Tim Chambers has accomplished many incredible things after his time in the Marine Corps. Most famously his 24 hour salute on Memorial Day 2020.
Recently Tim has published a children’s book that teaches positive aspects of life. Tim and Ronny will discuss those amazing things and much more on this week’s episode of Veterans Live Show
TRANSCRIPT – Transcript and Subtitles are generated automatically by YouTube and may contain errors.
good evening vietnam live from elsie
bunker this is the veterans live
show i’m your host ronnie embrace i
served with 101st airborne division in
vietnam december 1967
to december 1968. tonight’s guest
is a very special person in many ways
it’s the saluting marine
his name is tim chambers and you might
have seen him down in washington on
memorial day
saluting and he’s been there for many
memorial days
he in uniform for 24 hours down by the
national mall
in dc since his time in the marine corps
tim has done a number of other great
things about veterans
and has even done a children’s book
named the sele saluting marine
we’ll speak to tim in a few moments but
first i’d like to let you all know
that this program is brought to you by
fallen ever forgotten
a vietnam memorial book that
brings home all and even
captains this was going out
i think i never came home from vietnam
visit neverforgotten.com for
more information or to purchase your
copy
headlines okay vietnam veterans
headlines for the week of april 28th
memorial day is just around the corner
we will be
broadcasting live from washington dc
frequently throughout the memorial day
weekend
we also be live streaming events and
doing interviews
so stay tuned to our facebook pages and
subscribe to our veterans live show
youtube channel
so you know exactly where we are and you
can stop by and see us
maybe get interviewed and here we go to
the vietnam
timeline segment
[Music]
okay this day in the vietnam war april
28th
1965 cia director john
a mccomb sent a personal memo to
president johnson
who stated that unless the united states
is willing to intensify bombing
there is no use in committing more
us ground troops huh
the number one song april 25th april
28th sorry
1965 it was mrs brown you’ve got a
lovely daughter by herman’s hermits
april 25th my birthday sorry
okay this state of vietnam all april
28th 1972.
the north vietnamese offensive continues
as firebase bastogne
20 miles west of way falls to the
communists
bases nearby including firebase
birmingham
just six miles six kilometers east
continue to
repel the offensive the number one storm
on april 28 1972 was
the first time i ever got to see your
face
by roberta flack okay
let’s go to the photos
okay first photo from ray cassidy
dropped a daisy cutter on a suspected
nva bunker complex
nba barely had time to collect their
personal property before they took off
photos by ray cassidy second to the 12th
infantry
25th infantry division 1970. thank you
ray
next picture okay from ben jay taylor
ground group cleanup they will stay for
you
it will stay clean for a few hours you
cleaned up when you could
right is that that’s probably a bomb
crater could you let us know about that
ben
send us a comment at the end of the
show ben thank you is that a bomb crater
okay
fred klieg kwaklow national road 13
in canton south to firebase thunder 3
in bitten long province probably members
of the fifth arvin division noticed one
wearing a purple scarf
different colored scarfs were worn by
different units to id them for others
i never knew that that’s very
interesting
look at these guys they’re all happy no
weapons no packs
and check out the guy in the back on the
left up there with the ox cart
okay very good thank you next picture
rick langley landing in hong kong for r
r in april of 67
we flew aboard this dilapidated old
dilapidated
dc-6b aircraft i wasn’t sure the thing
was going to make it
well rick it looks like you made it to
hong kong and back home good for you
thank you for that picture okay here’s
our vietnam picture of the week
agent orange okay there’s the spray
here’s philip c tyson send us a picture
of which must be hundreds maybe a
thousand
55 gallon drums of agent orange
behind our camo radio vac mcv
tm-50 in canada vietnam 1968
i don’t know where that is but wow looks
like there’s a village store there over
there
look at all that stuff oh my gosh
okay here’s our agent our yeah our
vietnam card
agent orange was first used during
operation ranch hand in 1962.
