How To Serve Your Community
Actions speak loader than words and Navy veteran Rick Otey is a prime example of that. As a man who has overcome a lot from his experiences during the Vietnam war, losing a child and beating cancer Rick has maintained his positive and easy going demeanor. He spends his time these days finding ways to give back, either as a passionate advocate for proton beam cancer treatments or as a patriotic American looking to serve fellow veterans and connecting children with stories of our nations past. Through his actions, Rick shows everyone that they can find a little, or large way of serving their community!
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Transcript from Episode 74 with Rick Otey:
Keith McKeever
Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Hey, welcome back to another episode. I've got an amazing guest today. This is a guy I know personally have volunteered with them. Super awesome guy we're gonna talk about today is serving your community. So without further ado, my good friend from the next town over Mr. Rick Cody. Hey, welcome to show Ricky. Yeah, always good to catch up with you. I feel like I've seen you a little bit frequently. Probably because we had our fourth on our flight of the year here. Yes, I'm losing track of time like a week ago. repping the greater Peoria Honor Flight shirt here. There you go. But give us a little rundown of who Rick OD is and what your military story was.
Rick Otey
Well, my name is Rick Otey, and I was I served in the United States Navy for a destroyer from 69 to 71. spent most of 1970 in a five inch gun mount off the coast of Vietnam. I drew the short straw, I guess because I was the hot Shellman, which meant I wore asbestos gloves up to my elbow. And my responsibility after the gun fired, and the empty powder facing came out hot is my responsibility to catch that thing and throw it out of the little hole in the bottom and the floor of the gun mount. Just so no one got burned. So that was my main duty. I was a storekeeper aboard ship. And I enjoyed that. But my primary responsibility and it seemed like the one we did most was firing that big gun. So that that was I was homeported in San Diego. And then we were in Subic Bay was our home port over there in Vietnam. We only spent about maybe a week at the most in Subic Bay the rest of time we were either on a gun line or operating with a carrier, providing support for them picking up any pilots who had to ditch on their way back from in country. Thankfully, we never had to do that. But it was primarily on the gun line off the coast of Vietnam.
Keith McKeever
It's interesting. You said you got the short straw. It sounds like a very tight, cramped quarters. And people can't tell a video but I know you personally you're not a small guy.
Rick Otey
I'm six, four. And I was then I was. Yeah, and actually there were there were 12 of us in the gun, man. Is it double mount? Wow. And it seemed like our gun was the one that was the prominent gun or the predominant one. So we fired much more than the other gun did. Yeah, it was pretty cramped in there. And I learned how to sleep on a little box curled up on a box, probably two feet by two feet. Somehow I was able to get everything in there to catch a little nap until we had to lay it off and and go on another mission. So it was good for me though I was I'm thankful. I'm glad to be a veteran.
Keith McKeever
You know it's it's one of those skills nobody ever talks about that you can learn in the military is witnesses to sleep and
Rick Otey
we get very creative sometimes.
Keith McKeever
I still say to this day, you know sleeping in the seat of a Humvee back your neck right there on the seat slouched down a little bit. Body armor. So kind of the plates. Yeah. Back straight a little bit. Yeah. Probably some of the best sleep ever.
Rick Otey
Yeah, that was pretty much my what I did in the military. And I like I say, I'm, I'm proud to be a better and I'm glad I went. You grow up really, really fast. I hadn't already been out of Illinois, even when I left. So I'm thankful for the opportunity.
Keith McKeever
Absolutely. Well, we we thank you for your service and welcome home, by the way, thank you, as well. So, you know, knowing you as well as I do, probably more than most of most other guests I've had on here. You went through something about 17 years ago. It a little bit of backstory. We are here in the Peoria, Illinois area for any listeners or viewers. We've got amazing hospitals very huge medical community here. And OSF St. Francis Medical Center just got it correct me if I'm wrong on this. Proton Beam cancer treatment, they're putting in a huge cancer treatment facility. I know you're huge advocate for that. And you went through the treatment on that. So you tell us a little bit about your story. What that means to you to have something like that here locally.
