May 20, 2023
Episode 37 Sgt Jason Steiner
I was honored to sit down with Marine Sargeant Jason Steiner of Lincoln, NE to chat about his time in the military and transition back into civilian life. After serving for more than 4 years, Jason returned home and wanted to find a way to give back...
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Podchaser I was honored to sit down with Marine Sargeant Jason Steiner of Lincoln, NE to chat about his time in the military and transition back into civilian life. After serving for more than 4 years, Jason returned home and wanted to find a way to give back and create a network of support for vets aside from VFWs and Legion posts. What started as an idea to have a small get together for veterans morphed into what would now be known as "Herostock," an event not only for vets but first responders and gold star families as well. All thisand more on Episode 37
please visit www.herostock.org for more information
please visit www.herostock.org for more information
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M hm hm h m. What's
up, guys and gal. There's another
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installment of Bulldog on Sensor coming to
you. Today's gonna be an interesting episode.
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Iget with me Sergeant Jason Steiner.
Sorrys what's going on? Well?
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What's going on? Brother? How
are you doing? Good? So we
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got Jason here to uh talk about
is a military career, an upcoming event
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called the Hero Stock, So we'll
get more on that momentarily. But yeah,
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Jason, if you can kind of
give our listeners a little overview about
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your time in the military and how
you got to that point. Sure.
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Yeah. I joined back in nineteen
ninety six, went Marine Corps. Route
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Army said be all you could be, So I became a marine to serve
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ninety six to two thousand. While
I was in, I was a amphibious
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assault vehicle driver from ninety six to
ninety eight. We basically we had an
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amtrack that would float in the water, a tank that was thirty six times.
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We go from ship to shore with
it, take troops and troop carrier
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that kind of thing. Wow.
The last two years I was in,
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I was actually I got moved up
to be the battalion marksmanship instructor for third
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tracks out of Camp Delmar and Camp
Penalty, So I trained eleven hundred Marines
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and Navy corman a year on rifle
and stole. Um. I got married
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in ninety eight when I was in
and decided I didn't want to raise my
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family bouncing around from base to base, and so I ended up getting out
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in two thousand and moved back to
Nebraska as a temporary move, and twenty
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three years later we're still here.
So right on, now, you know,
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you were kind of pre nine to
eleven and all that kind of stuff.
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Were you station anywhere to actually just
seeing a comment or was that just
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kind of a protocol routine type of
thing. Now, I basically saved all
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served, all garrison I did.
We were on twenty four hours standby and
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early ninety eight when Iraq was kind
of flaring back up. Yeah, so
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we were on twenty four hours standby. That's the closest I ever got to
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it, and I'm thankful for that
every day. That's all the closer I
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got to it. So um,
but no, that even being on twenty
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four hours stand by, you know
that the nerves and stuff. Yeah,
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you don't know, you don't know
when you're gonna leave, so right,
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always being at the ready late like
that, it's it's definitely got to be
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stressful. And Marines are a whole
different breed, like you said, you
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know, it's cut tire of everything
we've got. So I got a big
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love from the Marines. My uh, my uncle was a Marine for part
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time or a short time in the
eighties and it was discharged, but he
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spent some time in Okinawa, and
my aunt was in the Air Force,
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and night two great uncles that both
served in Nam. So I've got plenty
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of ties and pret you know,
military stuff and war vets and all that
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kind of stuff, and also law
enforcement as well. Sure, sure,
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definitely, you know, I enjoyed
my time in but uh, you know,
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I guess I'm lucky that I got
out when I did because I didn't
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have to to go over and see
combat. And you know, I two
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thousand and nine team. I actually
I was one of the founding members of
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another nonprofit here in Nebraska called the
Nebraska Warriors Hockey Program, and we had
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a lot of the combat veterans from
Afghanistan and Iraq, you know, on
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our team, and you hear them
talk, you know, to each other
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and stuff about some of the stuff
that they saw were there and some of
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the stuff that they did. And
it made me realize really how lucky I
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was to be able to serve in
Garrison and not have to you know,
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go over and see what they saw. So but yeah, a small angelo
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buddies that saw action in Afghanistan and
Iraq both. Yeah, and just some
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of the ship that I ever was
just mind blowing what they had to go
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through. And you know, the
more we learned later on in life,
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you know, what was actually going
on and why, it definitely brings a
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hill of different perspective than when you
start out right right one hundred percent.
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We actually we had quite a bit
of fallout, you know, when they
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did the draw out of Afghanistan.
Um, we had quite a few guys
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that really really suffered through that.
Man, they you know, they they
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looked at it and they're like,
man, we just spent twenty years over
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there, you know, two,
three, four or five deployments for what
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you know, we just handed it
right back to the Taliban, and and
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uh, it was it was really
stressful for him and and we had we
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we saw a lot of issues out
of that you know that we dealt with
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post service, right and and uh, but that was that was kind of
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kind of how this hero Stock thing
started. Was you know, seeing that
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need for for a night for veterans
to just hang out and and uh,
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let them be veterans, let them, let them talk to each other and
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and you know, connect outside of
service and outside of our nonprofits that we're
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all involved in, and and uh
that kind of thing. So that's kind
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of how we got this started.
And um, so twenty twenty two,
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i'd actually I was coming up with
a way to give veterans at night out,
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um, release the demons for a
night hang out with like minded people,
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um, just relax. And my
original thought was to do an axe
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throwing contest, because we're all competitive, no matter what branch we're in,
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we're all super competitive. So I
was like, you know, we'll do
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an ax throwing contest. And the
more I thought about it, you know,
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military and alcohol and axes, and
we're going to the emergency room.
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Somebody's gonna get scalped. The best
idea, yeah, exactly exactly. So
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I actually had a neighbor come down
and he's like, hey, man,
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for this night out, he said, I got a band that wants to
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come in and play, and I
was like, super cool, Well we'll
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throw some fire pits out, wrote
some hot dogs, maybe girls, some
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burghers, and you know, hang
out, drink and listen to music.
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And so I called the singer and
got it set up October twenty second.
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That was his first date. So
it was basically forty five days from the
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idea. Two days later, my
buddy comes down and he goes, hey,
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man, I got another band that
wants to come in and play.
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And I said, you know what, I'm gonna do an event for veterans.
