We’ve got another outstanding episode in store for you today, as WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel proudly welcomes an American Hero and friend of the Foundation to the podcast. Today, we are joined by Purple Heart recipient and WWIA Guide, Mr. Eddie Hoffmann.

Eddie grew up outside of Tampa, Florida, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in early 2001 as an 0311. Eddie was assigned to Third Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, 2004 and 2005-06. During his final deployment, Eddie was injured by an Improvised Explosive Device and subsequently awarded the Purple Heart Medal for his wounds. Eddie would finish his 8 1/2-year career with Weapons and Field Training Platoon at Recruit Training Depot, Paris Island, SC, before being medically retired in February 2010.

Shortly after retirement, Eddie enrolled at the University of Tampa and returned to his hometown with his wife, Mollie. After graduating in2013, Eddie began working in various roles in Mental Health as a Peer Specialist in the VA and continues in this role today. Eddie is an avid deer and turkey hunter and enjoys surf fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. He has a daughter and a son who accompany him on outdoor adventures whenever possible. We look forward to sharing Eddie’s story with you and allowing you to get to know him better.

Takeaways:

• The WWIA Podcast aims to honor and support combat wounded Veterans by connecting them through shared experiences and healing activities.

• Eddie Hoffmann, a Purple Heart recipient, shares his journey from enlistment in the Marine Corps to his challenges and triumphs in combat and recovery.

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of camaraderie and support among veterans, illustrating how shared experiences can foster healing and connection.

• Eddie's transition from military service to a career in mental health highlights the significance of peer support in navigating the complexities of post-combat life.

• The discussion includes the therapeutic effects of outdoor activities, such as hunting and fishing, in aiding veterans' emotional and psychological recovery.

• The podcast underscores the necessity of community involvement and the impact of volunteer efforts in supporting veterans' reintegration into civilian life.

Foreign.

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.

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We've got another outstanding episode in store for you today as WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel proudly welcomes an American hero and friend of the foundation to the podcast. Today we're joined by Purple Heart recipient and WWIA guide, Mr. Eddie Hoffman.

06 during his final deployment, Eddie was injured by an improvised explosive device and subsequently awarded the Purple Heart Medal for his wounds.

He also has a daughter and a son who accompany him on outdoor adventures whenever possible. We look forward to sharing Eddie's story with you and allowing you to get to know him better.

So without further delay, let's join the conversation with John and Eddie right now.

I have Eddie Hoffmann with me and Eddie is a Marine and a great American. He's one of our guides. He's a Purple Heart recipient. He's been helping our heroes for several years now and he's got a great story to tell.

Welcome to the program, Eddie.

Thank you. Good to be here.

Yeah, good to see you again. So I was telling him in the pre show I was like, Eddie, I kind of have to pretend like I don't Know you that well. So that the odd.

So that the audience, he's like, oh, I get it. So here we are, man.

You know, I heard the commandant of the Marine Corps, and I don't know his current name, and probably neither do you would have a good reason to because you're no longer on active duty.

But I heard the commandant, or read maybe the commandant say, the current commandant that, you know, we used to refer to Marines as, you know, former Marine. I'm a former Marine, like, I might be a former soldier. Well, the commandant came out and said BS to that. If you were. You are.

If you were a Marine, you're always a Marine. So I introduced you as a Marine. I probably. I imagine you felt that way anyway.

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's something like I'll introduce myself as sometimes as a former Marine just because people don't understand that. But, you know, it's.

But yeah, I think amongst Marines, that's kind of how we feel that we're always, you know, part of the. The tribe. If you will try the brotherhood.

If Eddie's got Eddie sporting a really fancy beard, it's. It's down towards, you know, the middle of his chest, and it looks like. Looks like something not a Jeremiah Johnson like.

Like Hatchet Jack might wear. But that might be a giveaway that you're no longer wearing a uniform. But you look svelte. You're in good shape. Thank you.

Thank you.

So you are a Purple Heart recipient?

Yes, sir.

Yeah. And, yeah, you're a guide for us. So let's talk a little bit about just cranking off the program here. Let's get right into it. When you were.

Tell us about your experience in the Marine Corps, who'd you serve with? And then just build up to, you know, hit the wave tops of that. And then let's talk about combat operations, if you don't mind.

I. I know you got a great story and we'd love to hear it.

Yeah, I mean, I grew up in the area here out in Brandon, Florida. Valrico, Florida. So not too far from here. And it was. Graduated 99 from Brandon High School and basically wasn't doing much.

I was sleeping on the floor basically of one of my friend's houses because I'd gotten bumped out of my house, basically, and he was joining the Marine Corps, and I'd never even thought of joining the military. I had some family that had been in the military, but he was like, hey, if you join with me, we can go another buddy program. Like, what is that?

So he took me down to the recruiter, and you know how they're pretty good salesmen. So he was telling me about, you know, oh, yeah, we can get you. You'll at least go through boot camp together.

And I guess my ASVAB score was high enough that he wanted me to do something other than infantry or whatever. But my buddy was going security forces, so he had to go. Basically, I was infantry. Had to go through school of infantry and all that.

And I was like, well, I want to go with him all the way through. And he's like, well, you could do something else.

And let's just say a second here. Security forces, is that like the Marine Corps police Department?

So it's like they guard the embassies. They.

Okay, right, right.

They got the fast team. Like, so that's. That's the Marine Corps security force.

So you go through boot camp, school of infantry, and then you go through the school, security forces school or whatever. So I was figuring at least we'd be together for like six months and if I had to go in. When I go in with a buddy or something. But. But.

So the recruiter wasn't very happy. Just say I ended up having to get a waiver anyway and having to go infant. He's like, now you. Now you have to go infantry.

I'm like, that's what I wanted. Anyway. So, long story short, with that, it. Basically, that's how I ended up joining as an infantryman. The Marine Corps, August of 01.

So I'm sleeping on his floor. I hadn't even told my parents yet. And I'm waking up one day, you know, September 11th, and there's planes flying in the buildings in New York City.

And my first thought was, like, oh, what did I do? You know, I just. I just enlisted, going infantry. Haven't told my parents, so I had to tell them.

So you're enlisted at the time 911 kicks off you, but you haven't. You haven't gone to boot camp, you haven't deployed.

We were. We were set to go October, so the next month.

Oh, man, it was like, no question in your mind what was going to.

Happen at that point? Yeah, at that point I was like, all in. I knew. Kind of figured that, you know, some.

Some it's going to change the trajectory of whatever career I ended up with in The Marine Corps, yeah. And, you know, sure enough did. I mean, October. I mean, it was a month later, October 9th, I'm at Parris island going through boot camp and all that.

And of course, the tone changes. You know, drill instructors are all talking about, you're going to combat, you're going to combat.

We go get through boot camp, go to school of infantry, you're going to combat.

I would imagine just.

Just saying, okay, what I know about basic training in general, not the Marine Corps, but the Army's basic training, understand that program pretty well. I would imagine that you approached things with a heightened sense of awareness is that everybody had to, right?

I believe so, yeah. I mean, it was definitely. You had that in the back of your mind, like, I need to.

I guess sometimes, you know, it's just a check in the box or it's just. You can tell what they're doing is just part of the program. And I was able to pick that kind of apart.

But then there were those things that I'm like, I really should under. I really should get an understanding of this, because, you know, Marine Corps boot camp, it's not geared toward. It's geared towards general.

Marine Corps knowledge, general fitness, the whole idea of, you know, instant obedience to orders and all that kind of stuff, and then you go off to your MOS school and. But there were still some elements that, you know, were specific to what I might be doing in the infantry or whatever.

