00:12 – 00:43
Speaker 1: World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and her other wars and conflicts. America’s fighting men and women strapped on their boots and picked up their guns to fight tyranny and stand for liberty. We must never forget them. Welcome to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. These stories will touch your heart, inspire you, and give you courage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s Kim Monson.
00:47 – 01:22
Kim Monson: And welcome to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is americasveteranstories.com. And the show comes to you because of a trip that I took in 2016 with a group that accompanied 4 D-Day veterans back to Normandy, France for the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings and returned stateside realizing that we need to record these stories, broadcast them, archive them, hence America’s veterans stories. And just really pleased to have in studio with me James Daigle and he’s got quite a story for us. He is a founder of Veterans Life magazine.
01:23 – 01:23
Kim Monson: James, welcome.
01:24 – 01:34
James Daigle: Thank you. It’s so nice to be here. It’s so nice to be with my people, as I say, with folks that appreciate the veterans and what they’ve done for us.
01:35 – 02:03
Kim Monson: It’s been a real journey. I’ve always really appreciated our military, our veterans, my freedom, but it wasn’t really until I went to Normandy and stood on the beaches and really thought about these guys storming the beaches, what this all meant. And it started something in my heart. And so it’s just this honor to get to do this show. And I know it’s an honor for you to do Veterans Life Magazine, But let’s start with you. Tell us a little bit about you.
02:03 – 02:32
James Daigle: So I spent my life as a as a fashion commercial photographer doing TV stations movie stars that type of thing and and every time I went back to Maine where my Parents lived my dad would always say did you bring your gear home with you? And my gear was pretty big and bulky back then. And he said, I want you to go over to the VFW, we’ll do some pictures, whatever. It just never happened. I never went there with him. It didn’t mean I didn’t love my dad and do plenty of stuff with him, but it
02:32 – 03:09
James Daigle: just, the timing just never worked out. And when he passed away, I realized I missed an opportunity to create a long-lasting image of him. And in our first issue, there’s a gentleman named George who had the pleasure of meeting 96, 97 years old. The picture that I had seen of him was sitting in a sort of sitting in a chair, just not flattering in any way, shape or form. And so, and you can see it on the website if you go to the first, the first magazine edition. It’s a beautiful portrait of him in his uniform.
03:09 – 03:45
James Daigle: Now, the uniform didn’t fit him, so coming from the fashion world, the back of the uniform had more paper clips and, not paper clips, but clothespins and chip clips to pull the jacket together, lean them up against the wall. It’s a beautiful portrait of him and everyone saw it and that kind of started the wheel moving. The more people I met, it took quite a while. It was quite a lot of conversations to folks about trying to do this. I love working for magazines. I love the art of taking people’s photographs. So It took longer than
03:45 – 04:20
James Daigle: I anticipated to get it rolling. And now that it’s rolling, we have so many great writers and poets and storytelling. We are still looking for a cartoonist to help us, because I want it to be original. I want it to be stuff that we’re doing. Recently, we had Ben Patton, who is George Patton’s grandson, General George Patton’s grandson, who has started writing articles. And bi-monthly, we come up, bi-monthly, he will have a featured article. And it’s just so nice starting to get the recognition in the veteran community with it.
04:20 – 04:38
Kim Monson: Well, it’s a beautiful magazine. And I have here your latest, your September, October 2024 in my hand here. And It is really remarkable what you are putting together and the fact that you understand photography.
04:38 – 04:39
James Daigle: Sorry, that’s my centerfold.
04:40 – 04:41
Kim Monson: Is that your centerfold?
04:41 – 04:55
James Daigle: It’s the first centerfold my wife let me do. It’s a tank. So just for those out there who are getting a little concerned that it’s a family channel, it is a beautiful Sherman tank. You can’t miss it. It’s just gorgeous.
04:55 – 04:56
Kim Monson: Who’s on the tank
04:56 – 05:31
James Daigle: here? That’s Russ, and he owns it. He and Jim built it, put it together. There’s a group, there’s a lot of groups, as you saw in Normandy, people that have old military equipment, maintain them, keep the history, do demonstrations. There was just recently Camp Boko, which is a beautiful 3 or 4 day event where these guys get together, guys and gals get together and have their equipment, their uniform, and they don’t break character during the week. I’m sure they do at night playing a little poker or something like that. But really just part of our history
05:31 – 05:33
James Daigle: and there’s so much history out there.
05:34 – 05:43
Kim Monson: Well, it is so important that we remember and honor and this is it’s just it’s really really beautiful.
05:43 – 06:21
James Daigle: Oh, he’s a wonderful man turning 101. Oh man, he make you laugh. He’s always at the 40s ball. Just cracks you up when you’re with him. He loves life and loves people. And it’s so encouraging to be around. We’ve had 3 gentlemen in the past, 3 issues. Colonel James Harvey, who is the ace from the Tuskegee Air guys, and then Roger Smith, who flew a glider in World War II behind enemy lines. And I said, well, you know, was there a bus waiting to pick you up? And he laughed. He said, no, there wasn’t a bus
06:21 – 06:27
James Daigle: waiting to pick me up. These folks are just amazing. And it gives you so much inspiration to be around
06:27 – 06:30
Kim Monson: them. So I’ve interviewed Howard as well. Oh, you have?