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And so I set up an event
for veterans to be able to come
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in one night, hang out,
play cornhole. We set a cornhole tournament
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and just have fun. And as
the as the as we were building up
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to it. You know, we
were only advertised on Facebook for forty five
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days. We had a limited number
of posters that we put out. We
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ended up having a hundred people show
up and it was one hundred percent free
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to him, just come out and
hang out. Um. So we had
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the two bands going, the cornhole
tournament was going, and I kind of
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realized at that point that you know, when I got out in ninety six.
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I knew of the VFW and the
Legion, which were the only two
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groups out there for military that I
knew about. The VFW I couldn't join
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because I had never fought in a
foreign war. And the Legion, you
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know, it was usually just a
bunch of old, grumpy guys sitting at
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the bar, which that wasn't my
cup of team, you know. So
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I pushed back from everything in the
military until twenty nineteen when we started the
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Warrior's Hockey Program. And with this, as we were building this, I
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started seeing all these different nonprofits out
there that I hadn't even heard of.
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And I'd been in the nonprofit world
for four years, and you know,
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this is a great way to showcase
these nonprofits, to let everybody know what
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we have, what's available. And
so I grabbed the heads of all the
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nonprofits and I said, get up
in front of the stage, grabbed the
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mic, and give a two minute
elevator speech, who you are, what
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you do, and how to get
a hold of you. And we ended
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up actually having people join some of
these nonprofits because of the event last year,
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you know, and I thought that
was pretty cool, because you know,
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you're you're opening it up these nonprofits
that some of them struggle to get
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people to join because people don't know
about it, right, So we actually
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we helped some of these nonprofits get
some members and that kind of thing,
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and which in turn helps with their
mission. So that was kind of cool,
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and that was that was a neat
part of it, but it was.
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It was supposed to be a one
night deal. That's all I'd ever
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planned it to be. We had
at three to five days after the event,
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my phone started going crazy and I'm
I'm getting text calls, emails going,
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man, you have to do this
again. And so I grabbed a
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couple of people and we formed a
board and formed hero Stock and decided this
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year, instead of just making it
a veteran event, We're open it up
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to all the nation's heroes, you
know, our first responders and and our
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gold Star families. And that has
gotten amazing reviews that we did that,
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you know, and make it more
of an inclusive group, you know,
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with everybody that's a hero. Yeah, I mean, anything to network on
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all sides of that, you just
create a bigger umbrella of camaraderie and connection,
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and you know, it makes complete
sense to do that kind of thing
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most definitely. Yeah, And you
know, there's a ton of crossover,
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you know when you when you start
looking at law enforcement and firefighters and ms,
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there's a ton of veterans yeah,
that are both, you know,
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and so it made sense to do
that. And so we've we've now opened
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it up this year to all of
our first responders, our gold star families
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obviously because they gave a loved one, you know, for the war or
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for our military, so it made
sense to include them into it too.
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But yeah, man, it's it's
uh, it's growing fast. And you
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know, we had one hundred last
year that showed up were I'm saying between
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fifteen hundred and two thousand people,
one of my board members of saying between
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twenty five hundred and three thousand is
what he thinks would be coming in this
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year. Um. Right now,
I know of people from eight or nine
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different states that are actually talking about
coming into the event. And some of
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them are just coming in to be
at the event. They're not setting up
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a table, they're not anything.
They just want to come in and see
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this event. Um. You know, that's that's pretty cool on on my
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side of it, to be able
to see, you know, the people
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are wanting to come in to see
something like this and see it grow and
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and get bigger every year. So
absolutely, you know, any chance to
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get everybody connected like that and reaching
out and kind of leaning on each other
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for support. I mean, it's
a beautiful thing. And I think it's
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awesome what you're trying to do.
Yeah, and you know, and my
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thing is is I wanted these nonprofits
to come in and I want it to
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grow every year to where you know, we're showcasing one hundred different nonprofits instead
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of just twelve, you know,
and let people understand that, you know,
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the VFW doesn't fit or or the
Wounded Warriors Project doesn't fit you know,
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the big national change, they don't
fit for you. Guess what,
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We've got this really small local nonprofit
that does motorcycles or you know, they
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have equine therapy or you know something
like that that you know, it's it's
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kind of picked your flavor because there's
so many different nonprofits out there for veterans
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right now, and you know,
there's not a ton for first responders,
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but there are a few, you
know, and and to be able to
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expose those to everybody and say hey, look, this is this is what
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we have for you. Um,
I think is a great thing. And
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then you know, the networking one
on one, you know, find your
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finding your civilian battle buddy, finding
that person that you can lean on,
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that you can talk to that's been
there, that's done that they've seen the
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same shit you have and and can
can understand you and where you're coming from.
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You know, I think that's a
huge thing too. So that's a
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big portion of what we're doing this
year with with hero Stock is to to
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have that that crossover, to be
able to grab that person and say,
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hey man, I'm having a rough
day and and that person's there to listen
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and help and do what they can. Right, So he's good. Bands
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lined up, hundreds of you know, idealy nonprofit organizations connecting with each other
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cornhole that kind of thing. Give
me kind of like an overview of what's
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going to go on a side from
speeches and that kind of thing, and
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what you're designated venue is going to
be. So this year's going to be
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kind of a wild ride because we
actually have a couple of veteran nonprofits that
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are working with US. Wheels for
Warriors works with a younger gall called her
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name's Randa. They do Randa's Ride. It's a thousand mile iron butt.
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They'll leave Friday evening at eight pm
from Lincoln, Nebraska. They'll ride down
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to Moreyer, Oklahoma to Adam Sandebal's
k River Campground. That's where the staging
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area is for anybody in Texas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas.
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They're all going to meet up there
and then ride back up to hero Stock.
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They're scheduled to land around two o'clock
PM on Saturday, so they're actually
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kicking us off Friday night Saturday morning. Scott Fredenberg with Rocket Up for Warriors,
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which is a local nonprofit ruck group
there, he set up a ruck
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march that's gonna be around four to
six miles. They're gonna be rucking with
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their packs and their flags. They'll
be landing around two o'clock also at hero
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Stock, a reverent Warriors. They
have a national chapter or their national chapter,
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but we have one here in Nebraska. They're going to be doing a
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silkie hike coming into hero Stock,
and then there's a chance that Nebraska Warriors
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will also be doing a round robin
tournament with Kansas City Warriors and the Oklahoma
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City Warriors and they're all going to
come out to hero Stock. So it's
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going to kick off about two o'clock
for our event. The other events are
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going to kick off Friday night or
Saturday, So two o'clock the Cornhole tournament
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will kick off. We're guests and
we're going to have thirty to forty teams.
