Wednesday, Nov 11: Live From the Military Museum

Good morning. Good morning. It's a beautiful day. It's Veterans Day. I'm broadcasting from the Military Museum at Fort Tabor here in New Bedford. Come on down. It's an incredible museum, really a national treasure, and it contains a lot of national treasures, a lot of... Historic military artifacts, just a beautiful place. And we'll be here all day long. It's Veterans Day. What great hosts they are. They greeted me with hot tea and donuts. Matt, Matt was setting up earlier. And a great group of men and women who make this museum possible. And we have the president of the museum, Bill, who's a gracious host. Thank you very much. Bill, you want to come over? Yeah, come on over, Bill. So Bill is the president, and he's been the president for, I think, five, maybe full six years now. Six years. Six years. Bill Nedwich. Yes. Bill Nedwich, who's an Army veteran himself, military police. I see the cross pistols up there. That was my unit as well, my MOS. Thank you. Bill, how long has the museum been open? We were just talking a good Scott Lang story. Tell us something about the museum. Well, the museum opened in 2004. It's actually the building on that side, which used to be the old commissary. And back then, it was like the rec room where they'd play cards, where they'd buy tobacco, shoe polish, stuff of that nature. And that building used to be far on the other side of the fort. Okay. And it was moved. And so 2004 was that building. Started out with the model of the fort in 12 pictures. It's grown significantly. By 2010, it was totally, well, about 2009, it was so full that, like we were talking about, Scott Lang helped us out. They needed some, some company needed some to donate money and things like that. And we got the new section. Which was totally empty when we got that, which is now our new, my new statement is that my new purchase is going to be shoehorns to get more stuff in here. Bill, you, this place is brimming. It's totally packed with stuff. I know I've been here in the past. A lot of people have been here. I'm going to stop here. What would you say is the most, I wouldn't say important, but rarest item that you have that people wouldn't see in a lot of other places? Right behind me on the left-hand side is the Medal of Honor. Yes. It is a Civil War-era Medal of Honor earned by Mr. William Downey. And, again, he was earned and not win. Yes, correct. And so that's one of the biggest things I try to keep people on that because you don't win a Medal of Honor, you earn it. Correct. And we also have all the pictures. I've been able to get all but one picture of all the Medal of Honor recipients here in the area. How many are there? Well, up on the wall, let me count again because I keep on forgetting. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nine from just this old Dartmouth area because that's what that's based on. Nine Congressional Medal of Honor. It's just Medal of Honor. Just Medal of Honor. Yeah. I try to keep it, you know. No, listen, I'm a purist as well. I'm happy to be corrected. So, and that's what the sign says up there, Medal of Honor. Recipients from the Greater New Bedford area, Old Dartmouth. Oh, that's what we use is the Old Dartmouth area. Okay. Again, there are more from Fall River and other places. Again, if somebody has pictures, we will put them up. I mean, it's not like we're stuck in the area. You know, we've had people, we have actually some, some items come in from people who are in Pennsylvania, but the family now lives here. Okay. So, Bill. Help people out. Tell them what sort of stuff you have to do. Because we've got a lot of non-military people or people in the military need a refresher course. What does someone have to do to earn the Medal of Honor? To earn the Medal of Honor, you have to do something far above what you actually will do. You know, if somebody says, oh, well, he was in combat. Well, yeah, a lot of people were in combat. And the problem I see on that respect is these people went above and beyond. Right. Colonel Millett from South Dartmouth, he is the guy who did the last major bayonet charge in Korea, in Osan. The hill is still there and it's still called Bayonet Hill. He led 100 members up the hill, 100 soldiers up the hill with fixed bayonets because the Chinese and North Koreans said that the Americans were scared of the Chinese bayonets. He said, hold my beer. Yep, hold my beer and let's go. And they went up there, and I think, I'm not exactly sure the amount, I think almost 31 of the North Koreans were killed by bayonets. Okay? Yeah. It's a good day killing communists. Yep. Now we elect them. But, um... So, Colonel Millett. Colonel Millett. By the