For more than 20 years, we’ve witnessed something powerful: the healing of combat-wounded Veterans not only through outdoor experiences like hunting and fishing, but also through unexpected avenues—like the art of woodturning. In this episode, WWIA Founder and CEO John McDaniel sits down with Tony Kopchinski, a National Guard Veteran from Kronenwetter, Wisconsin, who leads one of our most unique and deeply impactful programs, the Wisconsin Woodturning Event.

Now in its 12th year, this one-of-a-kind experience introduces our Heroes to the craft of woodturning, shaping wood on a lathe into beautiful, functional pieces like bowls, plates, and game calls. But it’s more than just craftsmanship. Under Tony’s guidance, and alongside a dedicated group of skilled artisans, Veterans discover focus, purpose, and a sense of peace through the creative process.

Tony’s passion for serving our Nation’s Heroes is unmistakable. Over the years, he and his team have helped create moments of healing and transformation that not only leave a lasting mark, but that have literally saved lives. His impact is deeply felt, and his story is one worth hearing.

We’re honored to share Tony’s journey, his heart, and his experiences with you.

Takeaways:

• This episode emphasizes the profound impact that creative activities such as woodturning have on the healing process of combat wounded veterans.
• Tony Kopchinski's dedication to serving veterans through woodturning showcases how craftsmanship can foster connection and personal transformation.
• The podcast highlights the importance of community support in helping veterans find purpose and healing through art and shared experiences.
• Listeners are encouraged to appreciate the therapeutic effects of hands-on activities in the lives of those who have faced trauma in combat situations.

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This episode of the WWIA Podcast is sponsored by ABLEnow. ABLEnow is a national ABLE savings program designed specifically for people with disabilities. It allows eligible individuals to save and invest money in a tax-advantaged account without risking certain means-tested benefits, such as SSI or Medicaid. ABLEnow is available nationwide and serves eligible individuals in all 50 states. Learn more about ABLEnow: https://t.co/r5071ltB0G

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Mentioned in this episode:

ABLEnow

This episode of the WWIA Podcast is sponsored by ABLEnow. ABLEnow is a national ABLE savings program designed specifically for people with disabilities. It allows eligible individuals to save and invest money in a tax-advantaged account without risking certain means-tested benefits, such as SSI or Medicaid. ABLEnow is available nationwide and serves eligible individuals in all 50 states. Learn more about ABLEnow: https://t.co/r5071ltB0G

ABLEnow

Foreign. Hello and welcome to the WWIA Podcast.

We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes. If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you. If you're a returning listener.

Thanks for coming back.

Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing. For more than 20 years, we've witnessed something powerful. The healing of combat wounded veterans.

Not only through outdoor experiences like hunting and fishing, but also through unexpected avenues like the art of woodturning.

In this episode, WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel sits down with Tony Kopchinski, a National Guard veteran from Cronenwetter, Wisconsin, who leads one of our most unique and deeply impactful programs, the Wisconsin Woodturning event. Now in its 12th year, this one of a kind experience introduces our heroes to the craft of woodturning.

Shaping wood on a lathe into beautiful, functional pieces such as bowls, plates and game calls. But it's more than just craftsmanship.

Under Tony's guidance and alongside a dedicated group of skilled artisans, veterans discover focus, purpose and a sense of peace through the creative process. Tony's passion for serving our nation's heroes is unmistakable.

Over the years, he and his team have helped create moments of healing and transformation that not only leave a lasting mark, but that have literally saved lives. His impact is deeply felt and his story is one worth hearing. We're honored to share Tony's journey, his heart and his experiences with you.

So without further delay, let's join John and Tony for this meaningful conversation.

Foreign.

McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action Foundation. And this is our podcast, Honor, Connect and Heal. Today I have with me a.

A treasured guest, an absolutely amazing man who lives up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and is a veteran himself, but he's a woodturner and he's changed a lot of lives and I think in a couple cases, maybe even saved a couple of lives with his work. Welcome to the program. Tony. How are you?

I'm excellent. I love my hobbies and I love being part of this outfit.

