We could not accomplish our mission of bringing Honor, Connection, and Healing to America’s combat-wounded Purple Heart Recipients without having such an incredible group of patriotic supporters throughout North America. The generosity and selfless efforts these individuals, communities, and businesses offer in support of WWIA and our Heroes is simply remarkable. Our special guest today on the WWIA Podcast is a shining example of one of the many supporters and friends that we are honored to have as part of our WWIA family. On this latest episode, WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel, proudly welcomes Mr. Trent McCall. Trent is the Co-Host of the Truxton Turkey and Trout Event in Truxton, NY, in collaboration with Co-Hosts Ed and Laurie Poole, and guides Zeb Leach and Josh Streichert.
Their event recently celebrated its 3rd year of honoring and serving Purple Heart Heroes in the historic Finger Lakes region. Trent is a husband to his beautiful wife, Jennifer, and a proud father to his beautiful daughter, Gabrielle. His vocation is a woodworker and manager at One Source Millwork, and he is also the owner of4-LeafCustom Calls, a hobby and side business that he started in 1995, going on 30 years this coming spring. These beautiful turkey calls are designed, hand-crafted and field tested by Trent, and are all made from premium hardwoods. We’re excited to share this wonderful episode with you, so without further ado, let’s join John and Trent now.
Takeaways:
4 Leaf Game Calls: https://www.facebook.com/4LeafCalls/
Hello and welcome to the WWIA podcast.
Host: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.
Host:If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you.
Host:If you're a returning listener, thanks for coming back.
Host:Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing.
Host:We could not accomplish our mission of bringing honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes without having such an incredible group of patriotic supporters throughout North America.
Host:The generosity and selfless efforts these individuals, communities and businesses offer in support of WWIA and our heroes is simply remarkable.
Host:Our special guest today on the WWIA podcast is a shining example of one of the many supporters and friends that we're honored to have as part of our WWIA family.
Host:On this latest episode, WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel proudly welcomes Mister Trent McCall.
Host:Trent is the co host of the Truxton Turkey and Trout event in Truxton, New York in collaboration with co hosts Ed and Lori Poole and guides Zeb Leach and Josh Stryker.
Host:Their event recently celebrated its third year of honoring and serving purple heart heroes in the historic Finger Lakes region.
Host:Trent is a husband to his beautiful wife, Jennifer, and a proud father to his beautiful daughter, Gabrielle.
Host: e business that he started in: Host:Going on 30 years this coming spring.
Host:These beautiful turkey calls are designed, handcrafted and field tested by Trent himself and are all made from premium hardwoods.
Host:We're excited to share this wonderful episode with you.
Host:So without further ado, let's join John and Trent now.
John McDaniel:Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action foundation.
John McDaniel:And this is our podcast, Honor Connect heal.
John McDaniel:So today I've got a very special guest.
John McDaniel:Everyone's a special guest or you wouldn't be here.
John McDaniel:That's the way I think about it.
John McDaniel:Anyway, this is a gentleman that I've met for the first time here today by video and voice.
John McDaniel:He's been helping the foundation out for three, four years now and hails from Truckston, New York.
John McDaniel:Welcome to the program.
Trent McCall:Trent McCall, thanks for having us aboard.
John McDaniel:Yep, absolutely.
Trent McCall:Nice to meet you.
John McDaniel:Nice to meet you too.
John McDaniel:You got a nice smile.
John McDaniel:And you know, I was telling you when the pre show, as we were chatting, I said, you know, I promised and a long time ago that I'd, you know, I'd be on every or I didn't promise, but I was on every single new event.
John McDaniel:And that happened for, you know, probably the first ten years or so.
John McDaniel:And then things started getting a little crazy and busy and whatnot, and we were growing and, and then I said five years, every five years, and I mean, give me a chance to, you know, to meet these great Americans helping our combat wounded.
John McDaniel:And that slipped to ten years.
John McDaniel:And so, anyway, I'm honored to have you on the program.
John McDaniel:You know, thanks for all you do.
John McDaniel:You know, you are up in, is it Truxton, New York?
John McDaniel:Am I saying that right?
Trent McCall:Yep.
Trent McCall:Yep.
Trent McCall:That's correct.
Trent McCall:We're about 40 minutes south of Syracuse.
Trent McCall:People know, seem to know about where that is.
Trent McCall:That's, that's the close thing.
Trent McCall:And we're a long ways from the city.
Trent McCall:That's what we.
Trent McCall:Anywhere I go.
Trent McCall:You're from New York?
Trent McCall:Yes, I'm from New York.
Trent McCall:The state, not the city.
John McDaniel:I was just in New York City, you know, briefly, and then Long island.
John McDaniel:And, you know, I, and I've been upstate.
John McDaniel:You know, that's the other thing is, this is funny.
John McDaniel:In my mind, upstate New York meant you were way, way up there.
John McDaniel:But I think what people mean is when they say, and you can correct me, but when they say upstate, they're just saying anything north of New York City.
John McDaniel:Is that true?
Trent McCall:Any where you start to have lawns there you go.
Trent McCall:Anywhere you got grass.
John McDaniel:When you have grass, you're upstate.
John McDaniel:I love it.
Trent McCall:Yeah.
John McDaniel:It's a great definition.
Trent McCall:It's a, it's a great place to visit.
Trent McCall:It's a, it's a neat place.
Trent McCall:There's the best and the worst.
Trent McCall:Everything there.
Trent McCall:But, but there, there's a whole lot more state than just that.
John McDaniel:Oh, for sure.
John McDaniel:Now would you consider yourself where you are?
John McDaniel:Is that rural?
John McDaniel:Would you say that?
John McDaniel:Or is that not fair?
Trent McCall:Yeah.
Trent McCall:Yeah.
Trent McCall:We're rural.
Trent McCall:It's a farming community.
Trent McCall:It was built up of a lot of small farms that are now becoming gobbled up by large farms.
Trent McCall:So what was ten farms is not one.
John McDaniel:Yeah, thats happening a lot in this country.
John McDaniel:Its happening in Wisconsin, too.
John McDaniel:And if theyre not gobbling them up, what theyre doing is leasing the land and gobbling it up and using it for whatever purpose that might be for ag or usually agriculture.
John McDaniel:But yes, its happening a lot of places.
John McDaniel:The small farmers hurting.
Trent McCall:Yeah.
Trent McCall:I was raised on a farm across the valley that was, we milk 70 cows, and that's not even a hobby business now.
John McDaniel:No.
Trent McCall:And my parents raised four of us and sent us to college on that farm.
Trent McCall:And it's not possible now.
John McDaniel:No, no.
John McDaniel:The equipment costs alone, you know, I mean, just to have and maintain, you know, that kind of heavy equipment and, you know, and just the cost of everything.
John McDaniel:Right.
John McDaniel:And labor included.
John McDaniel:If you don't have a big family and you have to hire the help done.
John McDaniel:Forget about it.
John McDaniel:It's not happening, you know, unless you're on large, large, large scale.
Trent McCall:Right, right.
