On this latest episode of the WWIA Podcast, WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel welcomes longtime supporter and WWIA Event Host, Mr. Sandy Deveney to the program. Sandy is the Host of the Central PA Cast & Blast, an outstanding event that has been proudly honoring and serving our combat-wounded veterans for the past 11 years.

For 40 years, Sandy has been married to his beautiful wife Elizabeth, a retired teacher, and an accomplished artist. Sandy has had an eclectic and distinguished career. Following his graduation from Penn State with a degree in Law Enforcement and Corrections, Sandy served across the globe as a U.S. Customs Sky Marshall, a Criminal Investigator, Founder of a utility-based K-9 drug detection program, and a Private Detective, specializing in K-9 drug detection. His service-based career allowed him the privilege to work on both the local and federal levels, assisting law enforcement, corporations, and school districts.

Now enjoying retirement, Sandy continues to serve in his work with WWIA and our Purple Heart Heroes, as well as assisting with the Penn State Alumni Trustee elections for over a decade. Sandy and his wife are also involved with the local Wildlife for Everyone Foundation, where he serves as a Board Member and Elizabeth generously donates her artwork for their Spring Gala. We’re honored to spend some time introducing you to Sandy and look forward to you hearing his story.

Takeaways:

• The WWIA Podcast endeavors to bring honor, connection, and healing to combat wounded veterans.
• Sandy Deveney has dedicated over a decade to supporting combat-wounded veterans through various outdoor events.
• The podcast highlights the unique experiences gained from engaging with local wildlife and the Amish community.
• Sandy's extensive background and commitment have significantly enriched the experiences provided to the participants.
• The camaraderie fostered through shared experiences among veterans has proven to be immensely beneficial for their healing process.
• Community support plays a crucial role in the success of the events organized for the veterans.

Foreign.

Hello and welcome to the WWIA Podcast.

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

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Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing on this latest episode of the WWIA podcast.

WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel welcomes longtime supporter and WWIA event host Mr.

Sandy Devaney to the program.

Sandy is the host of the Central PA Cast and Blast, an outstanding event that has been proudly honoring and serving our combat wounded veterans for the past 11 years.

For 40 years, Sandy has been married to his beautiful wife Elizabeth.

A retired teacher and an accomplished artist, Sandy has had an eclectic and distinguished career.

Following his graduation from Penn State with a degree in Law Enforcement and Corrections, Sandy served across the globe as a U.S.

customs Sky Marshal, a criminal investigator, founder of a utility based canine drug detection program, and a private detective specializing in canine drug detection.

His service based career allowed him the privilege to work on both the local and federal levels assisting law enforcement, corporations and school districts.

Now enjoying retirement, Sandy continues to serve in his work with WWIA and our Purple Heart heroes as well as assisting with the Penn State Alumni trustee elections for over a decade.

Sandy and his wife are also involved with the local Wildlife for Everyone foundation with where he serves as a board member and Elizabeth generously donates her artwork for their spring gala.

We are honored to spend some time introducing you to Sandy and look forward to you hearing his story.

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

Hi, my name is John McDaniel and I'm the founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action Foundation.

And this is our podcast, Honor, Connect and Heal.

Today I've got a very special guest with us who's been helping the foundation for at least 11 years, Sandy Deveny from Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania, how are you today and welcome to the program.

Just fine.

Little chilly out here, but otherwise it's good.

Yes, I was, I was checking out, I was checking out where you guys are at.

Is it Rebsburg or Rebbersburg?

How do you pronounce that?

The event is held in Rebersburg.

Most of us live in the Greater State College in Center county, which is named because.

Okay, Rebers center of the state.

Pennsylvania.

Appalachian.

Are you in the Appalachian Mountains there?

We're in the Eastern Appalachian.

Eastern Appalachian.

Okay, cool.

Yeah.

Well, I met you several years ago when I went on your event.

And so you're at 11 years.

You just, in September, you completed your 11th year and you guys hunt for pheasants and you also catch these monster world class trout in a local stream.

Right.

Is that basically the program there, those two events?

And then we also have a military firearms class which has gotten rave reviews from the attendees.

Tell us about that.