So, like, basic marksmanship, Like. Yes.

I mean, you'd be thinking to yourself, yeah, I'm shooting it, you know, at plastic targets here to a distance of, I don't know, 500 meters or something. But, you know, I really better take this pretty serious.

Absolutely, yeah. I mean, stuff like that, you know, it's just kind of. A lot of. It was geared towards, and it still was, even after, you know, I'm not.

I'm assuming they changed some things now, but towards, like, you know, big ground wars against. You know, we still had Ivan targets. We still had. Right. You know, crawling under barbed wire and all this other stuff.

Well, we were. We were. All of us were planning and preparing to fight the Russians. Right. You know, I mean, that was. That was like the. The way our mindset was.

We were all the way through the basically 70s and 80s and into the 90s.

I mean, that was our closest peer competitor, and we were preparing for force on force and the fold, a gap and, you know, and all this other stuff, you know, but, yeah, nobody. Nobody really saw and nor were we really prepared to fight the global war on terror, you know, from a general purpose force perspective, if you will.

But yeah, so go on your basic training. You get through that, and you're. And you get through your. Your individual training. That's what the army calls it, your MOS training. You know.

How long was that about?

0311.

Congratulations.

You made it.

Oh, yeah, yeah. So we. And we had, I mean, our whole company from SOI school of infantry.

So we're thinking 29 Palms, California. That sounds nice, you know.

Yeah, it does sound nice.

It sounds really nice. But it's not. It's not. You know, we get. We get out there, we go on bus at night, and they get us all in our rooms. I could tell it was warmer.

You know, it was. It was in the spring, so it wasn't too bad.

But wake up the next morning, I walk out and I see nothing but the hills, mountains, which we're not used to in Florida, and just desert, all that. And I just like, what do we. I didn't see any palm trees. You know, that's the joke. It's called the stumps because there's no palm trees.

But, I mean, we hit the ground running. I. I guess we kind of figured they're sending us all out in the desert. We're coming from the east coast, and it's.

I mean, it's where everybody in the Marine Corps went for desert training. So we're kind of like, okay, they're probably prepping us for. We figured Afghanistan at the time and then.

But no, I mean, we had a whole year to work up.

Do you know which unit which. Which Marine Corps unit you're going to at this stage?

You do at. When you're. When you get your orders after soi. So I was at 3rd Battalion, Submarine Regiment.

So where are they headquartered up at the time?

29 palms. So, okay, yeah, 7 Marine Regiment is out of 29 palms, but it makes up you also have 3, 4 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, because they're.

Their headquarters are in Japan because of something that happened years ago where they Surrendered their colors or whatever. So they had to. They can't be headquartered out of the United States or something like that. It's okay. Some history there. But you had them.

You had first tanks. We had AEV Battalion, had everything you needed. And that's where they. Everybody in the Marine Corps goes for combined arms exercises.

So that became our weekends. Was doing all these combined arms exercises. Did a lot of other cool things.

And are you staying in barracks at this point?

We got the barracks. So we'd hump out, you know, force march out there, you know, on a Friday or something and come back on a Monday.

And it was just like, you know, every weekend just about seemed like. Or we do some other training. But we. In the back of our mind, it's Afghanistan. But then Iraq started kicking up.

Right.

So we're on. We had a block of leave that Christmas.

2002.

Yeah. Okay.

So we're block of leave for Christmas. We had a whole month which our senior guys were like, that's weird.

Did you come back to Florida?

I actually went to Chicago to. My family was going up Chicago to visit my family there.

Cool.

So I went up there and surprised my mom. She didn't know I was gonna be there. It was pretty cool. But. And I had to stay there through New Year's and all that.

But then they called us while we were on leave and they said, when we come back, we're prepping to go to Iraq or whatever. We're prepping to go somewhere. And it wasn't a month later. We were in our ex. So it was like January 24th. We left, you know, and I. We.

The only unit on 20m palms that had the desert camouflage on. And we had a little thing going with one with 1st Battalion, seven Marines, across the chow hall parking lot. So we called them out.

We were supposed to fight with them a little bit, but instead the PMO showed up and they had green cammies on. So we ended up with them. A bunch of people got in trouble, so. But they let everybody go because we were deploying.

And I just always remember, you can fight.

Your Marines were actually thrown down in.

The park because once everyone was taught. Yeah.

It was like rivalries running their cake holes.

Yeah. So then it ended up being PMO that showed up. But all we saw was green camouflage. So they, they became target.

So that was always something I remember because my.

Gotta love it.

Yeah. Staff and CEOs weren't happy because they had to come up and dump all the alcohol. But my squad leader saved me a six pack because of my birthday.

So I always remember.

That's cool.

Kind of the day that we ended up leaving. I mean we got there to Kuwait. There wasn't anything there. It was like a few tents.

And then, you know, within a couple months there was just a city basically, you know. And then March, I guess it was 20th, 19th or whatever. We set out and that was basically.

Are you on foot or you are you, are you just straight. We would call it straight leg infantry. Were you motorized? How are you getting around?

So we were, we had the, like the AVs, the fibus assault vehicles. I think when we got there, they just drove us all out buses basically from the airport to, to there.

Default to fall in on this equipment. Was the equipment there?

There were, there was equipment there. But they, I believe they traveled with us because we had a, we had a forward unit that.

Or forward group that would go to unload all the ships as they came in.

Yeah, but so at this point, you know, you're, you're a trained infantryman. Okay. You fall in on your unit, you're deployed, you're in Iraq, and they. No, you have some familiarity with this vehicle that you're gonna.

This aav, which is a, Is a wheeled vehicle, looks like an.

It's tracked.

It's a tracked vehicle.

It's the tracked ones that can float but also go on land or whatever because, you know, we're amphibious. So. But I've never, I never actually.

It's not like a 113 track vehicle from a long time ago, but it.

Would be like how many, how many.

Marines are in the back of this thing?

Well, it's supposed to fit like a squad, so like 15 or 20, but we got like 30 back there or something with all the ammunition and everything.

Is that big? Supposed to put 15.

It's, it's big enough. You got a center seat and you got some seats on the side. So.

But you guys are inside, inside. You're not like hanging out. It's all covered.

Matches are closed. You got the diesel fumes, right.

So. So when this, this things take. Takes you into combat, there's. It's a light skinned vehicle, right. If it took a 50 cal, it'd go right through it.

Probably maybe stop that.

We hang our packs on the outside. So Those tend to stop, deflect rpg. That's part of the armor, we call it. In fact, my. One of my pouches on my, my Molly pack had all my socks in it.

Yeah, I got hit with an rpg, so I had no socks for the rest of the deployment. And. Well, until we got some more things like that. But it was like my, my combat boots became like slippers or something.

It was actually really comfortable. So it was. Right, so it worked out. But I mean, we were wearing the mop suits. The.

Right.

We had green mop suits, of course.

Because, you know, so it's hotter and it's hotter than Hades. You got these, these chemical warfare suits on. You're in the back of this aav.

You don't know where you are, where you're going because you're just a crunchy.

Yeah.

Right. And then. Yeah. And all of a sudden just mount. You know, the, the ramp drops and you guys get out and go do your thing.

That was probably the, the weirdest thing. I mean, that's where like muscle memory or your training kicks in because you really don't know.

I mean, they try to give you like an update, but it's so loud in there you can't hear anything.

All you want to do is either. Is either eat or sleep.