John McDaniel:But anyway.
John McDaniel:Well, okay, cool.
John McDaniel:So, you know, I looked at.
John McDaniel:I looked at where you live on a map.
John McDaniel:This morning, as I was getting ready for our chat, and what I was immediately drawn to was the topography.
John McDaniel:I looked at it on a relief map, and, you know, you've got all kinds of really cool, you know, streams, rivers, creeks, you know, that are all running generally the same direction, probably because of the glaciers and, you know, and then, you know, how far are you from the finger lakes?
Trent McCall:Um, 40 miles.
John McDaniel:Okay.
John McDaniel:So, you know, they're saying, yeah, so it's an interesting terrain.
John McDaniel:You know, of course, we'll talk about, you know, I mentioned Keith Tidball from, you know, Cornwall, Cornell University, who's our, the foundation's science advisor and a good friend of mine.
John McDaniel:Um, he's the guy that, you know, kind of got you going in this space for turkey, right?
Trent McCall:Yes, definitely.
Trent McCall:Uh, we were, uh, my daughter and I were at a show, um, selling calls, and he came to the booth and asked if we would do a custom call, do a few of them, actually, for a fundraiser for his FlX event, the bucks and ducks.
Trent McCall:And, you know, instantly, anything that's.
Trent McCall:Anything needs to do with the kids or military where we're on board, there's.
Trent McCall:You can't.
Trent McCall:You can't service everybody that comes by looking for something.
Trent McCall:But those are things that we're kind of partial to.
Trent McCall:And when Keith just told us what he was doing with, with his event out there and what it would raise money for, we were definitely on board.
Trent McCall:My daughter is interior designer.
Trent McCall:I'm pretty proud of the fact that she's a gone through four years of school and done that.
Trent McCall:And as Keith walked away through the show, he said, you know, take a few minutes and.
Trent McCall:And think about it, and I'll come back from.
Trent McCall:And.
Trent McCall:And my daughter looked at me and she said, isn't there a wood called Purple Heart?
Trent McCall:And I said, there sure is.
Trent McCall:And so we.
Trent McCall:We made ten Purple Heart calls that were one of tens and, and took them out to his event.
Trent McCall:And when I met the people out there that were at the event.
Trent McCall:It's the culmination of their event.
Trent McCall:They're kind of a banquet thing, and they have a fundraiser type thing at the end.
Trent McCall:And, yeah, that was our introduction to this.
Trent McCall:It was shortly after that a neighbor friend that we hunt with built a camp with basically cut the trees off of his land and wanted to build a camp by a pond.
Trent McCall:And I helped him design it, and he called me and he was done.
Trent McCall:And he said, you know, I want to do something back.
Trent McCall:You've got some connections in the, in the hunting and the fishing and that kind of thing.
Trent McCall:And Keith was the first thing I thought of.
Trent McCall:So we got ahold of Keith and, and he kind of put us with you and, and that's how the event started.
John McDaniel:Great stuff.
Trent McCall:It's just nothing we planned, but it, we fell into a dream, you know.
John McDaniel:I love the stories, man, on how, you know, people have found us.
John McDaniel:You know, most what most people don't, I guess, understand, and I don't know why they would, so don't don't feel bad.
John McDaniel:But, you know, I often like to remind myself and anybody who might be interested in what we're doing with our nation's wounded veterans with the Purple Heart community involves all volunteers.
John McDaniel:You know, everybody that's out there found every single for.
John McDaniel: missions today in: John McDaniel:But, you know, every single one of these opportunities has a volunteer at the center of it who found the organization by one way or another and stepped forward and said, I want, I want to, I want to, I'm in.
John McDaniel:I want to help.
John McDaniel:I want to get involved.
John McDaniel:You know, we don't go out there and look for people and go, hey, would you, huma, huma, huma, you know, hey, we got these guys.
John McDaniel:Yada, yada, yada.
John McDaniel:You know, that's never happened.
John McDaniel:I've never said that.
John McDaniel:Not one time have I ever said that.
John McDaniel:And so it was just remarkable to me.
John McDaniel:And I feel so blessed that so many people want to help our veterans, especially those that are struggling by way of recovering from the traumas of war and getting reconnected to their fellow veterans and, you know, in America, you know, and so it's really phenomenal.
John McDaniel:Thanks for what you're doing.
John McDaniel:I genuinely appreciate it and want to thank you publicly for providing this opportunity for our Purple Heart heroes out there.
John McDaniel:It's really great.
John McDaniel:Trent, I know you've got an amazing team.
John McDaniel:We already talked about Keith Tidball, but tell us about the rest of your, your team, I mean, at the center of the team is the coach, if you will.
John McDaniel:That's you, the leader, but you got a great team.
John McDaniel:You mentioned your daughter, but I'm sure there are other wonderful people out there that are helping, you know, make this happen.
John McDaniel:Tell, tell us about your team.
Trent McCall:We'll start with the core group because they, as you know, these teams are so big that somebody's going to get missed and forgotten.
Trent McCall:But the core, the core group is my good friends Ed and Lori Pool, who is, you know, they were the adjoining farm to ours growing up.
Trent McCall:We have a lot of, a lot of the kids in their family, and our family match up age wise and known them for a long time.
Trent McCall:They're the ones that have the chunk of land that has the camp on it.
Trent McCall:They also, Lori runs a diner, ice cream stand, and probably the world's best pie maker.
John McDaniel:What kind of pies does she make?
Trent McCall:You name it.
Trent McCall:You name it.
Trent McCall:She is a, she's, I can't even tell you how many thousands.
Trent McCall:So, so they have the camp sounds good that we hunt off and, and some of the land, and they, they do an awful lot to on that end of it as far as the, the housing and whatnot.
Trent McCall:And I, I kind of take care of the hunt end of it.
Trent McCall:And when we first started, it was just myself and theme.
Trent McCall:We started with one hero and one guide.
Trent McCall:And as we get into it and saw what we wanted to do, I instantly knew that we could house a few more, but we were going to need a few more guides.
Trent McCall:So a couple friends of mine that are fantastic hunters but just fantastic people as far as guides, and that's what you want.
Trent McCall:You're spending a lot of time with somebody out in the woods.
Trent McCall:Of course you want to go out with somebody that's going to give you the best opportunity on a bird, but, but somebody that's just a genuine good.
John McDaniel:Person, you're going to spend a lot of time in a turkey blind.
John McDaniel:You know, you better, like, I would say it's not important to like the guy, but it sure helps if you, if you're dealing with somebody who's a genuine nice person and doing this for the right, right reasons, which everybody on our team is.
John McDaniel:So.
John McDaniel:Yeah, go ahead, please.
Trent McCall:Zeb Leach and Josh Striker are two guys that come in and help us, help us guide.
Trent McCall:And they were kind of, you know, we kind of snuck them in and we didn't tell them a whole lot about what was going on.
Trent McCall:And, boy, they were hooked as soon as just like everybody else.
John McDaniel:You can't help it, man.
John McDaniel:You can't help it.