Well, one of our artistics, Lowell, just retired.

He was the armorer for Homeland Security.

And during his career he has accumulated a very large military firearms showing.

And it actually goes back to the Revolutionary War.

And he brings a load of guns to the event and we have a class set room set up outdoors and goes from Revolutionary War to the new blackouts and gives everybody a full lecture on the history of the guns.

And every year he remembers something different.

So it's always interesting to fit in on.

And at the culmination, all of the attendees, all the heroes, get to shoot five rounds through some of the guns.

Some of them were like the blackout they've only heard of.

They've never seen one or shot one.

And they have been afforded that opportunity all the way down to a.22 semi auto pistol with a silencer on it.

So it's.

It's pretty all encompassing and well received by the heroes.

Well, that's great.

Great.

And while that is going on, while the guys are shooting on that event simultaneously, we have another vent set up about a quarter mile away where we're given a trap course.

And we have all the guys who didn't bring a gun, pick a gun, and those that brought their own shotguns use them.

We provide all the ammunition and the clay birds and they get to shoot as many.

Everybody gets a box of shells, so they get at least 25 rounds.

Cool on the trap course.

And that's all in preparation for the pheasant hunt, I would assume.

Yeah, the pheasant hunts are both Saturday and Sunday morning.

First thing, try and get it out of the way because of the dogs and the heat.

Yeah, there's still moisture on the grass, which helps on odor retention for the dogs and go from there.

Cool.

And then there's lunch and then in the afternoon we go trout fishing.

Well, we have, we've been very fortunate, actually.

The gentleman whose family owns the property where we hunt fish was a B52 pilot, Vietnam.

Wow.

So he has, you know, a vested interest in the military.

Still is active with other retired military types in our area up Here and he provides us that property free of charge.

So.

And the fishing, you know, catch and release.

The, the fishing is actually leased to a private club that has probably a half dozen streams that they manage for their club members, club membership for years.

Rather expensive.

And we.

He's allowed to have so many days per year.

So two of his days that he's allowed, he donates to us.

Wow.

I've seen the picture, Sandy, and it's of the trout that you guys are catching.

And you know, I've caught a lot of trout in my day on a fly rod, but I don't, I think I actually once upon a time went to, went to New Zealand and the only place I've ever seen trout the size of the ones you guys catch in Pennsylvania was in fact in New Zealand.

The rest of the world doesn't have fish that size.

That those are just, some of those are just monsters.

It's a beautiful trout stream.

Well, the one thing that was of interest this year, and David's working on a release for Facebook, which you're familiar with, is I got hooked up with a 13 year old who has a fly tying business and he actually guided one of the guys, David this year for two days.

And David had never fished on a fly rod and caught one of those monsters you're talking about.

So there's a picture of the two of them that could be on a wounded.

On the wounded war in action Facebook page in the near future.

That is such a great story.

Yeah.

David Segunda, what a great guy.

Yeah, that's wonderful.

Oh, that's amazing.

So tell us about your camp.

You know, I was impressed with your, your camp that, that, that set up that, that structure up there in the hills.

Is that your property?

Whose property is that?

Okay.

And it is basically a lot of local members from the nearby towns who have perpetuated this and passed it on from generation to generation.

And there's a vetting process before you can become a member and you have to do an apprenticeship.

They're rather selective and they have an annual fee every year and there's some benefits you get.

And they basically originally the first two years that we did this was not with you guys and it was on an adjoining property in a very small hunting camp.

And these fellows came over and scoped it out, said, you know, we're going to talk at our next general meeting, but we think you should be over at our place.

And it all came to fruition and it's, we've been over there for, I don't know, 10 or 11 years and it's a, they actually air conditioned the place for the warmer weather.

Wow.

Up to the top of the mountain and there's a bench and then over the top.

So it's a good portion of, it's owned by the club.

There are a lot of smaller plots and I'd say smaller, you know, 100, 150 acres that members of the club own.

And they kind of have it all encompassed into this one property with food plots.

And I mean it's, it's heavily managed to attract wildlife.

I bet there's some big whitetails out there too, huh?

They, they didn't do too, they didn't get any monsters this year.

