Famous people I've meet and how I meet them

Famous people I’ve meet

Colonel Sanders, I shook his hand in the Cherry Festival parade when I was nine.

Durwood Hershey, The outdoor sport write for the Detroit Free Press was on my paper route and he taught me to fly fish.

Cheryl Wheeler Duncan Woman’s world champion kickboxer and stunt woman. We trained together at the same boxing gym.

Roy Jones Sr. World renowned boxing trainer and my mentor.

Roy Jones Jr. Hall of fame multi-weight division champion. Sparring partner and best friend.

 

 

Arthur William IBF Cruiserweight Champion. We were sparring partners.

Bo Jackson We meet him at the sunshine State games in Gainesville Florida. He was running track for Auburn University.

Antonio Tarver He fought Roy Jones Jr. in the Sunshine State games in 1983

Derrick “Smoke” Gainer WBA Featherweight champion. Sparring Partner.

Murrad Muhammad Boxing promoter, we meet at the Roy Jones Jr. vs Clinton Woods fight.

Lemuel Nelson Contender for Junior Lightweight championship. We were sparring partners.

Kelsey Banks 1988 Olympian, we fought each other in 1982.

Earnie Shavers Former Heavyweight contender. I got his autograph when he fought in Pensacola in 1983.

Rudy Beocsh Longest serving Navy SEAL, he was master Chief of Command at SEAL Team Two and I would see him around the compound and he would always talk to me.

Julian Wheeler He is the former WBC Continental Americas Super Featherweight, USBA Lightweight, and IBC Light Welterweight champion. We were sparring partner on the Boxing team.

Sean Fletcher USA Boxing champion three years in a row and contender fighting for world championships three times.

Sugar Ray Leonard 1976 Olympic boxer and all-time great professional boxer. I trained at his camp  with Roy Jones Junior in 1987. 

Eugene Speed NABF Super Featherweight champion. We were sparring partners.

Michael Bent WBO World Heavyweight Champion. We trained together at Sugar Ray Leonard’s camp.

Michael Trainer Sugar Ray Lenard’s boxing attorney.                                     

Tony Suggs Virginia State Light Welterweight Champion and USA Boxing Nation Champion, we fought in 1987.

Danny “Little Red” Lopez Hall of fame Featherweight champion. We meet at the boxing hall of fame banquet in 1988 and I introduced him to Roy Jones Jr.

Carlos Palomino Hall of fame welterweight champion. We meet at the boxing hall of fame banquet and I introduced him to Roy Jones Jr. and I used to run into him at amateur boxing events in LA.

 Henry Tillman Olympic Heavyweight Gold Medalist and contender for the heavyweight title. We meet at the boxing hall of fame banquet in 1988.

Martin Sheen Actor, I ran into him in Paraguay in 1990 and he was there with Green Peace. 

 Dick Cheney US Vice president. We meet at the Naval Special Warfare Unit in Panama during Operation “Just Cause”.

Emmitt Smith Emmitt Smith, I used to watch him play high school football at Escambia and ran into him at Roy Jones Jr.’s first pro fight.

Carlos Hathcock Famous Marine sniper who wrote the book “One shot, one kill. Marine sniper” Was one of my instructors in Sniper school.

Victor Cordova WBA Super middleweight champion. We meet in Panama at an amateur boxing show.

Guillermo Endara President of Panama, I jumped out of his plane while he was in it.

James “Bone Crusher” Smith Former WBA Heavyweight Champion, we trained together in Fort Bragg in 1991.

Jack Kemp US Senator and Vice Presidential candidate. We meet at the Roy Jones Jr. vs Julio Gonzales fight. I ran into him again a few year later in the San Diego airport. 

Fred Levin Known for rewriting Florida’s Medicaid Third-Party Recovery Act allowing the state of Florida to sue the Tobacco Industry. He was Roy Jones Jr. promoter and legal consultant. I call him every time I go to Pensacola.

George Foreman Two time heavyweight champion of the world. We meet in Portland when Roy Jones Jr. fought Clinton Woods and ringside in Dallas 2013.

Bob Arum We meet in the casino prior to the McKline vs Klitskho fight and sitting ringside in Dallas.

Tyrone Woods Meet at the Far East Rock.

Glenn Dougherty Meet at the Far East Rock

Kevin Ward Professional baseball player and thoroughbred breeder. Kevin and Craig Lefferts Set me up to give chapel services for the Braves and the Padres in 1995.

Craig Lefferts Major league relief pitcher. We meet when he and Kevin Ward had me give chapel services to the Braves and the Padres in 1995.

Trevor Hoffman Famous relief pitcher of the San Diego Padres. Craig Lefferts introduced us.

Dexter Yeager First Amway Diamond, we meet in Mobil Alabama at a convention.

