Our American Stories
Our American Stories
Steely Dan, Humble Heroes, and Bryan Dawson's Story
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Humble Heros
Speaker 2[inaudible] [inaudible]
Speaker 3this is Lee Hubby bin . This is our American stories and we love to talk about everything here on this show from the arts to sports, from history to your stories, and go to our American network.org send us your stories and we'll produce them and we'll put them right up on the air. American people have beautiful stories to tell and we tell so many of them and today we seek to honor those who served our country and even given their lives. We have joy Neal kidney sharing her uncle's story. Joy is one of our listeners from 10:40 AM who in demoine . It's a power house signal, one of the great heritage signals in this country and she's contributed to our show before and today we hear from her again or pieces titled Donald Wilson, the humble hero.
Speaker 4Most of the heroes among us are just ordinary people. Like my uncle Don. I knew him, his mom's brother who lived way out in Washington state and who liked fishing when I was a kid growing up on an Iowa farm. The best part of getting a fat letter from aunt rose was a picture of uncle don with a big salmon. Mom's older brother had been a commercial fisherman even when he later took a job with the Washington Department of Transportation. He still headed out with his boat, a well up a bay every chance he got. So every fishing season we get snapshots of him with a huge fish hanging from one hand and a fishing pole in the other dressed in faded jeans and a plaid shirt. Usually a vest with lots of pockets, sometimes a US navy cap, either the USS Hancock or the Yorktown. Although mom rarely mentioned the war. World War II, she told us that her brother, dawn, who grew up in the small town of Dexter Iowa, had been a sailor on the famous Yorktown , the one loss during a big battle in the Pacific Ocean and that he had had to tread water for an hour before being rescued. Every few years, uncle don and at Rosewood drive back to Iowa to visit. I was unaware of all the other combat. He'd survived all the heartache . He'd been through all the complexity of this seemingly ordinary man. As since Gloria and I traveled by train with grandma to the west coast to visit relatives including dawn and rose in 1962 they lived in a little house out along the Naysayer River . As soon as they learned we were coming, uncle don added a room to their home and indoor bathroom. Since that rose didn't drive, they had only a pickup. One foggy day, we joined a crowd of clam diggers and carried our limit home to try fried clams and to make clam chowder. Digging them was more fun than eating them for farm girls used to Iowa beef and pork. Years later, I learned that not only had uncle Don Ben on the historic Yorktown during the battle of midway, but they had to abandon ship twice. He spent an hour in the oily Pacific after Japanese bombs had crippled the ship. The next day, the aircraft carrier was listing dead in the water, but still afloat. A few dozen men reboarded the battered ship for a salvage attempt. One of them was 25 year old Donald Wilson. After doing repairs all morning on a lower level of the ship, he clambered up to the deck for something to eat and alarm blared . Don jumped up and saw torpedoes in the water, speeding Ryder to ship one slammed into them. He ran to the fantail and leap to second time a nearby ship rescued him and other survivors. The next morning, sailor's asleep on the deck were nudged awake as the carrier began to sink. Her battle flags still flying. Many of them wept as they stuttered attention to witness their ship rollover and plunge into the ocean. Don Wilson first joined the navy with his older brother in 1934 during the Great Depression where there were no jobs for teenagers, not even for their father. Dawn stayed in the navy and in 1937 became a plank owner on the brand new Yorktown , meaning he was a member of the crew when it was placed in commission. I served on her hor her whole life. Dawn later wrote of the ship. He later received a citation signed by Admiral Chester Nimitz for being part of that salvage attempt. I'd written to uncle don and aunt rose for decades, but after grandma died and getting to read the family's war letters, I started a correspondence with uncle don that lasted the rest of his life. I wanted to make sure he had all the metals he was entitled to. He said he didn't want any, that he was no hero and wasn't interested in metals. That is until I learned there was one for that citation. When he finally received it, he proudly framed all of his medals and ribbons. Uncle Don was also a plank owner on the USS Hancock, another aircraft carrier. The Hancock was in combat in nearly every major naval battle during those last desperate months of the Pacific war except one out of her action for repairs after being attacked by a kamikaze. All five Wilson Brothers of Dallas County, Iowa, served in World War II. The three youngest Dale, Danny and jr lost their lives. Two of them in combat. Their surviving family members never got over the blows of losing these three young pilots, including their older brother Don still in the navy. After the war, he decided he didn't want to make it a career. After all, he was ready for some peace and quiet and a fishing pole. No one would suspect that the ordinary man in the snapshots with the big fish was indeed a hero one with a poignant history,
Speaker 3and thanks so much for that. We're listening to joy neo kidney story, her uncle Don's story, and there are so many like this across this great country. Send Yours to our American network.org this is our
Speaker 5American story
Speaker 2[inaudible]
Speaker 3and we continue with our American stories and we now bring you the story of an extraordinary woman who was an inspiration not only for women of color, but an inspiration to all who knew her name, Dr Olivia Hooker . Here's Stacy Edwards with her story.
Speaker 610 years before Rosa parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus and 18 years before Martin Luther King Jr delivered his, I have a dream speech. Olivia Hooker became the first African American woman to join the US Coast Guard, 1945 and join the march the ninth was a day we went on duty. We had campaigning
Speaker 7for that privilege, but nobody joined. I kept watching the newspapers and I thought to campaign for certain civil rights and then not use them.
Speaker 6To me, it's very funeral one and somebody already to join up f they campaign born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Olivia was just seven years old when her house was ransacked and burned by members of the KKK during the Tulsa race riots of 1921 while her and her three siblings hid under a table. There were times when
Speaker 7I didn't know about prejudice because the only people that I had seen who were not African American were people who wanted to sell things to my father and they brought presence for the children and listen to my sister play Bach and all kinds of things to show how interested they were. So I was totally surprised when the disaster happened was a mere riot. We were really the victims, but it took 80 years before we got up on apology from the mayor of Seltzer and they admitted that we were the big demos . Of course, we got no money, Terri reimbursement, but at least they apologized after 80 years
Speaker 6after the riots, her family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where she earned her bachelor of arts in 1937 from Ohio State University. While at OSU, she joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority where she advocated for African American woman to be admitted to the u s navy.
Speaker 7You see the , there were no , uh, people about race in the navy. No girls. We had been campaigning for that privilege, but nobody joined. I kept watching the newspapers and I thought to campaign for certain civil rights and then not use them to me is very few or one. Somebody's out there throwing up if they can pay . So I thought, wow , if I go and I survived , maybe someone else will come. Although I had applied for the navy and they kept writing back saying, there is a technicality. They didn't tell me what that technicality was. So I said, well, let me try the coast guard. And the coast guard recruiter was just so welcoming. She wanted to be the person to in Rola African American .
Speaker 6Ms Hooker enlisted with the US Coast Guard in February, 1945 on March 9th, he went to basic training in Brooklyn, New York.
