>> it was started by a ban of paralyzed veterans as a club, a membership organization, if you will, but about self advocacy because veteran service organizes that have been around for a while but weren't advocating for the needs of veterans in that era. equal access in society, research. you would die at 18 months if you had a spinal cord injury. george patton was a war hero but died of a spinal cord injury

because the research hadn't caught up with the injury. and that band of paralyzed veterans is what's now a 76-year-old organization of member-led advocates who look for other paralyzed veterans and pull them in and take care of them. brian: where does the money come from? >> 100% from individual donors and corporations. we don't take government funding. have to deliver results

>> i wanted to get out of buffalo and see the world. but i wanted to be a military police officer. i'm not sure why i had that fixation early on and i thought the marine corps was a good path because of the reputation and disciplined and i joined on my 17th birthday and my mother had to sign papers for me to talk to a recruiter. brian: what year was that? >> 1990. brian: what was the early

experience of the marine corps like for you? >> i grew up in a single-parent household, my mother was the father and mother figure. the marine corps became a father figure. i loved the discipline. i loved how hard it was because it felt like something i needed to earn and i took a lot of pride and difficulty i endured to get that uniform, to get that title. but it filled a hole for me in my life and i think to this day i owe a lot to who i am of that early experience of embracing the corps to embody me from the drill instructors and a lot of my judgment today, a lot of my views on life began in those days through those people. brian: you mentioned drill

instructors, they have somewhat of a reputation as being tough guys. you ended up being one. >> that's right. brian: what year in your marine corps time were you a drill instructor? >> i graduated from boot camp in 1990 and i went back to paris island. so seven years later i would go back and it was a choice i made. i was a sergeant in the marine corps and you had to decide whether you would do the recruiter option or drill instructor or marine security guard and that is to give you diversity in your career. i said i want to go back and be that person i admired. i had a great set of drill instructors as a recruit. and i just wanted to emulate them. because i knew the impact it had

on me and changed my life, that was the opportunity for me to do the very same thing for a lot of young men who shared my experience and i fancied myself of being their mentor and shape their choices. and it's a mix. you think of the marine corps as type a jocks, but you get the nerds, the gang bangers, the jocks, the loners, you get a little bit of everybody and looking for something and want that identity and that's why the marine corps works and gives you that identity that everybody can get behind. brian: what was your approach as a drill sergeant that you decided to take because of the drill sergeants you might have had in the past? did you have any rules for yourself? >> one thing i took from my senior drill instructor was that

you have to be an example first. you don't ask anybody to do something that you're not willing to do and do it see same level of excellence. ou can't have a bad day. when you run. you don't show signs of weakness and be consistent. at's a big

>> i don't know a single recruit that i went through with or trained whether it was swimming, running, being able to take stress. a lot of the recruits would wrestle with things they brought to boot camp. you could tell some of the guys that didn't have good parenting but wanted something better and didn't know how to achieve it. you developed a one-on-one engagements. you try to figure out what is your thing that you are here to overcome. for me, it was not having a dad and wanting to have that

completeness, but i think everybody finds that one thing they have to overcome, whether it's being overweight, not the fastest, but you get the same uniform at the end. you have all achieved that goal and get that uniform and have that drill instructor shake your hand, that means because that means you overcame something personal. brian: what was the toughest moment in boot camp? >> specifically for me? brian: from what you observed. >> the realization that you made a choice that you patrolly regret in that first week. i think you realized you stepped into something very serious. these are usually 18 to 20 year olds that hadn't taken anything seriously. once you get there -- you are not a prisoner.

you can quit, but there is something inside of you that compels you to tough it out, but it comes at a cost. you lose the sense of yourself, this chaos and isolated and i feel alone and i don't know these people and at the same time, you understand you are going through a change. and this is what it takes. it takes understanding that this is what marines do and this is how they are created and being pounded from a piece of coal. if you can endure that, you are going to make it and just a matter of getting through it. brian: what percentage of recruits don't make it? >> in my experience and i think it fluctuates depending on the needs of the corps. when i was a drill instructor, we actually undertook a concerted effort to keep more

recruits. i kept maybe -- i would say probably 10% at the florida toon level. if you have a 60-man platoon, you will lose six to 10. but in some cases, i had one kid who was overweight but really determined and i made the choice to keep him. at the end of three months, i didn't recognize him. that is the r.o.y., you want to see somebody appreciate the change and the transformation. while some drill instructors were quick to get rid of the ak ones, i held onto the one in the heart. brian: when did you leave? >> 2002. brian: where was your accident? >> the accident was in 2002.