Oh yeah, they didn't get any monsters this year.

But they, they, they have in the past.

And the one room in there where the TV is is like a trophy room.

And I don't think you could hang another rack on the wall.

That's cool.

That's cool.

So let me ask you what, what got you started and wanting to get involved in, in, in, in the program, in the, in the WWI program.

What's, what was the major motivation for you there and your, your, your staff?

Well, the original hunting club, which is now defunct, it was very small that started and as I said originally it was with another who were totally unsupportive.

And through that one of the attendees identified wounded warriors in action to me and I followed up and pursued that.

And it, it's been, we've been with you guys ever since.

And it's a good crew.

We have a ground crew that everybody, we actually now have, I'd say co chairman, I'm kind of like the guy in charge, the flight director.

And then we have people who have different responsibilities from travel arrangements to food, kitchen staff, and it just, you know, it all balances out that, you know, everything, you know, as Einstein said, you know, doing the same thing over and over again.

So we have it down pretty well to a well oiled machine.

And everybody knows the responsibility.

Everybody's on top of it.

Awesome.

Do you have any cool stories you want to Share with Us?

11 years of serving combat wounded veterans and in the high country in Pennsylvania, there's gotta be a couple of stories that stick out.

There are some really good stories.

I'll start with one that involves a benefactor of ours, Bob Lord, who helped support our event.

Oh yeah.

What a great American and he was.

At one of our.

Vietnam veteran.

Correct.

He was at one of our first events with two of his compatriots from the Philadelphia area.

And we have a campfire every night.

We were sitting around the campfire and Russ, the fellow that owns the ground where we hunt there, as I mentioned earlier, US was a B52 pilot.

So of course these guys, 50 plus years later start telling stories.

And the one guys, I remember you guys and flying over and giving us, you know, hair cover.

And he says, the only call sign I can remember is Arkla.

And Russ goes, that was me.

Wow.

So 50 years later, the guy that was dumping from the skies to support these guys, they're actually in a beer together and reminiscing.

So that was pretty cool.

Wow.

One of the things we have at the.

That's a very.

I nerd that.

One of the things we have as a tradition is the local congressman, Glenn G.T.

thompson.

Yeah.

Stops by and speaks to the guys and tells some stories and presents them with a flag and a certificate for the flag flew over the United States Capitol, their honor.

So they all get a brand new nice flag and a certificate to take home.

Glenn's son is pretty much a lifer in the army.

And when he was over in the Mid east, he.

He got hit.

He got a purple heart.

So at the suggestion of his father, he signed up for wounded wares in action.

I remember that.

So he's at an event, he's in an event in the upper Midwest somewhere and he's at the bar and he's talking to the guy next to him who you know very well, Jake.

Oh yeah.

And the conversation gets around to where you're from, blah, blah, blah.

And the son says, I'm from Pennsylvania.

Jake says, I'm from Pennsylvania.

Where are you from?

He says, over in center county town called Howard.

Jake says, well, I'm in Somerset.

And something with Jake clicked off and he goes, looking at the name, you're not GT son, are you?

And it was like, yes.

He goes, oh my God, I know your dad, blah, blah, blah.

It's.

There's been a lot of small world connections that have happened.

And of course, when we have to sit around the campfire and guys talking, guys that were in country in Fallujah at the same time.

And do you remember when so and so got hit?

You know, it's.

Yeah.

But there's been a lot of supportive talk that has happened.

I can remember early on we had some guys with PTSD issues and, you know, other guys from the same Area that go to the same va you don't want to talk to that psychology.

You know, it was basically, you need to talk to this other psychiatrist or psychologist.

And it actually became a.

A data pool for who.

Who's the best people to deal with.

And so that.

That's.

Right.

That's good.

You know, but there's.

I mean, there's a million stories that have come out of there.

The local community support our group.

Basically, all of our food and beverages are donated by the local community, some from way as far as ways Harrisburg.

Large meat purveyors.

But one of the things that we're lucky with is we have a large preponderance of craft beer manufacturers in our area, and all of them are generous.

So the guys get a real sampling of the local craft beers from central Pennsylvania.

That's great.

That's.

Isn't that all Penn State land right in there?