Rick Otey
Okay. Yeah. On February 4 2005. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had no symptoms that would tell me I even needed to go see a urologist. But a friend of mine asked me if I knew he had just been newly diagnosed, asked me if I knew what my PSA was. And I said, well, all those letters mean to me, it's the it's the airline I flew in and out of San Diego, San Francisco, in the 70s in California was PSA airlines. And so it's a simple blood test, I went and got a blood test. My PSA was a little elevated. Who sent me to a urologist who did a biopsy at 24 core biopsy, which is quite a bit. And then I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. And so, of course, you once you get over the shock of hearing that big C word, I asked the urologist that, what do we do about it? Well, he said, We can do radioactive seeds, or I can do surgery. And I do both of those. I say, well, he explained to me what was involved and about the operation. And I thought, well keep going, because that doesn't sound like something I want to do. And he explained the radioactive seed and plants and I was really considering that I got online and joined a support group of guys who had been seated and put in all my information. And I got an email from a guy who actually lives in Milwaukee, that he was in Egypt on business at the time. He saw my post and said, you know, this is a great group of guys, but there's another option open to you and it's called proton beam therapy. He told me where to go to check it out. And I did. I went over to Bloomington, Indiana for my treatments. And I was amazing, amazing treatment. I could not believe I was being treated for cancer. I had 44 treatments and took over nine weeks period. I would leave on Monday afternoon go to Bloomington, Indiana, stayed with friends over there, thankfully. And then they treat me as early as they could on Friday. And I'd be home by Friday afternoon. But like I say I just couldn't believe as being treated for cancer. There was no pain, no side effects. I ran four to six miles every day. The treatment I was at the time. I had been doing a Memphis puree run for St. Jude for about 10 years. Wow. And I was committed to that. So I on that Wednesday and Thursday that the run left Memphis I did my six miles in Bloomington, Indiana. They treated me early Friday morning as a good I jumped in my car drove over to Sandoval, Illinois, met the run there my brother in law took my car and I hopped in the motorhome and did the rest of my run all the way into PRN there was just no there was no reason not to. Because I could you know, that's incredible
Keith McKeever
because I know I chemo and radiation some other things just just ravages a body.
Rick Otey
Right? That's yeah, actually mind boggling. While my radiation oncologist I met with him Wednesday nights after my treatment. And the first Wednesday he asked me just a series of question about bathroom functions and stuff. And he said Now this last question is some guys it's great. Some fatigue from the radiation. So what's your energy level? Like? Around six miles afternoon? You checked it off? You said well, I guess you're okay there. Every every week every Wednesday United just got to be a joke with him. Now this last question I got asked me You know, I mean for miles ethnic. And, and so. So yeah, I've been flying the flag and beating the drum for 17 years on this proton thing to to get it into Peoria. I started contacting him probably in 2007. I think, emailing him saying, Man, I really got to get on the map with this thing. And I'm just one individual. But thankfully, Dr. McGee over there in Peoria, he he started about 10 years ago, really, really pushing to get it and, and the sisters over there, OSF. They're the ones that made it happen. It's an amazing, amazing addition to the pure area. And it changed so many lives. And it's just, I just, I could bore you stiff talking about proton.
Keith McKeever
I'm just amazed that it's you. Did you were able to go run because when I think of cancer treatment, because my father passed away from cancer when I was 16. And I remember the chemo and radiation and how would it him? I've known that people have come Answer said I have a treatment that's painless. And you still had the energy and the time to go run. Yeah. Quite frankly almost mind boggling to me. It really is. And
Rick Otey
that's been the frustrating part that no one about it and, and so many doctors that that's been frustrating is it, I find it, people have to find proton. And you don't want to be offered as an option. And when I talk to people, actually, after I finish the podcast here, I've already got a request from a friend to call another friend of his that was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. So I, I've counseled with a lot of people, a lot of men and women, actually, with even breast cancer and about this. And I don't tell him, I don't tell him what to do. That's not my place. It's the patient's place. It's not the doctors place even to tell him, it's the patient to gather all the information, and then make your own decision. I don't tell him, I'm sold on proton beam. But that that was for me. And if they choose it, God bless him if they don't God bless them. And you
Keith McKeever
have to be an advocate for your own medical, your medical care for sure.
Rick Otey
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna answer for any side. Exactly. They are, you know, so it's completely up to them. It's their choice. I don't push into proton beam, I tell them my experience, because I found that no one. Well, the guy from Milwaukee told me but I had to find it. You know, you shouldn't have to find care for cancer. It ought to be all the options ought to be told to a patient, and you make your own decision. And then you you pay for the consequences if there are any hopefully they're not. Yeah. But it's but the What amazes me about proton beam is that it was developed. And it was developed through the Manhattan Project, when they they learned that they could split the atom. And they were developing the atomic bomb to drop on Hiroshima. They learned through that technology. So a technology that was killed 89,000 People in three minutes and Hiroshi them and another 23,000 in Nagasaki. In August in 1945, one of the physicists on that project, Robert R. Wilson, he thought, you know, if we take that proton beam, we speed it up to two thirds the speed of light, which is 477 million miles an hour, we can treat people with cancer. We thanks like that. He did. So a technology that vaporize 1000s of people in minutes, is now treating people with cancer, multiple cancers, breast cancer, people don't hear about proton beam with breast cancer. But because they're because they can control that somehow, they control that thing screaming at you that path, they can deliver it to the tumor, and within a millimeter. So it's the only way with proton beams the only way you can treat with the highest dose of radiation with the least impact on healthy tissue, X ray or photon radio radiation, they can't stop and it goes in and goes out to you. So you have to limit the dose because you're treating you're radiating healthy tissue along with the cancer. And so what what they find is, especially with women with breast cancer, with the left breast with conventional radiation, that it burns the skin, it goes all the way through you. So you're treating with the left side, you're treating the cancers tumor in the breast, you're also treating the heart and you're treating the lungs. With proton beam. You go in, you do the the tumor on the breast and you leave everything alone. I've talked to women that says I had breast cancer and now I'm on medication, the rest of my life are hurt. And I didn't have a heart issue.