and it was at camp pendleton, february 20. the day began pretty neat. i was training for the l.a. marathon and on the base with an olympic medalist. brian: in california. >> the day i got in the crash that paralyzed me. we were training with the pendleton running team and i was finalizing my affairs because we were getting ready to deploy to afghanistan. i had a lot going on and it was an reflection point in my life. nd i left the base, this is in san diego, in the ocean side area. brian: near where richard nixon used to live. >> big base there. huge base on the west coast. i got in my car and left the base just like i do all the time. and i call it a freak accident

because there was no rhyme or reason for why it happened. atruck, a semi-got cut off by guy who swerved in front of the truck. i think he was going to miss his exit and i only know this because i read the reports. he cut the truck off and the truck swerved and i swerved to miss the truck and i flipped three times, landed on the roof and that was the story according to the report that i read. medivaced and surgically a aired c-4-6 and fused with titanium cage that held my neck together and i woke up three days later. and that was the new chapter. brian: were you married then?

>> i was not. brian: what was your first thought when you woke up? >> my very first thought was i can't breathe. why can't i take a breath. i was on a machine and i didn't know i was hooked to it until i tried to take a breath and i heard it slowed my breathing down. and i tried to take another breath, i saw the connection or felt the connection through the breathing and i thought i'm going to suffocate. i don't know where i am right now, but i'm going to suffocate. that was the very first thought when i woke up. and the next thought was how the heck did i get here. brian: was there anybody near you at the time when you woke up? >> there was a nurse that had passed by and i tried to yell and i couldn't because i was on this machine and

he looked at me and waugged away. i'm going to die and he doesn't realize it and i must have passed out after that and i don't remember too much until i by the ened again surgeon who explained that i had been in an accident and i accepted it. i'm a pretty stoic individual and maybe that is the reason why i was raised. what happened, did anybody else get hurt, where am i? and i didn't get a whole lot of that until later on. my brain was alive. my body just wasn't connected. i was in two different senses of myself. brian: did you ever meet any of

the people that were involved in the accident? >> i did not. i did talk to a police officer who arrived on scene, the first responder. he kind of gave me a brief explanation of what he saw. and then took down my story and had to get details. and i gave him what i could remember. but i never did and i would love to do that, but i don't know their names. i wouldn't even know where to look. brian: who was held as being at fault? >> the driver of the car that cut off the truck was at fault. in fact, i found out later, he did leave the scene and turned himself a day later after he gotten an attorney. he was a small-time actor, nobody famous. but that was about it. and i think i went to detach

from the situation and not holding it against this person. so i didn't invest time -- brian: how long were you in that hospital? >> the first hospital, 11 days, which is about on average to stabilized but got transferred to the v.a. medical in san diego for five months for patient rehabilitation. brian: when did mom find out about this? >> either the same day or shortly thereafter. a lot of my family was called and my family flew in that week to see me. i had family in california already, so they gave her a lot of details. and it was pretty tough because i'm the older son and had probably just seen her a month before that and seen my sister two days before that.

i was upright walking along and here i am in this position where there is a lot of uncertainty of how this thing is going to turn out. it really did break their heart. it probably hurt them more than me. they didn't have the information. it left a scar that still runs pretty deep today. brian: a couple of weeks ago you made a presentation in front of a group telling them the story about pain and all that. what was the group? >> the event was the paralyzed veterans of america health summit that we put on every year. the group was about 900 spinal cord injury professionals, those who work with spinal cord diseases, doctors, nurses, social workers, anybody that would touch that population. it's the largest in the country,

but -- and it's mostly employees of the department of veterans affairs. convening of that specific group of professionals. brian: show a 30-second clip of you describing the accident. let's watch that and you have a technique you use to get their attention that we'll also show. >> close your eyes for a moment and stretch -- close your eyes -- i see you. trust me, empathy. and i want you to stretch your imagination. brian: the reaction of the audience was dramatic, did you expect that? >> i don't know what i expected.