John McDaniel:You know, I mean, just sitting there listening to some of their stories or being close to these amazing Americans, you know?
John McDaniel:And of course, when you're hunting, you're hunting, but, you know, still with it.
John McDaniel:In a turkey blind, you can talk like this and have a great conversation, right?
John McDaniel:That's what happens a lot, right?
John McDaniel:You know, because you're going to spend, you know, a couple days with this person usually, and you're going to, you know, you're going to cut up and have fun and, you know, and then when, when that big old gobbler comes in after you've been calling him and your, your heart's in your throat, like, if your heart isn't in your throat, I don't care how long you've been doing it.
John McDaniel:When he gets all puffy and gets close within range and he's coming in on your decoys and responding to the call and he gets all puffed up and starts strutting, man.
John McDaniel:If your heart, like, isn't right in your throat and the adrenaline's just pumping through you, then, you know, this ain't for you.
John McDaniel:But I don't know of anybody, you know, who's into turkey hunting that, that it doesn't happen to not just one time, but like every time.
John McDaniel:It's such a cool every time, right?
Trent McCall:Yeah, it really, it's so interactive.
Trent McCall:You, you, you kind of control your own destiny a little bit more than sit and wait, you know?
John McDaniel:That's right.
Trent McCall:So, you know, it's, it's just a ball getting these guys out there.
Trent McCall:And some of the guys, guys that we've hunted with or have, you know, have haunted turkeys before, they haven't hunted them here.
Trent McCall:Some of the guys, it's brand new.
Trent McCall:And like you said, it's almost as much fun looking at the side profile and watching their eyes pop open and almost seeing their heartbeat as it is to watch the turkey come in.
Trent McCall:Well, and that's what these guys bring.
John McDaniel:To the table, too, so.
John McDaniel:Good.
John McDaniel:I mean, here's the thing.
John McDaniel:This is why I look at it, you know, and I was mentioning this the other day as I was chatting with somebody on another podcast.
John McDaniel:But imagine, you know, going off and serving your country in some, some cases.
John McDaniel: These guys, you know, are: John McDaniel:I say usually, but at the same time, you know, every, most, all of them, you know, hey, like, I go so far as to say 100% of them have PTSD.
John McDaniel:I don't know how you couldn't, you know, do what they did and see what they've seen and not have some effects, certainly.
John McDaniel:Oh, by the way, they were wounded, you know, they were blown up, sometimes many times, shot, sometimes many times burned, sometimes many times.
John McDaniel:And walk away from that and go, yeah, I'm all right.
John McDaniel:Okay, so there's a process involved there.
John McDaniel:But my point is this.
John McDaniel:Imagine going off to a foreign country somewhere and doing that, having that experience, and then getting essentially kicked out of the military because, hey, your wounds preclude you from doing the job that you signed up to do.
John McDaniel:And so you get discharged, and now you're back on the block, and now what, Chuck?
John McDaniel:You know, the thing that you wanted your whole life is now gone.
John McDaniel:Your life is inexorably changed, and you finally get around to like, hey, you know, I think I'd like to learn more about this organization.
John McDaniel:The next thing you know, you know, they're on a WWIA event, and they're in some place they've never been before, would never have the opportunity to go.
John McDaniel:In this case, let's just pick, you know, your beautiful country, upstate New York and Truxton, New York.
John McDaniel:You know, they meet you, your family and your team, and they're sitting in a turkey blind for the first time of their life.
John McDaniel:They've seen this stuff on tv, maybe, but they've never actually done it.
John McDaniel:And then here comes this monster gobbler from across the field in on these decoys.
John McDaniel:And the reality of what is setting in is just, you know, all of a sudden gripping you to the point where, you know, you are in that moment and you're going to get that opportunity and you take it, and you're successful or you're not for whatever reason, but what you're doing is you're creating wonderful memories, and you're saying to them in a way that only supports men, can say, welcome home.
John McDaniel:We appreciate what you did.
John McDaniel:We value what you did for this country.
John McDaniel:You're in a safe place, and I'm going to put you on.
John McDaniel:I'm going to give you the best I have today and tomorrow and the next day while you're here.
John McDaniel:You know that right there, those expressions are, in fact, the most powerful expressions that I think we as american citizens can offer to these great Americans.
John McDaniel:That's my true feeling.
John McDaniel:I know it.
John McDaniel:I see it.
John McDaniel:I do the work.
John McDaniel:Have been doing it for 18 years.
John McDaniel:And you and I share a lot in common, even though we just met.
John McDaniel:And I think that's phenomenal.
John McDaniel:That's what I think.
Trent McCall: e, but we're going to give it: John McDaniel:You're going to serve.
John McDaniel:You're serving, man.
John McDaniel:You're serving.
John McDaniel:That's what you're doing.
John McDaniel:That's what I do, too.
John McDaniel:Honest to God, when I go up to my camp, that's what I'm.
John McDaniel:I'm a server, I am a servant, you know, and I put all my, you know, stuff, whatever it is, away, you know?
John McDaniel:You know, and I focus on that mission of providing the best opportunity that I and that and my team can, can produce for these heroes.
John McDaniel:That's it.
Trent McCall:What we always tell them, we're, as soon as they get here, kind of.
Trent McCall:Kind of break the news to them that we're always going to be successful out there.
Trent McCall:Yeah, sometimes we're going to harvest, sometimes we'll harvest.
Trent McCall:We're always going to be successful.
Trent McCall:And we're giving it a, giving these guys, hopefully a life, a lifelong hobby, something.
Trent McCall:We'll teach them how to do these things.
Trent McCall:And if we don't happen to harvest bird here, maybe they go home and get one in their community or at least have an idea what they're doing when they get out in the woods to have some more, you know, the lifelong part of it.
Trent McCall:What we do in those four days is unbelievable.
Trent McCall:The friendships that we form are amazing in that short amount of time.
Trent McCall:But hopefully it's a longevity, too, of what we're giving them for hobby aspect in the future as well.
John McDaniel:It's like the old saying, give a guy a fish, or in this case, give a guy a turkey, eats for a day, teach the guy how to turkey hunt, and he might eat for a lifetime, you know, metaphorically speaking, you know, I mean, it's really true.
John McDaniel:And not only do you guys do the turkey, you know, you guys are fly fishing, at least you used to.
John McDaniel:I assume that's still part of the program.
John McDaniel:You got a lot of fishy waters around you, don't you?
Trent McCall:We do.
Trent McCall:We do.
Trent McCall:And again, back to Keith Tidball.
Trent McCall:Yeah, doctor Keith Tidball.
Trent McCall:We like to call him Uncle Keith UK because he's kind of.
John McDaniel:His new call said UK.
Trent McCall:Yeah, he at this, I think I've heard you say before, the hundred pound head.
John McDaniel:Oh, yeah, that's true.
John McDaniel:He's got a hundred pound head.
John McDaniel:He's a smart guy, man.
Trent McCall:He is.
Trent McCall:He's done an awful lot for us to get.
Trent McCall:To get into this.
