Hey there, listener! Thank you for checking out our older seasons! We're adding this note on the top of the show notes to keep you up-to-date with the show. Connect with Jen Amos and get bonus content when you subscribe to our private podcast show, Inside the Fort by US VetWealth, at http://insidethefort.com/

Last Updated: September 2, 2024

---

070: Combat Survivor Stories with Jerry Barnes

Jerry Barnes has served his country for a total of 43 years — three years active duty as an Army Combat Engineer. Two additional years in the Army Reserve, and thirty-eight years as a civilian with the Army Corps of Engineers. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. Having completed his tour of active duty, he continued working with the Corps of Engineers as a civilian, retiring as the Director of Operations in 2007. After a year, he returned to work, serving as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army.

His passion for serving the men and women who faithfully serve our country led him to write When Heaven Visits: Dramatic accounts of military heroes, Combat Survivor Stories, and much more. In the course of writing his first combat heroes book, he has met many other brave men and women who have a story to tell.

Learn more about Jerry and his latest books at http://combatsurvivorheroes.com/

--

✅ We're now accepting guests! Apply today https://forms.gle/sDY5nPkEMu665FXn6

✅ Subscribe to our newsletter http://eepurl.com/gTTOdT

✅ Visit our website https://www.holdingdownthefortpodcast.com/

✅ Sponsored by US VetWealth, FREE PDF download for our latest book http://veteranwealthsecrets.com/

✅ Connect with our co-hosts Jen Amos jen@holdingdownthefortpodcast.com and Jenny Lynne Stroup https://jennylynnestroup.com/ or jennylynnestroup379@gmail.com

✅ November 2020, Jen Amos and Holding Down the Fort Podcast was awarded “Media Professional of the Year” at The Rosie Network Entrepreneur Awards! Check out her acceptance speech at https://fb.watch/1Es0LLlGu7/

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoy our show? Kindly leave us a review on

✅ Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/30SJ7NW

✅ Podchaser https://bit.ly/3dnCacY

✅ Or a LinkedIn Recommendation for Jen https://bit.ly/3jNobzB

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.

Hey, everyone, welcome back to another episode of holding down the fort. I am your co host and award winning podcaster Jen emos. And today I also have with me my amazing co host, Jenny Lynch troupe. Gentlemen, welcome back.

Unknown Speaker 0:48

Hey, thanks. Glad to be here today.

Jen Amos 0:50

Yes, we're so happy to have you as always. And at the time of this recording, we just came back from Thanksgiving. So I thought I'd ask how was the holiday weekend for you?

Speaker 1 0:59

Oh, it was delightful. I had four straight days off work. The four of us at my house, we bought a pre cooked turkey from Whole Foods, shout out to pre cooked food, made a few sides and hung out and then got all our Christmas decorations up and just had a really nice, relaxing weekend. It was great.

Jen Amos 1:17

That sounds well deserved for you considering how busy you are. So I'm happy to hear that you really thoroughly enjoyed your holiday weekend. I did. Yeah. Well, we are excited because we already were about to just talk and talk with this guest. So let me go ahead and bring on Jerry Barnes who is an Army vet, and author of the book I mean, author of many books, but the book we'll probably be talking about today is combat survivor stories. You can learn more about the book at combat survivor heroes.com. Jerry, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 1:46

Well, thank you so much. And it's a delight to be with both Eva Jan and Jenny. And I look forward to the conversation. And then the privilege to share with you.

Jen Amos 1:57

Yeah, at least so you know, I had an opportunity to watch her episode or interview that you did with totally forgot his name. So we're gonna have to remind

Speaker 2 2:06

Diego also perfect. He's got a phoenix. He's in West.

Jen Amos 2:10

Okay, got it. Got it. Yeah. So it was great to hear him. And I knew just by listening to that interview that we're going to have a great conversation today. I was just saying offline as well that you just have this youthful spirit for someone in your, you know, mid 70s. Now, and I know that we talked a little bit how that wasn't always the case. So first, I want to start by asking you because it sounds like you've been in media lately. What kind of compelled you to start going out there from you know, coming out of retirement to, you know, share your youthful spirit and the good work that you're up to nowadays?