06:30 – 06:31
James Daigle: OK, then you know
06:31 – 06:47
Kim Monson: how funny he is. Yeah, most definitely. But the photos that you have here is just great. So take us a little bit through this magazine. Exactly, what does it mean to you? And What does it mean to the people that are…
06:47 – 07:29
James Daigle: So we’re telling… It’s not about us, it’s about the stories. The more we get people calling all the time, we try to… A lot of them are uplifting. In this past issue here was Gilbert, who has lost his house in the Marshall fire and his story this is the July August issue. Wow! For me to meet him just his spirituality everything about him just blows your mind away. It’s so neat to be around him. And this is a chance, you saw this 1 here, this is called Chowee Mike. These are stories that veterans take a writing
07:29 – 08:01
James Daigle: class at a university and that story is then just we air it for them. We’re printing it out for them. We have poetry from the Charlie Mike, we have poetry in this 1 too and and the 2 guys that wrote the poetry in this at first when I met him I was a little like taken back and their poetry is amazing. And some of it’s hard pressed. I mean, some of it is, is deep. This is a story about the Constitution and how ill informed we are about it. Yes. You know, so to me, there, we’re
08:01 – 08:37
James Daigle: trying to touch everything. We’re not just a magazine about, we have a salute to service, which is Howard and other folks, but we also have post-911 and people writing that are younger, people writing about their parents. In the very first issue I was on a radio up in the pirate radio up in Fort Collins it was funny and this woman calls and she goes I talked about these posters I copied for about World War II and she said I remember the poster you’re talking about about collecting the cans and she she wrote a story a short
08:37 – 08:57
James Daigle: story what it was like for a six-year-old to collect cans for the war effort. She’s 85, I think at the time she wrote it. It was the first time she’d ever been published. She came to our grand opening and she was just so tickled pink. So to me this is a sharing the community not just a 1 source focus.
08:57 – 09:35
Kim Monson: Well it is just beautiful and mentioning the Constitution I want to mention that I’ll be up in Grand Lake for US Constitution Week next week and will be the MC for the main event and the keynote speaker is Ron Paul. But it is, James, it’s just such a taste of Americana because there’s a parade, there’s the flag, they have it with the fire engines at the end of Main Street, flyover. It’s just a great event, and so I’d recommend that people check it out at grandlakeusconstitutionweek.com. So it’s going to be a really, really fun event. But
09:36 – 10:17
Kim Monson: this is just beautiful. Let’s go back to the tank, which is your centerfold here. When I was in Normandy, It was shocking to me in a way, surprising, maybe that’s the better word, is that there were all these reenactors, people from Belgium and Holland and Normandy And dressed up like American GIs or dressed up in period dresses from the 40s. And all of this equipment. And so 1 of our colleagues, there was, I think there was 24, 26 of us that traveled with these 4 guys, said that after the war, there was all of this equipment
10:17 – 10:48
Kim Monson: that was just left there. And so eventually the farmers, they started taking the equipment into their barns and during the winter they’d get the wrenches out and they would start to fix them up. And then now every June 6th, they pull everything out, and it’s an amazing anniversary. And the children in Normandy know these stories. And so that’s why what you’re doing is so important here, because our children don’t know these stories.
10:48 – 11:26
James Daigle: The story that we have here of Roger Smith, well we’ll finish, I’ll tell that later. So there’s a 40s ball in Boulder every summer and you go there and there are beautiful planes and cars and everything. And last summer we had this couple, and I forget, I’m drawing a blank on their name. They dressed up as a reporter and a photographer and they nailed it. The clothing, the hat, the camera, everything about it. It was absolutely adorable. It is a chance to look back. It is a chance to reflect on what went through. When you think
11:26 – 11:50
James Daigle: of what their life was like at that time, In Denver right now, there’s a great show on the 10th Mountain Division and what they did in training. I look at my son who’s 24 and jumps off cliffs on telemark skis and I look at the gear that these guys had to ski in. Oh my gosh, what a difference. I know. You know, wooden skis with a little metal-edged blade.
11:51 – 11:53
Kim Monson: And not the clothing either
11:54 – 12:30
James Daigle: that we have now. I don’t know how they stayed warm, and we do know that there was a lot of frostbite. There’s a dark side to war and all that, and that’s something that comes out in some of the articles, and that’s up to the writer. We have a gentleman who we met through combat. It’s a chef’s boot camp, and it’s a gentleman here in Denver who takes children, not children, I guess they’re young to me, they’re 20-something, and brings them to a culinary boot camp to teach them how to work in that industry, and they’re
12:30 – 13:05
James Daigle: usually veterans who have been in a tough place. We had a wonderful veteran write an article about the VA for us who went through his program and when we met him doing the article about that he said he could write and his story was beautiful and he’s doing another 1 now about homeless. So to me it’s a community, it’s a safe space for people to write letters, stories about their relationship with their father. We have Kathleen Willard who is a poet who wrote about the letters that came back and forth between mother and father. The mother’s
13:05 – 13:14
James Daigle: talking about going to PTA and the father’s talking about being in a foxhole. So she put it together in poetry and it’s just beautiful.
13:15 – 13:19
Kim Monson: Well, James Daigle, how can people get the magazine?
13:19 – 13:49
James Daigle: So 1, go to veteranslifemagazine.com online, and there is a subscribe section in there. We also have put the older magazines into a flip book, which I can tell you, as you can probably judge this, and holding this magazine is really delightful. We have people call us and people I meet say, I read the magazine cover to cover. I can say there’s not many magazines out there that people read cover to
13:49 – 13:49
Kim Monson: cover
13:49 – 14:13
James Daigle: like a book. And so because of that, to me, I feel like we’re successful in it. I mean, the back page cover is a perfect example of people’s dedication to help. We do a lot with nonprofits and showing off nonprofits, but that particular piece that he put together has the numbers for the suicide prevention right on the back of it.
14:13 – 14:25
Kim Monson: Boy, that is so, So important. So we’re going to continue this discussion with James Daigle. He is the creator of Veterans Life. And you can subscribe by going to VeteransLife.com.
14:27 – 14:31
James Daigle: Right. Veterans Magazine. Because life is you buy some insurance.
14:31 – 14:33
Kim Monson: Oh, excuse me. Veterans Magazine.