Do I have that right?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

We're.

Yeah, we're.

We're.

The airport that the guys fly into, those who fly in, is actually owned by the university.

Okay, that's so.

And it's on university property.

So the sen.

The whole premise of the.

Of Penn State originally was a farmer's college, and it was supposedly built the geographic center of Pennsylvania so that it was equidistant for all to attend.

So it is in center county, and the geographic center of the commonwealth is in close proximity to the university.

We're about 40 minutes east of the university.

Okay.

Nittany lion country.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Well, that's very good.

So what does all this for, I mean, for you personally, what's your motivation for doing this and how's this work?

You know, when you get done with the event and it's all over and guys are going back home and you're, you know, sitting around, you know, cleaning things up and heading back to the.

To the house, et cetera.

You know, what kind of feelings are you left with?

I mean, what.

What really resonates about this?

You know, what about this work really resonates with you?

Well, the way we have, like, the bird hunt set up, we actually have viewing stands, if you want to call it there.

We take a bunch of chairs in the bags and we go out and we line up where we park and set up the chairs.

Might have a guy there with a shotgun to cover birds that are breaking across the road.

And we can pretty well see.

Although some of it's a distance away, a good distance away, but we can pretty well see the whole hunt.

Obviously, with the difference between the speed of light, the speed of sound.

We'll see a bird go up and take off, off a point from one of our dogs and then we'll hear the see the bird tumble and then we'll hear the gunshot.

So, you know, it's like you don't have them happening simultaneously, so.

But we have that set up.

And the same thing with the fishing.

There's ample of viewer space, although most of our guys are guides also.

We put, you know, 10 between heroes and staffers.

We put 10 people in the water.

We need 10 guides the same.

When we're hunting, we have teams, two minute two, five man teams.

And each one has at least two, if not more dogs working with them.

And the property where we hunt, they generously mow this massive field and put shooting lanes in it so that the guys don't necessarily have to walk through knee high or higher wet brush to hunt.

And the dogs will do the dirty work and get into the high grass working odor so that it's kind of.

We try to make it as user friendly.

We have had at times guys that we've taken out in a 4x4 that had mobility issues.

One of the guys early on, who was a Vietnam guy, Ed, he had gotten a tracked, I'll call it a wheelchair.

I don't know that any better, but.

Bill O'Reilly, track chair.

Bill O'Reilly was giving them away.

Yeah, the track chairs.

And he had one of those.

Yeah, they're called track chairs.

Okay.

So one of the other fellas who was there tried it out.

Next year he was back, he had one.

So it's, that has helped out a lot.

But you know, we get guys out.

We have, you know, we have a couple of ATVs that are multi seaters that we can move guys around with.

We need to.

And then we have hydrate.

This year was hot.

We had hydration stations, Those blue plastic 55 gallon drums cut in half, sideways, filled with water so that the dogs had a place to either get in and cool off or get a drink because it was, it was warmer than we really had hoped.

You guys got snow now?

Is there snow there now?

I'm just looking out a window.

There's a little dusting.

We had some a couple weeks ago, but it got up in the 50s and it all disappeared.

My driveway is a half mile.

So I, I appreciate when we don't have a lot of snow around.

I have two plows right on.

Yeah.

I remember getting up to the property when I, when I showed up and that.

That was a long drive for.

For sure.

Well, Sandy, tell us about your.

Your team.

Is there anybody on your team that you'd like to recognize here?

I mean, we.

None of us can do this without a lot of help.

And I certainly do appreciate and want to publicly thank you for your leadership and all your hard work over the last 11 years now to build something that's quite special, not just for our heroes, but certainly for your local community and all the people that pour out and contribute to making that a very successful event.

And so I want to say thank you to you for all that you've done and all the, you know, connections you've made and all the healing that you've helped us do.

So thank you very much.

But this is an opportunity here for you.

And I know it's hard because you start naming names and then you inevitably leave somebody out and they get all boo boo lipped.

But, you know, this is your opportunity to maybe highlight a couple of.

I know you've already talked about Bob Lord.

What a great American he is Purple Heart recipient himself and does a monster fundraiser that supports your event in his golf tournament every year.