Speaker 2 2:41

Jen Amos 9:49

What is that? Anyway? I wanted to kind of backtrack a little bit because Jennylyn got extremely excited to hear that you went to Virginia Tech. So gentlemen, I thought I'd get your thoughts here.

Speaker 1 9:58

I know you saw me jump up and down. But first, let's go Hokies. I am also a saccharide. Yes, I was so excited.

There's many schools that are wonderful schools. I've met just wonderful people. But texts such a great school. And I hate to admit this, but also, I wrote for University of Virginia, except when they play Virginia. No,

yeah, I think it's a strong state allegiance thing. I do have to say sometimes I root for UVA, as long as they're not playing Virginia Tech, but Napoli right? I was gonna say, I knew I liked you. And then you announced that you went to tech. And I was like, oh, man, this is amazing. I mean, you sold me with the accent first, but you really sold me with the Virginia Tech.

I can't help myself. Hey, this again.

Oh, no, I totally understand everywhere we've ever moved. I'm like, I'm from the south. And they're like, no kidding. We got that on your first. Yeah, I got lots

of ribbon from the Midwest when I was in St. Louis, you talk fine. I said, that's not the level least. You know, just like this. And that's just the way life is.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, yeah, thank you for giving us a little backstory on your service. And really what led you to where you are today at 75 looking healthy too. And living through the COVID pandemic time right now. And you had COVID

We bow virus, it was nasty. Okay, we are very Kotik I think I had to have an operation on my throat. The voice, I had a throat surgery and it came from my throat and was directed. That's why my hearts bird found for UVA. A doctor at UVA basically saved my life. He was what he did was he took the tumor out and rebuilt my throat and restored my voice. I lost my voice when I throat surgery, he rebuilt my voice. So what you're hearing today is as a result of the marvels of surgery, University of Virginia, plastic that rebuilt my vocal, left O'Connor. And so I'm back, I can talk I can actually sing again, I think bass in the tech group called the tech Men 120 Men have done that same with them. So in addition to everything else, I was doing that too. But now, sooner or later, you realize me going to college, the idea is graduate. So I finally retired from my singing career and decided to study. That's how I was able to get my degree.

There you go, Well, we're so glad that you survived COVID, and so much that you're here today to you know, not just tell your story and chat with us, but really amplify other people's stories, particularly our combat survivors. And so let's go ahead and talk a little bit about your book. Now, Jerry, combat survivor stories. Tell us a little bit about how this I mean, I know that originally you were asked to write three stories. And then that led you to getting a publisher and getting your own book done. But tell us the history about combat survivor stories, how it started, and how are you able to collect all the stories