i wanted something different and something to register these people you are caring for, they weren't born this way. they just didn't happen to fall into your care. something bad happened, maybe the sound effect, maybe it would make them feel it. i wanted something different to register and set the tone for what we were going to talk about. brian: you talk about empathy and compassion. zruss that a little bit. >> most providers are compassionate in the way they do their work. compassion is about healing. you are healing these people and trying to relieve pain. empathy is difficult and it's difficult. when you are a doctor or a nurse, they don't immediately empathize or understand what it feels like.

you are relieving pain. some of the things that you say makes a difference and i talked about how my doctor told me for the first time i would never lacked in, very callous humanness. and i said, would you want that information delivered that bluntly. and i realized maybe that's the reason the profession works but not helpful. it didn't help me see him as a healer. it made me mad. it's the same way people find out they have a cancer diagnosis and it's just you got cancer. you are a healer on more than one level. nd when you are telling news that bad, you are talking to a human being, not an object. and that plays off on your care

for a long time and rehab. you see too many instances of that and because i work with him now as an advocate and i tried to remind him, you are mad because you are a nurse, this guy has probably sacrificed more than you ever will. have some empathy. that was the tone i wanted to set. it wasn't to give him a tongue lashing and wanted him to know that i appreciate the path he chose, but empathy is why v.a. found itself or lack of empathy is why the v.a. found itself in its that it is being challenged in terms of its purpose and have this system of care as we know it today. brian: hear you describing being

paralyzed. >> at this point, stop moving. his side of the room, stop moving. this side of the room, you are lucky ones. bear with me. your knows itches, you can't move. you can't. you're paralyzed. you have to accept it. over here, you can wave your arms and scratch, but don't stretch your legs, because you can't. brian: when you woke up in the hospital, how much could you move? >> nothing. when i woke up, i could move my head. i was in a philadelphia collar but couldn't -- i couldn't feel my body. it's a surreal state of being. and only thing i could compare it to to someone who doesn't know what it feels like. if you stood at the edge of the

cliff and leaned your head over, where one push and you would go over, that's what it feels like to lack the connection to your body. it feels like i'm going to fall any moment and someone is holding me up but any moment, a gust of wind is going to push me over. there's no real feeling. but it feels like that you are going to fall over at any moment. brian: how much pain did you feel? >> none at first. can't feel anything. so there's no pain there. brian: you mean at first in the car or in the hospital? >> the first 10 days i couldn't feel anything because i was on so much morphine at the time. the pain is just the uncertainty, the anxiety, the fear and the real pain doesn't kick in until you begin to heal

and the condition resolves itself and the nerve pain starts to creep in. now i can feel my body. i don't know if you ever had frost bite, but it's a pretty bad condition. the pins and needles and doesn't stop. and then if you got joint problems with shorter rotation and all those things attached to it with all the exercises and push inthe chair. brian: what did happen to you physically? >> the spinal cord injury itself was incomplete. and that's hard to explain for people who don't understand how that -- what that means. but you have a complete injury why the pinal cord is completely severed and incomplete where it's been damaged and not severed and what happens that

causes is the cells die. they don't get oxygen and that's what makes it permanent but only partially. even though the injury happened here, you had christopher reeve lose just about everything. incomplete, everyone turns out differently. the cells die differently. in my case i was considered an incomplete spinal injury at a certain function level. i can move my arms and move certain muscles below the waist functionally. i can't move them, i can feel them but not the motor. and things that you can feel and don't feel and differs depending on the individual. brian: how many operations did you have? >> actually, one, just to repair my spinal cord and that's all i required. brian: what's the worst thing

that someone can say to someone who has had a spinal injury or any injury after you spend that time in the hospital, i'm sure you heard it. >> the worst thing i hear is maybe one day you'll walk again. maybe you'll get in the gym or god will perform a miracle or -- it's not the intention behind the words to make it bad but it's the fact i'm fine. i'm having a pretty good life. i'm married, have a child, have a full-time job and there is a proceedings that there is something more from people who don't understand that sometimes it's you accept your condition and move on. it's not the walking that bothers me, maybe it's not having manual dexterity or other

