Honor Those Who Served This Memorial Day

I never served in the military, although I tried to enlist at one point in my young and wild life.  It was right after a stint with AC/DC.  I spent a few years working with touring rock bands like them in the eighties.  Let’s just say my enlistment did not work out due to my refusal to follow through with certain testing requirements.

Today I’d pass those tests with flying colors.  I was young and stupid back then… Now I’m no longer young!  In other words, I’m too old to serve in the armed forces.  Yet, that won’t stop me from trying to give back to those who have served…

When I reflect on my incredible life, I cannot help but think that were it not for my freedom, I would have nothing.  If it were not for those brave men and women who have served in the armed forces, none of us would have the freedoms we enjoy today.  To the point, everything I have accomplished or accumulated would not have been possible had it not been for our military.

With that, I owe the deepest gratitude to those who have served in our military.  Please help me honor and remember those heroes this Memorial Day.

Nearly two years ago, I was appointed to the strategic board of directors of a new startup non-profit named Disabled Veterans Insurance Careers, Inc. (DVIC).  The DVIC board is comprised of a wide variety of retired military officers and private sector executives.  One of my fellow DVIC board members exemplifies those we should honor and remember on Memorial Day.

Major General (retired) James L. Dozier was born in Arcadia, Florida and a graduate of West Point Military Academy.  General Dozier served in our military for more than 35 years.  He served with the US Army and NATO with two tours in the Pentagon.  While serving in Vietnam, General Dozier received a Silver Star and Purple Heart for wounds he received during combat.  Later in his military career, General Dozier became the only flag officer of the US Military to be kidnapped by terrorist while his wife was chained up and held at gunpoint.  After a grueling 42 days of captivity where he sustaining permanent hearing loss as a result of being forced to listen to exceedingly loud music for hours on end, General Dozier was rescued by a special operations team.

As I mentioned previously, General Dozier and I serve together on the DVIC Board.  DVIC’s mission is to:

Train, and generate meaningful opportunities for, physically disabled veterans who will excel at proactively cross selling personal lines insurance products on behalf of leading independent insurance agencies. 

DVIC needs to raise enough capital to exceed our go/no-go threshold.  Once we accomplish our financial goal, we will begin to create a high-tech virtual operation for service-disabled veterans who will be well trained in sales or customer service, then either matched with local agencies for job placement, or they may choose to work within our virtual call center environment.

If you, or anyone you know, would like to help us help veterans find private sector employment, we’d love to hear from you.  Of course, donations are greatly appreciated.  For more information, please visit http://www.dvic.us.

So before you complain about your “bad day at the office”, take a moment to reflect on what the kind of days the likes of General Dozier and others have had serving our country; and honor and remember those who made it possible for us enjoy our freedom.