The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America’s First Black Generals by Doug Melville

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals by Doug Melville https://amzn.to/3SST5e1 The amazing true story of America’s first Black generals, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and Jr., a father and son who helped integrate the American military and created the Tuskegee Airmen. Perfect for fans of Devotion and Hidden Figures. Red Tails, George Lucas’s celebration of America’s first Black flying squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen, should have been a moment of victory for Doug Melville. He expected to see his great-uncle Benjamin O. Davis Jr.—the squadron’s commander—immortalized on-screen for his selfless contributions to America. But as the film rolled, Doug was shocked when he realized that Ben Jr.’s name had been omitted and replaced by the fictional Colonel A. J. Bullard. And Ben’s father, Benjamin O. Davis Sr., America’s first Black general who helped integrate the military, was left out too. Dejected, Doug looked inward and realized that unless he worked to bring their inspirational story to light, it would remain hidden from the world just as it had been concealed from him. In Invisible Generals, Melville shares his quest to rediscover his family’s story across five generations, from post-Civil War America to modern day Asia and Europe. In life, the Davises were denied the recognition and compensation they’d earned, but through his journey, Melville uncovers something greater: that dedication and self-sacrifice can move proverbial mountains—even in a world determined to make you invisible. Invisible Generals recounts the lives of a father and his son who always maintained their belief in the American dream. As the inheritor of their legacy, Melville retraces their steps, advocates for them to receive their long-overdue honors and unlocks the potential we all hold to retrieve powerful family stories lost to the past. About the author DOUG MELVILLE is one of the most innovative voices in corporate diversity. A fifth-generation leader, his family worked with several different presidential administrations. He has been featured in numerous periodicals, including Forbes, USA Today, Time, Business Insider, and the Washington Post, and he has given three TEDx Talks.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com.

There you go. When the Iron Lady sings it, that means it's official. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the big show. For 15 years, we've been bringing you all the wonderful people, all the smartest minds, the brilliant authors, people who spent a lifetime learning their trade, their craft, telling their stories, building it out, learning, researching, all this stuff. And they bring it to you in this beautiful concise it's almost like should be a vase for it uh maybe the chris voss show is the beautiful vase i don't know i'm pretty

ugly so it's it's one ugly vase probably let's get it vase vase i just made that up right now hey guys welcome to chris voss show the family that loves you but doesn't judge you as harshly as your mother-in-law uh we're going to be talking with an amazing author today, and he is telling the story of unknown history. Over the years, we've had lots of great authors on who've been telling the story of the true story of our history, and some of the things that were kind of hidden, or what some people call whitewashing of our American history, and telling the stories that have been the untold stories or hidden stories of our history that are some of the most important to tell because they're some of the most important things that have changed the future of our country, impacted our country, etc., etc. In the meantime, before we get into that, we do demand, it's not a demand, people,

go to goodreads.com, Forge, that's Chris Voss, LinkedIn.com, Forge, that's Chris Voss, YouTube.com, Forge, that's Chris Voss, YouTube.com, Forge. That's Chris Foss. And Goodreads. I'm sorry. We did that one. It's Monday morning, folks. Chris Foss won the Tickety Talkity and Chris Foss, Facebook.com. We have the author of the newest book.

It's just come out. November 7th, 2023, called Invisible Generals, Rediscovering Family Legacy and a quest to honor america's first black generals doug melville joins us on the show today he's gonna be talking about his amazing book and he has some relations of these folks to uh tell us the deepest story that you can probably get from anyone close to it uh doug melville is the uh is one of the most innovative voices in corporate diversity and currently splits his time between the United States and Switzerland. And he is the head of global diversity, equity, inclusion in the luxury industry. His first book came out, which tells his family story of America's first two black generals, a father and son that was just released.

And he is the global head of diversity, equity, inclusion for International Luxury Holding Company. And he sits on the Governance and Sustainability Committee. He is responsible for drafting the DEI vision, measuring and embedding metrics and strategizing around DEI as a business solution. Welcome to the show. How are you, Doug? Chris, how are you doing today? I'm actually live from Switzerland right now. How about that? Live from Switzerland right now. Am I your first guest from Switzerland or no?

