Here we are together again, my friend for a new episode, an exciting episode. I cannot tell you. I know I say this every time, but I am so thrilled to present this episode of Love Someone with you today. Uh. This podcast is for grads and dads especially. I want to honor all graduating seniors, whether it's from high school or college, and I'd like to honor dad's as well. And I'm going to do that by dedicating this podcast to a couple of my sons. Isaiah, my oldest son, happens to be the most amazing father I have ever met. He's also a first responder who wears a police uniform and bears the responsibilities of being an officer, not the profession I would have guessed when who was a kid because he was such a sensitive child. Can't believe he decided to become a police officer and he has to face so much heartbreak every single day. I don't know how he bears up under it, but I understand without those qualities, without him having that sensitive heart, he probably would not be the sellar officer that he is serving and protecting with admirable strength and incredible compassion. And he is such a good committed, loving, nurturing, hands on, involved in every aspect of their life daddy, and I'm so proud of him. I also would like to dedicate this podcast to my son, Thomas. Thomas graduated high school a couple of days ago. He has had many hurdles to overcome in life. He experienced childhood trauma before he came to us in his forever family, and yet in spite of is kind, he has emerged such a wonderful young man. I'm so proud of him. I'm so proud of his older brother Sonny. I'm so proud of all my boys that our fathers, and so I just wanted to to dedicate this podcast to them. Today's guest joins me from the passenger seat of a car taking him to one stop after another on a frantic press day. He's on his cell phone, not in the studio with me, as my guest usually are. So the audio quality of our conversation isn't as good as it normally is, and I do apologize for that, but the conversation is so powerful and inspiring, so compelling. You will be grateful for these stolen moments out of the life of an incredibly busy man. Before I introduce you, I want to stop here for a few moments and take a moment for a message from our sponsor. Today, we have the privilege of talking with a man admired by many for many different reasons. He's an actor, it's a talented musician. He's an advocate and activist and now an author, amongst many other titles I could bestow upon him. He has spent his life in the entertainment industry, playing brave and honorable characters to great acclaim. Now, in addition to TV and movie roles, he devotes his life to bettering the lives of our service veterans, are first responders, and their families through his time, his resources, his great works organization, the Gary Sinice Foundation. Let's welcome Gary Sinice. Hi, Gary, I am so geeked out to get to talk to you. Thank you for taking time. So geeked out when I heard about your new book that's just come out. Grateful American for himself to service. I put my order in for a copyright away. I did not know I could love you anymore than I did when you played Lieutenant Dan. Now I love you all the more so. Thank you for taking the time Gary to be on our podcast. Oh my pleasure. You're so inspiring. So say your name the way that it was before it was changed. I love that. I love that I was saying it out loud after I read that in your book, and I see you in a whole new light. Now. Yeah, getting pinched on your cheek by a grandma, whether so grateful American is a culmination of well it's a story of your life. But it's a culmination of so many ways your heart has been impacted by the men and women who are there to serve. And I want to know, do you remember that first time that you felt your heart grow like ten times when it hit you or did you have that moment like I did. Were the reality of that kind of sacrificial love hit you full force? Well, sure, in various ways over time. I have veterans in my family. It all begins there with you know, my side of the family, my grandfather and my uncle's my dad, my wife son of the family, of her brothers being non veterans or sisters, served in the army as sister Mary to be a non veteran. It was in the army for twenty two years, and a son and served in the army for thirteen years. A lot of veterans and my family and to the kind of that that that gets your engine. And then I just felt great compassion back in the seventies and eighties after moving the Vietnam venance on my wife's side of family, because they were just slightly older than I was. And I've gone to war and come come back in the nation of going apart over the war, and the Vietnam veteran got out in the middle of all that, and it was it was a terrible period in our history when the way we treated them when they returned home. And so I felt great compassion there and I just tried to start supporting Gunn in supers in various ways. And then I played the veteran and in course Gump that that started me working without wounded and I started meanings, you know, multiple injured warriors, and you know, going back to World War Two and all the way up until that time. Forrest Gumps came out a few years after the Gulf War and and that a lot of folks back then, and then after September eleventh, I just you know, there wasn't calling to serving a great capacity after that, and it's just manifested itself into a full time commitment and a full time foundation, the Garysonese Foundation. And if somebody would like to volunteer, like to get involved, like to say, hey, you use me, I'll help. I'll jump in