The WWIA MO-KAN Ducks, Bucks, and Trapping Event has been proudly serving and honoring our Purple Heart Heroes for the past 15 years. It is one of our longest standing events within the Foundation, and their patriotic team of supporters are truly a remarkable group of people. On today’s episode of the WWIA Podcast, WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel, welcomes one of our good friends who is one of the integral parts of Mighty Team MO-KAN, Mr. Terry Supple.

Terry recently retired after successfully owning and operating his own screen printing and sign business for 44 years. He has been married to his beautiful wife for 42 years, is the father of three amazing children, is a doting grandfather to nine grandchildren, as well as two dogs.

An avid hunter for over 40 years, enjoying both quail and duck hunting, he enjoys the quality and experience of the hunt, including the company and camaraderie of those he surrounds himself with more than anything else. He considers it a high honor and privilege to serve America’s combat-wounded veterans with his team over the past fifteen years and always feels he gets more out of the experience than they do. We’re proud to share this great American’s story with you and hope you get to enjoy learning more about Terry and Team MO-KAN.

Takeaways:

• The MO-KAN Ducks, Bucks and Trapping event has significantly impacted combat wounded veterans for 15 years.
• Terry Supple shares how the Napier Duck Hunting Club evolved over the years from humble beginnings.
• Camaraderie and connection among veterans are fostered through shared experiences in nature at events.
• Combat-wounded veterans often find healing and support through engaging activities and shared stories.
• The emotional toll of serving veterans is significant, often leaving organizers feeling drained yet fulfilled.
• Terry emphasizes the importance of welcoming Vietnam veterans home, as they were not honored in their time.

Links referenced in this episode:

• wwiaf.org

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.

The WWIA MO-KAN Ducks, Bucks and Trapping event has been proudly serving and honoring our Purple Heart heroes for the past 15 years. It's one of our longest standing events within the foundation and their patriotic team of supporters are truly a remarkable group of people.

On today's episode of the WWIA podcast, WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel welcomes one of our good friends who's one of the integral parts of mighty Team MO-KAN, Mr. Terry Supple. Terry recently retired after successfully owning and operating his own screen printing and sign business for 44 years.

He's been married to his beautiful wife for 42 years, is the father of three amazing children, is a doting grandfather to nine grandchildren, as well as two dogs.

An avid hunter for over 40 years, enjoying both quail and duck hunting, he enjoys the quality and experience of the hunt, including the company and camaraderie of those he surrounds himself with.

More than anything else, he considers it a high honor and privilege to serve America's combat-wounded veterans with his team over the past 15 years and always feels he gets more out of the experience than they do. We are proud to share this great American story with you and hope you get to enjoy learning more about Terry and Team MO-KAN.

Without further ado, let's jump into the conversation with John and Terry 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 have a very special guest with me. His name is Terry Supple. Terry, welcome to the program.

Good morning, John, how are you?

Great, great.

So for everybody, Terry Supple is one of the leaders of our, of probably what is our, I call it the 800 pound gorilla, you know, but you know, probably the, you know, the Foundation's, you know, biggest, baddest mission that we do. I don't know how else to describe it, but the Mo can is the 800 pound gorilla.

Because it, you know, I said earlier when we were chatting, I said MO-KAN, you know, if the foundation were the sun, MO-KAN would be one of those giant planets out there, you know, circling the sun with this gravitational effect and pull that which anytime you got close to it, you just get sucked in.

I've never heard of it that way.

But okay, this behemoth that's just out there, you know, that's got its own properties and, you know, and moons and satellites and all kinds of stuff floating around it. Man, it's, it's amazing. I mean, it's the one event, the only event where you can, you know, in one weekend, you know, you stack up.

You guys stack up like 200 ducks. You know, every, every hero gets a crack at or harvest a monster, you know, Missouri or Kansas timber buck.

You have a trap line going with the Department of Natural Resources. And I don't know, and you do a fishing event, you know, on the side for monster catfish.

I mean, I'm missing things, but it's just an amazing event and you're a big part of that. And I just wanted to say, you know, thanks for that. But tell us about Napier, because Napier Duck Hunting Club is an amazing club.

And, and you are, I don't know, are you the, are you one of the founders? Are you the president? I mean, what's your role there, Terry?