time he retired, he was Colonel Millett. Back then, I think he was just a captain. Okay. And before that, he was an NCO. He was actually charged with desertion, and he was convicted. Fined $52 and promoted from staff sergeant to second lieutenant because he had joined the National Guard in the United States before World War II. We weren't doing anything. He went to Canada and abandoned his National Guard unit, went over to the Canadian Army, went to Britain, fought with the British. Then when the Americans joined, he went back to the Americans. He fought through Africa and into Italy, and they caught up that he was a deserter. Now, he was already a staff sergeant. He already had a Silver Star and other numerous medals. And so they turned around and said, well, you are a deserter, so we have to try you. They convicted him, fined him 52 bucks, and made him a second lieutenant, and he went on. That's a great story. That's an absolutely great story. We're broadcasting live here on Veterans Day. From the Military Museum at Fort Tabor, what a treasure this place is. Thank you. Bill, is it incredible to have that many Medal of Honor earners for such a small region? Well, the thing about them is, like, all but Millett are all Civil War era. Okay. Okay, like, just like we have Mr. William Carney. Right, yeah. Sergeant William Carney. Again, what we have about him is he delivered his own Medal of Honor to himself while he was post office. Really? That's a funny story. So we're broadcasting live down here. Bill, besides that incredible wall, the Medal of Honor, nine people from Old Dartmouth, Greater New Bedford area up there. What other stuff jumps out at you, Bill? Well, there's all kinds of things that we got. Like we have the Millikan battery. Battery, excuse me. One day a lady brought a book in, and it was actually Millikan's French book that he took with him. to France. Now Milliken never returned he was blown to bits in France. Okay. And somehow it got back to the States with one of the other soldiers from his unit and it was about to be thrown in a dumpster and a woman brought it in. That's a great save. Yep. Another one is we have we just finished getting it done uh with a community uh preservation uh act uh thing is a book from the New Bedford Civil Guard before the police department. What was that? It was a journal. Everyday journal, written in pencil. Today we went to the range. So-and-so shot a .39. So-and-so shot this. Yes. What happened today? And somebody brought it in. And I was like totally, I couldn't even read it because I was so scared that the pages just fall out. Sure. So we took it to Northeast Document Conservation Center with a CPA grant. Okay. And they refurbished it for us. We're going to be putting that out. We have anti-impressment letters from prior to the war of 1812. That they would give out to the sailors. To the sailors so the British wouldn't grab them, right? We have two of them. So, Bill, that's really... So you're involved in preserving a lot of history that would be lost. Right now we're working... I've got a CPA grant going in for General John Lucas's journal. The only unabridged journal in the world. Everything else has been, you know, looked at and changed the wording and everything. Tell us about this man. General Lucas was the general in charge of the Anzio landing, okay? They claimed he was terrible about it and everything else, but if you really are military and you realize that they wanted him to charge into the middle of Italy with nobody behind him and nobody covering his rear into the middle of the German... Military, but he wanted to hold the beach behind him. Sure. So it got the Germans enough time to come in. And they literally crucified him for it because Winston Churchill was upset. Very interesting. And we have his journal, but it's on onion paper. Okay, so it's so delicate. And we're going to have it digitized. Now, the Museum of the United States Army doesn't have this. Really? Yeah, we're the only ones in the world. His daughter-in-law brought it in and donated it to the museum and says this will stay with the museum. Is he from here originally? No, actually he wasn't, but his family moved here. He never left the military. He died in the military in 1959. So he never had a, how would I say, a home. Right, right. Like most of the military. I did 23 years and, you know, the only thing I did is come back to New Bedford, but again, his family moved here after. So we have all of that, and I've been trying to get it out. We've had it since 2005, if I'm not mistaken. But we can't put it out because it's just so delicate. Sure, sure. So pretty soon we're going to have a TV up with a player that you can go through and look at