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Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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054: Combining forces with great charities for veterans and military families with Michael W. Blankers and Chad Lennon

Retired Navy Veteran Michael W. Blankers and Major in Marine Corps Chad Lennon are part of the Board of Directors for the Bob Feller Act of Valor Foundation. They talk about their new education tuition assistance program for all qualified students of military families, veterans and service personnel seeking post secondary education. They also mention their annual event for veteran suicide awareness Walk 4 Valor, and other organizations they support such as the Semper Fi Fund, Suicide Awareness and Remembrance Flag, and Project 9 Line.

Connect with Michael W. Blankers at https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-w-blankers/ and Chad Lennon https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-lennon-b49860a1/

Learn more about the Bob Feller Act of Valor at https://actofvaloraward.org/ and the Suicide Awareness and Remembrance Flag at https://www.sarflag.com/

Additional organizations mentioned are the Semper Fi Fund https://semperfifund.org/ and Project 9 Line https://www.project9line.org/

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Jen Amos 0:00

Welcome to holding down the fort, a podcast show dedicated to curating knowledge, resources and relevant stories for today's military spouses so they can continue to make confident and informed decisions for themselves and their families. Because let's face it, we know who's really holding down the fort. I'm Jen a Moe's, a gold star, daughter, veteran spouse and your host for holding down the fort by us that wealth. Let's get started.

All right. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of holding down the fort podcast. I'm your co host, Jenn emos. And now with me and season three of holding down the fort. I have my co host with me, Jenny Lynch troupe. Jennylyn Welcome back.

Unknown Speaker 0:50

Great. Thanks so much. Glad to be here.

Jen Amos 0:52

Yes. And we're really excited because we get to chat with some veterans today, actually. And so we have Michael blinkers, or Mike for sure. A retired Navy veteran, and Chad Lennon was a major in the Marine Corps. So Mike and Chad, welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker 1:08

Thanks for having us.

Unknown Speaker 1:09

Yeah. Thanks, Jen. Appreciate you having us on.

Jen Amos 1:12

Yeah, for sure. You know, so a little background this show in case you're hearing it for the first time. The show primarily focuses on providing education, resources and stories for our military spouses and families. And part of the resources we like to provide our veteran related resources. And so just real briefly, Mike, why don't you share a little bit about what you do and what we're going to talk about today?

Speaker 1 1:36

Jen Amos 6:20

Yeah, absolutely. Before we jump over here to chat, I just want to thank you for giving us a brief history about the foundation and really elaborate on what you do there. And what you're doing today. You know what the scholarships so thank you so much for doing that. I feel like I don't even have a lot of questions to elaborate on that because you were so concise. Alright, so let me go ahead and go over to Chad Lennon over here. Chad, why don't you tell us a little briefly, your involvement with the Bob Feller Act of Valor Foundation, and a little bit about this walk for valor event coming up are actually sorry, at the time of this recording, I want to mention that the event has already passed. But I understand it's an annual event. And so Chad, do you want to talk a little bit about the walk for valor event?

