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:

• The WWIA podcast aims to bring honor, connection, and healing to combat-wounded veterans.
• Trent McCall, the guest, shares his journey of supporting Purple Heart heroes through hunting events.
• The importance of community support and teamwork in organizing events for veterans was highlighted.
• Trent emphasizes the emotional impact of providing healing experiences to combat veterans.
• The conversation explores how woodworking and crafting turkey calls became a passion for Trent.
• Trent's experiences reflect the transformative power of nature in helping veterans heal.

4 Leaf Game Calls: https://www.facebook.com/4LeafCalls/

Hello and welcome to the WWIA podcast.

We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection, and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes.

If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you.

If you're a returning listener, thanks for coming back.

Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing.

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.

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're honored to have as part of our WWIA family.

On this latest episode, WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel proudly welcomes Mister Trent McCall.

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.

Their event recently celebrated its third 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.

Going on 30 years this coming spring.

These beautiful turkey calls are designed, handcrafted and field tested by Trent himself 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.

Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action foundation.

And this is our podcast, Honor Connect heal.

So today I've got a very special guest.

Everyone's a special guest or you wouldn't be here.

That's the way I think about it.

Anyway, this is a gentleman that I've met for the first time here today by video and voice.

He's been helping the foundation out for three, four years now and hails from Truckston, New York.

Welcome to the program.

Trent McCall, thanks for having us aboard.

Yep, absolutely.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

You got a nice smile.

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.

And that happened for, you know, probably the first ten years or so.

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.

And that slipped to ten years.

And so, anyway, I'm honored to have you on the program.

You know, thanks for all you do.

You know, you are up in, is it Truxton, New York?

Am I saying that right?

Yep.

Yep.

That's correct.

We're about 40 minutes south of Syracuse.

People know, seem to know about where that is.

That's, that's the close thing.

And we're a long ways from the city.

That's what we.

Anywhere I go.

You're from New York?

Yes, I'm from New York.

The state, not the city.

I was just in New York City, you know, briefly, and then Long island.

And, you know, I, and I've been upstate.

You know, that's the other thing is, this is funny.

In my mind, upstate New York meant you were way, way up there.

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.

Is that true?

Any where you start to have lawns there you go.

Anywhere you got grass.

When you have grass, you're upstate.

I love it.

Yeah.

It's a great definition.

It's a, it's a great place to visit.

It's a, it's a neat place.

There's the best and the worst.

Everything there.

But, but there, there's a whole lot more state than just that.

Oh, for sure.

Now would you consider yourself where you are?

Is that rural?

Would you say that?

Or is that not fair?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're rural.

It's a farming community.

It was built up of a lot of small farms that are now becoming gobbled up by large farms.

So what was ten farms is not one.

Yeah, thats happening a lot in this country.

Its happening in Wisconsin, too.

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.

But yes, its happening a lot of places.

The small farmers hurting.

Yeah.

I was raised on a farm across the valley that was, we milk 70 cows, and that's not even a hobby business now.

No.

And my parents raised four of us and sent us to college on that farm.

And it's not possible now.

No, no.

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.

Right.

And labor included.

If you don't have a big family and you have to hire the help done.

Forget about it.

It's not happening, you know, unless you're on large, large, large scale.

Right, right.

But anyway.

Well, okay, cool.

So, you know, I looked at.

I looked at where you live on a map.

This morning, as I was getting ready for our chat, and what I was immediately drawn to was the topography.

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?

Um, 40 miles.

Okay.

So, you know, they're saying, yeah, so it's an interesting terrain.

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.

Um, he's the guy that, you know, kind of got you going in this space for turkey, right?

Yes, definitely.

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.

And, you know, instantly, anything that's.

Anything needs to do with the kids or military where we're on board, there's.

You can't.

You can't service everybody that comes by looking for something.

But those are things that we're kind of partial to.

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.

My daughter is interior designer.

I'm pretty proud of the fact that she's a gone through four years of school and done that.

And as Keith walked away through the show, he said, you know, take a few minutes and.

And think about it, and I'll come back from.

And.

And my daughter looked at me and she said, isn't there a wood called Purple Heart?