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It's one hundred percent free to play
on the Cornhole tournament. Top three
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to five teams will get prizes,
and I'm going to kind of do a
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gag gift type prize for the first
team that gets knocked out because to make
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fun of people. So we've got
a group called the Bravo Zulu Group out
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of Omaha. They're going to be
doing a penning weather. They'll be doing
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a parachute coming in possibly with an
American flag at the time of the anthem
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at three thirty. So my daughter's
going to kick off the singing. She's
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going to do the anthem and Lee
Greenwood's God Bless the USA and then possibly
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one more song and then guitars for
veterans going to take the stage, which
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is they have a national chapter also, but we have a local chapter here
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in Omaha where they teach veterans how
to play guitars. So it's a it's
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a really cool program. It's a
ten week program, start off with a
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very basics and by the end of
it you'll be playing one song and then
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they give you a guitar at the
end of it. So we want to
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showcase them and put them on stage
and let them kind of show off what
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they do. The next band up
is a blue collar band out of North
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Platte, Nebraska. They're seventies eighties. They do a lot of cover stuff,
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they have some of their own stuff. Kind of a cool little band.
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The next one up is Scottie Hastings
and Scottie Hastings is a combat wounded
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veteran from Afghanistan. Ended up taking
ten bullets from his left eye to his
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right shoulder and ended up going to
Walter Reed to recover. While he was
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there, he picked up a bow
and started shooting archery and ended up on
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the competitive archery team for the military. And whilst he got discharged, he
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you know of it hit They shut
down everything, So he grabbed a guitar,
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taught himself how to play through you
tube, and started hitting the outskirts
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of Nashville doing open mic nights and
he now just signed to a label,
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a Nashville label, So pretty cool
to bring him in being a combat veteran,
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you know, wounded veteran, to
be able to come in and show
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what he's doing now. And then
our final band is going to be the
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Dylan Bloom Band, which is he's
based out of Grand Island and he's very
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energetic, grabs a hole of the
crowd, does a lot of his own
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songs, but also does a lot
of cover songs too, you know,
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bringing in his whole band with him, and he's going to close down her
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bands for the night. So yeah, I mean it's gonna be it's gonna
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be a wild, unpacked you know, couple nights actually with the motorcycle starting
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on Friday night for us. And
yeah, this is going to be the
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end of August beginning of September yep, yep, and it will be held
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out around the Bench Steakhouse, which
is a local steakhouse here in Ashland,
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Nebraska. UM, we have ten
thousand square foot inside and ten thousand square
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foot outside that we can work with. UM. We paired with a local
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media marketing company called unanimous that they've
helped us out of ton doing. You
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know, they redid our logo and
I mean this was our logo last year.
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Literally it was my face aviators.
Um, that was that was our
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logo last year. We took it
into them and they're like, you want
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to refine this a little bit,
like come on, I mean this is
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beautiful. What are we talking about? This should yeah? Right? Um,
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So you know, I mean they
came in and helped us out.
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They did a deal for our tiered
sponsorships and and a donor letter and redid
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our logo and um, they've just
done a lot of social media type stuff
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for us because I'm like, I
don't know algorithms, right, I don't
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I don't know Facebook that well,
then when I'm supposed to post and how
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I'm supposed to post. And so
they helped us out with that great group,
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amazing group to work with. Um. We also paired with Soldier Valley
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Spirits, which is a local veteran
own distillery out of Omaha. Um,
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they're going to be bringing in their
semi trailer and selling their spirits out of
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the semi trailer and some of their
swagging stuff. So that was really cool
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to be able to pair with them
to being a veteran owned owned group,
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you know. And and then we
just got another sponsor. He actually works.
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He's one of the board members for
Duce Outfitters Ministry, which is one
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of the groups that originally came in
last year and they do hunt and fishing
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trips and that kind of thing for
veterans, and so his company's going to
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be one of our main sponsors too. And he does like potash seedlings,
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potato seedlings or something like that.
So we're still working with him on his
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deal. But but yeah, man, it's like this thing has just exploded
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and and you know, it was
supposed to be a one night deal.
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It was never supposed to happen again, and and just a one off deal.
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And now we've got people coming in
from eight or nine different states to
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see what we're doing. And so
it's it's been pretty cool to watch the
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growth of it too. No,
absolutely, I mean, you know,
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anybody that puts these kinds of events
together just planting the seed in the infancy
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of it all, and you never
know which direction it's going to take and
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how big it's going to get when
you first start. And then you're blinking.
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It's like you said, Yeah,
United States involved and all kinds of
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stuff. So ye, props to
you guys for you know, sticking your
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nose to the grindstone and keep pushing
through to make it happen. Yeah.
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I mean it's a ton of work, man, it really is. Like
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I I own a tile business too, I do tile installs and that stuff,
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and I've probably spent as much time
on this as I do actually install
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and tile, so um, you
know. But it's been a lot of
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fun too, like like getting to
see the growth of it and getting to
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talk to some of these guys that
are up and coming stars and and that
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kind of thing that you know,
and and learning about the veteran singers that
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I didn't know about, you know, and this has really opened my eyes
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to that, and you know,
reaching out. They're getting reached out to
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by groups like lock Jaw, you
know, they're a heavy metal band out
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of Texas, and he wanted to
come in and play this year, and
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I was like, dude, we
have no more spots, Like we're maxed
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out. We can't. So he's
talking about bringing in heavy metal bands for
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next year and doing a two day
event next year and one day be in
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all country and the next day being
all heavy metal. Um, you know,
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and really really seeing this thing grow
and man, you know, make
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we're we have even pulled off this
year yet, so next year maybe a
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three day event. We don't know, right right, No, it's fantastic.