Keith McKeever
Yeah, I wouldn't ever thought about that.
Rick Otey
Yeah, yeah, that's interesting.
Keith McKeever
That's why people need to be an advocate for their own care and and it's been a military veteran podcast. I think we all understand that. When you need to attack something, you come up with every possible player. Yeah, you know, don't leave any stone unturned. What can you do to attack this as effectively and efficiently and as quickly and as violently as possible? So we deal
Rick Otey
with cancer, you got to kill it.
Keith McKeever
You got to fight you Uh, yeah, absolutely. I suspect that going through all of this has probably shaped a little bit of quite a bit of who you are. So I've known you for a long time you do a lot of different things. You went on your first Honor Flight to share. You've been volunteering for honor flight for a while you and your wife do a very special project for the Honor Flight. You go into the local school and welcome the kids. I think it was every Thursday. Yeah. What am I missing? There's something Oh, yeah. You dress as President Abraham Lincoln. And you go around and tell people about Lincoln and give speeches and proclamations and you are an app's you are like a celebrity at her Honor Flight events anywhere I've seen. People absolutely love it. I have a funny feeling that going through cancer in your previous things in life has shaped like who you are and serving your community wouldn't be a pretty correct assessment.
Rick Otey
Yeah, well, yeah, it is. My my faith, my faith in God is is is key to me. It's who I am. You might be seeing me on screen there. But it my faith in God is what gets me through the difficult times. My wife and I lost a 21 year old son, or almost 21 years was 21 years ago, he was almost 22. He battled depression. And he died. April 27 2001. Of course, that was a difficult time for all of us still is. I've told people many times if it wasn't for God in my life, I'd be curled up in the fetal position in the corner. And so that, that, that experience was the worst of our lives. So I thought since then everything else is downhill. I can encounter anything. Cancer came along with that. We're gonna get through it, because we got through 2001. So my faith is very important to me. I don't want to preach it or anything, but I want that to be known that that's why I am who I am. It's not me. I'd be curled up in the fetal position some. But yeah, he's opened up the door for Lincoln. I I've got a nice, Erica daring. She teaches first grade at Woodrow Wilson School of East Peoria. She called me up in December of 2016. Said, Hey, Uncle Rick, have you ever thought about playing Abraham Lincoln?
Keith McKeever
I got the height, right.
Rick Otey
I've got the height and the weight. So I told her so you know, it's one of those I thought about it. They never said anything to anybody about it. She's a work you want to say my kids just enjoy it. So. So I started in 2017 going to schools and I had some pretty significant health issues all through 2017. And that kind of kept me from some of that. But yeah, I started doing Lincoln, officially in January of 2017. And, and have enjoy it. Like you said, I've done every Honor Flight since September of 2018. I started first Honor Flight as Lincoln I enjoy going out to the welcome homes and I call Rick in the crowd I've I've got some different things I do with the kids, I got my little special, you can see it. Let's get it in there. Special Bicentennial pennies I get right from the mint. So I'm the only one that's touching them. I take them out there and show them to the kids and say if you want it, I put it in their hand and fold it over. I said now it's extra special because you and I are the only two people in the whole wide world. It's such that coin. And it's like a million dollars to him or something that I had a grandmother telling me just about a month ago, she said you gave one of those to my grandson at Oakdale home come around Fourth of July parade. And last he won't let anybody touch that. In fact, last week, he asked my husband, his grandpa, could you put this into safe so nobody will touch it? It really means something to him, you know? And I gave him a little, little picture of me. I have fun with this. Because oftentimes the kid will come up and say, Hey, can we can we take your picture I reach in my pocket and pull this out. I said, Well, you don't have to take it out. I'll give it to you. And they look puzzled. Like, I don't know what that means, you know. And so I recently I just got of course I gave him give him a little, a little United States flag and a little sticker kids like stickers, and I just got these nifty little things. If you See if I can get it in there. It's a little folded over and it kind of becomes like a crown. Oh, that's some different facts on on the front. So I'm going to start giving those added Honor Flights in April or whenever the next one is. So yeah, so I enjoy doing that I walk in parades. I don't take myself too seriously. It is a funny thing. There's a same gentleman at the welcome home that every honor flight, he always offers me two tickets to Ford's the air. And I kind of like is that all you got? And I finally I finally the last to honor flights. He's been at all four. But the last two, I tell him, you know, one of the things I most appreciated as being president, I didn't need a ticket to get into theater. So you can keep those in your pocket. And all but yeah, you Yeah, so I enjoy going to schools, parades, festivals, that sort of thing.