And I said, there sure is.

And so we.

We made ten Purple Heart calls that were one of tens and, and took them out to his event.

And when I met the people out there that were at the event.

It's the culmination of their event.

They're kind of a banquet thing, and they have a fundraiser type thing at the end.

And, yeah, that was our introduction to this.

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.

And I helped him design it, and he called me and he was done.

And he said, you know, I want to do something back.

You've got some connections in the, in the hunting and the fishing and that kind of thing.

And Keith was the first thing I thought of.

So we got ahold of Keith and, and he kind of put us with you and, and that's how the event started.

Great stuff.

It's just nothing we planned, but it, we fell into a dream, you know.

I love the stories, man, on how, you know, people have found us.

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.

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.

You know, everybody that's out there found every single for.

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.

I want to help.

I want to get involved.

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.

Yada, yada, yada.

You know, that's never happened.

I've never said that.

Not one time have I ever said that.

And so it was just remarkable to me.

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.

Thanks for what you're doing.

I genuinely appreciate it and want to thank you publicly for providing this opportunity for our Purple Heart heroes out there.

It's really great.

Trent, I know you've got an amazing team.

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.

That's you, the leader, but you got a great team.

You mentioned your daughter, but I'm sure there are other wonderful people out there that are helping, you know, make this happen.

Tell, tell us about your team.

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.

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.

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.

They're the ones that have the chunk of land that has the camp on it.

They also, Lori runs a diner, ice cream stand, and probably the world's best pie maker.

What kind of pies does she make?

You name it.

You name it.

She is a, she's, I can't even tell you how many thousands.

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.

And I, I kind of take care of the hunt end of it.

And when we first started, it was just myself and theme.

We started with one hero and one guide.

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.

So a couple friends of mine that are fantastic hunters but just fantastic people as far as guides, and that's what you want.

You're spending a lot of time with somebody out in the woods.

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.

Person, you're going to spend a lot of time in a turkey blind.

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.

So.

Yeah, go ahead, please.

Zeb Leach and Josh Striker are two guys that come in and help us, help us guide.

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.

And, boy, they were hooked as soon as just like everybody else.

You can't help it, man.

You can't help it.

You know, I mean, just sitting there listening to some of their stories or being close to these amazing Americans, you know?

And of course, when you're hunting, you're hunting, but, you know, still with it.

In a turkey blind, you can talk like this and have a great conversation, right?

That's what happens a lot, right?

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's such a cool every time, right?

Yeah, it really, it's so interactive.

You, you, you kind of control your own destiny a little bit more than sit and wait, you know?

That's right.

So, you know, it's, it's just a ball getting these guys out there.

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.

Some of the guys, it's brand new.

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.

Well, and that's what these guys bring.

To the table, too, so.

Good.

I mean, here's the thing.

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.

But imagine, you know, going off and serving your country in some, some cases.

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.

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.

Oh, by the way, they were wounded, you know, they were blown up, sometimes many times, shot, sometimes many times burned, sometimes many times.

And walk away from that and go, yeah, I'm all right.

Okay, so there's a process involved there.

But my point is this.

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.

And so you get discharged, and now you're back on the block, and now what, Chuck?

You know, the thing that you wanted your whole life is now gone.

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.

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.

In this case, let's just pick, you know, your beautiful country, upstate New York and Truxton, New York.

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.

They've seen this stuff on tv, maybe, but they've never actually done it.

And then here comes this monster gobbler from across the field in on these decoys.

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.

We appreciate what you did.

We value what you did for this country.

You're in a safe place, and I'm going to put you on.

I'm going to give you the best I have today and tomorrow and the next day while you're here.

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.

That's my true feeling.

I know it.

I see it.

I do the work.

Have been doing it for 18 years.

And you and I share a lot in common, even though we just met.

And I think that's phenomenal.

That's what I think.

You're going to serve.

You're serving, man.

You're serving.

That's what you're doing.

That's what I do, too.

Honest to God, when I go up to my camp, that's what I'm.

I'm a server, I am a servant, you know, and I put all my, you know, stuff, whatever it is, away, you know?

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.

That's it.