I'm not sure, but can I wire you some money to put in a numbered account for me? Listen, no one will ever know the IRS is on people like sticky fingers out here. Don't try to be cute. Don't, don't, don't, don't try to skirt your taxes, folks. I don't do that. It's bad.

Um, uh, the, uh, and if you don't have enough money, I mean, it's just kind of a privilege to pay your taxes really when you think about, uh,

so Doug, give us a.com. Where can people find you on the interwebs? Yeah. So you could log on to, uh, Doug Melville.com. Um, as you said, this is my is my first book that I've authored.

Instagram at Doug Melville, LinkedIn at Doug Melville, and then also you can just search for Invisible Generals, the title of the book, anywhere your books are sold, audio books, physical books, e-books. So that's kind of the skinny on the dot coms. There you go, skinny.coms. You can kind of the skinny on the dot coms. There you go, skinny dot coms. You can find us at skinny dot coms and OnlyFans. Invisible.

OnlyFans call that jokes. They're the best. Invisible Generals. Give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside. So Invisible Generals is the untold story of America's first two black generals. They were a father and a son. And at the start of World War II, before they reached general status, of the 335,000 people in the military, they were the only two black officers. Wow. Work together as a team to help integrate the United States military, which is

75 years ago this year, and ultimately create and command the world-famous Tuskegee Airmen. This is while they were in service. And the son went on to work for the Department of Transportation and helped lead the creation of the United States Air Marshal Program, commercial airport security, and the 55 mile an hour federal speed limit. So these men did so much for this country, but were treated as if they were invisible because of their race. That was the onus for me to tell this story because when my dad shared it with me upon turning 80 years old and me inquiring, I felt that someone in the family and someone who had heard firsthand because my dad was there his whole life and the story at a very personal level needed

to share that these military stories are about the military and the missions but they're also about family fathers and sons and what people will do to sacrifice for their country there you go and as i mentioned in the in the prior show we've had a lot of great people on like eddie god jr and and other people have talked about the whitewashing of history and we've seen arguments of that recently in florida but these stories are important because they you know i i never realized at the time but growing up looking at history there's a lot of white people in my history class and uh i'm white so i can say that i suppose uh and and over time we've learned through movies and books like yours that that there's a lot of untold stories likely over prejudice because they just got left out over prejudice, I think.

I think there's a reason these stories didn't happen. And I imagine now you can look at the U.S. military and be, you know, where would it be without black people or the NBA for that matter or sports? So what was the motivation behind why you wrote this book i understand there was a movie involved yeah well first of all i want to say that um the tapestry of america is made from all americans and i think we somewhat do ourselves an injustice when we divide everything in boxes you know asian history native american history black history i mean that's kind of how america is set up ourselves an injustice when we divide everything in boxes, you know, Asian history, Native American history, black history. I mean, that's kind of how America is set up. But I think if we looked at all of it as the umbrella of American history, we would do ourselves a larger justice by looking at it as

one totality of history, because everything is like your body. Yes, your leg hurts, but your arm could be affected. It's all connected and it's all affecting each other. So I think that that's just the first point about why these stories are so important that we tell. The reference to the movie, and thank you for bringing that up, that was the onus and the spark that lit the flame for me. So we were in the year 2011. I'm currently working, you know, not as an author or anything of that nature. I'm living my best life. And I get invited to a screening of a movie called Red Tails.

And for your listeners or viewers that have seen it, you know, it's about the Black fighter pilots of World War II. Now, the patriarch of my family, Benjamin O. Davis Jr., was the centerpiece character of the movie, and he was played by an actor named Terrence Howard. When Terrence Howard got on the screen, we all knew he was playing the commander. He looks exactly like Ben Davis Jr. And when he's addressed by a fellow soldier, he's addressed as Colonel Bullard.