Trent McCall:And one of the things he helped us with is, at the camp, there's a pond that he helped us get stocked with trout.
John McDaniel:Cool.
Trent McCall:So we come back, we can only, in New York, you can only hunt turkeys till noon, so we've got noons open.
Trent McCall:Yep.
Trent McCall:Yeah.
John McDaniel:I don't think I've ever.
John McDaniel:I don't, now that you say it.
John McDaniel:I've hunted a lot in upstate New York, deer and upland bird, and I fished a lot.
John McDaniel:You know, the asabel I fished the years ago, but I've never hunted turkey, so I didn't know that.
John McDaniel:Not there anymore.
Trent McCall:Yeah, we.
Trent McCall:We can hunt from, uh, it's half an hour before sunrise till noon, and that gives us the afternoons to do a lot of other stuff.
Trent McCall:So, um.
John McDaniel:Cool.
Trent McCall:We brought keith in, who's a very accomplished fly fisherman.
John McDaniel:Yeah.
Trent McCall:Um, and we got with Cortland line, which is a world famous.
John McDaniel:I know Cortlandt.
John McDaniel:I.
John McDaniel:Cortland.
John McDaniel:Yeah.
John McDaniel:Fly lines.
Trent McCall:So they.
Trent McCall:They've been nice enough to join with us, and, uh, we get the guys all set up with a full.
Trent McCall:Full set of gear with fishing poles, flies, and all that.
Trent McCall:Keith was nice enough to come in to teach him how to fly fish, and it's the first year we've done it, and within an hour of his instruction, they had all had a trout in their hand.
Trent McCall:And then we do all weekend.
John McDaniel:How cool is that?
Trent McCall:Yeah, it's a real neat, real neat situation where we've got it.
Trent McCall:It's just everything is lined up perfectly for a good weekend, for outdoors.
Trent McCall:And we don't have to go anywhere.
Trent McCall:We sit at the.
Trent McCall:We sit on the deck of the camp and fly fish.
John McDaniel:I love that.
John McDaniel:And I got to ask you this, man, as a host, because you mean about 42 others out there in the country share the same.
John McDaniel:I don't know, I think maybe same feeling, but certainly the same space as a host, right?
John McDaniel:That's what we call them.
John McDaniel:The guy or gal that's putting on the event.
John McDaniel:The host.
John McDaniel:The event host.
John McDaniel:And like I said, I still do it.
John McDaniel:So I'm the original host, I suppose.
John McDaniel:But the one thing that always happens to me, and I'm just curious, I'll share my story, and I'd like to hear yours, like, after an event.
John McDaniel:Okay, so this is what I liken it too.
John McDaniel:Right?
John McDaniel:There's all this energy that nobody gets to see.
John McDaniel:That happens before the event.
John McDaniel:It's the windup, like the.
John McDaniel:The baseball pitchers wind up, right?
John McDaniel:You know, he goes to the mound, he grabs the bag, he gets some resin on his hand, he catches the ball, you know, he gets on the rubber, he looks into, you know, all this stuff going on before that pitch, right?
John McDaniel:So it's the same thing with the foundation.
John McDaniel:You know, all this planning and preparation that's happening around this event back here at the headquarters, certainly in the field.
John McDaniel:So you got all this wind up going on, and then the heroes show up, and they're there for three or four days, and that's the pitch, right?
John McDaniel:Boom, it happens like that, and then it's over.
John McDaniel:And then there's the.
John McDaniel:The follow through.
John McDaniel:What happens after that?
John McDaniel:That catcher either catches the ball or the hitter hits the pitch.
John McDaniel:There's all kinds of stuff that happens after that, too.
John McDaniel:So it's the wind up, the pitch and the follow through.
John McDaniel:And so the headquarters is involved in all of that, and you, as a host, are involved in all of that.
John McDaniel:But my question to you is, you know, what happens?
John McDaniel:The feelings that you have after they leave, they're drawing out of the driveway, or you've dropped them off at the airport, and they're going back to wherever they came from.
John McDaniel:The combat wounded heroes on the event and the guide are going back to wherever they came from.
John McDaniel:You get back to your house, you get back to your cabin, and then what?
John McDaniel:Like, what's that?
John McDaniel:I don't know if you share the same feelings as I do afterwards, but I always call it the post event coma.
Trent McCall:It's the.
Trent McCall:It's funny that you asked that, because I don't share it with a whole lot of people.
Trent McCall:I probably should share it with more.
John McDaniel:Yeah.
Trent McCall:You talk about the wind up and you talk about the nerves and all that, trying to show these guys a great time and trying to get turkeys in front of them and trying to do all this stuff.
Trent McCall:And then you meet them and you have that wonderful weekend and all those wonderful experiences, and then I take them back to the airport.
Trent McCall:Uh, anybody that's flying, uh, you know, we.
Trent McCall:We say our goodbyes at the camp to those that drive, and then.
Trent McCall:And then I get everybody back to the airport.
Trent McCall:And as that.
Trent McCall:As that plane leaves the Syracuse area, uh, that's when it.
Trent McCall:It pours.
Trent McCall:Yeah, I.
Trent McCall:I don't drive for half an hour.
Trent McCall:Yeah, it's.
Trent McCall:It just comes out.
John McDaniel:Yeah.
Trent McCall:It.
Trent McCall:It.
Trent McCall:I sit there and cry for half an hour.
John McDaniel:God bless you, man.
John McDaniel:I mean, I know, I know.
John McDaniel:And you can't.
John McDaniel:You can't put your finger on that.
John McDaniel:There's no way in the world.
John McDaniel:You just can't.
John McDaniel:And you can't explain it, and you don't have to.
John McDaniel:That's the thing.
John McDaniel:And you know why?
John McDaniel:Because you don't understand it.
John McDaniel:And neither do I.
John McDaniel:It's like I said to my sister, I'll say this because I don't.
John McDaniel:I'm not afraid of anything, you know, that I'm aware of.
John McDaniel:But, you know, I was asking my sister because she was, you know, one of my very, you know, we're really close and the person, you know, one of the people that I trust a great deal.
John McDaniel:And I said, you know, I just don't understand.
John McDaniel:You know, I go to church, you know, and I said, I weep at church.
John McDaniel:I said, I don't understand that.
John McDaniel:I didn't.
John McDaniel:When I was a kid, I didn't, you know, but now I'm like, I don't know.
John McDaniel:I don't understand that.
John McDaniel:Shoot.
John McDaniel:You know, I don't know why that is.
John McDaniel:You know, what's wrong with me?
John McDaniel:She's like, there's nothing wrong with you.
John McDaniel:You know, it's just that you're probably experiencing feelings that you don't understand.
John McDaniel:And I was like, that's exactly right.
John McDaniel:Right.
John McDaniel:And it's this.
John McDaniel:It's the same.
John McDaniel:It's the same thing, you know, and it's powerful.
John McDaniel:And so that just tells you you're doing it right, man.
John McDaniel:That's why I feel about it.
John McDaniel:You're doing it right.
John McDaniel:If you don't have that, like, that's it.