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I mean I'm big into country and
heavy metal, and you know that's
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where I got my start, was
in the heavy metal business up here in
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New England, and so you know, I'd love to be able to come
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down there at some point with the
next couple of years and hang out and
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take the whole thing out. It
seems like it's gonna be an insane man,
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I'm telling you. The way it's
growing, it's we're bringing people in
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from all over the place. And
the guy that in Texas, he was
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like, you know, my friends
are like five Finger, Death Punch and
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Breaking Benjamin, and I'm like,
holy buckets, if we can start throwing
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those kind of guys on and you're
talking about something different, right, Oh
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yeah, that's that's a whole whole
different world when you start talking about those
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kind of names going up on stage. So you know, I was like,
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cool, man, I'd love to
have him involved and get his contacts
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involved. Um, you know,
I had to had the question poised to
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me on another podcast. I did
and through the contagion effect, and Mike
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was like, he goes, man, he goes, are you ever thinking
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about, you know, taking this
outside of Nebraska right? And you know,
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and I'm thinking, I've still got
a full time job. I'm like,
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I don't have time to go research
venues and trying to set stuff up,
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you know, in another state and
that kind of stuff, and and
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about It was probably two or three
weeks later. I talked to a guy
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out of Michigan or a gunner resurgeon
out of Michigan on marine and he does
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hunting and fishing and camping and survival
and that kind of stuff, and he
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takes veterans on and he's like,
man, He's like, I'm I'm on
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Lake Michigan and our legion literally sits
on the edge of Lake Michigan. He
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goes, would you be interested in
coming up here and doing like a pre
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hero Stock party? And I'm like, I don't know, man, you
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know the time thing, and he
goes, here's the deal. He starts
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sending me pictures like of the sunset
you know, Overlake Michigan, and I'm
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like, dude, you're killing me
here there. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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having a band set up right there
and that's in the backdrop, and
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I'm like, oh wow. So
I'm actually going up in June, either
325
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June or July, and I'm going
to go on a fishing trip with Gunny
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and uh then we're gonna go around
the town and kind of check things out
327
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the next day and see what we
can put together and possibly do a pre
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hero Stock party next year up on
Lake Michigan. Nice. And once I
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00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:40.519
started talking about that, one of
the guys out in Nashville, he's like,
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Hey, I got a place down
here. You can come down here
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and do one down here. And
California and Florida and Texas and I'm like,
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oh here we go catches like wow, fire bro right right, you
333
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know, And so we ban end
up making this into a concert series.
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I have no idea, you know, I don't know which trick of thing's
335
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going to go, but it's it's
literally growing by the week. Um.
336
00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:11.279
You know from my podcast that I
did back but two months ago, it
337
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has completely changed from that original podcast. Yeah, and you know, even
338
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the podcast that I did two weeks
ago, it's changed again because we've got
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people coming in. Um, there's
a group coming in out of Denver,
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the Veteran Rescue Ranch. Um,
he sent me his information. He's like,
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man, I want to be part
of this. So he's bringing in
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his stuff and setting up a booth
here at hero Stock in Nebraska to talk
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about what he's doing out in Denver. Right, Um, you know.
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So, I mean it's it's literally
by the week it's changing and it's growing
345
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and more groups are getting involved and
wanting to be involved with it, and
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so it's really kind of a cool
deal to to be the founder of it,
347
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to see the growth of it,
you know, and it's like you're
348
00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:08.480
kid. You get to see your
kid go from I'm sorry later you know,
349
00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:12.440
we're starting to crawl and you know
next next year it might be a
350
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walk and then we start to run
in the sprints, right right, But
351
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but yeah, man, it's it's
it's fun. It's it's been a wild
352
00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:26.240
ride so far and we're just at
the very tip of it. So yeah,
353
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no, it's it's fascinating to see
how quickly these things progress when you
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00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:37.599
interigate you know, civilian and military
and first founder altogether, gonna get everybody
355
00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:44.000
on the same page and helping each
other out. And I think in general
356
00:27:44.039 --> 00:27:48.079
this country needs a lot more of
that anyhow. So it's a good example
357
00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:52.119
to be said. And I plugged
you for all the success coming your way,
358
00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:56.000
and and uh, whatever you got
coming down the pipeline. Absolutely,
359
00:27:56.519 --> 00:28:04.000
and Bulldog and Sensor's proud to represent
hero Stuck as well and advertise for good
360
00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:07.759
guys up in your here in New
England, and uh, you know,
361
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whatever we can do to spread the
word, We're gonna do that. Well,
362
00:28:11.960 --> 00:28:15.920
man, I really appreciate it.
That's that's what it takes is people
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talking about it, right, get
getting that out there and letting people know
364
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what we got going. And hopefully
we can come up to New England and
365
00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:25.519
put on a show up there with
you guys. Oh absolutely, you know
366
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I've I've done several different events of
different skills up this way, So I'd
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00:28:30.759 --> 00:28:36.119
love to do something like that for
sure. That'd be awesome. That that
368
00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:37.680
would that would be amazing man,
to hook up with you and be able
369
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to work together on something. And
yeah, you know, see if we
370
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can't do something and I've never been
to do something like that, and uh,
371
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work with you hand in hand and
make something cool happen up there.
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So I'd be honored to be a
lot of fun. Yeah, we definitely
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will definitely stay in touch on that
and see what we can't pull off.
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00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:04.079
And I guess maybe i'd better see
how this year it goes first before we
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start getting crazy. Well yeah,
I mean like likewise, but I mean
376
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:14.359
we're going up on over a year
doing this thing, and typically I'm out,
377
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:17.920
you know, playing gage myself and
doing a guitar thing. But the
378
00:29:18.039 --> 00:29:21.079
music kind of slowed down on my
end for a little bit, so you
379
00:29:21.160 --> 00:29:25.200
know, I gotta be diversified and
you know, stretch my brain out a
380
00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:26.839
little bit. And so I'm doing
this for a while and see what happens.
381
00:29:27.640 --> 00:29:30.440
Well, the podcast thing, man, right now, it's hot.
382
00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:34.640
Yeah, it's really lot, and
you get get your listeners behind you,
383
00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:37.279
man, and it could blow up
and be something really cool for you too
384
00:29:37.319 --> 00:29:41.319
and and be a real big thing
too. So yeah, that's what I'm
385
00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:44.119
hoping, man. A week by
weekend, I don't know what's going to
386
00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:48.839
come down the pipeline. But before
we wrap up here with Jason Steiner,
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00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:55.319
today's episode is brought to you by
Ramo remodeling, boiling guitars, wood each
388
00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:00.920
barbershop, and four Engines apparel.