Yeah. You're running out the back and they're yell over the berm or contact right or whatever it is your formation you're going to get into.

And, you know, it happened. Our part of the invasion wasn't too bad. I remember thinking there was one point where we were the most or the farthest north deployed regular unit.

And we were like, oh yeah, we're cool, you know, whatever.

We're of course for the Marine Corps or whatever, but we met up with some guys in the middle of the desert with beards and a Humvee that was all chopped up with an M60. And you know, we're like, who are these guys? End up being like Special Forces guys. But, but like.

So we got, we got a quick education on kind of how everything goes. They've been there a while, but. But yeah, it was weird being. I mean, like you said, I was a year, year and a half in or something, still really new.

And. And you see where that instant obedience to orders from boot camp kicks in.

Like why they press that or, you know, push that so much is because if you actually thought about what we were about to do, jump out of the back of a vehicle that's at least it's light armored and then go Jump on a berm somewhere and you don't know what you're getting into.

Typically, you didn't see it coming.

No, you couldn't see it.

You couldn't see anything. You were just in the back of this thing. It might have been a 15 minute ride. It might have been a two hour ride.

You're just back there, your rucksacks are, you know, are fixed to the outside of this vehicle. You're packed in there like lemmings. Some dudes eating an mre, some dude's sleeping.

You're holding bottles for each other to urinate in or something.

Exactly, exactly.

This is a lifetime.

This is the life of an infantryman. Yes.

And it was hot from the diesel engines and everything. And just, I mean, I, I often think, now I look back and how do we make it through it?

How did I go through that and like, survive that part of it even? It was just because you had to. Right?

You know, you had to.

Yeah.

So your deployment is a year.

So that deployment actually was nine months. It was supposed to be.

We get to Baghdad and we leave because, I mean, that's the way the Marine Corps, you know, typically in the past has always been kind of set up. And I think they're trying to get back to that now.

Right.

I mean, we're expeditionary. The Army Air Force will come in and kind of occupy. That's usually how it go. So we were sitting in the middle of a desert after Baghdad.

I think we got really by 101st or something like that in Baghdad. And we're sitting there for. We're supposed to sit there for four days and then start, you know, retrograding back or whatever.

Going back to the States.

Are you in com. Have you been in combat at this point?

Yeah, it was.

You guys are exchanging fire with the enemy, you know, periodically. Correctly.

Yeah, it was pretty. I mean, a lot of times they. We had, we definitely had skirmishes and all that. It wasn't too bad for us.

It wasn't like going into Fallujah.

No, no.

I mean, it was the early part of. This is the early part of the. The invasion.

Yes, the invasion. I mean.

Oh, two time.

A lot of them ran. A lot of times you're coming up on their position and their clothes are there, their IDs are there, their weapons are still there and they're. They.

These are Iraq is. You're, you're fighting Saddam's at this point. We're fighting Saddam's regular Army force.

Correct.

Forces.

I mean, there was times, you know, Baghdad where we'd hear their tanks rolling around, but then our tanks would typically take them out. I mean, a lot of it we had. I remember the Cobras and all that circling over.

We still don't have Saddam at this point.

No.

But I remember Baghdad being kind of interesting because you met a lot of people that had been tortured or whatever because they spoke out against Saddam and how happy they were and everything. But I also remember it then going into chaos because there was nobody in charge and.

Right. You know, Uday and Kuse, his two sons, are right, you know, at large. We're hunting them, too.

We didn't find them to. My. My second deployment didn't find them because I remember being on a.

On a patrol, and all of a sudden everybody's shooting in the city, but I guess they're shooting up in the area. That's how they celebrate.

They were happy that they were found.

Out about it, but. But, yeah, I mean, that. That deployment was supposed to be.

I guess if we'd left then it would have been about three months or so, because, I mean, the invasion actually, you know, only took like, a month or so. So we're sitting there, and then our. They needed, I guess, five battalion infantry battalions from the Marine Corps to stay back.

So our battalion commander volunteered us and then left us a few weeks later. But it was supposed to be for a month. It turned out to be five more months. We ended up in Karbala, Mosul area, Najaf, like, all in that kind of area.

And it was prior to IEDs, so it was just a few times they would mortar us or something and move on. And. Wasn't too bad. I mean, it was. I guess it was like, for me, it was a good way to see the country for what it was or the people.

Right.

Instead of it just being our enemy or whatever.

Let me. Let me ask. Ask you, Eddie, at this, at this stage, your. What are your thoughts and feelings about. I mean, it's hard to go back maybe.

I don't know, but what are your feelings about being a Marine at this point? You liking it? You hating it?

I'm liking it. I think I'm liking. I, I.

The biggest thing for me was always, no matter what happened, no matter what we were going through, we still found a way to laugh or something or we still had a good time.

You got your buddies, man.

Yeah, and I never really had that. I mean, growing up, I had friends or whatever, but not that close. Yeah, not that close. Not. And that always. That always kind of.

I just sit There sometimes be like, how are we. I mean, there was this sandstorm while we were on the way up. It got. It was so bad. You know your goggles that they gave you, they didn't work.

But we had to stop for a day because the vehicles couldn't make it through all the sand. And then it rained that night because.

They couldn't see it.

Couldn't see, couldn't. The vehicles couldn't.

Like just a major dust storm.

It was bad. I mean, you couldn't see anything. That night it started raining like the biggest raindrops I can remember in my life.

So it turned everything in the mud. All that dirt that you had on you was mud. Now and then somebody sees movement out of the left side. You couldn't tell what it was because pitch black.

And we couldn't use lights because we're in combat, so you don't want to be flashing. So we're trying to look through our megs and a donkey walks up. So we tied chem lights to the neck of a donkey just so we know what it was.

It was just walking through everything.

Hilarious.

People were trying to run. I mean, it's just stuff like that that's. You don't expect. You don't.

You'll never forget it though.

No, I never forget it. I mean, camels grabbing your MVGs off your head as you're walking by a wall or something.

I can just hear the radio chatter now. Break two fort. This is two six. Roger. We just put some chem lights on this donkey. Just so you know. That's what's walking out in front of you there.

Over.

Yep. They had to warn everybody. And I mean it was. It's just stuff like that. I think that stands out to me.

I mean, as much as like some of the negative things. So, yeah, I was definitely liking it. I was liking the, the structure. It was pretty easy. I mean, you just did this and you.

Were you an athlete in, in high school?

No, not really.

Really.

I think I was anti. I was like an anti athlete where I wasn't in the best shape, but I could run, I could do. I was going to do.

I still got my under 18 minute three miles, like, and I just kind of. I think I was just stubborn or whatever. You know, I. I tried. I did play basketball in my senior year.

It was at a small school in Oklahoma when I was getting. I had gotten a little bit of trouble. I had to go out there, but it was.

That sounds like another podcast, buddy.

Yeah, yeah. No, but I mean, I've gotten, I think I was just one of those. I could play like whatever sports or do whatever.

I just never really gravitated towards the organized athletics. Okay. I was just curious. You know, most infantry men, you know, they're athletic. You know, whether you did organized athletics or not.

They're just basically, you know, or athletic. They weigh, they weigh about 145 pounds dripping wet. They could hump all day long.

I just, I think I just had, I was determined and I was stubborn and like if they told me, you know, I never, I never was over my weight limit or whatever, but sometimes I have to get taped or something. But I was in the gym too and stuff.

But I think my journey into the military and into the infantry was like so weird compared to some of the guys that I talked to. Different pathway.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a weird one. Interesting.

