Eight six, fifty five k r c B talk station. By the time I was wishing here on a very very happy Friday, I'm in a little extra good mood. Not that I don't love being here and talking to my listeners and enjoying engaging in conversations during the fifty five KRSC Morning Show, but every once in while I do need a little time off. So I'm taking what I'm calling a mental health vacation next week, Gonna sleep in, and I'm going to do my best to try to
ignore the problems of the world. So it's just been I guess maybe a little too long since I took a break. So that's how I'm feeling. And I'm sure that Dan Carroll will cover the situation quite well between Monday and Thursday, and then Kevin Gordon's gonna handle matters on Friday, so you can enjoy them and take a break from me. Maybe you'll be happier about that. I don't know, Maybe there's something you want to talk about. I was supposed to have an author on at this segment,
but sadly not answering the phone. I know that always frustrates the hell out of Joe's treker Sean McMahon, who's covering for joe'streker this week. He'd taken it in stride, not taking it personally, but then again he didn't set the guest up Joe is. That's why he always takes it personally. So anyway, well can take phone calls me as a particular topic you want to talk about. I
did bring it up earlier. I was just really laughing at the situation with the Bengals in Hamilton County now going to Columbus and asking for three hundred and fifty million dollars for pay course stadium upgrades which are going to total eight hundred and thirty million dollars. And I mean, it's mind numbing, isn't it. But I've been given props to the LICPO who actually interviewed the Mike Dwine among others, but Dan Monk and Paula Christian did the reporting on it.
So props to them that the Senate Finance Chair Jerry Serena said that nobody from the Bengals are Hamilton kind of reached out to him. I mean, the budget just got passed the other day. That's the one that had six hundred million dollars in bonds for yes, the Cleveland Browns and they're huge, mega complex. Governor Wine also said
he was expressed surprise at requests. He said he met with Alisha Resee last year about the state he but never heard anything further or any specifics regarding a proposal. So big mystery up in Columbus. And apparently no lobbyist on behalf of the Bengals either. Just pretty funny anyway. So do we have him now? Oh great, Welcome to the fifty five Casey Morning Show. Author Doug Ernest and the name of the book we're talking about this morning, The Spirit of a True Patriot, The inspiring story of
retired Captain Doug Ernest, who also now is a successful businessman. Doug, is a pleasure to have you on the program. Let me start by thanking you for your service to our country.
Thank you for that wonderful pleasure and that introduction. I cannot say thank you enough.
Well, we'll get to the business because I think it's an integral part of what you learned from obviously a horrific situation in the military. You served in Operation Desert Storm and as you describe in the book, jumping out of your m one thirteen personnel carrier. It sounded a lot like what they experience on the beaches in Normandy. We get all this mortar rounds and gunshots and explosions all around you. I mean, how old were you at the time.
I had just turned eighteen.
I had joined the Army at the age of seventeen, spent six months in training, infantry, airboard school, and some other classes, and then I went off to Saudi Arabia about two weeks after I finished my training.
Eighteen years old when that experience happened.
Eighteen years old, and you know, I've sort of come to the realization over the years they have a cutoff with enlisting in the military because guys like my age, I'll be sixty in September, Doug and Douglas and you couldn't I have a problem with authority anyway. But jumping out of an M one th thirteen personnel carrier amid bombs and blasts and gunfire. That scares the living crap
out of me right now. But as an eighteen year old, what was your emotional reaction went to that and the other warfare and the challenges you faced during the Operation Desert Storm.
Reaction was really simple.
I had a great relationship with the Lord when I was younger because I grew up in that type of environment with my family, attending a Lutheran school and always having a presence with the Lord. And I was just communicating with him consistently.
Throughout the day, and so were my brothers that I was with.
We were having prayer groups together, we were having spiritual caather, we were every time we could get together, we grab each other's hands and to say, please, Lord, guide us, give us direction, Please ask us the Lord to end this conflict quickly, because not only do we not want to get hurt, but.
We you know, as human beings and loving men, we don't want to hurt other people. And it was hard as a kid.