know when I took the oath of enlistment. And I'm a person of faith, but I don't emphasize that. But I wrote the first book, which is entitled when Heaven visits. And that was the only request that les made of me. He said, Would you like me title, the first book. And so I did. So when I took the oath of enlistment. The last four words of the oath of enlistment Are you raise your right hand? So help me God. So I mentioned that the veterans don't make faith a litmus test at all. But about a fourth of the veterans that gave me their stories, 24 stories in this first book right here. About a fourth of them would mention faith or something had happened. One of them, of course, was Dan bullish when Ryan just cried out, Lord, if this is the end, please make it quick. And so that ultimately, is his story. That's what gave me the publishing contract. And so I won't spoil that story except to tell you, that was death and gore involved in the story. And it was very, very tragic. But Brian lived through it. And so and his buddy, he both his buddies were gravely wounded. But anyway, one of the other stories in the book came from a Roanoke policeman and Chris, and Chris was caught when a suicide bomber came near their Humvee and they want to patrol and he detonated right beside the vehicle. And man, well, that trip Chris in the turret of a Hummer armed Hummer, and he said journeys is I had a grenade built around me. The vehicle is on fire. My right arm had a severed artery. I had a piece of shrapnel penetrating my right part of my skull, he said, and I knew I was gonna die right there right in the middle of the fire, huh? And he said, I just cried out, he says, This is the end. He says, a voice spoke audibly to me. Looked around, there's nobody around. And he says, I argued with the voice, the voices get out now. And I couldn't find my way out, the voice said, Look to your left. Instead, I look to my left, he says, there was an opening behind the back seat, found the front seat of the vehicle, and the back seat that I was trapped in the boy, the boy said, Can I pair? He says, now we're struggling to get out a buddy's pull me out of the vehicle. And I'll stop right there except to tell you that Chris lives and to tell me that story, which is so compelling. Yeah, that's one of the stories that's in the book, also. And then there's other stories of people that ran and I met a fella in Farmville, Virginia one day in a Wendy's restaurant. And if there ever was a character in this world, that guy's our character. And his name is Shane. And I'll just leave it right there. Tell you the chain walk in. And he and I just had a chance meeting that lasted two hours. Are we ever gonna go home? And my wife said, I said, Yeah, I said, but I've got to come back and find this character, and listen to him. He tells a story. He was 17 years old. He got in trouble. He was put in jail. He said, so he's next morning, you stand in front of a judge. And the judge says, you sound like somebody ought to be in the Marine Corps. And he says, Well, I've always wanted to be in the Marine Corps. And the judge says, I think I can help you with it. He says, would your father sign the papers for you code and Marine Corps? Well, I guess he would. He says, we call his dad. His is, of course, I'll sign the papers. The Marine Corps be good for this boy. He said, so I went straight from a jail, and Romney, West Virginia, to Parris Island. And he said, and so his story is about what happened in him. He was involved in a nighttime ambush, where the Vietcong attacked his little outpost, he says, and then we're about 40 hours, and a battalion size unit Vietcong attack their outpost, he says, and what happens is Jerry, I killed people until he was unmercifully incident. That's where the demons visited. Yeah, talking about that story. Yeah, and, and defending liberty bridge. So there's another story, but then his son, fought in the Battle of Fallujah. And you may recall, the Battle of Fallujah, there were four black quarter contractors who went on a human aid mission to deliver food to people who starting in Ilija rack, and they were attacked by bad guys. And they were all killed in their full bodies were on on a bridge, it's outside of Fallujah. That's when the marine said, This can't stand. And so they developed the strategy to take the battle of Fallujah, that did puja, one block at a time, one house at a time, and his son fought in that battle. Wow. So there's another one of the stories of interest that first book, so when the first book is published, and then I hadn't beats, so I'm into the second book. And so people bring your stories. And so the stories in the second book, I had a fellow called me, and asked me to meet him. He's from Fredericksburg, Virginia. And it turns out, he was a pilot of a B, one B bomber. And he gave me a story that so the third book is going to be called Stories from the bone, which are stories of things happen in the cockpit of planes that nobody know about. And these are stories of things that happen when you they lost an engine, and the engine is on fire. You're sitting on top of less than 1000 pounds of fuel, and you're afraid that fires gonna get to the fuel. What do you do? Yeah, so that's the third book will be about stories from the boat, just amazing things that that happened. And so and then the fourth book, as things would happen, a buddy of mine I hadn't seen in 55 years. And he saw me on social media, LinkedIn, call me We talked for two hours. And he says, Well, Jerry, he says, I've got some friends have coffee with pretty much every week, World War Two veterans living. And so he led me to four World War Two veterans that have all four of them, given me their stories. That'll be in book four. And so these are talking about heroes, one of the other stories, and that second book will be called Angels on the battlefield. I don't feature the champ because combat medics, they just bring healing to people in combat situations. So that's why I named it that. When I published the first book, I spoke at a veterans meeting here in Roanoke, and I had a lady contact me from that meeting. She says, Would you consider writing my father's memoirs, and then published in your book? And that says, Well, let me look at it. And so what she had was, he became he went ashore in this Second wave, a D Day. And D Day I cannot describe how bad D Day was but just get a picture in D Day is storage Saving Private Ryan. D Day was about three times worse than that those first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. That's how bad it was. And so she gave me she had about 100. He had PTSD visited him. After he had come home. cessful career became wealthy. homebuilder owned lots of companies. And when he sold it all, sitting at home, and he had plenty of money and nothing, the demons of PTSD started this thing. And so the doctors at the VA were wonderful to him. And they said, Marvin, why don't you write down everything you can recall? And she says, Jerry, my dad wrote over 100 long yellow pages of his memories of D Day. And so six of his stories, I entered the second book, six of those stories. The first of those stories is approaching D Day. Yeah, happened. And then he tells his story. He was wounded four times, and the Battle of the Bulge. He's on his hospital bed in England, begging him to send him back. I've been wounded four times. And the doctor said, Mr. Young, Corporal young, towards over for you. And so he came home and became a very successful homebuilders. I said, but he wrote his stories. And those forces are six stories. I end up the book with those six stories. So in the book, too, so I can go on and on. Are these drones? Yeah.