Well, you know, I'll tell the quick story first. That'll get us moving in the right direction because your son in law, Todd Bohm, who's married to your daughter Dawn.

Right.

And you guys are neighbors.

You live, you know, within, I wouldn't say a stone's throw, but you could pro hit a baseball and, and hit, hit Hit your house from Todd's, but there and now I'm going to probably get this wrong, but is it Kronenwetter? Did I pronounce that right?

Kronenwetter or Mosinee. It's the same, zip coded. That's another confusing thing around here.

Well, there's a lot of confusing things in Wisconsin. I, I know I'm from there, but. Yeah. Well, anyway, so you're up there just. You're. You're what, just south of WA. Is that right? Yeah.

Yes. So only four miles.

So Todd started an event, I don't know, 13 or 14 years ago. I mean it's probably even more than that. He's probably going to be mad at me for not knowing that exact number.

But I know he's been at it up there for, I don't know. You've been doing the woodturning now for what, 12 years?

12 Years in one year with COVID we did.

So anyway, I remember meeting Todd and Dawn and they did a turkey hu. And one of the first guys that stepped up to the plate in Wisconsin who said I know what you're doing and I want to help.

And Todd and Dawn in your entire community has been up there, you know, doing a cast and blast for turkey and fishing for, you know, 15, 16 years now, something like that. And it's just been a super successful event. Todd is a, as a, as a great leader and a wonderful person as well as his wife. And they introduced.

That's when I first met you. And then I think we went over to your house in your garage now, I guess extended garage.

Part of your home is this amazing display of equipment that's all geared towards woodturning, right?

Yes. I have four la.

Four lathes in your garage. It's not your garage, is it?

It's. It's behind my car garage hooked. It's a big T shirt shaped home. The back part of the key is 45 by 34 woodworking shop.

And it just, it just reeks of professionalism and, and, and craft and. And there's, you know, deer antlers everywhere and, and it's just like.

I remember one day as a few years after I met you, I was on the way back to Florida or something and I swung in and it was freezing cold out and it's coming off a cold fall and, and I stopped by your house there and you opened up your wood shop for me and we were in there checking stuff out and I just remember what, what a great. I mean what a. It's like it's like the perfect man cave. It's like, that's. I don't know. You could just stuff everywhere. Cool stuff everywhere.

You got kennels for your dogs in there. And it was just an amazing. It was just an amazing memory. And that's where the magic happens, isn't it?

Yes, it is. I've got air compressor and dust collection in a little separate room connected to that, so because they're noisy, I can shut the door.

It's designed to do a lot of.

Work, and your products are just beautiful. I hope you know this.

I hope you know this by now, but we have been collecting the work that you and the heroes have done for 12 years now, and we give them to people.

I told you a while ago, I said, you asked me what you could do for us besides help these heroes learn the tremendous craft of woodturning, which we'll talk a lot about, I'm sure, here. But I said, tony, what you're doing is so cool. I mean, you're making artwork out of wood, and it's bowls, it's plates, it's decorative.

I mean, cribbage boards. I mean, there's a. There's a Harley Davidson motors, you know, the engine of a Harley Davidson motorcycle with a clock on it there.

And, you know, outside of my office here, this amazing, eclectic mix of cool artwork that you guys have cranked out. And we're giving that to deserving people as a way of as momentos and saying thanks for what you did for our heroes.

And they're going all around the country, and we created a website giving you credit and displaying your wares, and we're sending that out across our enterprise here at the WWIA to display your work and make people aware of your work. And it's just nothing short of incredible. I would have never guessed. So tell us, how did you get started doing all that, Tony?

Well, that was when we met in the back of dawn and Todd's home. We were sitting on their patio and telling you about that, and you wanted to see some stuff that might work for sponsored Gifts.

And I brought you over to the shop, and you went home with a bunch of stuff that day, and then you sent a whole bunch of challenge coins to me.

And these get embedded in the plates and bowls and whatever kind of a Harley Davidson motor made out of wood and plaques with emblem embedded in there, the challenge coin. And I passed those out at the woodturning clubs.

