USS Hornet hosting Veterans Day observance

It's quarter after seven, right now today is Veterans Day and the USS Hornet in Alameda hosting a special observance today. The USS Hornet Sea and Air, Sea, Air and Space Museum will feature a full day of programs to honor service members, both past and present. This year's festivities include a color guard presentation. We are honored to have two guests in studio this morning. We have the organizer, Russell Moore, along with Gary Weske, a military vet and a volunteer aboard the Hornet. Gentlemen, welcome to both of you this morning. First of all, Gary, I want to give you the first word here. Veterans Day, can you give us your thoughts about a day like this and what it means to you? You know, I'm always so impressed when I turn around and see how many veterans there are out there and how people just continue to show up to support our values and our rights and our liberties here in this country and just answer the call and they keep doing it. So you're a retired Navy? I'm not retired Navy. No, I did my time in the Navy and then I went out to a... career. Another career. So right now you volunteer at the Hornet. That's pretty cool. You get to show folks around. And so what do you see on the faces of folks that come in, even just on a regular day? On a regular day, they're interested. They're fascinated with stories. On a day like today, we get a lot of veterans aboard who'd like to tell their own stories. And sometimes they just take over the tours and we just let them do their thing. And we learn as well. Yeah. So Russell, So you organized this big event happening today at the museum. We have a commemoration that always starts at 11 a.m. because the tradition of Veterans Day is November 11th at 11 a.m. That's when the armistice was signed to end World War I. So we have a presentation. We have a master of ceremonies, Bob Bouchard, who's a retired Air Force. And then we have retired Rear Admiral Michael Baker is our keynote speaker. That's a keynote, yeah. Yeah, he's a great speaker. He's actually a trauma surgeon who has been working with Ukraine, helping them during their war with Russia to train their folks how to operate in the battlefield. That's amazing. So he continues to give back even after retiring from the Navy all these years later. Yeah, and he's a great speaker, so we're really happy to have him today. And so you're going to have a special presentation, which is a color guard presentation? Yeah, so it starts with the color guard and then the keynote. And then we'll do a wreath laying to finish the ceremony, you know, once all that's done. Is the flyover still going to be happening? Because I know we have the low, the fog here this morning. Yeah, the flyover, actually, they moved it to Sunday. So the flyover already happened. So there's no flyover today. No flyover today, but we'll still have many things happening today. And it begins at 11 officially, but it runs 10 to 5. Yeah, the museum opens at 10. The presentation starts at 11, the main ceremony. And then at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, we have another presentation about the rescue at Los Baños, It's a really interesting World War II history story. What is that? It's the POW rescue in the Philippines. And so a historian from the 11th Airborne Division is going to come and give a presentation about that. So after the main ceremony, come back an hour later, and we're going to have that presentation in the afternoon. Russell, what's your interest in being part of this and, you know, learning about the history and telling folks about the history? I mean, that's always been my interest. Military history has long been an interest of mine. And so when I sort of retired from my corporate career and came over to the Hornet, I've been there about seven years now. I just get to work with history all the time. I get to meet people like Gary and hear their stories. And so it's just a lot of fun for me and always learning something new. Were you at Fleet Week this year? I was at Fleet Week this year. Of course you were. Yes, yes. I didn't care. Gary, why do you volunteer at the museum? Tell us a little bit about that and the reasons behind it. I enjoy the interactions with the public. I enjoy hearing their stories. We get people from all over the world, all different walks of life. That's part of what surprised me. I'm a fairly new docent. I've only been doing it for a little less than a year right now. And people from other countries come and tell us their stories and share their military histories with us as well. And, you know, we're showing some pictures from inside on the TV right now. When I went in there, it's just really cool, some replicas of certain things. But just being in a machine like this is pretty incredible, isn't it? Yeah, it's woven into the... It's a big part of U.S. history. It's an 80-year-old ship. Yeah, 80-year-old ship. Yeah. And it's just a tremendous opportunity. Why is this year important, and I'll ask both of you this question, Russ. Why is this year, this time of the year, important for people to remember the veterans that served our country? I mean, everybody that serves in the military is making an extra sacrifice, right? You have to stay away from your family and time. You don't have to, right? You don't have to do it, yeah. And then you're risking your life and limbs sometimes. And so it's very important that we remember. And, of course, we honor them and remember them all year long. But to really call out a special day and to make it about them, I think, is something that gives me a lot of pride. It's one of the reasons I really like working at the Hornet. And so I feel good about being able to give back a little bit. Gary, any cool stories? A few seconds of cool stories from when you were serving? Probably my biggest memory is coming around Cape Horn. I was on an aircraft carrier, and you could hardly feel it move at all unless you go around Cape Horn. Oh, wow, really? And you could really feel it move there, huh? Yeah, yeah. We were taking whitewater over the flight deck. I thought it was cool on that day. Russell, Gary, thank you both so much for joining us today. Hey, join these guys over at the USS Hornet Sea Air and Space Museum today. It starts at 10, but the events kick off. You know, the actual event kicks off We'll send it back over to you all right back.