Herd Mitchell Actor who played the boxing commissioner in the movie "Ali" but he also played Dean Whitter, the Saturn Guy, the goofy manager in Staples commercials, the "Blue and the Grey". He invited me to have an Italian gourmet dinner at his house. We meet several times and talked on the phone often. 

Tony Gwynn Hall of fame slugger, I meet him many times when I worked security for the Padres in 1996.

Orlin Norris WBA World Cruiserweight champion, we managed a fighter together.

Terry Norris Great all time welterweight and Junior Middleweight champions. He likes to clown on me.

Jesse Ventura Pro wrestler, actor and Governor of Minnesota. I meet him at the SEAL Team reunion in 2006 and we got into a heated argument over politic.

Merqui Sosa Former Light heavyweight champion, we meet at Kelsey Banks’ gym while my son Devin trained there.

Andy MacDowell Actress and model, meet her at the J. Paul Getti Museum around 1999 and she autographed Devin’s drawing.

Dennis Quaid Actor, he was with Andy MacDowell at the Getti Museum.

Tim Bradley Jr. Welterweight Champion, we meet in Palm Springs with his PR manager Tommy Jennings.

 

Tom Hopkins Famous sales trainer.

Ted Batkin Chairman of the California Citrus Research board for 20 years, I consult with him on agriculture and drone applications.

Gene Robinson Sued the FAA to be allowed to use small drones for search and rescue. I have visited him several times at his facility just north of Austin.

Mitt Romney Two time Republican Presidential candidate, I meet him in San Diego when he ran in 2008. I ran into him again last week at the Las Vegas airport.

Melissa Rycroft Is a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader, Melissa is studying to be an engineer. I got to sit next to her on the plane leaving Dallas to Salt Lake.

Erica Is a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader with a degree in communications and she has a strong faith and would like to do evangelical speaking. We sat next to each other on the plane from Dallas to Salt Lake. I do not know her last name.

Family Pools for Healthcare

Using banks to administer family pools for healthcare

Back in 2008 I had a discussion with another former Navy SEAL who consulted with Thelma Drake the Republican congressman from Virginia and he devised the solution utilizing microloans in Iraqi for small businesses in Iraq to operate and expand because the trickle down wasn't working because the government leaders were pocketing the money the US was giving them. I was informing him on the loan modifications and he was conceptualizing a mortgage backed security bringing in investors to help home owners stay in their homes. During this process he spelled out to me his concept of creating a family pool administered by banks for healthcare. Banks would create accounts for healthcare costs funded by the increased in the minimum wage. Employers would pay into each employee's family healthcare account equal to about $3.60 per hour. There would social pressure through the family to live healthier. Undocumented aliens that go into the emergency room would give their information and be assigned to their family pool to cover their medical costs.

This former Navy SEAL buddy of mine will be presenting this concept to congress next week. His timing with the issues with immigration and healthcare is perfect. What nobody seems to be addressing is that 70 million baby-boomers are leaving the work force and we need more younger people to take those jobs or those jobs will be outsourced to china, India or Mexico but by utilizing these family pools, it doesn't matter where you are working. Doctors would like this solution much better than the current healthcare system where they have to wait for the government to pay them or possibly never get paid. This solution would be similar to PPOs, they would just have to except the family pool account cards, from the banks.  

Now that was a fight!

Ode to Tim

I am writing this to an acquaintance from school back in Michigan. We weren’t friends, we played on the soccer team together and I remember keeping an eye on him because he was a hothead and I saw him give a serious beat-down of a bully who used to terrorize me from the third grade. My mother who was a teacher used to talk about him and how creative and smart he was. I noticed Tim on Facebook and I sent him a message giving him my number and asked him to call me. We talked and he let me know that he has been fighting cancer for over 13 years. I noticed today that he posted on Facebook that he will be under hospice care. I have mixed feelings about Tim’s situation. There have been times since my divorce where I have asked God to take my soul to a place without the strife and burdens that weight me down but the thought of leaving before getting to know someone better or before I knew my boys had their lives on track and traction moving forward in their lives pulled me back and gave me the gumption to continue. I don’t know how it would be if I were in Tim’s place. I envy his fierce attitude to continue to fight. That is how I will remember him.

Tim, if you are reading this the fact that you have been fighting this cancer for 13+ years and it is amazing how you are still willing to fight if it would give you more time. That kind of endurance and tenacity is remarkable. It is not like you lost the fight, if this were in the boxing ring you would have gotten off the matt more times and lasted more rounds than Rocky. This life is just training for eternity and you’re ready for eternity.

Good bye.

Golden Corral pulls bait and switch on veterans

Golden Corral advertised "Free buffet for veterans on 'Veterans Day" and when we arrived this sign was on the door! Some idiot in management figured that vets would go ahead and pay full price and not show up on Monday the 17th and save the franchise money. Well they need to pay. Vets need to storm Golden Corral next Monday the 17th and make them pay so they remember what day Veterans day is on.

2014 Blue Angel Airshow with Sky Warrior LLC