the different documents. It actually has a signed letter from George Patton to him and his wife. Really? Yes. Of course, Patton, his wife was from Ipswich, so he was here a lot in Massachusetts. So was his son, also a general from Ipswich. Can we take a break? Um, we're broadcasting live here on Veterans Day from the Military Museum at Fort Tabor. Come on down, say hello, we're happy to talk to you. Come on down, particularly if you're a veteran. We'll be right back. Statistics show roughly 20 veterans die by suicide every single day. And every day, more than 1,000 dogs are euthanized. After the Navy, I became a recluse. I felt like I was still in combat mode. I felt lost and confused. For 15 years, Canines for Warriors has been the nation's leading nonprofit organization, providing service dogs for veterans battling PTSD and other invisible wounds of war. Thanks to my service dog, Lady Cameo, I got my life back. I'm able to get out of bed in the morning. Be excited, happy about today. More than 1,200 veteran lives saved. More than 2,500 dogs rescued. Families made whole again. Canines for Warriors is more than a service dog program. It's a promise that no veteran should ever walk alone. To learn more, visit caninesforwarriors.org. Canines for Warriors. Saving veterans. Rescuing dogs. Restoring families. Back to Chris McCarthy and South Coast now on WBSM. Call 508-996-0500. Welcome back. We're broadcasting. It's Veterans Day, and we're broadcasting live from the Military Museum here at Fort Tabor, having a really enjoyable conversation with the President, Bill Nedwich. Bill, talk about your military service. I found it really fascinating, all this different stuff you did in the military. Well, I joined the military back just right after Vietnam ended, a couple of months after it ended. And when MPs... Served at, was stationed in Grafenwoehr, Germany. Okay. In the states at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and a couple other places. And took a break in service. Went back in, and I couldn't go back to the MPs. I went into the Chemical Corps. Went back through basic and AIT again, which was kind of crazy. At Fort McClellan. Fort McClellan, Alabama, which is no longer here. Yeah. And actually. That's where I went, folks. When I first went there was actually the WAC training base. For women? Fort McClellan, yeah. It was the Women's Army Training Corps. Huh. And so I went there, I took the chemical corps course. I ended up in Germany again, which was great because my wife is actually German. Oh, nice. I met her in Grafenwoehr. She wouldn't dance with me, but we've been married for 49 years. Yes, he is. And I went back and I actually worked at the largest storage area at the time, it's no longer there, of chemical weapons outside of the United States. That's fascinating. What years were these built? Well, the weapons got brought in there after France threw out NATO. Okay. Because they used to be in France. Yep. Run by the Americans. And they brought them over to a place called Clausen, which is not classified anymore because it's closed. Okay. Okay. The only thing that's still classified is actually how many rounds we had. And we did have about 100,000 somewhere around in that area. Substantial amount of weapons. Yes. And so we took care of them, and because Helmut Kohl wanted to get re-elected, they decided to move the chemical rounds out of Germany. Yes. And then the day we moved the last trucks off the site heading to Bremerhaven to be put on a ship to head out to Johnston Island was the day Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait. Really? The exact same day, and it was really strange. Everybody's rushing around now. The guy was trying to close the site. Because I was site NCO, NCOIC, trying to close up the site because we're all going to separate units to go over to Saudi. And like myself, I sat there waiting to go, and I never did go. We're talking, Bill, the president of the military museum. Come on down. It's Veterans Day. We're here in the city of New Bedford at this amazing military museum. We're talking with the president of the museum, Bill. Bill, what sort of revenue does this place generate, the museum, to sustain itself? And how does it get that money? Okay, our biggest thing is we don't charge admission. And one of the reasons why is you can't charge admission to see an actual Medal of Honor. Okay. So we all do everything on donations. We have a membership. It's extremely expensive. It's $10 a year. