Speaker 1: Eight six, fifty five k r c B talk station.
Speaker 1: By the time I was wishing here on a very
Speaker 1: very happy Friday, I'm in a little extra good mood.
Speaker 1: Not that I don't love being here and talking to
Speaker 1: my listeners and enjoying engaging in conversations during the fifty
Speaker 1: five KRSC Morning Show, but every once in while I
Speaker 1: do need a little time off. So I'm taking what
Speaker 1: I'm calling a mental health vacation next week, Gonna sleep in,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to do my best to try to
Speaker 1: ignore the problems of the world. So it's just been
Speaker 1: I guess maybe a little too long since I took
Speaker 1: a break. So that's how I'm feeling. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that Dan Carroll will cover the situation quite well between
Speaker 1: Monday and Thursday, and then Kevin Gordon's gonna handle matters
Speaker 1: on Friday, so you can enjoy them and take a
Speaker 1: break from me. Maybe you'll be happier about that. I
Speaker 1: don't know, Maybe there's something you want to talk about.
Speaker 1: I was supposed to have an author on at this segment,
Speaker 1: but sadly not answering the phone. I know that always
Speaker 1: frustrates the hell out of Joe's treker Sean McMahon, who's
Speaker 1: covering for joe'streker this week. He'd taken it in stride,
Speaker 1: not taking it personally, but then again he didn't set
Speaker 1: the guest up Joe is. That's why he always takes
Speaker 1: it personally. So anyway, well can take phone calls me
Speaker 1: as a particular topic you want to talk about. I
Speaker 1: did bring it up earlier. I was just really laughing
Speaker 1: at the situation with the Bengals in Hamilton County now
Speaker 1: going to Columbus and asking for three hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: million dollars for pay course stadium upgrades which are going
Speaker 1: to total eight hundred and thirty million dollars. And I mean,
Speaker 1: it's mind numbing, isn't it. But I've been given props
Speaker 1: to the LICPO who actually interviewed the Mike Dwine among others,
Speaker 1: but Dan Monk and Paula Christian did the reporting on it.
Speaker 1: So props to them that the Senate Finance Chair Jerry
Speaker 1: Serena said that nobody from the Bengals are Hamilton kind
Speaker 1: of reached out to him. I mean, the budget just
Speaker 1: got passed the other day. That's the one that had
Speaker 1: six hundred million dollars in bonds for yes, the Cleveland
Speaker 1: Browns and they're huge, mega complex. Governor Wine also said
Speaker 1: he was expressed surprise at requests. He said he met
Speaker 1: with Alisha Resee last year about the state he but
Speaker 1: never heard anything further or any specifics regarding a proposal.
Speaker 1: So big mystery up in Columbus. And apparently no lobbyist
Speaker 1: on behalf of the Bengals either. Just pretty funny anyway.
Speaker 1: So do we have him now? Oh great, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the fifty five Casey Morning Show. Author Doug Ernest and
Speaker 1: the name of the book we're talking about this morning,
Speaker 1: The Spirit of a True Patriot, The inspiring story of
Speaker 1: retired Captain Doug Ernest, who also now is a successful businessman. Doug,
Speaker 1: is a pleasure to have you on the program. Let
Speaker 1: me start by thanking you for your service to our country.
Speaker 2: Thank you for that wonderful pleasure and that introduction. I
Speaker 2: cannot say thank you enough.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll get to the business because I think it's
Speaker 1: an integral part of what you learned from obviously a
Speaker 1: horrific situation in the military. You served in Operation Desert
Speaker 1: Storm and as you describe in the book, jumping out
Speaker 1: of your m one thirteen personnel carrier. It sounded a
Speaker 1: lot like what they experience on the beaches in Normandy.
Speaker 1: We get all this mortar rounds and gunshots and explosions
Speaker 1: all around you. I mean, how old were you at
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 3: I had just turned eighteen.
Speaker 2: I had joined the Army at the age of seventeen,
Speaker 2: spent six months in training, infantry, airboard school, and some
Speaker 2: other classes, and then I went off to Saudi Arabia
Speaker 2: about two weeks after I finished my training.
Speaker 3: Eighteen years old when that experience happened.