Speaker 2 6:59

Thank you. So I'm involved with the Bob Miller Act of Valor award foundation as well, one of the members on the board of directors, and I'm also the chair for the military and veterans relationship committee. And I was involved last year with the foundation as an advisor, I was just learning about it. And I did a chain poll. I've tried a foreign power chain for one mile. So the world record of that and did that to raise money for one charity. And it all came from David Goggins. And the book he wrote, can't hurt me, I got the audio version. And I heard about his story. And it didn't motivate me, it made me found a purpose. And that's to go do something for veterans, brothers and sisters out there that are hurting someone, mentally, physically, financially, whatever the situation is. So I found a great charity. And I went out and did a chain poll, I joined the ball fell at the ballot war Foundation. And this year, I was like, I'm gonna pull a 600 pound chain. But fortunately, I had a daughter in February. And I said, you know, I just not going to have the time to train like, I need to pull that chain. So I would just outgoing for a while just thinking what can I do this summer to really push myself challenged myself, and try to do something good and raise more money for these charities for that or base for veterans and military. And I said, You know what, maybe I can just walk Long Island and away. And I'm involved with the veteran suicide awareness. Remember this flag corporation with a barbell Act of Valor Foundation, as well as the Semper Fi funds. And I said, You know what, I can just take the American flag, sar flag, put on 22 pounds. And I'll just walk. And you know what 25 A is a major road from Queens of Suffolk County, it takes place pretty much right where Manhattan ends and queens starts, and I can just go as far as the roads, it's all out. It's all allowed. And I'll just go and, you know, maybe I can raise some money and some awareness for these charities for the veteran suicide rate, which is now known as 22 a day. It started at just over 20. It's down which is good, but we won't be satisfied to that number is zero. Talk to my wife about it. We drove 25 A and there was a major expressway part of it. So the guard, I got to shorten it up. And then I brought it to the attention of the board or the meeting that we have with Bob Feller after valor award Foundation. And we just started rolling in originally it just was me going out there walking with some flags. What, what? 22 pounds, if I can raise the money, raise awareness, that'd be great. And it's morphed into something so much more than I ever expected. We talk about Bob Feller in baseball. In fact, Mike Trout just retweeted us a couple of days ago. Him and his wife started a suicide awareness charity, and they retweeted what we're doing, which is amazing. I have the National Director of merging vets and players JC Glick, who's a retired Army Ranger, he's going to be hiking with me. My wife's gonna go the entire 66 miles with me. And right now there's 12 hikers doing the entire height. We have 16 checkpoints. Anyone who's able to join us I know a bunch of folks right now plan to join us at different checkpoints for part of the hike. Some of the Marines from First Marine Corps recruiting district will be out there, some of the foods will be out there, there may be some from the Recruiting Command. And just friends and family, those who are involved in the military in some way, are going to be out there helping us out going any distance. And I've told everyone, I'll carry anything for one mile, just please make a donation because this is a great cause. There's five great charities, Bob Feller at the valor Foundation, semper fi fund, veterans suicide awareness, remembrance flag, Project Nightline, and merging vets and players. And together, you know, everyone's got a different mission. There's all different mission sets. But if boils down to helping veterans, right now, the epidemic is Veterans suicide. And I would venture to say that every veteran, every service member out there, either know someone that is taking their own life, or the tempted to take their own life, this is a major major issue going on. A lot of it can be traced back to PTSD and TBI, which is the major injuries at the current wars we're in. And we're not even at the end of it yet. We're coming up on 20 years since 911. And we're going to have military members retiring and all their career has been war. So it's a combination of family, friends, these programs that are out there to be there for everyone to be there for anyone who's getting out. Whether you've done for years, or 20 plus years, transitioning out of the military is a major mind scramble, because you spend years where here's my lane, I have to stay in my lane, and I got to make sure everyone is in their own lane, you got to the civilian world, and everyone's in each other's lanes, you don't know what's going on, the chain of command that you're used to is report to one person, it's not like that in the corporate world. So it's very difficult. And add in anything else that may be going on, besides just a transition is becomes very difficult. So going back to the walk, this is what it is. It's the our brand awareness. This is what's going on out in our community. And there's some great charities out there, we're combining forces. And I think that's the major step to is we've gone from a point of, we need more resources out there for veterans and military families, to the point of there are a ton of resources out there. But I have a veteran or military service member that comes to me may have multiple issues. Now we can combine and understand here's where to go. These are folks that we work with is an organization that we know that can help you with that other issue we do want to shoot, they can do another one for you. So at least we can all work together. And again, it's a community. I tell folks all the time, no one does it on their own James Bond doesn't do it on his own. He's had the British government helping them out. So even your fictional characters, no one's doing it alone. We all have to be together work as a team. And the PTSD issue has been around forever. You put a call that Shellshock, battle fatigue, whatever it is, it boils down to the same thing, just different nomenclature. And we're at a point today where we understand it more still new. I think the DSM for when the DSM five for diagnosing psychological issues just recognize PTSD recently. That's how new it is. So we're still learning, we're still breaking through in a way to release the stigma of PTSD, and just being able to go out there and talk about these things going on. Because, you know, military, we're trained to go out and do the adverse of human nature. And that's to go out and kill, we want to warn us of battles. That's not what the civilian world does. So to come back, it's all a lot of training to go through, I think we all need to do a better job of training ourselves back into civilian life once we get out. So again, these foundations whose businesses or charities that are out there, and really do a lot of good and I would implore anyone out there listening who is a veteran or service member or spouse, family friend, if there's something that seems just even out of line a little bit, just go and talk to him, bring him out these resources. There's a bunch of places that you can just go and hang out with veterans and play softball together, whatever the case is, it's we're out there to help each other. So yeah, I always say if someone needs help, just reach out to me.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much, Chad, for sharing all of that. I feel like I have a couple of responses. First of all, congrats on having a daughter mentioned early on there. And yeah, for everything that you're doing. You know, we were talking offline before we started this recording. And I was just sharing that. I'm actually a gold star daughter. I had lost my dad when he was about 18 years. In the US Navy. His last ship was the USS Kitty Hawk. And he had disappeared. His death certificate says that his death is unknown, and that he may have supposedly drowned. And we don't know much of a story since However, my sister who was only five years old at the time, you know, fast forward to life today. She started asking me and asking her family, who dad was and what he was like and wanted to understand more about how he happened to disappear. And in that process, and that journey of interviewing our family members and even his best friend, the last person that saw him before he disappeared. We are gathering that my dad may have struggled With depression and suicidal thoughts so much that we did find out he had attempted in the past, and you know, with his disappearance, we're, you know, speculating that it could have been the same situation. And I can only imagine what it was like to serve in the 80s and the 90s. And so, you know, being able to hear the work that you know, you two are doing, and all these organizations are doing really just fills my heart, you know, to know that we are normalizing these conversations and that, you know, our service members, our veterans, and our families need these resources and need this help. And I think the number one thing that I appreciate about what you're doing is ultimately creating a sense of community, you know, saying like, post military life, you know, saying that, you're not alone, you know, that we're here for you like, at the very least, if you could just have a friend that understands, you know, like, if we could be that friend for you, then so be it. And so, I just want to thank you, Chad, for really delving into your involvement with the walk for valor and with the foundation and being willing to carry some weights, which I would not do, so you must be very fit. I want to check in with genuine for a second here, Jenny, Lana, is there anything you wanted to add to the conversation that you