Keith McKeever
I really passionate for Lincoln before that.
Rick Otey
I really didn't know not Not particularly.
Keith McKeever
It's just general knowledge we have as being
Rick Otey
no different than anybody else I could. I could hold my own pretty good and trivia contest today. But then I was just like everybody else. But yeah, I went on to June second Honor Flight. Phyllis. Perino is one of the leaders of Honor Flight, she had asked me several times to go out as Lincoln and I kept putting her off. And I told her, I said, I just I enjoy that welcome home. I don't want to give that up. And she said, even if it meant that I never go on my own bedroom, you know? And she said, Well, I'll tell you what she said. You go on a June flight, we'll make sure that you're the first one off the plane when we land in pure. And you can you can do your thing with the crowd while we're getting the rest of the veteran veterans often. So I did. I went out on the June 2 flight. My granddaughter, Christina went with me as my guardian. And that was wonderful. And so I made a day of it. It was very tiring, because I felt like I needed to be on all day. You know, I needed to be him. It was it was really
Keith McKeever
tiring. Yeah, a little bit more to do than to the average veteran. They go.
Rick Otey
Yeah. So I, when we got to Lincoln Memorial, Phyllis asked me today, I want to go over and do a Facebook Live video right away of you walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on. And then she said, I know you're in Vietnam. So then I went this, she was very nice. She wanted to make sure I want you to feel like you had your veteran on a flight to not just Lincoln. And so we ended she said, you can go to Vietnam War. So we started walking away from us. And she stopped turning around said hold on a second turned around. And she pointed to two men who were volunteers on the Honor Flight and said, I want you to come along with this to provide security. And then I was not sure I wanted to go over there to like the memorial because I don't know what she was talking about.
Keith McKeever
So what do you need to hear you there for? Yeah, so
Rick Otey
on the video, you can't see them, but they're bright behind me walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. And it was just awesome. It seemed like the further I got up, the more people just there's presently there's Abraham Lincoln when there is you know, and I and I walked up she wanted me to just go up and stand in front of the statue and just kind of ponder what he might be thinking, seeing that statue and and you can see on the video, just people what in the world this guy, you know, and it's experience. I'll never, never forget. There was one gentleman from Australia, I think it was and he actually he actually bowed before me. Wow. Wow. It was it was so neat. Just to see that after 157 years, people still this they live, they literally love the man. And that see so so that it gives me hope for our country. You know,
Keith McKeever
that's pretty cool. I I was I was on that flight with you. Yeah, I have no idea where I had ended up as volunteer staff at that point in time. But
Rick Otey
you know, you never know what your your best captain actually yeah.
Keith McKeever
You never know where you're going to end what you're going to see at because I've seen little bands, concerts, people just playing music on their own cell and Gatorade school groups like you know, so I think people that go there they expect to see this big beautiful building the instructions and kind of have this what I say like this power or aura of being a memorial, right. But the last thing you ever expect is somebody walking up the steps. It looks like
Rick Otey
a friend of mine after that flight. He wasn't on the flight. But a friend of mine who travels a lot. He said, I'm in and out of Washington DC all the time. It's I've done it for years, I've been to Lincoln Memorial dozens of times. He said, I have never seen Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. It was pretty cool. And, and Phyllis was true to her word. And we got back, Christina and I were one of the first ones off the flight. I was able to go visit with the people, the crowd. And what I really enjoyed doing, and I've done it since September of 18. I've, I've shaken hands with every veteran on every flight since 2018. And I really enjoy doing that greeting the vets when they come back into the terminal. I often have that say, Hey, I just saw your memorial out there. It was awesome. You know, or, or I just saw you out in DC. And I said, Well, I took an earlier flight or something like that. And, and I put a in each mailbag. I put a little card from Lincoln in there, and and oftentimes say, Hey, I got your card, you know, and so that's good. That they get that so I it's really a highlight of my life. All they absolutely
Keith McKeever
love that Mail Call. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a special task that you and your wife do for are a huge. nobody's supposed to know about that. So yes. Yeah, I will say anything.
Rick Otey
I am still amazed that there are people that are surprised they're totally shocked. I'm thinking after all this stuff you got now, you know,
Keith McKeever
I think I've been helping since 25th 2014 2015. I don't know. It's been quite a while it's been over yet. I think it's been 22 flights that I've helped with in the past year, another year. And yeah, it is still amazing. Like, after all the press after all the stories, after all these guys who have, you know, all their battle buddies and the guys that they go to lunch with or whatever. And they're still surprised. Oh,
Rick Otey
surprise. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. So yeah, Marianne really enjoys it. She she still we I think I think April flight, she processed about 2600 cards. And about 2500 or so for the, for the June flight. September was about the same. The October flight for whatever reason seems a little bit under that are quite a bit of new that actually. So that's got to be addressed somehow there's some problem there.