And what a legacy he's built.

But is there anybody in particular you'd like to, you know, to thank out there other than the property owners and the leadership at the lodge that you enjoy?

We have this year?

I'm not getting younger, and my wife pretty much insisted that I started divest a little bit.

So we actually formed subcommittees and put people in charge of various operations within the event.

And I have a gentleman who was Billy Roberts, who is my number one, he's my driver.

He's in charge of organizing, you know, getting the ammo on board the vehicle to take it out for the trap shoot, water buckets for the dogs and stuff for the pheasant hunting.

So he.

He's very instrumental and eventually will probably take over the operation.

The Kane brothers at camp are.

Their family are lifelong members there and they are responsible for the kitchen operation.

And the one brother, Greg is actually was a chef at the Penn Stater Hotel.

So he has vast experience and breakfast cooking and stuff like that.

So, you know, when they come down for breakfast, it's what do you want?

It's like a diner and they get it out.

And his brother Bill pretty much manages the facility and keeps everything running.

Rick Daly recently sold, but the new owners have agreed they're going to continue to participate a very large pheasant propagation business.

And he has donated all the pheasants for Our hunt for forever since we started.

And that's pheasants and chuckers, which are sometimes known as a partridge.

You know, 30 birds twice a day.

So he puts out, you know, well, yeah, well over $1,000 birds.

Well, that's a lot of birds.

The schnitzlers are.

The wife helps out the kitchen a lot.

And Bob, the husband, he's in charge for the fishing component to make sure everybody's got waders, they've got rods and reels.

On Friday, between after lunch, between that and another event which I'm gonna have to mention, just write a quick note.

He.

He organizes fly casting lessons because people like David.

David had never fished with a fly rod.

And we've had that with a lot of the guys.

We had one fellow from down.

Down in Florida who.

His wife laughed at him.

You're gonna go do what?

And he was, yeah, I am.

So as soon as he started hooking up on fish, he'd run back to the shoreline and give somebody his camera phone and take pictures and was texting them to his wife in Florida to prove my fish.

And I caught fish.

So, you know, snitch takes care of that.

I mentioned Lowell before.

He's the one that teaches the firearms class.

The Meisner's.

The wife helps out in the kitchen, as does their.

And both in the schnitzlers and the Meissners, they actually have granddaughters that help out the kitchen.

But the Meisners are in charge of transportation.

This year, out of the 10 guys, we only had two drivers.

So we had to arrange for a gun to be picked up at the airport and then dropped off back there on Monday to fly out.

So we have people in charge of that.

I mentioned the cave where we fish and hunt.

The family that owns that has been very generous.

And one of the things they have on their property is a wildlife tour.

And Friday afternoon, the last four, because that's when the critters get fed.

They have old.

I don't know whether they're military or school buses, but they have no windows in them.

And you go on a tour and you can, you know, you can't hang out the windows, but you start out with buffalo or water or bison, and then you head on to the longhorns.

You go through the deer pens and the.

There's elk in there, and then on and on to bears and wolves and coyotes and everything depends.

So it's kind of a neat tour.

The guys have always enjoyed that.

So they're, you know, they're, you know, and then of course I can't.

You know, we have a vendor, Collegiate Pride, who has graciously donated our commemorative T shirts every year.

And that's a big plus.

All the guys on arrival, they get a T shirt.

And the other thing which are rather famous here in this area are they're called grilled stickies.

And there was a diner downtown at one point in time that made these sticky buns that was the life blood of every true Penn Stater at 2:00 in the morning after the bars.

And they since have moved out of town and have a huge baking operation and they donate two cases of stickies.

So all the guys get, you know, unbeknownst to what they really are, they all get a pack of them to take home with their T shirt and the next morning at breakfast they'll have them.

And Greg Kane, who's the breakfast cook, has come up with ways to make a good thing better.

And he'll do them in bread pudding, he'll do them with a white sauce.

You know, he's got all kinds of stuff.

So they become very familiar with them and they all get a package to take them.

That's cool.

The other thing on my notes that I have to, I'd be, you know, negligent if I didn't mention is the guys arrive Thursday and Monday are travel days and Friday, Saturday, Sunday are pretty much rock and roll lock and load from, you know, breakfast to after dinner.

