As I said in the podcast, I was watching a Sopranos episode when this got me thinking. Tony, Paulie, and Christopher were in Italy, and when an Italian found out Paulie was an American, he said something to the effect, “Your plane cut our ski lift.” and walked away.
That got me thinking, and then looking around. I remembered this happening while I was in the Marine Corps. A USMC EA-6B Prowler cut a ski lift line in Italy and killed all 20 people on the lift. It was significant because the pilots were found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marine-jet-severs-ski-lift-cable-in-italy
Not guilty? No guilt at all for killing 20 people? The pilot, Captain Richard J. Ashby was flying about 300 feet off the ground. 300 feet was well below the mandated 2000 feet for operating in that area. Also, the pilot, Captain Ashby and navigator, Captain Schweitzer destroyed the video flight recorder.
While they were acquitted of the charges for manslaughter and homicide, they were found guilty of obstruction of justice. The end result being they were kicked out of the Marine Corps.
Captain Ashby argued that equipment failures on the aircraft led to the ski lift being compromised. Suffice to say, the Italian government did not see it the same way. I would say that an experienced pilot knows the difference between 300 and 2000 feet altitude wise.
The fact that the flight video recorder was destroyed leads me to believe that there was some measure of guilt. I don’t know, and I can’t really understand how these pilots were found to be not guilty. I am sure the families involved still have a difficult time answering that question. OMR sends
I was doing a livecast at Veteran Owned Veteran Operated in Abington, MA. Jonathan Gosselin asked me to talk about South Shore Veterans Assistance during the livecast. SSVA is a local group from the South Shore area of Massachusetts who support Veterans. Many of these individuals are civilians.
Jonathan said it would be a good idea to reach out to SSVA Inc. after the livecast to learn more about the good work they are doing. It is also a good idea if you need custom screen printing or promotional materials to go to VOVO Inc on 1540 Bedford Street in Abington. Check out Jonathan’s website – https://vovoprints.com/ to learn more.
So I got on Facebook and sent a message on the South Shore Veterans Assistance Page – https://www.facebook.com/SouthShoreVeteransAssistance/ and Cindy got right back me. SSVA would be putting together gift bags for Veterans that Monday night, would I come down and check it out?
Whitman VFW Post 697 is located about 40 minutes south of Boston, depending on traffic:) The VFW has several events and a friendly bar. Walking into the room, there crew was already in motion assembling the gift bags. Cindy introduced me to me to Dave Andrews who is the treasurer for SSVA. Since SSVA is a registered 501c3, they are creative in how the advocate veterans. Dave told me that the majority of the members of SSVA are civilians. A civilian himself, Dave came from a military family wanted to serve Veterans in a meaningful way. You can watch my conversation with Dave here – Facebook Livestream with Dave Andrews of SSVA .
I wanted to leave you with this. You can make change right where you if look hard enough. SSVA has been doing this for many years, and is always looking for help. Can’t wait to come back and find out more. Thanks for all you do, Merry Christmas!
This is the amazing crew that put together the gift bags for Veterans
LiveCast at Veteran Owned Veteran Operated – 12/09/18
VIcki Smith – Fitts talks with me about the documentary 21 Years a Folded Flag.
Owned. What does that mean? Business owners know about the word owned. It has been a good thing to talk with so many Veterans who are business owners. Many times that ownership is dealing with problems that customers never know about, all to take care of family and provide for the future.
I met Jonathan Gosselin recently at a 22Kill Event in Abington, MA. We had done business in early 2018, but never met face to face. We started talking about the OMR brand and my goals for 2019 when he hit me with an idea. I could come to his store and livecast from VOVO INC (https://vovoprints.com/). So we did a livecast as couple of weeks ago and it went great. Jonathan aske me to come back on Sunday December 9th to talk with other Veterans and people who support us.
Setting up is a cinch now and it gave me a chance to talk with Jonathan about what he is doing. He has given me some great ideas for promoting Oscar Mike Radio, and we got some laughs from the last livecast I did.
The question was asked about my feelings. Was I nervous? Did I think this was going to be difficult? I was a little bit nervous and then once the cast went live I was ok. I didn’t really think about anything other than listening to guests and talking about why we were all here on Sunday.
Jonathan didn’t really talk a lot on this livecast, and there was a reason for that. He wanted people to get one on one with me to talk about what had worked for them during hard times and how they used what they learned to meet their goals. In that regard, this livecast was a great success. You can watch the video below and let me know what you think. Go to Facebook, Like and Follow VOVO INC and Oscar Mike Radio.
Veterans, you are not alone. We need to own our success and keep building on what we have no matter the obstacle.