saw the head nodding?

I always do. That's how I know.

I mean, we are I am part of an active duty military family. And unfortunately, it's not just veterans that are part of the 22 days. I mean, there are a considerable amount of active duty folks to in my professional profession, I work in mental health. So you were totally speaking my language. That's what all the nodding was about. I mean, I see this on a daily basis. And that's why I got into doing what I do with mental health, because it is such a big deal. And the need for that community to come around people who have served in our serving is so important.

And you're right on its military, active duty reservists, its veterans, it knows no gender and knows no rank and knows no branch. There are, I believe, as an Air Force General, took his own life a few years ago, there was a commander of a special operations unit that took his own life a couple of years ago. They're private to general, it doesn't matter. Everybody's afflicted with it. Active duty reservists better, it doesn't matter. Everyone's afflicted with it. There's unfortunately, a friend of mine for the Semper Fi fund. And his buddies as a staff sergeant in the Marine Corps took his own life a couple of weeks ago, this is just possibly going on. And I believe it's even more difficult after duty to because you have your career to worry about, am I going to be told I can't deploy? That's huge, because there's a lot of survivor's guilt that goes on, you know, someone who's single is either buddy who's married, possibly with kids be killed in action. That could be why wasn't it me, or, you know, I'll go on this mission, you know, I can't make this mission, whatever the case is, and something happens that can be survivors. That's huge. And it's been portrayed in some movies out there, obviously, fiction, but there are some truth to it. It's huge out there. And as commanders, oh, I'm a major in the reserves. I'm a company commander with one of the units and it's something you've got to keep an eye out. In part, you're a psychologist, you have to make sure the mental health of your service members, for me, my Marines, to make sure they're well taken care of to make sure they have the right head going on at the time. If there's something going on, hey, let's figure this out before gets out of control. You know, we have to be out there for each other. I don't care if you're active duty reservists does that already. We're all part of the same community, we all give each other crap all the time branch, the branch, we pick on each other, but nobody else can just like a sibling thing. So when it comes down to it, you know, we're all here for each other we have to do for years, it was no one was out there. But ourselves. And there was a saying that no one does it better and better than another veteran, I still think that's true today. That's not to say that someone is not a veteran can't help. From my experience, as soon as you just need to prove yourself a little bit more. But once you're ready, you're ready. And I've worked with some tremendous people who do great work for veterans who've never been in the military, no family in the military, but they are passionate to help us to help our community out. And that's why it's important for someone to be there to want to help. That's the key to success right there. So it's just all of us as a community, you'd have to be there for each other to keep an eye on each other. And sometimes it's just they say they're the COVID pandemic now is, is reach out to someone even heard from a watch check on how they're doing because you never know someone can be writing a suicide note right now and you have no idea but you call them and check in on them. See the difference?

Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of which, I know that by the time this episode is out, we probably will still be stuck in these interesting times. So I'm just curious, starting with you, Mike. How was the foundation adapted to COVID? Well,

pun intended, we have virtually had to adapt, so in a virtual sense things that the foundation typically does. boots on ground, you know physical presence is all being done virtually. For example, this time of the year, we're typically making an appearance is in Major League ballparks and calling in chief petty officers to acknowledge the Major League Baseball players that are foundations identified for each respective ballclub will have been onfield ceremony where we recognize them as that particular Club's nominee for the award. We're not able to do that. But before I dive into that a little further, I kind of want to further what Chad was touching on with regards to the suicide epidemic. I'm a career Navy guy and full disclosure, I actually attained the rank of Chief Petty Officer myself before I retired. And one of my saddest moments during my career was when our Chief of Naval Operations the highest ranking naval officer, we have Mike Borgia killed himself committed suicide as CNO. In the mid 90s, it cast a big cloud over the Navy as a whole. And it really hit home with sailors like myself because he was known as a sailor sailor, he actually rose from Seaman Admiral, he was a personnel and I was the guy that paid her when I was what's known as a dispersing clerk. So our job ratings work together closely. So it really, really hit home for me personally, and amongst many others, in the real sad irony to the day that he committed suicide. And the reason he committed suicide, as far as the public is concerned, was some reporter was digging into whether he was eligible to wear the bronze V for valor, on one of his combat ribbons, you know, just kind of miniscule stuff. And as the story goes, he didn't want to embarrass the Navy any further than he already had. He was like that dedicated to the service. You know, again, another example of selfless dedication to our nation, right. And ironically, I read a report recently where somebody at one of the outline commands, they indicated that mo border was actually that same day, he was supposed to come to their command to talk about suicide prevention. How ironic is that? So I mean, it can happen anytime. And I will also state full disclosure. For me personally, I support the Sosa jersey, even though I'm a huge Chicago Cubs fan, and a Sammy Sosa fan SLSA. Okay, well, I'm currently a VA employee. And I am very in tune with the prevents Task Force, which the Trump administration signed into action, basically a year ago. And recently, they put out their roadmap called reach, and they've got Vice President Pence, and his wife is the ambassador for the program. So the highest levels of our current administration are very much on board. Going back to what you mentioned earlier, I recently attended a webinar with all these key players, when they announced or or rolled out this REACH program and, and to the point that was made earlier by Jenny Len is it's a holistic approach. Okay. It takes a village. Right. And that is the approach that we're finally taking in the past, historically, everyone relied on the VA to take care of the mental health issues for veterans, and that that's not enough. So one of the things I do as a veteran, and as Chad mentioned, you know, nobody takes care of veterans, like fellow veterans, is I advocate for suicide prevention, obviously. And what's kind of a systemic approach or basically, an underlying symptom, if you will, for suicides typically, are poor transitions. For me, personally, that was my issue, I had a very rough transition, because I retired during the recession in 2009. Very difficult time. And it impacted me, you know, to the point that I mentioned before, and what we're seeing, you know, 11 years later is the same thing. And look, you know, back to the question, you know, how to COVID How's COVID impacting us? Well, let's take a look. You've got service members, getting out, you know, and transitioning into a totally uncertain environment. So that is going to create anxieties, and excitability, not in a good way. And so, the transition process is even more important. And that has been my focus. But going back to your original question with regards to the foundation, the foundation for me personally has been very therapeutic. I've spoken individually with Chad how this cause was just in time for me, like if I had any doubt about, you know, how I'm doing personally, being able to throw myself into a cause greater than myself, you know, bringing this awareness and prevention to the forefront of society, especially in considering what else is going on right now. Right now. I won't get into it, but I think it needs unsaid. I think this is just what we need. And we're happy like I said the end result, you know, I was looking at, you know, what's going to be the end result of our efforts right here. Now, at the end of the year, you know, at the end of the day, we're providing scholarships for, you know, military and veteran families. And I can't be more proud of our foundation from being able to do something like that. So,