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. And our members are so great with us for us . because, yeah, it's $10. They'll send us more. And we have every April. We have a membership drive and we have a, you know, we send out letters, what we've been doing, what's come in, things of that nature. And so how would I say it? They're so great to us. They are unbelievable. It's great to hear that, Bill, because that's my belief of this community. It's very charitable, very generous, and particularly towards our veterans and prior service. And we do appreciate our history, right? Yes, they do. I mean, we have people coming in weekly because we usually take stuff in on Sundays, which is the day I work and Bob Bromley, the curator, works. Sure, Bob's a great guy. Yep. And so we usually have people coming in. Every Sunday, and we have stuff coming in, like I just mentioned to you before, we got the sword from the provost marshal of New Bedford. We got a woman from the Cape Cod who brought down some coastal defense gun dioramas. Really? But she also brought in these, I won't call them action figures, they're actually models of people from New Bedford, dating all the way back to Civil War. You know, some people call them GI Joes. Please don't. It's not that. But they're like a one foot tall thing. And all of soldiers and airmen and everybody who have been killed in action. Really? Yes. And she does everything right down to the patch on the sleeve. She makes the clothes for them. She makes these? Yes. What a wonderful tribute. And she brought them in and she says, I says, wow, those are beautiful. She goes, I says, those are great. And she says, you didn't call them GI Joes. I says, because they're not, you know? And so again, I was, but she brought them in and she was so happy to donate it to us, to the museum. And they're all New Bedford residents. All of them actual people? Yes, actual people. Right down to the patch they wore, where they were at. And people can see them here at the museum now? Yes, we haven't got them out yet because again, we have, takes a little bit of time to get them through all the process. Sure. And we're a little bit backed up at the moment, but we're keeping it going. So that Medal of Honor that is right there, I'm looking at it. I mean, it's just, you can't, you're not going to see that really anywhere else. No, there are a couple more around. I think there's one, actually, I think there's one in Freetown. Really? For, and I'm not exactly, I don't know if it's Duffy. I think it was Duffy's Medal is in Freetown, supposedly. At the historic? Yes. But again, it's, I don't know how they're doing it again on that situation. Again, we're... Uh, Udon Crane is the one who came in and built us the case. It's a beautiful case. That case is actually locked into the frame of the building. You have to rip the building down to get it out. That's how secure it is. Well, yeah, because that's what it has to be by the government. Oh, so you have standards the government gives you, you have to live up to. Yes. Oh, that's fascinating. Mm-hmm. To contain a Medal of Honor. Right. That, that, uh, Lexan on the top is over an inch thick. It took five guys, I think four or five guys to just lift it to put it in place. We're down here at the Military Museum in the south end of New Bedford. We'll have the mayor of New Bedford here in the 10 o'clock hour. It'll be an abbreviated set with the mayor today. He's got a lot of other duties he's got to do for the Veterans Day parade. All right. So, Bill, as the president of the museum, you have a funny story. How did you become involved with the museum? It's kind of a warning, folks, but go ahead and please tell us, Bill. You know, they always say, don't volunteer. Yeah, I'm dumb. I'm dumb. I came in the museum to bring my dad's picture, and he was a World War II veteran. And I had a couple of the volunteers start talking to me, and I was looking at the guns, and I'm a collector and stuff of that nature, so they were like, oh, we need somebody to do this and that, and I was just recovering from sickness. And I had closed up my business and all. And so my wife says, why don't you come in for three hours a week? And then a little while after that, he asked me to go on the board. And a little while after that, the vice president wanted to leave to go traveling. And he wanted to leave the museum. And nobody was going to take the job. And being the idiot that I am, I raised my hand. Didn't you learn that in the Army, not to volunteer better? Actually, I was one of the people in the Army who volunteered for everything. Okay. I'm probably one of the only people, other than a librarian, who knows what the Dewey Decimal System is. No, I actually do, too. You do, too. Because I'm a bit of a book nerd. Yeah. But, so you, that's how you became the president? And I became vice president, and Joe Langlois, who was one of the original people of the museum, two