there. How can they do that? Those things to do is go look at the website Gary Sonese Foundations down board and I always recommend people go to the YouTube channel. It's at the bottom of the homepage. You just click on that little icon and then I'll take you to the YouTube channel and you'll see all our programs and accident videos from every one of our programs, ranging from building homes for badly wounded service members to supporting World War Two veterans, taking them down to the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans and preparing about the high school kids. It's an educational trip that we do. Are Serving Heroes program. We're going into usls and b a is all over the world and provide appreciation with a big meal and everything, letting them know that we're forgetting that they're serving out there. Only have multiple programs and various capacities. Are Snowball Express program is focused on the children of our fallen heroes, just dozens of things that were going on at the Garyson EA Foundation. You can learn more about it at Garyson Foundation dot org. So before anybody goes there, I have to say, though, please have a box or two of tissue, because when I watched the videos, I was a wreck. So inspiring. There's a lot of very moving things. You need. All these various people that were working with and supporting, we learning stories, and we have profiles of every one of the wounded service members that we're building homes or all the special profile on their life and what happened. Those profiles are on on the YouTube channel. Um yeah, and you know you can see us take We took over a thousand children of our fallen Heroes down to Disney World last December and treated them to four days of what we call hope and healing. You know, when you bring these kids together and they meet all these other kids who are going through the same thing, having lost that a parent in military service, it really is a very healing thing for them to meet these other kids. And and then we provide a lot of fun and joy and love and just give them a lot of support which they desperately need going through this grief. We can never forget, you know, these families and what they go through so and they do it, you know, selflessly in any ways, and they don't ask for a lot. I just want to take a proactive approach to making sure that they get the services they need when they need him. And you're not just building homes. When I was watching and reading, I was fascinated Gary with the fact that you're finding the latest technology that makes life livable for somebody who's been seriously wounded. I mean everything from appliances that they can work using computers and that sort of thing. I was like, dang, you're not just putting in a ramp for a wheelchair. You're giving back the fullness of life. What we you know, I started doing this home building back in two thousand and ten. We've got a soldier who has blown up and we lost both his arms in both his legs. He was opposed to surviveocros upal application, so obviously he's going to have some special needs. And we did a concert to raise money and stating on to build him, especially at that the house that he would be comfortable in and see a more end upon of them because of the things that we provide inside there. You know, he had obviously special needs, and that was quite a while ago and in between them and now we're with all the homes that we've completed and the ones that are under construction, and then planning stages were over about seventy houses now, so our guys that these are all professional builders and we've learned a lot over the years about the needs of these wounded service members. We try to provide each individual with, you know, the special things that that person might need. We want them to be able to be more independent in their home. The program is called RISE Restoring Independence Supporting in Parliament and we want to give them their independence back. You know, they've kind of taken away and they have to depend on people to help them, and we provide the smart technology in the house that helps them kind of take better care of themselves and that that provides more independence for the people that are they're living with them, as they can worry a lot less as the wounded service man can care of themselves on their own. You're sharing so much with me and my listeners, Gary, that I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around all it is that you and your foundation do for some of the most deserving people in our country. We're gonna pause here and let some of it sink in, and I'll take this time to talk about my podcast sponsor, who is behind you all the way they love our servicemen and women. I want to talk about the Home Depot. I am always proud to have the Home Depot sponsor my radio show at night, and now proud to have them sponsor this podcast. They help so many people in times of need, in times of ambitious projects about to take off, in times of changing your bank caller for the empty time, no questions asked. The Home Depot staff includes more than thirty five thousand men and women who have served our ation within our military ranks. They came home and found a career with the Home Depot. That's just one of the things I think of when choosing where to go for any home improvement project. I am thinking about taking on the Home Depot more saving, more doing well the Gary Soneese Foundation. Like you said, go to Gary Soneese Foundation dot org and and don't just be touched. I really, I really want to encourage people to step outside of their comfort zone. Gary and raise