What we always tell them, we're, as soon as they get here, kind of.

Kind of break the news to them that we're always going to be successful out there.

Yeah, sometimes we're going to harvest, sometimes we'll harvest.

We're always going to be successful.

And we're giving it a, giving these guys, hopefully a life, a lifelong hobby, something.

We'll teach them how to do these things.

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.

What we do in those four days is unbelievable.

The friendships that we form are amazing in that short amount of time.

But hopefully it's a longevity, too, of what we're giving them for hobby aspect in the future as well.

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.

And not only do you guys do the turkey, you know, you guys are fly fishing, at least you used to.

I assume that's still part of the program.

You got a lot of fishy waters around you, don't you?

We do.

We do.

And again, back to Keith Tidball.

Yeah, doctor Keith Tidball.

We like to call him Uncle Keith UK because he's kind of.

His new call said UK.

Yeah, he at this, I think I've heard you say before, the hundred pound head.

Oh, yeah, that's true.

He's got a hundred pound head.

He's a smart guy, man.

He is.

He's done an awful lot for us to get.

To get into this.

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.

Cool.

So we come back, we can only, in New York, you can only hunt turkeys till noon, so we've got noons open.

Yep.

Yeah.

I don't think I've ever.

I don't, now that you say it.

I've hunted a lot in upstate New York, deer and upland bird, and I fished a lot.

You know, the asabel I fished the years ago, but I've never hunted turkey, so I didn't know that.

Not there anymore.

Yeah, we.

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.

So, um.

Cool.

We brought keith in, who's a very accomplished fly fisherman.

Yeah.

Um, and we got with Cortland line, which is a world famous.

I know Cortlandt.

I.

Cortland.

Yeah.

Fly lines.

So they.

They've been nice enough to join with us, and, uh, we get the guys all set up with a full.

Full set of gear with fishing poles, flies, and all that.

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.

And then we do all weekend.

How cool is that?

Yeah, it's a real neat, real neat situation where we've got it.

It's just everything is lined up perfectly for a good weekend, for outdoors.

And we don't have to go anywhere.

We sit at the.

We sit on the deck of the camp and fly fish.

I love that.

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.

I don't know, I think maybe same feeling, but certainly the same space as a host, right?

That's what we call them.

The guy or gal that's putting on the event.

The host.

The event host.

And like I said, I still do it.

So I'm the original host, I suppose.

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.

Okay, so this is what I liken it too.

Right?

There's all this energy that nobody gets to see.

That happens before the event.

It's the windup, like the.

The baseball pitchers wind up, right?

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?

So it's the same thing with the foundation.

You know, all this planning and preparation that's happening around this event back here at the headquarters, certainly in the field.

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?

Boom, it happens like that, and then it's over.

And then there's the.

The follow through.

What happens after that?

That catcher either catches the ball or the hitter hits the pitch.

There's all kinds of stuff that happens after that, too.

So it's the wind up, the pitch and the follow through.

And so the headquarters is involved in all of that, and you, as a host, are involved in all of that.

But my question to you is, you know, what happens?

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.

The combat wounded heroes on the event and the guide are going back to wherever they came from.

You get back to your house, you get back to your cabin, and then what?

Like, what's that?

I don't know if you share the same feelings as I do afterwards, but I always call it the post event coma.

It's the.

It's funny that you asked that, because I don't share it with a whole lot of people.

I probably should share it with more.

Yeah.

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.

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.

Uh, anybody that's flying, uh, you know, we.

We say our goodbyes at the camp to those that drive, and then.

And then I get everybody back to the airport.

And as that.

As that plane leaves the Syracuse area, uh, that's when it.

It pours.

Yeah, I.

I don't drive for half an hour.

Yeah, it's.

It just comes out.

Yeah.

It.

It.

I sit there and cry for half an hour.

God bless you, man.

I mean, I know, I know.

And you can't.

You can't put your finger on that.

There's no way in the world.

You just can't.

And you can't explain it, and you don't have to.

That's the thing.

And you know why?

Because you don't understand it.

And neither do I.

It's like I said to my sister, I'll say this because I don't.

I'm not afraid of anything, you know, that I'm aware of.