14:33 – 14:37
James Daigle: VeteransLifeMagazine.com. Oh, You don’t want to buy insurance. I mean, you
14:37 – 15:12
Kim Monson: probably do. Veteranslifemagazine.com. We want to get that correct. Okay. And the show comes to you because I have a lot of great sponsors. But before we go to break, I wanted to mention the Center for American Values, which is located down in Pueblo. And it’s a nonprofit that I dearly love. They’re doing amazing work, first of all, honoring our Medal of Honor recipients. It’s co-founded by Drew Dix, who’s a Medal of Honor recipient for actions he took during the Vietnam War, and Brad Padula, who is an Emmy award winning documentary maker. And it’s on the Riverwalk
15:12 – 15:32
Kim Monson: in Pueblo, and it honors our Medal of Honor recipients, and certainly gives us hope and inspiration, but also they put have put together amazing Educational programs as well. So be sure and check them out. That’s American value Center org American value Center org and We’ll be right back with James Daigle.
15:33 – 16:10
Speaker 4: Remax Realtor, Karen Levine helps bring to life the individual stories of our servicemen and women. With her sponsorship of America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson, Karen honors the sacrifices of our military and is grateful for our freedom. As a member of the National Association of Realtors Board of Directors, Karen works to protect private property rights for all of us. Karen has a heart for our active duty military and veterans and is honored to help you buy or sell your home. Call Karen Levine at 303-877-7516 to help you navigate buying or selling your home. That’s 303-877-7516.
16:14 – 16:33
Speaker 5: All of Kim’s sponsors are an inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of the Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmunson.com. That’s Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot
16:38 – 16:39
James Daigle: com.
16:45 – 17:19
Kim Monson: Welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories. Be sure and check out my website. That is americasveteranstories.com and join me on September 21st in Grand Lake, Colorado for the main event for Grand Lake US Constitution Week. But the week begins on the 16th. Great speakers, great events. You can get more information by going to Grand Lake, usconstitutionweek.com. Be sure and check that out. And a sponsor of my show, they’ve been with me for both shows for many, many years, is Hooters Restaurants. And how I got to know them was when I was on City Council and it’s a
17:19 – 17:54
Kim Monson: really important story about freedom and free markets and capitalism and I call them PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties and so Hooters restaurants has 5 locations, Loveland, Aurora, Lone Tree, Westminster, and Colorado Springs. Great specials Monday through Friday for lunch and happy hour. Great place to get together with friends to watch all the games. And again, thank you to Hooters Restaurants for their sponsorship of the show. In studio with me is James Daigle. And you were a fashion photographer. I was in the fashion business, well, yes, I was in the fashion business for many, many years.
17:54 – 18:26
Kim Monson: I represented different designers and had clientele and then we would bring in the trunk set. My clients would come in, we’d order the clothes. I would then they come in, I’d steam them, fit them, and helped women just look their best and feel their best. I loved the business. I would go back to New York, typically about 4 times a year when each collection was being introduced. So when you said you were a fashion photography, I mean, you were at that very famous, I was helping us regular people try to look our best.
18:27 – 19:01
James Daigle: Well, I would go home on weekends to Maine, to where my family was, and have to suit down what I was wearing to fit in, you know, get my blue jeans and my t-shirt on. The people that I was around, I mean, I started with Sid Caesar and Vin- I’m old. I started with Sid Caesar and Vincent Price. And had the pleasure of using Taya Leone, who had the show Madam Secretary, as a model for 1 of the department stores I worked for, way back when. She was just wonderful to work with. I think that just
19:01 – 19:30
James Daigle: gave me the ability. I remember when Michael Landon walked into the studio that I had and he came in by himself. He did not come in with his publicist and everything else and he walked in the door and I was not prepared. I turned and I said, oh, I heard the book that you wrote is wonderful. And he laughingly put his arm around me. I was a young kid. He puts his arm around me and he looks at me and he says, how often do you eat shoes? And I said, what do you mean? He said,
19:30 – 20:10
James Daigle: Jimmy Carter, you’re photographing next. He wrote the book. I’m with this DARE campaign, which is a drug campaign. I learned to do my homework from on to find out what they were doing, why I was taking their picture, what was it for. Father Mulcahy, and I forget his real technical name, but from MASH, whatever. These folks helped me prepare for this. It’s easy for me to work with these guys. They’re just so simple. I love the opportunity to take pictures. We are looking for other photographers to help, but portrait photography is different than doing a magazine
20:10 – 20:41
James Daigle: article about a person. You wanna get more feeling out of him. When you look at the newest cover, That was shot in an art gallery in a last minute effort. We were like, wait a minute, we don’t have a cover this month. So Jim is just a wonderful man. You can just see his cane that he’s holding. He lost his eyesight when he was working at a university. And now he does, he started the first Veterans Art Council. So it’s a great story about him.
20:41 – 20:48
Kim Monson: Wow. Do you travel to interview or to photograph veterans? Oh,
20:48 – 21:08
James Daigle: I love driving. I spent my life traveling the country. So yeah, we go wherever the story goes. Okay. We, Some of the writers have actually done the story over the phone, because it’s hard to track people down, the timing of that. But when we can, we like to be face-to-face.
21:08 – 21:19
Kim Monson: Yeah. I get that. I do really get that. How has this—here you really—I would say you’re a famous photographer. You’ve photographed the stars.
21:19 – 21:23
James Daigle: Oh, my God. I couldn’t. They lose your name pretty quickly when you leave.
21:25 – 21:36
Kim Monson: But the beautiful work that you’ve done lives on, as always. How has this changed your life, photographing these veterans?
