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Speaker 1: on air Drop. I'm Ian Scotto. It's just me this episode,
Speaker 1: um with our guest of course, Richard jell orson, but
Speaker 1: Jack is out. He'll be back hopefully next episode. I
Speaker 1: just know he's not doing great at the moment, but
Speaker 1: he should be back in action in just a couple
Speaker 1: of days. I know he was excited for this interview,
Speaker 1: but this should be a good one regardless. Richard's story
Speaker 1: is a really interesting one. So yeah, nothing really going
Speaker 1: on that I need to update you guys on. Over
Speaker 1: the last few days. I did watch some of You're
Speaker 1: Gonna Laugh, I did. I did, uh watch In the
Speaker 1: Army Now with Pauly Shore and Andy Dick uh, and
Speaker 1: I love Pauly Shore's work. I wasn't sure if I've
Speaker 1: ever seen this before. It's It's on Netflix if you
Speaker 1: want to watch it. I've heard of it, and I
Speaker 1: remember coming out and all that in the nineties, but
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if ever watched it. If I did,
Speaker 1: it's been so long that I forgot and I laughed
Speaker 1: my balls off. It is a hilarious movie, and it's
Speaker 1: probably the only military movie that's dedicated to, uh, the
Speaker 1: Army Reserve. So uh, I don't know. I mean, there
Speaker 1: there might be I'm not a movie guy, so there
Speaker 1: might be another movie with the Army Reserve, But I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like you have to do comedy on that one,
Speaker 1: you know, just because of the nature of it. You're
Speaker 1: you're kind of gonna downplay what those guys do and
Speaker 1: make it funny. And they did, and I do recommend
Speaker 1: you check it out. There could be other Army Reserve movies.
Speaker 1: I really don't know. If you do. You could feel
Speaker 1: free to tweet me at Ian Scotto, but uh, in
Speaker 1: the Army Now is highly recommended. So because of that,
Speaker 1: I was on a whole poly Shore kick after that,
Speaker 1: and I watched the documentary that he has, which is
Speaker 1: up on Amazon Prime, and it's called poly Shore Stands Alone,
Speaker 1: and it's really very much about like the unglamorous life
Speaker 1: of being a stand up comedian at his level. So
Speaker 1: he's playing in Middle America at these places that aren't
Speaker 1: even necessarily comedy venues, and uh, he does pack them out.
Speaker 1: See It's an interesting thing. I've noticed this when I
Speaker 1: go to shows outside of New York in like the
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania area compared to New York. In New York City,
Speaker 1: in order to like sell out a venue of any type,
Speaker 1: you have to be a list because there's always something
Speaker 1: going on. But if you go to rural America somewhere
Speaker 1: you could sell out, you know, hundreds of seats, which
Speaker 1: he does. You you'll see in the documentary, and it
Speaker 1: reminds me. I'm a huge fan of the band Dope.
Speaker 1: I saw Dope play the Croc Rock in Allentown, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: which is no longer there, and it was packed, absolutely packed,
Speaker 1: all these people there to see them, and I think
Speaker 1: part of it goes to that there's probably just not
Speaker 1: as much to do in Allentown, Pennsylvania. But to be
Speaker 1: completely honest, and just a few months later, I saw
Speaker 1: them play Webster Hall in the Marlin Room in New
Speaker 1: York City and was literally maybe twelve people there, and
Speaker 1: edse Aldope even commented that he was like, we having
Speaker 1: a good time, but this is kind of pathetic. Maybe
Speaker 1: you guys could tell a friend to come next time
Speaker 1: that we play here. So I thought, Um, the documentary
Speaker 1: played into that whole world of if you're playing somewhere
Speaker 1: in Nebraska, you could sell it out. And Paul Shore
Speaker 1: does play those local Los Angeles venues and at times
Speaker 1: comes to New York City, but in order to like
Speaker 1: really pack out a crowd, he has to go to
Speaker 1: these Middle America venues where he's very much celebrated, uh,
Speaker 1: and in these very small towns where there's not a
Speaker 1: whole lot to doo. So it was interesting. I watched
Speaker 1: that last night. It's uh, Pauly Shore stands alone. But UH,
Speaker 1: with that, I'm gonna get over to Richard Jellison, who
Speaker 1: did a documentary that's a much greater importance, to be honest,
Speaker 1: called a Solemn Promise America's Missing an action about our
Speaker 1: men missing an action two thousand of them, which I
Speaker 1: was unaware of that statistic. And this guy has military career,
Speaker 1: and also just what he's done since is pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm gonna get right over to Richard Jellerson,
Speaker 1: and I hope you guys enjoy so as promised for
Speaker 1: the first time on the podcast. Richard Jellerson Army helicopter
Speaker 1: pilot and Vietnam veteran who served with the one sixteenth
Speaker 1: the Sault Helicopter Company UH in his first tour and
Speaker 1: then his second Vietnam tour as General Abram's personal pilot.
