Cooking with the Troops has a roundup of the event in NYC at the NASDAQ. Please pay attention to the photos because you will see what they do. Chefs and smiling uniformed men and women. It is a great thing!

All charities need donations to keep running and this one is no exception. They need donations, big and small (even $5 will help keep things going!!) to keep sharing food, culinary career help, healthy eating/cooking training, and cooking equipment! Everyone has to eat and doing it either for free at one of the CWtT events or learning how to create a nutritious meal at home for your family is a good thing.

Things are very tight financially across the nation, but if each of you readers donated just a little bit, it would keep the awesome momentum going and fund some upcoming events! By the way, CWtT is also looking for administrative help in several positions. If you are one to volunteer your time and energy and skills to a great organization, please contact Blake at the email on that post and talk to him about helping out!

I was fortunate to be invited out to New York City to attend an amazing event held at NASDAQ OMX. It was to support the charity Cooking with the Troops. NASDAQ and several organizations worked together on Friday to celebrate our troops, past and present.

The day started with a surprise marriage proposal. A young wounded warrior who is on the way to recovery got down on one knee in Times Square and asked his girl to marry him. It was on Fox and Friends if you were watching that morning.

Cooking with the Troops then provided them a beautiful private breakfast in the NASDAQ OMX building. CEO Blake Powers and chef Ellen Adams from A Red Hot Dish cooked for the young couple.

After all of that, the opening bell ceremony was the start to the business day. The American Legion, Sears’ Heroes at Home, and Josh Gracin all got things off to a great start.

Shortly thereafter, the chefs started the cooking demonstrations. You would not believe the yummy smells. In addition to invited guests, there were passes handed out to anyone in uniform down in Times Square. They were welcome to watch the demos, taste samples, and attend the luncheon. It was wonderful to see that CwtT made sure that even strangers on the street were welcomed and brought in to be fed and fêted.

At this point, I sort of cut out because another event was going on. Mark Dolfini with Standing for the Fallen needed a hand collecting donations for Soldiers Angels, so I stood in Times Square with him for close to 4 hours. But I did pop back in a few times to warm up and see how things were going. I could tell lots of military members had accepted and used the passes to get some food and meet the wonderful folks in the dining room. CwtT as a group are so welcoming and they make your stomach growl with the food they dish up! I did have a fortuitous meet-up with our old Youserved friends, Michael Cuomo and K. Lorrel Manning from the film Happy New Year. That totally warmed my heart because I adore those guys!

At the end of the day, we gathered in the studio to do the special closing bell ceremony. CwtT was honored along with a few others and allowed to do the final bell. We were all allowed on stage to shout and cheer the end of an amazing day for everyone involved.

Charities like Cooking with the Troops need donations to keep running and to keep doing events like they do at BAMC, Landstuhl, and Walter Reed. They provide good food, opportunities like sending veterans to a culinary boot camp, and programs like Homefront Support where they teach military and families how to cook nutritious meals (more info about what they do can be found by watching this video). They are currently running a fundraiser that kicked off on Veteran’s Day and will run through Thanksgiving, coincidentally the biggest cooking day of the year for most of America. Please consider helping them keep all of this up and moving forward!!

Next week on You Served Radio we will be having a 9/11 Memorial Show. Because of the calendar this year, our show will actually happen on Tuesday Sept. 13th. Our first guest of the evening is former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Needless to say we are very excited about this show and of course this interview.

Later on in the show we will have our good friend Nick Palmisciano, who is CEO of Ranger-UP (www.rangerup.com). However between those two great guests and maybe after the interview with Nick, we are looking to hear from you, our readers and listeners of this blog and the radio show.

We would like you to take a few minutes and record us a short audio recording telling us and our listeners answers to any of these questions:

1. What does this 10th anniversary mean to you?
2. What were you doing that day 10 years ago and what emotions and memories do you have from that time.
3. Any reflections of feelings on our country since that time 10 years ago.
4. Or any other thoughts, opinions or reflections you may have related to the terrible attacks on our country.

You can say your name or not. It is up to you. If you have a personal connection to a family member or friend that was personally affected by the attacks or any of the wars since the attack and would like to recognize them, feel free to mention it in the recording.