Keith McKeever
Yeah. Put that on the guardians that go with the veterans. Yeah. So you know, there's, there's a lot of you just got to have that one person, that's just gung ho about it. And maybe you just get people who don't have a lot of family or connections. So
Rick Otey
even that though, I mean, the guardian can do their thing. And they can only do so much. You know, it is up to the friends and family to follow through and, and so, but yeah, it's Yeah, our our, our house here is looking like a post office with a lot of mail coming in. But it's a it's really I've Marianne is the she's the mover and shaker on it. I like anything. Any, any. Any spouse. One takes on something the other. The other one is part of it too.
Keith McKeever
For the free labor. Yeah, Richard stuff. That's right.
Rick Otey
I really enjoy. I really enjoy seeing that mailbox. So full. Because it this really encourages me as a veterans like, Okay, we are still and most of them now on the flights are Vietnam vets. So I think, man, so awesome to see that the mailboxes fell back on the it was a September flight. She opened up the mailbox and it was crammed full. We take two bags to get the mail. And there was a key in there with instructions to go to another box and open it up a much bigger box. And there were probably there could have been a dozen large manila envelopes from school and that sort of thing. So it does something to me personally, just to see the support that the veterans are getting in and especially now that we're more into Vietnam vets. So it's been a plus for me, I really enjoy it. Yeah, we got mailbag land all over the place the week before the flight but that's that's awesome.
Keith McKeever
It's a key part of what we do it and it is nice, especially for the Vietnam vets because because every generation and gets a little something different because we've been lucky enough that we took two World War Two veterans this year. Yes. Which was phenomenal because I can tell you absolutely So, after lash are are like coming into this year it was like with the with the pandemic. Yeah, we're not getting that many before the pandemic, right. We I think we all kind of thought as an organization. There's no way we're gonna find any World War Two veterans and we found two. Yeah, yeah. The gentleman that went in October was 9999. And we were blessing when he did the he was part of the wreath laying ceremony, which was amazing. I mean, he was just he was grinning ear to ear. Oh, yeah.
Rick Otey
Yeah. And on June 2 flight. I'm glad you mentioned that because it reminded me not that I forgotten by any means. But as Lincoln dresses, Lincoln and we had a world war two vet from Hopedale van Mauer there. And he was 98 on June 2 was his birthday. And so I was honored to be able to work up and laminate and read a birthday proclamation to a world war two vet at the World War Two Memorial as Lincoln. And that's that was awesome.
Keith McKeever
No, absolutely.
Rick Otey
That was really cool.
Keith McKeever
That was probably the highlight of his day. I'm guessing. You've been there. Your day? Yeah. For you, what was your What was your highlight of the trip?
Rick Otey
Well, obviously having my granddaughter along, I have six grandkids and six granddaughters and coming seven grandkids, six granddaughters and one grandson. And Christina was 18. there and she was that was probably the highlight just being there with her. I felt a little bit bad for her that I was kind of I kind of feel like I was so busy being trying to be a Lincoln that maybe that wasn't significant grandpa, but she she enjoyed it. I do think probably that one of the key highlights definitely was walking up the steps in the Lincoln Memorial and then presenting that birthday proclamation to a world war two vet after World War Two Memorial as Lincoln on his 98th birthday. And it was it was just just awesome. I was worn out though. The day is pretty tiring.
Keith McKeever
Absolutely.
Rick Otey
I'm glad I went on that. So. And I did feel like actually, I welcomed each veteran back into the terminal there at the June 2 flight. And Christina was right there behind me. And we had it all figured out that once I greeted the last veteran, I take my coat off quick and the top hat and equipment t shirt on over my white shirt and put my bald cap on and walk down the ramp and I got my welcome home. So I was I was thrilled with that. Awesome.
Keith McKeever
Yeah, it's awesome. And I'm sure your granddaughter got way more out of it than you ever expect. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She she had to have an absolutely just thrilled and honored to be the one to be able to go with you to witness that.
Rick Otey
He was he was I before. A couple of weeks before the flight I went and had a special little heart necklace made up to her for her. Think I had on the front of it to Christina from grandpa. And on the back. I had June 2 2000 A 2020 Tomb Raider periodic flight on the back, presented that to her at the pre flight and I think is where I gave it to her. She was thrilled. So good. Yeah, she enjoyed flight. Yeah, she enjoyed everything. That is awesome. She hadn't flown since he was probably well, she wouldn't remember that she was a little baby. And last time she flew. So when she realized we were going to be flying she asked me so we hold my hand when we take off. Do whatever you need me to do.