Speaker 1: He's the author of pan Am Flight zero zero one,
Speaker 1: about the round world flight he took before returning home
Speaker 1: on his second Tour of duty and the director of
Speaker 1: a Solemn Promise, America's Missing An Action, as well as
Speaker 1: several other films which we could talk about, uh, and
Speaker 1: we'll get into all of it. Solemn Promise is available
Speaker 1: Storyteller Films dot TV. And I originally was made aware
Speaker 1: of you, Richard through our past guest marky o Blanca.
Speaker 1: So how do you how do how do you guys
Speaker 1: know each other? You know? Um, I was introduced to
Speaker 1: him by a couple of mutual friends, and um he
Speaker 1: has been He was on the advisory board for that
Speaker 1: film and has been a huge help in mentoring me
Speaker 1: through the process of writing my first book. So he
Speaker 1: is a good guy and good author good books. Yep,
Speaker 1: Vietnam Bouchi, which we recommend everybody picks up. So, I
Speaker 1: think before we even get into this great film about
Speaker 1: America's m i A as well as your book, it'd
Speaker 1: be interesting to get into your background in Vietnam and
Speaker 1: UH serving as an army helicopter pilot. People would probably
Speaker 1: love to hear about, UH, someone who served as an
Speaker 1: assault helicopter pilot during that time. So yeah, I'd love
Speaker 1: to get into your backstory. The interesting thing about I
Speaker 1: did a film for the History Channel called Helicopter Warfare
Speaker 1: in Vietnam. Yes, I was going to end that among
Speaker 1: like several other films. I have them all listed here
Speaker 1: which people can see on the website. But yeah, and
Speaker 1: what I did. I interviewed a lot of air crew members,
Speaker 1: Cruci storegunners, pilots. And the interesting thing about the pilots
Speaker 1: is they had the same story as I did. I
Speaker 1: was not doing well in college, having way too much fun.
Speaker 1: I knew I was going to get drafted, but always
Speaker 1: wanted to learn how to fly, so and the Army
Speaker 1: had a need for helicopter pilots at that point, So
Speaker 1: I got accepted and trained, and uh, knowing that at
Speaker 1: the end of the year of flight school that I
Speaker 1: was going to be going to Vietnam. Of and did
Speaker 1: end up at the one six, which was an assault
Speaker 1: helicopter company, which means we picked up troops and inserted
Speaker 1: them into combat situations and went back to pick them
Speaker 1: up and move them to a different area. And a
Speaker 1: lot of METAVAC missions, a lot of metavacs. Uh, even
Speaker 1: though there were metovac units, we were already there, already
Speaker 1: in the fray. So if there was wounded. We would
Speaker 1: take them out and taken to the hospitals. Some memories
Speaker 1: there that are just seared into my memory. So UM,
Speaker 1: but it was we flew sometimes. I think my log
Speaker 1: shows that one day I flew thirteen and a half
Speaker 1: hours MM and uh for a nineteen twenty year old kid,
Speaker 1: it was pretty exciting but also traumatizing in many respects UM,
Speaker 1: and I just after my towards the end of my
Speaker 1: first tour, I ended up flying a two star general
Speaker 1: and when he went home, he recommended me to General abros.
Speaker 1: So first tour was kind of combat and not very civilized.
Speaker 1: And the second tour I was flying the fourth star
Speaker 1: in charge of the entire warm and it was mostly
Speaker 1: it was v I P. Five. Well, I know your
Speaker 1: book is specifically about the pan and flight, but I'm
Speaker 1: sure saying that you have these great stories, UM with
Speaker 1: the one six to Salt Helicopter Company. Any stories that
Speaker 1: you could tell us, because this audience loves to hear that. UM.
Speaker 1: Flying combat in Vietnam was at first, when you get there,
Speaker 1: you're you can't believe you're in that situation, UM, and
Speaker 1: you're scared. But the funny thing is after you've done
Speaker 1: it for a few days or a little longer. You
Speaker 1: can't afford to be scared anymore. You've just got to
Speaker 1: do the job. And we would fly into a flight
Speaker 1: of nine Huey's with troops on board. We would fly
Speaker 1: into a landing zone where we would be taking fire
Speaker 1: and our guns are shooting back and you're just hoping
Speaker 1: they don't hit you or a vital part of the ship.