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.

And I said, you know, I just don't understand.

You know, I go to church, you know, and I said, I weep at church.

I said, I don't understand that.

I didn't.

When I was a kid, I didn't, you know, but now I'm like, I don't know.

I don't understand that.

Shoot.

You know, I don't know why that is.

You know, what's wrong with me?

She's like, there's nothing wrong with you.

You know, it's just that you're probably experiencing feelings that you don't understand.

And I was like, that's exactly right.

Right.

And it's this.

It's the same.

It's the same thing, you know, and it's powerful.

And so that just tells you you're doing it right, man.

That's why I feel about it.

You're doing it right.

If you don't have that, like, that's it.

That's.

That's what.

Right.

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.

A puddle.

Exactly.

And I'm thinking I'm either doing something really good or something real wrong.

Can't be wrong.

No, it's not.

No.

Hey, brother, I appreciate that.

I appreciate you sharing that with me.

That's super cool.

Yeah.

Wow.

Okay, so that's enough blowing snot bubbles for the day.

Let's.

Let's switch gears a little bit.

I want to talk about.

I want to talk about your calls.

Okay.

You have a business.

And.

Oh, by the way, so I don't forget, I want to order if I can.

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.

But, you know, here's what I'll hear.

And I'm not asking for a gimme.

I score.

We're doing a business deal right here on the air.

So that.

Be prepared, man.

And I'm not taking them.

I'm going to give them to you as an answer that I.

That I will not accept.

But here, here's the thing.

Seriously, man.

I've looked at your calls on, on your web, on your Facebook page.

And they're beautiful.

And I'm a box call guy.

If it was a slate, I would say I'd still have this conversation with you.

Because I love slate calls as well.

But I am a box guy and I am died.

You know, I love box calls for turkeys.

That's what I use.

If you say you can only bring one thing, I go, guess what?

I'm only bringing one thing.

Anyway.

I'm just a box call guy.

And I know there's dudes that are suit.

Way more talented than me.

They got the box call, they got the read, they got the slate.

And I use this for that.

And humma, humma, not me, man.

I use that.

Right, what you have in your hand right there.

Only thing I carry out there in the woods.

And I wouldn't call myself a very accomplished turkey hunter.

I've been successful.

I love it.

That's all that really matters.

But that's what I bring.

So what I wanted to ask you was, well, first off, I want to order like ten of them.

And if you can only do five, because it's too much, then I'll take five.

And on no timeline, but I would love.

I have our logo on it.

And whatever else you got, you got.

You know, I've seen the logo, the four leaf custom.

That's beautiful.

Maybe somewhere slap our logo on there and honor, connect, heal.

Because what I'll do with them is I'll make sure they go for charitable purposes.

But I want to purchase them from you.

But then we'll use them to.

As gifts and as ways of raising additional resource at, say, some of these events that we do, fundraising activities.

So let's talk those details offline when we get done.

But I want to tell you that that's what I would like to do.

With your permission.

But tell us about, you know, the box call.

I mean, I know you mentioned you were using, you know, purple heart wood, you know, as part of the call in the past.

And I'm not asking you to do that.

I know that's expensive.

And it's, you know, maybe not the greatest word would, to work with.

I don't know, but maybe you don't choose.

What's that?

I said, maybe you don't get to choose.

Maybe I don't get, see, I love that I don't get to choose.

Even better, I don't get to choose.

John, shut up.

Maybe it already is.

Is Purple Heart.

Maybe it already is.

Hoping it would go anyway.

So tell us about that.

I mean, what, why the box call?

How long you been doing it?

How did you get into it?

And, you know, tell us about that.

I'd love to hear about that.

So, like I was saying, before I grew up on a farm, my father was not a deer hunter.

And, you know, boat with a bow, with a gun, right on up through.

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.

We have a couple hundred acres here that we can hunt.

And my brother moved to Florida.

He's just down the road from you.

He's down in Naples, south of you.

And when he moved down there, he would come back for walleye season, which coincides with turkey season.

I'm a woodworker now by trade.

I do high end woodworking.

You do?

And I said, yeah, that's, that's what I do for a living is, uh, it's fancier.