functions. but that always bothers me a little bit although i understand why someone would say it. but that's probably the one thing i would rather not hear. brian: back to this event you had with the 900 people, this is about 50 seconds and this again goes back to the actual moment when the accident happened. >> sitting there paralyzed. next sound you'll hear, after that accident you just suffered, it's not a chain saw or lawn mower, but the jaws of life. [jaws of life] >> your car is cut open, you smell burnt, twisted metal and going to haunt you for the rest

of your life. your body is extricated from the vehicle. the last sound you hear before going unconscious is this. [sirens] > and then fades to black. brian: did you have that same experience? >> i imagine i did. i was conscious, i was able to give my phone number, where i worked. i am aware that the jaws of life were used. i don't know if i peaced it ogether mentally and the brain shuts down or does certain things to protect itself from shock and i was probably in shock. as i understood what happened and i pieced it together and i imagined that's the experience.

i can't say i immediately recalled it after the accident. brian: the spinal injuries that you deal with all the time in your job and especially people that have been in combat, what do they look like? what's the difference between what they've got and what you got? >> when i became an advocate for paralyzed veterans of america, i got to see those folks returning from afghanistan and iraq. my first case was a young marine who shot himself in the stomach because in his mind, he thought his comrades were trying to kill him. he had pre-existing mental issues. that was the very first case. the next case who was a kid who was blown up by an i.e.d. and paralyzed. he was a parapliegeic, but shrapnel -- not bullet injuries

but traumatic brain injury from the plass on top of the spinal cord injury. it becomes such a profound state of being that i can't compare it to what i went through. these guys carry so much more because they have the survivors' guilt. a lot of time they had guys who died and carry that with them. and a lot of them, if they had a traumatic brain injury, that's a challenge onto it self. i definitely saw a big difference in the way life has changed when you are in a car accident versus a situation where someone tried to kill you. you have to bring that back and rehabilitate and your family. i got to appreciate through those experiences with those individuals that it's pretty

profound the differences. brian: did you get any sense of what impact you had on those 900 people at that presentation? >> i have given presentations before and gave one similar tcha talked about the patient experience. but this one was heartfelt and it was about me and the sounds, feelings and descriptions. but the feedback i got was we needed this. we needed this, because i know what the v.a. is going through. i deal the v.a. secretary and the president and the people talk about at the department of veterans' affairs. and i speak from a lot of dimensions about this problem. but in that room, i'm trying to tell them, this is the problem, this is what i see from a patient's perspective, policy perspective and advocates'

perspective. .ou have to empathize but to a man and to a woman, they generally appreciate the sort of wakeup call. brian: one more clip from your presentation and what it was like when you woke up in the hospital. >> first sounds you hear when you wake up [medical machines beeping] >> this is what it sounds like to be maintained by a machine when you wake up to that sound. that's what woke you up. these next set of sounds that will haunt you for the next tue nights when you try to figure out what the heck happened while staring in the dark. [indiscernible voices]

brian: you have been in private hospitals and the v.a. hospital. did people that are working there know what it sound like to be in one of those beds and hearing the noise in the background? and can anything be done about it if you don't like it? >> i don't think they know when you say they, the staff, they are the ones making noises, when you hear laughter and in the lowest state of misery that a person can be in and you hear folks laughing in hall ways and carry on and hear the guy next door, he is in pain, there is confusion. is it happy, is it misery. when you are paralyzed, you have given up control, but you can't even stop the noise. that's what i meant by the

haunting nature of it. and it's usually in darkness that it's more pronounced and gets louder and doesn't stop until you fall asleep or drugged up enough to pass out. i'm sure everybody means well. it's just the way hospitals are. that's why i prefer not to be in them to be frank about it. it defined the experience for me, the noise. brian: back on april 19, 2017, you found yourself in the white house right next to the president of the united states. we'll watch this and ask you about this experience. >> this is called the choice program improvement act. it speaks itself. it will extend programs so more veterans can see the doctor of their choice. we made a lot of strides for the

veterans, like the most incredible people we have in our country and they have not been taken care of properly. brian: is that last statement right? >> yes, in some cases, too many cases that's exactly correct, but in many cases, it just depends on the situation. there are some hospitals that are part of the v.a. system that are great. but in the cases you hear about, there were egregious instances where veterans hadn't been taken care of. brian: what was it like being with the president? >> we were there to get business done. you are the leader of this country -- what are you going to do to fix this. he is a public servant. i looked at it as it was my opportunity and obligation to