Speaker 7When they told us to go to basic training, I took a trunk with all my luxuries at it . I didn't know the seven girls, other girls that went when I went all had duffle bags. Everything was new to me. They get you up at five o'clock in the morning and you'd do exercises for an hour before you went to breakfast. And then of course you had to Polish your four even though it didn't need polishing. Uh, they thought of chores for you. We went to Manhattan Beach Training Station and we stayed there six and nine 15 weeks I think. And then when I graduated from Yeoman School , I was sent to Boston. The head of the Yeoman School, Lieutenant Isley had written to all of the coast guard stations. There were 11 districts and the only one who answered yes they would take an African American was Admiral Derby in Boston.
Speaker 6While in Boston, Olivia earned the rank of Yeoman's second class in the coast guard women's reserve where she served until her unit was disbanded in 1946 by 1947 after receiving her masters, hooker moved upstate to work in the mental health department of a woman's correctional facility. Many women in this facility were considered to have severe learning disabilities by staff. Hooker felt they were more capable than given credit and re them and help the women to pursue better education and jobs. A passion she inherited from her mother. My mother
Speaker 7was it real suffered just, I mean, she was a campaigner for the women's vote and so I guess I'd hear it did some of that and I wanted to see equal pay for equal. What's it sense? And naturally I'm trying to vote for the people who believe that equal pay for equal positions should be the right of every person.
Speaker 6By 1961 Olivia Hooker became Dr Olivia Hooker when she earned her phd in psychology. From the University of Rochester in 1963 she joined Fordham University as a senior clinical lecturer. Eventually she served as an associate professor until 1985 but it was her experience and the US Coast Guard where Dr Hooker realized her
Speaker 7full potential. I didn't know many people that were not in my hue and it was good for me to mix with other people and find out, you know, how they thought and what they were like. It taught me a lot about order and a priorities, but I would like to see more of us realizing, you know, that our country needs us and I'd like to see more. Uh, girls consider spending some time in the military if they don't have a job at all and they're , they have ambition and they don't know what heights they might reach. It's really nice to have people with different points of view and different kinds of upbringing and the world would really prosper from that.
Speaker 6After retiring at the age of 87, she joined the U S Coast Guard auxiliary at the age of 95. She received a presidential citation in 2011 and was inducted into the New York state Senate Veterans Hall of fame on November 21st, 2018 she died of natural causes in her home in white plains, New York at the age of 103 although she was a practicing Methodist. Dr Olivia Hooker found inspiration in the story of St Francis. St Francis was that
Speaker 7terrible boy. I mean he did everything wrong to his family. And so if st Francis could be say , Fred's is after all that , thanks . He did. As a boy, I have faith that other people can change and feed the right path and not take the path that's traveling . My favorite hymn , one of them, yes . Have that. No one way, Lord, have that element right now. Like the Potter and the clay mold me a mate after that . Right ? Well , while I am peaceful . Yeah, I have it just spawned the bat, you know , creator being the potter and I had been the clay Timmy , that was important
Speaker 6for our American stories. I'm Stacy Edwards and great job on Stacy on what a unique
Speaker 8voice. And by the way, if you have suggestions for stories, send them to us. There's so much out there in the world and your collective wisdom. Well we can't match it. Send them to our American network.org that's our American network.org a link to some audio or video, anything at all, a story that you just saw in your local paper. And again, send them to our American network.org Dr Olivia Hooker's story here on our American story.
Speaker 2[inaudible]
Speaker 5[inaudible]
Speaker 9this is Lee be even, this is our American stories and we tell a lot of stories about the men and women in our military on this show and we tell a lot of stories about Americans of faith. And today we have a story about a remarkable man who lived, served and died at the intersection of these two great communities. This is the story of a Catholic priest, US Navy chaplain, one who earned our nation's highest award for valor. Here's father Daniel mode who wrote the book on Father Vincent Capodanno, appropriately titled the Grunt Padre.
Speaker 10It was labor day in the United States. People were running about to the beaches and the last barbecue's having a joyous time before school began, but in a whole nother world away in Vietnam, the war was continuing to rage and on this Labor Day of September 4th, 1967 father Capodanno found himself 50 miles to the southwest of Denang with the third battalion, Fifth Marines. Early that morning, a small platoon of men of the third battalion, Fifth Marines was on a typical search and destroy mission of patrol. They found the enemy, or really the enemy had found them. This small group of less than a hundred men found 2,500 north Vietnamese in a major offensive during elections in Vietnam. Obviously this petunia was quickly overrun and more and more command elements of the third battalion. Fifth Marines were added to this battle that would be known as operation one company after the next, including m company, a third battalion, fifth marines. Father Capodanno was with them at the headquarters when they got the call to go and they were to go to a battalion aid station that was quickly being set up so that the wounded in the dying could come to a place on the battlefield. That's where father Capodanno needed to be. So we boarded the helicopters with m company and made their way towards that battalion aid station. Literally in the midst of the battle, the helicopter didn't make it there. It was literally shot down in the midst of rice fields so close to the battlefield. Father Capodanno got off the helicopter with his men. There are two platoons on either side as they made their way now on foot to that battalion aid station, but between them and that aid station lay the conflagration of war. They set themselves up in a small knoll on the other side of that knoll rage. The battle on this side m company established its command post. Father Capodanno could hear the gunfire, the men engaged in battle and he heard the radio operator calling back to the command post. We're being overrun. We've been overrun. We can't hold out. That was corporal Lovejoy. Well, Father Capodanno couldn't hold out anymore. He had been in Vietnam for 16 months. He had already served with the seventh marines, was an eight major battle campaigns. He knew what combat was all about. He knew where his men needed the most and he knew where his sacraments were needed most and it wasn't on the safety side of that knoll of the hill. He dashed over that hill, found that radio operator, corporal Lovejoy, grabbed him by the shoulder and brought him back to relative safety time and time again. Throughout that late morning and early afternoon, he would do the same thing with the wounded and dying.
Speaker 3He knew where the sacraments were needed. It wasn't on the safety side of the hill and in a firefight like that. It doesn't take long until everyone gets injured. At least a little and father Capodanno was no exception.
Speaker 10His first wound of the day was through his right hand. It was shot disabling his fingers. He was bandaged up, but refused to leave the battlefield. On the next Medevac. He said, I need to be where my marines need me most. Oftentimes, the Marines deploy tear gas through the area in order to dissuade the north Vietnamese who don't have gas masks to disperse all the marines, dawn their gas mass, save one. He had lost it without a thought. Father Capodanno took off his gas mask, gave it to that young marine to continue the fight. While father Capodanno choked back the tears for that heroic act, he got his second wound of the day in his right shoulder when a mortar went off. Now just labeling his whole right arm again was bandaged up, but refused to leave the battlefield. Only saying, I need to be Mara . My Marines need me. Most Sergeant Peters was dying. He propped himself exposed to fire on a tree stump. Sergeant Peters would receive the medal of honor that day for his aerobics on the battlefield. Sergeant Peters was an Orthodox man again, dying, exposing himself to gunfire so they he could point out where the machine guns were on the ridge. No one dare go near. Sergeant Peters saved one man, Father Capodanno, who ran to his side. Despite the bullets, despite his own wounds, to pray with that man to care for him in his last hours of life and prayed the our father as he died in his arms. After that scene, a marine shouted out, my gun is Jan. My gun is jammed without a thought. Father Capodanno took the rifle as sergeant Peters ran across the battlefield without firing a shot to give it to that young marine to continue the fight. The last moment of father Capodanno's life took place near a machine gun nest where three marines, one of them being ray Harton corporate ray Harton. We're going to try to put down that machine gun nest that was getting the better hand to the battle as they made their way there, they were all shot to instantly killed. Ray was shot in his left shoulder. A corpsman went to his side Corpsman Lille . That Corman was shot through his legs, both of them. Now we're lying on the battlefield bleeding, expecting that the next thing they would feel would be bullets or bayonets. Instead, it was father Capodanno running across the battlefield to them. First he went to Ray Harton , who again was bleeding through his shoulder. He blessed and anointed him. Ray had just served as mass the day before on Sunday, and he said these words to him, staying calm, marine God is with us all today and you're going to be okay. Then he ran to the side of Corman Lele again. His legs had been shot. He prayed over them and at that moment of his prayers, Corpsman Leo was also Catholic. He was shot 27 times in the back.