So I'm looking around the theater trying to figure out what's going on. And then afterwards, there's a party. And I keep asking people people what happened to the names and they were saying Doug you know this is Hollywood this is an amalgamation of characters you know Doug this isn't a documentary Doug you can't have half the characters real and half fake Doug you don't understand how Hollywood works and I'm sitting here wait, did they're just a whole screening for a movie for the families? And then the names aren't included in the movie. Now, some were brought on as advisors and there was all little ways people were brought in for their opinion. But to me, the names on the screen were the whole thing.

You know, I don't want to hear about all that other stuff. So I went home and I tell my dad, and I'm furious, and my dad says to me, Doug, Doug, if you think changing the names are bad, let me tell you the family story of the Invisible Generals and how at seven years old, I went down to Tuskegee and I was raised there by Ben Jr. And I saw firsthand all the ways we were treated as if we were invisible

and how these men fought for their lives and how they were the only two black officers. And the military was so conscious of them and they got so much attention that we had to live in hiding. We couldn't do interviews. We couldn't go out and play. So my dad's telling me this story, and it's not really like a military story as he's telling it. It's just a family story of, you know, hey, this is what we went through but i left that meeting sparked to go on my own and research these two men and say if they're left out of the movie if my dad describes them like this what really happened and that sent me on a 10-year quest to discover my own family history and uncover the accomplishments

of these two men and that's awesome and now you've told it in a book. Yeah, you've got to love it, man. The Tuskegee Airmen film by George Lucas. I'm surprised there wasn't a Death Star in it. They had to blow up. It was one of his. It actually became his last movie before he sold the organization to the Disney company. And people sometimes, you know, sometimes when I talk to them talk to like do you hate it what do you hate red tails and i say no no i appreciate red tails for exactly what it did it scaled the story around the world it brought this unbelievable story to life and that was a

chapter but my chapter is my family's contribution to that story as an additional next layer. So I look at everything as, you know, history sometimes is looked at as back in the day, but we're all building off it. So I just looked at it as part of the next narrative of what we needed to do. There you go. And it puts you on a journey to learn your history. Tell us a little bit about you. How did you grow up? Did you, had you delved in the family history in the military had you had you been exposed to any of it was was that prevalent in your in your being raised no not at all um i was uh 10 years younger than my brother and sister so my parents you know if you ever have a baby 10 years younger than your brother and sister your parents are like listen you know you're to have to fend for yourself and find food.

And here's the fend for yourself. Wow. Yeah. But they were cool about it. And that was our whole vibe. Sounds like a great Gen Xs. Yeah. That's what my parents were.

Latchkey kids. So, but every occasion, every Thanksgiving, every holiday, we would always go to Arlington, Virginia to visit Ben. And he was the center of our family. And as a kid, I didn't know really what was going on with this man. I just knew he always wore red. And he was the most loving, positive guy in the whole world. And all he ever wanted to talk about is what do you want to do? What do you want to be?

What, you know, how can I help you get smarter? Education is everything. Character is everything. But it was a little over the top. You know, it wasn't like a normal, you know, older guy in the family where you're like, oh, you know, this or that. He just kept going on with the same things. His house was all feng shui with Buddhas and and waterfalls and uh not anything about the military but when we we would go to thanksgiving every year at andrew's air force base and everybody would always salute

and i would always say dad what what's going on with ben and he'd be like oh doug ben you know he fought for america he was a general so people salute never said really anything about it so in 1998 we all get invited to the white house and president clinton at the time after a 10 plus year campaign by senator john mccain to get ben jr his fourth star. In 1998, the number came up, and we were told that we were all invited to the White House, and on the day they light the Christmas tree, Ben Jr. was going to get his fourth star that he should have gotten in active duty in the 60s in 1998. And this is when I was like, wait, what? What is going on you know because i'm