speak for the men and women who are paralyzed, who never have this audience. so i felt more the weight of that responsibility than anything and afterwards, you kind of exhale and say, wow, this is the white house and president. but in the moment, it was important that i speak for the individuals that i represent. brian: what did that act do or will it do? >> this particular act was to continue the veterans' choice program. it is controversial right now because there's no real reliable formula for how to fix what's going on at v.a. and some instances, but this improved it in some ways by taking out some of the red tape. there were some accountability measures. and this was the first step towards improving at that time what was known as the choice

act. brian: what would you tell the president if you had the opportunity of everything you would want done for paralyzed veterans. >> well, i did get to tell him in a meeting before that event, what i did tell him is that you have a lot of changes occurringing and everybody has different ideas about what's best for veterans, period. but don't forget there are veterans who have suffered catastropheic injuries and they are vulnerable. but if you do right by that population, you can fix everything else. the problem starts with those who need the most from this department. and if you can get it right, i promise you, it will bring greater things later. and whether he took it to heart, i don't know, but we had pretty good gains since that time in

terms of investment and what is known as foundational services and these spinal cord injury and blinded rehab that the secretary has directed 5% of hospital budgets needs to be re-invested and authorized the hiring of 1,000 more nurses, this is while we are talking about expanding care to the community. so we got most veterans can get pretty good care outside of v.a. depending on the care it is, but there are things that v.a. does well and unique to v.a. and you can't outsource it. we have seen a lot of that happen or at least the beginnings of it. brian: you have 150 v.a. hospitals. 300,000 v.a. employees. $180 billion in a budget, how do you keep compassion and empathy

in that large of an organization? >> that's the $64,000 question. that's our purpose. we have to be intelligent advocates. we know the policies. we have a presence in those spinal cord injury centers so we're there and as long we don't se our way, not just about fundraising or having access to the president or the v.a. secretary but the individuals who give us our purpose and as long as we are putting on health sum myths, we are doing site visits which we do at all 24 spinal cord injuries. we provide reports and speak directly to the patients. you make them listen to the people that give them their purpose. brian: if you go into one of those 24 spinal cord centers, what do you see? >> we see everything.

center.helped the model every site visit is a comparison of that center to what we consider the model. we start with a discussion with hospital leadership about why we are there, what happened last year and what changes were put in place. and visit the unit itself. we have architects that look at the layout and barriers to access, nurses who are experts in the actual prar and what should be happening clinically. we talked to all the different disciplines that are part of the spinal cord injury team. and we talk to the patients. i tell every hospital director, there are three questions, tell me how good is the hospital, how is the food? when it's cold, you are probably understaffed. how is the cleanlyness? that helps us understand the morale.

and the final question probably deals with the nursing staff and how responsive the nursing staff is. when you hit the call switch, does it go unanswered, how is it on the weekends, night shift. those three sort of indications of the efficiency of the hospital tell me a lot and start there. and from there, you can identify whether it is understaffing or leadership issue or equipment issues or injury issues or morale. brian: what would be the difference if you had the accident this year versus when you had it in 2002 and the way you would be treated in a v.a. hospital or any hospital for that matter? >> the difference today, certainly there have been gains in medicine. first responders have a

different protocol. i got a steroid shot that was found not to have been effective. there are different ways treat on the sea. but there are different rehabilitation options. you have different machines now that stand you up. you've got types of medications that make life a little easier and get a broader range of options. i think more about how we can maximize progress for today's veterans. i want to see the progress continue. brian: what is happening in combat in iraq and afghanistan to this spinal cord injury situation? are they going up or going down

or do you have that measured? >> surprisingly, a lot of folks assumed that there were a great number of spinal cord injuries in the recent conflicts. and the body is protected a lot better. i know of two, three cases where the service member was shot through the spine, one right in the neck and he walks today because of the battlefield medicine, how efficient they get you treated and stabilized and out of there and back to the states within 48 hours. if you did survive these afflictions, you would be stuck somewhere, maybe in germany and not progressing. now they get you started in rehab and chances are pretty good. i think about 250 total that we have counted and this is the

d.o.d.'s numbers of -- not orthopedic but spinal cord injuries. brian: what do you think of the way congress and the president deal with veterans overall? just your general feeling and the way the public treats it and how much money is being spent. >> today, the money's there. it's how we spend it. it's what is prioritized. that's the question. i'm surprised that while the spirit of patriotism is there, there aren't a lot of people joining the military. there's a lot of talk about love for the military, but there is a recruiting problem. less than 1% participated in today's -- and this is after we got attacked, the biggest terrorist attack in our nation's

history and not a lot of people raised their hand to join and fight. they talked about it. not a lot of putting real skin in the game and really standing up for the country at a great sacrifice.