Let's we'll take a quick pause here. And I have something I want to add. But I thought I'd ask genuine first, if there's anything you wanted to add?

Oh, man, yeah. Volunteer enough over here. You know, there's nothing I love more than than a good story. Being a writer myself, and you know, being a big proponent of getting military, military family stories out there. This is right up my alley. So Jerry, thank you. It's my first hearing.

And to just keep talking about them.

Absolutely. You know, obviously, we can hear us share all these stories all day. And if anything, it's like, you might as well just get the book while you're at it. But I just love your passion for telling these stories, because holding down the fort, our podcast show is about amplifying our stories in the military community, especially for our show for military families and spouses, because we kind of believe they are the unsung heroes, you know. And so I want to talk more about the topic of storytelling, because there's a certain community, if not a large community, or a large majority in our military community, where they kind of keep their story to their chest, like, you know, if they've gone through some form of trauma or PTSD, or what have you. It's like, they don't want to share their story. But in this entire time that you've been sharing, I've been so inspired and also like your energy to the way that you tell the story. It's like, oh, like it's so awesome to be affiliated with the military. But we don't know that. And we can't honor those stories unless we don't tell them. So tell us a little bit. You said you're already working on your fourth book. Why is it so important for our community to tell our stories?

There's probably and I'm just guessing now, somewhere between 20 and 30 million veterans, former veterans, families of veterans, siblings of veterans in this country? That's a fairly small number in comparison to the population of the US. Yeah, so a great many people don't know, the blood sacrifices that had been made to secure our freedom. They don't know. Yeah, and because they don't know there's not the awareness of the ultimate sacrifices many have made, and the personal and human and physical sacrifices that many others have made, and how many families have gone through suffering, those members linger from lost and injured loved ones. And so telling these stories in this short story format, allows us to capture those sacrifices and bring them to the printed page. So let me do a plug here. Before I go on. My website is called Combat survivor. heroes.com. Anybody that is listening to this podcast, go Google that and look on that website. One of the things that Laureen I've been well cared for financially, we don't need the money to be honest with you, when the houses are paid for, and the cars are paid for, and your credit cards are all paid for. And you can go on a vacation whenever you want to. What do you do with your life? And what we're choosing to do is give back so what we decided to do with the books that we sell, I'm going to selling a few books. So when you sell the books, the goal here is to build a plan. Add form of email addresses of people that want to follow me. And when I do that, when I get to four or five 6000 emails, I'll be able to sell enough books on the margin of the book to more than pay for my expenses of writing this book. And what we've decided to do is we give all of our proceeds. I mean, I know I can sell and buy a new car. So so what? I don't need another new car. And so, so what we've decided to do is give the proceeds away to two veteran nonprofits. Well, one of them is called New Freedom farm in Buchanan, Virginia, and lowest on Keith, that runs that farm as a Navy veteran herself. She was a psychologist, and a nurse, and been through some pretty nasty stuff herself, being a Navy veteran. And she started that farm which uses rescue animals, some of them rescue horses. They're rescued from the slaughterhouse. And she matches them with veterans who come to the farm. And somewhere in the middle of veterans taking rescue animals, getting their hair, their hooves, shaved, given them a horse hadn't had a bath in five years, given the horse a bad somewhere, the veteran rescues the horse. And the horse rescues the veteran. Yeah, so my younger donating proceeds to do freedom farm. The second the nonprofit that we donate to call frame, family res res. Family read his military, he's that group that I've been in donate board here for five or six years. We have veterans that are many of them homeless, some of them Homeless by Choice, the homeless by drug addiction, alcohol addiction, who knows, but we try to do what we can to help them particularly winter clothing, and clothes, trying to help them families, somebody's gone had been abandoned. car won't start, what drawers and drywall work, we try to help them out financially. So that's what we're doing. We're giving the money away that we sell a book. And that's just the purpose, try to do what we can to help people and then build awareness of the sacrifices of built for people. See, we're an all volunteer force. Yeah. And so yeah, we can to help other people. And that's what it's about. That's what I decided to say, if I'm not do this to be dedicated to it, then I'm gonna do it, my everlasting legacy. So telling the stories, and using proceeds to help veterans is what, what I'm trying to do.