John McDaniel:That's.
John McDaniel:That's what.
John McDaniel:Right.
Trent McCall:Looks like I sit there in my truck after, you know, dropping off the manliest of men I've ever been around, and here I am.
Trent McCall:A puddle.
John McDaniel:Exactly.
Trent McCall:And I'm thinking I'm either doing something really good or something real wrong.
Trent McCall:Can't be wrong.
John McDaniel:No, it's not.
John McDaniel:No.
John McDaniel:Hey, brother, I appreciate that.
John McDaniel:I appreciate you sharing that with me.
John McDaniel:That's super cool.
John McDaniel:Yeah.
John McDaniel:Wow.
John McDaniel:Okay, so that's enough blowing snot bubbles for the day.
John McDaniel:Let's.
John McDaniel:Let's switch gears a little bit.
John McDaniel:I want to talk about.
John McDaniel:I want to talk about your calls.
John McDaniel:Okay.
John McDaniel:You have a business.
John McDaniel:And.
John McDaniel:Oh, by the way, so I don't forget, I want to order if I can.
John McDaniel:I know you said you want to put them in my hand, and I would love you for you to be able to do that, but I want to order some from the foundation and we can talk those details.
John McDaniel:But, you know, here's what I'll hear.
John McDaniel:And I'm not asking for a gimme.
John McDaniel:I score.
John McDaniel:We're doing a business deal right here on the air.
John McDaniel:So that.
John McDaniel:Be prepared, man.
John McDaniel:And I'm not taking them.
John McDaniel:I'm going to give them to you as an answer that I.
John McDaniel:That I will not accept.
John McDaniel:But here, here's the thing.
John McDaniel:Seriously, man.
John McDaniel:I've looked at your calls on, on your web, on your Facebook page.
John McDaniel:And they're beautiful.
John McDaniel:And I'm a box call guy.
John McDaniel:If it was a slate, I would say I'd still have this conversation with you.
John McDaniel:Because I love slate calls as well.
John McDaniel:But I am a box guy and I am died.
John McDaniel:You know, I love box calls for turkeys.
John McDaniel:That's what I use.
John McDaniel:If you say you can only bring one thing, I go, guess what?
John McDaniel:I'm only bringing one thing.
John McDaniel:Anyway.
John McDaniel:I'm just a box call guy.
John McDaniel:And I know there's dudes that are suit.
John McDaniel:Way more talented than me.
John McDaniel:They got the box call, they got the read, they got the slate.
John McDaniel:And I use this for that.
John McDaniel:And humma, humma, not me, man.
John McDaniel:I use that.
John McDaniel:Right, what you have in your hand right there.
John McDaniel:Only thing I carry out there in the woods.
John McDaniel:And I wouldn't call myself a very accomplished turkey hunter.
John McDaniel:I've been successful.
John McDaniel:I love it.
John McDaniel:That's all that really matters.
John McDaniel:But that's what I bring.
John McDaniel:So what I wanted to ask you was, well, first off, I want to order like ten of them.
John McDaniel:And if you can only do five, because it's too much, then I'll take five.
John McDaniel:And on no timeline, but I would love.
John McDaniel:I have our logo on it.
John McDaniel:And whatever else you got, you got.
John McDaniel:You know, I've seen the logo, the four leaf custom.
John McDaniel:That's beautiful.
John McDaniel:Maybe somewhere slap our logo on there and honor, connect, heal.
John McDaniel:Because what I'll do with them is I'll make sure they go for charitable purposes.
John McDaniel:But I want to purchase them from you.
John McDaniel:But then we'll use them to.
John McDaniel:As gifts and as ways of raising additional resource at, say, some of these events that we do, fundraising activities.
John McDaniel:So let's talk those details offline when we get done.
John McDaniel:But I want to tell you that that's what I would like to do.
John McDaniel:With your permission.
John McDaniel:But tell us about, you know, the box call.
John McDaniel:I mean, I know you mentioned you were using, you know, purple heart wood, you know, as part of the call in the past.
John McDaniel:And I'm not asking you to do that.
John McDaniel:I know that's expensive.
John McDaniel:And it's, you know, maybe not the greatest word would, to work with.
John McDaniel:I don't know, but maybe you don't choose.
John McDaniel:What's that?
Trent McCall:I said, maybe you don't get to choose.
John McDaniel:Maybe I don't get, see, I love that I don't get to choose.
John McDaniel:Even better, I don't get to choose.
John McDaniel:John, shut up.
Trent McCall:Maybe it already is.
Trent McCall:Is Purple Heart.
John McDaniel:Maybe it already is.
John McDaniel:Hoping it would go anyway.
John McDaniel:So tell us about that.
John McDaniel:I mean, what, why the box call?
John McDaniel:How long you been doing it?
John McDaniel:How did you get into it?
John McDaniel:And, you know, tell us about that.
John McDaniel:I'd love to hear about that.
Trent McCall:So, like I was saying, before I grew up on a farm, my father was not a deer hunter.
Trent McCall:And, you know, boat with a bow, with a gun, right on up through.
Trent McCall:And I, as we got older, when the farms started going into bigger conglomerates, my parents sold their farm, kept a lot of the wooded lot.
Trent McCall:We have a couple hundred acres here that we can hunt.
Trent McCall:And my brother moved to Florida.
Trent McCall:He's just down the road from you.
Trent McCall:He's down in Naples, south of you.
Trent McCall:And when he moved down there, he would come back for walleye season, which coincides with turkey season.
Trent McCall:I'm a woodworker now by trade.
Trent McCall:I do high end woodworking.
John McDaniel:You do?
Trent McCall:And I said, yeah, that's, that's what I do for a living is, uh, it's fancier.
Trent McCall:Moldings, trims, cabinets, that kind of thing.
Trent McCall:Carving.
John McDaniel:Wow.
Trent McCall:And that, and the, and the fact that I like to hunt, I decided that it was turkey season when he came back.
Trent McCall:I said, if I build a call, will you, will you go with me while you're here?
Trent McCall:And, and he said, sure.
Trent McCall:And so we went out, and first thing, we set up in the morning and called a bunch of woodpeckers and robins and decided maybe we weren't doing it right.
Trent McCall:So we stood up and made a move, and we actually called in a coyote first thing in the morning, which I thought, again, I'm terrible at this, but we, we were providing a meal for that coyote, I guess.
John McDaniel:Right?
Trent McCall:As I, as I learned later, and then half an hour later, I killed one of the best birds I've ever shot in my life, and I was absolutely addicted to it with a piece of wood that I made, and I've got it here.
Trent McCall:I kind of showed you.
John McDaniel:Is that the one you used?
John McDaniel:Is that your first one?
Trent McCall:This call will be going out for its 30th season this spring, and it's, every bird I've ever harvested has heard this.
John McDaniel:What's that picture on the side there looks like Debbie?
Trent McCall:Yeah, I got it.
John McDaniel:Right?
John McDaniel:Debbie.
Trent McCall:Yeah.
John McDaniel:Oh, my gosh.
John McDaniel:Why is that on there?