I belong to three different woodturning clubs, and some of the guys make things that I would never even think of making. And those get all sent down to you.

It's crazy. We've got some. There's a couple that we've kept here at the office that are like, you know, personal favorites.

We'll.

Eventually they'll go to somebody, but there's just a couple that are just so remarkable and so beautiful. I just said to Dave Hints, I don't know if you met Dave, but he's the guy in charge of heights for heroes.

He's doing a fundraiser here coming up, a banquet. And I said, hey, man, would you be interested in a cribbage board from our woodturners? He's like, heck yeah, man. So I sent one to him.

And, you know, guys are auctioning these. These items off, these beautiful items off that you and the heroes and your woodturner buddies are making.

And it's having a monster impact because now they've got something really cool, a one of a kind gift that they can auction off at a charity event. And the proceeds go to fund the missions that we do. It's really cool, man. What you're doing is really cool, Tony.

I love it. I'm addicted to woodturning. I'll wake up in the middle of the night and think about something I'd like to make.

And I can't wait to get up to in the morning and go in my shop.

You know, there's an old saying. I. I heard this when I first got involved in the. In doing this work, right. Helping the combat wounded.

Somebody once said to me, they were talking about, you know, the horrible suicide rate that veterans are, you know, unfortunately enduring. And they said, you know, that the saying goes, the idle hands are the devil's workshop. Right? You've heard that?

Yeah.

And so what you're doing is you're making the hands that once maybe were idle create things. And there's a lot of cool stuff. They get this it bug when we send guys up there, and we've been doing it for 12 years now.

Send guys up there to you who just said, hey, I'm interested in this woodturning thing. What do you got going now? It's not really a world class outdoor sporting event. I call it a one off.

But it's connected to a world class sporting event.

That's Todd's cast and plast, of course, but it turned out, and I don't want to say I was skeptical, but if the heroes like it and it's making a difference in their world, then I'm all about it. And you check all those block and you've just done an amazing, amazing job doing it.

So I'm going to ask you, what do you think it is like when they're.

When you meet these guys and they start picking up wood and putting them on a lathe and you start teaching them what's going on, mean what, what's happening there? I mean, why do you think that works?

It's so therapeutic for them to be doing something with their hands and their mind. I mean, you can't wood turn and have your mind somewhere else. You just, you need to concentrate because you got a sharp knife in your hand.

And, you know, after four days of this, almost every one of them go home and buy a lathe.

That's crazy.

It's, it's just so therapeutic for.

Right. You know, I've seen, I admire the pictures. I sign them.

Every year you do an event, you know, an event picture where the guys are standing there with the T shirts, you got them and WWI banner behind them, and usually they're holding a piece of artwork that they created.

And it's just so heartwarming to me that people like you and Todd have stepped up to the plate and said, in my own way, I want to help whatever that looks like. So I certainly have. I'm always going to be feel indebted to you for what you've done for, you know, these heroes. And I know you got a ton of stories.

As a matter of fact, there was a YouTube video that was done on a TV. Well, I guess it was a, it was a news.

It was a news outlet there, a news channel outlet that did a bit that's on YouTube now, and I've watched that a couple times. It features Larry Roselle. I think that's a name that probably he's a Purple heart recipient. That's a name. Very close, very close friend.

See, and it's not just, hey, let me teach you how to use this, you know, use these tools and, and turn some wood products. You, You've developed, like many others across the country, personal relationships with many of our heroes, and it enriches their lives.

It enriches your life, and it's just really a wonderful thing. That's the connection piece that we always, you know, talk about. But tell us a few stories.

I'm sure you got some great stories about guys that you've met and, and, and, and things that have been said and done that had an impact on you.

Yeah. One of the early warriors that I had come over to my event He. He wanted to learn woodturning, but his arms were too short.

I selected him to teach just because he was closer to my age. And we got together, and I told him that everything's going to be good.

I won't show him anything that'll be dangerous and show them the right way to do it. And I said, you got to stand closer to the lathe. And he told me why he wasn't. He said he bought a lathe years ago, a big lathe.