I'm curious to know, what kind of feedback have you received so far from our civilian counterparts, you know, the ones who have read your book, and maybe this is the first time they're really hearing about the military story?

Well, I have had a negative feedback. Now I've had some people just basically, they get involved in the excitement of the story, which is like 20% of the story is sacrificed. So the story is what I want people to see. Next, we have people, men and women are going to combat veteran women that are in our books. Yeah. And then the men and women, when people volunteer to serve this great country, then you can obviously see hard, so heartbreaking for me to see people complain about all the shortcomings of the country. And I know that heroes have volunteered to preserve these great freedoms. Are there problems in our country? Of course, are those problems fixable? In my opinion? Absolutely. There has to be some coming together and resolving our differences. But it comes right down the backbone of this whole country is based on the sacrifice of people who have struggled, been injured, given their lives to preserve these freedoms, it's worthy of sacrificing for it's worthy of defending, and it's worthy of doing what I can, with the years that I've got left to do what I can. And so that's why I'm doing it. And it's very gratifying to do it.

Yeah, I could definitely tell you're enjoying what you're doing.

And what I'm doing. Like, I know that, you know, I know I can do consulting work. I mean, I've been all over the world doing consulting work. But how much money do you need? And at what point do you decide to do something useful with your life? And when I saw this, and my 90 year old linear agent friend said, Okay, your youngster To me that's how we got started, and we'll keep on doing it.

That's great to add perspective when you're thinking oh, I'm 75 I'm old and then you have a 90 year old be like, Hey, you're

any loan literary agent. Right now. Call me back.

I love it. I love it so much Jerry genuine just wanted to check in so you can know He thought,

oh man, I have so many thoughts most of the mayor's like out of my eyes. I'm good. I'm just enjoying listening to all. I'm enjoying listening to all the stories is

what? I don't know what you got planned. And I'm just going to give you a commercial. When we publish the second book, why don't we just scheduled and I'll just read one or two stories at a future podcast, if you'll have me back, you might say, I don't want anything else to do this guy may want to invite me back for podcast number 71. A couple of stories. And yeah,

I was I was gonna say, I could definitely see you have like a audio version of your books with you reading it, because you just have this spirit and passion for these stories. You know, so just just a thought I'd throw out there for you.

Well, you know, I've been busy writing, but I do think that probably now that the doctors reveal my voice. You can hear me I used to wish Yeah. But oh, Naki can hear me? I do. I can add a little bit of flavor to Colin just read the stories. And so are you somewhere between 1000 3000 words? And I believe in onto the next story? And that's what we do? Yeah. So I do think that's a possibility. I just haven't pursued it.