21:36 – 22:09
James Daigle: I can tell you, 1, I don’t think I’m going to ever do well in retirement. My famous, the photographer I looked up all my life was a guy named Helmut Newton. He was still shooting well into, you know, when he passed away into his 90s. I love the art of meeting people. So having a camera in my hand is just another way to meet somebody. I love hearing and learning about their life. I love the art of storytelling. I mean, as a boy growing up, the best thing in the world to me was sitting around a
22:09 – 22:41
James Daigle: campfire. Everyone got to tell a story. Well, this past weekend with the reenactment camping, We were all sitting around a fire and everyone was telling stories. It was amazing. That’s a part that we miss when we play video games. And I think the magazine being something you physically hold in your hands, you can feel it. It’s different than looking at a computer. It sits on coffee tables. It’s so exciting to me. I was in, it’s kind of a funny story. I went into Lowe’s and getting something for a friend, picking up something, and the woman at
22:41 – 23:03
James Daigle: the counter, they have flags behind there with the veteran different branches. And I looked, I said, do you have veterans at work? I’ll give you some magazines to put in the break room. I gave her the magazine. She said, oh my God, I read this cover to cover. This is beautiful. I got a subscription. Oh, that’s awesome. And she goes, now I recognize you. You have a baseball cap on it and recognize you.
23:03 – 23:04
Kim Monson: Oh, that’s awesome.
23:04 – 23:39
James Daigle: To me, it’s sharing the stories and searching. My biggest role, there’s a lot of people that make this thing work. I consider myself a small part in this. But there’s a lot of people behind the scenes. But I’m out there everywhere I go. If I see someone wear a cap, I grab a magazine, I hand it to them. I go to breakfast meetings, things like that. We just want to tell as many stories as possible. We’re working on a story. My brother who passed away went to the Air Force Academy down back in 1974. We went
23:39 – 24:06
James Daigle: to a wedding down in Colorado Springs of a young lady whose father was in my brother’s class, which I didn’t know until we started the conversation, come to find out that his wife was in the first female class at the Air Force Academy in 1980. So that is a story that we’re trying to work on that’s going to take a little bit to pull the pieces together, but that’s a great story. So we’re really, the door is wide open to storytellers.
24:06 – 24:48
Kim Monson: Yeah, that reminds me of a story then from 1 of our veterans that we went to Normandy with. His name was Frank DeVita. He lived in New Jersey, and he was a 17-year-old kid on a Higgins boat, ramp operator, first wave Omaha. And I learned so much from him. So here it was all these years later. And his family, I don’t think really knew what he had done until the 70s And then I don’t know quite what the catalyst was But as they found out and Tom Brokaw found out and ended up taking Frank and some
24:48 – 25:28
Kim Monson: of his family back to Normandy for the story and shoot or whatever. And so Frank was out in Colorado visiting and we were all sitting around and I said, so what you do after the war? And he said, well, I was a pattern maker in the fashion district in New York. Wow. I said, really? I said, well, I, 1 of the companies that I represented was Giuliana Collezione And Irving Spitalnik was 1 of the founders with the Evans brothers of Evan Pacone. He said, I knew Irving, and I thought, oh my gosh, what a small world,
25:28 – 25:34
Kim Monson: if you could believe that. But it was just kind of serendipitous, you
25:34 – 26:12
James Daigle: know? So you go to that of not, of families not knowing exactly what happened. In our May-June issue, the story is called My Friend Roger. A gentleman, Zach, moves in next door to Roger. He buys the house. It’s been a mess. He’s starting to fix it up. He and Roger start gabbing. Now Zach is a pilot with an airline. He also is a glider pilot. Come to find out that Roger was 1 of the famous guys that flew the glider behind enemy lines. Roger never really talked much about it. Zach wrote a letter to France and
26:12 – 26:24
James Daigle: to the consulate there and told him that He had found 1 of their glider pilots. They sent a lovely woman in to give him the highest medal of honor into Loveland, Colorado.
26:24 – 26:25
Kim Monson: From France.
26:25 – 26:37
James Daigle: From France. And it was a super proud moment for him. He’s a very shy person. He doesn’t like the limelight, whatever. His family was just blown away. I mean, the guys… Because they
26:37 – 26:38
Kim Monson: didn’t probably know.
26:38 – 27:14
James Daigle: No, well, if they did, they didn’t quite understand that he’s like a superhero to that world. And the town of France that he went to and helped free, they love those guys. Absolutely adore and have so much respect for what they accomplished. So opening up the stories and that understanding, I learned more after my dad passed away of his service in Korea. I didn’t know his jeep got hit with a something and caused it to flip over and and if it hadn’t flipped in 1 direction the bullets that were being fired at him he probably might
27:14 – 27:47
James Daigle: not have been here. So dad never talked about that but dad was great at giving back when he was older in his 80s and suffering from cancer. He still drove without telling anyone he had cancer. He still drove older vets to visit other vets at home who were on hospice and and towards the end of their life. So his love and respect, he was in parades all the time and I saw that growing up and so if I can give a little bit of that back I hope he’s watching and he’s thankful. I know he is.
27:48 – 27:55
James Daigle: It gets to me when I think about it. But yes, this is not necessarily about me. I just happen to be the—
27:55 – 27:57
Kim Monson: The conduit, huh? The crazy guy.
27:57 – 28:06
James Daigle: Well, I’m just a crazy guy willing enough to step out and do this. And Like I said, I’m hoping more people get involved, more nonprofits step up, tell their stories.
28:08 – 28:12
Kim Monson: Well, and again, how can people subscribe to the magazine James Daigle?
28:12 – 28:40
James Daigle: So, you go on the internet and we show up immediately. If you put in veteranslifemagazine.com. And the reason I called it Veterans Life, because it’s about the family, it’s not just about the veteran. It’s not just veteran. It’s there, it’s everything around them, it’s everything they touch. What do they do after their service? What are they giving back to the community? So many of them do so much for so many others, you know, and when probably they need help.
28:40 – 28:57
Kim Monson: It is, it’s just, it’s really, really beautiful. And to keep these stories alive are so important. So we’re gonna continue talking about this and we do this because we have amazing sponsors and we’ll be right back.