Speaker 1: Eighteen years old, and you know, I've sort of come
Speaker 1: to the realization over the years they have a cutoff
Speaker 1: with enlisting in the military because guys like my age,
Speaker 1: I'll be sixty in September, Doug and Douglas and you
Speaker 1: couldn't I have a problem with authority anyway. But jumping
Speaker 1: out of an M one th thirteen personnel carrier amid
Speaker 1: bombs and blasts and gunfire. That scares the living crap
Speaker 1: out of me right now. But as an eighteen year old,
Speaker 1: what was your emotional reaction went to that and the
Speaker 1: other warfare and the challenges you faced during the Operation
Speaker 1: Desert Storm.
Speaker 3: Reaction was really simple.
Speaker 2: I had a great relationship with the Lord when I
Speaker 2: was younger because I grew up in that type of
Speaker 2: environment with my family, attending a Lutheran school and always
Speaker 2: having a presence with the Lord. And I was just
Speaker 2: communicating with him consistently.
Speaker 3: Throughout the day, and so were my brothers that I
Speaker 3: was with.
Speaker 2: We were having prayer groups together, we were having spiritual caather,
Speaker 2: we were every time we could get together, we grab
Speaker 2: each other's hands and to say, please, Lord, guide us,
Speaker 2: give us direction, Please ask us the Lord to end
Speaker 2: this conflict quickly, because not only do we not want
Speaker 2: to get hurt, but.
Speaker 3: We you know, as human beings and loving men, we
Speaker 3: don't want to hurt other people. And it was hard
Speaker 3: as a kid.
Speaker 2: I think the hardest part too, was knowing that I
Speaker 2: might be inflicting collateral damage on people that we were
Speaker 2: firing these weapons at. That was hard for me because
Speaker 2: I grew up as a kid, peaceful and I did
Speaker 2: not want to hurt people. I did not want to
Speaker 2: I could not see the pain that I knew if
Speaker 2: I had hurt someone.
Speaker 3: I wasn't ready for that yet.
Speaker 2: I had learned how to train, I had done this
Speaker 2: in simulation, but I wasn't ready to actually kill another person.
Speaker 1: Is that the general mindset of the majority of your
Speaker 1: your comrades, because you know, we had this this ridiculous notion.
Speaker 1: And I feel so badly for the men and women
Speaker 1: and mostly men who served in combat of Vietnam and
Speaker 1: they got treated so miserably. They were called baby killers,
Speaker 1: and they got a reputation with all the Hollywood movies
Speaker 1: depicting Vietnam that they were just running around gleefully killing
Speaker 1: women and children. I think of, you know, like the
Speaker 1: machine gunner and the helicopter at Oh what was that movie?
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter, but that they relished in the fact that
Speaker 1: pulling the trigger had no concern or care for collateral damage.
Speaker 1: What's reality as you saw it in Operation Desert Storm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's the opposite, It's true.
Speaker 2: But what you see in these Hollywood movie when you
Speaker 2: have these cycle paths that are trying to, you know,
Speaker 2: inflict damage upon their human beings, ninety nine point nine
Speaker 2: nine percent of those that serve in the military in
Speaker 2: our country are always number one concerned is not hurting
Speaker 2: somebody else If you do have to inflect damage and
Speaker 2: use these ammunition.
Speaker 3: And these rounds.
Speaker 2: To get your point across, to get your territory, you
Speaker 2: do a shock and all, you get the damage over with,
Speaker 2: you attempt to get the other side to concede so
Speaker 2: that you can stop and you know, and we and
Speaker 2: that's the way we've concted been this in the military.
Speaker 3: In the last two hundred and sixty years of our country.
Speaker 3: Has there been some.
Speaker 2: Outliers where there was some things that maybe should't happen,
Speaker 2: of course, but that's that one percent of one percent
Speaker 2: of one percent that happened ninety nine point nine percent
Speaker 2: of people in the military. And the way that I
Speaker 2: was trained and brought up in the military is you
Speaker 2: just have a complete one hundred percent unadulterated shock and
Speaker 2: all program where you get to your point across and
Speaker 2: you get it done swiftly and quickly so that the
Speaker 2: enemy will concede and you can move on and we'll
Speaker 2: stop the damage on both sides so that the war
Speaker 2: will come to an end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, talking earlier this morning with the retired lieutenant colonel
Speaker 1: about the situation with Russia and Ukraine, and we just
Speaker 1: pray that they'll put end that ridiculous dispute soon because
Speaker 1: the loss of life is just overwhelming, and you know
Speaker 1: your your your faith in God. Is I somehow have
Speaker 1: a sense in having never been in combat or served
Speaker 1: in the American military ever since, if you have a
Speaker 1: profound belief that your connection with God and that you
Speaker 1: will be embraced and have this this wonderful after life,
Speaker 1: having you know, served God and committed to your faith,
Speaker 1: does that take the pressure off of the idea of dying?