John McDaniel:That's what you call it?
John McDaniel:That's the name of the box.
Trent McCall:It's big Debbie.
John McDaniel:Yeah.
Trent McCall:Dude, we always take little.
Trent McCall:Little Debbie snacks with us in the woods.
Trent McCall:So she's.
Trent McCall:She's big Debbie.
Trent McCall:So I got it lasered on there.
John McDaniel:That is awesome, man.
John McDaniel:That's so cool.
Trent McCall:That's how it started.
Trent McCall:Yeah.
John McDaniel:But so what did you do?
John McDaniel:Just look at.
John McDaniel:Did you just look at another example of one of these things and then just crank one out and experiment with it until you get.
John McDaniel:I mean, it's not like rocket science, I don't reckon, but it's.
Trent McCall:It's.
John McDaniel:It's beautiful.
John McDaniel:And I don't know how they work.
John McDaniel:Right.
John McDaniel:I mean, it's just the.
John McDaniel:And what.
John McDaniel:What is that?
John McDaniel:What is that?
John McDaniel:Chalk?
John McDaniel:What do you do?
John McDaniel:Do you have your own chalk or do you use a chalk?
John McDaniel:What, I mean, what do you.
John McDaniel:What is that?
Trent McCall:It's a chalk designed for calls.
Trent McCall:Um, a lot of people pick up different kinds.
Trent McCall:But what it is, it makes the call more crisp.
John McDaniel:Okay.
Trent McCall:Where the friction plated.
Trent McCall:Where the friction between two pieces of wood comes together to make the noise, it makes it more crisp.
Trent McCall:Once you get a call that beat in and works really well, you don't need it anymore.
Trent McCall:A lot of people won't.
Trent McCall:But this call hasn't had chalk on it in ten years.
John McDaniel:You're kidding.
Trent McCall:Just, you use.
John McDaniel:It doesn't have.
John McDaniel:It doesn't have chalk on it and it works.
Trent McCall:There, there was.
Trent McCall:Yeah, it's.
Trent McCall:There's no chalk on that.
John McDaniel:Hit it again.
John McDaniel:I missed that.
John McDaniel:Can you hit it?
Trent McCall:I don't hear it with them.
John McDaniel:Yeah, it's not picking up on the mic.
John McDaniel:That's okay.
John McDaniel:No, you got.
John McDaniel:He's got this little head boom on that we sent everybody.
John McDaniel:It's not very sophisticated, so it's not picking it up.
John McDaniel:But that, that is so.
John McDaniel:You know, I'm glad you say that, because here I was all worried, like, oh, my God, I'm running on a chalk.
John McDaniel:You know, where am I going to get this chalk?
John McDaniel:You know?
John McDaniel:This thing won't work right, without chalk.
John McDaniel:But I've used it without chalk and it still works.
John McDaniel:So here, here I'm talking a caller who's, you know, a guy who makes calls, like, yeah, I ran out of chalk 29 years ago.
John McDaniel:It still works.
John McDaniel:I love it.
Trent McCall:They.
Trent McCall:In the beginning, they require quite a bit, but.
Trent McCall:But then so, so kind of to get back to that.
Trent McCall:We.
Trent McCall:I built that call, and so then I built one for my brother.
Trent McCall:We'd build them, you know, and just take friends out and stuff.
Trent McCall:And I really didn't.
Trent McCall:I knew kind of what they looked like, but I just started fiddling around with it and filing and bending and doing this stuff.
Trent McCall:And there's not a lot you could do different with it.
Trent McCall:It's a box with a lid that strikes, but it's a matter of, you know, how you file it, how you change it, how you move it.
Trent McCall:And I got better at it, and more people said, you know, you really ought to think about selling those things.
Trent McCall:And I had.
Trent McCall:I just.
Trent McCall:It wasn't something I had planned to do or something I thought I was good enough at.
Trent McCall:I bought a.
Trent McCall:I bought a table at a rod and gun show for $25 for one day, little show, and I sold a call, and it was like, wow, maybe I can do this.
Trent McCall:I think it only cost me, like, $300 to sell that call for 20.
Trent McCall:But it was.
Trent McCall:It was the start.
John McDaniel:I know I do some oil painting, and mostly just for me, but I got brave once upon a time, and I put up a few of my paintings online, you know, on Facebook, you know, just to my friends, you know, say, hey, you know, check it out, man.
John McDaniel:And mostly just.
John McDaniel:I don't know why.
John McDaniel:It's like, I was afraid to do it, and that's why I did it.
John McDaniel:So you gotta face your fears, right?
John McDaniel:I was.
John McDaniel:I was, like, afraid, right?
John McDaniel:I was afraid to put my paintings on Facebook.
John McDaniel:I say afraid.
John McDaniel:That's not the right word.
John McDaniel:I was.
John McDaniel:I was.
John McDaniel:I was apprehensive about doing it because I.
John McDaniel:You know, who likes to be criticized, right?
John McDaniel:Nobody really likes that.
John McDaniel:Although, you know, I did study art a little bit, and, you know, in college before I switched gears to economics.
John McDaniel:And, you know, in the art world, that's part of the deal.
John McDaniel:You're getting criticized, right?
John McDaniel:So I got over that pretty quick.
John McDaniel:But anyway, I put it out there, and then people.
John McDaniel:A few people were like, hey, man, can you do one for me?
John McDaniel:And they were on the side.
John McDaniel:I started doing artwork for other people, for money, you know, and it wasn't a lot of money, like you say, you know, I bought a $300 table and I sold a call for $20.
John McDaniel:Like, you know, it's like, I'm not doing that.
John McDaniel:I'm not doing that again.
John McDaniel:But anyway, so I understand that.
John McDaniel:So how do they.
John McDaniel:How do they find you?
John McDaniel:Like, if somebody wants to.
John McDaniel:Wants one of your.
John McDaniel:Your calls, you don't have to.
John McDaniel:I mean, I don't know if you're still in the business of doing this, but if you don't want to tell us, to tell people how to find you.
John McDaniel:I already mentioned your name, so you might be out of luck there, buddy.
Trent McCall:No, I.
Trent McCall:About as fancy as it gets is I have a Facebook page that's four leaf custom calls, and I do meet people that way.
Trent McCall:And I've sent calls out different places.
Trent McCall:The majority of what I sell is at shows.
Trent McCall:I like the interaction.
Trent McCall:This has never been about a money thing.
Trent McCall:It's more about the people that I meet that get to use the calls.
Trent McCall:So, if you look at the Facebook page, you can get my number off there, and.
Trent McCall:And then we can meet and talk and kind of get you set up with.
Trent McCall:With what you need.
Trent McCall:But again, it's.
Trent McCall:It's for me, too.
Trent McCall:Yeah.
Trent McCall:It's me getting to meet somebody that.
Trent McCall:Like yourself.
Trent McCall:This.
Trent McCall:This.
Trent McCall:Basically, everything that, right up through the wounded warriors has happened by accident, by the fact that I make these calls.