Put a big block on it, turned it on, broke his nose. His wife found him laying on the garage floor. He immediately sold the lathe.

Years later, he came to my event and told me why he didn't stand very close. And right now, he is the one that I have come back every year because he goes down to Texas for the winter.

He's from near the Eau Claire area, and he teaches woodturning down there.

Now.

Who is that? Larry?

Oh, that's Larry. Larry. Oh, yeah, I know that. I didn't know you met him.

One time he and I came up to camp.

Yeah, that's right. No, I remember Larry. I know. I know Larry. I absolutely. When I saw the video, the YouTube video, I was like, yeah, I remember Larry.

But you guys have been really good. You've become very close friends.

Very close. Very close. I visit him down to Texas. Even him and his wife.

Awesome.

My girlfriend and I went down there. And I also have a guy from Minnesota that I bring back every year because he teaches over there.

And those guys teach more like, beginning class type thing, but they can still learn some new stuff every time they come.

Wow. You built yourself a team there, buddy.

I still keep in contact with some of my earliest guys, and they'll send me pictures of what they're doing, and I'll send stuff back. I send wood all over the country to different turners that I had.

Yeah. So, great story about Larry Roselle there. You got any other stories that you want to share with us, Tony?

Yeah, it's a real interesting one. One of my warriors, he was shot in the elbow, and it came out of his forear.

They had to completely rebuild his elbow, and it took three operations to connect what he described as a severed fiber optic cable with a bunch of strands in it that they had to connect back together. And they're not color coded like fiber optic cable would be. So they're connecting these things.

And the third time, he had fairly good use of his hand at that time, the fingers, and they're trying to get his thumb to work. And they told him, okay, try moving your thumb. Nothing didn't work. Move. So you now move. Try moving your index finger. And his thumb moved.

And the doctors, ah, success. And the soldier, no, no, that ain't what it's supposed to do.

And the doctor said, you're going to have an hour's worth of therapy and you won't know the difference. And he went to therapy and they taught him to train his mind, to operate his thumb with his index finger signal.

And he, one of the better woodturners I had. You'd never notice that it's different.

That's wonderful. That's wonderful.

Well, you know, I think here there's certain things that are similar, you know, between woodturning and the other, you know, 40 some missions that we have. Some things are. Some things don't change.

Like, at the center of it, you've got a volunteer like you, who said, hey, I know what you're doing, and I got something I think I can contribute. So I'm stepping up to the plate and I'm going to engage you. And I want to. Here's my idea, right? So Todd did the same thing many, many years ago.

So did everybody else who's on this team. Hey, I know what you're doing, and I want to help.

That's like step one, Step two is, you know, once we do the planning and get this idea shaped and resourced properly, and these guys show up, there's some leadership, a leadership component, typically that covers down one of our guides. Now, that might not be the case with you because you don't probably need a guide.

You are the guide, and maybe Larry is that person a supporting role to what you're doing.

But you're opening your home and you're sharing with them of your knowledge of your resource, of your time and welcoming them and honoring them in a way that only, you know, we can do in our space. Right. So. And then there's these connections that happen, you know, and. And then in that process, you know, there's, there's, there's healing.

So there are some similarities there. But woodturning is a really unique thing. I mean, they're actually producing things. I heard that you guys are now producing.

I don't know if it's turkey calls, but in support of Todd's event, you. You take the guys. Is that true? They're making turkey calls for their actual event?

Yes. There's usually five guys come for that. And they come in on a Friday night and they go to my shop and we make their.

They all make their own turkey calls, and they use them the next day. And typically we will get four turkeys, and then they want to spend the rest of their days, the next day in my shop.

And that's all right with me, too. But I do one of. I'm one of his guides also, because we go to my son's land, which ain't far away, and we usually get four out of five turkeys.

Big ones, too, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah. You guys are in your communities, come together. It's, it's, it's. It's really. It's very cool. That's awesome.

So, I mean, what do you, what, what do you get out of this? We know what the heroes are getting out of this. There's a lot. But what about you? You're a, you're a veteran. You served, right? You were in the army?