there in the front row i'm like what is this what did this man do this is this is crazy yeah and the night before we go to get the fourth star there's a whole um argument in the family because the government was willing to acknowledge that he deserved his fourth star but we had to sign a piece of paper that the family wouldn't get compensated for it so we would get the honor but we would not be compensated for the back pay or something the back pay and everything and this is over 30 years so ben's wife of of 60 plus years doesn't go to the ceremony wow well i knew something was going on but this is the first time and i'm in my 20s you know this is the first time i'm really going wait what is really going on

with the story and that was really the first thing that sparked my interest we get the fourth star and then four years later ben jr passes away on the 4th of july 2002 was he cool if did he go and get a star that we would see there when he got his star and he and because he said you know i've i've told my father that i was going to be a full four-star general and And on this day, I promised to complete that honor. So he was going to go get the star. And that was something that was important to him and actually important to the future because if you're not a four-star general,

there's certain buildings that can't be named after you and there's certain honors you can't receive. So ultimately, it was very important in our family story that he got the four star, but this is really the first time I knew what the man really did because it just wasn't talked about in our house. Wow.

That's extraordinary. Uh, and so you, you find out, you know, you, you go to the, uh,

you go to the film, you find out that, uh, you know, history has been kind of whitewashed again. What's some of the research and tell us about some of the challenges

that the generals went through. Why were they picked as the first black generals? What was their role or what was their implied role and then what did they actually do? I think we talked about this pre-show. And what were their, you know, did they have the same sort of limitations as other generals? So what I actually found was that my family story really began in the late 1800s with a guy named Louis Davis.

And Louis Davis was born a servant, but was raised, essentially hired out by a certain individual named General Logan, who you may know from Logan Airport in Boston or Logan Circle or Square in Chicago in DC. General Logan brought this young boy in and raised him and almost as a little bit of a son, even though that really wasn't how it was intended to be, but ultimately became a guiding light for this young man. And Logan's best friend was President Ulysses S. Grant. So during Grant's second inauguration in the buggy on Pennsylvania Avenue was Grant and then Louis Davis with Grant's son on his knee because he was the babysitter for ulysses s grant so the reason i bring this story up is because if it's not for this part of the story they never get the signatures needed at the time to get ben davis senior into the military

and get him elevated to officer oh Oh, wow. That was the very important turning point in 1901 after being rejected from West Point because they didn't want to get in the habit of allowing blacks to enter. President McKinley signs a promotion to Ben Davis Sr. And he becomes in 1901, a black officer. Okay. This is so important. He,

he becomes an officer. He joins the Buffalo soldiers. He learns to be an equestrian. He's mentored by a gentleman named Charles young, who was the only other black officer in the United States and a West point grad. And Charles young says, listen, who was the only other black officer in the United States and a West Point grad. And Charles Young says, listen, we can get people through West Point that are black, but you almost have to train them from the time they're born.

You know, almost like when you look at like LeBron James and his son, it's almost like you have to get these individuals ready from day one. Ben Sr. listens to Charles Young. He starts a family, has a wife, three kids. His wife dies during childbirth and he brings his only son for a $5, which was a one week pay barnstorming plane ride. And his son comes down and goes, daddy, I want to be a pilot. He's hooked. And this is where I would have said, son, it's time for ice cream. You know what I mean?

I can't say I would have done because the valor starts right now. But he said, you know, I want to help you live your dream. Aviation was less than 20 years old. It was segregated. He goes, even the government can't turn down a West Point grad. It's true. So he trains his son for 10 years to get into West Point. His son gets into West Point.

They get the one signature from the one black congressperson, Oscar DePriest. And then when they show up, they don't know he's black. Is it because the color? Because because the color of his skin he he entered as a black cadet obviously yeah and uh they didn't know so they give him a makeshift room and on the second day he runs down to a meeting in the sinks which is where everyone gathered and those door was locked and and they said, we've accidentally let a black cadet in. We're going to treat him as if he's invisible until he drops out.

Wow. Holy crap. Went to school, Chris, four years. Fifty weeks a year, no human interaction at West Point. Wow.

That is crazy, man. And so they just try to force him out. It can't happen. If you go to West Point now and ask anybody, they go, you cannot graduate here without a study buddy. Wow. That is crazy, dude. And so what does he do?