But yeah. So let's go back to, let, let's, let's fast forward the tape to the, the, to the moment.

The, the, the combat operations where, where you get, where you get wounded. What, what happens there.

So we'd have to go. We ended up there. We got back like October of 03.

We weren't supposed to go back again, but we were back over there in February of 04 because Id started happening.

Thanks to Iran.

Yeah. So Id started happening. We were hearing it on news. So they sent us back four months later and we ended up up Deer Huseba and Al Qaim area.

And some people may know Jason Dunham, he was one of the guys in our, our company. He's a different platoon but good, good guy. Who.

I think it was the first one we lost that deployment, but he ended up getting medal of honor and all that. But some of us posthumously. Yes. Yeah, it was, it was a big. That's a whole another story.

But it was something that my company commander and a few of the others really worked on for years because the, the way it went down. But so I think after that one, I mean that was 04, we did a seven month. That's what the Marine Corps was doing.

Things are heating up at this stage. We got IEPs happening like O5,04,05,04,05,06 are just bad, bad times for the Fallujah was starting. Yeah, that's it.

So we were, we were stuck there. They took all our tanks from us. We, we replaced a calvary unit, army cavalry unit and we had nothing.

We had no high back or we had no apartment humvees or anything. This was early 04.

So they left us a couple Humvees, but when they were showing us around, we were riding in tanks and Bradley's and they're like, you guys are gonna do this on foot? We're like, yeah. And they're like, man, they mess us up in tanks at Bradley. So. So we were kind of worried about it.

They left us a few up armored Humvees that the Air Force had left them. But I mean, we were using Kevlar blankets if we could find them. You're getting sandbags that you're. It was. It was a.

You mean to. To. To. To add some additional protection to the vehicle.

Correct. And then you did IED sweeps where you basically rode up and down the road hoping to find them or they'd blow up on you. You know, it's just like a.

It was a weird time somehow. We.

Psychologically, though, if you think about that. Right. I mean, you. You. You know that.

And that's part of the whole, you know, instilling, you know, terror, uncertainty, confusion, you know, this idea. If I'm going down the road with my platoon, I'm either on foot or I'm on a vehicle.

In most cases, they want to get a vehicle, they want to get a convoy. And then, you know, bang. You know, you're. You're in the middle of this thing and there's nobody there to turn your anger against.

No.

You know, and that's. That's the, you know, the chicken shit thing about it, if you ask me. And I always just really, you know, that we were not really.

Who could be prepared for that? I'm saying we were not prepared for that. Who could be prepared for such a thing?

It was definitely a moment because I get. So my third deployment is where I got injured. But I think this employee.

This deployment was important leading up to that because it was where I got to the point. All that positivity that I felt like during. After the invasion, where people were happy to, you know.

Yeah. You felt like, hey, I'm liberating the country. These. The local populace.

Yes.

Is applauding me. There's good interaction. Boy, this is a good thing.

Yeah.

And that changed then.

You get there and all this stuff's happening. We had our civil affairs guys would give us money to go out in the community.

So each squad would kind of pick a platoon, maybe would pick kind of a project for that platoon to go out there and fix a. Well, we. We were doing a girls school. You know, girls build a girl school. Girl school. We had donations from the states and.

Everything the week before Hearts and minds.

Yep. The week before. That's what. Yeah. Build the hearts and minds.

Week before the school was supposed to open, some insurgents went in there, killed a couple of teachers, and said, if anybody comes to the school, you know, they're done. And we're like, that's what the Vietcong.

How can we compete with that?

Yeah, how can you.

And you're still there. You're still having the, you know, the whole no better friend, no worst enemy, all that.

And you're. You're.

I think a switch kind of flipped there where it was like, it went from less enjoyment. I don't know. I guess I enjoyed the aspect of, like, helping other people.

But then it became all about making sure the guys got home or whatever, you know, and that.

That's very dangerous environment.

I think everybody kind of went to that. So that led to my survival.

I mean, that's your. That survival mode. Yeah.

And it, you know, led. You know, we had done them, had gotten killed, and then three of our guys from our squad ended up getting hit with a rocket and during a.

A mission we shouldn't have been on. But that's a whole nother story. But so it was like a really. That was really negative point.

It gets real, real quick at that stage.

It does. And I was on my way out. That was over for, oh, five. We. We had a whole year before we were supposed to deploy again. So my plan was.

You mean a third on your third deployment?

On my third. So, yeah. Because that was only seven months. Like, we do seven month deployment. So after that deployment, I'm still having these feelings.

What pay grade are you at this point?

At that point, I'm E3, so. And I'm a team leader.

Okay, so you got like three or four dudes that work for you.

They got four because we ended up splitting up our weapon splatoon and turning it into, like, integrating it.

You're a pfc and they gave you. And they gave you it.

So theory would be Lance Corporal, but it's basically.

Oh, Lance Corporal. That's right. That's right.

Yeah. So, I mean, we had a. We had a lance corporal as a squad leader, too. I mean, it was just whoever's the best at the job, but.

And at that time, picking up corporal in their first four years was almost, you know, unheard of. The cutting score was so high and everything because they were retaining everybody, you know.

Right.

So we get Back, and we have a year to work up to the next deployment. It was supposed to be Afghanistan, so.

You go back to 29 palms.

Go back 29 palms. We got a lot of time.

Garden spot.

And we have a year. I'm going to be getting out at the end of that year. That's the end of my four years. So I figured out, and they're going to Afghanistan, supposedly.

And at that time, Afghanistan was like vacation spot compared to Iraq. But that was also when it started ramping up a lot. And so my plan was train up my guys, get them ready to go, and then I'm out, you know.

But as it got closer, I'd met my wife at the end of my last deployment. During my second deployment, we had started talking a little more. And then. So my plan was kind of get out, go to school.

She was already going to University of Florida. I thought maybe I'd go there and just kind of do that whole thing. But I. As it got closer, I'm like, I don't really want to let.

They're going to Afghanistan. Not that bad. I don't. I had this feeling like, you know, like I said, everything kind of switched to keeping your guys alive type thing.

So I picked up Corporal a few months before I got out. I was going to get out. So I'm like, man, I'd love to go back as a. An NCO and, you know, lead my guys in another spot or whatever.

So I went ahead and extended my contract for a year so I could do that deployment with them. It wasn't a month later. They said, we're going back to Iraq. I'm like, oh, no.

You were wanting to go to Afghanistan or thinking you were going to go.

Yeah, that was a plan. Going to Afghanistan.

So it's three the third time you're going back.

Yeah. And it was going to be seven months. Nothing crazy. I was going to. I think we left August of.

You're. You're an E5 now. I mean, this is E4. Okay. So that's right. Lance Corporal E3. Corporal E4.

Correct.

You know, hard stripe in a leadership position.

You got the cross rifles and you got. Yeah, all that stuff.

Cool rank, right?

Yeah, yeah. So you got. And yeah, I mean, you're. You're. I'm still. I think I was still a team leader at the time, but, I mean, it wasn't a month into it.

That's when I got hit. But, you know, we go to Ramadi. That's our third deployment.

Ramadi was not good at the Time, you know, it wasn't good for a while, but we took a lot of casualties. It was more. It was. We still had a lot of IEDs, but it was a lot more of RPGs flying, a lot more mortars, a.

Lot more intensity from. From the first deployment in O2 to fast forward to third deployment in 04. Yeah, things have changed.

So third point. So 5, 06, end of that. 04 was the second and then O3 was basically first. But yeah, it's a lot. So in that time, a lot has changed.