Trent McCall:We, you and I wouldn't be talking right now had it not been for these.
Trent McCall:So it's just.
Trent McCall:That's the payout.
John McDaniel:That's cool, man.
John McDaniel:That's so true.
John McDaniel:Right?
John McDaniel:It's like, you never would have thought that, you know, you deciding to make turkey calls would lead you to where you are, like the.
John McDaniel:The branches, the sequels, the.
John McDaniel:You know.
John McDaniel:But that's.
John McDaniel:That's it.
John McDaniel:It's the call.
John McDaniel:And that makes that so much more valuable to me, anyway, and to the foundation.
John McDaniel:The fact that, hey, you're a woodworker.
John McDaniel:You decided to make calls.
John McDaniel:Keith did.
John McDaniel:Balfange did some for his FlX event.
John McDaniel:The next thing you know, you're a host, and you and I are talking on.
John McDaniel:On, you know, a podcast, right?
John McDaniel:And eventually, we'll meet.
Trent McCall:I mean, what an amazing trip it's been, right?
John McDaniel:Right.
Trent McCall:It's crazy.
John McDaniel:It is crazy.
John McDaniel:And I think, you know, I mean, I like to say, you know, well, there's a reason for all of it, right?
John McDaniel:I mean, there just is, you know, and, you know, it's.
John McDaniel:You know, we got a good idea.
John McDaniel:We got a good thing going here.
John McDaniel:And, you know, it's hard.
John McDaniel:As I said the other day, you know, it's hard to defeat a good idea.
John McDaniel:And.
John McDaniel:And so, you know, I appreciate all that.
John McDaniel:You do.
John McDaniel:I.
John McDaniel:You know, I would like to hear a little bit more about your.
John McDaniel:Your woodworking outside of the calls.
John McDaniel:I'm just curious.
John McDaniel:I mean, that's.
John McDaniel:That's what you do.
John McDaniel:You're a woodworker.
John McDaniel:I mean, you mentioned moldings.
John McDaniel:I mean, tell me, please, I would love to hear.
John McDaniel:I'm fascinated by the trades, and I love woodworking.
John McDaniel:I'm horrible at it, and I'm not really, other than shop when I was in high school or something like that.
John McDaniel:But I do love woodworking.
John McDaniel:I've always admired it.
John McDaniel:But tell me about, what kind of work do you do?
Trent McCall:We work in.
Trent McCall:We work quite a bit in multi million dollar homes that I probably wouldn't have any business being in, other than the fact that I'm building them.
John McDaniel:You're building the home or doing the trim work or what are you doing?
Trent McCall:We don't build the house.
Trent McCall:We'll do the moldings, the trims.
Trent McCall:We do a lot of curved moldings, curved crowns, stuff that it kind of stuff that nobody else wants to do or knows how to do.
Trent McCall:I can show you pictures and stuff of different things.
John McDaniel:You have to soak the wood before you curve it.
John McDaniel:Is that what you do?
Trent McCall:We do a lot of laminate work where we cut thin layers, put it on forms, and re glue it back together to hold its shape and in vacuum bags and that sort of thing.
Trent McCall:And that's where the turkey call thing kind of shakes hands with the woodworking and the hunting part.
Trent McCall:I've been able to do some calls that are very unique, that I don't believe anybody else is doing via the stuff, the tools that we have.
Trent McCall:Most of the homes that we work on are not primary residents.
Trent McCall:They're the 7th or 8th house, and they're showpieces.
Trent McCall:They're over the top, that kind of thing.
Trent McCall:And it.
Trent McCall:That's.
Trent McCall:We.
Trent McCall:I built houses when I got out of college.
Trent McCall:That's what I went to school for with my father in law.
Trent McCall:And I noticed that when we got to the trim portion of it with the, you know, the stairs and the cabinets and stuff, that was the part that I liked the best.
Trent McCall:And I don't know if you've heard of Stickley furniture.
Trent McCall:It's a, it's a high end furniture company that's, that's near here that had some openings.
Trent McCall:And my father in law said, you know, I know you really like the detailed part of it.
Trent McCall:They've got some openings.
Trent McCall:Give it a try.
Trent McCall:If you don't like it, come on back.
Trent McCall:And, and so one thing led to another, and I built their prototypes for, like, 16 years of the prototype furniture pieces and got to build some stuff for some famous people, and I haven't got to meet them, but, but then I moved from that into a smaller shop where we do moldings and trims.
Trent McCall:It's called one source millworks.
Trent McCall:And they've, they've been, they've been awful good to me to allow me to do the calls.
Trent McCall:And they stand behind what I'm doing with the wounded warriors, too.
Trent McCall:They've made a very nice donation to that as well.
Trent McCall:So I'd like to mention them as a source and a help.
John McDaniel:That's cool.
John McDaniel:Well, that's really cool.
John McDaniel:So if one of the things I want to do in my, my personal, my personal home is just change out the moldings in the whole house, right.
John McDaniel:It's not a big house.
John McDaniel:You know, it's very modest, but just the doorways, like, as an example, you know, when you start to.
John McDaniel:I was just at a friend, a friend of mine's home in upstate New York on Long island, and a little rendezvous going on up there.
John McDaniel:And I was looking, I was admiring his trim work, and I'm like, oh, my gosh.
John McDaniel:Wow.
John McDaniel:Holy crap.
John McDaniel:You know what a difference it makes in an entryway just for every door.
John McDaniel:Like, every single door in the house has got a, has got molding around it that's just really neat.
John McDaniel:And if it's done right and it's really high quality versus the stuff.
John McDaniel:Nothing against Home Depot, okay.
John McDaniel:You know?
John McDaniel:All right.
John McDaniel:Nothing against.
John McDaniel:Because that's what builders use for the most part.
John McDaniel:Like, this is your house, and they want to sell it.
John McDaniel: In: John McDaniel:And this is what you got.
John McDaniel:And unless you want to change it, it's going to be there until somebody does.
John McDaniel:Right?
John McDaniel:And I'm like, thinking to myself, you know what?
John McDaniel:It would just be a cool little project.
John McDaniel:It's not that hard.
John McDaniel:Like, getting it up.
John McDaniel:It's not hard, right.
John McDaniel:The hard part is like, the, and the angles aren't even that hard, right.
John McDaniel:It's the, you know, so an average person could do it.
John McDaniel:Like, I could do that if I had it, I think I could do it, right?
John McDaniel:But I don't have it, and I don't know where to get it.
John McDaniel:And that, that's the thing is, like, I want to ask my buddy, like, I felt really like a jerk one day.
John McDaniel:I was like, I'm not even going to ask him.
John McDaniel:Like, hey, dude, do you remember who did your molding?
John McDaniel:I mean, I just want the words couldn't, I couldn't get the words out of my face.
John McDaniel:But anyway, so one source, Millworks.
John McDaniel:If I can, I go online and look at their molding and order it and have it show up in Florida.
Trent McCall:For sure.
John McDaniel:Really?
Trent McCall:For sure.
Trent McCall:We've.
John McDaniel:Yeah, I'm doing it.