Jason, thanks for coming out. Um,
389
00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:03.680
you know, I keep us posted
on what's going on with herold Stock.
390
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:07.720
I'll be sure to be posting flyers
and all that on my website and
391
00:30:08.200 --> 00:30:15.599
Facebook pages, et cetera. And
yeah, maybe next time we'll we'll get
392
00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:18.440
you up here talking hunting, fishing
and who knows what cool man. That
393
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:22.400
sounds like a plan. I appreciate
you and uh what you're doing, and
394
00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:26.319
uh, good luck with the podcast
and I'll be listening all right. Really
395
00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:30.480
appreciate the support and I'll be in
touch, all right. Sounds great, man,
1
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:44.960
M hm hm h m. What's
up, guys and gal. There's another
2
00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:50.039
installment of Bulldog on Sensor coming to
you. Today's gonna be an interesting episode.
3
00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:54.799
Iget with me Sergeant Jason Steiner.
Sorrys what's going on? Well?
4
00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:57.399
What's going on? Brother? How
are you doing? Good? So we
5
00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:03.039
got Jason here to uh talk about
is a military career, an upcoming event
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called the Hero Stock, So we'll
get more on that momentarily. But yeah,
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Jason, if you can kind of
give our listeners a little overview about
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your time in the military and how
you got to that point. Sure.
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Yeah. I joined back in nineteen
ninety six, went Marine Corps. Route
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Army said be all you could be, So I became a marine to serve
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ninety six to two thousand. While
I was in, I was a amphibious
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assault vehicle driver from ninety six to
ninety eight. We basically we had an
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amtrack that would float in the water, a tank that was thirty six times.
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We go from ship to shore with
it, take troops and troop carrier
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that kind of thing. Wow.
The last two years I was in,
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I was actually I got moved up
to be the battalion marksmanship instructor for third
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tracks out of Camp Delmar and Camp
Penalty, So I trained eleven hundred Marines
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and Navy corman a year on rifle
and stole. Um. I got married
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in ninety eight when I was in
and decided I didn't want to raise my
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family bouncing around from base to base, and so I ended up getting out
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in two thousand and moved back to
Nebraska as a temporary move, and twenty
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three years later we're still here.
So right on, now, you know,
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you were kind of pre nine to
eleven and all that kind of stuff.
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Were you station anywhere to actually just
seeing a comment or was that just
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kind of a protocol routine type of
thing. Now, I basically saved all
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served, all garrison I did.
We were on twenty four hours standby and
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early ninety eight when Iraq was kind
of flaring back up. Yeah, so
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we were on twenty four hours standby. That's the closest I ever got to
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it, and I'm thankful for that
every day. That's all the closer I
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got to it. So um,
but no, that even being on twenty
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four hours stand by, you know
that the nerves and stuff. Yeah,
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you don't know, you don't know
when you're gonna leave, so right,
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always being at the ready late like
that, it's it's definitely got to be
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stressful. And Marines are a whole
different breed, like you said, you
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know, it's cut tire of everything
we've got. So I got a big
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love from the Marines. My uh, my uncle was a Marine for part
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time or a short time in the
eighties and it was discharged, but he
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spent some time in Okinawa, and
my aunt was in the Air Force,
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and night two great uncles that both
served in Nam. So I've got plenty
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of ties and pret you know,
military stuff and war vets and all that
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kind of stuff, and also law
enforcement as well. Sure, sure,
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definitely, you know, I enjoyed
my time in but uh, you know,
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I guess I'm lucky that I got
out when I did because I didn't
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have to to go over and see
combat. And you know, I two
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thousand and nine team. I actually
I was one of the founding members of
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another nonprofit here in Nebraska called the
Nebraska Warriors Hockey Program, and we had
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a lot of the combat veterans from
Afghanistan and Iraq, you know, on
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our team, and you hear them
talk, you know, to each other
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and stuff about some of the stuff
that they saw were there and some of
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the stuff that they did. And
it made me realize really how lucky I
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was to be able to serve in
Garrison and not have to you know,
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go over and see what they saw. So but yeah, a small angelo
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buddies that saw action in Afghanistan and
Iraq both. Yeah, and just some
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of the ship that I ever was
just mind blowing what they had to go
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through. And you know, the
more we learned later on in life,
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you know, what was actually going
on and why, it definitely brings a
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hill of different perspective than when you
start out right right one hundred percent.
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We actually we had quite a bit
of fallout, you know, when they
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did the draw out of Afghanistan.
Um, we had quite a few guys
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that really really suffered through that.
Man, they you know, they they
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looked at it and they're like,
man, we just spent twenty years over
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there, you know, two,
three, four or five deployments for what
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you know, we just handed it
right back to the Taliban, and and
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uh, it was it was really
stressful for him and and we had we
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we saw a lot of issues out
of that you know that we dealt with
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post service, right and and uh, but that was that was kind of
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kind of how this hero Stock thing
started. Was you know, seeing that
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need for for a night for veterans
to just hang out and and uh,
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let them be veterans, let them, let them talk to each other and
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and you know, connect outside of
service and outside of our nonprofits that we're
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all involved in, and and uh
that kind of thing. So that's kind
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of how we got this started.
And um, so twenty twenty two,
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i'd actually I was coming up with
a way to give veterans at night out,
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um, release the demons for a
night hang out with like minded people,
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um, just relax. And my
original thought was to do an axe
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throwing contest, because we're all competitive, no matter what branch we're in,
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we're all super competitive. So I
was like, you know, we'll do
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an ax throwing contest. And the
more I thought about it, you know,
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military and alcohol and axes, and
we're going to the emergency room.
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Somebody's gonna get scalped. The best
idea, yeah, exactly exactly. So
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I actually had a neighbor come down
and he's like, hey, man,
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for this night out, he said, I got a band that wants to
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come in and play, and I
was like, super cool, Well we'll
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throw some fire pits out, wrote
some hot dogs, maybe girls, some
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burghers, and you know, hang
out, drink and listen to music.
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And so I called the singer and
got it set up October twenty second.
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That was his first date. So
it was basically forty five days from the
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idea. Two days later, my
buddy comes down and he goes, hey,
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man, I got another band that
wants to come in and play.
