|int| Navigating Depths and Resilience: Navy Veteran Bart Bartholomew's Voyage of Service and Survival | Ep 99

When Bart Bartholomew, a Navy veteran with an incredible life story, joins me, Thad David, you know you're in for a journey that traverses the depths of the ocean and the human spirit. Bart's unexpected draft notice at 17 thrust him into an adventure with the Navy, a tale of resilience he narrates with humor and honesty. His vivid recounting of boot camp antics, the camaraderie found on the flight deck, and the inter-service rivalries unfolds a tapestry of military life at sea that's both engaging and enlightening.

Throughout our conversation, we pay a special tribute to the unsung heroes of military conflict – the nurses and doctors whose dedication often goes unnoticed. Bart shares poignant stories of deployment, including a life-altering return home and the unpredictable nature of naval service during the Tet Offensive. His experiences shed light on the emotional toll of being away from family during critical moments and the complexities of reintegration into civilian life, while also emphasizing the profound bonds formed in service.

As the episode draws to a close, Bart and I tackle the necessity of support networks for veterans transitioning to civilian life. We discuss the imperative of immediate outreach to veteran organizations to combat the devastating issues of homelessness and mental health struggles. It's an intimate sign-off with a powerful reminder: veterans are valued, and their contributions to our society are immeasurable. Join us to honor their service and learn more about the remarkable work done by Veterans Honoring Veterans, ensuring the legacies of our service members are never forgotten.

Contact Thad - VictoriousVeteranProject@Gmail.com

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

Bart Bartholomew: 0:09

deployed to Vietnam in October. And one story that's kind of cute it I'm on the flight deck and I'm no longer. Can I see California? California is gone, no land, can't see anything and there's just water out there. And I'm just a young, 18 year old. I'm just looking at all this water and an older Seder came up to me and kind of looked, saw how young I was, couldn't shave stuff like that and he says a lot of water out there in there. I just I said yes, sir, there is. And he says that's just the top.

Thad David: 0:47

My name is Thad David. I'm a former Marine recon scout sniper with two deployments to Iraq. As a civilian, I've now facilitated hundreds of personal and professional development trainings across the country, and it struck me recently that the same things that help civilians will also help veterans succeed in their new roles as well. Join me as we define civilian success principles to inspire veteran victories. Welcome to another episode. I'm here today with Bart Bartholomew, a Navy veteran. How are you doing, bart?

Bart Bartholomew: 1:17

Hey dad, I'm doing great Good to meet you. Thank you for doing this.

Thad David: 1:20

Oh man, absolutely Thank you. I'm really happy that you're joining on the show and I'm really excited to hear your story.

Bart Bartholomew: 1:27

Well, thank you.

Thad David: 1:28

Yeah, absolutely. What's that?

Bart Bartholomew: 1:31

I say it's not that big of a story, but it's kind of fun.

Thad David: 1:35

Well, I think it speaks to your humility, because I think you've got a pretty wonderful one. But let's dive into it. And when did you join the Navy? What got you to join the Navy?

Bart Bartholomew: 1:46

Uncle Sam sent me a little piece of paper that said you're drafted.

Thad David: 1:50

Okay, and then-.

Bart Bartholomew: 1:52

So when I got that piece of paper I talked to some other people that had it listed prior to this. So I said, you know, I think the Army sounds like a lot more work, navy sounds like a lot more adventure. So I crossed the state lined into Kansas, found a Navy recruiter and said, hey, is it okay to do this kind of thing? Is it legal? He says absolutely. So I joined the Navy.

Thad David: 2:16

Oh wow, so you actually got drafted and then you just jumped over a different state and then enlisted into the-.

Bart Bartholomew: 2:25

Well, there were recruiters in Colorado, but they were in Denver, a long ways away, and I knew there was a recruiter over in Gooden, kansas, and that was only 30 miles from my hometown, so it was just a convenient thing for me to do. It wasn't Right, it wasn't because it was a state law or anything like that. Just got my draft notice and didn't want to go to the Army.

Thad David: 2:45

Wow, what was it like to receive a draft notice. It's something that we always hear about, but I've never actually talked to anybody that got a draft notice.

Bart Bartholomew: 2:55

I'm 17. I'm 17, going to be 18. And it's a piece of paper. Obviously, while you're in high school, some of the people that were graduated before you some got drafted, some got enlisted, so when they come home you hear some of their stories. But when I got my draft notice, I knew I was going to have to talk, because it's one of those conversations that we all had when we graduated from high school, and it was. I mean, it was like they had a radar on me. You know, I get my high school diploma and I go out and smile and I go to the mailbox and there's a draft notice. Didn't happen that fast, but it seemed like it happened pretty quick because got out in June and went into the Navy in August.

Thad David: 3:43

Wow, I mean, that's a very quick thing.

Bart Bartholomew: 3:47

What a big decision.

Thad David: 3:49

Yeah, what a big decision to have to make at 17 going on 18.

Bart Bartholomew: 3:56

Well, I was 17 when I graduated. Okay, turn 18. And then, and so my birthday was in joy. So, graduation birthday. Join the Navy.

Thad David: 4:11

All right, and so you joined the Navy. And then what did you do in the Navy? And what was that? Like that you get deployed immediately.

Bart Bartholomew: 4:19

Well, yeah, I can't talk about other military service branches and how their boot camp is, other than the fact that when I was in San Diego I usually got to sleep in. But what woke me up was it wasn't a company commander coming in, it was a Dan Marine Corps on the other side, because they'd been up two hours early and they were making noise because they were out there running and screaming and acting like idiots over there. So we said you know, could you hold it down? We're trying to sleep over here. What you guys don't have any respect. But no, that was the MCDR Marine Corps Recruiting Depot.

Bart Bartholomew: 5:00

That was right next to us. So that's a joke. We always send the Marines. You know, I'd have been a lot better sailor if you guys would let me sleep a little longer, but you guys got some for them early, so anyway, go ahead.