Speaker 1: And uh, after a bit, it just gets to be well,
Speaker 1: I can't afford to be scared, so I'm just going
Speaker 1: to do my job, and you have to go. And
Speaker 1: that's in the book. You have to go to a
Speaker 1: very dark place in your heart to get through the
Speaker 1: was those tours, um the savagery and the carnage that
Speaker 1: you see every day is just it's overwhelming. So pretty
Speaker 1: soon you stop um letting it in. You just have
Speaker 1: to close down emotionally. And I think that's where a
Speaker 1: lot of people who do go to combat, whether it
Speaker 1: was in Vietnam or are wars today, UM get PTSD
Speaker 1: any day in particular. That was overwhelming for you several
Speaker 1: but they all kind of blend in together. I remember,
Speaker 1: and this is in the book as well. My very
Speaker 1: first men of act mission is it happens a squad
Speaker 1: leader got on board my aircraft along with I think
Speaker 1: five five troops and U I was what they called
Speaker 1: Taylor and Charlie. I was the last fight as a
Speaker 1: brand new aircraft commander. They want you. They're not really
Speaker 1: sure yet how good a pilot you are for formations.
Speaker 1: So you would fly the last, the last bird in
Speaker 1: a flight of nine or a flight of five sometimes
Speaker 1: as ego flights dropped him off. We're taking fire and
Speaker 1: I we lift off to leave that landing zone and
Speaker 1: get a call from the troops on the ground and
Speaker 1: they've already had somebody that was wounded. And the other
Speaker 1: thing about Tail and Charlie is you are the bird
Speaker 1: that breaks off from metavacs because you don't have to
Speaker 1: leave the flight. You just well you leave the flight,
Speaker 1: but you're not really part of it as the last ship.
Speaker 1: And UH flew back in. And it turns out that
Speaker 1: that squad leader was the one who was wounded and
Speaker 1: had both of his legs have been blown off. So
Speaker 1: UH and I remember that, and I think this is
Speaker 1: in the book as well, that we had a hospital
Speaker 1: METIVAC pad actually a field hospital only about twenty some
Speaker 1: miles away and I I first met of back. I thought,
Speaker 1: the only thing important is to get this get this
Speaker 1: guy to a hospital. So I pushed it all the
Speaker 1: way up as fast as the helicopter would go, and
Speaker 1: actually never even climbed. I kept at low level so
Speaker 1: he wouldn't waste any time. And I the insane thing
Speaker 1: about when you drop welling it off, you don't know,
Speaker 1: you don't ever know what happened to them after that. Um.
Speaker 1: So one of the little torments I have when I
Speaker 1: go to the VA hospital, because I did get cancer
Speaker 1: from agent orange, so the VA took care of that.
Speaker 1: But one of the little tortures I have is that
Speaker 1: I'll go to the VA hospital and see guys with
Speaker 1: a wheelchair with my legs and you just know, I
Speaker 1: always wonder if that was somebody that I picked up. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: um anyway, there's that's probably the most significant story, and
Speaker 1: the book is really about It is about my flight
Speaker 1: around the world, kind of decompressing after my second tour,
Speaker 1: but it's really about the healing that I a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, guess what's called the healing Pan American flight one.
Speaker 1: UM people adopted me more or less. I think because
Speaker 1: I was traveling alone and every country I stopped him,
Speaker 1: people just kind of brought me into their lives, and
Speaker 1: I think that's always started a healing process. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and we'll get into that he owing process. But I'm wondering, actually,
Speaker 1: at one point did you realize that you developed agent orange?
Speaker 1: Because for many guys it's you know, decades later and
Speaker 1: they noticed certain symptoms or certain crazy things happen in
Speaker 1: their lives. It was, it was. And my stepdad was
Speaker 1: a brilliant surgeon. And Thanksgiving, Ennery just noticed that my
Speaker 1: neck was asymmetrical. There was a swirling and he wanted
Speaker 1: to so he said, after dinner, I want to see you.
Speaker 1: And he found that the lymph notes have been were swollen.
Speaker 1: And even though he had a medical practice and I
Speaker 1: had medical insurance, he said, go to the v A.
Speaker 1: He I think he suspected that it was agent orange,
Speaker 1: and uh, I think I went through chemo and radiation
Speaker 1: and it has never come back. So I'm a fan
Speaker 1: of the v A for sure. I mean, that's that's amazing.