Yeah, I was in the National Guard, though. I was.

It was after Korea and before Vietnam when I was in and was at Fort Leonard Wood for basic training, Fort Sill for artillery, and Fort Lewis, Washington.

But thank you for your service.

You're welcome.

And so when these heroes leave, you know, the event is over. You know, they're the, the woodturning activities done.

I mean, you're embedded in, you're, you're doing this in, in support of Todd's event, and then you're doing it in a standalone, you know, woodturning event that, that happens annually around the 12th year of doing that.

But when, when the heroes pack up their kit and go back to their home and you're sitting there and you're, you know, you're, you're, you know, in your strata lounger or rocking chair or something like this, or just in your shop reflecting on what just happened, what's going through your mind, what to do next.

I'm just, I'm always looking for new wood. I just got a hold of some sumac, which is a bush, incredibly beautiful green wood.

And I'm always on the lookout for whatever I can find in a stop and ask people, and they tell them what it's about, and I usually get permission to cut it.

Well, what are those things called on those? They're called burls on trees. They're like, they look like big knots.

That's the ugliest scab you find on a tree. And every tree has a different kind of burrow. I've got burrows. I just found some sumac burrows.

And I belong to three clubs, and nobody ever heard of a sumac burrow. And they're beautiful, but they're tiny.

You know, I always. The only thing I know I've heard of sumac before, but I've heard of poisonous. Is poisonous sumac. That's not a poisonous tree, is it?

That's not what we have around here. We have sumac bush.

Bush.

Okay. It grows alongside the road like weeds, and it grows fast and it's soft wood, but it's just beautiful green inside.

Yeah, I know what it looks like. It reminds me a little bit. It's a. It's a bush. It's not more, you know, it's not like tag alder, but it's.

It's. It.

I know what you're talking about. It grows like crazy everywhere. But it doesn't really get to be like tree, like unless it gets really mature. Right, right.

I even have some tag elder burls.

Oh, do you?

They're small, they're pretty. They're very beautiful.

I like tag alders. That's a people. A lot of people don't like them, but that's. And those things make an entire ecosystem themselves. It's crazy.

That means there's partridge nearby if you find tag elders.

Oh, yeah, they love it, don't they? I got half my property up there's tag alder, but. So these burls are like, you know, you said like it's a scab on a tree, but they. You turn your.

You turn them into like bowls and decorative items, don't you?

Beautiful. Yes.

What is it? I mean, why is there a. How does it form and why does it form? What is it?

If we knew, we would propagate them because they're valuable. But nobody can figure out why. There's no bugs in there and there's no. We don't know why they form. But around here, cherry burls are very prevalent.

So what. What can we. Okay, so if you're out there in Wisconsin or some other place and you see a tree, okay.

And you're looking for a burl, it looks like it could be like the size of a softball or it could be the size of a beach ball. But it's basically a big knot in the tree, right? Like a spherical knot.

Yes. I've seen some maple ones that we needed to push up onto a tilt bed trailer with a tractor because the tractor couldn't pick it up.

That's what I made with. For Camp Hackett. I made a sign out of that and it was probably a five or six hundred pound burrow.

No, it's beautiful. It hangs There. It hangs there today. It's the only sign that says Camp Hackett on it.

You know, you walk right in the bunk house, you wouldn't believe the bunk house. You got to come back up there, man. Now there's a whole addition on it where there's a pool table in there, thanks to Olshausen.

Oh, yeah. I stopped up there a couple times last year because I hunt near there, north of Brantwood.

Oh, yeah.

Straighteners, Stranglers Lane.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you have to come up there and check it out. I mean, I.

Nobody was ever around when I was there this year.

That's the thing. You gotta. You gotta catch it. You gotta catch it just right. But usually, you know, we put it on the calendar, so there's. There's a bear hunt.

I don't.

I don't attend that routinely. In September, and then October, towards the end of October, we do another event. You know, it's on the website.

If you look at the calendar, maybe you can time it so you can come up and. And spend a little time with us, break bread with the heroes. I remember, didn't you, me and Todd, do a. Do a podcast quite some time ago?