Speaker 3And so when did the life of Father Vincent Capodanno here on this earth for his gallantry father Capodanno earned our nation's highest decoration
Speaker 11for valor? The medal of honor,
Speaker 3but father Capodanno's influence went well beyond Vietnam will be on September four 1967 one man who used to teach in school with
Speaker 10him when he was a seminarian, read the story of Father Capodanno's death. He hadn't been to church for a long time and because he was so moved by the heroic aspect of Capodanno and knowing him, he decided it was time for him to get back to church. He walked into the church, told the priest why he was there and wanted to go to confession. And then the priest kind of amazed at this whole thing, said, well why? Why are you coming back? And he told them the story of Father Capodanno and then he said these words, I guess a missionary doesn't stop working even after he dies, does he?
Speaker 3And as you can imagine, father Capodanno changed the lives of many of the marines he served with in Vietnam. One of those marines is a name you might recognize from our story about him. You'll certainly recognize his company.
Speaker 10One of the persons I got to know through this who was with Father Capodanno on the day he died is a Lieutenant Fred Smith, the founder and CEO of FedEx. But on that day of September 4th he was a lieutenant in the Marine Corps . He knew father Capodanno well, and it was at that death that inspired Fred Smith to reengage in his favor , to reengage in a purpose in life. Ultimately, he would say that it was father Kevin on his example and witness that propelled him to take that risk. So many years ago to found that company
Speaker 5[inaudible]
Speaker 9the father of Vinson, our Capodanno, his service to his country, to his fellow soldiers, and most of all to his Lord. His story here on our American stories.
Speaker 5[inaudible] , [inaudible] , [inaudible] , [inaudible] [inaudible] .
Steely Dan
Speaker 3This is our American stories and now it's time for another story of a song. One of our favorite segments here on our American stories, and this one features two musicians who were reputed to be seeking perfection, but as guitarists , dean parks said, quote , perfection is not what they were after. They were after something that you wanted to listen to over and over
Speaker 6again. Let's take a listen to what Greg Gangler has for us today. They were hipsters before the term was coined, which would make them the real deal. It's widely considered that over-engineering a track ultimately ends in failure, not here in an age before pro tools, steely Dan engineered some of the best analog production ever,
Speaker 12so exactly in so tight. Their style was a sophisticated and seamless fusion of Jazz and pop music. There's style became known as yacht rock and steely Dan. Docked a fleet of remarkable hits. The band consisted of just two core members. Donald Fagan grew up in Passaic, New Jersey, just a 20 minute drive to New York City through the Lincoln tunnel. And Walter Becker who grew up in Queens. Here's Walter
Speaker 13[inaudible] you can see it thing . So you grab the pieces, not the net . [inaudible]
Speaker 8steely Dan band was formed in 1971. There were five of us. Tom and I wrote the songs
Speaker 2and the [inaudible] you got that [inaudible]
Speaker 8toured for a while to support the first couple of albums, but we didn't really like it. So we stopped in 1974 didn't tour again for 19 years.
Speaker 2The T ,
Speaker 8by the time we released Asia, the other members of the band were gone except for Danny Dyess and uh , we've replaced them with session musicians in some of our favorite soloists.
Speaker 6Here's Donald Fagan, Walter Becker and fellow session contributors for the Asia Elvin providing a fascinating glimpse into one of those recordings. Heg on track for drummer. Rick Marotta recounts what many consider one of the greatest drummers
Speaker 13every recorded . I see your name in lots of Yo , I feel nothing but cry from that tree . I guess one of the best tracks I ever played on as far as firms were going at that time. It was like if you had a club in your right hand and a club and your left him and clubs for feet, you could uh , play. I had just opened my, I had my hair long , every couple of beats with what I was playing with my right hand on the high hat . I created this little sound. Now I've gone but never ever heard it on the record that I had done because engineers and
Speaker 14sounds at the time, you know, it was, it was one of those things where it's a nuance and those things didn't exist.
Speaker 13There's Fagen and Becker in the studio plane with the soundboard while admiring the sneaky based stylings of Chuck Rainey is there . I remember this was kind of a Richard based part, but he fixed it up in his own parts of it were written. Brass part was written. This first part, just a Greg slapping and also writing with this. Chuck had a really unique , there's a chorus which was asked chuck about the film business.
Speaker 15They didn't want me to slap, I think mainly mainly because at that time slapping was just becoming popular and it wasn't a lot of records, however it might be being a player. I think there are some songs that slapping sounds good and no matter who you are, you want to keep in the fold of what's happening. Uh , paid. Uh, uh , that bridge there just seemed to be a slapping thing for me. I said, well, no, play with your fingers. Uh , you know, something like that. And then he played his songs so many times that after a while I remember just turning just a little bit this way or this way and putting up a petition and they were about that high and it's of course shitting in a much lower chair. And , um, I remember, you know , slapping it never knew it went down. They never knew it except afterwards you can tell there was a difference in that bridge.
Speaker 13Put in the keyboards again here. So you've got right here, Trey out here. Rick Marotta. I'll tell you one thing it's interesting that I'm putting in canal is that you don't really hear in a lot of groups that you hear this. A lot of doubling between [inaudible] me a bass and the kick drum, and you can hear, hear that bit. The kick drum is all sort of syncopated. It's not really [inaudible] . You know what I mean? It's not doubling so much to make strong beats in the day . You gotta love them, but it's not like
Speaker 14you go in there and you're just really good friends and you'll play and you'll try to get into it and they'll say, yeah, that's really good. And then the next day somebody else is doing it . A whole other band wasn't like they played musical chairs with the guys in the band. They played musical bands. Old Band would go in a hole . Incredible other band would come in.
Speaker 13We never came up with a band of our own that we felt was the right combination of guys, that it was stable. It was just me and Walter . You somebody in a record
Speaker 8and gonna say, wow, listen to this guy's a great soul . Also seven come in , you know , what would he be good on? You know, what would suit his style, you know,
Speaker 5[inaudible]
Speaker 8just this and I think is infamous among studio players in that we hired a couple of guitar players, you know , to play the solo one . And it wasn't quite what we were looking for till we got through three or four, five, six, six, seven, seven, eight players.