Keith McKeever
I know that nervousness because in September, there was a last minute opening and Phyllis had contacted me and said, Hey, we it was a parent who dropped off his wife. And so she's like was your oldest like to go because I've been bringing him to the preflight dinner setups and different volunteering things. Yeah. And I was like, I'm sure he would have no problem with missing a day of school. This teacher is teachers like well, I took my grandfather a couple of years ago. Absolutely. Like none of his assignments do today. You're going to be great. Like he determined later this week. Like go enjoy. He needs to learn. Yeah, so I got to go with my son. I remember. Extra helper. Oh, he Oh, that poor Can I tell you what, he fell asleep? I'll pull it up to the brain core. Iwo Jima memorial so I will say you still got more work to do. To sleep asleep. I've got more work to do to pull the water bottles out. You got to pass the water bottles out. He goes out he sits down next to the cooler and passes out with his head on the cooler. Oh no. Other veterans are coming off and they're just they're all laughing them in the garden. This kid has just been working his butt off. Just leaving the workforce. Yeah. Oh
Rick Otey
yeah. He's worked his tail off.
Keith McKeever
He bounced back a little bit, but he was nervous as heck to fly to he had never flown before. Yeah, so he's sitting here in the chairs. Yeah, across the aisle from each other. And he's looking at me sideways like, Yeah, this is gonna be painful. Just gonna be scared.
Rick Otey
Yeah, it's fun. Being along. It was awesome. Yep.
Keith McKeever
Absolutely. Yeah. Well, it's good to for kids to have some of that experience or young adults like your granddaughter and see thing. That's nothing I want to talk about as you go into another thing you do in the community, which is what I wanted this thing to be like. There's different ways people can serve their community can be through an organization or can just be showing up for people but you and other veterans in your town. Show up wasn't once a week. We do every Yeah,
Rick Otey
every Thursday morning. We've got 17 vets on our list. any given week, we'll have a dozen to Kendra 12 on our list. We go this is our sixth year doing it. Becky Hanson is the principal treatment and she's allowed us to do this for our six year it's a simple little thing. We just go and we fist bump the kids as they come off the bus or the icon the street kids, kids that are dropped off by their parents on the on the north side of school. And we just fist bump the kids we should have a good day and and I've had teachers tell me it's it's just most favorite day of the week for them. We had a little we had a mother dropped off at kindergarten girl I think it was about three years ago, maybe four. And she kissed her. Goodbye and the little girl goes into the school and the mother started walking back down the sidewalk and she came back she got about halfway down the block. He came back and she said I can't leave that town. You guys. My daughter jumps out of bed on Thursday mornings and says Thursday that you're going to be there. And so with most of us being Vietnam, Vietnam vets or Vietnam era vets that is huge. And and we love it. The kids love it. We've heard kids say they just brighten my the vets just brighten my day. They make my heart feel so good. and stuff. So and we do you mentioned World War Two vets we have Jean Neely is World War Two vet. There'll be 98 on November 28. I think it is. And he makes most of them. If it's a little too chilly out or if he feels a little sniffle or runny nose or something. He won't come he'll stay in. Kids love seeing him teachers love seeing him. And
Keith McKeever
if he's like a town celebrity, we should fill everybody in on that. So you're talking about gene Neely this guy like you say world war two veteran. He's been helping with Honor Flight longer than I have. This guy sells more fundraising tickets in the spring for whatever fundraisers than anybody. Yeah, I mean, anybody he'll he'll have 150 of them sold before we even get to bookless. I mean, he just picks up the phone and makes phone calls. He calls me every now and then just to check in how I'm doing. He's got his little goofy grin in his little thumbs up. We've got stairs made for it. He sits at the top of the ramp for every welcome home. He shakes everybody's hand. His purpose on that? That because he, he's, he's our celebrity. But his purpose is He's working. He's volunteering. He won't let anybody tell him anything different. His job. His job for that day is to sit in that chair and slow down the pace. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's very proud of that.
Rick Otey
He's very, he's very good at it, too. he'll, he'll hold up the stop sign or he'll just gotta get going. Absolutely.
Keith McKeever
He's an inspiration to me for disturbing other people. Because I heard him at a meeting once. This was many years ago, it was a group of us on our flight volunteers and just kind of have a planning meeting. And something was said to Jean just stands up and he kind of pounds the table and he says, You know what? I know I'm older than all of you. You're trying to treat me like a celebrity. But I want you to know, I am a volunteer just like every one of you. And I don't want to treat it any differently.
Rick Otey
Yeah, yeah. And
Keith McKeever
just the humbleness of like, look, I'm nobody's here to do what I can.
