Coronavirus Safety & Memorial Day

Dan Schaffer is joined by retired US Army Colonel Buddy Brook to discuss how to celebrate the heroes of Memorial Day during this strange time in our nation’s history.

Did come to show their respects, maintained a safe distance.

Every night at 6:00 p.m.

Here at waay-31 we are taking you deeper into the impact of coronavirus.

And tonight we're joined by retired u.s. army colonel buddy brook.

He spent decades in the military and served numerous tiewrlings in afghanistan, iraq.

Thank you for your service.

>> well, thank you for having me and thank you for everybody doing this.

I want to thank you and everyone else that supports the military.

It's because of you that our military is what it is, and i appreciate the things that you do also.

>> dan shaffer: it's an honor.

First of all, tell us a little bit about your service and what you experienced.

>> oh, i love the army.

Hang on a second.

This is always emotional.

Think of my boys i can see on the picture back here.

I joined the army in 1976.

I want to be two things growing up, a football player or a military -- in the military.

And wasn't a big call for 165 linebackers back in the '70s so i joined the military.

I served on five trained and operated on five different continents so god and the army and united states has blessed me the opportunity to go to a lot of places, do a lot of things and train and meet a lot of people.

I served in afghanistan and iraq multiple times and of course all the theaters, theaters around that and including africa.

>> dan shaffer: this is such an important day to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Tell awes little bit more about who your thoughts are with today.

>> buddy brook: well, thoughts with all those -- have thoughts with all those families that lost family members during any conflict.

You know, this day is not about veterans, it's about those who didn't come home.

And it's about their families and the sacrifice that they pay -- they gave up.

They sacrificed their lives so that we could enjoy the libert ies, not just of today but that we have.

What they mean to me is they laid their life on altar for the bill of rights, for the declaration of independence that all men are created equal.

We believe that.

We believe it sincerely.

And these people believed it enough to bleed for it.

So i can do nothing less but continuer to think about them, think about their families, do what i can -- whatever i could possibly do for them.

We only had one of the soldiers in my latest feem that passed away prior to now, not in conflict.

So that's what it means to me.

That bill of rights and that declaration of independence.

We swore our oath to the constitution, and that doesn't -- that doesn't retire when we retire.

>> dan shaffer: this is certainly an out-of-the-ordinary memorial day to say the least.

Did you attend any ceremonies or was this all strictly virtual for you?

>> buddy brook: no, sir, i was really proud that florence and lauderdale county chose to go ahead and have the memorial ceremony.

It's very important.

These people laid down their lives when it was dangerous, it was really dangerous knowing that the potential of them coming home was slim, in many cases, depending on what your job skill was.

So it's only right that we go out, that our city chose to still have the memorial and to honor it.

I was a bit disappointed that people were discouraged to attend, although i understand it for people that have underlying conditions and elderly and especially a lot of elderly vets so all the elderly veterans out there who didn't get to come, i want you to know we were thinking about you also when we were there today.

You're on our hearts and our minds.

And thinking about the families that lost their members also.

>> dan shaffer: i want to talk about those elderly vets for a moment.

The coronavirus having a devastating effect on nursing homes.

We've been reporting on that for weeks.

Many of our veterans are in these nursing homes.

Can more be done, you think, to protect them?

>> buddy brook: veterans -- i'm trying to frame this right.

My mother is in an assisted living home so i understand that at spect of it and their means of defense and elderly and they have underlying conditions and veterans in the veterans nursing homes certainly do.

I'm not a doctor and i'm not going to try to be one.

Yes, those maybe keeping them where they can voluntarily quarantine and stay in places where they would be safer, wouldn't be susceptible to it.

But i've spoke to a lot of elderly veterans and their opinion is we chose to go into combat, i think we can go into town.

At least that's what one had told me.

You know, these men, these women that served in world war ii, korea, vietnam, dr. stephens who spoke at the florence's ceremony , what was he 90 -- he flew over okinawa, he's out there.

So these are fearless people k.

We do more for them?

We can always do more for those who can have the inability now maybe now due to whatever circumstances, health, age, to cake of them, we're responsible for that.

As a veteran, as a father we're responsible four or babies and children, our elderly, those that came before us.

They -- everything from settlers to warriors.

They came before us.

We have what we have because of those before us.

We will have, as i enter my later years in life, the children that are coming up today, i will survive only as well as they're capable of maintaining this nation and this economy.

I've seen a lot of things through the years and this nation is still the best there is.

And i've been on five of seven continents.

>> dan shaffer: really well said thank you for that.

Are you still in contact with active duty service members and what has this pandemic been like for them?

>> buddy brook: well, since i don't have to give anybody any names, most of them think look, we wear mask when is we do gas masks, we wear masks, we're used to this.

We're used to being flexible.

We understand it, we drive on.

It's not a question of whether they like it or not.

They say we're soldiers, this is what we're told to do, this is procedures that have been put in place and we're going to follow them.

We're going to fight with a mask or we're going to fight without a mask.

We're going to train with a mask or train without a mask but we're going to be here.

I still have a lot of good friends on active duty and i do go and train and work as a contractor training soldiers and mentoring and doing military analysis, so i get to see them still on a regular basis.

So it's good to still be involv ed with them and know there's that much fire still left if their spirit.

>> dan shaffer: as a veteran, how would you like people to honor our military, fallen men and women.

This memorial day gets a lot of hate, it's about the barbecue and beaches.

How would you like to see people honor their service?

>> buddy brook: barbecue, go to the ceremony, then barbecue, go to the beach, get on the lake, and really enjoy the liberty and i mean that, the lib bir at the -- liberty and the decision- making process as a citizen as much as you possibly can.

If it's worth dying for, it's worth living for.

>> dan shaffer: and keep those people in the back of your mind all the time who gave you that right.

>> buddy brook: 100%.

Most veterans that are ute there and the ones i know would be happy to say i hope you got everything out of this day that you could.

Remember me but don't forget to live as american ganz amen.

Colonel brook, thank you