I mean, Ramadi is the capital of the Alhambar province. Basically. It's where everything goes through. So it's pretty important. We had the government center there that we were in charge of.

We had army units all around us that were also helping Camp Corregidor further down. And then Blue or Camper Maddie was an army base. So, you know, it was a lot of, A lot of troops in there.

And you know, a month into it, a month and a half into it, we're driving down same road we go on MSR Michigan every day. And driving in front of one of our, the other company, I think it was Lima company's position right at this intersection.

295 and was the name of that or what we called it. And I. There was something in the road.

I told the driver to swerve left out of, you know, muscle memory and instead of blowing up under us, blew up right outside my door. And you swerved.

You, you. What were you in?

It was a high back Humvee. So it was like one of the Humvees that just had like the open back on it, you know, so you just sit troops in there.

But it had like armor on the back. But it was one of the. It was like the backup medevac vehicle. I was the vehicle commander. It was just me and the driver, basically.

Okay, so just in our training, you know, if you're have him swerve left because if, if I get taken out, that's okay because he could still drive potentially out of the danger zone. But so it just out of practice or whatever told him swerve left.

So if it had blown up underneath us, we had no armor underneath it, so it would have been a bad deal. But.

But yeah, it, you know, you swerve left and take the blast pretty much swerve left, took the blast outside my door and the door held up thankfully. It blew it off the hinges into my leg, basically, which is. I got some nerve damage in my leg now, but it caused some burns and shrapnel.

Still got a little piece of my face but it. It gave me a really bad tbi. It was the big thing because I mean I was so close to it. It. I remember I didn't lose consciousness right away.

I had enough time to check on the driver. He had a big gash in his arm and like I had. So I had enough time to check on him and then call on the radio and say hey, I'm good pose hurt.

I think I'm gonna pass hell basically. And I did. I passed out and I woke back up to one of my guys where we had what we called kill cards, you know, in our IFAC in our first aid kit.

And so they pull that out so they call in the Cassavac and he was leaning on my leg, which was hurting a lot at the time. So I woke up, I would get off, you know, I just. I yelled at him and that's how I came to. Took me to Campomati.

He was treating your initial treatment of your wounds?

He was trying.

Trying to.

Yeah, he was trying to. And I yelled at him. But Berg Falco's name. He was just one of our boots or one of the new guys. But yeah, so much happened. I mean it.

Right.

It was a blur.

They gave me morphine, put us in the back with like the military working dog who apparently the guy that the handler didn't like blood so he wasn't watching what his dog was doing because his dog was licking our legs and stuff. It was a mess.

These are the kind of things it's just. We can't make it up. No.

And we get in there and we put us on the bed on morphine. I re enlisted. Apparently on the. While you were on morphine on the hospital bed.

They got a picture of it because I'd done reenlistment paperwork because I was.

Thinking about doing it. That's not usually how it works. You're on morphine and you reenlist for another.

So I have no picture of me reenlisting because it was on the hospital. But I don't think. I think they're worried that, you know, it would. But anyway, I reenlisted then granted, I couldn't do the.

I couldn't get the, you know, incentives or whatever. Reenlistment incentives really because I was then non deployable because I couldn't do it.

I just don't understand how the Marine Corps or any service branch would reenlist a guy who's in the hospital recovering from his wounds when they don't know if this guy is going to actually be able to continue to serve. You got a tbi. You know, you're, you're.

It's just definitely it, it caused some issue. I mean they asked me. I remember everybody that needed to be there was there and I remember them asking me if I want to do it.

I was like, yeah, let's do it. But I was literally on morphine in the hospital. And so. And there's a whole story about why I don't have the picture.

The first sergeant wasn't happy because I wouldn't let him use it as a poster and all this other stuff. Yeah, it was a mess. But. But you know, I ended up parasyl in my last four years. It's a non deployable, not doing drill insurance.

They took care of you?

Yeah, they. They got me out of there and took care of me. I made it back to the unit.

Good.

But parasol was a whole nother story. I mean it's a, a training command, so all they care about is can you run, wear your uniforms? All that stuff. It was in the first.

It's. It's basic training. Right. I mean, and we're.

And the. I was a weapons build training battalion. So we were running like the repel tower, the gas chamber, the training support. Yes, all that stuff.

So it's didn't necessitate me to be.

You still need good Marines doing that work.

Yeah. And it, I was. When I got there, I think it was the first one that had come any combat or anything, so.

Oh, wow.

It eventually filled up with a lot of other combat vets. So that became great because then we could. That's where I realized how important it was to have like the whole peer support aspect of it.

But originally, I mean I got there. My first sergeant was. He'd been on the drill field so long he was a mail clerk, which I didn't know was a thing.

Hmm.

So I, Yeah, I did that when I, when he told me that like. Huh. And he's like. He thought I was laughing at him. So he had me go to S4 and.

Or 3 or whatever and pull all my stuff to make sure I rated everything and go get height and weight, all this stuff. So he didn't like me at that point.

But you know, long story short with that, like my last four years, I struggled to get back to where I could run a first class pft. And I did. I got to where I could do that again.

Running was a hard thing because with the nerve damage, I can't really feel my leg feels like it's on fire when I'm running or when I'm walking. But so in my mind it's on fire, it's hurting, it's a lot of pain.

But I had to work through that mentally to where I basically could deal with it and just understand that it's not actually hurting, it's just the nerves. But. And then, yeah, I got back to where I could run because the whole time I was E4, I couldn't pick up.

I had the score for sergeant, but until I could run a PFT, I couldn't get it. So I did that within about six months of me having to get out. I ran a first class pft.

So I should have been able to get promoted, but then they put me on a med board and they medically retired me, you know, a little while later. But, you know, the, you know, kind of rewinding to the.

When I got hurt, I think that's when I realized how much like my girlfriend at the time, my wife now kind of meant to me because the. She was first one I wanted to call and kind of all that. And she was like really supportive of me while I was recovering and everything. So that was.

So by that point, you know, I was like, you know, I'll just get out of school. Her and I had been married, had gotten married eventually and I'll just start my life.

But then they got me out after my EAS date, so I had to re enroll in school. It was like anything they could do, they just made it hard getting out, so.

Well, I appreciate you sharing that with us, buddy. That's. Yeah, I hadn't gotten that far into your story, but I really enjoyed it. I'm sure others will too here.

So the other thing I want to chat about here, switching gears on you a little bit is your current work. I mean, you've been doing this for a while now.

12 years.

12 years. Wow. 12 years. You work at the Department of Veteran affairs, right?

Yes, sir.

So tell us a little bit about what you're doing now.

Sure. I work in mental health clinic as a Pierce A peer specialist is the title.

So peer specialist, peer support goes back to kind of what I was talking about, you know, that my last four years and even in college, like we started a student veterans organization at the University of Tampa and it was providing peer support. We didn't really know it as that, but that was kind of the concept behind it was bringing in veterans with the mental health or substance.

Substance use disorder or both who are in recovery, have been for a little while and are showing signs of recovery, and just kind of teach them the skills to help support other veterans. So that first year was, man, two weeks of training I went to.

And then you had to have like 500 hours of actual experience before you could get certified that you can get hired. So went through that whole process. I started that down in Sarasota as part of. Down there. Their pro. Their hospital down there. Okay.

A va. A VA Hospital.

Correct.

Okay.

And then my daughter was born, so I wanted to get closer to Tampa. They had a spot open. So 10 years ago, 11 years ago almost, I moved out to Tampa, and I've been there ever since at the mental health clinic.