There was a gate and a ditch. And it used to be used in the old days for goose hunting because it does.

It is close proximity to the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge or Los Bluffs, as they call it now. And people would pay to come in there and hunt geese.

We put in ground blinds on it, pits, heaters and stuff in them as you, if you will, made it comfortable and kind of progressively took on a few more members to pay for the new stuff. The new land, the more land the, the double wide trailer we had, I think was when you came and stayed there, it was a double wide.

We since built a 22 bedroom house there that started out, you know how guys think. You know, this is, if I was going to do this, this is what I'd do. And we all got together, threw it in a hat, and funded that ourselves.

It's amazing.

We started out, we had a mud room that was kind of dinky, and we said, well, let's build a bigger mudroom. And it snowballed. Now our mudroom looks like a gymnasium, locker room. And we built the house, and we built a.

A five bed, five bunk beds, basically for the warriors to come and stay with us. So they've got their own quarters there.

If they want to get away, they can go up there and close the door or they can, you know, or there's other bedrooms for them. So, yeah, it's. It. It's just kind of progressed into, like you said, a monster. Now we've got it right at 300 acres.

We just developed another 48 acres north of us that does adjoin our property. Now we put in a new well and pump and all that. So, yeah, we're over 300 acres, and it's built for fun.

Wow.

You know, I remember the first time I met you.

Of course, you know, what started all this was, you know, Brian Roderick and, you know, and his band of merry men there, three or four of his best buddies who are all, you know, amazing duck hunters and sportsmen in general. And 15 years ago, I met. I had Jake Wipkey with me, and I met Brian on an event.

He said he wanted to help, and so we went there and we hunted ducks on his property. It was just ducks at the time, as I recall. And then every year, it sort of grew, and he started doing a banquet.

And like I said, like, the planetary effects of MO-KAN just continued to get bigger and stronger. And, you know, we were putting the heroes up in a. In a hotel room. And the problem with doing that is that while.

While it might be a nice place to sleep, you know, guys go back to their hotel room and they shut the door, and that's it, you know, and that doesn't really foster the kind of camaraderie and relationship building and the things that we're trying to really accomplish that happen around a fire or, you know, pit or, you know, in a common use area like Napier offers, with a ton of terrain and a setting in the outdoors and, you know, it's just amazing.

So, you know, thanks for, you know, opening up your ranks and then expanding your operations to accommodate for our heroes now in, you know, the 15th year of the MO-KAN iteration. You know, I know of no other event that we do where you're. We're stacking up. You guys are stacking Up.

You know, I don't know what the number is, but, you know, 150, 200 ducks in a weekend.

Every hero shooting, you know, getting a chance or harvesting a monster timber buck either in Missouri or Kansas with their, you know, with their bows. There's a trap line in, you know, it's. It's amazing.

And you guys also do a big catfishing event in the summertime, and, you know, it's just incredible what you guys have accomplished. And I just want to, you know, extend my gratitude and my thanks for all that you've done in your leadership and support of our mission there.

Terry, it's really incredible.

Well, we've enjoyed every minute of it. You know, we've had them. Adam at Napier. I've been involved pretty much the whole time, but we've had them at Napier for 13 years now, so. Wow. We just.

We just really enjoy having them up there.

Yeah. And what a great bunch of guys. I know we were saying in the. You and I were chatting in the pre show about the first time we met.

I remember, I can't recall if we hunted the first time. It may have been the second time, but the first time you said, hey, come with me. I think you brought your Labrador.

And you and I sat in a duck blind there as the sun was setting, and you didn't tell me what I was about to seek. I had no idea. Right. I had heard rumors like, you need to go. Brian's like, you need to go with Terry. And I'm like, okay, so I go with Terry.

You know, we're sitting there and the sun's going down, and, you know, the habitat is just amazing, what you guys have created there.

And all of a sudden, as the sun sets, the skies just turn black, literally, with ducks and the noise that they're making and how they're communicating and where they're flying. It's no. I don't know how they don't collide into each other, but it literally is like a phenomenon I've never seen. Yeah, it is.

I mean, I've never seen anything like that. You know, I've sat in duck blinds for hours and hours and never saw a duck. You know, we all have. But here I'm like, how come this.

