Welcome Home Veterans!

Welcome Home Veterans!

Guest: Dave Roever

This is a rush transcript and may contain minor errors and/or discrepancies from the audio. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Announcer: Today on Family Talk.

Dr. Dobson: Welcome everyone to Family Talk. The radio ministry of James Dobson Family Institute. I'm your host, Dr. James Dobson, and I'm so grateful that you've joined us for this broadcast. Yesterday was Veteran's Day. I hope you know that. I can't think of any more honorable cause than to dedicate this radio program to the brave men and women who have fought and died for this country. The great President, Ronald Reagan, once said, and I love this statement, I wish every American knew it: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We can't pass it along to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom that we've known is to fight for it, and to protect it, and defend it, and hand it off to them with well-taught lessons of how they, in their lifetimes, can do the same." Then, of course, we have to vote. If you and I don't do this then we may well spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it was once like in America when men and women were free.

We're so blessed to live in the United States and experience this freedom every day thanks to those serving in our military. I deeply respect them all. The program I want to share today is from a great speaker, and decorated war veteran, named Dave Roever. He has a miraculous story of surviving a gruesome injury in the Vietnam war, and was later awarded the Purple Heart for his service. Now, he is the President of Dave Roever and Associates, and he speaks to kids about the importance of preserving our freedoms. Today he's gonna share his powerful testimony and remind those listening of the real cost of American freedom. Before we begin, Dave describes in some pretty graphic detail the injury he sustained in Vietnam, so I advise parents to use discretion with younger listeners tuned in. Here now is Dave Roever on this edition of Family Talk.

Dave Roever: Well, good evening. I would be a thief if I were to accept your applause as though I were the only Vietnam veteran in this house, because sitting next to you very likely is a man who served either during the time of war or back home during the time of war. No different in my book; they all served at a time that wasn't pleasant. I want to say this to every one of you Vietnam veterans, and I'm taking a minute to do this. I hope that it will not be considered too much focus on war. Right now, we're a nation at war, and I refuse to forget those who have given so much and didn't- you know where I'm going, ... And didn't get a thank you for it or a welcome home. I want every Vietnam veteran in the building, if you would do this, please. If you would, step to the aisle nearest you. Separate yourself from your peers and let the great state of California give a welcome home to the guys who never got a yellow ribbon, not a single welcome home. Give it up for the Vietnam veterans in the house.

If I may, you'll want to remain standing. You'll want to continue standing because America recognizes failure in how to treat you with the respect you deserve. They learned a lesson that is well learned for the young men and women serving for our freedom today. If you've served in any of those wars I want you to know that you're welcome in this place when I'm speaking, Bubba. You're my hero, and I love you, and I respect you. I just would like to do this. If you're just home from the war in Iraq, or Afghanistan, this War on Terror, and you've been over and served and you're here tonight would you stand up. This place wants to welcome you home, too. Where are you?

I'm 58 years old and I'm not over the hill. I just want you to know that. I am the hill. I got so fat this year I came down on both sides of our family tree. I'm very happy to inform you that I am the proud grandfather of four grandkids. My little granddaughter crawled up in my lap the other day, five and a half years old, blonde haired, blue-eyed little angel, and she squeezed this mutilated face between her tiny little fingers and she sang to me. She said, "Pa-pa, ..." I don't know what you call grandparents in California but in Texas Pa-pa is southern speak for mighty man of war, holy man of God. I thought you knew but I wanted to be sure. She said, "Pa-pa, ..." and I said, "What, little angel?" She sang to me. She sang, "You are so beautiful, ..." and then she bounces to get vibrato, "... to me. Can't you see." I couldn't see. I was already crying and blowing snot bubbles by then. I can't tell you what it means to me to have that child sing to me.

You're saying, "What's that got to do with us?" I don't know. I'll tell you what it's got to do with me. I'm the happiest fat man ever stood on a stage. You need to know that, and you need to know why, because I could do what a lot of vets did. I could have spent the rest of my life sitting on a bar popping tops, sucking suds, shooting drugs, beat my wife, molest my kids, blame the war, blame America, blame Vietnam, blame anybody. I don't blame anyone. I'm gonna tell you something, friend. I'm proud of my scars and stripes. I'm proud to be an American, and I thank God Almighty that I lived to enjoy the presence of Christ in this room with you tonight.

