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TRANSCRIPT (AUTO-GENERATED):
[ALLEN] Hey, greetings everyone. Lieutenant Colonel Allen West and welcome to the Steadfast and Loyal Podcast.
[MUSIC] Save us all. They're gonna burn it down. Save us all. Before they burn it down.[/Music]
[ALLEN] Hey, ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the Steadfast and Loyal Podcast. As you know we have an incredible day that is coming up and that's called Memorial Day.
I don't believe we should be saying Happy Memorial Day. I think that's kind of weird. I think we should say Honor Memorial Day. And we have a very special guest with us who we're going to talk about what Memorial Day means to us old soldiers and what we as veterans should be doing. What our nation should be doing to show that increased devotion to those who have made the last full measure of devotion.
Colonel Mikel Burroughs (retired) was born in Peoria, Illinois in 1957. In January of 1975 he enlisted in the United States Army Delayed Entry Program as a private E-1. Colonel Mikel J. Burroughs retired as the brigade commander of the 89th Sustainment Brigade. Colonel Burroughs served 9 years of enlisted service from the grade of E-6 Staff Sergeant and 29 years of commissioned service, culminating in the end of his 37 years of continuous service in the United States Army, Illinois National Guard and the United States Army Reserves on February 1st of 2012.
He is a graduate of Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and received his master's in Strategic Studies through the Army War College. His awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf clusters, Army Commendation Medal with Silver Oak Leaf cluster, Army Achievement Medal with Oak Leaf cluster, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star, Global War on Terrorism, Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Humanitarian Service Medal for the Mississippi Floods of 1993. Colonel Mikel Burroughs now resides with his wife and mother in The Woodlands, Texas. He is the current Chief Executive Officer and former Chairman of the Board for Victory for Veterans Incorporated, a member of the Board of Directors for the National Veterans Transition Service, aka REBOOT, and Senior Director of Military Civilian Debt Acquisition and Relief for RIP Medical Debt, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. He has volunteered his time with Warriors for Life weekly over the last seven years. Colonel Burroughs is married to Bella Burroughs and they have three daughters, Katie, Madeline, and Lauren. Colonel Mikel Burroughs, thank you so much, and welcome to the Step Fast and Lower Podcast.
[COL BURROUGHS] It's a real pleasure to be here.
[ALLEN] And we so appreciate and honor your service to this great nation. So we've got Memorial Day coming up and in my monologue I share about what it meant to me. I mean, my dad is buried in Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia and my father-in-law in Arlington National Cemetery. Of course, there in Virginia. What does Memorial Day mean for you and what should it mean for the United States of America?
[MIKEL BURROUGHS] Well, to me, it really means an opportunity to go out and pay honor and respect to all of those veterans that have served before us, whether they've served in war or whether they've served during peacetime.
And it's a great event for families and children to actually go out, spend time, and get a true meaning of that honor and respect.
And a nice way to pay it by placing a flower at the foot of each one of the graves of those who have passed before us. And yeah, I mean, that's what we've been doing for the last seven years at several cemeteries. And we continue to grow each year.
We want to cover all of the veteran cemeteries across the United States. That's our ultimate goal. But yeah, just honor and respect for the remaining. Do you get a sensing that this country, for whatever reason, is forgetting what that nature of Memorial Day is? Of course, it started out as decoration day, where people did exactly what you're saying is to show that respect and regard by decorating those gravestones with flowers.
[ALLEN] You know, you think about service hours for high school kids or middle school kids. Do we not stress this any more? Is this losing a little bit of relevance in our history right now?
[MIKEL BURROUGHS] I think on one hand it is because a lot of people may be not related to veterans or related to serving our country because there is a small amount of us. And we only have about 18 or 19 million veterans left in the United States right now. But on one hand, I think people think it's just a three-day weekend to have barbecues and kind of hang out at the pool or go out to the river or get on the lake or go camping. But then there's another group of people, like myself and other veterans, that really understand what it's all about and families that are related to veterans or have loved ones that were veterans that are buried at these cemeteries. And they go out there and they place the bouquet or they place the roses or they spend time with their loved ones. And even in our groups, with a flower on every grave that we've been hosting, we're actually hosting at nine cemeteries this year, including Houston National Cemetery, we get Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups that come out and actually support us and help us with our event. And I think that's great. And if we continue to march down that road, I think that we can bring it back in a great way.
[ALLEN] Let's talk about the event that you are having where we go out and we do show that honoring of Memorial Day and Decoration Day, nine different cemeteries. Can you tell us about the day, what time and the cemeteries where people and then how can folks find you and make sure that they can join in the effort maybe?
