Called To Serve: My Q&A With Veteran And Wounded Warrior Advocate Dava Guerin, Co-Author Of 'Called To Serve: The Inspiring, Untold Stories Of America's First Responders'

Counterterrorism magazine published my Q&A with veteran and wounded warrior advocate Dava Guerin, the co-author of Called To Serve: The Inspiring, Untold Stories of America's First Responders.

You can read the Q&A via the below pages or the below text:

 

 Dava Guerin is an author, freelance writer and a communications consultant. She is also a wounded warrior and military veterans’ advocate. Her books include political and business memoirs; non-fiction works focusing on wounded warriors, veterans and their caregivers. Her books offer forewords written by the late President George H. W. Bush and Former First Lady Barbara Bush, as well as actor and philanthropist Gary Sinise and Fox’s National Security Correspondent, Jennifer Griffin.

Dava Guerin was president of Guerin Public Relations, Inc., a full-service communications firm, for more than twenty years located in Philadelphia.

Her public relations firm, Dava Guerin has worked with numerous U.S. Presidents, including President George H. W. Bush, and managed visits for Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush as well as world leaders, U.S. politicians and entertainers. She has also created and managed public relations and crisis communications programs for Fortune 100 companies and government agencies.

Guerin’s books include: “Rebuilding Sergeant Peck: How I Put Body and Soul Back Together After Afghanistan” (Skyhorse Publishing 2019); “The Eagle on My Arm” (University Press of Kentucky (2020); “Vets and Pets: Wounded Warriors and the Animals That Help Them Heal” (Skyhorse 2106); “Unbreakable Bonds: The Mighty Moms and Wounded Warriors of Walter Reed” (Skyhorse 2014); “Keep Chopping Wood” (Westbow Press 2016); and “Presidents, Kings and Convicts: My Journey from the Tennessee Governor’s Residence to the Halls of Congress” (Archway, Simon & Schuster 2016.)

 

Dava Guerin is the co-author, along with Mike Hardwick and Sam Royer, of “Called To Serve: The Inspiring, Untold Stories of America’s First Responders.”

Dava Guerin was interviewed by Paul Davis.

 

IACSP: Why did you write “Called To Serve”?

Guerin: I and my co-authors, knowing so many law enforcement people especially, thought “Called To Serve” would be a way, along with my books on wounded warriors and veterans, of understanding what these people go through. Why do they want to do these jobs and why they chose to serve, and describe what their lives are truly like, and how they grew up. To really get into their hearts and souls.

IACSP: here is that saying that when something bad happens people run from it, but cops, fire fighters and other first responders run towards it. Why do you think they should be celebrated?

Guerin: Why do they choose to go to work every day, knowing they might not make it home that night, or contract a disease or get burned in a fire? They don’t ask for any attention, and they don’t make much money. They don’t need a lot of outward attention because they dedicate their lives to helping others and they don’t ask for anything in return. First responders are people who don’t really get the accolades they should, yet what would we do if we fell or had an accident, called 911, and no one came? It is disheartening for them to put on a uniform, and some people try to kill them, and they spit on them, and degrade them. .

IACSP: How did you and your co-authors select the people to profile in the book? I believe there are 16 people profiled.

Guerin: Yes, 16. Essentially, there were a couple of people I knew, and I researched it to see who won fire fighters awards and so on. I talked to them first and I found they were super special. Amy Royer, an EMS, as you know from the book, is my co-author Sam Royer’s sister, and she, Sam and myself found all of the people we write about in the book. I could have written 20 more stories easily.

IACSP: You had two co-authors for “Called To Serve.” Can you tell us who they are and how did you come to collaborate with them?

Guerin: Mike Hardwick is a CEO of a company he owns in Nashville, and I wrote his autobiography with him years ago. He has an employee, Sam Royer, who had an idea for a book about police officers. Mike called me up and asked me if I would be interested in writing about police officers with him. To make it a little more interesting, I suggested that we add fire fighters and EMS people. Then you have a really rich group of people. Everyone agreed and that’s how it happened. That’s how the three of us came together.

IACSP: Jennifer Griffin, the very talented and knowledgeable Fox News national security correspondent, wrote your forward. How did she come to write the forward for you?

Guerin: All roads lead back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Kevin Ferris and I wrote “Unbreakable Bonds: The Mighty Moms and Wounded Warriors of Walter Reed.” I was the communications director for the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress, and I decided to volunteer at Walter Reed. I went on Valentine’s Day with all these prizes that I brought, and I went into this one kid’s room who had been blown up months before, Mark Sizzler. I went in and his dad was there. His dad asked if I could come back. So, I was going back every week to see Mark and I met his mom, and I met all the other moms. Jennifer is a huge supporter of wounded warriors. She volunteered at Walter Reed, and I met her there and we became friends. She is tremendous. She emailed me one day and asked if I wanted to do a story about John Beck, a soldier who lost both his arms and legs, and I said yes. So I wrote “Building Sergeant Beck,” with Terry Bivins. Jennifer supports everything that has to do with veterans and wounded warriors.