How come I didn't know that this ever existed? You know, you must be smack dab in the middle of the flyway.

But, you know, kudos to you guys for creating the habitat and doing what you've done to attract that many waterfowl. It's really incredible.

Well, It's a fun place. We enjoy it, and it's kind of our playground. You know, we, as my wife says, is cheaper than therapy. You know, when my.

When I hit the gravel, I know my blood pressure drops 20 points, and it's just. You can get away from stuff, and. And hopefully, you know, you don't have cel a lot of the time, so.

Right, exactly.

That works out okay.

That's like a camp Hacket. You know, I've had people go, why don't you get WI Fi? I just give them that look, like, really, dude?

Yeah, yeah.

You're not. You're not here to be on WI Fi. I don't say anything, but, you know, emergency 911 still works. Don't ask me how I know that, but yeah. No, you guys.

You know, you guys are doing amazing things there. And I had the gals tally up the total amount of contributions in kind in cash that MO-KAN has produced in the 15 years of your amazing mission there.

And it's the number, and we won't get into the decimal points and all that, but it's 528,000 and some change. That's incredible. That's absolutely incredible.

Your team has won the highest award that our Foundation gives, and that's the Medal of Honor Patron Award.

Wow.

Yeah. And you've done that. That's for proceeds in excess of 250,000.

So as I look at this, I'm like, I think you guys are in the pipeline to get your second Medal of Honor Patron Award. I mean, it just doesn't get any better than that. It's really amazing. It's a ton of resource. It's a ton of Heroes served. It's a ton of lives changed.

And it goes beyond, obviously, the pointy end of the spear there. The work itself. It's that ripple effect that goes off into the community. It's like you say, hey, I'm getting more out of this than you think you are.

I mean, you say you are, but I appreciate you saying that because I feel the same way sometimes, too. When I'm done with a mission, you know, serving the heroes, I feel like I know they got something out of that, but I darn sure know I did, too.

Sure.

You know, and that's a. It's an incredible feeling, isn't it?

And it's. You know, and it's. It's like the beginning. It's the kickoff to Thanksgiving week. It's the highlight of my Thanksgiving. There you go.

That starts that weekend. And it's like my knees don't hurt as bad.

My, my problems aren't as big after I meet some of these young men and women and that have gone through what they've gone through to give us that opportunity, you know.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. It's a great time of the year for me. We always look forward to it.

I know you've developed some relationships with some of the guides. I know.

You know, you mentioned in the pre show, you mentioned Jake and Frenchie and you know, we just got a great crew of combat wounded guides that are, you know, supporting your mission and 42 others across the country. But you probably also have a pretty cool story or something.

I hate to put you on the spot, but, you know, if you've got a story that you'd like to share with us, something that I'm sure we'd all like to hear about your experience there at Napier, doing your thing.

Well, you know, there's, there's tons and tons of story and I did, I did make some notes. That's probably not fair to do that.

But, you know, this time of the year, especially when I was going through my memory and thinking of some of the cool people we've met, you know, that have, that have come across, you know, John Keeney and Whipkey and Frenchie and Carp and Caleb. I mean, Carp, you know, I hope.

Carp is listening to this man, because we could have, we could have a whole program on Carp.

Well, you know, one of the greatest stories that I had was Carp and Ryan Schultz, who used to help us a lot. And he still does help some, but he's got his own stuff going on now.

They're big financial supporters still, but we were getting ready to go to mass one Sunday morning, did not go out to hunt and came out halfway dressed. And Carp says, where are you guys going? I said, well, we're going to mass. It's a little town of Forest City down, down the road.

He says, well, can I go? I said, well, sure, you can go. And he says, well, all I got is camo. I said, okay. So Ryan and I went back to our room.

God's gonna accept you.

Ryan and I went back to our rooms and we put our camo on and we took church. And it was a Catholic church and Ryan and I were both Catholic.

So we're standing there, we introduced him to the priest and the congregation is all related. So when you walk in, every head in the place turns to see who walked in. So we walk in with Carp and he makes his presence known wherever he goes.

Yes.

So at the end of mass, they said, let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord. And Carp throws both arms in the air and says, hallelujah. Completely.

That story. I love that story.

Completely out of line for the Catholic church. And these 80 year old Catholic women turned around.