So, being 58 years old isn't so bad anymore, especially when you're still in love with the same woman you started ... See, I feel in love at 16. I asked her to marry me at 16. She slapped me at 16. She was 13. I said, "But I love you." She said, "If you love me you'll wait for me." I said, "Okay, I'll pick you up at 10 o'clock." But, I knew what she meant, so I waited for her. We were both virgins when we got married. Thank you. That's part one. Part two is 38 years later guess what, we're still married. You thought I was gonna say virgin, didn't ya? Oh yes you did. I saw you ... What do you think those kids are, miraculous conceptions? I married my high school sweetheart and boy I tell you something, it's been the best life a man could ever have, because at 16 years old I did what I hope hundreds of you are gonna do in the house tonight, I made the decision to follow Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That was the turning point of my life.

I graduated from high school and went to Bible college, and I was working at General Dynamics trying to make enough money to pay my school bill. I was working 70 hours a week. My checks went up, my grades went down. They dropped below C level. I didn't know if you'd catch that or not. I got a little notice in the mail that told me to go take a physical I was being inducted in the Army. I was being drafted. Now, don't judge me till you hear the whole story. I didn't go back to be sworn in. I wasn't a draft dodger. I was too proud to go to Canada. I was too chicken to go to Vietnam. Where does a proud chicken go? Kentucky. I can be a Kentucky proud chicken.

You know what I did? I went out and joined the Navy, because I thought nobody could float a battleship in a rice paddy. See the world, nobody gets hurt. I joined the Navy. My second day in boot camp they pulled my record and said, "You're the only guy in the whole crowd that went to college." I said, "I was flunking out of Bible school." He said, "No problem. You're leadership material." No wonder we lost the war. I know we didn't lose it, but you know ... Anyway. So, I joined the Navy and they sent me to a place called NAB, Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, California. Meanest people I ever met in my life down there. They eat rocks. They eat their young. They make Rambo look like a Brownie. There's three groups down there, the Brown Water Black Beret were there, the Special Dive Vehicle Teams, and the U.S. Navy Seals.

They put me into the Brown Water Black Beret. All we did was run for week after week, running, running, running, I think maybe eight miles a day at times. Then, they put me on a 30 foot long boat, and it's made of fiberglass, and you can't run and you can't hide. That's what they put me on and sent me to Vietnam on a little riverboat. I was a riverboat gunner on a PVR. I was the forward gunner and I was injured twice, and the second injury was devastating. When I kissed my wife goodbye I never knew what I was gonna see. On July 26, 1969, our Nation was deeply involved in a war while we were putting men on the moon, and they were burning our flags in the streets of San Francisco. During that period of time many, like myself, lived in a confused state wondering, "Why am I giving my life for my country and no one thanks me, no one cares?" I got to be honest with you, it was difficult. Ask these Vietnam vets, it was an unusual time.

On the 23rd of July, I took my first injury, which was minor, but I was Medevac-ed out by helicopter. The second time was three days later when on the bank of the same river at the same place I went back for an intelligence report. I crawled up into the forward gun tub and I felt around my knees into a box of ammunition and I slipped out a white phosphorous hand grenade. It burns white hot. I threw the first one. It exploded but it wasn't enough, and I was trying to defoliate, burn down the brush so I could access to a bunker complex. I reached back and I took the second grenade as it was tossed to me. I pulled the pin, and just as I drew back to throw the grenade I did not the know I was in the cross hairs of a sniper. I have it replayed over and over in my head.

Just as I was throwing the grenade he squeezed off a round. It didn't hit my head, it hit the hand with the grenade and it exploded. In one second half my skin came off my body, stripped my head to the skull. I looked down with the one eye I could still see with and saw my face laying on my boots. My back was on fire and skin was dripping off my arms. My left thumb was gone. My right hand was severed in half. I got one finger left that works. These don't work, but God left my preaching finger. Repent. Repent. I went blind in my eye, went deaf in my ear. It stripped it off. I'm not exaggerating. This is a hairpiece, it's not my hair. Well, it's mine but it was someone else's first. He was old, and he was slow. I don't mind the hairpiece. I hate chasing it across windy parking lots on Sunday.