28:58 – 29:40
Speaker 6: In these tumultuous times, it is necessary that we each have a freedom library to know and understand our history. Bury Him, a memoir of the Vietnam War by Captain Doug Chamberlain is a must for your personal library. In this honest and gripping memoir, Captain Chamberlain recounts the chilling events that took place during his command of a company of young Marines at the height of the Vietnam War. Chamberlain painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his Marines were forced to obey, and the cover-up which followed. Purchase the book at MarineDougChamberlain.com. That’s MarineDougChamberlain.com so that you gain perspective
29:40 – 29:42
Speaker 6: on this time in our history.
29:45 – 29:52
James Daigle: God bless America, land that I
29:55 – 30:29
Kim Monson: love. And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is americasveteransstories.com. And join me in Grand Lake, Colorado on the week of the 16th through the 22nd. It is Grand Lake US Constitution Week. It is the premier Constitution Week in all of America and the keynote speaker will be Ron Paul on the 21st. I will be emceeing the event. It’s going to be a great day so please join us. More information go to Grand Lake US Constitution Week dot com. And then also wanted to mention the USMC
30:29 – 31:07
Kim Monson: Memorial Foundation. Paula Sarles is a Marine veteran, a Gold Star wife, and she and her team are working diligently to raise the money for the remodel of the Marine Memorial, which is located right here in Golden, Colorado, at 6th and Colfax. And a great thing to do would be to honor your service or your loved one’s military service by buying a brick that will be on their pathways of service. So you can get more information on that by going to USMCmemorialfoundation.org that’s USMCmemorialfoundation.org. I’m talking with James Daigle. He is a photographer, a pretty amazing photographer for
31:07 – 31:27
Kim Monson: sure. This was in your July, August, 2024 publication, and that is Colonel James Harvey, who I’ve had the great honor to interview on 2 occasions, and the portrait that you have of him is just remarkable. It’s fabulous.
31:28 – 32:06
James Daigle: He is, It is always so nice when you meet somebody who is accepting. He got to me. You know, he definitely got to me. My dad flew in B-29s. He was a radio operator. He couldn’t be he had colorblindness. He couldn’t fly He wanted to be a pilot he flew later in life a bit, but he was a radio operator so when you get around someone like this that has been and you know what those missions were like and How crazy that was and and the percentage of them coming home from those and he is so
32:06 – 32:10
James Daigle: sweet so humble and just so nice to talk to.
32:10 – 32:12
Kim Monson: He’s over a hundred now isn’t he?
32:12 – 32:20
James Daigle: 101 I think I think he’s 101 or he will be in a couple days. I think he’s 101 because Howard is turning 101.
32:22 – 33:00
Kim Monson: What I remember in my interview with him is, so he’s a Tuskegee Airman. Correct. And they were really, well, and it got to a point where bombers would, pilots would request the Red Tails, the Tuskegee Airmen, to accompany them on missions because they would stay with the bombers. Sometimes I think some of the pilots and the fighters would, they have egos, that happens, And they might go off and try to maybe ace a hit or something. But the Red Tails stayed with the bombers, and the pilots trusted them. And so they were requested many times by
33:00 – 33:00
Kim Monson: the pilots.
33:02 – 33:34
James Daigle: When you listen to his rec, you can find information, if you go on to YouTube and all those, you can find video stories of him, whatever, is just amazing. To get to meet him face to face, I’ve had the chance to sit with him twice and photograph him. When we went to Wings Over the Rockies and photographed him in front of his favorite plane, which is the cover of the issue, it just shows, when you look at the feeling of it and everything about it, It’s 1 of my favorite photos ever that I think I’ve ever
33:34 – 34:05
James Daigle: taken. And he loved the picture and it was just so thankful and to me I’m thankful for what he did. You know, we’re here because of what they did but also very humble considering what a bad, pardon my French, what a bad-ass guy he is in the sense of what he handled up there. 1 of the things that he and I were talking about is that Tom Cruise has never showed up, he’s said a couple times he’s gonna come to events, whatever, and has just never showed up. Tom needs to pick him up in his plane
34:05 – 34:24
James Daigle: and take him for a ride. If you know Tom out there you need to let him know that this is something he needs to do. This guy is just amazing. He’s the real deal. He won the first Top Gun. He and his 3 other partners beat the other crews and won the first time. They didn’t give him the trophy for a
34:24 – 34:25
Kim Monson: long time.
34:25 – 34:44
James Daigle: A long time, that’s pretty sad for us. I’m glad that we’ve righted the wrong And we respect him. The Air Force Academy had him at a football game and the crowd went crazy. So yes, we are making the mistakes of our forefathers, correcting those mistakes of our forefathers now.
34:44 – 35:03
Kim Monson: Well, and also that’s happening with our Vietnam veterans as well. They were not welcomed home. It was a very difficult time in our history and it’s important that we right these wrongs. But so a little bit more about the story is, yes, Colonel Harvey was the first Top Gun and it was a team, wasn’t it?
35:03 – 35:04
James Daigle: A team of 4 people.
35:04 – 35:05
Kim Monson: Yeah.
35:05 – 35:22
James Daigle: So they had 4 people, and you added the points and whatnot. And I asked him what he really excelled in, and that was called skip bombing, where they take the jet and they fly about 10 feet above the ground and drop the bomb and it skips and bounces into their target.
35:22 – 35:24
Kim Monson: Did you say 10 feet?
35:24 – 35:53
James Daigle: 10 feet. Yeah, 10 feet. 10 feet. I get nervous when we land every time. Never mind. He just, he has this, when you look at his old photograph with the mustache, man, you can just see this. You just know that you would have been friends with him back then. He just would have, I mean, I love him now and look forward to having lunch with he and his family. His daughter and son-in-law are just, were so sweet to us when we were working on the article.
