It's Mike waters from the waters.
Wake up.
Call some great Veterans Day stories this morning and check this out.
I was in the Navy and one of my first jobs was as a plane captain with a 14 fighter pilot and I had a rookie pilot that would not listen to my hand signals.
So I went ahead and got permission from the squadron.
Commander and told him buying my hand signals that his plane was on fire.
And that he needed to shut down his engines.
And your commander said, yeah, go ahead, do that.
That'll teach him a lesson.
Probably thought he was, you know, Mr. Top Gun himself.
Exactly.
I was actually with Top Gun.
We have .24 gun fighters.
That is awesome, Vicky.
So thank you, of course, for your service.
Oh, you're welcome.
When did you serve, Vicky?
I was in from 85 to 89.
So yeah.
Around the time the Top Gun came out.
Tom Cruise was actually on
base when I was there.
Wow, like just checking the place out.
They were filming part of my hangers actually in that movie.
Vicki, sounds like you weren't even going to tell me that unless I asked.
I'm glad I asked.
That's classified.
I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
You know, shout out to family members, my son, my grandson, Maureen, my uncles that were all in the Air Force, and my grandfather who was in World War II.
Yeah,
you told me those great stories yesterday that just the very impressive ways that they served.
Well, I got another one that I got.
the really good story.
Some years back here in Sea Rapids, I had the honor and privilege to meet Colonel Robert Ray.
Now, this is not the same Robert Ray that was Governor of Iowa.
Okay.
But this gentleman was actually a survivor of three and a half years, Japanese prisoner of war, and a survivor of the Baton Death March.
Wow.
Now,
One of my sons was kind of young at the time, and when he was getting for foreign health, he went and lived with his daughter.
And he invited me to come out with my son when my son was 12.
And he spent about four hours showing us maps and talking about the whole experience of being a prisoner of war with the Japanese, of maps of where the prisoners had escaped and different things about the whole, just the whole story about it.
When we were done,
his daughter came up to me and said, you know, I am so glad you guys came out.
My dad would never talk to me about his experiences.
And I actually got to hear exactly what he went through and what other people went through.
Wow, I can't.
I can't.
I just can't imagine how she felt hearing that.
She was real happy.
But, you know, meeting somebody that's gone through all of that during the Philippines was just a privilege and honor to do that.
And then for take the time to go
over all this stuff with my son, that me was just great.
I mean, that had to be riveting those stories.
It was.
The brutality that they went through and prisoners of war the Americans went through, you just couldn't really comprehend it.
Right.
Now at all.
I mean, the baton death march, if the soldiers were wounded, the Japanese unit used them for bayonet practice at night,
Good God.
Jesus.
Inhuman.
to mean somebody like that and a privilege
and from what his daughter was saying and she had never known any of this and I can't imagine you know how she felt and you hear about and that had to be extremely traumatic for him to to actually be able to talk about it in detail what was his state of mind as he was telling you all this
oh his state of mind was excellent I mean he when I
The only two guys on the ship with their wives with them.
Some guys have
to do that, you know.
It's no
way
to escape
it.
It was really interesting on his story about that, but he was a nice guy.
Like you say, what an honor and a privilege to hear a story from that man.
Yeah, like I said, a lot of relatives that were in the military and I'm all proud of all of my brother in Vietnam too.
Yeah.
And a happy Veterans Day for all of them.
I think I speak for everybody in saying we so appreciate your family and your friend, Baton Death March and all.
Good God.
Yeah.
I have a shout out to all the veterans and I have a veteran story for you.
Oh great.
Okay, my dad was at Normandy.
Really?
Yeah, World War II.
Yeah.
He got some awards and all this stuff and he said it just like the movies.
He said climbing them hills and those guys with those little grappling hooks trying to get up there and take them pillboxes out was absolutely true.
Wow.
And it's the most horrific thing you could ever see.
He lost his best friend and
Him and all my uncles went down and volunteered when war broke out.
In World War II, you were excited to go and fight because you really believed in what you were fighting for.
Absolutely.
The cars, they all went down and volunteered.
Yeah.
He said, if you want to see the truth to him, he said, watch that show the longest day.