They turned around.

I was like, what the heck was that?

It was Carp. It was the Carp factor. It was Carp.

You know, he spawned.

Did you. Oh, my God.

And then they proceeded to invite us to their parish luncheon afterwards. They loved it. You know, they loved it.

It was new blood, new life. Yeah.

Oh, so, so much fun. That was a great Sunday morning.

Yeah.

One that won't be forgotten.

I have to. No, you. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask to see if we can't get Carp on. That would be hilarious. What a great. What a great American. Okay, so.

Well, that's pretty cool. I appreciate. I hadn't laughed that hard on a podcast in a while. I appreciate that. I had no idea. You know, I.

I have to live vicariously through you guys sometimes. I hear these stories, you know, all the time of something and I didn't know that it happened, you know, I mean, I get it sort of secondhand, but.

Yeah, that's a great.

That's a great one.

You know, and that was. That was one of my favorite stories with. With an individual and one of the other guys. I wish I knew the kid's name. He was a.

Yeah, he was a young man and he lost lower leg, I think it was. And we were all sitting on the couch watching football one Sunday afternoon. And a good friend of mine was there with us. Very instrumental.

He's a general, very instrumental in getting the Air National Guard involved with us. Lots of labor, lots of help, lots of tables and chairs. When we started out, Steve Cotter was his name and he was sitting next to Steve.

And Steve gets up and he says, I'm gonna go get something to drink. You guys need anything? And this kid was sitting next to me. He says, well, yeah, if you're going. I take a beer.

So Cotter, being gracious, he says, okay, I'll get your beer. He comes back and the kid elbows me. He goes, here, here's my camera. Take a picture of this guy giving me that beer. And I said, okay.

He says, because my buddies will never believe that I had a bug general fetching me beers.

And then you gotta watch those enlisted guys. They're wily, man.

Oh, my gosh. And he says, he was a bug private or something when he got injured.

Oh, perfect. Right.

So here's this boss, you know, that everybody used to worship.

No, that's right. Well, you know what? Yeah, that's awesome.

You know, I tell you the one thing I was mentioning, you know, I had a chance to speak to some folks over the Veteran Day weekend here, and I was thinking about what I might say, and one of the things that came to my mind was just this idea of service, you know, and, well, there's a classic example here, you know, here's a general officer, retired general, two star officer, who's, you know, supporting this activity. And one of the participants asked him if he would go get him a beer.

And the general goes and gets him a beer and doesn't even bat an eye because he's in service. Right? We're all in service in a way, shape or form, you know, and that's just, that's wonderful, isn't it?

Absolutely. You know that it's just those things just make you.

You know, he's just one of us at that time, you know, if he was in a mess, all they'd be saluting him. But when he's down in the trenches and he was a soldier. Soldier. I mean, he was. Yeah, he was a good man. Is a good man.

Yeah, he is.

He, he made me a couple of knives and I asked him if he would make a custom knife for me as a trapper in a place where, you know, there are wolves and things. And I needed to have a.

I don't have as much use in my right arm as I once did, so I wanted to have a knife that I could pull out and use left handed, you know, with my trapping kit. And he made me one and I carry it faithfully. It's, it's a, It's a perfect knife. And I'm just humbled. He's, he's a great American.

Very good. Yeah, he's a good man. Good.

Well, there you go. There's another example of the gravity, you know, of, of, of mocan. You know, it's a thousand points of light.

You start looking around at all the connective tissue that's out there and it's just incredible.

Yeah, it is, it's. It's kind of a. It's. Once it's in motion, you know, it just kind of keeps snowballing.

Right.

You know, and you know, in our, the, the fundraising efforts, you know, we used to have the big one night gala. I think you've been to one of those. Yep, A couple of them cova kind of Killed that. So, yep, yep, we started doing the fundraising.

You know, I just said, well, I'll take care of this, and made some phone calls, did some emails, and pretty soon we had enough money to do everything. So, you know, I think that last year, I think you even got a check on our behalf from England from an insurance company.

That's right.

And you'll be doing that again this year. We sent all their telex or whatever those numbers are to us.

Yeah, no, that's heading your way. Well, that's wonderful. Yeah, it really is. And we're very thankful for all that you all have done and continue to do.

