Today’s discussion will center on their concerns regarding recruiting for both the service academies and the regular armed forces in this era, the needs and problems facing veterans in our area. These will include their thoughts on the Veteran’s Administration, health care, housing, jobs, and the re-adjustment and transition to civilian life. We will also talk about their general views on the military, and how they see the all-volunteer army, which is being heavily supplemented by the National Guard and Reserves, succeeding in the future.

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My guests this morning are three men from our local area: Joseph P. Murphy, Dan Griffin, and Jim Mazzone. They are all three intimately involved with America’s armed forces, past and present. Mr. Joseph Murphy, who is from Rye, NY, is the Chairman of Congresswomen Nita Lowey’s Service Academy Review Board, which overseas her selections for our military academies, West Point, Annapolis, Air Force Academy, and the Coast Guard. Mr. Murphy with degrees from Saint Francis College and Fordham University, is a veteran of the Marine Corps, and the Naval Reserve. He has served on Service Academy Board that since Dick Ottinger’s (1983) days, and has been involved with education, and helped introduce a Junior ROTC program into the area in the early 1980’s. Mr. Dan Griffin, of White Plains, is a Vietnam veteran and has been President of the Vietnam Veterans of America from 1987 through 1997, and has been the Executive Director of that organization since 1997. He currently serves in the New York Guard as a Chief Warrant Officer. Our last guest is Mr. Jim Mazzone of White Plains, who after graduating from the Military College of the Citadel, in South Carolina, served in the Marine Corps as a Rifle Platoon Commander. Mr. Mazzone was the past Commander of the Marine Corps League Detachment in White Plains, and now serves as the Area Vice Commandant for the Marines and oversees ten detachments in the Southeast Area of the State of New York.  Mr. Mazzone serves on various boards and committees regarding veterans and his alma mater, The Citadel.