He toughs it out? He says, I don't know. Yeah, no. crazy dude and so he he so what does he do he toughs it out or he says you're yeah yeah no he he toughs it out and he gets to four years of school never could eat at a table because it's segregated and every time he had to ask for permission he wasn't granted holy he went to the army navy game at Yankee Stadium in a segregated bus. He failed classes like ballroom dancing and CPR and boxing because no one would partner with him. And after all this time goes by, Chris, he's still in the top third of his class. And a few months before he graduates, they say, what do you want to do?

And he said, I want to fly airplanes. And they said, you can't. The policy doesn't allow it. And he goes, but I did it. I graduated in the top third. That was the assignment. And they said, why don't we pay you to go and start a law firm and honorably discharge you? And he said, no, I want to be a pilot. He graduates in the summer of 1936. And when he shakes his dad's hand in the graduation photo,

they are in that photo, the only two black officers in the United States. So his dad became an officer in 1901. The next officer that was black was his son in 1936. Wow. So this is what made me say, I have to go into the story. And it was a turning point because in 2015, after setting a Google alert, after watching the movie, because that was the first thing I did. 2012, 13, 14 come by, 15 hits. The Google alert goes off. West Point is looking to name their biggest $100 million barracks building in the middle of campus after one of their greatest grads. And there was three names on the docket,

William Westmoreland, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Ben Davis. So I replied to the Google alert, go online, get the email addresses, go up to West Point. And I tell them the story, just like I tell you and say, you have to consider him as the name. And all of them couldn't even believe it. Wow. And they then gave me their historian to look into the research and opened up their archives. And then they started getting more opened up their archives. And then they started getting more interested in the story. And then we all realized no one actually knew the

real story. Wow. You know, it was there, but it was gerrymandered is what I call the gerrymandering of history. It's, it's there, but you've got one file over here, one photo over here, one thing in this museum, one knowledge in the presidential library, some from friends, some from family. And it takes family really, to me, has to put this together. It's just hard to do it as a historian because the connection is just not there. It's hot and cold at times. People don't want to talk. People don't want to say what

happened. There's trauma. There's all the things. So for me, that was the steps that I went through and got us to where we are today. There you go. So these guys finally, I get, except in the military, and they're generals, but how does that role play out? What sort of other prejudices they run into and limitations? Well, the thing is that they started as officers, and the military wouldn't allow blacks to be in charge of whites. So in a 100% segregated military, the father, Ben Sr., only worked with segregation his whole career.

And then 75 years ago this year, he worked with President Truman to write the integration plan for the United States of America. So his big accomplishment was becoming a general and also working with Truman to write the integration plan. The trick there was six days before Truman introduces executive order 9981, he asks Ben Davis Sr. to retire. So his name was not included on any of the documents. So that was a big blow for Ben Sr. And that's when Ben Jr., his son was there, and he said, Dad, I will redeem us and I will make sure that going forward I go to heights literally and figuratively that you couldn't go in your career.

And that's when he became a one, two, and three-star general. He was commander of the Tuskegee Airmen. But in 1967, when he was supposed to get his four-star from President LBJ, LBJ had made a decision that he had done enough for Black Americans from Thurgood Marshall being promoted to the Supreme Court to executing against Martin Luther King's plan for integration and civil rights that he wasn't going to get any political

benefit. So he denies Ben Jr. his fourth star. And Ben Jr. can't get a job in private aviation. There's very few black pilots. He couldn't work for the post office or FedEx or anything. So the government creates a job for him to help with public commercial aviation. And the first thing he says is we need to make commercial aviation as efficient as military aviation. And he goes on to create commercial airport security. There was only two airports in the U.S. that had a scanner and x-ray. So he said this needs to be a global and domestic system. He created the United States Air Marshal Program and trained 4,000 men to go undercover on commercial flights. And those two things were so successful that the Carter administration brought him back to help do that for traditional transportation.