He said that it's all documented and it's just like the real thing.
All those guys were that.
And he said, then beaches and those landing things, he said, just as true as you could get.
Wow.
Pretty surreal.
But
do
remember.
picture that they all had after they had their pants hanging upside down on a clothesline.
Yeah.
Be for victory.
Very nice.
Yeah, pretty cool.
Yeah, like you say, the longest day is great.
And you know, saving private Ryan that opens storming the beaches of Normandy.
Right.
I sure felt like not I'm sure not like your dad, obviously, but really that opening scene, you just almost feel like you're there more so than any movie anyway, any other
movie.
Absolutely.
It's
It's horrific, but God rest his soul, but he did his job and he said he did it for us.
Yeah.
They get it for America for our freedom.
That is awesome.
That is a great story, Mike.
Okay.
Well,
what you're doing today is good.
You keep it going for the best.
Right on, man.
Well, thank you for calling Mike and, uh, and yeah, we're all very thankful for your dad and, and everyone like him.
Absolutely.
Have a good one, Mike.
Happy Veterans Day.
Well, good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Hollin Oats.
Thank you for your service, by the way, Hollin Oats.
I didn't fight in a war, so I
I salute all the veterans out there who have fought and died and protect this country.
But thank all the vets.
Anytime I'm in the grocery stores or anything, I see anybody wearing a Vietnam or World War II hat or whatever.
I always think of that.
Yep, every day, not just Veterans Day.
Although Veterans Day, we should just flood the place with thank yous and appreciation.
But we should thank a veteran every day.
You're absolutely right.
every day well and again I thank you for your service and uh yeah jumping out of perfectly good airplanes what you were doing
thank you yeah I think I told you my story when I first jumped out of the perfectly good airplane
that's right I
soiled myself
that's right
I did uh in the 82nd airborne I was yeah jump another airplane man
for what purpose was that first jump for you said you didn't see any battle was it training was it
yeah training
okay training
yep
I know
I would have at least soiled myself if I had done that.
I
suppose
because how high up were you when you jumped?
I'm
afraid of heights I would never ever in a million years jump out of a perfectly good airplane whether I had a parachute or
not.
Well, when you go into the service and you train in the infantry, you're going to be jumping out of an airplane.
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, you're a better man than I, Hollanoats.
Not that we didn't already know that.
I don't jump out of planes much anymore.
Right.
But you'll jump out of your truck every once in a while, because how high up is the cab?
10
feet, maybe.
Well, that's pretty high.
I think that's higher than I've jumped.
Well, again, I thank you for your service, Hollanoats.
Well, thank
you.
Good morning.
Well, good morning, Chattie Cathy.
How are you?
I'm fine.
I just got my flag out.
Everybody should be flying their flags.
Absolutely.
Fly it high.
Fly it proud.
Right.
My whole family has always been very patriotic.
I had three brothers.
Two of them were in the Navy.
One in the Army.
Two of them had passed away.
My brother that slept was in the Army.
He was on a ship involved.
with the Bay of
Pigs, but
he owns and operates the military surplus.
Oh, he does?
Oh, yeah.
What town is the military surplus?
Where does he, where is he working?
Marrying at Uncle
Sam's.
Uncle Sam's.
And I should drop by there and see if I can find Chattie Cathy's brother.
You
should.
I should.
What's his name?
Keith.
Keith?
Yep, I know John Kennedy, um, made a visit on that ship once.
Wow.
Yeah, I'm sure.
Bea Pigs.
That was, uh, that was his time.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, and my oldest brother was in the Navy.
He was a commandment.
That is cool.
That is super cool.
Chattie Cathy.
Yes.
Well, thank, thank your family for their service and, you know, those, of course, those who also gave the ultimate sacrifice and I'm sorry for your loss.
Yeah,
and they're probably not doing enough for him are they?
Well, I'm
glad he's getting help, but they shouldn't have to fight for that.
You know, I mean they already fought they already
put up a hard fight fighting for their country.
Now the
country should, you know, not make them fight for what they deserve when they come home.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
That's that.
Right.
That frustrates me.
And I'm sure it frustrates veterans even more.
But yeah.
But God.
All right.
All right.
Get those flags out.