Speaker 3: It does? It gives you you know?
Speaker 2: And you use that a few moments ago. You use
Speaker 2: that example from the movie called the Populipse. Now people,
Speaker 2: you know the kid. I watched that movie and then
Speaker 2: later I was putting myself on a battlefield and I
Speaker 2: asked myself, what in the world have I done?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 2: Yes, the people that I served with, the majority of
Speaker 2: us were Christians. We had a few people that were
Speaker 2: in my platoon that were Buddhists and so forth. But
Speaker 2: everybody had some type of outer spiritual connection to a
Speaker 2: lord or something they believe was a Lord, or something
Speaker 2: that they believe was their savior.
Speaker 3: They're guiding universal force.
Speaker 2: And without me having that, you know, for supports, I
Speaker 2: don't think I could have mentally or cognitively gotten true.
Speaker 3: So for me having that spiritual connection.
Speaker 2: To my Lord at that point of my time, not
Speaker 2: only did it resonate with me and my fellow brother
Speaker 2: that I was on the battlefield, it gave me that
Speaker 2: chance to be able to stay connected with the Lord
Speaker 2: and that relationship with my Savior.
Speaker 3: It stayed with me my whole life. It's with me
Speaker 3: this morning.
Speaker 2: You know, I just said a prayer, you know, only
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes ago, to make sure I speak well and
Speaker 2: I do a good job, you know, to serve my
Speaker 2: country and to serve my fellow sisters and brothers that
Speaker 2: are serving right now, so that I can do an
Speaker 2: excellent job. And I did this relationship where I feel
Speaker 2: like the Lord comes through me. He guides my life
Speaker 2: as a of where I'm going to go every day,
Speaker 2: and it just seems like it's just a part of
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 3: And I see, you.
Speaker 2: Know, in our communities in our country, most of our country,
Speaker 2: about seventy percent of it.
Speaker 3: His Christian base. So we do have this.
Speaker 2: Well that do embrace it, do use it, they can
Speaker 2: actually have a better love of help themselves and.
Speaker 3: To just have a better life that's connected to our Lord.
Speaker 1: So did your service in the American Military, along of
Speaker 1: course with your profound faith which is coming through clearly.
Speaker 1: Did that serve you in your business world? Because I
Speaker 1: understand that you have a very successful might be jealous
Speaker 1: about this corvette car dealership in Dallas, Texas. See you
Speaker 1: sell exclusively corvettes.
Speaker 2: Yes, and absolutely the name of my business is Corvette Warehouse.
Speaker 2: If you can just Google search a Corvette Warehouse, you
Speaker 2: can't miss it.
Speaker 3: We're the largest corvette dealer in the Southwest.
Speaker 2: And the skill sets in the military absolutely one percent, definitely,
Speaker 2: without a doubt, added to the business sense of mine,
Speaker 2: my business acumen. They teach you skill sets in the
Speaker 2: military like how to get things done, how to make
Speaker 2: things happen, how to work with a team, just playing
Speaker 2: all down to to the nitty gritty skill sets that
Speaker 2: you need in life to be successful, things that you
Speaker 2: need to need in life to be happy, to be fulfilled,
Speaker 2: to be I were to work hard and then no
Speaker 2: one to take the break and sit on the sideline.
Speaker 2: So I learned these skill sets and I had the
Speaker 2: best mentors and the best leaders anyone could ever ask
Speaker 2: for in the military. When I was in the infantry,
Speaker 2: I had the best leaders. When I was in a
Speaker 2: staff job, working at a brigade when I was doing
Speaker 2: boring workle supply and signing for millions dollars of equipment
Speaker 2: and never being on the field, you know, being in
Speaker 2: a hotel room if you will. I never had a
Speaker 2: bad leader. I've been so fortunate. I've met so many people.
Speaker 2: I've everybody in the military, the most nine to nine
Speaker 2: point nine percent of them want to get ahead. They
Speaker 2: want to educate themselves, they want to learn, they want
Speaker 2: to be good parents, they want to be good people
Speaker 2: that want to take care of themselves physically. So learning
Speaker 2: these skill sets one hundred percent gave me access to
Speaker 2: the knowledge. It gave me access where to go get
Speaker 2: the knowledge I need. And when I got out of
Speaker 2: the military, I set my goal. You know that I
Speaker 2: was a hobby that I loved playing with corvettes, that
Speaker 2: I wanted to do something I love and I was
Speaker 2: passionate about.