We did, yes. A long, long time ago. That's got to be close to seven, eight years ago.

It's been crazy how time flies. But. Yeah, so. But when you're.

You say your mind's always going after you get done with these, you know, these events with these heroes, but you know, what's going on inside of you. I mean, there's got to be. You got to feel like a night. A sense of accomplishment. Right, Right.

I get pictures sent back from the warriors almost probably four or five times a week that different people from. From five, six, seven years ago are sending me pictures of what they've made. It's. And they.

They also keep in contact with the three guys that help me because I got guys from the local clubs that come to help me teach, so it's one on one with them.

That's awesome. That's just awesome what you're doing. So cool. Well, you. You've shared so much with us. Is there.

Is there anything, Tony, that you've got, you know, in your little kit bag there that you'd like to. That you'd like to talk about?

I've got three kind of short stories here. I would really like to. Okay, relate.

Let's hear them.

They're talking to two heroes about their injuries. One guy was shot in the head, and he said it was okay to finish his sentences. Because he loses train of thought halfway through the sentence.

And he said, what happened to him? He said he was shot in the head, but he was able to motivate.

And he's running down this alley and he swears he could see the bullets hitting the wall in front of him, not see the plaster fly. He swears he could see the bullet. He says, when you know you're going to die, he says, your life just slows right down.

And the guy he was talking to said, I had a similar experience. He says, I was shot in the leg and the blood is spurting out and I'm holding my hand over that and I'm watching the ambulance come down the road.

He said, and it took a week for that ambulance to get there. He said, yes, your life slows down. Boy, that's a story that can raise a hackles on the back of your neck. Right?

It took a week for the ambulance silence to get there.

Yeah, it didn't, but.

Right.

That's what it seems like.

That's right. Now that. That's right. I, Yeah.

I remember when the first time that I thought that, that, that I remembered, like, this idea of time slowing down, you know, from a combat experience that, that, you know, that I had. It wasn't until Saving Private Ryan, that movie came out, and I was sitting in the theater and was like, debating whether I wanted to see this movie.

I knew I, I mean, I like war movies. You know, I don't. I'm not against them or anything, especially if they're historical and well done. I, I have a tendency to enjoy them.

But anyway, it'd been a long time since I'd been to a realistic war movie. And that opening scene, when they're assaulting the beach at Omaha and you can hear the rounds and he.

Actually Spielberg, the producer, slows the action down and it does go in slow motion.

And you see the main character, you know, Tom Hanks, there, you know, in this moment of, of like stillness and I don't want to say clarity, but just stillness and things have slowed down and the, the noise is kind of muted and, And I, that, that, that moment is when I was like, yes, that was the only time I thought anybody ever actually captured, you know, a moment in combat. Because that's what it feels like. It slows. Everything seems like it just slows down. It's just in, you know, indelibly etched in your brain forever.

I don't know why our brains do that, but that's very, very true. Well, that's a great story. You got another one for us?

Yes. The one I told during my TV interview was a guy that spent like four months with a very close friend sharing everything in the field.

And his friend poked his head up and was shot right in the head. And the guy says he can't wake up or go to sleep at night without that picture etched in his mind.

He said he started woodturning for if he would turn for a day. He says, I sleep like a baby. That therapeutic is so incredible.

Yo. There's something about.

Something about, you know, when your eyes connect with your hands and your hands are doing something and you're producing something. Whether that's, you know, say, playing a guitar, you know, hands are doing something, your mind is doing something, you're producing a sound.

You know, wood turning is another thing. I mean, your eyes are engaged, your hands are engaged. You got to concentrate. At the end of the day, you're producing something.

And there's a lot of satisfaction in, you know, in doing it. There's a lot of studies out there that, that talk about how important that is.

Everything from fly tying a fly as an example, that these fishermen that are tying flies, combat wounded guys, are doing all kinds of that stuff. So there's lots of evidence to suggest that, yes, it is therapeutic. So. Yeah. You got one more for us?