35:54 – 36:01
Kim Monson: Well, they were not treated well as they did not get the best equipment.
36:01 – 36:02
James Daigle: Oh, they got the leftovers, they
36:02 – 36:02
Kim Monson: got the
36:02 – 36:04
James Daigle: year old gear.
36:05 – 36:14
Kim Monson: But what is amazing is they really had a pact that we are going to do our job, we are going to strive for excellence.
36:14 – 36:17
James Daigle: I don’t think he whined or complained about anything, I think he just went and did it.
36:17 – 36:33
Kim Monson: I know. And in this day and age where victimhood is, I think, many times celebrated, James, they could have taken that victim mentality, but instead they took the hero mentality.
36:33 – 37:12
James Daigle: Oh, he wears that hat proudly. You know, it says 1949. Now technically the Navy is the top gun, whatever, but that was the first competition that they put together with airplanes to show off their pilots. And they just, the group of them did it. He recently got together with 1 of the guys. There’s only 2 of them surviving from that 4 right now. And he recently got together with them, said he had a wonderful time catching up with him. Yeah, it’s, this is what to me makes this work, and what’s special about this is that we’re
37:12 – 37:43
James Daigle: not just telling old war stories, we’re connecting people, We’re honoring people, sharing things. You talked about the Vietnam War. In here, there’s a story in the back of it, the latest 1, a woman who wrote, and it’s about what it was like for her to come home and have people spitting at her and what it felt like. So yeah, we owe them, even though whatever happened in the situations, it’s not their
37:44 – 38:15
Kim Monson: fault. Well, and they served our country honorably. And that is, I think, something that is so important. Going back to Colonel Harvey, if I remember this right, so I don’t know if his unit had already gone over, the war was winding down, and I think he was just about prepared to go to Europe 1945 I think and the war was over and I think he said well Hitler found out I was coming so he decided that the war would be over.
38:16 – 38:36
James Daigle: He has a great sense of humor and you got to love that in life. I don’t think we laugh enough. I think we’ve become pretty uptight lately. And yes, being around him was contagious, Just the way it was. Yeah. This stuff, the poetry.
38:36 – 38:41
Kim Monson: Ooh, ooh, okay. I’m looking through this again as the July-August edition.
38:41 – 39:01
James Daigle: We love poetry. We love veterans that write. And again, the poetry is not just, you know, see Dick run across the street. It’s stories and it’s hard. Charlie Mike’s story, last issue, was about a friend’s suicide. And I had a gentleman who’s 94, your friend, call me.
39:02 – 39:02
Kim Monson: Colonel Rutledge?
39:03 – 39:24
James Daigle: Yes, it introduced us. Yes. And he said that that story made him cry. And at first I was like, I’m sorry, but no, crying is okay when you’re releasing an energy and you’re celebrating the words that this person wrote. This is what’s great and what we’re looking for more of from people out there.
39:25 – 39:30
Kim Monson: I’ve got to read this. I am a soldier. This looks pretty amazing to me.
39:30 – 39:57
James Daigle: And he, this is what’s even, this story gets crazy. Kathleen Willard is a poet laureate who was in our first magazine who helps us edit. She’s brilliant with the English language. We said, Kathleen, would you mind meeting, you know, and she said, sure, have him come to the tea shop. And I like to go here and have tea in the afternoon. He walks in the door. He’s packing a side arm. He’s a big guy.
39:58 – 40:02
Kim Monson: And this is the author, which is Kruger Jordan. Is that right? Yes. Okay.
40:02 – 40:42
James Daigle: And when he walked in the door, the whole place got quiet. It was like a Clint Eastwood movie, whatever. And they sit down, they start gabbing. And I don’t have the Pacifics in front of me, whatever, my memory banks, but a good friend of this gentleman, he served with Kathleen’s dad in Vietnam. And there’s stuff that Kathleen knows very little bit about her dad’s service, because he never talked about it when he came home. Kathleen is now having the opportunity to meet people that served with her dad. And we’re so looking forward to that story when
40:42 – 40:46
James Daigle: she finds out more about what that was like. But yes, the poetry here is just lovely.
40:47 – 40:52
Kim Monson: It really is amazing what you are doing here and you’re based out of Loveland, right here in Colorado?
40:52 – 41:19
James Daigle: Well, that’s where I sleep at night. Okay. I can tell you 1 thing that happened and you got 10 seconds. Very angry with the city of Loveland who is now going to charge a fee for the Veterans Day Parade. What? Yes. What? Yes. We owe this to everybody. We owe this to my father, to my brother, to all the veterans out there, this kindness to celebrate them. So we’ll talk about that more.
41:19 – 42:05
Kim Monson: Actually, we have just a little bit longer. So speaking of parades, I’ve interviewed a World War II veteran. I just found out that he passed on during COVID. And sitting across the table from him, he told a story that he was a little kid at a Memorial Day parade, and there was a big touring car with 3 guys with gray uniforms on. And he said, well, who are they? He said, well, those are Union soldier veterans from the Civil War. And I thought, oh, my gosh, I am sitting here looking into the eyes of someone who
42:05 – 42:10
Kim Monson: saw Civil War veterans alive. And I’m getting chills as I’m telling you this, James.
42:10 – 42:15
James Daigle: Oh, you’re giving me the thought of…we’re not far from these generations.
42:15 – 42:37
Kim Monson: We’re not. And I think sometimes we can get so focused on the here and now and me. This is the beautiful thing about your magazine is it takes the focus off of us. It also tells our history, appreciates the whole spectrum. And so again, how can people subscribe to the magazine?
42:38 – 42:55
James Daigle: Veteranslifemagazine.com and go to the subscribe page and we will mail it to you. It’s $24. It cost me more to produce it and send it to you than I’m getting from it. Some folks have sent me a little bit more there and I said, oh, thank you. That was nice, you know.