Yes.
It's going to be windy today.
So yeah,
get them
really flapping in the wind.
Mine is.
Okay.
How much time do you have to tell a story?
They're both great.
Okay, well, if they're great, you know what?
Woody Woodrow Woodison, I'm gonna take your word for it.
First one, my great uncle was a veteran of the First World War.
He was sent down first to the Mexican border in 1915.
When he was back in 1916, he was swimming down at the Cedar River.
They used to have to beach at Ellis Park there, right on the riverfront.
Okay.
Anyway,
A cry went out into the air for help.
He swam out and rescued a woman who was drowning.
Brought her back to shore.
A year later, he was in France, and he was wounded in one of those major battles.
And in the hospital in France, the nurse attending him was one and the same.
She was the woman that he had saved.
Wow!
The other story is my father, on January 1st, 1945, is
Captain came to him and said, the Germans are pushing.
We don't know where they're coming from.
I need you to get your squad together and go out and blow some trees.
He was an engineer in the 14th Armored Division.
And then he goes, Captain Diller, my half-track driver, the corporal, he's waked out on a Section 8.
He's in the hospital.
We need every man that can walk.
So he put his squad together, threw a few cases of dynamite into the half-track to blow trees and set up a barricade out in the mountains.
They drove up a mountain road, came around to Ben and there was a German Panzer division sitting there with their engines off.
All hell broke loose.
They started firing on him and they had all this dynamite in this half-track.
The
half-track driver waked out and rolled the half-track over the embankment.
My father was pinned by his wrist.
He woke up with a German machine gun barrel right between his eyes.
And with his peripheral vision, he looked over and seen one of his
squad members was dead with a bullet between his eyes.
They took him prisoner and basically he was spent the rest of the war in prison camps, four of them.
They kept moving him back after the Battle of the Bulge.
They moved him back farther and farther.
He ends up in Mooseburg.
And when an American scout chief fired on the camp, all the guards moved to the front end of this camp.
There was 120,000 allied prisoners there and they didn't know they were there.
And
he escaped.
He ran out the gate, stole a bicycle, and beat it down the road, and ran into his own unit.
They took him to his captain, Dillard, and there was no food.
He weighed 60 pounds when he escaped.
When they took him, you know, they took him into his captain, he told his captain, he goes, I want to go back and kill those sons of bitches, because they were poorly mistreated in the German prison camps.
Yeah, I can imagine.
And he goes, Bob, there's nothing left of you.
Awesome, both of them.
Thank you.
Well, yeah, they're in my book.
I'm working on maybe someday out for it.
You have a great day, Mr. Water.
All right,
you too, man.
Thanks.
Yo, shout out to family members, my son, my grandson, Maureen, my uncles that were all in the Air Force, and my grandfather who was in World War II at the Army.
Yeah, you told me those great stories yesterday, just the very impressive ways that they served.
Well, I got another one that I got, the really good story.
Some years back here in Sea Rapids, I had the honor and privilege to meet Colonel Robert Ray.
Now, this is not the same Robert Ray that was Governor of Iowa.
Okay.
But this gentleman was actually a survivor of three and a half years, Japanese prisoner of war, and a survivor of the Baton Death March.
Wow.
Now, one of my sons was kind of young at the time, and when he was getting more foreign health, he went and lived with his daughter.
He invited me to come out with my son when my son was 12, and he spent about four hours showing us maps and talking about the whole experience of being in a prisoner war with the Japanese, of maps of where the prisoners had escaped, and different things about the whole, just the whole story about it.
When we were done, his daughter came up to me and said, you know, I am so glad you guys came out.
My dad would never talk to me about his experiences.
And I actually got to hear exactly what he went through and what other people went through.
Wow, I can't, I can't, I just can't imagine how she felt hearing that.
She was real happy.
But, you know, meeting somebody that had gone through all of that during the Philippines was just a privilege and honor to do that.
And then for take the time to go over all this stuff with my son, that he was, was just
It was just great.
I mean, that had to be riveting those stories.
It was.
The brutality that they went through and prisoners of war, the Americans went through, you just couldn't really comprehend
it.
Right.
Now at all.