first of all, I just, I think that you and Chad have such big hearts, you know, and I think that on the surface, a lot of people assume that our service members have to be, you know, very hyper masculine and have to be task oriented and everything. And I just love the work that you two are doing, you know, you just have so much compassion for our community. And I think right now, not just for our community, but even for civilians, it seems like what COVID has done for many of us is focused on giving back and helping one another, and really valuing community and connection. And so it's just great to see that you too, are doing that as an example. And you're fighting the work that you're doing with the foundation, Mike as very therapeutic. So thank you for sharing that. And so Chad, I want to check in with you as well, how have you adapted, you know, whether it's with your work, and maybe even your personal life, since COVID, has hit us all.

So my wife works in public health, she's got a Doctorate in Public Health. So she kinda saw some of this coming is starting to increase in this country. At the legal clinic I work at we had a client come in and sit down with one of our interns at the NGO. Oh, yeah, by the way, my daughter's got COVID. And I was like, All right, that's it, get all my stuff. I'm gonna work from home. I thought it was like a month old at that point. And at this point, we don't know anything. I mean, we really still don't know a whole heck of a lot. But definitely, he's really not. But so I got my stuff, I want to go home work from home. And we just transitioned about a week later, it's everyone was working from home and, and teaching from home. So I'm used to having conference calls on the phone with being a reservist and I've had units literally across the country. So command and control had been used for the phone and through email. So I think for myself a little bit easier than others. I think the most difficult part was staying indoors. Right, I think I have read transition pretty well. But you can definitely see those that are already struggling. And the suicide rates and mental health issues have skyrocketed during this. Very difficult. Yeah, that's why it's so important is to reach out to someone. And it's just a matter of just evolving and how you operate in any aspect of your life. Because things are constantly changing. This was unexpected. This is a major turn that we're still going through. So it's also just trying to figure it out, you know what you're gonna fail on different things. But that's the best way to learn by making mistakes. So I think that's what we're doing. We've seen the commercials, so help folks are doing on Zoom, and sometimes not realizing they're on camera. Now. The train transitioning and speaking back and forth, you don't have that body language, you're not in person anymore. So that's a lot more difficult. But I think overall, we're doing well, we're transitioning, things are starting to open up a little bit more, which is helpful. And it's just, it really comes down to being there for each other. And just touching back on the point that John, you talked about before with the gold star. And, you know, that's kind of where the SAR flag came from. And for a long time, you'd have the Gold Star families for service members that were killed, whether in service, but for those who are the survivors of suicide, there was no real group there. And that's why I think this SAR flag, which took its inspiration from a Gold Star families who pow Mia flag and put them together because this is this generations veterans issue is suicide. There's the head bowed and somberness for the family, there's over 20 These on the side for over 20 veterans that take their own life each day. And even while we're doing this program, according to the numbers, another veteran or service members taking their own life, just about every hour, as you can imagine that they get about 22 Friends, 22 family members, some of them they have one day, and it's a major issue. Programs like this, we're getting the word out, letting everyone know what's going on are huge. And there's a number of phone numbers you can call but just remember just always being there for each other, just like COVID Now, being there for each other by phone by text by email, by zoom, how many times have we had family get togethers on Zoom, which has been fantastic. I know I've done that quite a few times. And it almost seems like we're getting together more as families through zoom. Now we're almost forced to do that in a way but it's been great. So and as Michael said, you know, businesses, foundations are all making that transition. We're trying to do different programs virtually or a hybrid. A lot of programs are going that way, whether it's in the corporate world or military charities, anything that it is and podcasts use that folks sitting right across from each other on the phone and now we're doing things through zoom and other ways and we're just trying to find a way to make it work and I think when we return to some normalcy this might be part of the normal is being in environments like this working from home, having zoom conference calls book came out decades. The Gold the world is flat. And we're seeing that our country's flat in a way that we can really interact with each other from home, from the office in all different ways. So it's certainly also an opportunity for us to grow our businesses, our personal lives. So I know one thing is different. Of course, I work from home, my wife works from home, and we have two kids and two dogs. So trying to find that time is difficult, but you definitely grow as a unit too. So wherever there's conflict, wherever there's something that you're going through, it's difficult. There's an opportunity there, too. I think during Corona, the opportunities for us to all grow. And this is part of how we're doing it. I think we're gonna transition into normalcy with this as well.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you. Thank you, Chad, for sharing that and for talking a little bit about the SAR flag. And I really appreciate I look at I'm looking at it, and I see the gold star in the very middle. And it really touches me. And I think more people should know about this. And in everything, Jenny land, just wanted to check in with you if you had anything you wanted to add.