Thad David: 5:16

Oh no, I was gonna say, and the feud starts that quickly. That's how quickly you realized that the feud between branches, it's like man. These guys, exactly basic training, man.

Bart Bartholomew: 5:25

Right off, right off the bat. So but anyway, went through basic training, scored high enough for school to get a school in New London, connecticut. I was gonna be a go to school for sonar technician because I had a buddy that was in submarines and I thought, well, you know, I visited him, got into his sub, got to look at stuff like that, thought that'd be a pretty cool thing to do. So I did the school and I didn't do the school. I graduated from basic training. And then to go back a little bit, while I was in basic training I was a pretty good swimmer and you gotta graduate the swimming class before you get out of the Navy, because in the Navy you see water. You better know how to swim. And then, believe it or not, there was a ton, a ton of young boys that did not know how to swim. So there was a lot of swimming going on and teaching these kids how to swim. Well, I was good enough swimmer that I was called. While we were in basic training I was called over to the swimming pool I swear to help some of the instructors with some of these kids who was having a struggle. So I say that story because when I got out of boot camp and got my orders to New London, connecticut.

Bart Bartholomew: 6:50

While I was home I got a letter from my home address from the Navy department saying we changed your orders. You're going back to Coronado, California. You're going to be in a swimming program. We want you to probably go into UDT, which is underwater demolition, and then that eventually works into the SEAL program which was just had been started. So my orders changed. I go back to San Diego or Coronado and I get into that program and found out that I was not as good a swimmer as they needed because I never had a chance to ring the bell, because I never got into that program but I could not pass some of the tests that they had for underwater demolition. So that quickly changed and that didn't take about three weeks, close to a month.

Bart Bartholomew: 7:47

And then I got some new orders to go to Long Beach, california, and get on a ship and all I knew was the ship's name was USS Valley Forge and didn't know too much about it. I mean, I'm from Eastern Colorado, dry land, biggest lake of the Bonny Dam and biggest boat's, probably 18 feet long. So that 18 feet's a big ship to me, you know. So I get out there and I walk up the pier to my new ship and I'm looking at this city it's three football fields long and I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of tons of steel and I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just overwhelmed, I and I'm and I'm not the only one.

Bart Bartholomew: 8:38

That happened to, I know would, no matter what branch, when you see Ship that big, you got to stop and think a lot, of, a lot of stuff. So, anyway, got on the Valley Forge and and I Didn't have a what the, what everybody else calls an MOS. I, I was a swimmer but I didn't get on the dive team there with the ship, so I got into an outfit called combat cargo and Anytime you hear something you want to interrupt that just go ahead, because I'm like an energized bunny. You know you hit that switch and I just go and I don't shut up until the battery dies or or something interrupts me.

Thad David: 9:18

So no, I will take note of that, but I'm really just very interested in hearing your story. I love, I love where this is going and here and kind of the trajectory of what it was like for you in the military well, I Enjoyed my time.

Bart Bartholomew: 9:35

To let everybody know it was. It was a good three years and kind of like nine months of Of time that I I'm glad I didn't miss, but I gotta think where I was.

Thad David: 9:49

You're a combat cargo. I believe you call that.

Bart Bartholomew: 9:51

Yeah, thank you, you're gonna have to do that. Once walk is the great, the gray matter outside kind of curled in and kind of screwed up the brains from me thinking once well, that's, that's my story, let's take it to it. Anyway, I got the same the same thing.

Thad David: 10:08

I'm my little graze that are coming in or doing. I have to constantly ask people, so it's all good.

Bart Bartholomew: 10:13

Yeah, well, good, so keep, keep me on track. So combat cargo was a group of about 12 to 15 sailors that Worked with cargo, combat cargo and the combat part of it is we. We did not go aboard land or go to land to do the cargo replenishment stuff. We did everything on the ship and ship has ships have, have holes, hald Holes, and that's where they put stuff in the ship in different compartments and they do it through Different levels of the ship. Sometimes there might be 13 or 14 levels on, like an aircraft carrier, and we might go down to deck 3 and have certain stuff on deck 3 and then Deck 4 has something else but it. So we know where everything's going to be and when we get it on board we put it in those holes and then when we deploy and we need something, we take them out of those holes and we put them up on the flight deck. The flight deck is the very top platform of the ship where the, where the aircraft takes off and and let me keep me on track About the, the cargo holes, because I'm going to divert to something else the aircraft carrier I was on was a CVA. It's a combat vertical aircraft carrier. It had airplanes that took off from a catapult and Landed under the tail hook. Okay, well, that was built in 1945. Commission 1946 served all the time in Korea Was. The ship was very instrumental in a lot of stuff in the very, very, very beginning of the Korean War, so it's got a lot of battle stars awarded to it for the deployments they had.

Bart Bartholomew: 12:07

So in 1960 Vietnam was really ramping up. There was a problem in that country and and so the Navy started looking at these aircraft carriers and saying we need something closer to land, with helicopters that can get in, close to land and and do their job and then come back. Because the plane aircraft carriers were way out to sea but they could go fast, do what they need to do and then come back, and so they could be far away. Well, helicopters don't have that much fuel and they're not as fast as a jet. So they decided they would develop a LPH.

Bart Bartholomew: 12:51

The, the aircraft carrier, was a CV Carrier, vertical now I'm on an LPH landing platform and then for helicopters. So that's what the LPH stands for. So when we would get all the cargo up on the on the flight deck where they would land, what we do is we put out a Probably about a 20 by 20 cargo that it's got Rope intertwined with itself and then it's got four great big metal steel hooks, twine intertwined with the, with the cargo, that they would fold all of them up and then we would link them together. Then the helicopter would come in and we put a a 20 foot pole and Can I cast on my, on my video?

Thad David: 13:39

I Don't know that it would be a military veteran podcast if we wouldn't allow cursing yeah.

