Military Culture and Reintegration with Doug "Odie" Slocum | Others Over Self

Please welcome to the stage Brigadier General Retired Doug Ody Slocum. With over 35 years of experience in the United States Air Force, he served as the last commanding general of Selfridge Air National Guard Base, earning awards for being the top Air National Guard wing in the country, as well as the top firefighter aircraft organization and more. Doug is a career fighter pilot with over 4,000 flying hours on the F-4, the F-16, and the A-10 aircraft. He's authorized over 250— he authorized— he's authored over 250 lessons, textbooks, and professional publications, and he's championed nationwide programs for suicide prevention, fatigue management, and more. Ladies and gentlemen, please, if we can take our seats and keep it quiet in the bunker. General Odie Slocum.

All right, am I on? Can you hear me all right? If not, I can really project if you want. All right, sit down. We're going to have fun here for just a little bit. Thank you for the opportunity and thank you for the wonderful introduction, Shelley. I appreciate it. Soon as we get the slides up here. Well, while she's doing that, one of the things I always like to do, you know, you have to do everything on social media nowadays. So let's take a selfie here real quick. All right. But I need you to be energetic with it while we do it. All right. Well, over here. All right, good. Normally we'd have a contest or whatever, but I think we'll pass in the interest of time. But what I'm going to talk with you about is, you know, we can come up with different titles— Veterans Reintegration, Military Cultural Competency. Really, I get the wonderful chance to talk to organizations about people in the military or those who have been in the military, and how do you relate to them? How do you communicate with somebody and build trust? Most of the time we're talking about organizations of faith, and we're wanting to establish that communication line so that we can understand what the issues are and be able to offer services or support to help those in uniform or those who used to wear the uniform. And what a great opportunity it is. Now, you're a unique audience here today. So first thing I want to do is understand just a little bit about the folks that are sitting in the room. We have different services. Every service, you're going to hear me get into all this in just a little bit. But in the room, show of hands, how many retired or current Army or Army Guard? Okay, this is a HUA-free zone. We're just going to make that call right now. No HUAs. All right, and, and for you all, I will try and keep it to one-syllable words for most of the time. I used to fly A-10s. It's all right, it's all right. Marine Corps. Good. I brought crayons. We're good. Okay. Navy. Excellent, excellent. All right. Coast Guard? Any Coasties? Air Force? Pretty good. So no, I haven't saved— not at all. We're missing exactly Space Force. And if anybody raises their hand, I'll drop my jaw. And you'll see why here in just a minute. Is this really on? Okay. I'm just not hearing feedback. But let's just run through real quick. I want to talk about a few things, but you're unusual in the fact that almost everybody sitting here today has a background in things we're talking about. Most of the time I'm dealing with people that don't have a clue. And if you think about it, a lot of times when we're out and about, how many people have ever heard the phrase, somebody says to you, "Thank you for your service"? Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the go-to phrase. But when we're working with organizations, when we're working with people who are trying to reach veterans and establish that trust, we have to dig a little bit deeper. But let's go just through some basic facts here to begin with. And it's not working. You know, there's a little bit of difference in mentality between the civilian and the military world, right? Everybody who's been there, I mean, now, especially in the civilian world, it's all about individuality and expressing yourself. Oh, when you get into most military services now, it's just the opposite of that, right? It's us, it's team, it's always thinking of the collective. Boy, we bounced a couple here. Go back one, please. There are lag time here? Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm just going to keep talking to help go with the slides. But the differences between what are the core values, if you will, of the military services versus what are the values that our civilian counterparts have nowadays? And how do we balance that? How do we bridge that gap between the organizations and these individuals? You know, what things are you in control of when you're in the military? It depends. When you're first new and you're going through, you know, basics and everything else, you're in control of nothing, right? They tell you when to eat, when to— yeah, we'll go through all that. But it's basically is you're on the schedule, you do what they say. And there's a lot of things you can tell about people with the military. I mean, we're going to get into the whole thing about lingo. You learn certain languages, you talk in certain ways. If you're in the military, odds are you were here early today. You were not late to this thing, right? Because you're going to show up on time, damn it. But anyway, there's differences between the cultures and we have to understand that and bridge that. Next. When we look at the number of people serving in the military nowadays, hopefully we'll get to that chart whenever it decides to. If you look at it, this is from the time really right after World War II. We had two spikes. One was the Korean War right here. Then we dropped back off, Vietnam War, Cold War, Iraq, and now into what we are today. But fewer and fewer people are serving in the military than what we're used to. If you go back in the past, the Vietnam era, more than 10% of the people had some connection to the military. And now that number continues to drop. So how much the civilian world out there, the people driving on this interstate, understand the military is going down because there's less and less of a connection simply by the demographics and the numbers that we're dealing with. So we have to understand there's a little bit of a challenge. What's unique? Michigan. I always hear the number 600,000. Well, we're a little bit less than that. And because of what I just said, that number is going to trend down as we lose our wonderful World War II veterans, those that served in Korea, you know, the Welcome Home group from Vietnam. All that is, as we lose those wonderful individuals, uh, our connection with the veterans is going to continue to dwindle as a state. The