I've worked in the substance use disorder service clinic. I work now in the PTSD program.

So, I mean, the gist of it is a lot of times, you know, like a new vet coming in, new to the va, maybe new to mental health treatment, or just in general, just, you know, they could. Could have been out 10 years, 20 years, two days. But, you know, sending it my way, helping with navigating the system.

The VA has a lot of good programs. There's. There's some that aren't so good, so, hey, steer clear of those.

But.

But, you know, just somebody that can sit down with them and figure out what their goals are, what they're trying to do, and then use my own experiences to maybe help them find resources or anything. I mean, I. I saw a vet in the parking lot the other day. He had a purple heart attack.

So I was like, hey, man, you like to hunt and fish and pull them about this program. You know, just stuff like that where you're trying to find. For me anyway, it's like trying to find that one thing for them that'll click.

And, you know, I'm.

To a point now in my own recovery, you want to call it that, where I have a hard time looking back and seeing anything negative, because I like who I am now. I like where I'm at, where I'm going. So it's like, how could you think negatively about some of the stuff you've been through?

Well, let's.

Let's talk about that for a second, because I think it's an important topic, you know, and in life, regardless of whether or not you've been through combat and been wounded and the trauma that you Know that you've been through and the healing and the recovery and all of that. And, you know, this idea of, of finding something that clicks. Yep.

This idea of, of being successful at something that you enjoy and being surrounded by other people and being. Having them be successful at whatever you're engaging in. So you, this same thing, you go back to the Marine Corps.

One of the things I wanted to share or mention when you were chatting about, you know, that I was in hospital and I enlisted, you're like, okay, you know, there's something going on here. Right. And one of those things is, you know, that shared commonality of experience.

You know, the dust storm with the guys, the donkey, you know, rattling around in the back, you know, of an AV humping it up a hill. You know, they're all these things that when you share these challenging times with other others in your unit, it serves as a bonding agent.

And combat does. Takes that to a whole new level.

And especially when you see, you know, your buddies, you know, perishing and being wounded and, you know, then it makes it, you know, really real. And then the, you know, the, all of the, the loss that goes with that and, you know, the grieving and all that.

I mean, this, all these things can either either take you one way or they can take you the other way. You know, I had a boss once, guy by the name of Bill Steiger is my battalion commander. And I was his scout platoon leader.

And long story short, he called for guidons, which was all commanders to come to a location. And then the scout was included in guidons. Even though I wasn't commanding, I was a lieutenant.

There's a lieutenant, all the captains, and then the battalion commander.

But before the other commanders got there, I got there first to this dark hilltop one night and it was just the two of us, Colonel Steiger and I standing around. And here's a lieutenant sitting next to a two time combat veteran from Vietnam, the 1st Cav, you know, I mean, he might as well been God.

Right, right. I mean, and I didn't know what to say. I mean, I was just, just a good little. Trying to be a good little scout, you know, platoon leader. But I just.

Something came out of my mouth. I just said, you know, we were kind of just kibitzing a little bit and I said, hey, sir, mind if I ask you a question?

He's like, yeah, what's that, scout? I said, well, because I had just come out of college, you know, not long ago, I studied the Vietnam wars.

I just revered men who had been in Combat in Vietnam, had seen the movies and all this stuff, you know, and so I was like, you know, acer, how come it is that, you know, some guys, you know, went off to Vietnam and they came back and they were just, you know, all screwed up. And then some guys went and had, you know, similar experiences and, you know, are okay, you know, I said, I just. I can't get my head around that.

He's like, well, it breaks down like this. He says, combat makes strong men stronger and weak people weaker.

And I just thought about that, and thank goodness that we've got such great support networks around these guys, because everybody gets to a turning point. You can just go one way or you can go the other.

And the fact that we've got through the Veterans Administration and all these wonderful charities that are out there trying to help these guys, and networks like the veteran service organizations that are out there, places for these guys to go and turn to in dark moments. And I think that's what we've got. Just, we've kind of cracked the code on that, you know.

And you're in that position still today, helping guys try to find something that clicks, right?

Correct. Yeah. I mean, for me, it was hunting and fishing. That's why I kind of gravitated towards this. But.

But, I mean, it really was getting back into that, maybe tapping into something from my childhood, whatever it was. And yoga, honestly, was a big thing that I always like, oh, that's. That's stuff my wife does or something, you know.

But the first time I tried yoga, I was like, oh, my God, my back doesn't hurt as much.

Yeah, no, I tried it. I tried that hot yoga once. I couldn't take it, man.

Yeah, but it's just trying different things, finding that one thing that clicks or a couple things.

Getting engaged.

Yeah, getting engaged. I mean, it. You know, for me, it was really.

I mean, for a lot of vets, when they get out, I think there's a period to go through where you have, like, a. This identity crisis. You're trying to figure out, who am I now? I mean, in the Marine Corps, it was easy. I was. I was an infantry man. You know, I was.

I was a grown. I was this and that. You know, I got a Purple Heart, I went to combat. All the stuff you'd want to have, like, to come out.

But then I go into college, they don't care about that. Like, if anything, that's a negative thing towards me, so. And I realized real quick, like, there was a Vietnam vet that I had talked To. And I.

He didn't tell me till about 15, 20 minutes into the conversation that was Vietnam bit. I was like, why didn't you lead with that? Like, to me, that's pretty cool. He's like, I've just done so much since. And I really didn't get that.

Like, I didn't understand.

Great. That means it's just part. It's compartmentalized.

It's part of his life, made him who he is. However, he's done so much since then that.

Right.

That's not what he leads with anymore. And I didn't understand at the time.

I love that. That's great, man. Yeah.

And around the time I heard this quote that I still quote to everybody. I mean, now it's. You're not always responsible for where you are, but you're responsible where you go from here.

So we don't, you know, circumstances, life, whatever gets us to a certain point where we get to that point where we're like, I don't like where I'm at. And it could be our fault. Could not be our fault. It could be just life in general, the way the world runs, whatever.

There's a choice involved there, but there.

Is a choice involved to where. It's, like, from this period on where I realize there's some issues, it's up to me to kind of get myself out of that.

So those two things happening around the same time, like, we're, I guess, life changing in a way to me, but also kind of open my eyes to try new things and stuff like that. And, you know, I kind of got back in the hunting a little bit, and then. Yeah, I mean, the rest is pretty much, I guess, history. It was.

Yeah. No, you. You have. You have what? You know, when I. When I look at individuals and look to, you know, put them on the. On the team.

First off, you know, you have to be selected by one of your peers. You go on a WWI event.

You know, we serve all Purple Heart recipients, regardless of, you know, the era that you were wounded or the service branch, you have a Purple Heart. You're you. You know, you can get on this team.

And then our guides look at you, and if you're one of these people that stands out for whatever reason, and it's not necessarily that you have this great acumen in hunting and fishing. You're skilled. That's okay, and that's great. But that's not who we're looking for. The leadership that we provide are those that we serve.

But you obviously stuck out somebody Identified you. You went on a couple of events, and the next thing you know, you know, we're meeting each other, I think, at guide school. Yeah.

And I'm like, wow, you know, I was just checking you out. And I was like, you know, he's kind of quiet. He's definitely switched on. He's observing, you know, everything. And his comments are. Are spot on.

He's engaged. I was like, you know, there's a relative calmness about Eddie, and I like it, you know, and that's perfect. So you got to have.