Speaker 1: The here. Yeah, they're good, they really are. They take
Speaker 1: a lot of grief and there are some problems that
Speaker 1: they've had but for the most part, they're a great organization.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like you didn't suffer some of the
Speaker 1: same consequences as your brothers. I mean, because I do
Speaker 1: know of people who uh come back with Agent Orange
Speaker 1: and then they have kids, and kids are born with
Speaker 1: all sorts of disabilities, and that's when they realized that
Speaker 1: this is what they got. I'm aware of that. And
Speaker 1: actually I tried to do a documentary about Agent Orange
Speaker 1: in Vietnam because it's been in their um water for
Speaker 1: years now and I read someplace that they have more
Speaker 1: malformed children than any other country around there, and I
Speaker 1: believe it's connected to Agent Orange. Yeah, I mean, it
Speaker 1: sounds like a logical connection to make it does Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't get anybody behind that. So I still
Speaker 1: think it would be an important film to do, but um,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how to make it happen. Yeah, there's definitely,
Speaker 1: you know, I think the interest out there in the
Speaker 1: community and also people who need to be educated on it. Um.
Speaker 1: But getting getting into the book, as you were saying
Speaker 1: about Pan M flight, oh one, uh, do you want
Speaker 1: to talk about the flight itself and then get into
Speaker 1: the healing As you were saying, I think people would
Speaker 1: love to hear about that and kind of get a
Speaker 1: teaser of what it's all about before they pick up
Speaker 1: the buck. You know, it was a wonderful idea as
Speaker 1: a business. You could buy a ticket on Pan Americans
Speaker 1: one and it was good for a year. It was
Speaker 1: very much like a year rail pass. You could leave
Speaker 1: one country and fly to the next and stay there
Speaker 1: for as long as you felt like it. Uh, And
Speaker 1: when you felt like moving on, you just wait for
Speaker 1: the next pen and flight one to come through that
Speaker 1: city and get back on Uh. Like I said, it
Speaker 1: was like a year rail passed for a year, and
Speaker 1: it went through I think about nineteen or twenty countries.
Speaker 1: I know I visited fifteen to sixteen of them. And
Speaker 1: again I think because I was by myself. Um, people
Speaker 1: would just introduce themselves. Or you go to a restaurant
Speaker 1: in Europe and you can't have the whole table to
Speaker 1: yourself if they're busy. Major deal will introduce you to
Speaker 1: somebody that's also somebody single and you make a new friend.
Speaker 1: So it was a wonderful thing to do to see
Speaker 1: the planet. And what I didn't realize one I started
Speaker 1: out on it was that I was. I needed heally,
Speaker 1: and if you look at war as the absence of humanity,
Speaker 1: humanity just kind of embraced me and over that, over
Speaker 1: that period of seven or eight months that I was gone,
Speaker 1: just welcomed me back to being a human. And I
Speaker 1: didn't certainly recognize it at first, but um, that's that's how.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, that's why the book was written.
Speaker 1: I have a cousin who was a very successful screenwriter
Speaker 1: and uh, he and I were talking to the night.
Speaker 1: He said, you know, you didn't seem to come back
Speaker 1: from Vietnam like a lot of guys that he knew
Speaker 1: that I had a lot of baggage. And we were
Speaker 1: having a good single malt scotch when we started to
Speaker 1: talk and I told him the story of the If.
Speaker 1: There was a young girl in Thailand. It was selling
Speaker 1: Coca Cola and she wanted to talk about America, h
Speaker 1: And I didn't really want to yet. I felt that
Speaker 1: I didn't understand what had happened to me and I
Speaker 1: wasn't really sure what was happening in America. And uh,
Speaker 1: but she had to hear about it. She wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about it, so uh and taut Matos. My cousin
Speaker 1: just said, my gosh, what else happened? And I started.