And you've got this mission coming up. You guys are all ready for that, huh?

Yes, sir. It's kind of in the process. Brian and I had meeting last, last night. Kyle and I met this morning on logistics and guides.

And we've got food and, you know, a Catholic school. I, you know, I'm not bringing up my religion because it's my religion. I'm bringing it up because you talk about reaching out into the community.

Thirteen years ago, my wife is a school teacher at this Catholic school and we told them what was happening. Well, one of the teachers there, her dad fought in three wars. Another one had two boys that were enlisted servicemen.

One of them's husband was a colonel, Lieutenant colonel. So they had a stake in it. They, they really bought into it.

And I don't know if you've ever seen the table we call it, that these school kids make pictures for them and Christmas ornaments and prayer books. And they bring goodies enough to fill a 5 by 20 foot table heaped full of goodies for the guys. Last year it was two Ford Expeditions full.

I could not get anything else in my truck and I made two trips, but that's the support this. And, you know, three years ago, Jake and I were talking and he says, well, let's, let's take somebody down there.

So we took a couple of guys down and it was, it was pretty neat. It was very. Riles was his name. He was the first one to go. And we do an assembly with the older kids and they ask questions.

And last year the younger kids came in and they, they ask questions.

And the guys were so good with him, especially Jake, the way he moderates and controls it and, you know, being a father of a young man himself and he's. But we've got this school involved with it now and they, they just go out of their way to help us. So it's kind of neat how many people get involved.

Well, yeah.

Well, let me tell you again, this is what I, this is what I said to the both venues where that I spoke at over the weekend was the importance of getting youth involved and telling them about what it means to be a veteran. And it's one thing to tell them, that's another thing when there's somebody like Jake standing right there. Right.

Or they get to go and do something that helps veterans, especially combat wounded veterans. It's quite incredible. And yeah, I'm super thankful for all of that. And I would highly encourage you. You know, church is a great place.

I mean, I'm a Catholic too. I would love my church to do something like that to support.

And I know they would if I asked them, you know, but there's plenty of youth involved in that and it's, it's just wonderful. It really, really is. That's a great idea and I completely endorse it.

The big step is the first step, you know, and if you reach out to some of these people, you know, and we used to have so many people that came to that banquet and they'd buy their $10 ticket or whatever it was just to be a part of it. And we didn't ever go back to the banquet. I mean, it was a lot of work. I mean, it was a lot of work.

And we thought, well, is it worth the work or is it just easier to raise the money and have the guys together some more, you know?

Right. And no, that's right. I went to one of them, I'll tell you. I went to one of the mo can banquets and it was the last one I went to. Actually.

No, I take it back. I think I've been to three. I went to three. One of them I went to. The guys were all in the back, in a back room by a pool table, just hanging out.

And I went back there and I just looked around and I was like, well, this isn't exactly meeting the intent here, you know, but there's a lot going on in the other room, you know, and I just get the sense that, you know, that they maybe felt a little uncomfortable. I don't know. It does happen for sure, but it's, it's overwhelming. Right? It's completely overwhelming. Sure. What.

When there's 350 people in a room and you know that they're there to celebrate you and support you and it's a thing. And the guys, some of them are uncomfortable with it, some of them love it, but I understand how much energy it takes to Pull it off.

Like you said, the hard part is taking that first step. And one of those steps is asking for help. And that's not in my. That's not in my genetics.

And so I struggle asking for help, but it's great when you have people like you and your team who aren't afraid to ask for help.

Help for these veterans that desperately need to establish meaningful connections in their life and need to know that what they did over there, whatever their. Whatever that, wherever that is, that it was valued, especially by people that they don't know that are American citizens. Right. That's what that.

That's what's so important about. Important about this game. Imagine showing up at, you know, at some venue. You've never met anybody there.

And these people are doing all that they can in terms of preparation and during the execution to make sure that your three or four days that you spend with them is one of the more memorable events you've ever had in your life. Think about that. I mean that if that's not impactful, I don't know what is. And that's what you guys are doing.

Everybody's doing that across the country, and that's in support of the foundation, and that's what makes it so powerful.

Yeah.