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And I said, you know what, I'm gonna do an event for veterans.
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And so I set up an event
for veterans to be able to come
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in one night, hang out,
play cornhole. We set a cornhole tournament
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and just have fun. And as
the as the as we were building up
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to it. You know, we
were only advertised on Facebook for forty five
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days. We had a limited number
of posters that we put out. We
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ended up having a hundred people show
up and it was one hundred percent free
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to him, just come out and
hang out. Um. So we had
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the two bands going, the cornhole
tournament was going, and I kind of
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realized at that point that you know, when I got out in ninety six.
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I knew of the VFW and the
Legion, which were the only two
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groups out there for military that I
knew about. The VFW I couldn't join
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because I had never fought in a
foreign war. And the Legion, you
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know, it was usually just a
bunch of old, grumpy guys sitting at
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the bar, which that wasn't my
cup of team, you know. So
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I pushed back from everything in the
military until twenty nineteen when we started the
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Warrior's Hockey Program. And with this, as we were building this, I
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started seeing all these different nonprofits out
there that I hadn't even heard of.
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And I'd been in the nonprofit world
for four years, and you know,
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this is a great way to showcase
these nonprofits, to let everybody know what
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we have, what's available. And
so I grabbed the heads of all the
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nonprofits and I said, get up
in front of the stage, grabbed the
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mic, and give a two minute
elevator speech, who you are, what
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you do, and how to get
a hold of you. And we ended
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up actually having people join some of
these nonprofits because of the event last year,
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you know, and I thought that
was pretty cool, because you know,
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you're you're opening it up these nonprofits
that some of them struggle to get
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people to join because people don't know
about it, right, So we actually
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we helped some of these nonprofits get
some members and that kind of thing,
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and which in turn helps with their
mission. So that was kind of cool,
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and that was that was a neat
part of it, but it was.
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It was supposed to be a one
night deal. That's all I'd ever
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planned it to be. We had
at three to five days after the event,
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my phone started going crazy and I'm
I'm getting text calls, emails going,
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man, you have to do this
again. And so I grabbed a
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couple of people and we formed a
board and formed hero Stock and decided this
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year, instead of just making it
a veteran event, We're open it up
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to all the nation's heroes, you
know, our first responders and and our
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gold Star families. And that has
gotten amazing reviews that we did that,
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you know, and make it more
of an inclusive group, you know,
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with everybody that's a hero. Yeah, I mean, anything to network on
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all sides of that, you just
create a bigger umbrella of camaraderie and connection,
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and you know, it makes complete
sense to do that kind of thing
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most definitely. Yeah, And you
know, there's a ton of crossover,
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you know when you when you start
looking at law enforcement and firefighters and ms,
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there's a ton of veterans yeah,
that are both, you know,
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and so it made sense to do
that. And so we've we've now opened
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it up this year to all of
our first responders, our gold star families
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obviously because they gave a loved one, you know, for the war or
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for our military, so it made
sense to include them into it too.
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But yeah, man, it's it's
uh, it's growing fast. And you
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know, we had one hundred last
year that showed up were I'm saying between
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fifteen hundred and two thousand people,
one of my board members of saying between
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twenty five hundred and three thousand is
what he thinks would be coming in this
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year. Um. Right now,
I know of people from eight or nine
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different states that are actually talking about
coming into the event. And some of
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them are just coming in to be
at the event. They're not setting up
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a table, they're not anything.
They just want to come in and see
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this event. Um. You know, that's that's pretty cool on on my
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side of it, to be able
to see, you know, the people
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are wanting to come in to see
something like this and see it grow and
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and get bigger every year. So
absolutely, you know, any chance to
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get everybody connected like that and reaching
out and kind of leaning on each other
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for support. I mean, it's
a beautiful thing. And I think it's
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awesome what you're trying to do.
Yeah, and you know, and my
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thing is is I wanted these nonprofits
to come in and I want it to
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grow every year to where you know, we're showcasing one hundred different nonprofits instead
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of just twelve, you know,
and let people understand that, you know,
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the VFW doesn't fit or or the
Wounded Warriors Project doesn't fit you know,
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the big national change, they don't
fit for you. Guess what,
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We've got this really small local nonprofit
that does motorcycles or you know, they
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have equine therapy or you know something
like that that you know, it's it's
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kind of picked your flavor because there's
so many different nonprofits out there for veterans
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right now, and you know,
there's not a ton for first responders,
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but there are a few, you
know, and and to be able to
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expose those to everybody and say hey, look, this is this is what
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we have for you. Um,
I think is a great thing. And
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then you know, the networking one
on one, you know, find your
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finding your civilian battle buddy, finding
that person that you can lean on,
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that you can talk to that's been
there, that's done that they've seen the
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same shit you have and and can
can understand you and where you're coming from.
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You know, I think that's a
huge thing too. So that's a
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big portion of what we're doing this
year with with hero Stock is to to
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have that that crossover, to be
able to grab that person and say,
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hey man, I'm having a rough
day and and that person's there to listen
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and help and do what they can. Right, So he's good. Bands
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lined up, hundreds of you know, idealy nonprofit organizations connecting with each other
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cornhole that kind of thing. Give
me kind of like an overview of what's
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going to go on a side from
speeches and that kind of thing, and
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what you're designated venue is going to
be. So this year's going to be
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kind of a wild ride because we
actually have a couple of veteran nonprofits that
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are working with US. Wheels for
Warriors works with a younger gall called her
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name's Randa. They do Randa's Ride. It's a thousand mile iron butt.
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They'll leave Friday evening at eight pm
from Lincoln, Nebraska. They'll ride down
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to Moreyer, Oklahoma to Adam Sandebal's
k River Campground. That's where the staging
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area is for anybody in Texas,
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas.
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They're all going to meet up there
and then ride back up to hero Stock.
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They're scheduled to land around two o'clock
PM on Saturday, so they're actually
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kicking us off Friday night Saturday morning. Scott Fredenberg with Rocket Up for Warriors,
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which is a local nonprofit ruck group
there, he set up a ruck
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march that's gonna be around four to
six miles. They're gonna be rucking with
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their packs and their flags. They'll
be landing around two o'clock also at hero
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Stock, a reverent Warriors. They
have a national chapter or their national chapter,
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but we have one here in Nebraska. They're going to be doing a
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silkie hike coming into hero Stock,
and then there's a chance that Nebraska Warriors
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will also be doing a round robin
tournament with Kansas City Warriors and the Oklahoma
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City Warriors and they're all going to
come out to hero Stock. So it's
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going to kick off about two o'clock
for our event. The other events are
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going to kick off Friday night or
Saturday, So two o'clock the Cornhole tournament
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will kick off. We're guests and
we're going to have thirty to forty teams.