After you follow the instructions below, I ask that you email the recording to troy@youserved.com. I will take it from there. I also ask that you send these absolutely no later 5PM EDT on Sept. 12th. The sooner the better so I can make the adjustments I need to in order to merge the files together. Lastly if you don’t have time or don’t want to do this, but would still like to share your feelings, you can call in live next week to our show from 8-10PM EDT at 866-696-9150 and say it live on the air as we get time.

Now there are several ways to do this. If you have a digital audio recorder then you probably know how to use that. I will provide instructions here in case you don’t. Since you are reading this blog, I know you have a computer. Here is how you can use a computer to record yourself talking about one of the above topics. 

Windows Vista:

1. Click START
2. Click ALL PROGRAMS
3. Click ACCESSORIES folder
4. Click on SOUND RECORDER
5. When you are ready (assuming you have either a microphone plugged into your computer or you are using an internal one), click START RECORDING.
6. Record your audio.
7. When you are done, click Stop Recording.
8. Save the file somewhere easy to find it, like your desktop. Please name it 911_YOURNAME.wma.
9. Then you can email it to me at troy@youserved.com

1. Open your APPLICATIONS folder
2. Click on QuickTime Player.
3. On the Menu, click FILE, NEW AUDIO RECORDING
4. Click the down arrow on the right side of the QuickTime player and select where you want the file saved (Desktop is recommended for quickly finding it).
5. Click the red record button and record your file.
6. Click the stop button when complete.
7. Email the file (from where you saved it in step #4) to troy@youserved.com.

Last night we had a great show and I wanted to hit the highlights. First off, I just wanted to say that I’ll be filling in for CJ while he is gone fighting a war and this makes me sort of official versus the background Den Mother, so you will be hearing me a little more often. That being said, there IS a section in the show where I went off the rails and yelled at a caller. You might want to fast-forward past that part if you download the interviews. haha

Ok, the first guest was Fred Wellman and his interview is great. He has some funny stories about how he met Karl Rove and an extremely touching one about former President G. W. Bush. Because Presidents don’t really spend a lot of time with common people (in general), these stories from an average guy (albeit a former military PAO officer) were great. Fred Wellman is president of Scout Comms and he talked about how he got into the military contracting business after he got out and what his company does, in addition to working with charities. All around great chat with him!

The second guest was Hayes Carll. He is a musician, a Texas troubadour, and he is giving a free concert in New Braunfels, Texas, at the Whitewater Amphitheater on July 3. If you are military and/or family, they will be providing free innertubes to float the river down to the concert. He also supports a charity called Guitars for Vets. We all know music can help wounded and emotionally wounded guys get back on track, so donate if you can.

His new album is called KMAG YOYO (& other American stories) and it is in the true storytelling style of old style country guys like Willie Nelson and he sort of reminds me of Bob Dylan. His new video is hysterical. If you too are tired of the partisan bickering between liberals and conservatives, the name-calling and personal attacks, you will laugh. Stay until the end of the video to see James Carville and his wife, Mary Matalin.

The final guest was infamous Chuck Z. He came on the Youserved show to talk about Valour-IT and how they are kicking off their annual fund drive earlier this year. It is normally held near Veteran’s Day, but this year it is going to be over the 4th of July. If you are not aware of the Valour-IT project, it provides free laptops to wounded troops. The laptops are loaded with voice recognition software to allow guys like Chuck, who was wounded on his hands, to continue emailing or blogging and to stay in contact with those he loves. You are reading this on your computer or laptop or cell phone. Imagine if you lost your hands and could not use that hardware. It would be frustrating and Valour-IT provides an amazing and invaluable service to those who need the means to stay in the digital loop! The big fund raiser will be like previous years, with teams consisting of the different services (Go Army!) but you can also donate individually if you choose not to join a team. The goal is to reach $100,000. Help by donating here or waiting until the actual competition is started and join a team (Go Army).

If you haven’t tuned into You Served Radio in a while, this Tuesday (the Army’s Birthday and Flag Day) is a show you won’t want to miss. We are fortunate enough to have two living and breathing legends in the defense of this country on the this very special show.