months later passed away from cancer. He was a great guy. And I became president. And now I always say that I'm president under duress. Because nobody will take the job. I was actually in the hospital getting a heart valve done when I was elected president this year. Really? Yes. You weren't here to vote against yourself? No, I wasn't even here. They just voted me in. Yeah, he's president again. I'm like, yeah, sorry. But Bill, you and the whole board do a wonderful job here. All the vets, all the volunteers in this museum. I'm not here for the money because our pay is zero dollars. Sure. And we're here because we like to. We want to be. We're in history. We're basically history nuts. Yeah. Okay, and we look for things and just want, hey, this is here. This is here. And we're chasing stuff around and trying to get stuff from people to bring it in and donate it. Because, again, we don't have a lot of money to spend. By the end of the year... People have a lot of military treasures in their home. And maybe from their grandparents, their fathers, whoever, an uncle. How do they bring them down here? What's the protocol? Okay, on Sundays from 1 to 4, myself and the curator, Bob Brumley, are here. And we usually take the stuff in, we get it set up, it goes into the office, it gets cataloged and everything else, because we have to put in the past perfect system and everything before it gets out there. So it does take some time. But if you bring it down, we'd love to take it. The one thing I want to bring out, if I can. Sure, go ahead. Is that the people who do house cleanups around the city, there's so much stuff. Half of the burial flags you see in this museum came out of dumpsters. Really? Because you have an elderly person or the husband dies and she's there or she passes away and her husband has the stuff. They pass away and somebody comes up and cleans out the house and where does it go? In the dumpster. Right. And I've asked, I put it out online on our Facebook page and on our web page. If you're doing house cleanups or you have a house and the elderly person dies and you find military things, please don't throw them out. Right. Please bring them down to the museum. Right. We would be glad to take them. Yes. And again, I mean, when you get burial flags, that thing, how we got Milliken's French book was going into a dumpster. How we got the Journal of the New Bedford Civil Guard going into a dumpster. Bill, what sort of stuff, and I know it's probably just bring it down and you guys will sort it out, but what sort of stuff would you like people to bring down if they have it? Just about anything. The only thing we really can't take down is uniforms. Why is that? We have an attic full and we have a storeroom full because everybody came home with their uniform. Now, if it's a certain uniform for somebody, a thing, like a while back, we had, um, Our family bring in a uniform and a bunch of stuff, and we were like, eh, uniform. Come to find out, it was E. Milton Sylvia's uniform. Really? Yes. Tell the audience who E. Milton Sylvia was. E. Milton Sylvia was a photographer for the Standard Times for, what, 36 years? He has thousands and tens of thousands of pictures in archives in the state of Massachusetts. And... First we saw, first we were looking through, him like another uniform, we really can't take it. And then one of the other ones, Bob Lytle, who's left, he's moved out to be with his family. Who looks, I know that name. And it says, I forgot what his first name was, but it's Milton Sylvia. He goes, and he goes, so I grabbed the uniform, I started opening it up, and there's his laundry tag. because everybody everybody knows in the military you tag every item you own yes and it was his we actually had it on we have it on display we have his dog tags we have pictures and everything else and it's like something like you know this is how things fall into place totally totally like on the wall there you know you see two pictures one is the guards in 1897 up front the gate of Fort Rodman the other one People ask me, the soda fountain? Yep, that was right in this building. Yeah, they had a snack bar. People asked me, are there any ghosts? I said, I don't know how bad the cook was. It was, but... We're broadcasting in honor of Veterans Day from the Military Museum here at Fort Tabor in New Bedford. It's not too soon to start thinking about Christmas. Your employees and your best customers, you know what they want for Christmas? They want an open bar party this Christmas. 