[MIKEL BURROUGHS] Oh, absolutely. So at all nine cemeteries, we're going to be doing this on the 29th, actually on Memorial Day. We start early in the morning at each one of the locations. I would be hosting the seventh event at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, which in turns over 225,000 veterans that have been laid to rest.
Myself, my wife and my mother, we actually started there with 500 roses and it's just grown every year. We don't have all 125,000 covered, but we're getting there. And then just to go around the country real quick, we're also located at Oregon State Veterans Cemetery up in Evansville, Wyoming. We complete the event at Mound City in Mound City, Illinois at that Veterans Cemetery.
Going north, we're in Augusta, Michigan at Fort Custer National Cemetery. And then as we come back down south, we are at Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso. We are at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Central Texas Cemetery in Colleen, Texas. That is where my father-in-law is buried, who died from suicide as a Vietnam veteran. So we honor him by covering that. And then, of course, the Houston National Cemetery here in Houston. And yeah, just a great event. And if people really want to get involved, there's still a lot of time. They can go to our website at victoryforveterans.org, go to the event page. There's a dropdown and go to a flower on every grave. And they're at the bottom of the page. They can click on the cemetery that they want to attend or volunteer. And they can also make a donation for the roses.
And really, it's two-part for the donation on the roses. One part of it is to actually buy the rose. And then a certain percentage comes back to Victory for Veterans, or our mission of healing veterans through our hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers that we have just purchased and started up in Huntsville, Texas at our first life readiness center. This is to provide healing for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and other invisible wounds. So not only is this a great event to go out and pay respect and honor to our veterans, but it is helping save future veterans' lives.
[ALLEN] And how about corporate sponsorships? Do you accept corporate sponsorship through Victory for Veterans as well?
[MIKEL BURROUGHS] We absolutely do. As a matter of fact, TDE Credit Union is one of our bronze sponsors at $1,000. We also have sponsors at $2,000, our silver sponsors. And then we have gold sponsors at $3,000. And these ensure that we have a lot of roses for all the people that are signing up to really come out and either pay respect to their loved ones that are buried at those cemeteries, and along with paying respect, they will place a rose down that entire row where their loved one is buried. And if they don't have a section, we assign a section to them. So we just make it a great event. We take a lot of great photographs and some of the pictures that we've been able to capture from some of these cemeteries with children and loved ones placing the rose, they're just phenomenal. They're great.
[ALLEN] And that's how we build that next generation of remembrance and patriotism and understanding the level of sacrifice and commitment that these men and women have made. Now, you talked about something that was near and dear to my heart when I was back in Congress. We worked very hard to get the hyperbaric chambers down in South Florida. You know, so many of our veterans are still suffering from, like you said, that unseen enemy out there. And we still have this problem with veteran suicides. Sadly, it's still at a high water mark like 20 to 22 a month. What are some of the other things that Victory for Veterans are doing to help and save the lives of our veterans so that we have a reduction in the suicides?
[MIKEL BURROUGHS] Oh, absolutely. Thanks for asking. Well, of course, our life readiness center is going to be our primary mission. And we hope to open up five locations here in the great state of Texas. Like I said, we've started up in Huntsville. We've partnered with the doctor up there. We're looking to open up in Kingwood for the Houston area, Austin, San Antonio and the Dallas Fort Worth area. And then we have 30 other 35 other large city locations around the country that have a heavy veteran population. But besides that, you know, we just don't want to provide them with the H.B.O.T. therapy and other modalities that we're looking at. Right. That are holistic. We want to keep connected with them. So when my after my father in law died from suicide on eight December 2015, we created a program called Warriors for Life. And that's just what it is. It's Warriors for Life. It's us connecting online seven days a week. Free to veterans, free to first responders. There's a lot of our veterans are first responders and caregivers. Right. The people that are taking care of our veterans that are suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma and other invisible wounds. And we keep them connected. We provide peer-to-peer support. And all of our facilitators that do this out of the kindness of their heart on a volunteer basis, they are all 100 percent disabled veterans that have either suffered from traumatic brain injury or from PTSD or a combination of both or military sexual trauma. And we even have a women's day where just women, veterans and caretakers can get together and have that peer-to-peer support where sharing is caring. And that those are our two primary missions. And, you know, we're going to continue to do that, at least until the day they hold my flag. But I'll have I'll have somebody taken over when I'm gone. Oh, absolutely.