Moldings, trims, cabinets, that kind of thing.

Carving.

Wow.

And that, and the, and the fact that I like to hunt, I decided that it was turkey season when he came back.

I said, if I build a call, will you, will you go with me while you're here?

And, and he said, sure.

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.

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.

Right?

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.

I kind of showed you.

Is that the one you used?

Is that your first one?

This call will be going out for its 30th season this spring, and it's, every bird I've ever harvested has heard this.

What's that picture on the side there looks like Debbie?

Yeah, I got it.

Right?

Debbie.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

Why is that on there?

That's what you call it?

That's the name of the box.

It's big Debbie.

Yeah.

Dude, we always take little.

Little Debbie snacks with us in the woods.

So she's.

She's big Debbie.

So I got it lasered on there.

That is awesome, man.

That's so cool.

That's how it started.

Yeah.

But so what did you do?

Just look at.

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.

I mean, it's not like rocket science, I don't reckon, but it's.

It's.

It's beautiful.

And I don't know how they work.

Right.

I mean, it's just the.

And what.

What is that?

What is that?

Chalk?

What do you do?

Do you have your own chalk or do you use a chalk?

What, I mean, what do you.

What is that?

It's a chalk designed for calls.

Um, a lot of people pick up different kinds.

But what it is, it makes the call more crisp.

Okay.

Where the friction plated.

Where the friction between two pieces of wood comes together to make the noise, it makes it more crisp.

Once you get a call that beat in and works really well, you don't need it anymore.

A lot of people won't.

But this call hasn't had chalk on it in ten years.

You're kidding.

Just, you use.

It doesn't have.

It doesn't have chalk on it and it works.

There, there was.

Yeah, it's.

There's no chalk on that.

Hit it again.

I missed that.

Can you hit it?

I don't hear it with them.

Yeah, it's not picking up on the mic.

That's okay.

No, you got.

He's got this little head boom on that we sent everybody.

It's not very sophisticated, so it's not picking it up.

But that, that is so.

You know, I'm glad you say that, because here I was all worried, like, oh, my God, I'm running on a chalk.

You know, where am I going to get this chalk?

You know?

This thing won't work right, without chalk.

But I've used it without chalk and it still works.

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.

It still works.

I love it.

They.

In the beginning, they require quite a bit, but.

But then so, so kind of to get back to that.

We.

I built that call, and so then I built one for my brother.

We'd build them, you know, and just take friends out and stuff.

And I really didn't.

I knew kind of what they looked like, but I just started fiddling around with it and filing and bending and doing this stuff.

And there's not a lot you could do different with it.

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.

And I got better at it, and more people said, you know, you really ought to think about selling those things.

And I had.

I just.

It wasn't something I had planned to do or something I thought I was good enough at.

I bought a.

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.

I think it only cost me, like, $300 to sell that call for 20.

But it was.

It was the start.

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.

And mostly just.

I don't know why.

It's like, I was afraid to do it, and that's why I did it.

So you gotta face your fears, right?

I was.

I was, like, afraid, right?

I was afraid to put my paintings on Facebook.

I say afraid.

That's not the right word.

I was.

I was.

I was apprehensive about doing it because I.

You know, who likes to be criticized, right?

Nobody really likes that.

Although, you know, I did study art a little bit, and, you know, in college before I switched gears to economics.

And, you know, in the art world, that's part of the deal.

You're getting criticized, right?

So I got over that pretty quick.

But anyway, I put it out there, and then people.

A few people were like, hey, man, can you do one for me?

And they were on the side.

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.

Like, you know, it's like, I'm not doing that.

I'm not doing that again.

But anyway, so I understand that.

So how do they.

How do they find you?

Like, if somebody wants to.

Wants one of your.

Your calls, you don't have to.

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.

I already mentioned your name, so you might be out of luck there, buddy.

No, I.

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.

And I've sent calls out different places.

The majority of what I sell is at shows.

I like the interaction.

This has never been about a money thing.

It's more about the people that I meet that get to use the calls.

So, if you look at the Facebook page, you can get my number off there, and.

And then we can meet and talk and kind of get you set up with.