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It's one hundred percent free to play
on the Cornhole tournament. Top three
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to five teams will get prizes,
and I'm going to kind of do a
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gag gift type prize for the first
team that gets knocked out because to make
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fun of people. So we've got
a group called the Bravo Zulu Group out
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of Omaha. They're going to be
doing a penning weather. They'll be doing
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a parachute coming in possibly with an
American flag at the time of the anthem
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at three thirty. So my daughter's
going to kick off the singing. She's
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going to do the anthem and Lee
Greenwood's God Bless the USA and then possibly
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one more song and then guitars for
veterans going to take the stage, which
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is they have a national chapter also, but we have a local chapter here
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in Omaha where they teach veterans how
to play guitars. So it's a it's
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a really cool program. It's a
ten week program, start off with a
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very basics and by the end of
it you'll be playing one song and then
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they give you a guitar at the
end of it. So we want to
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showcase them and put them on stage
and let them kind of show off what
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they do. The next band up
is a blue collar band out of North
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Platte, Nebraska. They're seventies eighties. They do a lot of cover stuff,
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they have some of their own stuff. Kind of a cool little band.
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The next one up is Scottie Hastings
and Scottie Hastings is a combat wounded
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veteran from Afghanistan. Ended up taking
ten bullets from his left eye to his
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right shoulder and ended up going to
Walter Reed to recover. While he was
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there, he picked up a bow
and started shooting archery and ended up on
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the competitive archery team for the military. And whilst he got discharged, he
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you know of it hit They shut
down everything, So he grabbed a guitar,
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taught himself how to play through you
tube, and started hitting the outskirts
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of Nashville doing open mic nights and
he now just signed to a label,
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a Nashville label, So pretty cool
to bring him in being a combat veteran,
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you know, wounded veteran, to
be able to come in and show
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what he's doing now. And then
our final band is going to be the
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Dylan Bloom Band, which is he's
based out of Grand Island and he's very
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energetic, grabs a hole of the
crowd, does a lot of his own
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songs, but also does a lot
of cover songs too, you know,
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bringing in his whole band with him, and he's going to close down her
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bands for the night. So yeah, I mean it's gonna be it's gonna
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be a wild, unpacked you know, couple nights actually with the motorcycle starting
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on Friday night for us. And
yeah, this is going to be the
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end of August beginning of September yep, yep, and it will be held
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out around the Bench Steakhouse, which
is a local steakhouse here in Ashland,
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Nebraska. UM, we have ten
thousand square foot inside and ten thousand square
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foot outside that we can work with. UM. We paired with a local
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media marketing company called unanimous that they've
helped us out of ton doing. You
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know, they redid our logo and
I mean this was our logo last year.
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Literally it was my face aviators.
Um, that was that was our
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logo last year. We took it
into them and they're like, you want
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to refine this a little bit,
like come on, I mean this is
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beautiful. What are we talking about? This should yeah? Right? Um,
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So you know, I mean they
came in and helped us out.
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They did a deal for our tiered
sponsorships and and a donor letter and redid
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our logo and um, they've just
done a lot of social media type stuff
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for us because I'm like, I
don't know algorithms, right, I don't
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I don't know Facebook that well,
then when I'm supposed to post and how
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I'm supposed to post. And so
they helped us out with that great group,
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amazing group to work with. Um. We also paired with Soldier Valley
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Spirits, which is a local veteran
own distillery out of Omaha. Um,
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they're going to be bringing in their
semi trailer and selling their spirits out of
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the semi trailer and some of their
swagging stuff. So that was really cool
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to be able to pair with them
to being a veteran owned owned group,
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you know. And and then we
just got another sponsor. He actually works.
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He's one of the board members for
Duce Outfitters Ministry, which is one
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of the groups that originally came in
last year and they do hunt and fishing
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trips and that kind of thing for
veterans, and so his company's going to
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be one of our main sponsors too. And he does like potash seedlings,
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potato seedlings or something like that.
So we're still working with him on his
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deal. But but yeah, man, it's like this thing has just exploded
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and and you know, it was
supposed to be a one night deal.
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It was never supposed to happen again, and and just a one off deal.
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And now we've got people coming in
from eight or nine different states to
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see what we're doing. And so
it's it's been pretty cool to watch the
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growth of it too. No,
absolutely, I mean, you know,
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anybody that puts these kinds of events
together just planting the seed in the infancy
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of it all, and you never
know which direction it's going to take and
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how big it's going to get when
you first start. And then you're blinking.
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It's like you said, Yeah,
United States involved and all kinds of
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stuff. So ye, props to
you guys for you know, sticking your
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nose to the grindstone and keep pushing
through to make it happen. Yeah.
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I mean it's a ton of work, man, it really is. Like
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I I own a tile business too, I do tile installs and that stuff,
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and I've probably spent as much time
on this as I do actually install
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and tile, so um, you
know. But it's been a lot of
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fun too, like like getting to
see the growth of it and getting to
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talk to some of these guys that
are up and coming stars and and that
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kind of thing that you know,
and and learning about the veteran singers that
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I didn't know about, you know, and this has really opened my eyes
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to that, and you know,
reaching out. They're getting reached out to
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by groups like lock Jaw, you
know, they're a heavy metal band out
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of Texas, and he wanted to
come in and play this year, and
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I was like, dude, we
have no more spots, Like we're maxed
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out. We can't. So he's
talking about bringing in heavy metal bands for
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next year and doing a two day
event next year and one day be in
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all country and the next day being
all heavy metal. Um, you know,
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and really really seeing this thing grow
and man, you know, make
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we're we have even pulled off this
year yet, so next year maybe a
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three day event. We don't know, right right, No, it's fantastic.