numbers are going to go down. We don't have a single operational active duty military base in the state of Michigan. Ninth largest state from a population standpoint in our country, zero active duty bases here. Most of the military are either retired or they are currently serving with the Guard and Reserve. So that's why I use the phrase we are a Guard and Reserve state, which is very different than active duty. I'll touch on that more. Nope, back to the other one. I didn't do that. Only a small percentage, less than 10% of the people who serve in the military are actually military retirees. Most have done a short stint and they are referred to as those who have separated from the military, but there's a very small percentage that are actually drawing a retirement as a military retiree. The other one that's interesting to me is the very bottom line down there, how many people actually access VA facilities and services? It's a very small part. So we have to realize most veterans have never darkened the doors of these facilities, these people that are trying to provide these services to them. That's what we're trying to connect right here. Next. Problems that we face. I don't know if you were able to hear Shelley when she was talking, but I had a unique opportunity back in Washington, DC to be the Director of Safety for the Air National Guard at the national level. I had wonderful bosses who let me do a lot of the things I wanted to. I got to define safety. I didn't use the book definition. To me, it was getting everybody home safely every night, period. What kept them from getting home safely every night? Well, if they committed suicide, they didn't get home that night. So I put my nose into suicide prevention, which was really the medical communities by the books, but it was like, nope, we're going to dive into that. We're going to be part of all that. So From the good or bad perspective, I've had the unique opportunity to try and address some of these suicide prevention, resiliency, all these types of risks that keep people from getting home safe every night. We could dive into a lot of these different things, whether it's substance abuse, the PTSD, but there are unique issues that face our military that once again, the civilian population who's never had any connection are gonna have a hard time understanding why. All right, they took my colors away. I'm gonna be monochromatic on you a little bit today. But if we look at the services themselves, almost half the people wearing uniforms have an Army background. And it's real interesting, you know, when I get introduced a lot of times and they put my rank as capital B, capital G, the first thing I know is you're Army, because that's the way the Army does it. That's not the way the Air Force does. So there's big differences between the services, but we have to realize, and even more in the state of Michigan, by the way, that more than half of the people dealing with are going to have an Army background. And then you can see the other percentages there almost roughly split, split between the Navy and the Air Force. And then the small number, only about 10% in the US Marine Corps. The littlest sliver of the whole bunch, of course, this was as of last year, Space Force is just starting and they're growing. They're taking from the other components. So right now they round off to a wonderful 0%, which is why I made the joke with you about I'll drop my jaw if there's a retiree from the Space Force in the room. The different services. Now, you can correct me on this, but it's always interesting when we talk to organization, they start talking about soldiers. Well, soldiers is a very specific, you know, within the services themselves. And I just like to talk to the organizations. What is the Marine Corps? One is probably some of the deepest traditions and all that you're going to find from the different services. What do you call somebody from the Marine Corps? Simple, Marine. Okay? They're not a soldier, they're not an airman, they're not any— they are a Marine and they take great pride in that. And then there's the different organizations within there. And we talk about how are Marines going to identify, what division were you in? And for the Marine Corps, for the most part, is which coast were you on or were you overseas? So you could either be in Europe, you could be in Asia, in the Pacific, or you could be East Coast, West Coast. And that's pretty much how the Marines are going to identify themselves. Always faithful, Semper Fi. And oh, by the way, to this day, if I meet a Marine or whatever, and I'm talking, that's how I'll end the discussion with them as I walk away, Semper Fi. One of the few organizations that actually hold onto their motto. To the Army, of course, they're soldiers. Once again, any of the services have so many different career fields. You can find anything from supply clerks, to fuel, to maintenance, to operators, all. I mean, the diversity of career fields within the services is huge. But now we have different armies. Once again, normally theaters are what we're talking about. Then what division are you? All the way down to— and I don't know anybody in the Army that uses that motto, by the way. Anybody ever heard that in the Army? I didn't think so. Okay. But once again, most of the folks we're going to meet are Army within the veterans community. The Air Force, yeah, we say fly, fight, and win. And I don't know a single person— when we look at the Air Force, we have numbered Air Forces, NAS as we call them.— don't even ask me what one I belong. What I always identified with is what squadron was I in. All right, I was in the blank blank at this base, and most people are going to identify with that. Not everybody in the Air Force is associated with a flying mission. There are so many other things that go on in the US Air Force nowadays. Once again, just trying to get across the fact that it's a very diverse portfolio of individuals, a demographic that we're dealing with. Next. The Navy? Easy enough, ships. Most people in the Navy serve on ships, correct? Okay? Either that or it's going to be one of the big shore bases. All right? But for the most part, from what I've seen, they start talking when I talk to somebody in the Navy and they said, oh, I was in submarines. Oh, well, the cultures are different. They have submarines that carry, you know, the big ballistic missiles that go low and slow and go deep for 6 months at a time. And then you have the attack boats, which are completely different culture and mindset. So when I meet somebody that said, I'm in the Navy, I used to do submarines, I go, boomer or attack? And immediately they know that I know something about what I'm talking about because I have some