42:55 – 43:09
Kim Monson: Well, and it is a labor of love, but yet you want to make sure that it continues on. And that’s why it is important to invest in this and so again that’s VeteransLifeMagazine.com we’ll be right back with James Daigle.
43:15 – 43:48
Speaker 7: Regarding retirement and estate planning. It is essential to understand the process. Lauren Levy with Polygon Financial Group has nearly 20 years in the mortgage industry and has the experience to answer your questions. Lauren understands that each financial transaction is personal. If you’d like to explore your options on a reverse mortgage, remodel your home, buy a rental property, or move, call Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881. Licensed in 49 states, Kim Monson highly recommends Lauren Levy for all your mortgage needs. Call Lauren at 303-880-8881.
43:52 – 44:07
Speaker 8: You’d like to get in touch with 1 of the sponsors of the Kim Monson Show, but you can’t remember their phone contact or website information. Find a full list of advertising partners on Kim’s website, kimmunson.com. That’s Kim, M-O-N-S-O-N.com.
44:10 – 44:14
James Daigle: From the mountains, to the prairies,
44:17 – 44:57
Kim Monson: And welcome back to America’s Veterans Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure and check out our website. That is americasveteranstories.com. And join me in Grand Lake for Grand Lake U.S. Constitution Week. I’ll be up there for the main event on the 21st. But it begins on the 16th with great speakers, great events, and you can get all the information by going to GrandlakeUSConstitutionWeek.com. That’s GrandlakeUSConstitutionWeek.com. In studio with me is James Stegel. He is the founder of Veterans Life. He is a photographer, has photographed famous people throughout your career. But maybe the most rewarding might be
44:57 – 44:58
James Daigle: the guys
44:58 – 45:03
Kim Monson: that you’re doing, guys and gals, girls that you’re doing now.
45:03 – 45:43
James Daigle: We had Mary Lou, which is charming. She was in the first issue. She was turned 100 this year. And we did a, she’s unfortunately walks with a walker and has a tough time moving around. And we did a portrait of her and she, so at the opening party, we invited and we gave her a Sharpie. And we said, get ready. We had 180 people there. She said she signed so many magazines she can’t remember. And just a thrill that these… And she did clerical work. She was not in battle, whatever, whatever. But she gave her time
45:43 – 46:22
James Daigle: that she could have been playing or going to music or whatever to us and to the salvation of this country as we know it. So to me, her service is equally as important as anyone else. Everyone goes through different battles. Hers was being there. My wife was born in Minot, not Dakota. Her father was in the Air Force. He was in the accounting department. He spent 4 years up there. My wife spent 4 years up there. She said, she’s I’ve Never been that cold again. So it’s about giving back, connecting the community, whether it’s this part
46:22 – 46:40
James Daigle: of it or that part of it, whether you were in battle or you were just supporting someone. George, who was 1 of the guys we photographed from the first, he was on a supply ship. So his role was to run a cannon to protect the suicide bombers from coming after supply ships.
46:42 – 46:43
Kim Monson: That’s what they really were after.
46:43 – 47:17
James Daigle: Really wanted to knock them out more. His story is just charming. Just a charming man. He’s still, I went to his birthday recently. I think he was born, this is what’s really crazy, he was born, and I really love this guy, he was born the exact same day my dad was. And so if my dad was alive, he would have loved George. They would have sat and had dinner, they would have chatted, whatever. So the magazine is connecting the community and we really talked about the nonprofits. We love to do a story about nonprofits. This month,
47:17 – 47:52
James Daigle: Alex, 1 of our writers, is working on a homeless situation and what it’s like for veteran homelessness and what they’re doing. I mean, there’s an organization in Longmont that has tiny homes available to veterans. So he’s going to be diving into that story and I’m really looking forward to what he gathers out of it. And he says, I was homeless once, so I know. So this is where the magazine is touching. Maybe other people wouldn’t even have touched him to write stories. I think the kid is char- he’s a kid because he’s a lot younger than
47:52 – 48:01
James Daigle: us. But he’s just wonderful in his work ethics and the way he handles the story. You know, this is where the magazine comes in and it’s connecting.
48:03 – 48:21
Kim Monson: Well this is so important. I do want to mention this. So is it Mary Lou Batman? Is that right? Yes. Okay. As I look at this, what you’ve done in this portrait in capturing her, so if you said she’s a hundred or so. But you can see in her eyes that young girl.
48:21 – 48:22
James Daigle: Oh my God, yes.
48:22 – 48:36
Kim Monson: And that’s what I’ve seen many times as I start to talk with these veterans, if we’re in studio or across the table, is I can start to see that 17, 18, 19-year-old kid. And you captured it in this portrait.
48:36 – 49:12
James Daigle: Oh, she is. I just had lunch with her about 3 weeks ago. A group of them get together, and I happened to have time that day to go have lunch with them. And just so sweet. And the hug. And she looks just like my mamar did. I mean, she has that loving grandmother look to her and the sweetness of it Stan that Stan is his son that’s Ron just just sweet and charming he You see him at all the different events. But it’s really, the focus is on the word veteran. And then the veteran covers you
49:12 – 49:30
James Daigle: the day after you get out of the service. So if you’ve done 4 years, you’re now a veteran. And we want to know about you and your stories and your friendship. And we want to see how you’re helping. There are great nonprofits all over the state that are doing wonderful things for folks.
49:30 – 49:35
Kim Monson: So not only are you doing these portraits, but you are also connecting people in the community.
49:36 – 49:37
James Daigle: Oh, 100%.
49:37 – 50:02
Kim Monson: And that is so important to not feel alone, to feel connected. And I think in this day and age where we have, and it’s very convenient to have these little devices that we look at all the time. But you and I confess to each other, we’re both paper people and books and magazines and a friend of mine, Brad Beck, said he doesn’t have a book problem, he has a shelf problem.