guest: there's a lot of research going on and a lot of it is promising. it's not quite at the stage where humans can be tested. you know, animal research is pretty controversial right now but i've seen indications that we're, you know, research is such you got to be patient. you got to wait on it. you got to -- breakthroughs

happen when they happen. but we as an organization, we've invested a lot into understanding the spinal cord, why cell death happens, can they be regenerated after they die? i think that's probably the biggest stride will happen once we understand how we can replace cells in the spinal cord and get it working and replace functions that were killed off by a trauma to the spinal cord. i am not a researcher so i can't speak with authority on where it is now but through our partnership with new haven v.a., as a person who lives with this hope, i'm encouraged by why i see. host: you mentioned animal research. here's congressman dave brat on the floor of the house of representatives talking about something and i want your comment on. mr. brat: my amendment will stop testing with painful dog research at the v.a.

when we heard about the dog testing program at the richmond v.a. medical center, we were -- from what i read the type of work they were doing was on the level of torture. host: what's that issue and where does it stand now? guest: that was -- host: that was earlier this year. guest: this was a report out of the richmond v.a. medical center. i believe there were k-9's who were being tested with cardiovascular research on k-9's is esecretaries sentionly what the report -- essentially what the report talked about. and in this case congressman brat is the congressman from the state of virginia so he'd have richmond in his territory. and so he took that report and fashioned legislation that would essentially ban all of the specific type of animal research that causes pain. that's very broad and the issue for us wasn't whether there

should be accountability in that case. if there was wrongdoing, if they deviated from punitive scientific protocols, there should be some accountability. the undersecretary can pull funding, can stop research, can shut down a lab. none of that happened. the individual who was found to be in violation was removed. and that's where it should have stayed or at least started in a discussion. no discussion happened. the house had a voice vote. unanimous. we are going to pass this banning animal research and once we got word of it we're thinking, this has broader implications than you all understand. so for us it really wasn't about defending animal research. it was about understanding what the implications are when you stop certain types of research. the -- what's hard to explain to the public is there are reasons why research happens a certain way. at least if you understand why you would use a k-9 as opposed to a computer or a mouse or a monkey, let's talk about it

that way. let's understand there have been a lot of things that come out of animal research. the pacemaker. the artificial pancreas, a lot of -- insulin. a lot of things that heal a lot of people have come from k-9 research. again, we are not going to defend any specific type of research but we are going to have a conversation or force a conversation to consider the implications if you stop certain things. especially if it's from a perspective of emotion or reaction what was essentially an isolated incident. host: senator john mccain a couple years ago talking about an issue you had a lot to say about. let's watch. [video clip] senator mccarran: some 40 veterans died while waiting for care at the phoenix v.a. were first made public. to date the obama administration's failed to respond in an effective manner. clearly the v.a. is suffering from systemic problems in its

culture that requires strong reform-minded leadership and accountability to address. host: general shinseki that was there left after all this. i read the inspector general at the v.a. said there were really only six instead of 40 that died in this -- there was questions about some of them. what's the status of all this? guest: that story grew a lot of tentacles. it wouldn't have mattered whether it was one or 100 to me. somebody dies somebody should be held accountable. there was a lot of -- i won't say misinformation because there was clearly inefficiency. we reported in 2011 that they had a staffing problem. they were understaffed and they were going to have issues with backlogs and waiting lists. it wasn't addressed. so on some level they needed the attention it gotten. i think the undersecretary at the time wasn't a very good

leader. he wasn't doing a lot of things the right way. this was inevitable. at the same time i think it went way too far because it wasn't fixing the problem to talk about it in a way that a lot of people did by demagoguing the issue to a point where nothing was good enough. even when good things were happening it didn't make the news because nobody wanted to hear about that. the reality is it was a system that was underfunded and understaffed for way too long. they managed to a requirement instead of the actual need. nobody actually measured the need and provided the wherewithal to meet that demand. and it was unique to phoenix. phoenix is where the bottom fell out but there were many facilities that could have been phoenix across the country. and while a lot of them were run by good, well-meaning people, it was going to fall apart at some point and that's exactly what happened in 2014. host: any improvement?