And you know, John, you've just done such wonderful things getting this thing up off the ground and rolling, to have the vision to say, you know, these guys could use some help maybe, and I'm the guy that can do it. And I think that's so admirable that you're. You know, a lot of guys in the service don't want to talk about it. My dad was Korea.

He never wanted to talk about it. My father in law was Korea and a submarine. He never liked to talk about it.

The guys from Vietnam, they have every reason not to want to be a part of it or talk about it, you know, and as I told them I was just a little kid or we could have done something, you know, and to have the Vietnam guy. Guys come in now, it's like we finally get a chance to.

Yeah.

Do something nice for them, you know.

Yeah. Well, yeah, no, you're right.

And so I grew up following them, learning from them, and to include the enlisted, you know, I mean, you know, I don't want to just make this an officer thing, because it's not, you know, the enlisted men there was, you know, some platoon sergeants. My first sergeant was a Vietnam veteran. My first. First sergeant was a Vietnam veteran.

And, yeah, so you, you know, to look up to them, and then, you know, having seen, you know, the movie all, you know, what Hollywood has done, you know, everything from, you know, platoon to Apocalypse now, we've all seen them, you know, and, you know, we know what, you know, we can imagine what happened over there. We read the books, we can listen to the stories. But for them to come home and not be welcomed is a sin. And you can't put it any other way.

We can't change what happened, can't change that. That. That happened in this country, and you can't change it. But what you can do is make amends for it or try to.

And so the Vietnam veterans support to the foundation now has been remarkable and remarkable, and we're just serving them.

We just want you to be part of this thing, you know, and when the heroes look at a Vietnam veteran, when I look at a Vietnam veteran and I always have been around Vietnam veterans as often as I can, I just say thanks. Thanks for what you did for this country, and thank you for providing the leadership that you did, you know, while you served. And it's. And it.

And it goes beyond, you know, the service.

And when these young heroes, combat wounded Purple Heart recipients, see a Vietnam veteran that might be 20, 30 years older than they are, and he's out there doing it, you know, that sends a very strong and powerful message, don't you think, hey, he can do it. He's doing it. He's okay. He made it through it. You know, that's.

That's very, very true. You know, so many of them came back and they were nothing. They threw stuff at them.

I mean, I remember kids from my neighborhood, you know, eight or nine years older than me, that had that happen, you know, or. Or they didn't come back. And, you know, and then you walk by that house every day and think, wow, it hits pretty close to home.

And so, you know, now you look at it and I say, you know, the thing I say to a lot of them is, welcome home. Because they never got to hear that before. They never got to hear that.

Exactly. You know, yeah, Those are powerful words for a Vietnam veteran. Powerful. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Well, that's great, man.

It's really, really great. You know, you guys are just doing God's work and I really, really appreciate it. I genuinely do.

You know, let me ask you, you know, like, what's it feel like when it's all over, like when they leave? You know, one of the things we. I always tell Jake was the first person.

Jake Whipke, you know, been supporting the foundation as a guide longer than anybody, any other guide. And he and I have developed, you know, over the years, quite a relationship.

But I used to say to Jake, you know, after we'd get done serving, you know, on an event and, you know, we run around the country for many years together, the two of us just pulling this thing, you know, getting this thing pulled up by its bootstraps.

And as it was gaining momentum and some traction in places, we just kept reinforcing that with, you know, doing our best to make sure that, you know, the work we were doing was true. Right. And just. And that we were, you know, representing as, you know, the foundation as, as best we could.

But at the end of the events, I would always look at Jake and go, I don't know how you feel, man, but I am smoked. Like a tip of Rilla, man. I am smoked. You know, I mean, emotionally, physically, mentally, I am done.

I need like two days after a WWI event to go into what I would call the post event coma and just do nothing besides tend to my feelings. I'm serious, man. Tend to how I'm feeling, recover, process, you know, I don't know what about you, but what do you think?

What happens when every, when the dust is settling and everybody's gone? Does that resonate with you?

Oh, my gosh, yes.

You know, and Kyle and I were just talking about this and I said, I can remember the time on Monday morning where we, you know, put food away, put beds away, clean sheets, whatever we're doing and get all that stuff done. And Kyle looked at me and he says, you know, I'm just going home and going to bed and I'm sleep until Thanksgiving. This is on Monday.

Thanksgiving is on the coming Thursday.