its principal purpose was to defoliate
the dense protection of the jungle thus
denying the
enemy as cover approximately 12 million
gallons of agent orange
so called for the orange band painted on
its containers
was sprayed over vietnam in the
following nine years
well okay
we’re going to bring our guest in
tonight staff sergeant united states
marine tim chambers
from california welcome tim
can you hear me tim
uh matt you can’t hear me thank you very
much we’re good we’re good sir
there you go okay so welcome thank you
welcome
and uh tell us a little about your
initial journey the first year or two in
the marines
um i loved it it was everything my
recruiter told me it was gonna be i grew
up on a farm grandpa prepped me for that
and he was coast guard world war ii
uh was administrator got to start with
the division bounced over the wing
then went to a few different base
elements uh moved up and rank got to
teach
middle level management or ncos ethics
and leadership
i love that and um was
at the pentagon in 911 spent three days
bringing remains out thought my marines
were
it all perished um that was pretty much
my only real call
to action or gut check and i was there
when the
when the smoke lifted on that one so
maybe our training has something to do
with that
wow yeah that’s a uh it’s kind of a
history give it
and your how long you how long were you
in the service
um right like 15 days under 16 years
wow so uh and where were you stationed
now in different places
yeah i started at camp pendleton then i
went to okinawa
came back to san diego got selected to
work over at the pentagon which brought
me there for 911
then bounced to 29 poems from there and
then finished out at camp pendleton
where’s 29 palms in california i imagine
right oh no
it’s outside of palm springs the army
left us this
place this wonderful desert tropical
paradise um 20s or 30s or something
right okay we’re good for you
and what brought you to do the salute
well growing up i was the mascot high
school i just was always the mascot
in home oldest of six i’m in dc i see
all these motorcycles rolling by i’m
thinking that we need to be out there
doing more because we’re active duty in
the district and we need to be reaching
out to veterans and thanking them for
their service
so that’s what i was doing a one-man
working party see the bikes rolling by
primarily veterans
so i thought i usually only see them at
funerals and
i’m salute them when we let them to rest
so i’m going to salute them today
you know because it’s way too late at a
funeral so i jumped off the curb popped
up a salute
just saw the tears rolling by it kept me
motivated to keep whipping it on
at the very end of it both sides rushed
to me and said marine
thank you for giving me a welcome home
and the salute is actually i have
averaged between three to five hours
every year that rolling thunder has been
taking place the last
19 years now last year is when i did the
24 hour standard attention
to connect the dots make sure people
know that the ride is still happening
thanks to the m vets
and represent them on top of
representing what the weekend’s about
is honoring our loss
oh wow you know the loss is the most
important thing
and uh
this year you think we’re going to go
absolutely rolling to remember the m
vets picked it up the
pentagon’s not working with them very
clearly hopefully that relationship will
continue to grow as we want to do this
in for years to come
my left my right arm didn’t say that but
um so it looks like the m bets are gonna
come out with the the final where we’re
going to set up to roll in
and um they’re going to be having some
events it’s on rolling to remember.com
as far as what’s going down that weekend
yeah it’s uh it’s getting pretty close
you know
yes it is yes a month away five weeks
away
so hopefully i made reservations to go
have you
yes yes i will be there okay good okay
and uh so when you’re when you’re
standing there
with that salute for so long and all
these people are coming by
what i think you might have said it but
what give me a little bit more from down
here of what’s going through your mind
when
the ex the solution is thumbs up and all
that’s exchanged
well i’m reaching veterans and they’re
saluting me back and that’s like the
highest form of respect we have is a
salute
and it’s fire in the belly i get
motivated when they rev up their
motorcycles and they roll by me when
they haul or semper fi
the first few years of my name i like
that it was like
the unidentified marine salute spikers
at rolling thunder in the marine corps
time
that felt good but now there’s an
expectation
now there’s even more of a reason we’re
losing a moral compass we’re not going
to the center of the road
my salute kind of brings people back to
the single road of genuine respect and
compassion
now i’m representing all the families
that don’t have their loved ones that
have very fresh wounds
now they come and tell me tim you
standing there reminds me of my son
and maybe they think that their son
won’t be forgotten that whole time that
i’m standing there
because it does echo throughout the
country you know and at first i didn’t
like the cameras in my face but then i
knew that i was furthering the message
then i’m like okay motivator you know
and then
depart the area you know like right yeah
it’s
very standoffish but when i saw that it
was being able to reach people that
can’t make it to washington d.c for
memorial day
yeah that’s why we wrote our book same
thing that because people can’t get to
all the memorials
even in their own state i mean somebody
who lives in the state of texas they
could they could be
800 miles away from the memorial like
they can’t afford to go for the weekend
trip and
the food and the motel and the gas and
all that stuff yeah and your gems aren’t