No, I agree on all accounts community is is key. And yeah, we're I'm out with that.

Awesome, like I said in about the SAR flag, too, is Kevin Hart. Sal is an Air Force veteran, he's the one who founded this, this flag, he spent over a year, figuring out the design of the flag. And I think right now the flag is in 14 different states. And he's got some great stories of families who have said, you know, someone hasn't smiled and years, and they got this flag and they smile, that it's a way of closure, or moving on or a way to progress in their lives. And some of the photos that we see some of the letters that we get are just makes you want to keep going, you know, it gives you purpose, like we talked like I talked about before, it's getting a purpose to continue on. And this is one of the flags I'll be carrying during the 66 mile hike. And what we hope to do is make this an annual event in multiple cities, and try to just 22 miles and set the 66 by two miles. And, you know, just working together, let's, let's all work together, because in the end, we all you all want to do one thing I think and that's that number 22 to end up zero.

Fantastic. Well, I want to thank you, Mike and Chad, for joining me and just sharing just your love and compassion and heart for the veteran community in the military community overall, you both have shared so many incredible resources on this conversation today. So for people that do want to reach out and want to learn more, Mike, how can they learn a little bit more? How can they find information on the Bob Feller Act of Valor foundation.

So simply go to our website, which is Act of Valor award.org. And hopefully, you'll they'll have that in print as well. But that's the best resource, pretty much everything, anything and everything about organization can be found on that website. We are also on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter under that same handle.

Fantastic. And then Chad, any other resources you want to share as well, including the SAR flag.

Sure. So SAR flag is sar flag.com, also on Facebook, and Instagram. And I think it's really just, you know, reach out to someone, whereas in your community can be local charities, organizations, national ones that have local chapters, whatever you're interested in, do a little bit of research, because there are lots out there. So I definitely implore those that are getting out, look to join a charity look to join a board if you can, because it definitely will help you. I've studied through my students through my experience and others of that transition that you're still giving to that community that you're still out there giving your service. So definitely look into that. Even those that are stolen, you can find a time soon to give a little bit, we have to make the duty and the Bob Feller Act of Valor war foundation. So it's still definitely a great way to give wire and service as well.

Awesome, thank you so much. I want to go ahead and wrap up. Obviously, it sounds like we can talk forever. Jenny Lynn, I just wanted to see if you had any final thoughts before we wrap up.

I really appreciate that Mike and Chad came on today and not only talked about two really great organizations, but talked about how they come together. As someone who works in the nonprofit world. I think it's really, really important that we start bringing the nonprofits together to make a greater impact. There are a lot out there that kind of all support the same thing. And I think all getting together to move the mark forward is a really great thing.

Yeah, fantastic. I think that with a lot of these organizations, they come out of that desire to fill in a void that's missing. And then I think in that process, you tend to find other people that are doing the same thing. And so it just makes so much sense to come together. So thank you both again, Mike and Chad for joining us and Jenny Lynn, thank you for CO hosting with me. With that said to our listeners. We hope that today's episode gave you one more piece of knowledge resource a relevant story so that you can continue to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. Tune in next time.