John McDaniel:I'm doing it.
Trent McCall:I've done work in Naples.
Trent McCall:I've done work in Fort Myers.
Trent McCall:You.
John McDaniel:Really?
Trent McCall:Yeah.
John McDaniel:Oh, my gosh.
John McDaniel:Okay.
John McDaniel:I'm going to check it out.
John McDaniel:That.
John McDaniel:And you work that at that place?
John McDaniel:One source, Millworks.
John McDaniel:That's where you work?
Trent McCall:Yep.
John McDaniel:All right.
Trent McCall:Yeah, we, it's a pretty neat company.
Trent McCall:They, we do moldings, trims.
Trent McCall:There's a commercial side and a residential side and, and then the, the custom portion of it that I actually manage that part of it.
John McDaniel:Oh, that's great.
Trent McCall:And they've, they've, they've allowed me, I don't know if you can see in the, you see the right here?
Trent McCall:Let's see if I point at it.
John McDaniel:Yeah, that right there.
John McDaniel:Yeah, I do see that.
John McDaniel:I don't know what I'm looking.
Trent McCall:That's the world's largest box call.
Trent McCall:And they allowed me to build that.
John McDaniel:Oh, my God.
John McDaniel:Wow.
John McDaniel:Did you get a world record out of that?
Trent McCall:I'm in the process of getting it in the Guinness book.
Trent McCall:World Records.
Trent McCall:It is.
Trent McCall:It is the world's largest call.
John McDaniel:God bless you, man.
John McDaniel:What a great story.
Trent McCall:It's 6ft tall and it weighs 70.
John McDaniel:Pounds and it brings in a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Trent McCall:There you go.
John McDaniel:Can hear him coming.
Trent McCall:You better be ready to be ready, man.
John McDaniel:Better bring a 50 caliber for this guy.
John McDaniel:Well, that's so cool.
John McDaniel:I love it.
John McDaniel:I love it.
John McDaniel:Well, you know, it's been a pleasure, you know, getting to know you, and I just had a great time today chatting with you.
John McDaniel:You've made my day, man.
John McDaniel:I appreciate it.
John McDaniel:So I usually, or I try to always give my host the last whack at the pinata, you know, don't save any rounds, man.
John McDaniel:It's like, you know, this is, this is Gettysburg and they're coming.
John McDaniel:You know, you get, you might as well just expend all ammunition if you got anything you want to chat about that we've missed today.
Trent McCall:Just.
Trent McCall:Thanks for the opportunity to do this.
Trent McCall:I thought a lot about this when you asked me to be on the show of different things that I wanted to say.
Trent McCall:And I could go on for days and days and days of the experiences that I've had and what we've gotten out of it.
Trent McCall:I hope the warriors have gotten out of it as much as we've gotten out of it ourselves.
Trent McCall:I think in my weird mind, I think of you as a funnel and the idea is that everybody wants to do something.
Trent McCall:Everybody wants to go in a direction.
Trent McCall:And I didn't realize it until we got into this, how much truth there is to that.
Trent McCall:I didn't myself realize how much I wanted to do this until I was given a direction.
Trent McCall:And I think of wounded warriors like a funnel.
Trent McCall:It's everybody.
Trent McCall:You take all these desires to do the right thing, and it hits the funnel, and it's consolidated into a spot in the middle.
Trent McCall:And that's the very best we can do.
Trent McCall:You're catching all the very best of the best.
Trent McCall:And I appreciate you being that funnel.
John McDaniel:Well, I appreciate you putting it in that way, Trent, because nobody's ever said it that way.
John McDaniel:And I will take that to heart and use it again, footnoting it accordingly.
John McDaniel:But I do appreciate it and thanks for what you and your team have done and continue to do.
John McDaniel:And it's great.
John McDaniel:You're doing phenomenal work.
John McDaniel:And I was told before we first chatted this morning, before I first met, that I was going to like you and that you were a wonderful man.
John McDaniel:And I.
John McDaniel:All that is true.
John McDaniel:So I appreciate you.
John McDaniel:I look forward to, you know, shaking your hand someday here in the not too distant future, I hope, and I'll.
Trent McCall:Hold you to it.
John McDaniel:I know.
John McDaniel:Well, that's why I said it.
John McDaniel:Listen, you have a great day, and if there's anything we can ever do for you, please don't hesitate to ask.
John McDaniel:Keep doing what you're doing, man, and send my best to your team and everybody who's supporting you.
John McDaniel:And it means a lot, you know?
John McDaniel:Means a lot.
John McDaniel:Not.
John McDaniel:Not.
John McDaniel:Not just to me, but, you know, the lives you're affecting and, and, you know, you're doing it, too.
John McDaniel:And that's the good stuff.
John McDaniel:That's, that.
John McDaniel:That's the thing.
John McDaniel:You're.
John McDaniel:You're creating memories, positive memories that are supplanting some that aren't so good, you know?
John McDaniel:And, and, you know, for them, the, you know, these great Americans to come, come back home to America and then settle in on the life after the service and to be exposed to great people like yourself and your team is life changing in many cases, and it really is.
John McDaniel:I mean, that just that expression of, hey, I don't know these people from a hole in the wall, but they're letting me into their homes.
John McDaniel:I'm having this amazing experience.
John McDaniel:These are high quality people.
John McDaniel:Wow.
John McDaniel:What I did is really valued.
John McDaniel:And that's subconsciously or even perhaps consciously in some cases.
John McDaniel:That's the message that's being embedded in them, in their hearts and their minds, in every fiber of their being.
John McDaniel:And that's what makes it so powerful.
John McDaniel:And you're doing it because you know you love them.
John McDaniel:You know you do it because you respect them and you respect what they did.
John McDaniel:And this is your way of giving back, and you're doing it superbly well.
John McDaniel:Thank you.
Trent McCall:Thank you.
Trent McCall:Thank you.
Trent McCall:And again, thank you for the opportunity.
Trent McCall:These are resilient men, and all we're doing is trying to help them remember to enjoy the country that they defended.
John McDaniel:Oh, that's right.
John McDaniel:Great.
John McDaniel:Say, yeah, man.
John McDaniel:You got it going on, man.
John McDaniel:You've thought a lot about this, and I can tell it's coming from your heart, and that's you're hitting on some very, very key, key ideas and key concepts that make this really as great as it is.
John McDaniel:Thanks, buddy.
John McDaniel:When you get around to, you know, the calls, let's.
John McDaniel:I'll tell you what, we'll send.
John McDaniel:We'll sign off here, and then we'll.
John McDaniel:We'll chat a little bit of business off air.
John McDaniel:How's that sound?
Trent McCall:Sounds good.
John McDaniel:All right.
John McDaniel:Thanks for all you do.
John McDaniel:Have a great day.
John McDaniel:Stick around.
John McDaniel:We'll chat in the post room.
John McDaniel:Okay.
Trent McCall:All right, sounds good.
Trent McCall:Thanks.
John McDaniel:Bye.
Host:Thank you for listening to the WWIA podcast.
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