50:02 – 50:35
James Daigle: Oh, that’s true too. I go to this breakfast when I can. It’s on Saturday mornings up in Loveland, and they’re all over the place. I’ve been to small ones, but they get an average of 180 to 200 people at the Golden Corral for breakfast up in Loveland. And oh my God, my friend Charlie, who was very, when I first started this, I would meet him for donuts all the time. He’s 90, no, maybe he’s not 90. Maybe he’s 80 something. I don’t, it’s hard to tell. Everyone older than me seems old, but he is just charming.
50:35 – 50:51
James Daigle: Him and his wife meet me for doughnut and we chat and he straightens me out and tells me what I’m doing and it’s just, I think of him more like a father figure to me because of the way he is with me. But that came from doing this and I cherish that.
50:52 – 50:54
Kim Monson: It is amazing. Let’s talk
50:54 – 51:12
James Daigle: just a little bit. Look at this 1. What’s this 1? Hearts for Horses. They’re an organization up in Loved 1 and they have veterans come in and work with the with horses. And I watched by doing this article what the results they get from it and how that how that works. It’s it’s just amazing.
51:13 – 51:50
Kim Monson: Well, and I think that the that Americans have a real heart for our veterans. And I think deep down, I think deep down we understand that if it wasn’t for our military people willing to give their lives or have given their lives, we wouldn’t have the blessings of liberty that we have. And so, once again, connecting people, these great non-profits that are helping them, connecting different generations with these stories, connecting through these beautiful portraits. They really are something special, James Daigle. Thank you.
51:52 – 52:14
James Daigle: Like I said, this is our Charlie Mike stories, and these are, this is Marshall Springs, and Marshall started a Combat Recovery Foundation, and that’s helping with suicide. And he’s doing wonderful things in the community up in the northern Colorado section. I wanna meet other ones in other places in Colorado.
52:15 – 52:53
Kim Monson: We should probably get you connected also with Cooper’s Troopers, which is a group of Marines, and they do welcome other branches of service, but it’s Marines, and it was founded, I think it was Ed Cooper, and I’m not sure if it was World War II, or I think it was World War II veteran realizing how important it is for combat veterans to talk with combat veterans. And James, what I finally figured out after all these interviews is that we can never imagine what combat is. And it can be very healing, connecting combat veterans with combat veterans.
52:53 – 52:57
Kim Monson: And so we need to get you connected. Another thing on your list of things to do.
52:57 – 53:01
James Daigle: So 1 of the next month’s stories is we’re
53:01 – 53:01
Speaker 9: going to break down each branch.
53:01 – 53:16
James Daigle: So we’re starting with Marines. So we are looking for Marines right now to interview. I called home to a childhood friend, found out he went to Grenada and as a Marine to free Grenada at that time period back, What was it, 80s?
53:17 – 53:18
Kim Monson: Yeah, something like that.
53:18 – 53:48
James Daigle: Something like that. Yeah. But so I’ve asked him if he’d be in the story. So I’m looking for other Marines to be in it to talk about what the Marines were like. I have a cousin that was there freeing the hostages in Iran years ago. It is, as a kid growing up, my uncles and my father would sit around the kitchen table and talk and tease each other. You know, this 1 would call that, and you’re a Navy guy, and all the different, when I won’t go in, I don’t know all of them, but it really
53:48 – 53:55
James Daigle: just cracked me up, but it was sort of like anything in life, like sports teams, they have this kidding that they do amongst each other.
53:55 – 53:57
Kim Monson: Like the Air Force had better food.
53:57 – 54:06
James Daigle: Exactly, all that type of stuff. The women veterans that I’ve talked to, they have a twist on what their group was on.
54:06 – 54:08
Kim Monson: Oh, I didn’t realize that.
54:08 – 54:22
James Daigle: And it’s wonderful to be around that. And so this magazine is for them to share those great stories. And that’s what the Air Force story about the first women’s class. How many women benefited by those women stepping up and say, we want to do this?
54:23 – 54:38
Kim Monson: It is really remarkable. And this is such important work that you’re doing. And I really congratulate you on having the vision and the fortitude. It takes fortitude to do this kind of stuff. It’s a labor of love.
54:38 – 54:42
James Daigle: An understanding wife is probably better. Yeah.
54:43 – 54:46
Kim Monson: And together, you’re working on this together. So that’s super awesome.
54:46 – 55:22
James Daigle: She is super supportive behind me because you can’t, you can’t make this happen because when I started going to breakfast meetings and things like that, she’s like, well, what am I going to do today? I said, well, then come with me. And her love for, for these guys and gals is as equally as strong. And her respect for the country, that’s probably why we got married. The flag we have in front of our house, we fly very proudly, all that type of stuff. So to me, we can get this back into the community by filtering it
55:22 – 55:34
James Daigle: through into our kids. And there’s a whole group we wanna do about the young cadets and all those kids that are coming through. So that’s another story that we’re working on. There are endless stories with what we’re doing.
55:34 – 55:37
Kim Monson: Okay, how can people reach you and what’s the website?
55:37 – 55:56
James Daigle: So go online, veteranslifemagazine.com, veterans of plural, because there’s more than 1 veteran that came out of the war. And look at the page, you’ll see where to subscribe, all that type of stuff. And we would love to get more in touch with people and there’s this contact for us for stories.
55:57 – 56:07
Kim Monson: Awesome. So James Daigle, thank you for the great work that you’re doing and my friends, we indeed stand on the shoulders of giants. So God bless you and God bless America.
56:09 – 56:21
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to America’s Veteran Stories with Kim Monson. Be sure to tune in again next Sunday, 3 to 4 p.m. Here on KLZ 560 and KLZ 100.7.
56:27 – 56:41
Speaker 9: The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and Country station.