Speaker 16Oh, there it is. Let's check this out. Go back and let's hear it in the track. There you go. In other words, really close . You just find another one.
Speaker 8This is probably the, the last guy to try it before Jay did it.
Speaker 16There's another one. Where's that pen? A little envelope, the broker thing. It's got going here on his guitar. Do this to you . And then finally, three grand came in with no difficulty whatsoever. [inaudible]
Speaker 5Hawaiian. I've been a kind of a Polynesian prefigured my own later [inaudible]
Speaker 16here's the great
Speaker 5Michael, Nick , Don , uh , Jada fall. [inaudible] hold on.
Speaker 15Three D. All right. Work with them enough to kind of know one I was in for and you know, certain words that they just wanted to hear a certain way that, you know, normally under normal normal circumstances, people wouldn't, you know, they kind of, this is the words, here's the parts. If you're saying it and you know , uh , that's the phrasing, but for those guys , uh , phrasing could have such a nuance, you know, that , uh , you know, singing a line like half as much as you'd think, oh wow . You know, how many different ways can you say it in that phrasing rhythmically and , you know, but it would be, it would come down to such fine points, like a pronunciation and , uh , exact rhythmic , you know, if I brought a Novi Bravo , you know, things like that. And so it was always real challenging.
Speaker 17A couple of birds , John on top , all in three d movies
Speaker 9called
Speaker 15back to you.
Speaker 18[inaudible]
Speaker 3but to you, sorry.
Speaker 9[inaudible]
Speaker 17John , um , [inaudible] Oh man, movie
Speaker 18[inaudible]
Speaker 15back to you. Peg doesn't sound like much required, but the harmonies were so close that , um , that was a real learning experience for me to sing. Of course , you know, part by part with myself, you know, when you're going back into sustain that next harmony, it's so close to the note you're singing it . It was just a real hard for me to discern that interval and , and keep it in pitch, you know?
Speaker 13Right .
Speaker 9[inaudible]
Speaker 13that's true . We had a pretty specific idea about the , um , how this background [inaudible] swing band rhythmic approach and how we wanted it phrased and sound .
Speaker 16[inaudible]
Speaker 9hi, I'm Greg handler and this is our American story come back and one a story and so many different ways songs come to be some spontaneous, some my goodness over and over again. Laborious, fastidious and that steely Dan, the ultimate studio band, the story of his song peg and how it came to be here on our American stories . Yes .
Speaker 16[inaudible]
Bryan Dawson's Story
Speaker 19[inaudible]
Speaker 15this is Lee Hubby bin . This is our American stories and this next story. Well, it's close to home by the way.
Speaker 3Best stories that we all have a right nearest folks in our neighborhood and our families, in our churches, in our businesses. And here at our American stories, we've gotten to know one of our workers and affiliate sales guy from Alabama and a great guy, a great family. Well, he shared his story with me and I was just, well, it wasn't just me, it was everybody in the room listening. It was as if we were hearing a movie being told of great movie, a compelling movie. It was a heck of a story. And so we asked him to tell it. And so without further ado, this is a story about everything folks. Love, Hey, family and redemption.
Speaker 20Um , I, I had a pattern in my life of um, uh, with , with girls. I'm putting me in the friend zone. Um, and one of the , uh, the , the very first girl that ever put me in the friend zone I remember was in eighth grade and I was in Mr. Dunn Science Class. And , um, you know, I remember seeing her , um, as it was yesterday. And I remember leaning over to my friend Ryan and saying, who's that? And , um , neither of us knew who she was. And I , um, developed the courage to ask her to eighth grade graduation dance. And I guess what I mean by develop the courage, I asked her to her friends to ask her if she would go to the three graduation dance with me and, and she said yes. After that, I , um, you know, told her how much I liked her wanting to be with her, professed my, you know, undying love for her and , um, she put me in the friend zone and that , and that would be a pattern that we want for, for the Kinda the long haul. Um, you know, looking back at my childhood , um, there's a couple key key moments that really , um, you know, stick out to me, you know, as far as I can remember, you know, my mom and my dad never really being together. Like that's never a memory that I can remember them actually being together, being married. But , um, I do remember is it got to be about my first grade year. My mother joined the army. Um, uh, she would kind of bounce around from job to job and couldn't find anything solid and she really wanted to do something , uh, to support us. Um, and I have a brother , um, Brad who is , um, he's two years older than me, but we have different dads. She , um , eventually got stationed in Germany and that launched into a giant custody battle. Um, my dad was a very responsible, hardworking, structured individual. And the obvious best place for me would have been with my father. But , um, the court's tendency is to always place the child with the mother unless there's just a , an absolute, you know, crazy circumstance that would , would lead them to do otherwise. But at that point I was going to be with my dad and , um, my mom had me go out to lunch right before really they were going to make their decision and we had , um, a lunch with my brother and she basically said, well, you don't want to leave your brother to you. And you know, there's castles in Germany. And basically he said all the things to the you you'd want to tell a kid to make them want to go that way. And I just remember the biggest feeling having is that I didn't want to leave. My brother didn't want to leave my brother in that environment without me to be there with him. And I was, I , I think seven years old at that time. And , um, I went back and told the judge that I didn't want to go with my dad as I had said previously, that I, that I wanted to go with my mom and that was ended up being their ruling after all the time and money and everything that was spent on that custody battle. Um, and I remember leaving the courthouse that day at seven years old, six years old, whatever it was. And , um, my dad looking down at me as we waited for the light to turn across the road. He said, you know, I'm very disappointed in you. And that kind of set a pattern really for the rest of my life with my father that I was kind of a disappointment. Um, and then when we moved to Germany , um , my mom was still , uh , with this abusive guy. He's the one that convinced her to join the army. Um, and when we moved to Germany , um, we lived in what's called the economy. So we didn't live on base. We lived in an apartment above a pub and the pub was called Klaus's pub. And , um, my mom and her husband, Dave would drink every night. Um, and they would fight every night and sometimes it would become abusive and sometimes the screaming and the , um , all those things got to be so bad. Um , my brother and I would always wonder , um , if it was going to be us next. And, and fortunately , we were never , um, you know, physically abused. Um, but you know, I remember wanting to protect my mom, but only being, you know, eight years old and small and having this desire to protect my mom and inability to do so. And it kind of developed feelings of cowardice , um , that I wasn't able, you know, to protect my mom. Um, that all came to an end when we started going to church. Um, and I , well, she, she left Dave. We moved on base. We started going to church, you know , Sunday morning, Sunday night and on Wednesdays. And every time the doors were open, we got involved and , um, really began to experience , um, a sense of belonging and then went on for about a year. Um, and there was no drinking and it was like this stability in our lives. It was like the calm and the storm of my life as I look back on it. Um , I remember coming home from school one day , um, it was one of my last days of fourth grade and I came home and , um, my mom had been, you know, free from drinking for a year. It's free from partying or life was, you know, so much better. And you know , I came home and there was a beer sitting on the end table beside the couch. And I looked at the beer and I looked at my mom and I knew that we were going back into that lifestyle. Um, and that all that peace and calm was over. I was old enough to equate beer with pain. Um, and you know, my mom drinking beer and alcohol with pain and suffering for my brother and I and instability. And I remember being fueled and filled with hatred and anger , uh , towards my mother. And I remember screaming at her and telling her that I hated her and then I would have nothing to do with her. And then I wanted to, to move back , um, you know, to the states and I wanted to move in with my dad. Then , um , when I moved in with my dad, I used to go to church with my friend Blair and his mom and we would go to church and it would be fun and it would be fine, but then we'd get in the car and his mom would gossip about everybody in the church all the way home. And then she would pick us up and she actually gave us a ride to school on the days that the weather was bad and she would just gossip about people in the church the whole way to school and the whole way back. And I'm like, you people are ridiculous. And so what I did is I took a few Christians in are labeled all Christians, is these few, right? And so my mind, I had this core belief that all Christians were these gossipy, judgmental , um, people. And so I hated them.