With what you need.

But again, it's.

It's for me, too.

Yeah.

It's me getting to meet somebody that.

Like yourself.

This.

This.

Basically, everything that, right up through the wounded warriors has happened by accident, by the fact that I make these calls.

We, you and I wouldn't be talking right now had it not been for these.

So it's just.

That's the payout.

That's cool, man.

That's so true.

Right?

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.

The branches, the sequels, the.

You know.

But that's.

That's it.

It's the call.

And that makes that so much more valuable to me, anyway, and to the foundation.

The fact that, hey, you're a woodworker.

You decided to make calls.

Keith did.

Balfange did some for his FlX event.

The next thing you know, you're a host, and you and I are talking on.

On, you know, a podcast, right?

And eventually, we'll meet.

I mean, what an amazing trip it's been, right?

Right.

It's crazy.

It is crazy.

And I think, you know, I mean, I like to say, you know, well, there's a reason for all of it, right?

I mean, there just is, you know, and, you know, it's.

You know, we got a good idea.

We got a good thing going here.

And, you know, it's hard.

As I said the other day, you know, it's hard to defeat a good idea.

And.

And so, you know, I appreciate all that.

You do.

I.

You know, I would like to hear a little bit more about your.

Your woodworking outside of the calls.

I'm just curious.

I mean, that's.

That's what you do.

You're a woodworker.

I mean, you mentioned moldings.

I mean, tell me, please, I would love to hear.

I'm fascinated by the trades, and I love woodworking.

I'm horrible at it, and I'm not really, other than shop when I was in high school or something like that.

But I do love woodworking.

I've always admired it.

But tell me about, what kind of work do you do?

We work in.

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.

You're building the home or doing the trim work or what are you doing?

We don't build the house.

We'll do the moldings, the trims.

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.

I can show you pictures and stuff of different things.

You have to soak the wood before you curve it.

Is that what you do?

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.

And that's where the turkey call thing kind of shakes hands with the woodworking and the hunting part.

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.

Most of the homes that we work on are not primary residents.

They're the 7th or 8th house, and they're showpieces.

They're over the top, that kind of thing.

And it.

That's.

We.

I built houses when I got out of college.

That's what I went to school for with my father in law.

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.

And I don't know if you've heard of Stickley furniture.

It's a, it's a high end furniture company that's, that's near here that had some openings.

And my father in law said, you know, I know you really like the detailed part of it.

They've got some openings.

Give it a try.

If you don't like it, come on back.

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.

It's called one source millworks.

And they've, they've been, they've been awful good to me to allow me to do the calls.

And they stand behind what I'm doing with the wounded warriors, too.

They've made a very nice donation to that as well.

So I'd like to mention them as a source and a help.

That's cool.

Well, that's really cool.

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.

It's not a big house.

You know, it's very modest, but just the doorways, like, as an example, you know, when you start to.

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.

And I was looking, I was admiring his trim work, and I'm like, oh, my gosh.

Wow.

Holy crap.

You know what a difference it makes in an entryway just for every door.

Like, every single door in the house has got a, has got molding around it that's just really neat.

And if it's done right and it's really high quality versus the stuff.

Nothing against Home Depot, okay.

You know?

All right.

Nothing against.

Because that's what builders use for the most part.

Like, this is your house, and they want to sell it.

And this is what you got.

And unless you want to change it, it's going to be there until somebody does.

Right?

And I'm like, thinking to myself, you know what?

It would just be a cool little project.

It's not that hard.

Like, getting it up.

It's not hard, right.

The hard part is like, the, and the angles aren't even that hard, right.

It's the, you know, so an average person could do it.

Like, I could do that if I had it, I think I could do it, right?

But I don't have it, and I don't know where to get it.

And that, that's the thing is, like, I want to ask my buddy, like, I felt really like a jerk one day.

I was like, I'm not even going to ask him.

Like, hey, dude, do you remember who did your molding?

I mean, I just want the words couldn't, I couldn't get the words out of my face.

But anyway, so one source, Millworks.

If I can, I go online and look at their molding and order it and have it show up in Florida.

For sure.

Really?

For sure.

We've.