Speaker 3: And I definitely.
Speaker 2: Understood that these skill sets let me into the direction.
Speaker 2: I'm using my falling in life so that I could
Speaker 2: be good at it, but also having something when I
Speaker 2: can enjoy.
Speaker 3: Every day of my life.
Speaker 2: Then one of other things I'd like to that book
Speaker 2: on the Spirit of a true Patriot. I write about
Speaker 2: the skill sets you learned in the military. You know,
Speaker 2: the quick heuristics, the shortcuts, theology, being on the move,
Speaker 2: always doing something, to have your body in motion every day.
Speaker 2: If you have your body in motion, your inertial forces
Speaker 2: will propel you forward. You can't be three hundred pounds
Speaker 2: overweight and expect to be a great business leader. You
Speaker 2: can't be four hundred pounds overweight and expect to be
Speaker 2: a great parent, because you're going to pass those skill
Speaker 2: sets off to your children. So I learned that if
Speaker 2: I can percent use the skill sets that I learned
Speaker 2: in the military and passes off to people, it actually
Speaker 2: reinforces my skill sets and it gives me a sense
Speaker 2: of satisfaction to fulfillment that I've done the best I
Speaker 2: can do by passing off these heuristics that I learned
Speaker 2: to other people in this world.
Speaker 1: So the name of the book is the Spirit of
Speaker 1: a true paytach inspiring story of my guest today, retired
Speaker 1: Captain Douglas j Ernest. Who are you hoping reads this book?
Speaker 1: I mean, I obviously had a target audience in mind,
Speaker 1: and I presume it's maybe the entrepreneurial folks out there.
Speaker 1: But who else might benefit from a book? Douglas, You know, that's.
Speaker 3: A great question, and I was When I wrote this book.
Speaker 2: My intent was to direct it towards people that were
Speaker 2: thinking about military service, or those the parents that were
Speaker 2: thinking about military story, because that's where my aim was.
Speaker 2: But as I wrote the book, I was told later
Speaker 2: by friends and colleagues, man, that's a good book. That's
Speaker 2: a management book, that's an executive leadership book. And I
Speaker 2: didn't recognize that part of it until after I wrote it,
Speaker 2: because I had been living this life of leadership and
Speaker 2: going to leadership school, and it's just abred character.
Speaker 3: It's a part of my life.
Speaker 2: Later when I read it, I've been told, and I
Speaker 2: reread the book over and over that it is a
Speaker 2: management book. It is something how you can not only
Speaker 2: manage a business, manage your life, manage your career, but
Speaker 2: also have a better life.
Speaker 3: That's your physical, what you're.
Speaker 2: Spiritual with your children, being a great parent, being involved
Speaker 2: in your community. It just has just basic shortcuts they
Speaker 2: teach you in the When I joined the military, I
Speaker 2: was twenty five pounds overweight. After I joined the military,
Speaker 2: that weight was gone, and I've never put that on.
Speaker 2: I'm in the best physical shape you can possibly imagine
Speaker 2: for the last thirty years of my life. I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm twenty years old. And it's because of this
Speaker 2: that they taught me in the military. Well, this book,
Speaker 2: Spirit of a True Patriot has those shortcuts in there
Speaker 2: that you can use to make improvements in your life,
Speaker 2: and I believe it will help anyone that will take
Speaker 2: the plunge and go spend the fifteen bucks to take
Speaker 2: the opportunity and buy the book.
Speaker 1: Well, and I'm sure it sounds extremely uplifting and inspirational,
Speaker 1: and that's a lot. That's a lot of what we
Speaker 1: need right now. Douglas Ernest, thanks again for your service
Speaker 1: to our country and for the inspiring book. I'll encourage
Speaker 1: my listeners to get a copy of it, which will
Speaker 1: make them easy to do at fifty five KRC dot com.
Speaker 1: Will add it to our blog page with a link
Speaker 1: to buy a copy. Thanks again, man, it's been inspiring
Speaker 1: talking with you man really has well.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate you, and I
Speaker 3: appreciate you getting the message out to those people out
Speaker 3: there that need want it.
Speaker 2: Some more than's good stuff, so help our nation it prosperous,
Speaker 2: and continue this nation for another two hundred.
Speaker 3: And sixty years.
Speaker 1: Amen to that, brother, You have a fantastic week, you too,
Speaker 1: coming to an eight twenty one I fifty five Karsty
Speaker 1: Talks