their hand and say I can do this, I can help, I can do this, I can get involved with. You know, almost every state has a hospital or someplace that you can go, a naval base, a military base, or you can go and get involved. The one thing that I always say to folks, you know, they asked me, you know, who should you know. While you can certainly donate to foundation and all the great non profits, there's a different ways that you can help if everybody in every neighborhood and every community in every town and city just took a little responsibility to pat their veterans on the back and ask them what they need. These all freedom providers, they're out there all the most sacrificing. Our first responders are doing that on a great daily basis. You know, just consider this. We we support first responders in my foundation as well. You have police officers and firefighters that on a daily basis that they could see a lot of bad things. I mean, just consider a massive car rep and the firefighters that have to go in there and they see those things, and then they go home at night and have to go to sleep and get up the next day and do the same thing all over again. That can take its total and so we know that the community is behind them, supporting them and providing services or support that can make a difference in the morale of somebody who's going through some difficult problems like them. You know, my oldest son is police officer and a member of the SWAT team, and my stepdaughter is a police officer, and her fiance is a police officer and an investigator. And my husband is a former Green Beret and a former police officer. So we love our first responders and the heroes, but truly, Gary, unless you hear their stories. And I talked to my son. I tried to talk to him at least two or three times a week. My heart is broken for him over what you just said. And when he has to respond to a situation where a child's been hurt or abused, his heart is broken. My heart is broken for him physical stuff, and then they have to put on a uniform again the next day and go on go back out. So you know what I mean. It can happen to know that people appreciate what they're going through, and I don't take it for then it and we want to do something. I wrote a book called grateful American, a journey himself to service, and it was really about the moments in my life that have led to this farm service work on the people who have inspired me along the way. And our police officers of hirefighters are military Personnelity have met extraordinary people there. They get a lot of self worth work. They don't get a lot of paths on the back. And if I can do something to help them, I'm not a great where that I can serve. And you do, you and your Lieutenant Dan band, which is really really good, what don't you. Yeah, we've played hundreds of concerts over the years. For the truth, I started taking a band out about two thousand three, fifteen or sixteen years now. We've just played hundreds and hundreds of shows and the band is a program of the Gears in East Foundation. I played for free, but I have to pay the expenses of paying the band members their own musicians, that's how they make their living. I have to pay them, and I have to say that production costs and things like that. So much like when you donate to the USO, you know, the USA provides entertainment to the troops. If you donate to the foundation, one of our programs is Yours, Anis and the Lieutenant Bandanna, and that allows me to multiple times a year go on to military basis or do fundraisers for first responders, support concerts all over the country. I do maybe thirty some shows a year and it's all for for the military and our first responder community. John and Rossi and I just did a concert that my foundation produced right down here in California in Thousand Oaks. You know, we had those terrible shootings at Borderline Barn Grill and then you know, tent within ten hours, the hills were on fire, burning everywhere, and so we did we did something called Concert for the Tenders and it was just a free concert to support that community and to bring our first responders some joy and to support the Borderline families. The foundation allows me to do that. The people that donate to the Gearason each foundation are generously helping me to help other people, and that's that's a good thing. So the book title again, Grateful American. It's available everywhere. Now. I would say to listeners, even if you are not an avid reader that you know, you don't, you know, go to bed every night with a book in your hand. This is a book that you need to get and then you need to give it away to bless somebody else that when you're done with it. Well, it's a great endorsement and I really appreciate and I hope they will pick up a copy, and I hope they will be motivated, and I hope every time they see police officer, a fireman, an e M T. Member of the military, they sincerely thank them and their Emily's Garyson, He's thank you so much for being here on love someone with the Lilah, and God bless you and your family and your wife, your kids, your grandkids and everything that you put your hand to. I just pray that God blesses you and protects you. Okay, all right, thank you. Wow. Gary shared so much with us about all that his foundation does. Now you know why I ask you to listen to this podcast. Even though there was some static over the line, many of you know that I am allowed and proud supporter of the men and women who serve our freedom providers, as Gary calls them, and during our conversation, he and I both mentioned all of our family members