Bart Bartholomew: 13:48

This 20 foot pole was made of cat fiberglass, what we call the donkey dick, and Okay. So every time we would go out to get under a helicopter, we would take our 20 foot donkey dick and stand under the CH46 which you Marines had in in Vietnam, and they were a twin rotor Helicopter similar to the CH47, but the CH47 was a four pod landing wheels and the Chinook CH46 was a was a three. So the, the Chinook was a four and the sea night was a was a three.

Thad David: 14:30

They and I've been on several CH46's. Yeah, so I'm very familiar with them and repelled out of them lots of different things like yeah, very familiar with them.

Bart Bartholomew: 14:39

Oh, that's exactly what what we did. So, when they were not carrying troops, which we also helped the deploying of the of the Marines when, when they would go in country, we we would put them on the hangar deck, which is One level where they do all the maintenance and stuff like that for all the helicopters. We would have the Marines Assemble in a certain area, by by certain, however, you guys lined up your, your squads or companies, or your Platoons, whatever, whatever you did, but you got these little clusters, and then we would take these little clusters and put them on an elevator and what a big elevator. We'd lift them up and then we would escort them to which helicopters they would go to. So that was part of our job too. But what? Once we would get done with that, that we drove forklifts and did all that well, once we got done with all that, the ships were Helicopter, were gone, and then we would wait until they, they came back and they would come back, someone, with the same same thing. They would come back and bring that cargo net down and and Whatever the stuff they brought back was to be reused again. And the only, the only, and this is the toughest part of our job is and it didn't happen to every ship and I can't tell you how many ships we became a mortuary.

Bart Bartholomew: 16:13

There was in 68.

Bart Bartholomew: 16:15

There was a pretty Pretty heavy battle in country with both the army and the Navy and the Marines, and it was called 10 offensive and that 10 offensive caused an awful lot of casualties and there was not enough space for the young boys that were killed, so they would, they would bring them back on on the Sea nights and then we would, we would take them and we'd put them on the on the hangar deck and we corded off an area and roped it off and there was a temporary morgue until we we had, they had places to send the kis and we were, we were in charge of Protecting Our fallen veterans and their brothers.

Bart Bartholomew: 17:06

So it was kind of kind of tough when you you had to know that there's 150, 200 body bags over there, that there's 17, 18 year old boys who did the same thing I did, signed up to serve their country, but they, they did the ultimate sacrifice, so that that that that's lived with me for a long, long time and I never really brought that up when I when I talked to other people, but I remember that I didn't want to talk about it because it was.

Bart Bartholomew: 17:39

It was sobering and they they were there lesson eight to ten to twelve hours, but nevertheless, what? Once we, once we found, found homes for wherever they was going I don't even know what was called once the ones they, they were picked up, then we would get another batch and this, this, this happened for about about two weeks during so you were getting rotating batches.

Bart Bartholomew: 18:06

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, we, we, we stayed. We stayed In in that area through 10 offensive, the for the first 10, and and I and I bring this up because I, I graduate basic training in 67, ended up on the Valley Forge in in in October, deployed to to Vietnam in October and one, one story that's kind of cute it I'm on the flight deck and I'm on. No longer can I see California. California is gone, no land, can't see anything and there's just water out there. And I'm just A young, 18 year old.

Bart Bartholomew: 18:51

I'm just looking at all this water and an older satyr came up to me and Kind of looks all how young I was couldn't shave stuff like that. And he says A lot of water out there in there. I said I said yes, sir, there is. He says that's just top. So that put a whole new perspective on a lot of water out there and because all I was really looking at was just a large body of water, not thinking that's just the top, so that stuck with me forever. Every time I would get up there and I'd look, I would say my goodness gracious, how far we can see without seeing land, how long we're out there without seeing land, and I'm just one of millions of sailors and Marines have done the same thing.

Thad David: 19:43

Well, I think that, and that just made me think of because one thing that I'm discovering as I talk to people and I spoke with a woman recently who had a gentleman from Vietnam reach out to her because he was having issues with his son because his son was a mechanic in the Iraq war, and he was like, well, what did you see? You didn't really see that much, and we tend to label what somebody must have seen by their title in the military, and that just made me think of that. It looks like it's far out there, but the depth of service is something that we don't really get to see and just from what you mentioned being in cargo, I was not expecting you to share that and that's a depth of which, like you said, is a very sobering experience to see that many bodies come in. But what was that like to witness that, to be a part of that at that young age?

Bart Bartholomew: 20:39

Well, that brings up a fact of just what you're touching on. You don't know what that veteran saw because of that veteran's title or area where he went. So when I talk to veterans and they say I didn't do much, it's a simple, simple thing. I say anybody, anybody to raise their right hand and took that oath to protect foreign and domestic, go to basic training. You have no idea where you're going to end up when you come out of basic training. You don't know if you're going to be a mechanic turning a rancher, a typist, a nurse, a doctor. You don't know anything until you deploy. So you gave that oath saying I will, and you wrote that blind check right there and said I will do whatever you say to do. So I did not go fight, I wasn't a ground sailor, I was a fleet sailor, and that story is coming up a little bit about being a fleet sailor a little bit later.

Bart Bartholomew: 21:51

But yeah, nurses, let's talk about the wounded. Soldiers and Marines and sailors and airmen get a lot of the attention. Okay, what about those nurses? What about those doctors that took in these hundreds of injured some dying and some died, and worked on them hour after hour after hour? And we think about the combat veteran who was scared. But do we think about that nurse who was working on that boy, keeping that boy from going into shock, talking to him, holding his hand while the doctor's taken off his leg or both legs or his arm? Those nurses don't get enough credit, as far as I'm concerned. We just recognized a Vietnam nurse just a few months ago and she came. She received a statue. She hadn't been back since. Why Did she do it? Just because I asked her to, or we asked her to, and she got post-traumatic stress? We don't know. But we got to give those nurses our thoughts every once in a while. So let's get back to the tent offensive.