credibility. And once again, I'm just giving you kind of a surface thing today on the different services. But for the most part, the fleets, where they are, they're mobile. The Navy, they can change. This ship would've been in the Pacific this time, goes to the Atlantic over here. So a very dynamic environment, especially for the Navy. And then our newest, the Guardians from our Space Force. Once again, they kind of take the Air Force tradition. Most of them are going to identify with a squadron that they come from, but they are that new thing. They are Guardians. They got some goofy uniforms and all, but we won't get into that. Next, please. And I throw the Coast Guard in here. It's important that we know they are not part of the Department of Defense. They are part Department of Homeland Security. However, just like the Guard, they can get put into Title 10 into active service, and they do that on a regular basis. So from a military standpoint, we do include the Coast Guard when we talk that, but there are some important differences. And once again, for the Coast Guard, for the most part, it's what station are they, 'cause there's a limited number of stations around the world. Next. All right, I told you I was gonna talk about the Reserve component. More than a third of our military is made up of When I say reserve, there's reserve and National Guard. Big differences between those, but we have to realize that there is our active duty military, which, oh, by the way, until the First World Wars, we were about 90% this. It was only coming out of the World Wars and out of Korea that all of a sudden we had a large standing active military. So that's relatively new. Most of the time it's been, I say part-timers, and I have to say this because it's an insult to call them that because they're always on duty, they're just not getting paid. Our guardsmen and reservists that make up a big bulk of the military services. And we don't do any operations around the world that don't involve to some degree reserve component from the different services. Next, please. All right, here's the next one, rank. I would explain to you how my dad explained ranks to me when I was growing up, but I don't know how to do that having taken my Tourette's medication. That the main delineation, of course, is between officer and enlisted. But once again, that culture and how it breaks down, because now it's going to be different career fields. Every single pilot that I ever dealt with has been an officer. Not always the case in the Army. And they are looking at some other things with RPAs, etc. But the bulk of the military, all services, are enlisted. They have the different ranks. And if you're talking with somebody, that should be one of the first questions that comes out of your mouth because that's how they're going to identify themselves. That's how they're going to identify with their service. And it gets the dialogue flowing. So one of the important questions is, well, what rank were you? They'll tell you, they'll talk about it. And all of a sudden, as long as you understand more stripes, better. When they start putting stripes on top, these are important people, the ones that really make the world go round. When you have little bars, those are the little malleable officers, the lieutenants. All right, put a couple of those on, you get a captain, but eventually you get leaves, birds, stars. Eh, it's overrated. But my point is that having to know where people are within that hierarchy is gonna be a big deal to them and how they identify with their service. Next. All right, so cultural competency itself, some basic questions. It really boils down to what service were you in? What job did you do? What rank were you? What unit were you in? And then my favorite question of all, being in the wonderful positions I was blessed to be in, is, "And what can I do for you?" Or, "How can I help?" To be able to make that connection. Of course, there are things we don't want to dive into. When you're talking to somebody, you're not going to get into, "And which political party are you?" Or, "What do you stand on this particular issue?" Most of the time, if I'm having trouble connecting with somebody, easiest thing for me, pets and family. Talk about non-controversial topics. I have pictures of my cats and dogs and I'll whip them out in a heartbeat because most people, ah, they can relate to it. They're going to have a dog person right here. See, I know this. And then the next would be family because most of the time that's not controversial. It's a way to establish, get them talking about their families, their pets, et cetera, et cetera, relate to them. And then you can dive into these types of questions so that we can understand what our veterans need and how best to serve them as we go forward. So you hear me talk about, "Thank you for your service." Not a bad thing, but if you really wanna connect with veterans, we have to go deep. So here are just some rules of thumb that we can use going forward. I hope I gave you some ammo, if you will, today, things that we can do. I think the next is simply questions. I wanted to give ourselves an opportunity. Any questions on anything? I just shut you all up. Ma'am, for the most part, what I do under contract is for organizations of faith, churches, counseling organizations, talking to them. But to answer your question is we can do this for anybody anytime. If it helps our veterans and those that are in service, there's no boundaries. We can take it where we need to take it. So the question is, what's the appropriate way to address somebody in the military? To me, ask them. Because, you know, people to me, they trip over my rank all the time. I've never introduced myself by my rank and I never will. But it's sometimes they like to be addressed that way. I know some folks that are retired that, by golly, they live and breathe that. So the answer is, it depends. The fighter pilot answer to everything. Okay. Well, in that case, really the issue is, I hate to say it this way, the issue is with you. They're trying to be good-natured with you when they're just addressing you. The fact that they use ex versus former versus retired is not an affront to you. So, as you understand that, that helps deal with it a little bit. But you can just tell them, "Hey, we never call ourselves ex." Yeah. By the way, call a Marine an ex-Marine sometime, you're going to get— Got it. I learned it the hard way because they yelled at me. Go figure. But if somebody told me I was ex-Air Force, I could care less. Personal opinion. You know, that's just the way it was. I'm not in there anymore. Okay. However you want to use the words, I'm not that sensitive about which word. But most of the time they're really nice.