Yes. And this one's gonna make your day.

Okay.

I got a hero that came in for woodturning and he says, I can't make friends very easily. He says, well, the way I grew up, I had to fight. And we've. I had fight very often and very fierce. He said.

He says, and fighters do not make friends easy.

Well, he and the guy that I partnered him with went to the motel and they were talking till 3 o' clock in the morning, and they had to get up at 6 to come to my woodturney. Talk about bonding and those.

This guy now sends pictures of what he's doing and keeps in contact with my three helpers and the other guys that he was there with. Friends forever.

That's the good stuff right there. Yeah, that really is the bonding.

That's what this is all about. Too much. As much as what you're accomplishing with the word bonding is probably more important.

It falls under our. Under our connect, you know, connect rubric there. But yeah, that's. That's right. And they all share.

That's the other thing is, you know, veterans, all you and I share things as veterans, you know, you were in the army, I was in the Army. I mean, we could Talk about that for days.

But these are the combat wounded veterans that all were earned the Purple Heart, were wounded in action, saw combat, were wounded in action while wearing our country's, you know, uniform, deployed someplace. But, you know, it doesn't matter if you're a marine and got a purple Heart in the Air Force, you got a purple or you're an army guy.

When these guys get together, they share that common bond and, and boy, it's always like a thousand points of light. They, this guy knows that guy. You know, I was there. Yeah. And then like you say, you know, they, they, they bond together.

And those are lasting relationships. And that's what makes the world go round, is these lasting relationships. You know, this purpose, you know, I've got purpose back in my, my life.

You know, I found something I love.

Whether that's, you know, hunting deer or tying a fly or woodturning in your case, we've made a connection, you know, and we've provided them a safe place where they can. Nobody's going to judge them. Hey, my hands are too short. I can't, I can't use this lathe. Well, let me show you something.

You know, it's okay, you know, and, and, and now he's back in business. And, and Larry even said that you saved his life. I mean, he says that on that, on that program.

Maybe we can get our guys to, to, to hang a, a link to that really cool YouTube video on that news segment that was done because that's a high quality bit of work. We'll see if we can't do that. But listen, it's been an honor and a pleasure to have you on the program, Tony.

You're a great American and I really appreciate all that you've done especially for these heroes.

And I know they admire you a lot, as they should, and they respect you a lot, as they should for you just opening your heart and in your home, literally, and sharing some of the magic. And I had no idea that this thing would be where it is today, but it's really quite incredible.

And I want to thank you and your entire family for all that you've done for our nation's combat wounded.

Because it's a lot, and it's the little things that matter and the relationships that you've built and, and the, the, the, the wounds that you've helped heal through your work is just really commendable and I want to thank you for it.

Yeah, I thank you for allowing me to have this program. And before we leave, I got one more Thing I'd like to share with you. Okay. I plan on doing this for a long time yet. My. My lineage, my heredity is.

When I was a young kid, I can remember all these ancient people walking around, so I had got a lot of relation that got very old.

Okay, good. I'm glad to hear that.

Some of them got so old that I actually believe they died of wrinkles.

Okay, that's hilarious. Well, so you're going to be around for a while?

I plan on it.

Well, we need to.

My dad lived to be 92 and he did everything wrong and he took care of himself till the last years of his life. And his. His brothers and family and my mother's family. All some very ancient people.

I love it. Well, you know, we're. We're counting on that, buddy. You know, we, We. We need you, and our heroes need you.

It's really, what you're doing is remarkable and we appreciate it.

Well, I buy glue by the gallon and I use a lot of it. They have some really neat stuff they go home with.

Yeah, that's pretty neat. That's pretty. Okay, well, listen, buddy, I hope to see up north woods here come this fall. And again, I thank you for all you've done.

You're a great American.

Yeah, I saved one of those big cribbage boards. I was going to deliver it up to Camp Hackett, but I could never find anybody there.

Yeah, well, you know, I'll check calendar next time. Okay, buddy? Well, God bless you. I hope you have a great day and thanks for all you're doing.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Absolutely. All right, Tony. Bye.

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