Yes.

And Kyle handles all the logic, the guides, the farms, the travel, the pickups and drop offs.

Yeah.

You know, and that says a lot.

Oh, my God. Yeah.

And I've always, you know, I've always thought, now this is kind of going backwards just a little bit so I can get where I want to go. But the darkness always brings out the best in a person.

Yeah.

Whether you're driving to a duck hunting spot in the morning with a stranger.

Yeah.

You can talk to each other without looking at each other. Ours is at the campfire. Okay. The guys love the campfire. And they open up, you don't have to say much. And they open up and talk to you.

Yeah.

And they tell you a story that maybe they've never told anybody or their family didn't want to hear it or their best friend didn't want to hear it. But you're listening to them. But they love to sit by the campfire till 1 or 2 in the morning. And these guys are 30 years old and I'm 65.

Yeah.

And I still have to get up at 3 o'clock and pack their lunches and get their stuff together.

Amen. You know, I know.

You know, their guide's picking them up at 4, 4:15, 4:00 or whatever. And it's like, okay, I can do that a couple nights in a row, but after fourth night I just, I, I'm dead. I'm drained. And, and again, it's nothing.

I can't, I can fix that. I can go home and rest for a day or so or go to the offer. Used to go to the office. But yeah, you're, you're drained.

You're kind of mentally drained and. But it's a good drain. You know, you'll be sitting there thinking of something, watching a silly football game like nobody cares who's playing.

And you'll think of something and just start giggling. It's like, yeah, I remember that. And I remember when he said blah, blah, blah, you know, and you. And so. But it's, yeah, it is draining.

And I can just imagine, you know, these guys when they take off and they've got their cooler full or they've got their antlers, you know, waiting to see that rack come in the, you know, delivered to them, that kind of stuff. I can just anticipate what they're going to look like when that rack shows up in three months. You know, like Christmas Day to them.

And, and that makes it all worthwhile. That's what you do it for.

Yeah. I love this. I love the analogy with the darkness.

You know, I mean, that's, I thought you were going to go in another direction with that, but I agree there's something about, you know, in the military we would call it either, you know, it's EENT, which is early evening nautical twilight, or BMNT, which is before morning nautical twilight. These are two terms for, @ least for an infantryman that are embedded in your brain, in your soul.

It's that period of time where you can see but the sun isn't up or the sun has gone down, or there's complete darkness.

Like you say, you're loading the truck up at 3:30 in the morning to go out to the duck blind and pond and spread the decoys and get the layouts cracked and, you know, etc.

You know, it's that time where it's the anticipation of the hunt, or it's just after the hunt that, that darkness as it's, you know, befalling you is. Or rising before you, clearing before you, is something that is really magical. And it's a great time, you know, to communicate or to not communicate.

And you don't always have to be saying anything. Just being in the safe presence. Okay. Of somebody, you know, sharing a common bond, you know, that right there is so powerful.

My dad wasn't a very talkative person, but, you know, so I've spent a lot of time in the darkness, you know, with my dad, before hunting and after hunting and you know, man, if you, that, that, that's the good stuff right there. And I appreciate you sharing that, Terry. I do.

Yeah.

You know, and it, I can, I've heard more intense stories at 3:30 in the morning, sitting out on the bench with a guy, waiting for his ride to show up.

Yeah.

To take him to meet a guide, you know, so it just seems like they open up at that time and that's, that's great. Or at the campfire, like I said, you know, sitting around a campfire. They've told a lot of deep stories there.

Yes, yes.

And some of the guys have been in pretty dark places when they start telling those stories. And then you talk to them six months to a year later and they're doing great.

Yep.

Doing big things.

Well, that's part of the healing process, you know, I mean, and that's telling the story.

Yeah.

You know, and communicating to people that you trust. And you find every time you do it, you know, that it's not as daunting, you know, as it was once was. Telling the story.

And there's, you know, it's, it's cathartic, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's expressing, you know, some of that, you know, some of those memories that will be around you forever, but it's almost like opening the door, you know, a little bit, you know, to your soul and having some of that, you know, creep out of you, which is good, you've got to do it, you've got to exercise it.

And then the other thing you're doing that's so important, you know, there's only so much, you know, random access, memory, if you will, or memory in general. You know, it's almost like a computer.