who were uniforms. What many of you may not know is the story of my own awakening revelation, the moment and when the enormity of the sacrificial love that service members embody hit me and changed me forever. It's one of the two or three things that have happened in my life that I believe changed me on a cellular level. Before I went to Iraq and Afghanistan, before I was asked to be a part of the Air Force Reserves, I loved our servicemen and women I did. I thank them, I respected them, I appreciated what they did. But I had no clue. I truly had no clue what sacrificial love was, because in my life and my experience, love happens between people that are connected that our family members, or sweethearts, or husbands and wives or uh in a committed relationship. Love is demonstrated for your cousins or your best friends, people you went to high school with. I never knew what sacrificial love was until I went with our military to Afghanistan and Iraq, and I met men and women in our military that we're willing to lay down their lives not just for their family members, not just for a friend, but for complete strangers, for people that might not even like them or respect them, and I saw it in action. I saw it in action. I met men and women on a Thursday night, Thanksgiving night, in fact that I saw one week later, exactly one week later, coming into Ramstein, Germany and to Ramstein the military hospital missing limbs because they were at war and their lives were forever changed for you, for me, for our country. And even though I might disagree with what they are asked to do, I love and respect our military men and women so much and what they do for us. Like I said, I was changed forever. I hope you have been inspired by this podcast to become more involved wherever your heart leads. Helping our veterans, helping first responders might be what you're called to do. I hope it is. I encourage you to pick up a copy of Grateful American. It is such a good book, such a good read, and to visit the Gary Sineese Foundation dot org. You can also visit my American Forces Network section of Delilah dot com for further inspiration and help a veteran bless somebody. I'd also like to wish all the dad's out there a very happy Father's Day. It's an important job this dating business and deserves much applaud, recognition, and respect, as do all the accomplishments of the cap tossing graduates like my son t K. Tom is so proud of you, Lindsay Piper, so proud of my niece. Good luck in all that you do in life. Subscribe to my podcast Love Someone with the Lilah for access to new episodes as soon as they drop. Also tune into my nightly radio show of course, thank you for joining me. My friends will be back together soon. Do me a favor. Slow down and love someone. Slow down and love someone with love

Here we are together again, my friend for a new episode, an exciting episode. I cannot tell you. I know I say this every time, but I am so thrilled to present this episode of Love Someone with you today. Uh. This podcast is for grads and dads especially. I want to honor all graduating seniors, whether it's from high school or college, and I'd like to honor dad's as well. And I'm going to do that by dedicating this podcast to a couple of my sons. Isaiah, my oldest son, happens to be the most amazing father I have ever met. He's also a first responder who wears a police uniform and bears the responsibilities of being an officer, not the profession I would have guessed when who was a kid because he was such a sensitive child. Can't believe he decided to become a police officer and he has to face so much heartbreak every single day. I don't know how he bears up under it, but I understand without those qualities, without him having that sensitive heart, he probably would not be the sellar officer that he is serving and protecting with admirable strength and incredible compassion. And he is such a good committed, loving, nurturing, hands on, involved in every aspect of their life daddy, and I'm so proud of him. I also would like to dedicate this podcast to my son, Thomas. Thomas graduated high school a couple of days ago. He has had many hurdles to overcome in life. He experienced childhood trauma before he came to us in his forever family, and yet in spite of is kind, he has emerged such a wonderful young man. I'm so proud of him. I'm so proud of his older brother Sonny. I'm so proud of all my boys that our fathers, and so I just wanted to to dedicate this podcast to them. Today's guest joins me from the passenger seat of a car taking him to one stop after another on a frantic press day. He's on his cell phone, not in the studio with me, as my guest usually are. So the audio quality of our conversation isn't as good as it normally is, and I do apologize for that, but the conversation is so powerful and inspiring, so compelling. You will be grateful for these stolen moments out of the life of an incredibly busy man. Before I introduce you, I want to stop here for a few moments and take a moment for a message from our sponsor. Today, we have the privilege of talking with a man admired by many for many different reasons. He's an actor, it's a talented musician. He's an advocate and activist and now an author, amongst many other titles I could bestow upon him. He has spent his life in the entertainment industry, playing brave and honorable characters to great acclaim. Now, in addition to TV and movie roles, he devotes his life to bettering the lives of our service veterans, are first responders, and their families through his time, his resources, his great works organization, the