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about it as a healing process, but
Speaker 1: as we started to go through UM notes that I
Speaker 1: had taken UM, it became a parent that I had
Speaker 1: been um more or less pulled back into humanity to
Speaker 1: heal UM. The interesting thing about the combat stories because
Speaker 1: I wanted this story, the book to be about healing,
Speaker 1: but getting into it, I realized I can't really talk
Speaker 1: about healing unless I show people, uh, the savages, savages
Speaker 1: of war. And as it happens, when I came back
Speaker 1: and went back to college and got in a creative
Speaker 1: writing class, and the professor had me right, he said, right,
Speaker 1: what you know about, which, after coming back from Vietnam,
Speaker 1: it was strictly that's all I did know about. And
Speaker 1: I wrote a lot of short stories, never did anything
Speaker 1: with him. God it could create in the class, and
Speaker 1: then just put them away. And when this mission to
Speaker 1: write this book came up, I thought, well, let's pull
Speaker 1: them out. Maybe that will help people understand what it
Speaker 1: was like and why I needed to heal UM. So
Speaker 1: that was really the genesis of that story and why
Speaker 1: it got written. So what as you said that you
Speaker 1: you didn't really know you were going through a healing
Speaker 1: process as it was happening. What inspired you to actually
Speaker 1: take this flight as opposed to going the normal route
Speaker 1: of just going home in between your tours. Yes, uh, Actually,
Speaker 1: if you remember that time, America was it war with itself,
Speaker 1: very u divided, and protests and all of that, and
Speaker 1: we weren't, as Vietnam soldiers welcomed back to the country,
Speaker 1: and um, I wasn't because I've been in touch with
Speaker 1: guys who had been sent home and you know, wrote
Speaker 1: back about what it was like, and I just thought, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I want to go back there yet.
Speaker 1: And the other part of it was it was just
Speaker 1: an adventure really. At first. It was this wonderful flight
Speaker 1: that I could go see the entire planet, and I was,
Speaker 1: you know, as I left Vietnam, I think it was
Speaker 1: twenty one, and I just like, let's go see the planet.
Speaker 1: So between tours, the Army actually bought that first Pan
Speaker 1: American flight one and that was for a thirty day
Speaker 1: leave between tours. So I got on it and around
Speaker 1: the entire planet in thirty days, and that I think
Speaker 1: is what led me to believe I should slow down
Speaker 1: and take the trip again. So very exciting to go
Speaker 1: some some of the there's a couple of places I
Speaker 1: wouldn't go again, Uh like a rod Yeah, Pakistan, but
Speaker 1: um and I probably at this point with the world away,
Speaker 1: I don't think i'd go by myself ever again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just the world's changed that much. But when an absolute
Speaker 1: adventure for a kid twenty one years old Vietnam was
Speaker 1: did it get lonely taking this flight? I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: a single guy. I leve alone. I have taken vacations alone,
Speaker 1: but it's you know, a week at a time. I
Speaker 1: couldn't imagine being alone in the world. Uh, nowhere near
Speaker 1: anyone that you know, for that length of time. That's
Speaker 1: it's a it's got to be an experience. Well it was,
Speaker 1: But I my makeup is such that I don't mind
Speaker 1: being alone. But the other thing is I didn't really
Speaker 1: get a chance to be lonely because, as I said,
Speaker 1: people just kept they'd always want to talk to you,
Speaker 1: and I guess you I looked like a soldier. I'm
Speaker 1: sure my hair cut and out of bit clothes led
Speaker 1: everybody to believe I was a soldier, and they wanted
Speaker 1: to know what has been going on. So people just
Speaker 1: kept prying into my life. And even sitting on a plane,
Speaker 1: the guy next to you, I would want to talk
Speaker 1: to you, And like I said, at the restaurants, you
Speaker 1: didn't really get a chance if you're by yourself to
Speaker 1: be alone. Um. And then I'd meet people and we'd
Speaker 1: start talking. And some of these folks that I met,
Speaker 1: I would hang with him for a few days. They
Speaker 1: just kept saying, Well, we're going to dinner here somewhere tonight.
Speaker 1: Why don't you join us? And as you get to
Speaker 1: know them, I just picked up friends almost everywhere I went.
Speaker 1: Um from total straight your two friends sometimes only took
Speaker 1: an hour long dinner. I just didn't get a chance
Speaker 1: to be lonely. Really, Yeah, do you still talk to
Speaker 1: anybody that that you met on on that flight or
Speaker 1: you met during that trip? I should say no, I don't.
Speaker 1: I sometimes didn't even And this is if in a
Speaker 1: book too. I I sometimes don't even remember their names,
Speaker 1: just the experience. Um uh. There. I did for the
Speaker 1: film Solemn Promise interview a gentleman that was at cam Duck,
Speaker 1: which was an incredibly fierce battle bill right, he was
Speaker 1: awarded the Silver Star for what he did at cam Duck.