I mean, the baton death march, if the soldiers were wounded, the Japanese unit used them for bandit practice at night.
Good
God.
Any civilian tried to give any water to any of the prisoners on the march.
The Japanese soldiers immediately put her to kill them.
And it wasn't nice.
It was just they aggressively went after
them.
Inhuman.
It was, it was really an honor.
to meet somebody like that and a privilege.
And from what his daughter was saying, and she had never known any of this, and I can't imagine how she felt.
And you hear about, and that had to be extremely traumatic for him to actually be able to talk about it in detail.
What was his state of mind as he was telling you all this?
Oh, his state of mind was excellent.
I mean, when I first met him, he actually told me about when he got stationed in the Philippines.
He was an officer.
and married and he actually had his wife and then there was another officer with his wife that were on the transport ship taking him to the Philippines.
Yeah.
The only two guys on the ship with their wives with
them.
Some guys have to do that, you know.
It's no way to escape it.
It was, it was really interesting on his story about that, but he was a nice guy.
Like you say, what an honor and a privilege to hear a story from that man.
Like I said, a lot of relatives
of all, proud of all of my brother in Vietnam too, and a happy Veterans Day for all of them.
I think I speak for everybody in saying, we so appreciate your family and your friend, Baton Death March and all.
Good God.
Yes, that's something else.
Well, I know the Veterans story.
Yeah?
My dad had several brothers, and he was next to the youngest, and his brother was in the Navy stationed in Pearl Harbor, and he was killed.
I'm Arizona and is in tune there.
And on the 50th anniversary, I set my mom and dad there so that my dad could be, we were hoping would be on the memorial at the time.
Sure, you're on the memorial, yeah.
Because my dad, I'm sorry.
That's all right.
My dad said one day he's getting letters from his brother and then the next day, nothing.
He was supposed to accept that his brother was gone.
And so one of my dad was 17, joined the Navy about a year before it was gonna be the 50th anniversary.
I called the Parks Department.
They're in charge of the memorial itself.
So they said they hadn't even thought about the planning of it yet.
Yeah.
So anyway, my sister worked for the government and so she called the Department of the Navy and they said, you know, the Parks Department and them were gonna get together and start playing the dad one day
in the mail yet
because he knows nothing about this.
This was a
surprised that I was going for them on their anniversary.
Wow, that's great.
Anyway, yeah, he gets from the commander of the Pacific fleet.
He gets this, you know, beautifully handwritten envelope and he has no idea what it is.
Yeah.
And he opens it up and it's an invitation to be on the memorial.
And he was, he of course was brought to tears and he says, you know, this is better than winning the lottery to me.
Wow.
That is awesome.
What an awesome daughter for you to do that for your dad.
I
can't
imagine how appreciative he
was
the veteran of Korea.
So I'd like to say Happy Veterans Day.
I miss you.
And also, sorry, two of my brothers, three of my brothers were veterans.
So thank you to them also.
Did you hear the story behind 11 and 11?
Is it about World
War One?
Oh, that is about World War One, right?
Yep.
Yeah.
He was on the 11th month of the 11th day that
We won World War I.
Right.
Yeah.
The 11th hour, 11th day of the 11th month.
Yep.
Yep.
11 a.m.
And this story is my dad, who unfortunately has passed away.
He was, he was a supply truck driver.
He was always, always at the front lines.
He could speak German.
So he held prisoners back with him.
He goes, yeah, we turned around and we were, thought we were new with our front line was and all of a sudden there was no
American uniforms.
Uh-oh.
They had
crossed over the line because the front moved.
Right.
So
he told his partner a couple words in German and German just agreed with him.
So he turned around and he's speaking in German going, yeah, them stupid Americans and stuff.
We stole their truck in uniforms and why are they going to be surprised?
And he goes, believe it or not, we got back over the lines and never got shot at.
Wow.
That, now that's smart and lucky.
It was a miracle he could speak German and they were talking really loud and hell the Germans started waving at him.
He had to be extremely brave, extremely smart and extremely lucky.
He had the trifecta that day, thank God.
Yeah.
That's a great story.
Thanks for that.
welcome,
Mikey.
Weekday mornings, 5.30 to
10.