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We have everything from an Iraqi pistol all the way back to a militia musket. From the Revolutionary War. Explain that military, the militia musket. The militia musket, it was sitting on the wall. And I started looking at it and I'm like, well, that might not be real. And I went up ahead and I researched it, being a collector that I am, and found out that the lock dates back to the Revolutionary War made in Boston. And the stock's been changed, the barrel's been changed, but those two wear out. Okay. OK, so that's why you it's something that happens. I mean, wood deteriorates. Yes. Black powder eats up steel, but the lock stays and that dates all the way back. Now we have some stock in barrel, lock, stock and barrel. One person made the stock, one made the lock and one made the barrel. So that's how you get a gun, a lock, stock and barrel. What are those sort of weapons do you have here? And they're all inert, right? Everything in here is inert. Some of them are actually replicas due to the fact is that we couldn't get some of the weapons from that time frame, especially nowadays with Massachusetts law, like the M-16 that's in there. It's a replica. Okay. The .50 cal is more likely, it's mostly a replica. Okay. Okay. So a lot of these are like, some of them, we do have, like I was talking to you about the MP-28. Which was found under a deceased veteran's couch in North Smithfield. And one of the officers at North Smithfield said, well, after it was sitting, it was probably destroyed out of the evidence room because it was never used for anything wrong. It's a bring back. And so. We ended up working out how we could get it down here through the ATF and the FBI and everybody else. And it's now here in the museum. It's all inert. I mean, it's welded, barrels welded shut, the actions welded, everything, but here, so people can see it. The Iraqi pistol, talk about that. It was brought in anonymously. Okay. Okay, I don't know where it came from, but it was just brought in. I like that. You know, somebody brought it in. Bill has no idea where it came from. You know, because again, You know, they brought it in. They said, we need to get rid of it. I said, okay. Yeah. It's in the cabinet, demilled, sitting there. Now it's a display. What other sort of equipment do you have down here that people can check out? Oh, jeepers. We have a Dragon missile launcher up on top of one of the cabinets. What is that? Dragon missile is an infantry weapon that man-carried anti-tank weapon. And it's up there. Actually, that caused me to have to come in here at 2 o'clock in the morning once because we had it sitting up there. And I don't know what happened, but it fell off in the middle of the night. And I don't know if the ghost was trying to use it or what. I don't know. He was fighting against the 50 Cal. I'm not sure. But I ended up coming in at 2 o'clock in the morning in a pair of sweats and going, okay, what am I doing here? Yeah. Bill, you were in the service in Germany during the Cold War. Yes. What was that tension like over there? Well, the first place I was at was a place, Grafenwoehr, which is right on the Czechoslovakian border. So we always just call ourselves speed bumps. That's what my dad talked about. He was in Germany as well in the 1950s, 1960s. Yeah. And it's like, we were told, load up the Jeep, put the M60 on it, go towards the border and do as much damage as you could do before you're killed. Because we weren't going to stop them until they got to the Rhine. And again, okay, what the heck? Yeah, and we got some stuff in here. I brought in a piece of the Berlin Wall for the museum that I had. Yep. All kinds of stuff. And, you know, we just sit around and we're like, back then it was like, hey, well, that's what we got to do. Right. It was a different time. Yeah. It was a different time. Yeah. So. Bill, what other items would you like people to bring down? Other than, by the way, their checkbook. Because, as I pointed out, as you and I pointed out earlier, this place totally exists with the financial contribution of people in this region. The membership dues are... It's not really a big number, but a lot of people give a lot of their money and their time to keep this place going. So people come down, you love them to volunteer, but you love them to bring their checkbook. Am I wrong, Bill? Yeah, I'll put a couple of dollars in. I don't expect anybody to put money in. Like I said, I mentioned before, we did start with Venmo because a lot of people asked, well, do you have Venmo? And we're like, at the time, no. Needless to say, being my age and trying to work through that was extremely difficult. I still haven't got Instagram to work. But you have a YouTube channel for the museum. Yes, I got a YouTube channel. That's all of our speaker series, which I brought in, which we have one coming up Sunday with Bill Cuomo. We