It would be a special show if we had either of them, but to have both of these very fine gentlemen on the same is truly awesome. We will be joined first by Army SGM (ret) Billy Waugh, and then in the second hour we will have Marine MG (ret) James Livingston.

Sergeant Major (SGM) William “Billy” Waugh (US Army-Ret.), is a highly decorated American Special Forces soldier and a Central Intelligence Agency Paramilitary Operations Officer who served in the United States military and CIA special operations for more than fifty years. SGM Waugh served in the U.S. Army’s elite Green Berets and the CIA’s famed Special Activities Division.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Waugh

http://www.billywaugh.net/

He is one of only a handful of people to have a documented combat HALO jump into North Vietnam and many other accomplishments under his very long service to this country. He will be joining us to talk about some of those and many other current topics.

Next up is Major General James Everett Livingston. MG Livingston is a retired United States Marine Corps Major General. He is a recipient of the United States’ highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor—for heroic actions in 1968 during the Vietnam War. Maj Gen Livingston served on active duty in the Marine Corps for over 33 years before retiring on September 1, 1995. His last assignment was the Commanding General of Marine Forces Reserve in New Orleans, Louisiana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Livingston

Today at 2pm (Eastern) I will be speaking with the founder of Voice of Warriors, a new grassroots advocacy group established to aid, educate and assist combat wounded veterans and their families. They VOW to make a difference.

You can listen live today at the 2pm show, or listen later to the archived broadcast by visiting the show’s homepage (click).

Monday, April 11 (2:00pm Eastern)
I will be interviewing Patti Katter, found of Christian Military Wives and newly founded Voice of Warriors (VOW) advocacy organization. Patti and her partners will talk about VOW, what they do and why they do it!

Show Page LINK

Wednesday, May 4 (2:00pm Eastern)
Join me  as I talk live with Aimee of Fancy Little Things: “… a lovely new website to encourage your creative side, your inner-chef, your marriage, your interior design skills, your physical fitness and well-being & add a little style to your life! we will also have a monthly book recommendation with a brief description and discussion topics!”

Show Page LINK

Monday, May 16 (2:00pm Eastern)
Beth Wilson of Home Front in Focus and Enlisted Spouse Radio will join us today to talk about her show and her work and life as a Navy wife!

Show Page Link to come!

Back in June, Youserved radio had Colby Donaldson of Survivor fame on the show talking about his new game show called Top Shot.

The show did so well, they are starting the second season on February 8th.

If you watched season 1, you would know that it can be very exciting. They do a lot of historical weapons and it looks pretty dang challenging. There was only one woman last year, but this season has two, so we all know who I will be rooting for to win. And a lot of the contenders have some sort of military background.

I also think there was some bet made between CJ, Troy, and Marcus about whether the final winner last season would end up being a Marine or Soldier. I’ll have to go back and listen to the show and remind the loser to pay up!

Anyway, if you’re someone who enjoys weapons and a lot of historical context, check it out this week.

Just a quick reminder that tonight I will be hosting an interesting interview with Ria and Suzanne, co-creators of Yoga Parenting. Ria and Suzanne will talk about the principles of Yoga Parenting, how and why they started the online course and how it can benefit you. Even though the title is “Yoga Parenting” I encourage everyone to check out what they offer. These principles are so practical they can be used in parenting, marriage, the workplace, social life, and just life in general. There is also a lot of wonderful concepts for caregivers to wounded warriors.

Listen to the show for giveaway information! A free yoga parenting course will be given to one of our listeners! Just tune in tonight or download the podcast and listen. The drawing will take place 2-weeks after the airing of the show tonight! Just tune in and listen for instructions!

So join us tonight, October 13th at 8:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time). Our show page is HERE.

You Served Radio is moving! We’ll continue to broadcast our show on Blog Talk Radio, but starting with our 100th episode, we’ll be on Tuesdays at 8 PM eastern! Mark your calendars now for our first Tuesday show on 2 August, 2010. You won’t want to miss this!

CJ, Troy, and I are excited to mark a milestone in You Served Radio history. None of us thought we would see 100 shows when this started. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this possible, including Josh Dippold, Wendy, our chat room regulars, and all of our guests. We appreciate all your support and look forward to the next 100 shows!