Speaker 3And when we come back, we continue with this really raw and really real story. And it's Brian Dawson's story here on our American,
Speaker 2no story .
Speaker 21[inaudible] [inaudible]
Speaker 3and we're back here at our American stories and we continue this remarkable story again, one that comes close to home as close as can be right here and our own staff. Let's continue with Brian Dawson story.
Speaker 20Um, that summer I went back, so my mom moved back from Germany and she went to Colorado Springs. So I went and spent a summer with my mom in Colorado. Well , my brother was two years older than me and he had friends that were, you know, drinking beer and drinking liquor and going camping and smoking pot and doing all that kind of stuff. And I went out there. I'd never been exposed to any of that stuff personally. Obviously seeing my mom drinking and things like that. But never personally. And , um, you know, I remember, you know, drinking a beer and then, you know, try and , um, liquor in the, the, the first, first liquor I ever tasted was hot damn. 100. And , um, I was the little brother of not only my big brother, but that whole group and I fit in and I, and , and the more I drank, the more I fit in. And the more I drank, the more comfortable I was in my own skin. You know, they call it liquid courage, but it was so much more than liquid courage for me. It was liquid. I can actually deal with life , um, everything in my life. I've always been very intense and very , um, all in whatever it was that I was doing. And I began to drink, you know , heavily I was drinking whiskey . I'm hot Dan , that whole summer. And , um, you know, the following summer I went back to Colorado and I started to smoke pot. And as I smoked pot , um, it was the same thing. You know, I, I just enjoyed not being who I guess I thought I was. You know, I , I eventually made it when I was 16 years old, I got my driver's license, I made a fake id on a computer and , um , I got to the point where I could go and buy liquor and then I became very popular for that reason. So there was a lot of, it was fitting in and all of those things that I, I would go and I was able to, you know, buy liquor for these parties, which made me like the coolest person, you know, in the party. And you know, I would drink to the point of blacking out once or twice a week. And this is a 16 year old. And meanwhile I was working a job at , um, dealings, which is a Kroger store and , uh , playing football, playing baseball and somewhat maintaining my grades. I went from a straight a student to probably about a c student. Um, and I just, I stopped caring about school, which is interesting because up to that point when I started, you know, drinking and doing drugs, all I cared about with school, I , I got straight A's, I scored off the charts and all these tests, the standardized tests. And um , I didn't care about school anymore. All I cared about was the social aspect, the partying, the girls , um, and just, and being wasted basically. Um, the summer between my junior and senior year, I went out to Colorado and my brother was , um, a driver for a, I wouldn't say notorious, but a pretty big time drug dealer. Um , in Colorado Springs. His name was Casey. And , um, my brother had a driver's license and an ice truck. So Casey would just, you know, have him drive him around and you know, they'd be dropping, you know, mostly pot , but you know, whatever around. And the craziest things would happen, man. So I spent the whole summer riding around with them, you know, just seeing him be this, this Alpha male that everyone looked up to and everyone respected and he had money and he had girls and he had all these things. I'm like, that's what I want to do. So I went back to Kansas that summer and um, and here's the thing, up to that point, I was excelling in football and I did really well in baseball too, but I excelled in football and , um, we had a great football team that year and I was really coming into my own as a defensive end and , and , and a tied in on offense. And , um, we were expected to , to do really, really well that year. And I was so torn between really wanting to pour myself into football or pour myself into this party life. And , um, I had tried cocaine when I was out there, so I was, I was really starting to do more serious drugs as I'm going into my senior year. And I started my senior year and I got about two weeks into it and I snuck out of the house and I went and tried ecstasy with some of my friends and a couple of the guys were actually , um , football players on the team. And , um, I remember trying to sneak back in and I got caught and he told me that I had to quit football and you go to rehab or I could quit football and go to, to Colorado, but I wasn't going to continue playing football. This is really when the resentment with my dad hit its peak. Um, and then kind of to give the narrative of my dad this whole time, again, him not being an emotional guy who, you know, says, Hey, what's going on Brian? Hey, you know, how are you feeling? How are you doing? Why are you doing this? It's, Hey, I won't tolerate it and not in this house. You ain't going to do that. Not My son. Those were kind of his ways of parenting was putting his foot down and yelling. Um, and , and again, you know, he didn't have a dad to , to teach him. So he, you know, he's a wonderful provider. He was at all my baseball games, all my football games, all my practices. Um, he got up at four 30 in the morning and went to work every day to make sure we had a house and things like that. So , um, I decided to quit football and moved back to Colorado with my mom. And what that basically meant is I was on my own and I just started partying full-blown. And I started working for Casey and started selling weed and , um, got involved in that lifestyle. And then I started doing cocaine on a pretty regular basis. And as I did cocaine, I realized , hey man, I can't pay for cocaine selling weed. So I started selling cocaine and I just had this Mack and this ability to , um, rise to the top in these, in these, I guess, you know, drug dealer ladders , uh, of, of influence. Um , I just had a knack for , for that life. And , um, so I started selling a little bit of coke next, you know, I'm selling a lot of coke and I was doing a lot of coke and it got to the point, it was so bad I would have to take Xanax to go to sleep and then I would wake up the next day and really the next evening, like four or five in the evening, I'd wake up, I'd blow my nose and snotty and cocaine and blood would come out and my nose would just be bleeding and bleeding and bleeding. As soon as it would start to kind of slow down a little bit, I would do another line and start drinking. And then that was what I did. Um, and it got so bad to where I couldn't even like breathe out of my nose anymore. Um , my friend tried to introduce me to crack and , um , I'm like, this isn't for me. Um, so then , uh, he , um, he had me try crystal meth and that was it. And once I did crystal Meth, it was , um, there was no having to take Xanax to go to sleep. There was no drinking whiskey to mellow out. It was just, it was wide open. Um , and already at this point when I started doing meth , I already had , um, my first felony arrest. Um , I was arrested with a half ounce of cocaine and , um, had bonded out and got probation and all of those things and didn't slow me down. I continue to use drugs, continued to party, didn't go to my probation appointments, didn't do any of those things. And , um, I got to a point where I was very well known in Colorado Springs for my ability to sell drugs and do a number of other things. And I remember getting a phone call from a girl named Camille and she said , um, I've got some pretty serious guys that I know , um, that want to talk to you about, you know, kind of you partnering with them or working with them. And so I came to her, her apartment and I walked into her apartment. I remember it. It was , um , kind of an uneasy feeling. And , um, there was , um, some very mean-looking , um, dark , uh, nefarious looking , uh, individuals that were , uh, Hispanic guys, Mexican guys, and they had handkerchiefs on over their faces and , um, but they were in suits. It was just weird. And I'm like, well, I'm either going to get killed or this is going to go really well. And , um, you know, they sat down and just talk to me and asked me a bunch of questions and asked me what I could do for them . And I think they were kind of new to coming into Colorado Springs to do what it was that they were wanting to do and they needed somebody to help