In our space, you got to have what they call high eq, emotional intelligence. And it's not just about being in command of your faculties emotionally, because that's part of it.

It's really more about how well do you interact with others.

Are you somebody that can engage well socially, individually, in small groups, and you've got that, but because you got it mostly because you care about your fellow, you know, brothers and sisters, if you will. You're one of those people that genuinely cares. And I. You know, I sense that from the moment I met you.

So the work that you're doing with the foundation now dovetails into the work that you are currently doing with the VA and dovetails into the work that you did where you were wearing a uniform.

It's definitely as soon as I realized what the foundation was and what y' all did and everything else, like, man, this is. You know, when they. You know, the guy that asked if I'd be interested, I was like, man, sign me up. Because, I mean, really, I guess for me, it's.

I realized in college that I could. I mean, I was 30, I think 29, 30. And these kids, all they cared about was, like, going out and partying and all that.

I'm like, how could I ever have anything in common with them? But I realized we're all there for the same reason. We're all. Well, we're trying to pass the class, at least.

So when it all boils down to it, we're trying to get our degree. We're trying to do something similar.

So all the other stuff aside, if I could focus on what we had in common and just keep that in my mind rather than all the other stuff that would keep me from talking to these people, then at least I could get along with them and. And be able to work with them towards our common goal. And I guess that getting into. Yeah, working for the va, it's the same thing. It's.

I always kind of sit back and listen to people, and you Know, anybody can do this. Just sit back, listen to them, and there's something they're gonna say that you might be able to relate to.

And then you can just focus on, make that kind of like you're in to talk to them. Because like, I believe, you know, recovery is. Anybody could recover from anything in my mind, like, it could be, it'll be hard.

It'll be, you know, a lot of work and all that. I don't, I don't sugarcoat it. However, you know, you're not going to.

Do it alone and you can't avoid it. You can't avoid it. You've got, you've gotta, you gotta, you gotta deal with it. Right. One way or the other.

Because if you just suppress it, you know, things just have a tendency to get, to get worse.

Yeah. And that's our natural reaction. I mean, our mind works to self preservation is like a huge thing. So, you know, we built up these walls.

I always say that with the Vietnam vets, it's like they have these walls built up over so many years that you're trying to take those back down and then ask them to open up about stuff that they've been, you know, suppressing for so many years. That's tough to do and doing it on, doing it on your own is difficult. So for me, it's.

If I can talk to somebody and get an in with them, relate in some way, get them to open up a bit and just listen to me talk about what's available and you can find that one thing that might click then. And I guess it's kind of like, you know, you find Jesus, you want to tell everybody kind of thing, you know, as they say.

But it's the same thing with like recovery for me is just kind of. It's possible. I've seen it happen with a lot of vets and you can always find some common ground with somebody.

You just gotta listen more than you talk sometimes.

Yeah, I had a boss, I had a boss once for sure, you know, a boss once who talked about loyalty, you know, as a being a pile of bricks. Now you talk about a wall, right? I mean, these Vietnam veterans and modern day post 911 veterans, we all build walls. Why do you build a wall?

Well, to protect yourself, right. And to defend against any, any sort of incursion. That's why we have, you know, walls.

But he would say, you know, he talked about this pile of bricks and the analogy was that, you know, every day that you're, you know, around your platoon and your Men and people in general. This pile of bricks, you can either build walls with it or you can build a bridge.

And you gotta have a plan, and every day just lay a good brick part of that, and that's what that is. But at the same thing, on the topic of loyalty, it's an interesting topic. I think it's a value that's just way underrated for the most part.

But loyalty's always been a big thing for me. But he said, in one instant, in one event, you can build a wall with that pile of bricks. You're trying to build this great bridge.

It might take days, weeks, months, years to build this solid, wonderful bridge between you and your unit, between you and your friends, your family, etc. But in one disloyal moment, you can build a wall that's impenetrable. And that's the funny thing about relationships. Right?

But those are really, really good points. I want to switch gears one more time on you as we wrap this thing up. And you were just on an event back up at Camp Hack.

You've been to Camp Hack more than I've been to this year.

I've been pretty lucky. Yeah.

Yeah. So Camp Hack is our northernmost healing center in the north woods of Wisconsin. It's where all this, you know, where the foundation began.

And, you know, it's 410 acres of wild, remote property. There's every furbearer known to man, you know, roaming the woods. It's untouched, pristine wilderness.

And it's where we hold an annual bear hunt up there, which is led by Colonel Arthur Kandarian. A very dear friend of mine runs that event for us. And you were slated as being one of the guides to help Arthur.

And we had, I want to say, three bear tags. First we only had two, and then we got a third. So that covered the heroes, the Purple Heart heroes that were on that event.

And then a fourth tag became available. And I was like, perfect, because now Eddie's going to get to take a, you know, to take a bear. And the bear are just thick up there.

Like, this is the first time, I think, in the history of the organization that we just, We. We. We tagged out four bears at. @ Camp Hackett in the north Woods.

And I just love to hear your, you know, your experience, because when I found out we got that third bear, I was like, because I'm back here in the rear with the gear, you know. But I heard through the grapevine immediately when that third bear went down that I said that my first thought was Eddie's going to get a chance.

So if you don't mind share share that story with us because you got to be feeling pretty good about.

Yeah, it was first time I've ever bear hunt. I mean, I've hunted a lot of, you know, deer and turkey and hog and everything and grow up in Florida, alligator, whatever.

But bear is never usually on the table. And, you know, I. I love it up there at Camp Hackett. So I was just happy to go up there, just to be up there.

One of the heroes was actually in 3, 7 with me at the same time and had gotten injured.

And you didn't know that or you did know.

We did. We figured it out early. When I first called him, okay, he looked up my name. He's. He thought it sounded familiar.

And he's like, yeah, I was in Kilo company. He was in weapons. But I remember when he got hurt. And I knew a lot of his marines, he served with the stuff.

So I was already kind of looking forward to just, you know, the campfires. Hey, do you know this guy?

Yeah.

Yes. But so to be able to. Yeah, once I was able to get a tag and I'd be, you know, four total and all that. And I just.

I love the people up there anyway, Mike and all them. Oh, my God, Jeff and everybody, they're great. And then I hadn't met Art yet, but I was looking forward to it.

So. Hurricane Art.

Yeah, no, he was great. I mean, I sat the first day for 12 hours, and what was supposed to be the best stand. I don't know what I was doing wrong, but didn't see a bear.

First bear was shot that day by one of the heroes. The next day, I sat for six hours and did see one. And then that third day, I sat for about six. Then I got one. So it was a lot of sitting.

You put the time in, man.

I did. And I forgot how hard it is or how draining it is to sit still for 12 straight hours or for six straight. It takes a lot out of you, but.

But I. I really. I really enjoyed it, you know, I just. I like. That's the thing about being in the woods is just. It's kind of grounding for me.

It reminds me not everything's easy in life. You gotta work at some stuff.

You gotta pay your dues, man.

Yeah, you get. Get your mind going. Which could be good or bad. For me, it's usually pretty good. You know, I just sit there and just think about stuff that it was.

The weather was nice, weather was great.

I mean, yeah, Especially change from here. I mean. Yeah, I think it was 90 when I got on the plane. And when I got off in Mosinier up there in Wausau Airport, it was, I don't know, 60s, right?

I think. Yeah.

There's no humidity. No humidity.

It was beautiful. I mean, it rained on us a little bit, but it didn't even care. It was just. It was great. I mean, so it was a good time. I mean, in there.

We also went goose hunting. We went muskie.