Thad David: 23:14

I just want to bring up really quick before you jump into the tent offensive, which I'm very excited to do, that as well. But I was very humbled. I had a conversation, another interview that I did with a woman who she was working in the ER and she was never in country. However, when you hear her story of the Amuse 24-7 doing some of the most gruesome work and amazing, amazing work, that it's easy to think about the title and write off the service. But when you hear the story it's unbelievable I mean just unbelievable that what she did with her time in the military it was fascinating. It was very humbling to me.

Bart Bartholomew: 23:55

I'm so proud to say that we have nurses at the Vietnam Wall. We have a statue of nurses taking care of soldiers and that's to be recognized and talked about, looked at and picture taken. Because that's why I bring it up, because not only were we more, we was close to two hospital ships and we saw helicopter after helicopter after helicopter go to these hospital ships and not thinking what was going on inside that hospital ship until years after. So, anyway, 10 of Fancy. I'm 18 years old, I'm just a frech.

Bart Bartholomew: 24:33

Over there we probably got into our first action with combat cargo supply and stuff in country and I got a notification from the Red Cross oh, by the way, you'll like this, those 12, 15 combat cargo guys. My commander was a a, a, a, a captain in the Marine Corps and and my NCO was a tubby little gunnery sergeant named Barnett and and he, he was a character, he was just a round barrel and he bar, he barked orders like a, like a true 100% Marine, and we kept saying we are not Marines, do not treat us like Marines, we are sailors. You have to be nicer to us. Well, he didn't get the message.

Thad David: 25:26

No.

Bart Bartholomew: 25:27

And the and the captain. The captain was an enlisted, he was a must anchor, he was a. He was a staff sergeant when he went to OCS and became a second lieutenant.

Thad David: 25:37

But, anyway.

Bart Bartholomew: 25:38

So I get this, I get this Red Cross message and my, my dad had a severe heart attack in Colorado and not expected to live, so I hadn't been deployed, hardly at all. It was late, 67, now Early, we're getting ready to go into 68. And so I go back home and I stay there a few weeks with my dad and he makes it. He comes out with okay, bad that he had a heart attack, good that I went back to seem even better. Yet I met the girl that I married during that time that I was home for those few weeks and met her, went back to Vietnam, had a few letters, met her again, had a few letters and the third time in 1969, we got married. So we, we dated three times and these long months and got married into being married for 51 years. So a win for my dad for having a heart attack for his son. You know he, he did, he did, he did what was necessary to get me hooked up. I told him. I told him that I said hey, you know, dad, you had this heart attack for a reason, because I wouldn't have found out if you wouldn't have this heart attack. I never came back home.

Bart Bartholomew: 26:58

So, anyway, my emergency leaves over, I'm, I'm headed back to Vietnam. We go to Okinawa, and then we go to Clark Air Force Bay and Clark Air Force Basin, and then Manila, and then Manila. We finally get a transport to Saigon. And while you're, while you're flying, before you get back to your, your, your units, you're all unarmed, you're in your class A uniforms and so, and you're, you're flying with an unarmed ship, it's a transport ship, it's not a, it's not a combat ship. So we're in C-130 and we land in Saigon, taunton, taunton Air Force Base, and we're taxiing into where we get to the latter to disembark, and we hear small, small, small arm fire and we all, we can't take cover. I mean, there's no, there's no place to hide this airplane. You know, just taking this, if anything happened. Well, the North Vietnamese shot out the tires to stop the airplane from moving any farther. And after it was all said and done, the people we talked to when we finally disembark said we think that their plan was to disarm, disable the plane and then and then move in and then shoot up the plane and take out everybody who was in there, which would have reduced the number of people they was going to have to fight later on. So that's that's what our people told us they thought was going on, but they didn't happen.

Bart Bartholomew: 28:32

Two Jeeps came out with 20s and took care of Charlie and there was a Sirenara song sung after the little pricks were shot and killed. And we got. We got to all of our bases and we went to a place called the Annapolis Hotel, which is a rundown hotel or place where there was an incigon. It was not really a hotel, it was rickety racks and we were bunks and two bunks to a rack. But as we got there that night we were straight to our bunks and everything like that.

Bart Bartholomew: 29:13

Again, more small arms fire and this we're on the second floor and all enlist on the second floor and all the commission officers on the first floor and we hear small arm fire and now we're grabbing mattresses and which not really a good piece of protection, but it's the only thing we could think to hide behind.

Bart Bartholomew: 29:32

And and within 20 minutes we we was. We was told that the situation, we heard a lot of gunfire, we heard the situation take care of and then that next morning we all got up, found that there was an incident in the lieutenant's AG that were both killed by combat troops from North Vietnamese and there were other officers wounded, but they had. They had the bottom floor. If it would wouldn't have, and I none of them were armed either. So that that that was. That was my first experience of of any kind of combat, firing and nothing to do, just hope. Hope you didn't get shot because you had no way to protect yourself. So the next morning we we go to the Armory and there's a great big old chief patty officer in the Navy and he's barking out orders and and issuing guns and 16s to all of us.

Bart Bartholomew: 30:33

And I'm saying this anyway you know I would the hell they given us guns for we I had. I had my whole whole plan to tell him. When I got up there and I did, I said hey, chief. I said I don't like you understand. I said I'm a fleet sailor. I said I went straight from boot camp to an aircraft carrier. I never had anything to do with small arms fire, except for training at boot camp. I said I don't even know how to operate that weapon. I know how to pull the trigger. I did that when I was a kid. But I said plus, chief. I said I'm a lover, not a fighter. I think I'm gonna be kind of funny.

Bart Bartholomew: 31:12

He pushed that M16 to my chest like I thought I was gonna come out the backside. There's a Marine corporal over there who's the Asian, all the ammunition. He said hey, corporal, get to band and alert for this lover and you escort him over to the, the embassy and show him where his duty station is going to be until he gets out of here. I got pissed him off. Then, so off I go to the embassy and the embassy is the famous picture where the CH-46 is landing on the top of it and you see that that ladder steps where all the Vietnamese are trying to go up to get on these aircraft, very ships. So that was that, that was the embassy, that was my, my duty station, and while I, while I was there, I I worked with another corporal in the Marine Corps who basically gave me the training of the nomenclature of an M16 and and showed me how to load it, how to ram a shell into the chamber and aim it and fire it if I needed to.