Gary Sinice Foundation. Let's welcome Gary Sinice. Hi, Gary, I am so geeked out to get to talk to you. Thank you for taking time. So geeked out when I heard about your new book that's just come out. Grateful American for himself to service. I put my order in for a copyright away. I did not know I could love you anymore than I did when you played Lieutenant Dan. Now I love you all the more so. Thank you for taking the time Gary to be on our podcast. Oh my pleasure. You're so inspiring. So say your name the way that it was before it was changed. I love that. I love that I was saying it out loud after I read that in your book, and I see you in a whole new light. Now. Yeah, getting pinched on your cheek by a grandma, whether so grateful American is a culmination of well it's a story of your life. But it's a culmination of so many ways your heart has been impacted by the men and women who are there to serve. And I want to know, do you remember that first time that you felt your heart grow like ten times when it hit you or did you have that moment like I did. Were the reality of that kind of sacrificial love hit you full force? Well, sure, in various ways over time. I have veterans in my family. It all begins there with you know, my side of the family, my grandfather and my uncle's my dad, my wife son of the family, of her brothers being non veterans or sisters, served in the army as sister Mary to be a non veteran. It was in the army for twenty two years, and a son and served in the army for thirteen years. A lot of veterans and my family and to the kind of that that that gets your engine. And then I just felt great compassion back in the seventies and eighties after moving the Vietnam venance on my wife's side of family, because they were just slightly older than I was. And I've gone to war and come come back in the nation of going apart over the war, and the Vietnam veteran got out in the middle of all that, and it was it was a terrible period in our history when the way we treated them when they returned home. And so I felt great compassion there and I just tried to start supporting Gunn in supers in various ways. And then I played the veteran and in course Gump that that started me working without wounded and I started meanings, you know, multiple injured warriors, and you know, going back to World War Two and all the way up until that time. Forrest Gumps came out a few years after the Gulf War and and that a lot of folks back then, and then after September eleventh, I just you know, there wasn't calling to serving a great capacity after that, and it's just manifested itself into a full time commitment and a full time foundation, the Garysonese Foundation. And if somebody would like to volunteer, like to get involved, like to say, hey, you use me, I'll help. I'll jump in there. How can they do that? Those things to do is go look at the website Gary Sonese Foundations down board and I always recommend people go to the YouTube channel. It's at the bottom of the homepage. You just click on that little icon and then I'll take you to the YouTube channel and you'll see all our programs and accident videos from every one of our programs, ranging from building homes for badly wounded service members to supporting World War Two veterans, taking them down to the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans and preparing about the high school kids. It's an educational trip that we do. Are Serving Heroes program. We're going into usls and b a is all over the world and provide appreciation with a big meal and everything, letting them know that we're forgetting that they're serving out there. Only have multiple programs and various capacities. Are Snowball Express program is focused on the children of our fallen heroes, just dozens of things that were going on at the Garyson EA Foundation. You can learn more about it at Garyson Foundation dot org. So before anybody goes there, I have to say, though, please have a box or two of tissue, because when I watched the videos, I was a wreck. So inspiring. There's a lot of very moving things. You need. All these various people that were working with and supporting, we learning stories, and we have profiles of every one of the wounded service members that we're building homes or all the special profile on their life and what happened. Those profiles are on on the YouTube channel. Um yeah, and you know you can see us take We took over a thousand children of our fallen Heroes down to Disney World last December and treated them to four days of what we call hope and healing. You know, when you bring these kids together and they meet all these other kids who are going through the same thing, having lost that a parent in military service, it really is a very healing thing for them to meet these other kids. And and then we provide a lot of fun and joy and love and just give them a lot of support which they desperately need going through this grief. We can never forget, you know, these families and what they go through so and they do it, you know, selflessly in any ways, and they don't ask for a lot. I just want to take a proactive approach to making sure that they get the services they need when they need him. And you're not just building homes. When I was watching and reading, I was fascinated Gary with the fact that you're finding the latest technology that makes life livable for somebody who's been seriously wounded. I mean everything from appliances that they can work using computers and that sort of thing. I was like, dang, you're not just putting in a ramp for a wheelchair. You're giving back the fullness