Blew my ear off. This is all artificial here. Blew it off. I mean, it was gone. Well, I ended up in the water and I swam up on the bank of the river. I was on the bank of the river and I was looking at the damage to my hands. I was still burning. I was pumping blood out of an open artery. I feel over backwards. They all thought I died, but I wasn't dead, I was tired. You know, swimming, burning. Helicopter came, and they call it a Dust-off. It landed. They rolled me onto the stretcher. I was still burning. Phosphorous burns in water. I was still lit up, I was still burning. When they picked me up the stretcher caught fire, it ripped open, I fell through on my head. You ever have one of those days? Nothing goes right. They rolled me up in wet blankets, got me on another stretcher and away we go.

The medic thinks I'm dead. He's filling out my death report. He's not helping me. Then, I'm thinking, "I've got to get his attention." Under the blanket I said, "Medic." He almost jumped out of the helicopter. The pilot, he lost control. We're dropping like a rock and I'm thinking, "Ah, Lord, we're gonna crash and I'll be the only survivor." They got me to Saigon, and then to Japan, and I asked for a mirror, which was really stupid, and they brought it, which was more stupid. I looked up in the glass and I saw what was left.

They sent me to America and put me at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas. I was there in the hospital for a year and two months. During that time, to my knowledge, I'm the only survivor, and I've talked to several nurses, no one knows of anybody else that made it. But, that first day I'll never forget because they let visitors come, and the man in the bed next to mine was 100% third degree. That means he had no skin left on his body. By the way, nobody ever survived it. They all die. He lived long enough to see his wife. She walked in, took one look at him, took off her wedding ring, threw it on the bed, and walked out. She said, "You're embarrassing. I couldn't walk down the street with you."

I panicked and I thought, "My Lord, God help me, my wife's a teenage girl standing out that door." When that door opened she comes in. "I'm finished, God. I don't want to live if she's not gonna love me." The door opened and there she stood, and she was more beautiful than even my fantasies had recalled her to be. She walked up to my bed and the doctor said, "This is your husband." She said, "No, it's not." So he showed her the name on the chart on the bed. She said, "It's not him." My heart is just killing me. I can't even begin to tell you how it felt. Then they turned my hand and there's the tag with my name on it. She looks at the name and now she knows it's me. I watched to see if the ring was coming off.

Then, I realized she's bending down and she kissed my face, the worst burned part of my body, and she looked me in my good eye and she said to me, "I just want you to know that I love you. Welcome home, Davy." When she says, "Davy," hey, hey, hey. I said, "Baby, I'm sorry. I can't look good for you anymore." She said, "Davy, you never were good looking anyhow." Oh, thank God. I left that hospital with suitcase in one hand and sweetheart in the other. For 30 years I've been speaking in public schools, now to over seven million students, and I thought that was my career. Who wouldn't, 30 years? Most people retire before then.

And yet, 30 years later I found out what my career may really be, because you see on September the 11th I watched as aircraft flew into tall buildings killing thousands of people. When I heard that one flew into the Pentagon we all realized suddenly, "This is not an accident. This is war." I'm gonna make some statements here some of you may not like, but you'll get over it. I'm exercising the freedom of speech I bled for and I burned for. I'm gonna tell you straight up, I do not associate the evil men who did all that with those who may have that religious concept but are not so extremist that they want to kill the whole human race that doesn't agree with them. But, I'm gonna tell you straight up, do not ever tell me that they have the same God we have. It's two different gods. Look at me. Hang on, because you need to hear this. The same god doesn't preach two different messages. Their god says give me your son to die for me. My God said, I'll give you my Son and He'll die for you.

So, on September the 11th I pounded my fist in my hand and I yelled from my hotel room with my little wife sitting there. I yelled it out, I said, "God, don't you leave me out of this war. Let me do something for my country." God heard me, and that's scary. I turned around and I looked at my wife. I said, "I need an M16." She said, "You need to sit down before you have a stroke," so I sat down. Two weeks later 20 U.S. military installations called saying, "Bring your story to our troops. They're going to war. They need to see somebody who made it." Now, listen to me they didn't call me because I'm good looking. They didn't call me for my military physique. I'll be all right, just a minute. They didn't call me for my intellect. I was in the top 10% of the lower one-third of my class.