Yeah, well, you know, we'll we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But I definitely, I definitely think I would love for you. And this is being recorded. So I mean, what I say, you know, it would be great for you to read one or two very relevant stories from your book. And we can have that as kind of an additional thing we add to the show, you know, for people to learn more about it. But just like what I think what we all have in common here is that storytelling, our stories, our military stories are extremely important to share, you know, not just I think, for our own self healing, because I know you mentioned in your other interview with Russ restaurants, that it takes a lot for combat survivors sometimes to share their stories. When it comes to sharing stories, it is a form of self healing, I think for the individual. And also it's gratifying for someone such as yourself to be in the position to amplify those stories. And then for the community, you know, to be inspired. And so we're just all about it here. We love it. And I'm just so glad that you reached out to be a part of our show, because, you know, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for us. And another affirmation that telling our stories is extremely important and needed.

Sure. So, you know, as you run into other people you think that you could would be interested in me being on their podcast, or whatever. Help me spread the word. And so just send those folks to me. And when you're ready for me to read the story, too. I got 60 of them. I can draw from Yeah, which ones you'd want to hear? And we can go from there. I would suggest maybe you let me read maybe one of the stories of the D Day guy.

Yeah, well, hey, well, we'll definitely talk about those, those possibilities. And we

can do some more contemporary things like something that happened in Iraq and and we'll close with this. One of my high school classmates, I can Dinwiddie County in Virginia. I've seen Doug many times. And I happened to see him about six months ago. And we were visiting after church one Sunday, and his wife said, We were classmates in high school or high school sweethearts. And she looked at and she was standing there talking to me and, and she looked at done, she says, Doug, he hadn't talked for 50 years. He said, Vietnam had not talked his mind and his mouth were clammed up. And she said these words. She's in bad health now with with kidney problems. And she says, Doug, you really do need to tell juries stories. And here's what she said that opened his mind in his mouth. She says, Don't you think the children and the grandchildren need to know what Papa did in the war? You haven't talked for 50 years? Don't you think your intel jury has stories? And something triggered in his mind? And he said, Yes, I do. So I sat down with him. And his story is in book two. It's called humble hero.

Man, you're dropping so many teasers. I love it.

And then I'll close with this and not whether you've recorded or not. The fella from Fredericksburg, call me. And when he was too old to fly to be one day, he volunteered to be an attache, for an Air Force Colonel became an attache to the ambassador of Pakistan. And so he's in Pakistan. And this is voluntary duty. So he flies when an attache does they make an Air Force colonels their pilots, they fly for the ambassador. So they have a lot of C 12. For four seater prop line. They fly for the US ambassador. Well, these people become A very valuable in the neighborhood relationships. He's visiting with an ambassador. I mean with a with a Pakistani major in his home, who is in a Sikh temple. He says a room in front of his home. He's just sitting there one night. I'm in Pakistani garb. I learned passable or dude and four armed. Terrorists walk in. Bin Laden was killed 25 miles from this man's home. Oh my goodness, these four guys come in, took their weapons off, put him down on the floor, sat down cross legged, and started praying for about 10 minutes. I looked over and whispered Solmaz people. And the guy had noted his head and was down. So he didn't know. And one of these terrorists was a very prominent leader for Osama bin Laden. Turns out he was the right hand person also card. He was the man who's the lieutenant still alive. The US just got a bounty on his head, he said, and I sat next to him for 15 minutes. And he was hearing on Air Force Colonel. He said next to me. So that's one of the stories called imminent danger. That's in book two. You may want to read that. He says Jerry, he says, Then I wondered, should I leave the house? Why didn't they connect the dots? That was a US, you know, an American? We're gonna do. They will he said, Well, they wouldn't attack you in my house. He said it'll be somewhere after you leave. So the rest of the story is what happened? Man,

Jerry, such a tease. I love it. I love it. I love it so much. I feel like I have to ask because our show really is for our military spouses today. And families. Any thoughts on your wife and her experiences with you and and just your family with the military life in general, anything you want to share about that to our listeners?