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I mean I'm big into country and
heavy metal, and you know that's
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where I got my start, was
in the heavy metal business up here in
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New England, and so you know, I'd love to be able to come
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down there at some point with the
next couple of years and hang out and
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take the whole thing out. It
seems like it's gonna be an insane man,
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I'm telling you. The way it's
growing, it's we're bringing people in
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from all over the place. And
the guy that in Texas, he was
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like, you know, my friends
are like five Finger, Death Punch and
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Breaking Benjamin, and I'm like,
holy buckets, if we can start throwing
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those kind of guys on and you're
talking about something different, right, Oh
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yeah, that's that's a whole whole
different world when you start talking about those
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kind of names going up on stage. So you know, I was like,
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cool, man, I'd love to
have him involved and get his contacts
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involved. Um, you know,
I had to had the question poised to
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me on another podcast. I did
and through the contagion effect, and Mike
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was like, he goes, man, he goes, are you ever thinking
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about, you know, taking this
outside of Nebraska right? And you know,
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and I'm thinking, I've still got
a full time job. I'm like,
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I don't have time to go research
venues and trying to set stuff up,
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you know, in another state and
that kind of stuff, and and
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about It was probably two or three
weeks later. I talked to a guy
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out of Michigan or a gunner resurgeon
out of Michigan on marine and he does
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hunting and fishing and camping and survival
and that kind of stuff, and he
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takes veterans on and he's like,
man, He's like, I'm I'm on
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Lake Michigan and our legion literally sits
on the edge of Lake Michigan. He
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goes, would you be interested in
coming up here and doing like a pre
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hero Stock party? And I'm like, I don't know, man, you
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know the time thing, and he
goes, here's the deal. He starts
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sending me pictures like of the sunset
you know, Overlake Michigan, and I'm
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like, dude, you're killing me
here there. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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having a band set up right there
and that's in the backdrop, and
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I'm like, oh wow. So
I'm actually going up in June, either
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June or July, and I'm going
to go on a fishing trip with Gunny
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and uh then we're gonna go around
the town and kind of check things out
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the next day and see what we
can put together and possibly do a pre
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hero Stock party next year up on
Lake Michigan. Nice. And once I
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started talking about that, one of
the guys out in Nashville, he's like,
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Hey, I got a place down
here. You can come down here
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and do one down here. And
California and Florida and Texas and I'm like,
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oh here we go catches like wow, fire bro right right, you
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know, And so we ban end
up making this into a concert series.
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I have no idea, you know, I don't know which trick of thing's
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going to go, but it's it's
literally growing by the week. Um.
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You know from my podcast that I
did back but two months ago, it
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has completely changed from that original podcast. Yeah, and you know, even
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the podcast that I did two weeks
ago, it's changed again because we've got
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people coming in. Um, there's
a group coming in out of Denver,
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the Veteran Rescue Ranch. Um,
he sent me his information. He's like,
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man, I want to be part
of this. So he's bringing in
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his stuff and setting up a booth
here at hero Stock in Nebraska to talk
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about what he's doing out in Denver. Right, Um, you know.
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So, I mean it's it's literally
by the week it's changing and it's growing
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and more groups are getting involved and
wanting to be involved with it, and
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so it's really kind of a cool
deal to to be the founder of it,
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to see the growth of it,
you know, and it's like you're
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kid. You get to see your
kid go from I'm sorry later you know,
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we're starting to crawl and you know
next next year it might be a
350
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walk and then we start to run
in the sprints, right right, But
351
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but yeah, man, it's it's
it's fun. It's it's been a wild
352
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ride so far and we're just at
the very tip of it. So yeah,
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no, it's it's fascinating to see
how quickly these things progress when you
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interigate you know, civilian and military
and first founder altogether, gonna get everybody
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on the same page and helping each
other out. And I think in general
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this country needs a lot more of
that anyhow. So it's a good example
357
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to be said. And I plugged
you for all the success coming your way,
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and and uh, whatever you got
coming down the pipeline. Absolutely,
359
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and Bulldog and Sensor's proud to represent
hero Stuck as well and advertise for good
360
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guys up in your here in New
England, and uh, you know,
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whatever we can do to spread the
word, We're gonna do that. Well,
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man, I really appreciate it.
That's that's what it takes is people
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talking about it, right, get
getting that out there and letting people know
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what we got going. And hopefully
we can come up to New England and
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put on a show up there with
you guys. Oh absolutely, you know
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I've I've done several different events of
different skills up this way, So I'd
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love to do something like that for
sure. That'd be awesome. That that
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would that would be amazing man,
to hook up with you and be able
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to work together on something. And
yeah, you know, see if we
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can't do something and I've never been
to do something like that, and uh,
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work with you hand in hand and
make something cool happen up there.
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So I'd be honored to be a
lot of fun. Yeah, we definitely
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will definitely stay in touch on that
and see what we can't pull off.
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And I guess maybe i'd better see
how this year it goes first before we
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start getting crazy. Well yeah,
I mean like likewise, but I mean
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we're going up on over a year
doing this thing, and typically I'm out,
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you know, playing gage myself and
doing a guitar thing. But the
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music kind of slowed down on my
end for a little bit, so you
379
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know, I gotta be diversified and
you know, stretch my brain out a
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little bit. And so I'm doing
this for a while and see what happens.
381
00:29:27.640 --> 00:29:30.440
Well, the podcast thing, man, right now, it's hot.
382
00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:34.640
Yeah, it's really lot, and
you get get your listeners behind you,
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00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:37.279
man, and it could blow up
and be something really cool for you too
384
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and and be a real big thing
too. So yeah, that's what I'm
385
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hoping, man. A week by
weekend, I don't know what's going to
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come down the pipeline. But before
we wrap up here with Jason Steiner,
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today's episode is brought to you by
Ramo remodeling, boiling guitars, wood each
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00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:00.920
barbershop, and four Engines apparel.
Jason, thanks for coming out. Um,
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00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:03.680
you know, I keep us posted
on what's going on with herold Stock.
390
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:07.720
I'll be sure to be posting flyers
and all that on my website and
391
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Facebook pages, et cetera. And
yeah, maybe next time we'll we'll get
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00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:18.440
you up here talking hunting, fishing
and who knows what cool man. That
393
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:22.400
sounds like a plan. I appreciate
you and uh what you're doing, and
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uh, good luck with the podcast
and I'll be listening all right. Really
395
00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:30.480
appreciate the support and I'll be in
touch, all right. Sounds great, man,