I think the hardest part too, was knowing that I might be inflicting collateral damage on people that we were firing these weapons at. That was hard for me because I grew up as a kid, peaceful and I did not want to hurt people. I did not want to I could not see the pain that I knew if I had hurt someone.
I wasn't ready for that yet.
I had learned how to train, I had done this in simulation, but I wasn't ready to actually kill another person.
Is that the general mindset of the majority of your your comrades, because you know, we had this this ridiculous notion. And I feel so badly for the men and women and mostly men who served in combat of Vietnam and they got treated so miserably. They were called baby killers, and they got a reputation with all the Hollywood movies depicting Vietnam that they were just running around gleefully killing
women and children. I think of, you know, like the machine gunner and the helicopter at Oh what was that movie? Doesn't matter, but that they relished in the fact that pulling the trigger had no concern or care for collateral damage. What's reality as you saw it in Operation Desert Storm.
Yeah, and it's the opposite, It's true.
But what you see in these Hollywood movie when you have these cycle paths that are trying to, you know, inflict damage upon their human beings, ninety nine point nine nine percent of those that serve in the military in our country are always number one concerned is not hurting somebody else If you do have to inflect damage and use these ammunition.
And these rounds.
To get your point across, to get your territory, you do a shock and all, you get the damage over with, you attempt to get the other side to concede so that you can stop and you know, and we and that's the way we've concted been this in the military.
In the last two hundred and sixty years of our country. Has there been some.
Outliers where there was some things that maybe should't happen, of course, but that's that one percent of one percent of one percent that happened ninety nine point nine percent
of people in the military. And the way that I was trained and brought up in the military is you just have a complete one hundred percent unadulterated shock and all program where you get to your point across and you get it done swiftly and quickly so that the enemy will concede and you can move on and we'll stop the damage on both sides so that the war will come to an end.
Yeah, talking earlier this morning with the retired lieutenant colonel about the situation with Russia and Ukraine, and we just pray that they'll put end that ridiculous dispute soon because the loss of life is just overwhelming, and you know
your your your faith in God. Is I somehow have a sense in having never been in combat or served in the American military ever since, if you have a profound belief that your connection with God and that you will be embraced and have this this wonderful after life, having you know, served God and committed to your faith, does that take the pressure off of the idea of dying?
It does? It gives you you know?
And you use that a few moments ago. You use that example from the movie called the Populipse. Now people, you know the kid. I watched that movie and then later I was putting myself on a battlefield and I asked myself, what in the world have I done?
So?
Yes, the people that I served with, the majority of us were Christians. We had a few people that were in my platoon that were Buddhists and so forth. But everybody had some type of outer spiritual connection to a lord or something they believe was a Lord, or something that they believe was their savior.
They're guiding universal force.
And without me having that, you know, for supports, I don't think I could have mentally or cognitively gotten true.
So for me having that spiritual connection.
To my Lord at that point of my time, not only did it resonate with me and my fellow brother that I was on the battlefield, it gave me that chance to be able to stay connected with the Lord and that relationship with my Savior.
It stayed with me my whole life. It's with me this morning.
You know, I just said a prayer, you know, only fifteen minutes ago, to make sure I speak well and I do a good job, you know, to serve my country and to serve my fellow sisters and brothers that are serving right now, so that I can do an excellent job. And I did this relationship where I feel like the Lord comes through me. He guides my life as a of where I'm going to go every day, and it just seems like it's just a part of my life.
And I see, you.
Know, in our communities in our country, most of our country, about seventy percent of it.
His Christian base. So we do have this.
Well that do embrace it, do use it, they can actually have a better love of help themselves and.
To just have a better life that's connected to our Lord.
So did your service in the American Military, along of course with your profound faith which is coming through clearly. Did that serve you in your business world? Because I understand that you have a very successful might be jealous about this corvette car dealership in Dallas, Texas. See you sell exclusively corvettes.
Yes, and absolutely the name of my business is Corvette Warehouse. If you can just Google search a Corvette Warehouse, you can't miss it.
We're the largest corvette dealer in the Southwest.