Bart Bartholomew: 32:12

And I said, you know, I, I never forgot that, that Marine, because I honestly probably could have figured it out, but again, we had no training. You know, we, we, we were I don't about the rest of guys I talked to rest of when we, when we were playing cards and having fun, but most of them were in the same boat, I was, you know, they didn't have weapons. So my two weeks there, that's all. It was my two weeks when, when I was on the embassy, usually at nighttime, my shift was late afternoon, early evening, and Charlie was char. This was, this was the, the beginning of 10 offensive, which I found out probably two or three months later after listening to all it's going on. And then, and then the body is coming in.

Bart Bartholomew: 33:00

We talked about a lot, what was going on over there, and that was a. They was a month of February or March, they were March. Then, when I was over there, then I found out about it and then then we started talking about me being in Saigon during that time and I told the boys the stories. You know, I say you, you never what had, no, what happened on my way to the grocery store. You know type, type story, you know. So I told them all about it and then they were all in jeez, no shit, god damn, you're lucky to be back. I said that's kind of what I thought you know, and it wasn't wasn't quite. You know, I did. I didn't say I was in any good fights, I didn't make any stories up, but nevertheless that and and not that I needed credit for it there was no, no way for me to document this is because you don't. You don't have a, you don't have orders to go to Saigon, it's just a stop, okay. So maybe somewhere in there it said Okinawa, clark Air Force Base, philippines, and then Saigon, vietnam.

Bart Bartholomew: 34:09

It might say that somewhere showing how, because they knew where I was, I mean when I, when I landed to get my orders, and they knew how to get hold of the Valley Forge and how the Valley Forge was going to be close to Saigon at this certain time. So I get another helicopter and I go back to my ship. So I mean we're talking about people who are not doing the fighting. They do, they do the organization to get everybody to where they're supposed to be. They, they, they operate the flight plans and the, the convoys, whatever you're going to be in. So it's amazing how our military works. I mean, we had all all five branches on that aircraft and they had places for every branch to go. You just want to have a place, you know. So organization is so important. So that's pretty much it the rest of my story, other than the fact that my wife and our and our dating.

Bart Bartholomew: 35:12

I went back to the Valley Forge and served up my my time there, and when I went back to get married in 69, middle 69, when I was getting ready to go back to the Valley Forge I was, I was told I picked up my new orders that the Valley Forge was going to be decommissioned in 1970. So they weren't going to waste money by buying an airplane ticket and flying me back over there and doing all the stuff they had to do to give me back to my, my aircraft carrier. So they assigned me to San Diego to another ship. So I was assigned to two other ships, one to help decommission it and then the other one was was a cargo ship.

Bart Bartholomew: 35:56

That I spent about my last six months on when we went back to Vietnam one more time and this is when my wife was two, two weeks from having the baby and I did another one. I said, hey, you know, can't you just leave me here for two weeks, I'll catch up with you later? And they kept saying you, you are, yeah, you are, government issue. You, we don't get special favors. Boy, get on this boat, let's go. So I was in, I was on the coast of Vietnam when I got the other Red Cross message, his wife and baby girl doing fine. So.

Thad David: 36:32

But I here again, I among thousands of veterans who were overseas when their wives had their, their babies fascinating story and very, very sobering, very humbling, and I love how you mentioned it takes, I mean, every single, every single branch and every single piece of each unit inside of that branch to make it all work. I mean, without one or two of them, everything falls apart, regardless of combat. Not combat, no matter where you were, and yet I think you oftentimes hear people talk about, especially with our generation, with you know being where, with my generation in Iraq and people getting out. Now that people aren't going, there's this big stigma about not getting to deploy whereas people get really been on a shape, about not getting that opportunity to deploy. Did you experience anything like that, or did anybody around you did not, and did you see anything like that?

Bart Bartholomew: 37:35

no, can't say that I, we would. We would talk to some of the Marines that the did come back, you know, because they they did their rotation and we get them and we'd meet them on the mess deck and stuff like that. We'd visit with them and we'd see some of the the guys had arms and shoulder in a sling and some might be limping and stuff like that. So these were the wounded Marines that we would be sitting with and talking to and we would visit with them about stuff like that. But as far as and I I'll go back to it, to your story and recall a couple things I've talked to many, many civilians who walk up to me and see my hat and say, sir, I want to thank you for your service, and I always come back and I say, well, thank you very much for saying that. Did you serve? I want to find out. They say, no, I didn't because, and I'm sorry, I did because, and so I, so I. So to go to your point, yeah, I guess I have experience because there's a lot of civilians that didn't, so I can understand how there would be a lot, of, a lot of men and even women in uniform, now that I'm one of the gals on my board of directors.

Bart Bartholomew: 38:55

She was a, she was a supply sergeant in for six years. She had orders to deploy to Afghanistan and they were at the ready, you know, they were all ramped up, ready to go and something happened and her outfit didn't have to go and she talked about it. So I guess you asked me that question. It has happened to me and I never, I never remembered it because it nobody really talked about it. So you brought it up. But yeah, so I've had. I've had several people, civilians and and military, saying I'm sorry, I didn't get a, get a, deploy and see action hmm.

Thad David: 39:38

When it brings me back to your point, though, too, when you said you signed that blank check of hey, I'm gonna do whatever. You say that when you sign up you don't. There's a lot of choices that you don't get to make, in fact, most of them. You don't know where you're going, you don't know if you're getting deployed. You know, I know plenty of people that are in traditional quote unquote combat roles that you know didn't deploy. When we did the initial invasion in Iraq, the whole our whole first recon battalion went and they left an entire platoon behind, and those I mean those guys were, they were heartbroken, but that wasn't their choice, but that's what happened. And now they got, they went and deployed at a different time, but they weren't, they weren't in charge. They know nobody, the military doesn't ask you what do you want to do like when, frankly, they don't?