And then he led the creation of the 55 mile an hour speed limit. So I tell this story because it seems impossible that we would never have heard of this man or his dad. I know who to blame now for all the speeding tickets I got when I was young. And they hated him, by the way, Chris. They hated him. The 55 mile an hour. They hated him.

He got bad press. There you go. Thanks to Jack from linkedin jack raminson a great story sir true resolve what a family story you know this is the the interesting story these these young men have this goal to become part of the u.s military to fly to to become successful and but the amount of the amount of walls that are built in front of them, the amount of prejudice they have to overcome, the amount of oppression they have to overcome, limitations. And, and some people would give up, just go, okay, well, you know, obviously you don't want me here, you know, West Point, et cetera, et cetera.

But the resolve that they took to stick it out, to fight through, to realize that they could change the world. You know, there's one of my favorite quotes from a hero, Bobby Kennedy, is each of us can send forth, can change the world, can impact the world, basically, and send forth a tide that changes everything. It's the, I forget the name of the thing, but it's the ripple of hope speech in South Africa that he gives. And each of us can send forth ripples of hope that can change the mightiest of things. So this is a great story you get into. You tell the story of your family. You tell the story that's been hidden all these years. And what do you hope people come away from when they read the story?

Yeah, I think, you know, if you, if you read the book, you'll see there's so many layers to it, but I think a great way to kind of close it for the viewers and the readers and the listeners is really around one key thing. Number one, you must tell your family story. You must write it down. You must talk to the people on the couch that may or not be sloughing. You must get people to communicate. Okay, this is very important, number one. Number two is you must be present to our veteran community. There's so many veterans out here that did things

after work, after working in the public sector, that have changed the world. And we just don't know these stories and who they are. And I think once you do those two steps, for me personally, the third step is use the system to diffuse the system. If you uncover evidence, facts, information where you feel you have to continue the generational elevation that your family started. Because a lot of times now, Chris, we don't look at our family as starting the journey. You think you're born and you'd be like, I am this. It's like, but your family did many things for generations past to get you here today. So I think just knowing that is a big part of it. But then once you know that, what are you going to do about it? Because that's what my dad told me. And that's when I switched my career to become a diversity officer.

But also I switched my mindset to say, you can't fix something and complain about something at the same time. That's true. That's true. You've got to be accountable. Use the system. And then once you start getting involved in systems, then you get a voice, then you get a vote,

then you can change policy. But the last thing for the reader or the listener is time the impossible takes time but in time you can accomplish the impossible these things are not going to change overnight but if you put a commitment to it like you commit to watching every episode of game of thrones or knowing every joke from seinfeld or reciting every line from friends you know people know a lot of different things every video game every plane serial number seating configurations and greyhound buses you know people just know random and interesting things but what i want to tell people is take that time to learn your family and take that time

to take inventory of what people did to get you where you are. And hopefully you can uncover your own invisible generals and help inspire you or your children to a better future. There you go. What a great vision, inspirational message. There's a few shirts and coffee cups, uh you just put on. They're all yours. They're all yours. So as we go out, I mean, imagine, you know, it's hard to imagine a segregated military nowadays.

In fact, we've got military generals in the White House and everything. I remember how hard the Trump administration tried to fight. I forget the general. It wasn't General Milley. It was, who's the general now? He's the head of the military. General C.Q. Brown is the Joint Chiefs staff. Yeah.

And you have the Secretary of Defense. They're both military men, both people of color. So C.Q. Brown actually was an Air Force pilot. So he's been so amazing to our family and worked so hard. And 2019, the United States Air Force Academy renamed their airfield Davis Airfield. Wow. And General Brown was so important to that. And then West Point ended up naming that barracks in 2017.