It's, it's fast moving, it's.

Well, everything's.

There's not a lot of lay down time.

But one of the things that happened each of the three nights is we have live music, we have some local guys, one actually did 15 years in the army and they, they come and play their favorite songs for the guys.

We have one guy who's Matt Miske, who goes back to the 60s and 70s when he was really hot in the music scene.

So a lot of it for the particular, the Vietnam guys are, it's, it's a trip down memory lane.

So those, those three guys deserve, you know, they, they donate the time, they donate their travel, some of them.

I mean, Matt lives, you know, several hours away.

He actually stays overnight when he plays.

Well, it's quite a crowd that you've assembled there, an amazing community response and it certainly is a very colorful and rich cultural experience as well for the heroes.

And of course, you know, combine that with world class trout fishing and some amazing bird hunting and some culinary delights unique to that part of the world.

The country makes for a very Memorable experience.

Everybody talks very highly about you and your event when they get off from it.

And I've read a lot of testimonials and of course I had a chance to spend some time with you there.

It's really a beautiful place.

I want to thank you again and of course your wife for allowing us to rent your time and all the, you know, you are a volunteer, as everybody is, that supports your mission.

And it's just, it wouldn't happen without everybody's hard work and patriotic ways, which we're very appreciative of.

I'll give you the last word here, Sandy.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell our listening audience before we bid ourselves an adieu?

The one thing that is also included for free in the trip, the camp where we stay and the places where we fish and hunt, do stuff.

There's a very large Amish community, so the fellas all get real exposure to a lifestyle that many people don't.

And every other Sunday is church Sunday for the Amish.

So if there are weekend coincides with a church Sunday, they will see in excess of 50 horse and buggies up and down the road.

And you can tell it's church Sunday because you just got to look at the road to see what the horses have left.

And you know that it's, you know, and you'll drive by whoever's hosting services and the prayer wagon where they bring all the chairs and stuff in for the service to the person's home is there and, and then they all have, a lot of them have, if we're there in the warmer, earlier part of September, they, they have roadside fruit stands and stuff.

So it's, it's a cultural exposure that they wouldn't normally have elsewhere.

It's really cool.

But as far as, you know, everybody, you know, the people at headquarters and the support staff like David and Karina that are remote are always right there to get things done or, you know, somebody missed a plane or whatever.

And it's, you know, one of our biggest problems is being as remote as we are.

Cell service is virtually non existent.

So we've got to drive about a half mile up the road to a high spot where you can park on the side of the road and do your phone business.

Now for some of the guys that are looking for away time from home, that's an ideal situation that, I'm sorry honey, they don't have phone service where I'm going to be.

But no, other than that, you know, hey, we're, we're Good.

I mean, every year we add something or we correct a problem if we saw a problem.

And the after actions meetings pretty much encompass everything that needs to be improved.

Yeah, well, you mentioned the staff.

You know, at least my staff anyway.

The supports, all of you and me, of course.

It's an amazing group and I appreciate you calling them out.

They don't get recognized as much as they probably should.

They all do a wonderful job and very thankful to have them on the team.

I can't believe it.

But listen, again, thank you for your time.

It's been a pleasure hosting you.

He did a great job on the podcast.

And keep up the fire, Sandy.

You're doing great.

Well, everything's planned.

And Penn State released their football schedule yesterday is one of the driving factors around when we hold our event because whatever airfares and stuff are in State College, they go up significantly on home football weekends.

So they just announced and we're.

We're looking at October 4th of next year to have our event.

Okay.

This was determined with phone calls this morning.

Wonderful, wonderful.

Go from there.

All right, Very good.

Well, I appreciate you.

Look forward to hearing more of your stories and continued.

Good luck on your event.

You're doing great stuff.

Thanks a lot, Sandy.

All right, thanks, John.

All right, have a good day.

Have a good holiday and get those boys out on the water.

Will do, buddy.

Thank you.

Thank you for listening to the wwf.

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

If you'd like to comment or offer feedback about our podcast, or if you have a suggestion for a future episode, please email us odcast@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.