Well, let me let you know that more than serviceman serves. The wife, it becomes like a team effort in serving. So the wives that are in for a long time, there's movement involved, and they had to pick up and move. So they are just become part of it. And so the way that She immersed herself in my career, and she had a career, too, she went to Virginia Tech. And she looked at that, and she didn't. I asked her to marry me when she was 19. She was a sophomore at Virginia Tech. She told me no, I'm still young. And so we just kept dating, and then eventually got married. But she still graduated. So I had orders to go in the army. And she had married a guy was going into the army. She's from Christiansburg, Virginia. She says, Well, I want to graduate. And her father asked me, she's make sure sis gets her degree, says, if you're gonna marry this army guy, make sure you get your degree. And so that's how I ended up in Norfolk, Virginia. She got her degree from Old Dominion, and accounting, and she had a career. Beautiful. So we've made sure that she had got her career. And so she blended her career. And some amazing people that watched out for her when the army sent us from Norfolk. She was working for chartway credit union in Norfolk, some wonderful people that that knew about that, and knew what that I was moving to St. Louis. She ended up people with the Department of Commerce that she was working for, as an auditor found a slot for her. So then when I moved to St. Louis, she was able to continue her career. So wow, looked out for her career. When we moved to St. Louis, and then we moved on to Cincinnati, it happened again. So she had developed a little bit of contacts to maintain our jobs. So wives or spouses, sometimes the husbands of military wives that are service people, they have careers to just worked out that her career was able to finish and she became if you would, are an auditor for the Department of Agriculture, and chase fraud, food stamp fraud. So neat stuff that she did in her career. That's amazing. We get a lot of stories about things that she that

I was gonna say like have like, I can imagine another book really just about the stories of military spouses or wives, you know, and their experiences and I mean, I think it's such a rarity to hear that, you know, someone such as your wife was able to maintain her career because you know, and genuine knows this firsthand. She's like nodding, it's difficult, you know, our spouses are highly educated and under employed and so it's just great to hear that you You know, with the connections and everything in that you even accommodated her. You wanted to make sure because of her dad's requests.

I told her, I'll make sure she graduates. Yeah. So it took a little bit of sacrifice. But if you want to do something like if you can do it, you just have to work at it.

Beautiful. Well, on that note, Jerry. Wow, what a amazing conversation today. I don't think this will be our last one. Gentleman thought I would check in with you one last time before we go.

Well, I think you just heat him up. Well, for book six heroes on the homefront. There we go. Yeah. Stories, military spouses, and all the following around that happens.

Right at Home. All right, all the rest of these books.

Say pencil to paper as soon as we hit hit end on this. Thank you. Just thank you again for sharing the stories and for you know, being a tune to a population that really often does get quite overlooked in the amount of sacrifice and service they offer. So thank you for sharing those and also for recognizing how much your wife did in service of your Yeah, like Jen mentioned Emma.

Give a hat to my husband. I don't know what to say.

Yeah, I know that feeling well, I'm gonna check balance are at our house too. So

I love this so much is amazing. I feel like Virginia really represented today. So I mean,

he's speaking my language. All this places. He mentioned, I have been friends and I also graduated from Old Dominion. So go monarchs? Yes, my

daughter she graduated moldering. And she's a smart one. When she graduated Armenian or last two semesters, she had two four points. And she's a mother raising a child and go forth. And older man smile when he's brains come from something I think that it might have been for my wife, you reckon?

That's awesome. Well, wow, Jerry, this is a I want to thank you again for being on our show. And just having a big heart for amplifying our stories. I'm really just excited to continue to follow your journey and see these upcoming books that come out. And of course, for our listeners, if they want to learn more about the combat survivor stories they can visit combat survivor heroes.com. So Jerry, again, thank you so much for being here. We really

thank you, Jenny Lynn. It's great to meet both of you. I look forward to the opportunity, perhaps to share with one or both of you in the future. And have a great day.

Thanks.

Awesome. And with that said to our listeners, we hope that today's episode gave you one more piece of knowledge restores a relevant story so that you can continue to make confident and informed decisions for you and your family. Thanks so much for joining us, and we'll chat with you in the next episode. Tune in next time.