them . So , um, they asked me to do that and, and I did that. And uh, not long after that I ended up getting in a high speed chase with the cops and ran and I had a briefcase with meth and a pistol. He got pulled over with that, got arrested. Um, spent four and a half months in jail, county jail on that, got probation again, got out, went right back to it. Um, and by that time , um, a lot of my connections had either gone back to Mexico or had been arrested as well. And I got into , um, basically, I mean, I guess what it looked like was we would steal four wheelers and , uh , motorcycles and things like that and give them two Mexicans that we're bringing back across the border in New Mexico. And then they would pay us in drugs. I was supposedly the , the ringleader of that whole thing. I don't know how true that was, but that's the way it was in the, in the cops eyes. And , um, they busted a house that had some of those motorcycles in them. And , um, they , um, pressured the guy who was there and , and he told on me and said, you know, it was me. I was the one that was doing this. I was running all these rings. So , um, he and a bunch of other people had told the cops that I was responsible for, you know , all this crime that was going on. And , um, I eventually got arrested and I did another four months in county jail and ended up bonding out after those four months. And in that time I got my discovery and it said that, you know, who had told on me. Um, I was out driving around up to no good. I had been up for four days. Um, we drove by the guy's house who told on me, who was the main informant in the case. And , um, the guy I was with kept pumping me up. Oh No, we have to go in there, you know, we can't let him , you know, just let him tell on you and you not doing anything. And so we went, you know, went up to the front door and knock on the door and he opened the door and , um, walked in the house and asked him why he told on me and he said, you know, told me why I didn't tell any Brian , I would never tell on you. And , uh, I knew that he had, he was the informant in my case. So , um, I began to beat him up really, really bad. And , um, the guy was with, he hit him in the head with a blunt force object. It was called a blackjack and it cracked his head open and I thought he was gonna die. So, you know, we , um, we grabbed a few objects out of his house and we left. And by the time I got back to my house , um, I ended up getting arrested and charged with attempted murder , uh , aggravated robbery and extortion. And on top of all that, this was a, a guy who was state's evidence. So he was an informant that I did all these things too. So that aggravated it
Speaker 8and my goodness, what a story. And when we come back, you won't believe where it turns and where it goes. Brian Dawson story, one of our staffers here and our American stories more after these messages .
Speaker 2[inaudible]
Speaker 8turn to Brian Dawson's story here on our American stories. And let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 20I was, I was on the run, I bonded out again and uh, I was out on like, I dunno , a couple of hundred thousand dollars worth of bonds and I was supposed to go to a court date and I ended up not going to that court date. So I became a fugitive. And um, shortly after that I became one of Colorado Springs. Most one in criminals. Uh , most wanted fugitives and it was intense. I mean they were um, writing houses. They were setting up perimeters all throughout Colorado Springs as , I don't know if you've ever seen him . Like they basically have roads blocked off and they're showing pictures of meat . Every car that stops and goes through there. Um, if you ever followed dog, the bounty hunter , um , dog, the bounty hunter did most of his shows in Colorado Springs, some in Hawaii, but most of them were in Colorado Springs and dog. The bounty hunter was on a 72 hours, 72 fugitive sweep when I was on the run. And he said he wasn't going to go after me because I was supposedly, you know, too threatening or menacing or whatever. For him to go after me. Um, so it got, it became very real and there was a couple of near misses where they almost had me and I was able to escape from them . And then , um, they finally caught me and I was in my safe, I guess you call it a safe house. Um, it was the third story apartment in Colorado Springs and they finally closed in on me. And I remember sitting in the apartment that day, I was watching the Chappelle show. It was my last day out, July 19th, 2007. I'm watching the Chappelle show cooking brought worst in this apartment. And I look out the window and I'm on the third story and I see the front end of a cop car and I know that it's a cop car. And I knew that was it. I just knew, I knew , um, okay , well this is it. And um, there wasn't much in the apartment, but there was a recliner that was wider than the window was. So I'd taken a , uh , nylon rope, rappelling rope, and I tied it to the bottom of the recliner. Um, and I hear the door pounding, Carter Springs police open up and they're kicking in doors making their way down to me. So I kicked out the window and wrap my arm , my hand around the rope and I jump out the window and the recliner sticks and wedges right in the window just like I wanted it to. And , and as I'm hanging there around both sides of this apartment building, these police come flooding and there's 40 or 50 cops made of El Paso County sheriff's deputies, Colorado Springs Police Department. They come pouring around the side with their guns pulled and drawn on me, you know, get on the ground, get on the ground, get the f on the ground. And I'm like, I don't know where else I'm going to go. And I look up and there's cops know , cops above me, cops below me. So , um, I pulled up a little bit on the rope, unwrap the rope with my hand and dropped and I dropped three stories and I landed and it's a miracle that I didn't get hurt there, but I landed and rolled and then there was , um, two canine units right there with the dogs barking in my face. Um, and I remember laying there and I could feel the heat from the dogs and I'm just like, oh , these dogs , uh , don't bite me. But that was it. And , um, officer stuck his knee and my back and cuffed me and , um, they put me in the back of the cop car. And the craziest thing is I remember the relief that I had is I sat in the back of that cop car cause I knew it was all over. I remember Rihanna's umbrella song was on in the cop car as we were heading, you know, to county jail. And I just had a sense of peace for whatever reason. And , um, and I ended up getting into , um , county jail where I would find out , um , that I was facing 384 years in prison. And , um, with facing that much time, I started to get involved in with some, some rough groups in the jail thinking that I'm going away to prison for the rest of my life. I have to make a name for myself. I have to be tough. I have to be this , this guy, this prison guy. So I get no , a bunch of fights. Um, you know, I'm going up to these older kind of gangster guys and they're saying, why I need you to go beat this guy up and I need you to go beat that guy up. So I'm doing these things and I eventually ended up in administrative segregation, which is when you are in a concrete cell , um , it's about eight foot by 12 foot and there's a bunk in there. There's a metal bunk with a fire retardant mattress and a fire retardant pillow and a sink that is attached to a toilet. It's a one piece toilet sink and a desk. And that's it. That's all you have in there. And I was in there for 23 hours a day and I would get one hour where I could go make a phone call, take a shower, and I would go back in my cell. And I was there for several months. And in that time frame that I was in administrative segregation, I had , um , a revelation. It was one of the, it was an epiphany. It was an Aha moment. Um, uh, and it was, and it seems silly, but it was, it was, it was huge. Um, and I, and as I looked back on it , it's the point as I try and counsel people who have been through these things before or that are going through these things now, because people come to me, because I've been through them before, they asked me, you know, what would you tell them ? And this was the one thing that happened. And I'm sitting in administrative segregation. I'm in this, in this cell by myself. I've been there for a couple of months and all of a sudden I realized this is my fault. This is all my fault and I know that seems silly or it sounds, you know, stupid or whatever. But really, no , this is all my fault because up to point, I'd