Your hard drive, your head, your soul, you know, there's only so many memories that you can really, you know, retain and hold. And then, you know, when you're replacing some of those challenging memories of things that you did, you did it because you were asked to do it.

You were commanded to do it. It was your job to do it, you know, and we shouldn't have to ask anybody to do some of those things, but we do. Yeah, we do.

Because freedom is not free, you know, and when you're defending this country, you know, and, you know, in our way of life, or defending, you know, some innocent people and their way of life, you have to do some things sometimes that are, you know, that are hard to deal with after it's been done.

And to supplant some of those memories with the memories that you guys are creating, you know, that that's what's happening and that's really remarkable. The work that you're doing is really remarkable.

And the fact that you follow up, the fact that you get up at 3 o'clock in the morning and make sandwiches, you know, I know, hey, you're talking to the chief cook and bottle washer, you know, I get it. You know, and, and that's what makes it so special. You're in service.

And when they open up and tell you their stories and you can get closer to them, you, you know, you're making them, you know, you're providing an environment that's permissive and what's happening is good and that's what you walk away with, right?

Yep, that's exactly right. Exactly right. You know, and how fortunate I am that they felt comfortable enough with me to talk to me.

That's how I feel, to tell me some of their stories.

And, you know, these kids have gone over there, young men, women, whatever, have gone over there and they've had to see things that they should never have to see.

That's right.

And you've been there. You know, I, I never did it, but I can certainly relate to it. I can just only imagine if, you know, my grandsons went, you know, how that would be.

And, you know, they're, it's, it's a tough, tough thing. But if we can help them, that's what we want to do.

That's the thing, buddy. You know, the work you're doing now, the collective work you guys are doing now is, you know, is your way of serving.

And I would argue without even having an argument that, you know, the work you're doing now is way more important than what work you may have ever done if you had joined the service or had been called to duty. You know, this is a very, very important work. And it's not over. It never is, never over.

You know, I would love to someday be out of a job and go, you know, we just don't have, you know, there's no more combat wounded veterans. You know, the country's, you know, doesn't have any more purport recipients.

You know, someday that would be great because it means we didn't, you know, we're not fighting wars, you know, we're not getting guys banged up, you know, But I think if you look at our, you know, 248 year history, you're going to find that about every 10 years this country goes to war. Yeah. Hey, it is what it is, you know, think about it.

Just go back in time, you know, it's 10, 20 years max before we're back in the goo, before our veteran, you know, our service members are closing with, you know, you know, and engaging in combat with a, with a foreign enemy. 10 to 20 years.

That's crazy.

Yeah, it's good.

Yeah. That's good. Hey, well, listen, my friend, I'll give you the last whack at the pinata if you, if you want it.

I don't want you to leave here with any saved rounds in your vest. Expend all, Expend all. Ammunition. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us, my friend?

No, I just, I just think that we are blessed to have the crew that we have up here and the, and support people, you know, of course, the Brian and Brad and Kyle and Mark Williams and Ryan Van Meter. I mean these guys all kick in so much, you know, and even my donors that, you know, for the last six years I get phone calls the 1st of September.

When are you going to send me that note for your. For your money? And so, you know, unfortunately, I've had three of them passed away in the last year who were big donors for this project.

But, you know, then they were older gentlemen. But it's tough, but it's so fun because these people are energized. And it's like.

It's like the old buddy you don't talk to until hunting season, right? Some of these people I never talk to, hey, when are you going to send me the note? Or they'll call me. I haven't seen your email yet.

Where do I send my check? You know, and so you've got that kind of support. It's pretty easy to do. It's pretty easy to do. And we'll keep doing it as long as we can.

Well, Terry, thank you for your time today and thanks for all you've done over the last 15 years. And I wish you and your team, their MO-KAN team, all the best here. Coming up on the 15th mission.

And just know that I'm proud of all of you and very humbled that you're carrying the guide on and representing the foundation as well as you do. It's remarkable. And thank you all for what you're doing.

Well, thank you for letting us be a part of it. We'll just keep doing what we do.

All right, God bless you. You have a great day, my friend.

All right, thanks, John. We'll see you, brother.

Bye. Bye.

Thank you for listening to the ww.

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 at podcast 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.