Rick Otey
Yeah, yeah. And he and he, you can tell he really values I hear who call me up usually on Wednesday night and say, Hey, can you give me a wake up call in the morning I call it about 630. And he kind of decides whether he thinks he's gonna go or not. He knows that he's still driving. So he normally drives himself over to the school. And of course, any kind of thing that you agree. Kids is veterans and all after it's over, somebody says, maybe we want to go out to Jack's for breakfast. So, so we go out to Jack's, on the east side of tree mount here, every every Thursday morning for breakfast, for about an hour. We have a, we have a fallen soldier ceremony every Thursday. It's not, it's not a formal one. We have. We have six veterans from Fremont, who died in uniform. And so on those specific dates or close the Thursday closest to that date, we do have a formal ceremony with a white tablecloth and Rose, candle and the inverted glass and everything. And we have a more formal and then but every every week, we always set a place at the end of the table napkin. So we're laid out and then we, before our food comes, we all stand face to chair. And we raised our coffee cups or orange juice glasses, whatever you got, and just to the ball and you'll never be forgotten. And we, we have that. And it's it's it's important for us to do and, and so like I say we the formal ones, we invite any family members that are still around. Our next one will be November we've got a bob vital. He was listed as missing an action these plane went down over Laos. In November 7 Day one. He'll be our next one. And then Daniel Baker will be early December. He was a Marine. He was one of the five Marines killed in 2018. December 6, I think it was up the coast of Japan with a C 130. Yeah, Daniel, Daniel was on that flight. So we, the last week, last December, we had one for Daniel and, and his father Dwayne was there. And he couldn't stay because he was still working. So but he was you could tell he is very appreciative of what we did. He went around, hugged everybody. And of course, there were tears all around, you know, because we knew we knew Daniel and there was a big a big ceremony and all. Daniels. Daniels funeral, never recovered his body. But he's there's we honored him well. So. So do
Keith McKeever
people. Keep those memories? Always alive and not let that stuff pass to history?
Rick Otey
Absolutely. Well, if, you know, we don't continue to do it. I mean, it's we don't want those things to pass away. You know, it's important for our country. And I think, especially in, in our world, country we're dealing with today all this stuff. It's, it's to me, it's we better, we better, be patriotic, we better continue because to me, it's obvious. There's a faction in our country and no political at all. But I'm not sure it is political. I believe there's a faction in this country that would like nothing more than to see our democracy and our republic. Fail. And it's
Keith McKeever
probably one of the people out there like that. Yeah.
Rick Otey
And I think it's going to be it's going to be who've us to, to continue to be patriotic, fly the flag. And, yeah,
Keith McKeever
we can. We can all agree it in our country might have some problems, but it is amazing. And of opportunity. And there's more positives than negatives that we have to follow.
Rick Otey
And there's there's way more positives than negatives is what gets the news, like anything, I guess. But yeah, it's up to us.
Keith McKeever
Absolutely. Awesome. I tell all the guys, you know, because I do the Guardian training slides and all that stuff and gardens come to their packets every now and then we'll have a veteran that will come with their guardian or the veteran will come by themselves. Yeah. So I'll flip through and get the packet with the information for them. And I'll make small talk and if I realized that veterans they're part of it is an interview for you know, the Guardian has that conversation with the veteran. There's a veteran there. I'm like, hey, look, one veteran to another. It is super, super, super important for you to open up As much as you can and share this, your garden, especially if family, right, it was stories now, my grandfather was in World War Two. He didn't talk to anybody about his service. He had a battle buddy would come, according to my uncle would come, like once or twice a year, they'd go walk out on the farm, they'd walk for a couple of hours, they come back crying. That was his only way of processing and kind of, he never told stories to my dad or my uncle. My other grandfather served in Alaska, between 46 and 50. Radar towers, nothing. I mean, compared to my other grandfather fighting in World War Two, there was Yeah, super significant, but he still never, never felt like anything was significant enough to talk about, right. What side is like it is significant. It is that post war or the Cold War, all these different things. He was in Alaska, traipsing around and knee high snow and building buildings for radar. You know, like before? That was huge parts of the Cold War.
Rick Otey
Work. Yeah, yeah.
Keith McKeever
Everybody needs to be told.
Rick Otey
Yeah, yeah. And I think a lot of it is that generation. They just, they came back home and they just went back to work. You know, they went to work that World War Two, my dad was, was in the Navy and World War Two, he was aboard that he was aboard the USS Hornet. When Jimmy Doolittle and the Raiders left the deck with 16 B 20. Fives. And they all knew if it was if they got off the deck, there was no way they were going to come back and land. And you could tell he was very proud of that. That he was on the ship that day. And of course, the ship was something he was in the water. For I'm not sure how long but he didn't talk a whole lot about that. But you can tell he was very proud that he was on the ship that day. Jimmy Doolittle that was an infamous ship.
Keith McKeever
Crazy to honor realize like these guys are going to take off on this crazy wild Haymaker of, of a mission. Right that if it's successful is going to have an impact.
Rick Otey
Yes, yeah. And they were pretty confident they could get off the debt. But they knew for a fact that they weren't coming back. They weren't gonna land on that. They couldn't land again. So it's quite a that's a whole story in itself.