guest: well, lots of improvement. i think veterans are -- because the public is aware of a lot of his and looks for it, that that's incentive for specifically v.a. leaders to do a better, to be more findful, -- mindful, i think secretary mcdonell started great issues that are currently carried forward by the current secretary, dr. shulkin. can it get better? yeah. now we are at least seeing leaders acknowledge the problem. at least acknowledge there's a problem. then we have a conversation how to fix it. that's the best transition that i've seen undertaken. i think that's the best hope for finally fixing what's happening. host: how much money do you have to raise a year to function? guest: for our organization about $100 million a year to

function. host: $100 million? where does most that money go? guest: most our programs. our core mission is to provide benefits assistance. it's to provide medical advocacy, research and education, fight for the civil rights and dignity of our members and to educate the public. so the majority, lion's share what we raise goes to those functions. host: how many people work for the paralyzed veterans of america? guest: 260. host: based? guest: we have locations in 60 locations here and puerto rico. host: why were you picked to run this organization? guest: being in the right place at the right time. the reality is there was a really near and dear mentor to me. his name was homer townsend. former executive director of paralyzed veterans of america. we lost him last year.

succumbed to the injury of spinal cord injury. lived with 42 years with the injury. i met him during my one of my eye signments -- assignments on one of the committee. he saw that in me. he asked me considering coming out to washington, d.c. from -- leave san diego and come to d.c. i did that. i worked at the appeals office for a year and a half. he hand picked me to run the veterans benefits department. become the deputy and replace him. i am going to credit his wisdom for why i was elected. i'm trying to live up to every expectation he had for me. host: people that want to either give to this group that you run or want to get in touch th the group, how do they do it? uest: go to our website, p va.org. look at the lives we changed.

this is what you're investing in. so we don't talk about ourselves enough in public and we try to do that more. but if they go on pva.org or nd us on social media, pva 1946, facebook or twitter there multiple ways to donate. we have corporate partners. the pinsky truck rental. we have u.p.s. great companies that have been with us for a long time and love what we do and they got cause marketing, opportunities, things like that. and just -- host: very quick question. what was your last rank? guest: chief warrant officer two. host: when did you meet your wife? guest: 2011. host: how many kids? guest: four teenage daughters and a son. host: executive director of the paralyzed veterans of america,

thank you so much for joining us. guest: thank you, brian. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at q&a.org. q&a programs are also available as c-span podcasts.

>> and following our "q&a" program this afternoon with a spotlight on u.s. veterans, we're live here in the east room of the white house where president trump is about to award vietnam era medic army captain gary rose, the medal of honor, in a ceremony today. captain rose served in the army for about 20 years. this would be the second veteran to be awarded the medal of honor by president trump. live coverage here on c-span.

>> again, a live picture of the white house. we're in the east room this afternoon where president trump is expected to arrive shortly. he'll be presenting the medal of honor to army captain gary rose who served in the army for about 20 years during the vietnam era. he was a medic during that

time. this is live coverage on c-span. we expect the ceremony to begin shortly.

>> as we await the start of this honor of medal ceremony, the u.s. house expected to gavel back in this afternoon. members expected to debate a bill to combat the smuggling of the drug fentanyl. and another bill addressing the

security of cuba's international airports. work on the republican's 2018 budget and tax reform expected on thursday. live coverage of the house when they return here on c-span. that will be at 4:30 eastern.

>> we are live in the east room of the white house. we are expecting president trump to arrive shortly to present the medal of honor. army captain gary rose will be the recipient. he served for about 20 years in the u.s. army as a vietnam-era medic. white house chief of staff john kelly in attendance this afternoon. we also noticed v.a. secretary shulkin in the odd yuns among other -- audience among other medal honorees. we expect the president here shortly live on c-span.

>> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states, accompanied by medal of honor recipient captain gary m. rose, united states army, retired. ♪