IACSP: Jennifer Griffin is a fine journalist, and it’s good to know she also volunteers to help military vets. When people criticize Fox News, they don’t separate the opinion shows from the news coverage. I think Fox’s news coverage, with reporters like Jennifer Griffin, is basically fair.

You’ve written about Barbara Bush, the former First Lady. Can you tell us about your involvement with her and former President Bush?

Guerin: There is a nonprofit organization called the Children’s Literacy Initiative and they had an idea to have a radio show with Barbara Bush reading children’s stories along with other celebrities. ABC Radio loved the idea, and they pitched it to the White House. She loved it. I was volunteering for the Children’s Literacy Initiative, and I became the communications person for Mrs. Bush’s “Story Time” project. She was so funny and gracious. I got to spend so much personal time with her and her family and staff, and I got to know them very well. I loved her and President Bush. President Bush wrote this beautiful forward to “Unbreakable Bonds.” I was asked to bring all of the wounded warriors and their mothers to the Bush’s home, and we launched the book there. Two years later, Barbara Bush wrote the forward for “Vets and Pets: Wounded Warriors and Their Animals That Help Them Heal,” which I wrote with Kevin Ferris. We brought the veterans and their animals to the Bush home, and an owl pooped on President Bush’s pants. A big one. Mrs., Bush said, “Oh, please. Don’t worry about it, he has plenty of pants.” It was hysterical.

IACSP: You’ve written about support animals for wounded warriors. Can you tell us about that.

Guerin: After we did “Unbreakable Bonds,” I was talking to one of our editors at Skyhorse publishing, and I suggested that we do something about service dogs. The editor came back and said why don’t you include other support animals and broaden it out. So Kevin Ferris and I wrote about dogs, a potbellied pig, birds of prey, cats, horses, and other animals. These animals give so much comfort to wounded warriors.

IACSP: Thank you for speaking to us and thank you for supporting wounded warriors and veterans.

 

About the Interviewer:

Paul Davis, a Navy veteran who served on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War, is a long-time contributor to the Journal and writes the IACSP Threatcon column. 

Cops, Firemen And Other First Responders: My Washington Times 'On Crime' Column On 'Called To Serve: The Inspiring, Untold Stories Of America's First Responders

The Washington Times ran my On Crime column on Called To Serve: The Inspiring, Untold Stories of America’s First Responders.

There is a saying that when something bad happens, people run from it, but police officers, firefighters and other first responders run toward it. “Called to Serve: The Inspiring, Untold Stories of America’s First Responders” explains why.

 

“Called to Serve,” written by my good friend Dava Guerin and authors Mike Hardwick and Sam Royer, is a “must-read for every American,” writes Fox News National Security correspondent Jennifer Griffin in her foreword to the book.

“In this important book, you will be moved by the deeply personal stories about first responders such as John (Woody) Woodall, as well as those who risk their lives for our health and safety and live by the oath they take to ‘serve and protect,’” she writes.

 

Country singer-songwriter John Rich wrote in a second foreword to the book: “In the American spirit, there lives a unique boldness of character and sense of duty when it comes to serving others. Among us, there are those chosen few who rise head and shoulders above the rest by dedicating their lives to doing the most dangerous and often most thankless jobs that carry with them the very real risk of life and death.”

 

“Called to Serve” profiles 16 dedicated and brave police officers, firefighters and emergency medical professionals who risk their lives every day. The book describes what motivates the first responders, how they operate and details their great triumphs and tragedies.

 

The book reveals what it takes to respond to immediate life-and-death situations and the toll it takes on them. We see cops respond to emergencies in high-crime neighborhoods, as well as responders pulling bodies from the ruin at ground zero after 9/11. There are also lighter moments in the book, such as the story of one first responder who performs as an Elvis impersonator to raise money for fallen firefighters.

 

The authors of “Called to Serve” say they will donate 10% of the book sales to the Gary Sinise Foundation.

 

You can read the rest of the column via the below link: 

BOOK REVIEW: 'Called to Serve: The Inspiring, Untold Stories of America's First Responders' - Washington Times

Just When We Need Public Safety, Dem Elites Have Alienated Cops Nationwide

 Rich Lowry at the New York Post offers his take on cops and crime:

WANTED: Trained security professionals to deal with ­elevated levels of crime and mayhem at risk to their own life and limb, while getting called racist oppressors and potentially thrown under the bus by elected ­officials.

This has become the de facto employment notice for police around the country, and, unsurprisingly, cops and potential cops don’t find it particularly enticing. Why would they?

America’s cities are feeling the effects of a year’s long experiment in what would happen if political and media elites celebrated a movement based on the idea that police are racist goons, excused rioting and explaining away spiraling crime and made it clear to cops that if they make a mistake, they will, at the very least, ­become instantly infamous.

The experiment hasn’t gone well.