[ALLEN] You always have to have that succession of command. That's one of the things that they have talked to us about and taught us in the military. And, you know, when I think about all of these different veterans organizations that are out there in the private sector, 501 C threes, it kind of gets under my skin that we have to have that, that we're not seeing, you know, our country, our government take care of the veterans like they should. And when I read headlines about homeless veterans, first of all, we shouldn't have homeless veterans, but homeless veterans being displaced for people that are here illegally and that they're getting cash money and free cell phones.
Do you think that that is a contributing factor to some of the depression and dejection that we see in our veterans community? Because they were willing to give their all, but yet we don't seem to see a government that wants to respond in kind.
[MIKEL BURROUGHS] I'm sure that that is a contributing factor. You know, there's there's no doubt about that. We, you know, the illegal alien situation is very it's supercharged in my family because, you know, my wife's mother died from an illegal alien in California in 2005.
So, you know, that's that's really that's a tough subject for us here. Yeah, but I think I think one of the things, you know, that we -- we really, really, really need to take a look at is the fact that people like myself, you know, other veterans, you know, that have served our country, you know, need to go out and take that service and take what we've learned right as a warrior. And put it to good use to help save our veterans, you know, because to me, they're a commodity.
And another thing that we can do is and I'm kind of putting a little bit of a note in here for the National Veterans Transitions Service is we need to do a better job of transitioning them off of active duty. And there is a couple of organizations just like Reboot that I've said on the board of directors for for seven years that's been around for 13 years.
They just do a great job. And and, you know, they are getting veterans employed and they're helping them transition. And if they don't want to go to a regular job, they're helping them in the trades or they're helping them become an entrepreneur. So I think those are the things that we've got to continue doing. And I can tell you, as part of our life readiness center mission up in Huntsville, we are connected with Fort Sam Houston University up there and all of their medical students. They're going to be writing some awesome white papers and doing some great research right along with us. And we want to get those white papers in front of the VA and say, hey, you know, make our organization part of your community support out there, you know, and get veterans out here to to try, you know, H-Bot.
You know, as another means or another way of providing holistic healing. So that's our futuristic job. And, you know, we hope we can get the government's attention, especially at the VA level and say, hey, you know, work with us. Let us put this model together. Let us get it out to 35 cities and then let us get into the rural America where we have veterans that are 40 or 50 or 60 miles away from the nearest VA.
[ALLEN ] Yeah. And those veterans should be able to go to any local medical facility. But I have yet to hear anyone say anything bad about the hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatment for the traumatic brain injury. So as we get ready to wrap up, tell us, how can people reach out and find you for Reboot, for Victory for Veterans? And once again, how they can connect and hopefully participate in the Rose Lane ceremonies at your nine different national cemeteries next Monday.
[MIKEL BURROUGHS] Absolutely. You know, they can connect with me on victory for veterans dot org. They can sign up. It's free to sign up. There's there's no charge and they can send me a message through that. They can connect with me there. They can connect with me on Facebook under Mikel M. I. K. E. L. Burroughs. I'm the only one in the Woodlands with that spelling, you know, and they can also connect with me via email. And it's just Mikel M. I. K. E. L. B. at victory for veterans dot org and Victory for Veterans is spelled all the way out. F. O. R. Veterans dot org. Yeah, reach out to me. I respond to everybody. I have people, you know, emailing me all the time on all the Facebook pages that we have for all nine cemeteries. And, you know, they're signing up. They're volunteering. I respond to them. I let them know where we're meeting. It's just been a great event. And like I said, I hope to cover the entire United States. That's my goal with victory for veterans. We're adding two more next year. We're adding one from the Dallas-Fort Worth area next year. And we're going to add Fort Snelling up in Minnesota.
[ALLEN] Well, if you ever get a chance to add in Marietta Marietta National Cemetery there north of Atlanta, that's like I said, where my dad and my mom are buried. But thank you so much for your continued service to this country and service and support to our veterans and making Memorial Day what it's supposed to be honoring the traditions of Decoration Day and honoring Memorial Day. Colonel Mikel Burroughs, thank you so very much. God bless you and Army Strong.
[MIKEL BURROUGHS] Thank you. And thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
[ALLEN] Yes, sir. Special thanks to you and everyone for joining us on this episode of the Steadfast and Loyal podcast. And also Colonel Mikel Burroughs for being with us to talk about what Memorial Day really means. As always, please click the like button and share this podcast. And until next time, Steadfast and Loyal.
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