Speaker 1: And as it happens, one of these people I met
Speaker 1: on Pantim Flight one was a guy returning from Vietnam
Speaker 1: who had been wounded at cam Duck. But that was
Speaker 1: Those two experiences are like fifty years apart. UM, so
Speaker 1: the Bill is the only one that I talked to
Speaker 1: from that that battle. UM. One of my very good
Speaker 1: friends is a guy named vern Estes who was my
Speaker 1: detachment commander when I was flying the four Star. Both
Speaker 1: four stars UM had their own aircraft and their own crews,
Speaker 1: and Verne was a very senior WREN officer and master
Speaker 1: aviator and he ran the detachment. There was only five pilots,
Speaker 1: two pra aircraft and a check pilot who could sub
Speaker 1: who could come in if somebody was sick, and he
Speaker 1: and I talked all the time. We've talked ever since
Speaker 1: we left. We don't very often talk about the war.
Speaker 1: We talked about the aviation, about flying, and so he's
Speaker 1: the only one I've kept in touch with from that time.
Speaker 1: Got you so, well, that's pan Am Flight oh one. Uh.
Speaker 1: The book that you have out and I definitely recommend
Speaker 1: that people check that out. That's out now. You can
Speaker 1: get it right on Amazon and and pretty much anywhere else.
Speaker 1: Right there are the big ones are Amazon and Barnes
Speaker 1: and Noble. They don't carry the book, um, and there's
Speaker 1: about seven or eight others that distribute. I even had
Speaker 1: one person purchased the book in Sweden, right I kind
Speaker 1: of came is a surprise. But um, so it is
Speaker 1: available on both of those bards of Noble and Amazon,
Speaker 1: and it's the Healing Pan American Flight Zeroes are one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you never know, there's um there's people listening
Speaker 1: to the show. And I look at the statistics all
Speaker 1: around the world. It's, uh, it's pretty amazing. There's people
Speaker 1: listening in just about every country. So um yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's I'm looking at it right here in the Healing
Speaker 1: Pan American Flight oh one. And uh pick that up
Speaker 1: and we'll link to it in the description on Software
Speaker 1: radio dot com. But next, I want to get into
Speaker 1: the documentary that you about, which I would checking out,
Speaker 1: and that is a solemn promise. It's available at Storyteller
Speaker 1: Films dot tv. A solemn promise America is missing in action.
Speaker 1: And before we get into it, do you have any
Speaker 1: personal experience with guys who went am I a oddly
Speaker 1: none whatsoever. In my combat unit first tour, if one
Speaker 1: of our guys went down, we went and picked him
Speaker 1: up immediately. We never had an m I a while
Speaker 1: I was with the One UM. But when I did
Speaker 1: the History Channel film, I met a gentleman named Tom
Speaker 1: Lasser who was also an army helicopter pilot over there,
Speaker 1: and after the film we got to be friends. We'd
Speaker 1: need for lunch once in a while, and one day
Speaker 1: he said, you know, if if you or I had
Speaker 1: been shot down over there, they'd still be looking for us.
Speaker 1: And I hadn't thought of it. But what's you're The
Speaker 1: solemn promise that's made to you as someone going into
Speaker 1: combat is that you will not be left behind. And
Speaker 1: I started looking at it, and it's an incredibly powerful story.
Speaker 1: It's also one I think every American should hear about UM.
Speaker 1: In these days. It's a little tough to find things
Speaker 1: to be truly proud of in this country with all
Speaker 1: the divisiveness, But this is something that we we We
Speaker 1: promised people being sent to combat that we would always
Speaker 1: come looking for you. Yeah, and we do. Well. It's
Speaker 1: a promise we keep now, the d p A, the
Speaker 1: po w M, I a county agency. It's a bureaucracy
Speaker 1: like all of our agencies in this country, and they
Speaker 1: make mistakes, but they are the people that I interviewed
Speaker 1: for that film are devout about their duty, about their
Speaker 1: obligation to find our missing in action. And when I
Speaker 1: started researching it and found out that we have over
Speaker 1: eighty two thousand m i a's from all the way
Speaker 1: back to World War Two, I just I couldn't believe this.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe the stats, and then I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: the story. But so I decided that I was going
Speaker 1: to do a documentary film telling that story. And shortly
Speaker 1: after I got into it. I'm not sure how this happened,
Speaker 1: but a colonel at the Pentagon from Department of Defense
Speaker 1: called me up one day and says, how come you
Speaker 1: haven't asked our help for your film? And legend in
Speaker 1: filmmakers is that it's very difficult to get do D
Speaker 1: to help you, So it was quite surprising, and they
Speaker 1: started feeding me stories once they found out. They vetted
Speaker 1: me to find out how I would approach this story,
Speaker 1: and then they started we've got a family the agency
Speaker 1: meets with families of m A s several times a
Speaker 1: year to update them. And they said, we've got one
Speaker 1: of those in I think it was Oklahoma. Would you
Speaker 1: like to film it? And so yes, I did. And
Speaker 1: then they called up and said, a family of a
Speaker 1: Korean War M I a UH is going to his
Speaker 1: remains have been found and if the family okays it,
Speaker 1: would you like to film the ceremony at Arlington, And
Speaker 1: uh they okayed it a matter of fact, they loved it,
Speaker 1: and UH, so we went to Arlington and filmed that segment.