So, why did they call me? Because I'm more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ, that no weapon formed against me can prosper. Don't you understand, don't you understand, the world's not looking for another strong man. The world's not looking for another man with a great mind. There are millions men with great minds. What the world is looking for is an answer, and it's found through Jesus Christ. He's the one who gave His life for us that we might know Him. He gave Himself, and every man in the house needs to hear me.

Some of you have come a long ways to be here, and I'm not gonna water down this gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not easy to serve God, because you have to take a stand in the marketplace. You have to take a stand on the job. But, listen to me, and don't ever forget this, when this is all said and done, and you look back over your life you're not gonna be remembered because you could curse better than the others. Be remembered because you took a stand a cut above the rest of the crowd, and you were the man with a clean mouth, and a pure heart, and you treated your fellow man properly. You were good to your wife, you treated your children with respect, and you didn't kick your dog.

Do something right and be remembered for it, because tonight some of you are gonna make that decision to follow Christ, and you need to know that He promised you He would never leave you or forsake you. If you will come to Him He will not cast you out. It's a guarantee for salvation tonight, and I don't want you to forget that. You can find Christ in this place tonight. I close by telling you, the story of your life is about to be written.

Mine is still being written. It included going to the Middle East. Whenever they sent me into Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Cutter, United Arab Emirates, and Afghanistan, when I went in there to speak to our troops in the farthest FOBs, Forward Operational Bases. When I went up into Tikrit they said, "Why would you come here, it's so dangerous? Why don't you just tell your story at Baghdad Airport and boogie out of Dodge like everybody else?" I said, "Because I was in Vietnam eight months in that war. Nobody came, no evangelist, no chaplain, no preacher. Bob Hope didn't show up, and not one Dallas cheerleader came," and I would have remembered that. They said, "Then, why are you here?" I said, "Because I'm not gonna let you go home and say, 'Nobody cared for your soul.'" You can't go back and say, "God never sent anybody to tell me Jesus loved me." I said, "When you go home you're gonna remember that someone came and said, 'The churches aren't in the streets protesting, they're in the altars praying for ya." That's the difference, and I want them to know it.

Let me finish quickly. They took me into the place of holy ground as I held a dying young American soldier, and in my arms as I held him I said to him, "You know that you're much more than a soldier. You are a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom," and I said, "Son, I've come to tell you: thank you." He slipped the last breath through those slits of nostrils that were left in his face with no nose, and he went from my arms to the arms of God. People have said to me over the years, "Wow, Dave, you speak to presidents, you address NATO, you speak to shape the supreme headquarters of the allied powers of Europe." They list a few kudos. I'm not bragging, just hear me out. They'll list something that God's allowed me to do that's wonderful then they tack this on the end. "Wow, you'd do it all again wouldn't you?"

I want to slap them. I didn't want to do this the first time. That's why I joined the Navy. I didn't want to get hurt. I figure you put me in the Army they're gonna do what the Navy did to me. No, Sir, I didn't want that. Do it again? That day as I held that dying soldier, that young hero, I changed my tune, sir, and I said, "God, if you want me to do it again, to be the right man at the right time in the right place for one kid who gave his life for my freedom, I'd do it again, and again, and again, and again," because that's what freedom's worth.

Dr. Dobson: What an inspirational speech we heard here today on Family Talk. I hope you are reminded of how important freedom is and why we must honor those who protect it. It was given to us. People shed their blood to protect it for us, and now we must pass it along. As you go about your day be sure to thank those who have bravely served in our Nation's military. As we wrap up today's broadcast I want to remind you of an easy way to stay up-to-date on our latest interviews. Simply visit your app store, or marketplace, and search for the Family Talk app. On our app you'll be able to listen to any of our latest programs and enjoy them at your leisure. You can also hear any program we have ever aired. We call that our archives. You can also receive helpful resources specific to you as a father, a mother, husband, or wife. So, go now and download our helpful family talk app. I'm Dr. James Dobson. Thank you for listening and I hope you will join us next time here on this broadcast. God's blessings to you all.

Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.