Put the smack down on the muskie casting.

Yeah, it was a little warm that morning, but. But it was a good time. I mean, it was good to catch up with the. The one hero from 3 7. And it was also good to meet the other guys, Dan and Conrad.

And we had a good time. I think we clicked pretty much right away. It was pretty. A good group of guys. We all kind of had similar experiences.

And then, you know, obviously the people up there, Jeff and them, took us in, you know, to whenever we got a bear and fed us and stuff, and just.

It was crazy watching him work, isn't it?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just done pretty quick.

Yeah. What a great bunch of people up there. It's.

Yeah. I always, like.

So when I had the opportunity to go back again and I. I got to go up for the safety symposium, and like, in two years, I've been up there three times. I've just been pretty lucky on that.

But it's a magical place, isn't it?

It is. It is. And I think the people make it that way. But also, just what you said, it's like, kind of untouched. It's like. I don't.

I mean, even here in Florida, you don't. There's not a whole lot of places that are old Florida, as they used to call, or they like to call it.

But so being able to get out there and, I mean, I saw a porky. I saw a bunch of different. The other guys just saw bears. I saw everything else, really. I saw porcupine. Never seen one of those.

Aren't they cool? Well, yeah.

Red fox, everything.

Oh, you saw red fox?

Saw red fox. I didn't know what it was at first till. But it was really red compared to what I'm used to.

Right.

And like, here, South Carolina.

Working on his winter coat, probably. Yeah. Yeah.

So it was just. It was a. I always say it's almost like a. It's not religious, but more like a spiritual thing for me, just being out there and that's country. Yeah.

And I don't. I don't always. You know, no matter where I'm at, if I get some, I get something. But. Right.

And I think at this point, as much as I like helping others with recovery, it's also that thing with hunting where you. You get to a point where you've done so much, it's like, you want to share that. I mean, I got kids now, too, that I'm sharing my knowledge with.

They're trying to take them out. So one of the. One of the heroes that was on that, he didn't hunt a lot. So being able to just like.

But he was the first one to get a bear, like, three hours into it, you got a bear.

I'm like, this is easy.

Yeah. So. But even that, like, I spent the next day for six hours. Maybe this is why I didn't see a bear that day.

But I was on my phone looking for stuff in his area that would help him, teach him how to hunt and stuff, maybe, or get him out. Because that was his question to me was, how does somebody my age get started in something like that?

And I was like, you know, I guess I just kind of went to my job. It's like, okay, let's research this and find something.

But, well, he got a bear. He's. He's hooked for life, probably now.

It was cool. I've never been that close to a bear library otherwise. I never even seen one. First one I saw is what I. I shot, basically.

I think I seen one, a wild one, when I was up in Ocala National Forest, and me and my brother almost hit it with a. With our Jeep or something.

Cool critters, aren't they?

They are. I mean, they're. They're. They're pretty. Not what I was expecting as far as, like, size and everything, so it was pretty cool.

It was definitely a good experience.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Eddie, listen, man, I gotta. I gotta say thanks for all that you've done to help all those whose lives you've.

You've touched in leadership positions and in your work with the VA and certainly with your work with the Foundation. You're an amazing man, and. And I appreciate all that you've done and continue to do and spending some time with us today. That's just outstanding.

I'd like to give you the last whack at the pinata here. If there's anything else you like to share with us, this would be your opportunity to do it.

I mean, I appreciate the opportunity and I appreciate the opportunities that, you know, I found Through Wounded warriors and Action Foundation. It's. I'm very passionate about recovery as well as hunting and fishing. I think they go together. And so the.

You know, the mission resonates with me and just in what I chose and work and stuff like that. But, you know, it's also. For me, it's. It's a chance to give back.

But, you know, show my family, my kids and stuff, you know, use what God's given you. Use the abilities you have and all that maybe to help other people, and, you know, you can get something in return.

I. I think one of the things with work is I don't always.

I always approach it, like, always treat every interaction as if that's the last time you'll get to talk to that individual and make sure it's impactful in some way, hopefully in a positive way, you know, and good advice. And I feel like it's a good way to be, because even if I'm having a bad day, I can. You know, it can be a positive at least.

You know, you could at least feel good about. I can look back and say, hey, you know, at least I gave that guy, that individual some information.

But what I like about the guide, you know, just being able to go out with the guys and stuff, I mean, by the end of it, we're. When the last bear was taken down, I mean, we were ecstatic. You know, we were out there with Mike.

He was helping us drag it and stuff, and we had the ranger out there, and we were just ecstatic. And. And so I get it.

It's like, at work, I don't always see if I have an impact sometimes, but even if it's not what I'm doing on these events, but just in general being there, you can see, like, the impact that something like being out in the woods can have on somebody or just some. Maybe getting their first animal or just seeing the. You know, the. The love and sacrifice of the people in the area.

Like, so these guys are blown away by Mike and Bob and some of them and Jeff and all them. Casey taking us goose hunting. You know, I think it was John taking us fishing and all.

Like, just blown away that, you know, even the people that donated the tags, you know, and I'm like, yeah, the world's. There's people all across this country that do that, you know, give of themselves, some of them in the work.

You know, going up to last year, I had an opportunity to go to Ashtabula, Ohio, and walleye event. Yeah. But it's one of the you know, from my understanding, it's one of the.

They're not the richest area, but they throw a huge event every year, and they, you know, and there's people all across the country that do that. And to me, that's just amazing. Like, you know, they're serving us in a way.

They may not have served in the military, a lot of them, but they're serving those that have. And, you know, so if anybody listening is part of those communities, like, you know, we appreciate that service because it's. It goes a long way.

I mean, it has for me, and it, um. It's just a reminder to me that, you know, not everybody. I remember going to New York for an event. My thing was I learned.

I learned that all of New York is in New York City, you know, Right. There are still. It's not just a hustle bustle. It's not like, were you on Keith's event or.

Yes, that was the first event I ever went on, so I got lucky on that one. But. But, you know, just realize, hey, there's people like me everywhere.

That's right.

And you can relate to them. And that's a big thing. I try to push this.

You may not be really able to relate to them any other way, but hunting and fishing, like, you can realize I don't always have to hang around bets. Like, I can connect with people in other ways, and that's what I learned in college. And it can expand your support system, and that's important.

So I guess that's a big takeaway. Just open your mind a bit.

Yeah, those are great. Those are great points.

But, you know, going back to what we said a little bit ago, you know, find something to connect with somebody about, you know, and these great volunteers that may or may not have ever served are reaching out to us to want to connect with you. And men like you and those connections, you know, go a long way.

Oh, yeah.

You know, there's a lot of depth and meaning in that space. And, you know, hunting and fishing is just, you know, a connect.

It's kind of like a vehicle.

That's right. It's. It's a conduit, if you will. Again, going back to, you know, shared common interests and. And, you know, experiences.

You're going to have those experiences and those memories, those positive memories of what happened up there, not just what you did while you were hunting, but what others did while you were hunting and while they were hunting. And to actually make it all come together, it's really a very.

It's humbling for me to see all of it, you know, unfold before me and then to hear first person testimonials from you and many others. You know, it's just a, like I say, it's heartwarming. And we appreciate what you did for our country while you were wearing a uniform.

And now that you've taken the uniform off again, Eddie, thank you very much for all that you've done. And we wish you, you know, farewell and following seas throughout the rest of your journey.

And may God bless you and your family and all those whose lives you touch moving forward. Thanks for all you do, buddy.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Pleasure.

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