And the skill sets in the military absolutely one percent, definitely, without a doubt, added to the business sense of mine,
my business acumen. They teach you skill sets in the military like how to get things done, how to make things happen, how to work with a team, just playing all down to to the nitty gritty skill sets that you need in life to be successful, things that you need to need in life to be happy, to be fulfilled, to be I were to work hard and then no one to take the break and sit on the sideline. So I learned these skill sets and I had the best mentors and the best leaders anyone could ever ask
for in the military. When I was in the infantry, I had the best leaders. When I was in a staff job, working at a brigade when I was doing boring workle supply and signing for millions dollars of equipment and never being on the field, you know, being in a hotel room if you will. I never had a bad leader. I've been so fortunate. I've met so many people. I've everybody in the military, the most nine to nine
point nine percent of them want to get ahead. They want to educate themselves, they want to learn, they want to be good parents, they want to be good people that want to take care of themselves physically. So learning these skill sets one hundred percent gave me access to the knowledge. It gave me access where to go get the knowledge I need. And when I got out of
the military, I set my goal. You know that I was a hobby that I loved playing with corvettes, that I wanted to do something I love and I was passionate about.
And I definitely.
Understood that these skill sets let me into the direction. I'm using my falling in life so that I could be good at it, but also having something when I can enjoy.
Every day of my life.
Then one of other things I'd like to that book on the Spirit of a true Patriot. I write about the skill sets you learned in the military. You know, the quick heuristics, the shortcuts, theology, being on the move, always doing something, to have your body in motion every day. If you have your body in motion, your inertial forces will propel you forward. You can't be three hundred pounds
overweight and expect to be a great business leader. You can't be four hundred pounds overweight and expect to be a great parent, because you're going to pass those skill
sets off to your children. So I learned that if I can percent use the skill sets that I learned in the military and passes off to people, it actually reinforces my skill sets and it gives me a sense of satisfaction to fulfillment that I've done the best I can do by passing off these heuristics that I learned to other people in this world.
So the name of the book is the Spirit of a true paytach inspiring story of my guest today, retired Captain Douglas j Ernest. Who are you hoping reads this book? I mean, I obviously had a target audience in mind, and I presume it's maybe the entrepreneurial folks out there. But who else might benefit from a book? Douglas, You know, that's.
A great question, and I was When I wrote this book.
My intent was to direct it towards people that were thinking about military service, or those the parents that were thinking about military story, because that's where my aim was. But as I wrote the book, I was told later by friends and colleagues, man, that's a good book. That's
a management book, that's an executive leadership book. And I didn't recognize that part of it until after I wrote it, because I had been living this life of leadership and going to leadership school, and it's just abred character.
It's a part of my life.
Later when I read it, I've been told, and I reread the book over and over that it is a management book. It is something how you can not only manage a business, manage your life, manage your career, but also have a better life.
That's your physical, what you're.
Spiritual with your children, being a great parent, being involved in your community. It just has just basic shortcuts they teach you in the When I joined the military, I was twenty five pounds overweight. After I joined the military, that weight was gone, and I've never put that on. I'm in the best physical shape you can possibly imagine for the last thirty years of my life. I feel like I'm twenty years old. And it's because of this
that they taught me in the military. Well, this book, Spirit of a True Patriot has those shortcuts in there that you can use to make improvements in your life, and I believe it will help anyone that will take the plunge and go spend the fifteen bucks to take the opportunity and buy the book.
Well, and I'm sure it sounds extremely uplifting and inspirational, and that's a lot. That's a lot of what we need right now. Douglas Ernest, thanks again for your service to our country and for the inspiring book. I'll encourage my listeners to get a copy of it, which will make them easy to do at fifty five KRC dot com. Will add it to our blog page with a link to buy a copy. Thanks again, man, it's been inspiring talking with you man really has well.
Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate you, and I appreciate you getting the message out to those people out there that need want it.
Some more than's good stuff, so help our nation it prosperous, and continue this nation for another two hundred.
And sixty years.
Amen to that, brother, You have a fantastic week, you too, coming to an eight twenty one I fifty five Karsty Talks