blamed it on my mom. I blamed it on my dad. I blamed it on the judges. I blamed it on , um, basically , um , everyone but me, I blamed it on corrupt system. You know, all the district attorneys, I mean, you name it. I blamed everybody. But then all of a sudden I realized this is my fault. And it was so liberating and it was so freeing because I realized if my choices created this circumstances, certainly I could make better choices that would create better circumstances. And I, and I, and I came to this realization that my choices are what create my circumstances, not the other way around. I wasn't a victim that I'd created the circumstances through my choices. And from that moment forward, I made a decision that I was going to do things differently. And I did. And it wasn't easy. I had habits. I had, you know, thought patterns. I had all these things that were wrong, but I knew that I could make better choices and I was responsible for my choices. And I , and I started doing that. And from that moment , um , I got on the phone, I called my grandma with tears in my eyes , um, and told her that, that I was going away forever. And, and she said, you know, I can tell there's been a huge change in your life, Brian . I can't put my finger on it . I don't know what it is, but I can tell there's something very different about you because up to this point, they all cut me off. I burned every bridge in my family. If they were done with me, she said, we're going to get you an attorney. And she did. And the next day I went to court , um , someone that was supposed to show up to the court court date to be a witness in my trial if I went to trial that they didn't show up. So they had to postpone it for two weeks. Total miracle. The attorney was able to take my case and get me into what's called a mediation hearing. And what a mediation hearing is, is where you basically go into arbitration with your sentence and it's like a used car sales. Well give you this. Well, no, we want that. Well I'll give you this and no , we want that. And they started at 32 years and I started at eight years and a mediator went back and forth between the district attorney and my lawyer and I back and forth, back and forth. And they finally came down to a 15 year sentence with a crime of violence, sense enhancer. And I told him , I don't , um, I don't want that sentence to answer. I don't want to be labeled a violent criminal. I don't want to go to some, you know , hardcore prison and end up with swastikas all over my face and turn into that guy. I want to change my life. I want a chance to changing my life. I said, tell her I'll give her a year if she drops that crime of violence. So I ended up getting sent sentenced to 16 years and they dropped the crime of violence. Um, and I went back to my cell after that mediation and I knew that God had moved in my life. So , um , I went from there. Um, I got sentenced, I got sentenced to 16 years and then I went to the Denver reception diagnostic center. This is a maximum security prison and you roll up in a van and there's rolls upon rolls of razor wire. There's gun towers with armed guards in the gun towers. Um , they've got , um , these little mirrors that go under the vans that see if there's bombs under the vans. And it just, it was very sobering. It was very real that, hey, I'm in prison. Um, that's happening now. Um, and I went in there and I was there for a little while and they sent me to my first , um, first facility and where for no county correctional center was Walsenburg, Colorado and it was a , a private prison. Um, and there's a lot of bad things that , that surrounded the idea of private prisons, but I had nothing but a very positive experience there. Um, it was very evident that everybody there , um , there was involved with the staff members there from our case managers to the teachers and things like that , um, that they wanted criminals to, to be rehabilitated. And they had a lot of programs. So I immediately started taking programs. I got my GED , um, while I was at Walsenburg, and then I started taking college classes and then I became a guy that helped other guys get their GED. Um, and that's what I did for working there as I was a tutor and I helped people get their GDS.
Speaker 8Okay . And when we come back, the final installment, this remarkable story, one that hits close to home, our own Brian Dawson , his story continues here on our American story.
Speaker 16[inaudible] [inaudible]
Speaker 8and we return to Brian Dawson's story and what a story it is. And again, this one hits close to home. He's one of our people. And by the way, it just shows you that anything can happen in a person's life. Here he is in prison and he's already, you can hear it. He's a changed guy and he wants to just get through this and come out on the other side. And so he's where he oriented himself and his life right there. And what may be the very worst place in America to be as a young man.
Speaker 20Let's return to Brian's story. I was there for about nine months, but the very first person I met when I walked into Walsenburg was the guy with a name a Charles Frederick. And he comes up to me, he's this big guy, big burly guy. And he says, Hey, my name is Charles and I'm a Christian and this is a faith pod. So in these prisons, they had these pods, they're called faith pods. And it was basically pods or units made up about 120 inmates. And it was dedicated to discipleship. And I don't know how I landed in there, why I landed in there. Um, but I was there and Charles began to just tell me about Christ. Tell me about who Jesus was. Tell me about the gospel. I told him, Charles, I don't want to hear that stuff, you know , um, I don't care. Um, and you know, he, he just said, OK . And then we, he began to talk to him about other things and he met my physical needs. He gave me coffee, he gave me shorts, he gave me, you know, things that, you know, you get in there, you got nothing other than a couple of pairs of underwear and a green suit. So he helped me , um, with some of those things and just became my friend. And as conversation would permit, he would tell me about Christ and that would go on for about nine months. He got shipped to another prison. Um, I left that prison, they shut that prison down , um, and my security level dropped. And I bounced around a little bit for a couple of years. And then I ended up in sterling correctional facility. And certainly in Colorado, the first person I see, there's Charles again. And he starts telling me about Jesus Christ again. And , um , I'm like, man, I don't want to hear this stuff. Well , um , we're there for a little bit. And he goes, hey, you know, you got parole coming up in a couple of years, it would be good for you to have some certificates , um, to , um, you know, show the parole board. I'm like, okay . And he goes, well, I'm the chaplain's assistant. I can get you in some programs. I'm like, okay, I go ahead, sign me up. So , um, he signs me up and , uh, they ended up being faith-based programs and I'm like, Oh, I hate you Charles. But the very first program I went into was a , um , a come as you are. We love everybody, you know, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, whatever, just come as you are. And I went there and it was, it was okay , but I experienced fellowship and I met other Christians that were like Charles, who are true, genuine Christians who lived this out. Um , they didn't just say they were Christians with their mouth. They lived in and , and you could see the wisdom and things that they had. And I was, I was attracted to that. And , um, that went on for about 13 weeks. That class was over. And then Charles got me into another program called the truth project , um, which was put out by focus on the family and Dr Del Tech , an amazing program. But when I got in there, it was not come as you are. It was, this is what the Bible says. Um, and I didn't like that. And I would sit, we would watch a video for an hour and then we would have table discussion at the table discussion. I would argue with everyone there and tell them how stupid they were for believing what they, you know, that they believe these things and almost gotten to a couple of fights with those guys. And , um , about three weeks into it, we were walking back to the unit and Charles just asked me, he says, Brian , why don't you just give him a chance? And I had been asked that question before and , and, and, and fought it and fought it and fought it. And for whatever reason I said, okay , Charles. So , um, I went back to my cell that night and , um , I prayed, okay God , if I need to believe these