All American Beef Battalion Shares Beef With Service Members

By Melissa Hart, Special to Agri-View
Thursday, February 7, 2008 1:43 PM CST

Driving across the country in the solitude of his truck, Bill Broadie came up with what once was just a good idea and is now beginning to take shape and is preparing to take the country by storm.

“Who wouldn’t buy a steak for a soldier? No matter how you feel about the war in Iraq, for it or against it, everyone wants to support the men and women who are fighting for our freedom,” said the founder of the All American Beef Battalion (AABB), Bill Broadie of Ashland, Kan.

A field representative for Superior Livestock Auction (SLA) and a Vietnam War veteran, Bill has been in the cattle business from the age of 11 when he began working at his father’s livestock auction barn.

Upon graduation he enlisted in the Marines and six months later he found himself in combat. Wounded twice, Bill was discharged and sent home to Kansas where he graduated from college and began a life-long career in the cattle business.

“I was on my way to Colorado when I got this idea of feeding steaks to all the troops. I called Jim Odle with Superior (Livestock Auction) and told him about the idea and he said, ‘We can do this!’”

The purpose of the AABB is to organize and sponsor steak feeds, entertainment, programs, meetings, and projects with Service Members and their families. They also want to encourage and assist them in any reasonable manner and to foster among the people of the United States an appreciation, respect, and honor for our Armed Forces Military Service Members whose sacrifices have and will continue to make our freedoms possible.

Goals were set by the board of directors in order to flesh out the idea. Bill commented, “We want to put on a steak feed for the soldiers and their families every time there is a deployment or a homecoming of a unit. Next we want to provide beef debit cards for the families who have a father or a mother who have gone into war so they can buy beef at the grocery store and third we want to have a steak feed for all the men and women who are in the combat zones all over the world.” Bill added, “We will feed every soldier from the top of the ranks to the bottom.”

With a passion for the troops in combat and a vision of providing them with United States beef, Bill was ready to forge ahead with his idea and developed the All American Beef Battalion.

After eight months of bureaucratic red tape Bill was about to give up on the whole idea when a conversation with an officer turned things around. “I talked to Lieutenant Colonel Hathaway, who is now on the board of directors, and he talked to another colonel who had connections to the White House and things got rollin’ again,” commented Bill.

Getting their 501C3 status was a miracle in itself. Bill explained, “Normally when an organization files to be a non-profit group they have to wait months for it to go through the proper channels. We received our 501C3 status back in 35 days which is unheard of.”

Having all the proper paperwork in order the baby steps to feeding the troops began taking on longer strides as the word started spreading to supporters who wanted to get behind the effort. With donations from 14 states Bill feels like they are finally making progress.

Donations are coming in through word of mouth and the media attention this project is receiving, but Bill explained that sometimes support comes from the most unlikely places. He explained, “I went across the street to the post office and then I went into the local attorney’s office to thank him for his help in getting the project started.” He continued, “He was in his office having coffee with his brother and when his brother heard me talking about the project he wrote out a big check right on the spot.”

The All American Beef Battalion has an all star board of directors. Jim Odle serves as the chairman and has been involved in livestock marketing most of his adult life. Bill was named the vice chairmen while Larry S. Bilberry a retired feed yard manager of Garden City, Kan., was named the junior vice chairmen. Larry became involved with AABB because he loves God, Church, Country, and Family and although he may not agree with military action all of the time he does support our men and women in the military 100 percent of the time. If AABB can reach only one soldier and say thanks then we have succeeded.

Kendal Kay serves as the secretary/treasurer and currently serves as the president of Stockgrowers State Bank in Ashland, Kan.

Another member of the board is Craig Mock, the general manager of United Telephone Association, Inc., in Dodge City, Kan., and the final member is Kevin Hathaway.

Realizing this will take lots of time and resources the AABB is counting on everyone who cares about the troops to help out. He commented, “I don’t care where people stand on the issue of the war I think people in general want to support these men and women.” Bill continued, “We also don’t want this to be anyone’s political football either, so we have kept it out of the hands of the politicians and this thing is really a grass roots effort.”

Although it may be an unfortunate assumption, Bill estimates this organization may very well outlive him and his involvement. He commented, “I don’t see a time when we won’t have men and women standing in harms way to protect us and our freedom.”

As a beef producer himself, Bill has a passion for the beef industry and views this as a great way for the beef producers in the United States to support the troops with their own product.

Bill stated, “I know what it was like coming home from Vietnam with the stigma of that war, I don’t want these kids to be treated the way we were.” He continued, “I have lived three times longer than anyone thought I would after being wounded in the war, maybe the reason I was spared was for the purpose of starting this group.”

The All American Beef Battalion website was launched on Christmas Eve and is now prepared to take donations online. The web address is http://www.steaksfortroops.com. Those who want to contact Bill Broadie to make a donation or with questions may call him at 620-635-5870.

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