Portland, Ore., has been a veritable research lab for this experiment. The latest blow to the city is the mass resignation of the Portland Police Bureau’s Rapid Response Team, which is responsible for policing protests in the city — a challenging, endless and literally thankless job.

Rioting has become part of the fabric of urban life in Portland, where demonstrators have been doing battle with cops nearly ­every other night since the death of George Floyd.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

Just when we need public safety, Dem elites have alienated cops (nypost.com) 

Do You Love Cops? Read Joseph Wambaugh. Do You Hate Cops? Read Joseph Wambaugh: My Philadelphia Weekly 'Crime Beat' Column On LAPD Detective Sergeant Turned Best-Selling Author Joseph Wambaugh

Philadelphia Weekly published my Crime Beat column on Joseph Wambaugh. 

You can read the column below or via the below link:

Love cops? Hate cops? Read Wambaugh - Philadelphia Weekly

My Crime Fiction: 'A Christmas Crime Story'

As the Christmas season is upon us, I'd like to offer a link to my short story A Christmas Crime Story.

To get in the true spirit of the Christmas holiday, some people go to church, some people go to the homes of family and friends, and some people go out and shop.

 Me? I go to cop bars.

Cops are great storytellers. Perhaps its because they observe a segment of life that’s dramatic, tragic and funny. Perhaps its also because they spend so much time cruising on patrol that they’ve had the time to develop and hone their story-telling skills.

As a writer, I’ve talked to cops in station houses, in patrol cars, on the street and in bars. I’ve listened to their concerns, prideful boasts and sorrowful confessions. I’ve accompanied cops on patrol and witnessed them handle insane, intoxicated and incongruous citizens. I’ve observed how they console crime victims and their families. I’ve seen how they cope with the aftermath of criminal violence and man’s inhumanity to man. And I’ve come to appreciate their black humor, which like military humor, is a necessary safety valve to get them through the bad times.

I especially like to frequent cop bars during the holiday season and listen to cops at their very best. Some cops gather at bars after work to relax, drink and tell their stories. At this time of year, they are in very good spirits, a bit happier, a bit giddier and a bit more talkative.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/12/christmas-crime-story.html

A Brit Review Of Joseph Wambaugh's Harbor Nocturne

Alison Flood at the British newspaper the Guardian offers a Brit review of Joseph Wambaugh's novel Harbor Nocturne.

It's very hard not to fall for a novel in which a fight between Iron Man and Spider-Man ends up with the former writhing in pain on the ground, Marilyn Monroe, "aka Regis the plumber in another life", screaming and Captain America calling 911. Joseph Wambaugh is back on familiar ground with his fifth novel about the cops of the Hollywood Station, Harbour Nocturne, and lucky us. 

A former LAPD detective sergeant – he quit when his fame began intruding on his work – Wambaugh reveals on his website that he ran out of his own material to mine for his fiction 30 years ago. He began collecting fresh stories from serving officers, and in the front of Harbour Nocturne, the author thanks 51 of them "for the terrific anecdotes and great cop talk". From the costumed street characters who hustle tourists in front of Grauman's Chinese theatre to the police officer who lets a Gypsy off a ticket to avoid a curse, and the child lying dead while his mother and grandmother watch television, Harbour Nocturne's stories of real-life policing are odd, tragic, hilarious – always compelling.   

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/16/harbour-nocturne-joseph-wambaugh-review

You can also read my earlier review of Harbor Nocturne, which appeared in the Washington Times  via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2012/04/joseph-wambaughs-new-cop-novel-harbor.html

Bad Boys, Bad Boys: 'Cops' Makes Crime Pay On TV

I've gone out on 'ride-alongs' with Philadelphia police officers a good number of times.

I've enjoyed my tours out on the mean streets of Philadelphia with Philly's finest.

I've observed the cruel and violent behavior of criminals, the stunned and sad responses of crime victims, and the hard work and often brave actions of the police officers.

I've also been amused by the stupidity and crassness of criminals and by the cop's telling banter. Cops can very funny.

Going out on patrol with cops is more entertaining than watching TV.

Of course Cops, the long-running TV program and the original reality show, offers this experience to TV viewers.          

I've watched the program for years and I own a DVD copy of Cops: The 20th Anniversary Edition. 

Unfortunately, Cops may be in trouble.

John Jurgensen at the Wall Street Journal reports on Cops' history and uncertain future.

How did "Cops" become an American institution?

With its reggae theme song and its unvarnished premise, the influential series remains the TV public's most direct portal to the raw world of street crime, even as competing shows and changes in law enforcement have made "Cops" harder to produce.

Though some TV watchers might be surprised to discover it's still on the air, the show begins a 25th season next month. It is the longest-running entertainment series on prime-time network television. Moreover, 850 episodes in, the series has earned about $400 million through reruns alone. But it's possible this will be its final season on Fox.    

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323551004578117362117479612.html

You can also read my magazine piece about my night out with Philadelphia's Narcotics Field Unit South via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2012/05/chasing-drugs-guns-and-violence-night.html