Keith McKeever
At least some documentaries out there. Somebody's not familiar. They definitely go check it out. Oh,
Rick Otey
yeah. Yeah. After story. She's crazy. Absolutely. Yeah.
Keith McKeever
You take something that can't can't can't take off or land on that short of a runway and make it happen.
Rick Otey
Yeah, well, and you know, it speaks to me it speaks a lot about leadership because Doolittle, this was the first plane to leave. He flew it off. He was the first plane to leave that, that that and me That's leadership. You're not afraid. Okay, boys. I'll show you how it's done that you follow me behind? They did?
Keith McKeever
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So, Rick, I appreciate you. Okay, well, podcast is sharing part of your story and sharing a little bit of what you do in the community, because I think some people sometimes just need to be connected back to our military veteran community in one way. Do some things that maybe somebody else can can say, You know what, maybe I can find a group to go have breakfast with or go to a school? Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Helping Honor Flight or VFW?
Rick Otey
Yeah, so we've had we've had some news crews come over to the grade school and covered our, our fist bumping and on. And anytime I have opportunity to speak to the news crew, I tell them. I'd like for I'd like for other veteran veterans to see this and go go talk to their school administrator say, Hey, we're just because we're just a bunch of knuckleheads that go over there and fist bump the kids is it's not rocket science. And so what I'd really like to see is other veterans and ever every town go to their grade school fist bump talk to administrators make sure it's okay COVID made it a little bit of a challenge. We ended up fist bump and kids through windshields side windows when we could still get out and then there was a lockdown. We didn't think that was good. A good example to the kids so we did stop for about three months. We couldn't do it. But anyway, well, I've enjoyed Oh, hope I haven't overstayed my welcome here. I've enjoyed
Keith McKeever
the kids cuz like you said, the one little girl like just woke up ready to go to school. There's a lot of kids that don't wake up every every day or even once a week and be excited to go to school. So if they're, if they're excited to learn, and they're happy in the morning, they're probably Gonna be better and more receptive to learning?
Rick Otey
Yeah. Yeah. Well, Mrs. Hanson, the principal, she's, she's told me, you know, treatments a small little town, but it's not that much different than other it has issues it has. It has families that have are in crisis. And you know, and she's told me, she said, you know, that fist bump and that smile on that. Good morning. It's the highlight of that kids. We know, she can't tell us particulars, which is fine. But we know there are kids that come by us that that's their bright point in the week for for that, so that we don't need to know who they are
Keith McKeever
making an impact.
Rick Otey
We're just know we're making an impact. So my encouragement, especially to other veterans would be go your school administrator talk to him, say, hey, what would you think of just once a week or once a month, even? You know, that's what I'd really like to see. We're in our sixth year. And I'd like to see other veterans groups in towns of different sizes. It it's it's a simple thing to do, you know, and then you go out for breakfast.
Keith McKeever
Besides the school, the kids probably on and off the bus and about 2030 minutes.
Rick Otey
Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't take long for kids to drop off the bus. And but we're always we've got we've got signs we've had made up the preschool there, Fremont, preschool and anthem signs made from, you know, kids that made signs. So we have those out every week, we fly each of the military flags on a little bench every week. So the kids said, Well, of course, we'll be starting nets for vets here soon. fundraiser for honor flight, that'll be starting in early November, I believe. So try to impact the kids as much as we can. We were putting together a little flag retirement instructional thing for the kids. So they'll know the proper way to retire flag and as upset as people get as people burning a flag. That's the proper way to retire flag. seems ironic in a way, but so we're gonna have like a little instructional thing we've got. We've probably got 25 flags that need to be retired. And so we're going to try to put together a little educational thing for the kids. So they know what the proper way is. There's a regular ceremony for it. And we're going to have that. So looking forward to different things as kids, we we do a toy drive as it gets closer to Christmas, we have kids drop off toys, we get baskets out on the sidewalk and Mrs. Hanson usually knows of a family or two or three or more in three months that need a little assistance to help Christmas time and what's left over. We take to the marine Toys for Tots. So we we get rid of a lot of toys that way. We don't keep any for ourselves. No. Yeah,
Keith McKeever
we don't play with Legos or Lincoln.
Rick Otey
I'm beyond that. I've grown up and my wife may tell you differently. That's probably all. Yeah.
Keith McKeever
So awesome. Record. Once again, I appreciate you being
Rick Otey
All right. Thanks. Thanks, Keith. Appreciate very much.
Keith McKeever
All right, there you go. Hope you enjoyed it and found some inspiration in some ways and maybe you can take back to your community and serve your community. Wherever you go check out my website battle buddy podcast.net for information and resources on a variety of topics. Like I always say if something's not there, and you think it should be reached out, let me know. And if you're struggling today, remember the national suicide hotline number is 988 Press one