videotape them. And talk about Bill Cuomo. That's an incredible man. Yeah, he's when's he coming? He's coming Sunday. He's here every Sunday anyhow, because he's a volunteer on Sunday. But I asked him to talk about his book in this in this stuff. And he's going to come in on Sunday. It's going to be a one hour program. So that's a two o'clock on Sunday afternoon. And that's when we do and we do like one a month. I wasn't going to do one in December, but we ran into a gentleman from a little bit north, northern part of Massachusetts. And his book's coming out today. About an artillery unit that all the way through World War II in Europe, and he's going to come in on, I think the Sunday is the 6th, don't hold me to it. We're down here broadcasting in honor of Veterans Day at the Military Museum at Fort Tabor in the south end of New Bedford. Admissions free, come on down, we'd love to see you. Thank you. Yeah, one of the great things, Bill, as you know from being all those years in the military, is that in the military, everything has to be documented. Everything has to be written down. And after a period of time, it becomes released. So these authors have access to it. I had a schoolteacher, John Simonis, who... Had all kinds of awards from his time in Vietnam. He was with the Lurps Group, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, all of that. And years later, read a book about him. You know, here's a guy who was my school teacher. A lot of people with very heroic service are walking around doing other things, non-military now today, that would amaze most people. Yeah, there are. I mean, there's people that you walk by on the street, you never know that this person... Was a hero. Right. Now people say, oh, you're in the military. What are you, a hero? I says, no, but I've walked beside a bunch of them. Yes, yes. I've walked beside a lot of them who've done things that you just won't believe. I mean, one of our individuals in the 3rd Infantry Division during Desert Storm pulled his M2 Bradley in front of another vehicle that had been hit. And it was hit with an RPG and killed him, the driver. And he died. He was one of the few people in 3rd Infantry Division who died. But he did that by blocking the fire into the other track with his track. Incredible. Yeah. Incredible story. We got Joey Camaro. Joey Camaro was my sergeant. Put me in for, obviously, a non-combat award. And then when he went to the Rhode Island National Guard and went overseas. Please, um... Yeah, a real hero. You're a Bedford cop. Yep. We were good friends. Were you? We're the ones, the guys in the unit were the ones who got him to put in to be a police officer. Because he kept on saying, ah, I'm an immigrant. They're never going to take me. Joey, you're a good cop. Right. Go for it. And then he went. And I was actually in the unit with Joey. Because after I retired from the regulars, I went into the 115th in Rhode Island. Yeah. And I was with Joey then. Funny guy he was. Yeah, oh, he's a great guy. Great guy. We got some people on hold. Matt, we're going to take some phone calls here. Good morning. You're on the air live. Is it me? It's you, Doris. Okay. I've got a paper that's been hanging on my wall. My husband passed away almost 40 years. He's a World War II vet. He had three battle stars. And anyhow, when he passed the equator, what is that? That's the shellback. I think it's called the shellback. My dad has one of those papers also. I have it in my office at home. And it's the rite of passage. Okay. And it's actually, it's a rite of passage crossing the equator, and they do god-awful things to you. They make, they paint you up, and they do all this crazy stuff. I know. You know, was your dad in a VFW? My dad was at the East Freetown VFW. He was the commander. Oh, I was president with him, you know. Bill Nedwich. Yeah, I was president at the time. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I belonged to the VFW, too. My husband and I. We joined in the 70s. And we became gung-ho. But I even went up to district, too. I became president in district, also. Mm-hmm. But... I knew Nina so bad, your mother so good, I miss her. She just passed away two years ago. I heard that, I was shocked, yeah. But I was wondering, that's been on my wall. He was in World War II. He enlisted at Pearl Harbor, my husband. And they shipped him over to Hickam Field in Hawaii. And he never came home. He stood there all during the war. He went to the Philippines under MacArthur. And he was in invasion of Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and Saipan. And he lived through it all. And he went into Japan with MacArthur, you know. And then after Hawaii came. But he re-enlisted. He couldn't