Speaker 1: And it is beautiful. When they find the remains of
Speaker 1: an M I a UM, they are given the entire
Speaker 1: military honors ceremony. It's just amazing, the Casons, horse drawn
Speaker 1: Cason and the twenty one gun salute. It was truly
Speaker 1: beautiful and I was very happy to have that to
Speaker 1: capture that for the film UM. And they do an
Speaker 1: incredibly good job of identifying remains because it just would
Speaker 1: be a painful experience to tell a family we found
Speaker 1: your son or brother and then find out it really
Speaker 1: wasn't them. But it was a very powerful story and
Speaker 1: it's something really UH. We as a country should be
Speaker 1: very proud of because there are we're the only country
Speaker 1: that makes that promise and then keeps it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: heard you say that during the documentary, and I was
Speaker 1: unaware of that we're the only country that does say that.
Speaker 1: And then, as you also say, unfortunately there's still eighty
Speaker 1: two thousand remaining that that are lost, and a lot
Speaker 1: of those guys from your era in Vietnam, you know,
Speaker 1: actually less and less with every war. Most of that
Speaker 1: eight two thousand is World War two. Um. But and
Speaker 1: and we started off with about I think it was
Speaker 1: and six of my in Vietnam, and the last number
Speaker 1: I saw was just over sixteen hundred that have not
Speaker 1: still been found. Um. A funny story. I was trying
Speaker 1: to find people to interview, families to interview with an
Speaker 1: m I A from World War two, and of course
Speaker 1: those are very very old people now. And my uh
Speaker 1: stepdad and mom had a medical practice in a little
Speaker 1: town called Blythe out on the Arizona River the Colorado River,
Speaker 1: and I was I went out to see my mom
Speaker 1: and I took her out to dinner, and I was
Speaker 1: so frustrated I couldn't find anybody that he had an
Speaker 1: M I A from World War two and my mom says, well,
Speaker 1: I have a friend who's husband was a pilot and
Speaker 1: he was shot down and never found from World War Two.
Speaker 1: My mom and uh my stepdad were military. They were
Speaker 1: in the military and they traveled all over the world.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, well, she's probably got a friend that's
Speaker 1: in Belgium or something. He said, well, where's your where's
Speaker 1: your friend? And she pointed off into a neighborhood and said, well,
Speaker 1: she lives right in there. So uh And I asked
Speaker 1: her why she didn't tell me. He said, well, I
Speaker 1: didn't think anybody would want to talk about it. The
Speaker 1: interesting thing that happened when I'd find a family to interview,
Speaker 1: they had been wanting to talk about this for for
Speaker 1: a long time. Um. Every one of the families I interviewed,
Speaker 1: I think there was three or four that made the
Speaker 1: final cut as interviews, but I talked to a lot
Speaker 1: of families about it, and it's a story that um.