getting any younger
you know i hear that okay we got a
little video to show you
okay matt run it
yeah that was opposite thunder alley uh
i think in
2019 and matt was bright enough
as a tech guy he is to get out there and
get you a picture
and uh weren’t you uh that was the only
place you stood on
on that and that avenue right there
constitution avenue
in 2030 constitution right the few years
are going down two lanes because there’s
four lanes there
then they built that medium then in the
beginning with that medium it was harder
to get around the trucks they couldn’t
really go around me so i’d have to get
on the medium
and they brought a bodyguard because
they heard i got ran over one year
and when he looked behind me behind him
because he was about 50 feet ahead of me
i had moved back to the center of the
two lanes
because it felt like i was making more
of a connection as
they were around me and i got my
eyeballs at them and then it makes me
not think about the tiny little pain
that i’m going through with my arm
because i’m left-handed
i’m not even right-handed to begin with
you know the most fascinating thing i
i’ve seen so far in this interview is
that picture over your left shoulder
of you standing there in the middle of
the street
which is not the there you go that is
that’s not where is that
is that is that that’s 23rd street they
make it right on the constitution and
that’s the medium that they built over
time
so now they go up four lanes but it was
a more personal connection
when they were coming right around me
with the two lanes
and if i’m not making a connection then
i’m wasting my time and killing myself
if i’m not making an impact then i’m not
going to do it
right yes that’s my life from the
military you know
yeah it’s not fair it’s crazy you know
it’s it’s a it’s a straight thing that
i’ve been going down here since 1982
since the war went up every year wow
wave it a couple times a year and like
i see the progress and i meet the people
and
c-h-e it says what’s already 92 one or
two
two it’s 40 years already of visiting
this vietnam wall
for us for me you know and i thank you
so much for that
but yet the uh
the motorcycle world tell me how you get
stay in touch with these groups and how
many are there that
contact you uh there’s a lot there’s a
lot i mean even just
the american legion riders the am bets
riders the vfw riders
then they have all throughout the
country and i go and i try to support
as many events that i can and um it’s
very humbling when i learn
i get welcomed in any bike biker club
that you could ever imagine
like one might say okay tim there’s no
facebook live here
i’m like yes sir and then you lose me a
drink
and they starts talking to me the other
biker hollers at and says hey he’s
talking to slooting marine
and then another biker stops him and
says hey the studio in marina was
talking to the prospect
i’m like oh i’m just tim you guys you
know what i mean
like it’s very humbling though when i
when i learn what it means to people
then it means that i made an impact you
know let me tell you
you probably affected hundreds of
thousands of lives
hundreds of thousands really is
seriously
i mean you got hundreds of you got
thousands of bikers in washington every
year right
and they got families and they got
relatives and they got friends and they
got this and that
and people go well yeah there you go and
you’re plus you’re on both sides of the
country
how often you go out and get invited to
places not well
cold before covet yeah i would say at
least 20 plus events a year
and i still have a few on the calendar
um but
yeah it really died out and i really
love making taking the phone call
i just i don’t love the end result
because i i want to go and support i
want to make a difference i want to make
an impact i want to reach more people
that can’t make it to dc
just like jumping off the curb and i
can’t ask for things that i should be
asking for because i know when i get
home
i’m asked okay tim what about the
parking
bill for instance you know what i mean
like come back from the airport
you know and like uh you can turn that
receipt into him and like um
no um but yeah
oh god so how long did you stay in the
marines
um right under 16 years i was like
under 15 days of getting another hash
mark down below
okay well it went by very fast and i
loved it
and um i never went to war or anything
so
that’s another driving force for me to
make amends with
um those that aren’t with us the
families left behind and those that did
go
um i’ve been welcomed to the table by
amazing americans that really
void out that 10 of um
lack of maturity type individuals you
know well i’ll tell you what
forget because you know i meet a lot of
people like that
i meet a lot of people i say you know
and they go thank you for your service i
go yeah thank you for yours
and the first thing they say is that why
did he go to vietnam
i said yeah what he goes over labor
station in germany
well somebody had to do the job somebody
had to be somewhere
and yet i tell them don’t worry about
the guilt trip there’s no guilt trip
here
you don’t don’t well it’s just fire in
my belly to whip it on i
don’t understand what i’m saying all
right yes yes i do
feel bad some people are really
withdrawn and taken
down in their in their soul to say
gee but so what somebody had to do
you can’t do everything everyone can’t
be everywhere because
especially at that time with europe
coming under communism
the east asia coming on the communism
doing things going on in
different times of the year and now it’s
the middle east going on
and uh yeah so tell us something about
i would think when the phone rings
and you got to check your calendar am i
free
obviously i’m sorry this is the corvette
season
but let’s go before governor well i
would still rock and roll