Bart Bartholomew: 40:22

they don't really care and remember in my generation and in Korea and in World War two draft. You know we're grabbing your neck and we're putting you in the army and you're gonna go do whatever we tell you to do. Well, every one of those, especially in World War two. I hear so many stories on YouTube and stuff like that. When I heard about Pearl Harbor, I lied about my age, or I had my parents signed that I was 17 years old, so they were lying to get in because they, they wanted to go and retaliate against Japan and do whatever they had to do.

Bart Bartholomew: 41:07

Well, I could, I could be kind of considered a little coward. You got drafted and you didn't go, you at the Navy and and I would accept that I'd say absolutely right, I did not want to go. I mean, I wanted to serve. I got my notice, I wanted to do whatever I could and I did. But I had, I had a choice and I think everybody that got drafted had that same choice. What, what, what, what they didn't didn't do is it was up to them. But but going on your, on your point, I, I Didn't look to be in Saigon. I didn't plan to be in Saigon. I'm not happy that I was on Saigon. I'm glad that I had that little piece that I could talk about. I had no proof, so it's, it's that old joy, it's my story and I'm sticking to it. You proved me wrong, no, but I don't have to worry about that, because I know it's the truth and I am. I am, I am so proud of of my three years of six months that I did not, I did not reenlist them. I'm like the guy that didn't join I. I, I wished I would have reenlisted, I wish that it probably stayed for 20, but I was mad at the Navy because I didn't get to see the birth of my daughter. So I was I was Italian against Navy, plus it was. I'm making a hundred eighteen dollars a month and now I got to support a wife and a child and I'm not the only one, you know. I mean Everybody's in the same boat. I am that had kids.

Bart Bartholomew: 42:53

But I went to my, my chief penny officer on this, on this last boat. I said, uh, I want, I want to know what I can do. I said my wife's in real town in Kansas, pregnant or having had a baby and and she's have tough time taking care of it. I said, uh, what's the chances of me getting Stationed somewhere closer? So what they ended up doing? They, they. I got an honorable discharge under hardship conditions. So I my all. My DD 214 says honorary discharge. And then you, you read down there at the bottom it's not a Black flag or anything like that, but if anybody wanted to know what it was, it was a fact that I was going to go back and take care of my wife brand new baby, which was I got out too much, and a few days before my my end of my career. So I Figured I served four years with the hell.

Thad David: 43:54

Oh yeah, you did your time.

Bart Bartholomew: 43:56

I really liked it and it's something else I wanted to think talk about. But I here again. That green matter Got in there, took it away.

Thad David: 44:08

I'd love to ask you about what you're currently involved in it. Veterans, honoring veterans, oh yeah, what do you do with that?

Bart Bartholomew: 44:19

Well, we'll start at the beginning on that. When I was, we not every ship Once it's decommission Creates a, a reunion committee, but our ship did. In 1970, there was a handful of sailors that said we need to get together every year and have a reunion and have a party. There's a lot of army units and Marine Corps units and Air Force units. They all do the same thing. So I joined, I joined the, the reunion committee, and I started going to reunions in it in 2017.

Bart Bartholomew: 44:54

I was in actually I was in Colorado Springs at the reunion there's holding there and as a sailor got up during the banquet, he was a, he was a lieutenant commander and he went. He went to the LDL program limited duty officer. He made it to I think she penny officer and Went over and got commissioned. As an incident went up to and he became a I guess he's a commander, but anyway, that make a difference he got up and and he called up another center up to the podium. When the other center got up there, he he handed him this, this little figurine. I'm gonna step away for just a second. I'm gonna grab one of these stats. You can't give you any way what they look like.

Thad David: 45:38

Okay, I.

Bart Bartholomew: 45:48

Can want to bring it. Two of them, one I'm jealous of and the one that I have to accept. This is the one that I accept. This is what they look like. So we we hand whatever branch of service the person's in the Marine Corps is a is a Marine Scratch down, got a rifle in his hand, fully combat ready, and really a good-looking Got a, got a K bar on the back of his hip and stuff like that. But the one I'm jealous of is Is this one, if you look at the detail of this, I mean this is for the Air Force Mm-hmm, I mean, is this? Is this not a? A well-done piece of of art to face?

Bart Bartholomew: 46:38

beautiful the flat top haircut. So so, going back to what I do, that this say, the sailor was given these little statues out to other sailors For their service in the Navy and after the bank was all done, I said my wife and I went over to his table and I introduced myself because I didn't know him. He came, he came aboard the ship after I was gone, but I business with him. He told me he did that his home state and he. I asked him my sister's franchise, you have paid to get in. He's no, so you want to do it. So when I came back home to Loveland, I met with the about four or five other veterans and one civilian and the one civilian you might know is Brad Hoops and I Asked them about it, told them what I wanted to do, and and they were all on board. So I, with, with, with everybody's help, we formed a non-profit called veterans, honorary veterans, and we started that 2017 and to date, we've We've presented close to 740 statues to veterans, mostly in northern Colorado.

Bart Bartholomew: 47:52

We've we've mailed some off, but we are, we are really, really excited at what we're doing and and we're we're excited because we have and I hate to say this, I'm ashamed to say, but it's the only thing I do. We're 500 by 500 Statues behind. We have people on the waiting list that have signed up to get one of the statues. And number one we don't have enough money. Number two we don't have enough time, so we do a statue presentation on the on the first and third Saturdays at the Golden Corral. We'll be doing one this Saturday. You're invited to come down to see it. It's, but we just can't. We just can't Do as many as there are waiting and we got a lot of veterans in northern Colorado, but that's a really is well there.

Thad David: 48:42

I mean, they're absolutely beautiful. What is it, if you don't mind me asking, just because, are you accepting donations? I mean, if somebody wanted to go to end out what yeah, thanks.