face civilian life, no. But he's been gone 40 years now. Wow. I lost him. But I knew your father. We called him the bear. Yep, because that's actually with the last name Ned, which is translated from Polish to English, is bear, the animal. It's bear. Oh, is that it? Oh, I was president when we both got in together, you know, him as commander and me as president. I go way back. I used to march in all these parades. And now we don't do it no more. Yeah. No, there's not too many around. I was wondering about that paper. And I've had it on the wall all these years. Please hang on to it until that you're ready to actually give it up again because it's just a memory of your husband. Sure. Yeah. Thanks, Doris. Happy Veterans Day. We appreciate everything your husband did. We're going to take a break and then we'll be back. We're broadcasting live from the Military Museum here in New Bedford. It's Veterans Day. Welcome back. We're broadcasting here on Veterans Day live from the Military Museum in New Bedford. We're with the president of the Military Museum, Bill Nedwich. Bill the Bear. We're learning that in Polish, his last name means bear. That's a great nickname, Bill the Bear. Thank you. So you have giveaways down here for people talking about. Yes, for the young and the young at heart, like I always love to do this because of a simple reason. We have things that people can come in and bring home with them. We have American flags. Yep. We have military ducks, little rubber ducks. Yeah, they're really cute. I like those. You gave one to me and gave one to Matt. Yep. And we got... You know, Army, Air Force, Marines, all of their Navy. We have little styrofoam airplanes, and we have parachute guys. I love the parachute guys. I mean, I saw them online, and I said, I've got to have the parachute guys. Because, I mean, I remember doing that. I'd play all day with the parachute guys. And the little styrofoam airplanes. I mean, I saw those. I said, we have to get the younger people interested. Bill, I was telling you, I used to get those at Rainbow Variety in Fairhaven on Skonic and Neck Road in the 70s and into the 80s, and we'd throw them off. We have a big rock down there at Wolves Point. We'd throw them off that. Matt took a couple home of them. Matt, what are you going to do with those? I'm going to attach some firecrackers on them. I told him you've got to attach firecrackers to those, and then you throw them and watch them blow up. So, Bill, again, let's talk about the hours when this place is open, when people are encouraged to come down, and the price is right. Right. Mm-hmm. Big old $0. We have free parking all year round. We have our own parking spaces down here at the fort. Actually, you know, every day is free down here. Mission is free. If you would like to give us a donation, they are greatly accepted. Yes. And if people have any military artifacts that they want to bring down, the only thing you caution on is the uniform. Yeah, because uniforms, everybody came home with a uniform. Right. So there's tons and tons of uniforms. Let us know who the person was, if it was something that was kind of, how would I say, pertinent to New Bedford that we should know about. Yes, like I was mentioned earlier, we got E. Milton Sylvia's uniform in. And we weren't going to take it at first until we found out whose uniform it was. Right, right. And so he's known throughout Standard Times and everything else. We're open 1 to 4, Wednesday through Sunday. We'd love to be open Monday and Tuesdays. I still haven't got enough volunteers back. If someone wanted to get involved in becoming a volunteer, how would they do that? Come right in on a Sunday afternoon when I'm here, or Bob Brumley's here. We'll sign you up. The ball and chain goes on then, and you don't get away. But it's a love. I mean, you guys love this. It's history. It's amazing, an amazing place. Well, I think it is, but I'm a little bit prejudiced on that. All right. It's just, how would I say it? You don't do this for the money. Right. You do it for the love and the history. And the stories, right, Bill? Yep. I mean, this place generates so many memories. Yes, and it does. Right back to, like, we have pictures up on the wall, and one of the pictures is actually the lighthouse is actually the second lighthouse on Clark's Point. These are beautiful artworks. Yeah. Some of them are painted by some of our volunteers. Steve Rogers painted that one of the building. Zach Souza painted one of these Fort Rodman pictures. You know, we have everything down here. I mean, I really appreciate you spending this time. We're going to be around here all day. I hope you'll be sticking around with us here as we broadcast through till noon.