of life. What we you know, I started doing this home building back in two thousand and ten. We've got a soldier who has blown up and we lost both his arms in both his legs. He was opposed to surviveocros upal application, so obviously he's going to have some special needs. And we did a concert to raise money and stating on to build him, especially at that the house that he would be comfortable in and see a more end upon of them because of the things that we provide inside there. You know, he had obviously special needs, and that was quite a while ago and in between them and now we're with all the homes that we've completed and the ones that are under construction, and then planning stages were over about seventy houses now, so our guys that these are all professional builders and we've learned a lot over the years about the needs of these wounded service members. We try to provide each individual with, you know, the special things that that person might need. We want them to be able to be more independent in their home. The program is called RISE Restoring Independence Supporting in Parliament and we want to give them their independence back. You know, they've kind of taken away and they have to depend on people to help them, and we provide the smart technology in the house that helps them kind of take better care of themselves and that that provides more independence for the people that are they're living with them, as they can worry a lot less as the wounded service man can care of themselves on their own. You're sharing so much with me and my listeners, Gary, that I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around all it is that you and your foundation do for some of the most deserving people in our country. We're gonna pause here and let some of it sink in, and I'll take this time to talk about my podcast sponsor, who is behind you all the way they love our servicemen and women. I want to talk about the Home Depot. I am always proud to have the Home Depot sponsor my radio show at night, and now proud to have them sponsor this podcast. They help so many people in times of need, in times of ambitious projects about to take off, in times of changing your bank caller for the empty time, no questions asked. The Home Depot staff includes more than thirty five thousand men and women who have served our ation within our military ranks. They came home and found a career with the Home Depot. That's just one of the things I think of when choosing where to go for any home improvement project. I am thinking about taking on the Home Depot more saving, more doing well the Gary Soneese Foundation. Like you said, go to Gary Soneese Foundation dot org and and don't just be touched. I really, I really want to encourage people to step outside of their comfort zone. Gary and raise their hand and say I can do this, I can help, I can do this, I can get involved with. You know, almost every state has a hospital or someplace that you can go, a naval base, a military base, or you can go and get involved. The one thing that I always say to folks, you know, they asked me, you know, who should you know. While you can certainly donate to foundation and all the great non profits, there's a different ways that you can help if everybody in every neighborhood and every community in every town and city just took a little responsibility to pat their veterans on the back and ask them what they need. These all freedom providers, they're out there all the most sacrificing. Our first responders are doing that on a great daily basis. You know, just consider this. We we support first responders in my foundation as well. You have police officers and firefighters that on a daily basis that they could see a lot of bad things. I mean, just consider a massive car rep and the firefighters that have to go in there and they see those things, and then they go home at night and have to go to sleep and get up the next day and do the same thing all over again. That can take its total and so we know that the community is behind them, supporting them and providing services or support that can make a difference in the morale of somebody who's going through some difficult problems like them. You know, my oldest son is police officer and a member of the SWAT team, and my stepdaughter is a police officer, and her fiance is a police officer and an investigator. And my husband is a former Green Beret and a former police officer. So we love our first responders and the heroes, but truly, Gary, unless you hear their stories. And I talked to my son. I tried to talk to him at least two or three times a week. My heart is broken for him over what you just said. And when he has to respond to a situation where a child's been hurt or abused, his heart is broken. My heart is broken for him physical stuff, and then they have to put on a uniform again the next day and go on go back out. So you know what I mean. It can happen to know that people appreciate what they're going through, and I don't take it for then it and we want to do something. I wrote a book called grateful American, a journey himself to service, and it was really about the moments in my life that have led to this farm service work on the people who have inspired me along the way. And our police officers of hirefighters are military Personnelity have met extraordinary people there. They get a lot of self worth work. They don't get a lot of paths on the back. And if I can do something to help them, I'm not a great where that I can serve. And you do, you and your Lieutenant Dan band, which is really really good, what don't you. Yeah, we've