Bart Bartholomew: 48:52

Thanks for being there. If somebody wants to donate Each, each one of these statues, the statue itself cost $50 to make and and the statue maker does not Make these individuals like this he's got a mold. It's pretty simple for him to do, but still a job. As a matter of fact, the, the veteran that does these so the guy does is a veteran from northern Colorado, in Loveland. So we can now say that this was an American, made Colorado, made love and made by a veteran. Be very proud of it.

Bart Bartholomew: 49:29

So this is $50 and then the little name plates that we put on them is it's $10. So it's a $70 statue and we have a website. If anybody is interested in donating it's. It's veterans honoring veterans org. And when you open it up there's a donate button. But I really want you to open it up and I want you to look, because we've got pictures of everybody that we've ever issued a statue to and we got them in groups of five or six and sevens. We got some videos in there, some of our presentations. So feel free to go to veteransonveteransorg and take a look and see what we've been doing for the last few years.

Thad David: 50:20

I love it. That's amazing work. I would imagine that everybody was very excited when they each person individually is excited when they get to receive one.

Bart Bartholomew: 50:31

That we've seen chairs literally. And I say that, and I'm proud to say it, because a lot of these veterans did not get a thank you when they got home. They got the ops, the patient of Vietnam soldiers. They were mistreated a lot when they were in uniform by people. So me and our organization doing this is just a way to say, hey that, thank you for your service. I appreciate what you did.

Bart Bartholomew: 51:04

We had a little quick story. We had an Air Force veteran that declined to get one. He said give it to someone that is more deserving and I thank you for your offer. But well, he kept coming to breakfast and pretty soon the guys kept saying you know you really need to get one of these. So he finally called my procurement officer and talked to her and she started writing down some of the information for the statute, because we asked, obviously, what branch and if you did deploy to a combat zone and if you did, what kind of achievements, did you make medals or did you receive? And we do that for the ones that did deploy too, because there's an awful lot of people that have done so much in the non-combat zone that they got noted for, they got awards or medal, stuff like that. So this guy ends up we only do one nameplate for every veteran. Well, this guy that was so humble to not take one ended up with the front plate and two on both sides, because he was decorated with two purple hearts. He had six airmen stars or airmenal insignias and they had four or something else. He had something to be very proud of, but he was so humble so when he received his statue during the presentation he got a little choked up about it when he said thank you and took his picture.

Bart Bartholomew: 52:42

When I came out after it was all done, I come away from the microphone and I try to shake everybody's hand and tell them how proud I am of them. And I said how do we do it? I said we get your names spelled right and everything on their name. He said yeah, I saw a little tear down there. I said well good. I said you know, every once in a while we'll screw up with spelling a name. I said did you like the side plates? He said what side plates? I said well, with what you did, we did a little extra for you. And he looked at both side plates and had the other medals that he earned and he literally quit talking. He just choked up, thought, said thank you and I let him go. So yeah, that's wonderful. We had a World War II veteran at a nursing facility and when we gave his statue to him he held it up like it was the first place and we got a picture of him on the front page of our local. Well, a love of paper.

Thad David: 53:45

Yeah.

Bart Bartholomew: 53:46

And he was like the reporter. Harold was there and God got him doing that and he was. That's what it's all about.

Thad David: 53:53

That's wonderful.

Bart Bartholomew: 53:55

Making people feel good and it's free to them. They don't pay a nickel for it, and that's what we want. We want to make sure, and so that's yeah, that's why we take donations and we don't turn them down. And the toughest part of my job that with this present, this thatch brisk is having these veterans come up and shake my hand and and not have a challenge for it, but have a check or a 50 or a hundred. These veterans know it free, but they, they, they know what we have to do to get it. So they say no, no, no, you don't have to, no, no, we have to. So I have to argue with these guys about give me money. And yeah, I'm told by my board of directors quit arguing, just take their damn money as well. This is, this is my baby. I don't want to take money from him.

Bart Bartholomew: 54:46

So, but they, they, they've got a heart of gold A lot of them.

Thad David: 54:55

I think with that too, Number one, I'm imagining you arguing with veterans, because that's definitely not a stubborn bunch. So you know, just the headlocking.

Bart Bartholomew: 55:06

Yeah, that would have, yeah.

Thad David: 55:08

Yet it almost for me it seems like with taking the money, and I don't know if this gives a different perspective of it, but for me I would imagine them feeling like they're buying the one for the next person, and it's not they're paying for theirs, they're paying it forward. I think it's a beautiful. That's what my first thought was that they're they're buying the next person's. I'm glad you put that. That's pretty.

Bart Bartholomew: 55:32

That's exact. That's exactly where, the way I'll look at it. You know it's a special.

Thad David: 55:37

Thing.

Bart Bartholomew: 55:38

I was, I was, I was, I was thinking that they felt sorry for me. But I don't think that's what it is. I, honestly, and they, they not said that, but that is, that is a perfect, perfect explanation. That's exactly what they're doing when they, when they give, when they give me the next, every year, I said you know, I just, I, just, I, just, I, just, I, just, I, just, I, just, I, just, I just two more statues yeah, this is already paid for.

Thad David: 55:58

Yeah. This is already paid for they're.

Bart Bartholomew: 56:00

they're buying the next person's Yep, yep, so yeah.

Thad David: 56:04

So there's literally veterans honoring veterans.

Bart Bartholomew: 56:07

Yeah. And then, and there's a lot of, there's a lot of veterans organizations out there, and there's one other one we found when we started looking at our name in California and said veterans, honoring veterans, and we we did our due diligence to make sure that we wasn't infringing on another organization and making sure that what we did was not what they did, so we wouldn't be taking somebody else's name, but been going since 2017 and we kept our name and and we're moving on.

Thad David: 56:42

Well, keep doing amazing work. I love that you do it. I'm excited. I will make it down for one of these. I've heard these two such amazing things about these breakfasts and and I am definitely going to make it down and come check it out.