Yeah, I'm doing it.

I'm doing it.

I've done work in Naples.

I've done work in Fort Myers.

You.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay.

I'm going to check it out.

That.

And you work that at that place?

One source, Millworks.

That's where you work?

Yep.

All right.

Yeah, we, it's a pretty neat company.

They, we do moldings, trims.

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.

Oh, that's great.

And they've, they've, they've allowed me, I don't know if you can see in the, you see the right here?

Let's see if I point at it.

Yeah, that right there.

Yeah, I do see that.

I don't know what I'm looking.

That's the world's largest box call.

And they allowed me to build that.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

Did you get a world record out of that?

I'm in the process of getting it in the Guinness book.

World Records.

It is.

It is the world's largest call.

God bless you, man.

What a great story.

It's 6ft tall and it weighs 70.

Pounds and it brings in a Tyrannosaurus rex.

There you go.

Can hear him coming.

You better be ready to be ready, man.

Better bring a 50 caliber for this guy.

Well, that's so cool.

I love it.

I love it.

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.

You've made my day, man.

I appreciate it.

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.

It's like, you know, this is, this is Gettysburg and they're coming.

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.

Just.

Thanks for the opportunity to do this.

I thought a lot about this when you asked me to be on the show of different things that I wanted to say.

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.

I hope the warriors have gotten out of it as much as we've gotten out of it ourselves.

I think in my weird mind, I think of you as a funnel and the idea is that everybody wants to do something.

Everybody wants to go in a direction.

And I didn't realize it until we got into this, how much truth there is to that.

I didn't myself realize how much I wanted to do this until I was given a direction.

And I think of wounded warriors like a funnel.

It's everybody.

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.

And that's the very best we can do.

You're catching all the very best of the best.

And I appreciate you being that funnel.

Well, I appreciate you putting it in that way, Trent, because nobody's ever said it that way.

And I will take that to heart and use it again, footnoting it accordingly.

But I do appreciate it and thanks for what you and your team have done and continue to do.

And it's great.

You're doing phenomenal work.

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.

And I.

All that is true.

So I appreciate you.

I look forward to, you know, shaking your hand someday here in the not too distant future, I hope, and I'll.

Hold you to it.

I know.

Well, that's why I said it.

Listen, you have a great day, and if there's anything we can ever do for you, please don't hesitate to ask.

Keep doing what you're doing, man, and send my best to your team and everybody who's supporting you.

And it means a lot, you know?

Means a lot.

Not.

Not.

Not just to me, but, you know, the lives you're affecting and, and, you know, you're doing it, too.

And that's the good stuff.

That's, that.

That's the thing.

You're.

You're creating memories, positive memories that are supplanting some that aren't so good, you know?

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.

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.

I'm having this amazing experience.

These are high quality people.

Wow.

What I did is really valued.

And that's subconsciously or even perhaps consciously in some cases.

That's the message that's being embedded in them, in their hearts and their minds, in every fiber of their being.

And that's what makes it so powerful.

And you're doing it because you know you love them.

You know you do it because you respect them and you respect what they did.

And this is your way of giving back, and you're doing it superbly well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And again, thank you for the opportunity.

These are resilient men, and all we're doing is trying to help them remember to enjoy the country that they defended.

Oh, that's right.

Great.

Say, yeah, man.

You got it going on, man.

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.

Thanks, buddy.

When you get around to, you know, the calls, let's.

I'll tell you what, we'll send.

We'll sign off here, and then we'll.

We'll chat a little bit of business off air.

How's that sound?

Sounds good.

All right.

Thanks for all you do.

Have a great day.

Stick around.

We'll chat in the post room.

Okay.

All right, sounds good.

Thanks.

Bye.

Thank you for listening to the WWIA podcast.

Podcast.

To learn more about the wounded warriors in Action foundation and how you can get involved, please visit our website@wwwiaf.org, or follow us on social media, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

If youd like to comment or offer feedback about our podcast, or if you have a suggestion for a future episode, please email us at podcast wwiaf.org.

thank you for your support and for helping us honor, connect, and heal our combat wounded purple heart heroes through the power of the great outdoors.