Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And today my guest is David Willis, and he is one of the hosts of the Homefront SITREP podcast. Uh, the Homefront SITREP podcast is dedicated to discussing veteran related issues and giving a platform to veteran service organizations.

Veteran business owners and veterans to share their stories, uh, very similar to this show. So I think if you, uh, are enjoying this show, you’re, you’re certainly going to enjoy their show as well. I, I was on there, uh, well it was a couple months ago, I think now. Um, you know, when I was on, on the [00:01:00] show, and, uh, you know, today we’re gonna talk about some of the important issues facing veterans and, uh, you know, what we can do to be, uh, better able to support the veteran community.

But before we get into all that, uh, David, I wanna welcome you to the show. I’m glad to have you here.

David Willis: Well, thanks for having me.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. Um, I guess let’s kind of jump right into, you know, what it is that you do and everything with your, your show. And, um, you know, tell us a little bit about your background, kind of what got you into doing, uh, the, the podcast and what your mission is for the show.

David Willis: All right. So a little bit of backstory on me. We’ll start there because I think that’ll preference everything going forward. Uh, so born and raised in Kentucky, um, graduated high school in 1997, joined the Marine Corps right after high school. Um, so I went to Parris Island, uh, did my bootcamp there. Um, after boot camp came home for boot leave.

I was home for, I think, 10 [00:02:00] days, 11 days, whatever it was after. And then went back to, uh, Camp Geiger, which is where we did our School of Infantry, uh, and then from there, uh, went to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines Golf Company, um, and I was in the Marine Corps from 97 to 01, got out in August of 01, and I was on terminal leave, uh, 9 11 happened, and, uh, I got out I told my mom, I said, Hey, be on the lookout for the, uh, Western Union.

She goes, what do you mean Western Union? I was like, if I get recalled, that’s how it’s going to come. It’s going to come as a Western Union. Sure enough, Western Union came and, uh, I had orders to return back to Camp Lejeune for combat refresher training. Um, so I went back. To Lejeune, they put us with a mobilization support battalion, so we didn’t get stuck with, you know, another grunt unit or [00:03:00] whatever they put us with a mobilization support battalion and, uh, from there deployed a little bit, did a little bit of a deployment after that, and then, um, Came, came back and got out in 2004 and, uh, came back home.

Like most veterans, um, I lost that sense of camaraderie, that sense of purpose the second time, because the first time it didn’t really set in because I didn’t really have a whole lot of time because war broke out. Um, but the second time. It’s, it’s, it’s set in. Now, I had a job lined up as soon as I got out, but when you lose that brotherhood, um, and being in the military, you know, the ar...