Bart Bartholomew: 56:58

Well, it's not a it's. It's not a club. You know, you don't have to pay dues. We don't have a president or the CEO. When I get on a microphone and there's been a screw up before me, I always say I said you got to understand that you are in the most unorganized organization that's ever been put together. This hand does not know what this hand's doing, and and we, we've been doing it since 2008. So we must be doing something right.

Thad David: 57:32

Oh, yeah, wow. And speaking of unorganized organizations, it makes me think of how unorganized the military being in the actual military can feel. To sometimes is like how?

Bart Bartholomew: 57:43

they even get things. We bragged about how it worked.

Thad David: 57:46

Yeah.

Bart Bartholomew: 57:47

But we can't tell these civilians how bad it don't work sometimes.

Thad David: 57:50

Yes, exactly.

Bart Bartholomew: 57:51

That's really it.

Thad David: 57:53

People say oh, you got military great firearms Like well, don't, don't insult my firearms like minor yeah. Let's talk about the.

Bart Bartholomew: 58:01

M16 about a military great firearm. Right yeah, a long story about that weapon.

Thad David: 58:06

That's and well, thank you so much. I'm going to put a link in for veterans on veteransorg, if anybody wants to jump on and donate, at least to check it out. And as we, as we close this up, I'd love to ask you, knowing that you've talked to, you've met, a ton of veterans. One thing that we like to shed light on, that I like to shed light on is just get advice, or things that help veterans as they transition out of the military. And what advice would you offer up to any veterans that are getting out? What do you see that veterans that are being successful or or and just having a successful civilian life? What are the things they're doing?

Bart Bartholomew: 58:48

Pretty easy to answer that. But the problem of it is I don't get to meet very many that just get out. So I meet them out. They've been out for a while and and they've already started having some of their problems, and most of their problems were were already there before they got. They got discharged.

Bart Bartholomew: 59:07

So my, my first comment is the military is not doing a it never has done a good job of of a relation of veteran back into civilian life. They do not spend enough time with certain veterans, other ones, the transition is fairly easy. But when you, when you've been in a military organization for at least four years, your, your, your mechanics have totally changed. It's not mom letting you sleep in the morning and and mom not fixing your supper and and mom folding your bed. You know there's, there's none of that stuff. It all goes away. And now people are screaming and yelling at you where dad might have screamed yelling at you a couple of times because you didn't pick up the tools in the garage or something like that. But nothing like the military gives you. So that transition is fairly easy for the, the common veteran, but but the combat veteran, the pilot that's been flying and and if he gets in, he or she gets into another job of flying and that that's pretty easy. But the the the ground grant individual needs to needs to hook up immediately with a veteran's group, the VA. We have a place called separate callers offer I can't think, but it's for veterans that are struggling with post-traumatic stress and they get in their groups and they get therapy and they get counselors and they do one-on-one, they do group therapy. If you're a veteran like that, reach out to those veteran organizations immediately. Get yourself somebody that can guide you on that road instead of veering off and going places where you shouldn't go. And every veteran should be able to survive once they get out. We have so many homeless veterans that I can't believe that there's so many homeless veterans.

Bart Bartholomew: 1:01:27

Then I even hate to talk about the 22. There's so many organizations that acclimated with the 22 and that had suicide. I've got a lady on our board of directors whose son was in the Marines for six years, got out year after he got out and committed suicide. Her and I sat down, not talked about it, but I knew what happened. I'm not going to call those counselors, but she needed something like us to draw her into the environment of happiness and seeing people get statues. I gave her and her grandson a statue of a Marine soldier, a Marine Corps Marine, and with all his information the grandson thought that it was going to be his way. First thought he argued with Grandma about who got the statue of his uncle. When she told me a story, obviously I got another one but her and her family. I met her family. She was so impressed they talked her into coming and looking at us so she's a volunteer for us. Now she's get to see the happiness and come as a civilian to our breakfast club and talk to other veterans and be part of our family. That was the win. When she came Back to the veteran, find a buddy, find a fellow veteran.

Bart Bartholomew: 1:03:03

It doesn't have to be a Marine or a sailor or an airman or a soldier. Find somebody that you can talk to and share with. If it is a civilian, great, most likely it's not going to be a spouse. Spouses sometimes don't want to hear and you don't want to talk to them. So don't hold it in, let it out, get it out, go somewhere.

Bart Bartholomew: 1:03:33

It's a shame that we're having the problem we're having with our young veterans. I know that 22 numbers changed. I hear worse numbers, but one is too many. That's why I go back to our government. We've got to do something prior to releasing our veterans. When I say our veterans, not the combat veterans, but male and female that have been verbally abused, sexually abused, male and female, the whole nine yards every one of them.

Bart Bartholomew: 1:04:08

We don't know that from small of them, because not all of them make claims. Some of them keep it within themselves until after they get out. Then it's out, they're out. It's kind of too late. It's one of those things that your top NCO needs to watch what's going on in their particular area of what's happening. If that young corporal is getting mouthed by everybody, then he's probably getting some problems in his head. I know we're tough. I'm not saying don't be tough when you're in basic training, even a little bit afterwards. Let's let it go tough guys. We don't need to beat these helpless little people because you're making them more helpless. When you do that it sounds like I'm counseling and I'm not a counselor.

Thad David: 1:05:03

I love the advice of reaching out, getting help. Definitely reach out, talk to somebody. Don't hold it in which. I think somebody once explained it like shaking up a Coke bottle you can only shake it up so much and it gets so much pressure. If you don't have a release valve, it's not going to get better on its own.

Bart Bartholomew: 1:05:23

Perfect, yeah, bart, thank you. Anyway, just remember that you're loved out here and we need you. There's a job for you. There's a place in the civilian world for you.

Thad David: 1:05:44

I love it. Thank you so much, Bart. I really appreciate you taking some time today and I appreciate and just absolutely love and respect what you're doing for veterans to this day. Thank you so much.

Bart Bartholomew: 1:05:57

I don't need thanks, but I appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time to visit with me, and the next time I see you, I hope it's a breakfast.

Thad David: 1:06:09

I'm looking forward to it.