played hundreds of concerts over the years. For the truth, I started taking a band out about two thousand three, fifteen or sixteen years now. We've just played hundreds and hundreds of shows and the band is a program of the Gears in East Foundation. I played for free, but I have to pay the expenses of paying the band members their own musicians, that's how they make their living. I have to pay them, and I have to say that production costs and things like that. So much like when you donate to the USO, you know, the USA provides entertainment to the troops. If you donate to the foundation, one of our programs is Yours, Anis and the Lieutenant Bandanna, and that allows me to multiple times a year go on to military basis or do fundraisers for first responders, support concerts all over the country. I do maybe thirty some shows a year and it's all for for the military and our first responder community. John and Rossi and I just did a concert that my foundation produced right down here in California in Thousand Oaks. You know, we had those terrible shootings at Borderline Barn Grill and then you know, tent within ten hours, the hills were on fire, burning everywhere, and so we did we did something called Concert for the Tenders and it was just a free concert to support that community and to bring our first responders some joy and to support the Borderline families. The foundation allows me to do that. The people that donate to the Gearason each foundation are generously helping me to help other people, and that's that's a good thing. So the book title again, Grateful American. It's available everywhere. Now. I would say to listeners, even if you are not an avid reader that you know, you don't, you know, go to bed every night with a book in your hand. This is a book that you need to get and then you need to give it away to bless somebody else that when you're done with it. Well, it's a great endorsement and I really appreciate and I hope they will pick up a copy, and I hope they will be motivated, and I hope every time they see police officer, a fireman, an e M T. Member of the military, they sincerely thank them and their Emily's Garyson, He's thank you so much for being here on love someone with the Lilah, and God bless you and your family and your wife, your kids, your grandkids and everything that you put your hand to. I just pray that God blesses you and protects you. Okay, all right, thank you. Wow. Gary shared so much with us about all that his foundation does. Now you know why I ask you to listen to this podcast. Even though there was some static over the line, many of you know that I am allowed and proud supporter of the men and women who serve our freedom providers, as Gary calls them, and during our conversation, he and I both mentioned all of our family members who were uniforms. What many of you may not know is the story of my own awakening revelation, the moment and when the enormity of the sacrificial love that service members embody hit me and changed me forever. It's one of the two or three things that have happened in my life that I believe changed me on a cellular level. Before I went to Iraq and Afghanistan, before I was asked to be a part of the Air Force Reserves, I loved our servicemen and women I did. I thank them, I respected them, I appreciated what they did. But I had no clue. I truly had no clue what sacrificial love was, because in my life and my experience, love happens between people that are connected that our family members, or sweethearts, or husbands and wives or uh in a committed relationship. Love is demonstrated for your cousins or your best friends, people you went to high school with. I never knew what sacrificial love was until I went with our military to Afghanistan and Iraq, and I met men and women in our military that we're willing to lay down their lives not just for their family members, not just for a friend, but for complete strangers, for people that might not even like them or respect them, and I saw it in action. I saw it in action. I met men and women on a Thursday night, Thanksgiving night, in fact that I saw one week later, exactly one week later, coming into Ramstein, Germany and to Ramstein the military hospital missing limbs because they were at war and their lives were forever changed for you, for me, for our country. And even though I might disagree with what they are asked to do, I love and respect our military men and women so much and what they do for us. Like I said, I was changed forever. I hope you have been inspired by this podcast to become more involved wherever your heart leads. Helping our veterans, helping first responders might be what you're called to do. I hope it is. I encourage you to pick up a copy of Grateful American. It is such a good book, such a good read, and to visit the Gary Sineese Foundation dot org. You can also visit my American Forces Network section of Delilah dot com for further inspiration and help a veteran bless somebody. I'd also like to wish all the dad's out there a very happy Father's Day. It's an important job this dating business and deserves much applaud, recognition, and respect, as do all the accomplishments of the cap tossing graduates like my son t K. Tom is so proud of you, Lindsay Piper, so proud of my niece. Good luck in all that you do in life. Subscribe to my podcast Love Someone with the Lilah for access to new episodes as soon as they drop. Also tune into my nightly radio show of course, thank you for joining me. My friends will be back together soon. Do me a favor. Slow down and love someone. Slow down and love someone with love