like for instance the phone call at the
airport this lady goes tim you’re the
suiting marine my husband’s been
murdered he was a private investigator
and i’d like you to come to his wake at
his funeral
in the back of my mind is okay where do
they live
because i’m not sponsored by anyone and
if i’m to make it there and tell them
i’m going to be there i’m going to be
there
the last thing i’m going to do is ask
them for anything right
so she said riverside that was right
down the street so i got very lucky in
that one but there’s some
other occasions where the suny marine
was called
and we’d be lined 700 miles down the
road to give a salute
is a dying wish bucket list to an air
force veteran
the callings come on so many levels not
even just the
the non-profit agencies but families you
know they they ask me if i can be there
and
and then the marine corps the family
said tim who’s going to speak on behalf
of my father’s service
well i knew about all about the war okay
what did you do afterwards and he had
kids good to go that’s all i need
oh what rank did he achieve okay good to
go because i know about her history so
that started
to travel like wildfire to all the other
um funeral directors
wow yeah just enthusiasm always been
enthusiastic
that’s crazy yeah yeah he could get
rather entwined i imagine
involved in so many different aspects of
where when with who and how
you know it just uh doesn’t mean but
i’ll tell you what
i want to thank you so much hang around
for our our uh
our question and answer session matt put
up
tim’s book on there there’s tim’s book
this
in this book johnny learns honor
as he gets his first ride on the
motorcycle meets the famous saluting
marine
and learns why we stand for our flag
amen to that oh yeah
we haven’t even talked about that here
we go good
all right we’re kind of losing our moral
compass
and i need something to unite us and i i
believe
um giving a broader description on why
we stand for the flag and the standards
it represents that we must
achieve and continue to rise and that’s
basically what the kid learns throughout
the book because his dad’s a veteran
and there’s a big surprise at the very
end on what the kid does
but basically they go to an event he
doesn’t stand up and the dad says why
didn’t you stand he goes
weren’t you taught that in school no dad
so he’s going to get his motorcycle ride
to washington dc
and the moral of the story and i give
him some i ask him to add something to
the flag
our flag is a moral compass sometimes we
get lost but if we remember what the
flag represents we can find our way
and it’s uniting a lot more americans
under the umbrella of who
left standards and who raised the
standards and that’s military first
responders
and civil rights leaders yeah you’re
trying to unite americans through that
thought
frame of mind that’s uh
excellent position and onward and
forward and simplified to that
one other thing we got one here
we got petey the paratrooper nice
nice yeah he’s kind of like a little
crazy
he’s supposed to be up in his bedroom
doing homework and uh
with his buddy and his father walks in
with the report card that says an
f here we go
there’s an f on a report card and
they’re playing video games and having
snacks
and they’re supposed to be doing
homework oh man open up the store
of the film matt close it back thank you
so he gets caught and he he doesn’t do
too well because he had an f on his
report card
so here comes the time he’s got to go to
college
doesn’t have the grades what’s he going
to do
and uh can’t get into college
nobody wants to accept him and uh
goes into decides to go into the service
then he goes in the army
and then becomes a paratrooper and
somebody gets stuck in a tree that
there’s a difficult this happening with
this happening this happened
and does he did does pd respond
i’ll send you a book you’ll have to find
out
but there you go same thing kid had no
the moral compass exactly that was a
great two words you put together there
yeah but you know this i guess his
parents are trying as hard as they could
but
it wasn’t working so we’ll tell you what
thank you so much
semper fi god bless you
[Music]
here we go
okay ready patrick balsa when my son
jimmy came back from desert storm and my
grandson blake
who was a sergeant first class in the
reserves was in iraq
and i was there when they both got home
i was so proud of them to welcome
they got it they made me feel so good
because of the
one that we didn’t get
[Music]
okay thank you patrick
hello mr emerson you’re my father of
course pats oh boy
we were in honor of first airborne 68-69
thank you casey keith webb send me a few
pictures of you pop
okay appreciate it any way you want
and patrick balzer i’m so proud to see
these videos
yeah that washington video was great
with the with this marine here
i love this guy i used to go out and
watch him we’d go like
matt and i you’d have to take a break
from behind your booth selling your
books and stuff you don’t even know your
stuff
and we go out to the street there that’s
that’s amazing
good for you man hold on thank you
timmy where can they get your book well
i have them on my website is a pre-sale
they will be in all the outlets
eventually
but the salutingmarine.com basically i
have the e-commerce store up and running
okay salutingmarine.com yep there you go
green.com easy easy you got it
patricia poo yes says thank you for your
service
she’s a patriot she’s a patriot on my
page sir
oh good for you who’s next
last comment okay all right thank you so
much
appreciate you coming through hope to
see you again and hope to see you in
washington
absolutely absolutely brother december
5.
i’m going to hold this salute for 24
hours no
i’ll give it 24 minutes baby god bless
you brother you’re great good for you
amen that was good
