You're listening to a throwback edition of What's Ray Sain, recorded during the early development of the show.

If it sounds different, well, I used to do this whole damn thing on my own.

I've got a bigger team now, but these early episodes were made with love and are absolutely worth listening to.

Enjoy the show.

You're listening to what's Ray saying the podcast

now my my interest in military service probably started when I was a kid and I remember

seeing old pictures of people I actually knew in uniform, TV, movies.

My father, my aunt, my uncle else served in World War II.

I remember seeing, hearing older guys talk about their experiences, adventures overseas

and in the military that sounded like they were millions of miles away from the place we were living in in that moment in Richmond, Churchill, home.

I remember hearing younger guys who were recently home from training or recently back from Vietnam.

I remember one of the same experiences that common experience that seemed to draw those older guys and those younger guys together.

It seemed like they knew things that I would never know.

They knew things I could never know.

I wanted that respect that they seem to get from the older members of the community,

the positive responses they would often get from white people.

In some areas where they might otherwise just look at you as loitering or good for nothing

or typical you'd look like you have a job like you're going places like you have discipline

like you can trust me but of course there were deeper stories that uh revealed another double-edged ward, another common experience.

True or exceptional service could result in opportunities for black people.

Any perceived lack of discipline, though, would be viewed more harshly coming from a black man in the military and racism

could easily be masked by military authority now most of the preachers and black

...