things to have a relationship with you, give me some kind of a sign. And I went to bed that night and I remember being in a really deep sleep and I had a nightmare. And in that nightmare I fell off of a cliff and I woke up, startled out of a nightmare and Kinda , and I looked and um, it's really dark in the sales and we had , we're allowed to have digital clocks in there. And , and the digital clock with the red numbers in the cell said three 16, the only Bible verse I'd ever known as a kid , um, it all was John Three 16. And if you know John Three 16, it answers the question that I asked him. That's exactly right. Yes, you do need to believe those things. And I tried to go back to sleep and just brush it off, but I looked back at the clock and I felt like it was three 16 for like 30 minutes. And I'm like, okay, maybe there's something to this. And uh , it was a Sunday morning at three 16. So I got up and I went to , uh, went to the church services that they offered in the prison. And um, I went and found my friend Ramon. I always had this idea in my head that Christians were weak. And my friend Ramon was a big black , um, former gang banger that had become a Christian and there was nothing soft or weak about this guy. So I'm like, okay , I'll go with him. And I'm sitting in the very back row in the very far side as he goes through the sermon and at the end of the sermon, the pastor does what he calls an invitation. I look at Ramon and I say, what's an invitation? And he goes , um , he'd say, Oh, it's where you go make a decision for Christ, or you invite Jesus in your heart and say any of that stuff. He said, if you've got something in your life that's hindering your relationship with God, you can go up there and pray with that man about it. So I went up there and , um, I prayed with chaplain Davidson to , to tell you a little about him. He's a , um , a hard man of callous man, a cowboy. He's a man's man. He's a prison chaplain and he doesn't do hugs. He doesn't do any of those kinds of things. And he grabbed my hand to pray and I could feel the calluses on his hands. And he slaps me on the shoulder with his other hand and he says, how can I pray for you? And I told him, I said, look, you know, I don't, I'm not here to make any decisions. I just, I need you to pray that God would remove this callus from my heart because it's hardened in, it's angry and it's angry towards Christians. So I want him to soften my heart so that the truth can come in. And chaplain David's prayed that. And I remember looking up after we were done praying and when he's in front of 130 inmates with tears pouring down his face. And , um , I knew something was very real about this and I didn't know how to describe it, but it was, it was, it was very real. And I would later find out that chaplain Davidson Charles had been praying for me for about a year and a half that I would get saved. And from that moment forward, and I began to read my Bible, I read my Bible every single day. I would get up and read my Bible, read my Bible. I was at every single church service that they offered, any faith based program they had in that prison. I was there. There was a huge change. I went from telling these people they were stupid for believing what they did to absolutely believing it basically overnight. And , and, and following that up with my behavior following the change of heart that I had , uh, that went on for about a year and my friends all had pin pals that they were writing when they were in prison. So I prayed and said, all right, God, I'm , I'd like to have a pen pal. And I got on the phone with my mom and she was running a Facebook page for me. She says, you've got a friend request from a girl. I'm like, okay, cool. Who is it? And she goes, do you know a girl named uh, Christina ? You? And I'm like, yeah, I know Christina Yuan , um, y . And she goes, well, she sent you a friend request. She remembered you and that she's been trying to find you for, you know, on and off for the last 10 years. I said, did you tell her I was in prison? Yeah , I told her, you're in prison. She doesn't care. She wants to write you. I'm like, that's crazy. So I got her address and everything we did and all of our correspondence was based on Christ and what God was doing in our lives. And that was it. And that went on for several months. And , um, I just knew that this was, you know, too crazy for it not to be God lining this up for something bigger. But I was scared to death because she's rejected me so many times in the past. And I had to write a letter and I sat down and wrote this letter and said, look, you know, I just, I, I feel like, you know, this, this is kinda something that may be meant to be. And the , the , you know, I know it's asking a lot of you, but , um, the , that maybe we could ride this out together and get married when I get out type of , um , you know, this is meant for something more. And , um, I get the letter back and I remember hearing it at mail call and seeing that the letter was from Christina , knowing that the answer was going to be inside of that envelope. And I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter and began to read it. And in the very first paragraph, she said, Brian, I've been thinking the exact same things and I know God wants me to be with you and that I'm supposed to be here for you through this time and that you know, that we're, we're meant to be together. Um, and I remember reading that sitting in prison and I mean, I could've floated up the steps to go back to my cell. It was , um, it was amazing. So , um, but I put in for a halfway house about six months after that, so I ended up getting accepted to that program. Um, my very first time putting in for halfway house, which almost never happens with the severity of my sentence and the size and scope of my sentence. Um, I got out my very first time I'm putting in and , um, so it was, it was a very, very tough two years, but I graduated , um, and , uh , Christine was there for the graduation and the first visit I was allowed to go on actually before I graduated. Um, Christina and I got married and we got, we eloped, I guess you could say. We got married at my grandma's house. Um, and a , a pastor that used to come into the prisons , um, did my, my marriage ceremony. So it was him and his wife and my grandma were the only ones there at the wedding. And my mom was on speaker phone . And so my wife and I now have three daughters plus my stepson , Brennan , who was an absolute stud , um, brilliant, smart kid , um, does very well in sports. And my girls are , um, three years old is Gracie , two year old is Reagan. And our one-year-old , uh , is Abigail. And we have another one on the way. So not only , um , do I have, and this is kind of a cool caveat to the story. I've got a little piece of property with a , you know, a little house , um , in a , you know, the wife of my dreams and beautiful children. Uh , four beautiful children, about to be five, but I just moved my mom's , um, she has a camper and I just moved her camper onto my property and my mom, who I had obviously all that resentment and animosity towards, she now lives on my property and she's me Ma to the kids and she got saved about two years ago and she's a completely different person. So , um, again, like you, I could not have sat in jail , um, you know, five, six, seven years ago, whatever it was and said, okay , in five or 10 years, this is what I want. Um, and ever thought it would be what it is now
Speaker 8and what a story folks, and I'm tearing up here because I know Brian and , and to imagine that that can happen in people's lives. Anyone listening, having someone in prison someplace that you just don't think they can come back from? My goodness, it's possible. And we do faith-based stories here, folks. We don't shy away from it. There are all kinds of things that can get people out of a jam. And sometimes it's God and sometimes it's a, it's a secular counselor, but we don't shy away from the religious aspect of people's lives. Here on this show, we don't preach, we don't proselytize, but we don't remove it, and my goodness, Brian Dawson story is unimaginable without God and send your stories. By the way, if you have a story like this, and I know you do because my goodness, his is filled with stories like this and we're , we're tired of the negative stories. We want to hear stories of real hope, not the silly time, the rugged kind. Send them to our American network.org that's our American network.org Brian Dawson story, a beautiful family, a beautiful story of love and redemption here on l America .
Speaker 5[inaudible] .