorials for our veterans.
00:46Steve is a Vietnam veteran.
00:48He served seven years in the Army in a personnel office and was actually forward-deployed into Vietnam.
00:57So being able to share that experience with him was truly incredible, particularly the fact that he was not confident about going and actually seeing the Vietnam Wall.
01:07And being able to see him overcome that emotion and the pride that he had at the end of that trip was something I'll cherish forever.
01:17That's awesome, John. It's unbelievable.
01:19You know, my dad is a Vietnam veteran as well in the Army, so it is really an interesting thing of how it takes a lot of courage,
01:28and they are apprehensive to go see something like the Vietnam Wall, and it is a tough thing to do.
01:33And so I think having a friend like yourself to be there with him to kind of give him that confidence is a pretty cool thing.
01:39Yeah, I tell you, it started out as just an opportunity to give back to our military heroes,
01:49and has developed into a real friendship between him, myself, and my family.
01:53So I really cherish this opportunity in the program that brings people together like that.
01:58Absolutely. Well, tell me about what Steve means to your family.
02:01Well, he means quite a bit.
02:03One, as a role model and someone who, you know, paved the foundation for, you know, future generations of service members.
02:10I think that, you know, he's a real hero that, you know, it means a lot to be able to give back to him
02:20and to have shared this experience and formed that relationship.
02:25You know, he's just an incredible human being and a great friend.
02:30So we really appreciate the opportunity to spend time with him.
02:34Well, that's great, John.
02:35And Steve just sounds like an amazing guy and has an amazing life, and I'm sure a million stories that are just unbelievable to hear.
02:43And we want to do this for Steve.
02:45We want to give you a $100 gift card from our friends at Stingray Chevrolet to pass on to Steve.
02:50Maybe you guys can go get a meal together, or he can spend it on whatever he wants.
02:53But, again, a small way for us to say thank you for his service.
02:56And, again, we appreciate you telling us about him.
02:59Thank you very much, and really appreciate what you guys do to support and recognize the military
03:04as well as our first responders.
03:07Just a great thing that you guys do, so thank you.
03:10Well, it is absolutely our pleasure, and we love hearing stories like this.
03:12We want to hear your story as well.
03:14If you want to nominate someone for First Responder Friday or Military Monday,
03:18you just go to 99.5QYK.com.