Speaker 1: An early title for that film was collateral Damage America's
Speaker 1: m I A S. And that came from interviews a
Speaker 1: term and they felt like they were collateral damage. Um
Speaker 1: uh in a in a war. Wells A thing that's
Speaker 1: that's interesting and you know. Really sad about the film
Speaker 1: is kind of seeing the reactions to these family members
Speaker 1: and they're waiting for their family members and it's a
Speaker 1: it's a constant way, it just goes on and you
Speaker 1: really capture that. Wow, thank you they. I was amazed
Speaker 1: at some of the interviews that people would They've been
Speaker 1: carrying this burden with them forever, and they talked, try
Speaker 1: to describe their feelings and then many many times they
Speaker 1: would actually get choked up and break down in the
Speaker 1: interview because it was that close to him. They looked
Speaker 1: for closure for decades and you can tell that it
Speaker 1: was still so important, so close to them. Because they
Speaker 1: couldn't get through the interview, we'd have to stop the
Speaker 1: film and let them recover. Um. Um. It was a
Speaker 1: fascinating story. I'm glad we did it. It's it is
Speaker 1: available at the website, but also right now it's at
Speaker 1: Southern California PBS to see if they want to get
Speaker 1: involved with the film, so hopefully they will. That seems
Speaker 1: like an appropriate venue for it, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: done for that audience and uh yeah, if people want
Speaker 1: to check it out, and I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: this audience will want to. It's Storyteller Films dot TV
Speaker 1: and the film is a solemn promise America is missing
Speaker 1: in action. And as I mentioned before, you've done quite
Speaker 1: a few other films looking at the website, Stalin's Voice,
Speaker 1: A Tale of a City, The Personal Experienced, Helicopter Warfare
Speaker 1: in Vietnam, which is the one that you mentioned that
Speaker 1: you did for the History Channel. One last hit Crack
Speaker 1: Cocaine and the History of Army Aviation. So it's a
Speaker 1: lot of things, not just military history, but then also
Speaker 1: a documentary on the drug war. So you have a
Speaker 1: pretty wide array of subjects that you've tackled. And right
Speaker 1: now we're in pre production on a film on the
Speaker 1: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAH, because they it's an
Speaker 1: amazing organization. When you watch TV at night, the weather
Speaker 1: report really is generated by NOAH. No no matter how
Speaker 1: they portray it and talk about it, all this weather
Speaker 1: information comes from NOAH. It affects our agriculture or planning
Speaker 1: our storms, severe storms, extreme storms. They have. This is
Speaker 1: the organization that has planes that fly through hurricanes, and
Speaker 1: they have satellites, planes and ships all doing research and
Speaker 1: discovery all over the planet. UM and they are on
Speaker 1: the They are the point of the sphere on climate
Speaker 1: change and discovering how that's affectiveness and what possibly can
Speaker 1: be done about it and why it's happening. So originally
Speaker 1: I approached him to do just a film, just a
Speaker 1: one off, and it looks like now it's going to
Speaker 1: be a six to seven part series, but we are
Speaker 1: in the very early stages of it. That'll be great
Speaker 1: to see what was the inspiration behind that. As a
Speaker 1: pilot and a sailor as well, I've just always known
Speaker 1: that they were there, that that was the original source
Speaker 1: material for all the weather that we look at all
Speaker 1: over the planet, and UM was amazed that nobody knew
Speaker 1: about it. There almost nobody knows about it. So I
Speaker 1: did a solemn promise, went to UM uh Smithsonian Channel
Speaker 1: and I got a wonderful email back from the vice
Speaker 1: president Programming and she loved the film. But they weren't
Speaker 1: going to be doing anything military. However, if you're going
Speaker 1: to be doing something in science, UM, please let us know.
Speaker 1: So that's where we're going to probably take it first.
Speaker 1: We are in the pre production. We're still working out
Speaker 1: contracts with Noah, but they are all over it. People
Speaker 1: friends of mine, filmmakers said, you know, they're not going
Speaker 1: to whe there're a government agency. They really don't care
Speaker 1: about this. But when I approached them and started talking
Speaker 1: to them, they were just all over it about telling
Speaker 1: their story because nobody does know what they do. And
Speaker 1: there sister agency, NASA gets all of the press, and
Speaker 1: of course NASA's a lot sexier organization, but uh, uh,
Speaker 1: Noah's important to they. You know, one third of the
Speaker 1: crops in this country are affected by Noah's reports. So
Speaker 1: and navigation for both ships and planes. Uh, they're just
Speaker 1: about mixed up with everything that we do every day.
Speaker 1: Excelutely looking forward to that. Yeah, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of this audience will want to check that out once again.
Speaker 1: The website is Storyteller Films dot TV. Uh. This has
Speaker 1: been great and I'm very appreciative of the fact that
Speaker 1: Mark I Blanca got us in touch. I'm sorry that
Speaker 1: Jack was out for this one, because I think he'd
Speaker 1: probably have some good questions as well. But maybe we
Speaker 1: could follow up at some point. Um, any anything else
Speaker 1: that you're working on that you want a lot us
Speaker 1: know about now? The book and uh, the Voyage of
Speaker 1: Noah is the currently the working title for that documentary.
Speaker 1: And uh, that's there's a couple of smaller projects that
Speaker 1: I am trying to do, but that is really the
Speaker 1: focus of Storyteller Films at this point. So that's enough,
Speaker 1: by the way. Yeah, well, we'll stay in touch and
Speaker 1: let us know when when that comes about and we'll
Speaker 1: have you back on. Well, thank you, I I appreciate
Speaker 1: that very much. Been a pleasure talking to you, absolutely,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Richard. Great discussion there with Richard jell Orson.
Speaker 1: Of course, got to let you know, be sure to
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Speaker 1: see our full archive of shows. As always, keep up
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Speaker 1: Jack we Vaccoon, I have some really big guests on
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