So to me, the irony of these two men is that the largest installation at the Air Force Academy and West Point are both themed after the same person. Yet many people still don't know who this man is. Wow. And it's good. It's glad that you're here to tell the story of him and put it down in the history book. So now that's a great thing about a book. It's like it's out there forever uh so i mean it's hard to imagine you know these these people pioneering you know going through this this hell of of trying to just you know live a normal

life as a human being uh that everyone else is doing and going through all the oppression and stuff um i mean i imagine just what they have done to change the legacies in the future of our american military the contributions of of veterans and military soldiers i mean you know it's just extraordinary yeah you know i think um one thing about the segregated military is that the tuskegee airmen was 15 000 men and and women, about 1,000 pilots and 14,000 ground crew and support staff. But to me, what was crazy about when I was going through the research and learning more is that you had a man in his late 20s who had never commanded anybody, is now in charge of 15,000 people during a war and because the military was 100 segregated the airplane parts from white planes couldn't be used on black planes the wrenches used to fix white planes could not be used on black planes so when they gave the black pilots all the worst planes but

then couldn't get the parts they decided to give them the best planes with the new parts and the new planes and that was the p51 the issue was the maps were segregated so when ben jr was getting maps of where the allied forces were located in the european theater many maps did not have his military base on it. And he told the men, so we don't get bombed by our own guys. I would like you before our longest mission on 4th of July weekend, 1944 to paint the tails red. So they know we're Americans. And that was the birth of the red tails. So the story just, it's just so unbelievable that, and this is why when we go back to the movie where you started,

where I say, why was I upset that the name was changed? This story to me is the story. There is no Tuskegee Airmen without this story because someone had to get it started and command it unless we really take a minute to understand that part the other part is

equally as important but this part cannot be omitted yeah and these are the stories that altered the history of this country inevitably the greatest contributions as well the people that put their lives on the line for this country. Inevitably, you know, the greatest contributions as well, you know, the people that put their lives on the line for this country, we need more recognition and need more appreciation,

especially in today's world. You know, we've had lots of authors on the show that talk about, you know, the high suicide rates of veterans and the fallout of veterans, the homelessness and stuff. It's just, it's something we really need to fix. These people put their lives on the line and stuff it's just it's something we really need to fix these people put their lives on the line um and uh and and fought like hell so there you go uh give us a final pitch out to readers to pick up the book and order wherever fine books are sold and wherever they want to find out more about you and what you do yeah yeah so uh if you want to find out more about

me i'm at doug melville or uh instagram doug Doug Melville or LinkedIn, the same. And my final pitch to readers is the second half of the book is how to become a visible general, a step-by-step guide on how you can uncover your own family story, your own veteran story. And even if you never served and you were in a veteran family like I was, there's a rich history in your couch, in your living room that is not talking. Before it's too late, before time passes through us, please take that moment to understand their story. Because if this story was invisible, who knows what other stories are out there. And it's our responsibility to know that these individuals work in the public sector and their stories are

public domain. So if a reporter calls you or a photographer calls you and they write it down or photograph it, they own it. So at a minimum, you need to own your own story, take control of your own legacy, build your own narrative, and then start being the person that realizes you are a continuation of what your family started. And it doesn't begin with you. There you go. So inspiring, Doug, people in the, in the comment section are so inspired. So glad I tuned in serendipity. Thank you both. People just loved your story, Doug. Give us your.coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs?

Yep. Dougmelville.com and Instagram at Doug Melville would be good. There you go. Thank you very much, Doug, for coming on. What an inspiring story this morning for people, and people should pick up your book. Thank you so much, Chris. I appreciate your time today. I appreciate your time as well, sir. Order up the book wherever fine books are sold. Invisible Generals, Rediscovering the Family Legacy and Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals.

You know, familiarize yourself, guys, with the stories of history. The one thing man can learn from his history, as I always say, is that man never learns from his history. And thereby, he goes round and round. We need to, the importance of history is, mastering it is important to understanding our future and changing it. So there you go. Thanks to our audience for tuning in. Go to GoodReach.com, Fortress Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress Chris Foss, YouTube.com, Fortress Chris Foss. Subscribe to the big LinkedIn newsletter, the 130,000 LinkedIn group over there. Also go to Chris Voss 1 on the tickety-tockety and chrisfossfacebook.com.

Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe, and we'll see you guys next time.