Latest / Chirping Zebras / RYAN CROLEY | Chirping Zebras Podcast | Ep #109
Transcript
- Mark Riley: I believe that is a zebra on the ice, Bill. How did he get on the ice? Trip, trip. They still can't get him off the ice. This is crazy. Here comes all the zebras. It's a zoo out there. You can't do that! Doesn't matter. Welcome everyone to trip and keepers. Maybe we'll all embrace the zebra side. ⁓ Welcome everyone to Tripping Zebras. Mark Riley alongside Gino Binder and Josh Dolan coming to you from Granite Lynx in Quincy. And we are excited to ⁓ have a few great guests, but before we do, we want to ⁓ thank our sponsors, the referees Grease One Stop Shop for all your refereeing needs, ⁓ from training and payment development. ⁓ they do us do do it all. And also Damon Financial LLC for over 24 years. Damon Financial has helped families and business owners grow and protect their wealth with clear, trusted strategies from retirement planning investments to tax-efficient solutions. They deliver no nonsense advice focused on your goals. Call them at 508-321-2101 to schedule your meeting with Damon Financial or visit them at Damon Financial.com. Also want to thank AOA Studios. as always, they come out and do a great job. We have Chase here from AOA Studios. And you know, as always, if you have anything you wanna tape or do AOA. ⁓ You know, ⁓ yeah. ⁓ I'm not gonna agree, ⁓ but he's doing a bang up job, I'll tell you that. and also wanna remind you to like and subscribe on YouTube, follow us on the social medias, the Instagram, the Facebook, and of course the TikTok. Thank you, Gino. Always nails it. ⁓ and ⁓ I mean, we continue to be on a heater here, you know, episode after episode. Been fantastic. And this one is special because it's linked directly to the Warrior for Life Fund. ⁓ I got it on the sleeve from the St. Patrick's Day T sh ⁓ sweatshirts. and we also have a three-time guest, Captain Ryan Crowley from the Warrior for Life Fund, retired Navy SEAL, leader of SEAL Team Four, ⁓ commander of SEAL Team Four. He ⁓ third time on the podcast. So I mean the I mean the Warrior for Life Foundation, but he basically started. I mean it's done it's in it's incredible. Like the what he does and w how many families and people he touches with you know, wounded soldiers and, you know, gold star, the whole thing. Right. There's a reason we don't shut up about it. No. Right. I mean he hosted that as ⁓ when we went down to Virginia Beach, yeah. We went to his house, we had a nice dinner and I mean just every weekend with those guys. I'm always like, What the hell's gonna happen? And I always leave going like how is this my life? That was amazing. No, they can't spend enough time around those guys. It's amazing. ⁓ and then ⁓ Kevin Mason joined us from the Merriman Foundation. ⁓ he's a ⁓ board member of the Warrior for Life Fund. ⁓ and it the reason why we're here at Granite Lynx on June first, they're doing the TR for heroes. And it's similar to the face offer heroes that we were part of in Montana, but it all is to benefit the Warrior for Life Fund. ⁓ and of course Kevin will tells us a lot more about it. ⁓ you're you're a celebrity guest? I'm a celebrity guest in the tournament, which every time I type it I laugh. Just ask him. All right, I say it 'cause you know it's kinda you know? Hey just ask ⁓ Just ask ⁓ No, but it's gonna be a great event. They got the ball drop, which Kevin T the golf ball drop and ⁓ That's kinda cool. It it's just amazing and he and Hopefully one ball gets in. Hopefully one one ball will get in the one cup. ⁓ but you know, ⁓ Merriman Foundation, what he does with them too is great. They helped us out a lot with our Saint Patrick's Day blowout. you know, with with setting up the raffle to Barron Fit the Warrior for Life Fun. ⁓ you know, ⁓ Granted Lynx was our our ⁓ title sponsor really. ⁓ and referees Chris and and Granite Lanks were our our biggest sponsors and they do such a great job up here. And if you've never been to Granite Lynx, and I know some of you watch from all over the world, right? ⁓ Granite Lynx is it's a it's more than just a golf course, right? It's a kind of an experience 'cause their view of the city's view of the city you're gonna get playing any game. Unbelievable. Just incredible. And they do everything top notch here. ⁓ and and Kevin been, you know, integral into ⁓ setting us up here in fireplace chat. Our our logo will be on the screen during the episode. Right now I think it timed out, but ⁓ that's okay. ⁓ that's them telling us to get out. Yeah. But and ⁓ and and the stories you'll hear from Captain Crowley i like it just incredible. What not only what he's done in it with his career and when he was active to now being retired and the Warrior for Life. I just I know we talk about it a lot and it means a lot to us. Also, ⁓ you know, shout out to Frank Simonetti, yes, president of the Bruins alumni, huge fan of the podcast, ⁓ two time guest on the podcast. He's looking for his third now because Ryan surpassed him. But you know, ⁓ huge, huge supporter of the show and also ⁓ on the board like Kevin for Warrior for Life. so yeah It's ⁓ i i these two conversations you're about to see just buckle up. Good stuff. Really good stuff. So without further ado, ⁓ we get to talk to Captain Crowley first and then we talk to Kevin and sit back and enjoy. Ryan, this is your third time here with the Zebras. So I mean that's a a feat no one has accomplished quite yet. So Yeah. How's that feel? Well I I think it's like my academic record in college where I had to redo some courses over and over again. So ⁓ I'm assuming that I didn't do well in the first two or that or I rated so highly that you just want me to come back out here. Do we do I have any feedback on that? ⁓ no, you rated very high. Okay. Very high. ⁓ yeah. And and now ⁓ Albi, our friend Andrew Alberts, he was ⁓ a two timer on the show and he did he kind of put out there that the second time you get a zebra robe. And the third time you get the zebra jacket like the masters. Yeah. So we're gonna have to have a zebra coat made for you because you're the first one. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. But it it's hard to compete with Andrew, man. He's a good looking guy, right? I don't like mental. You I don't I'm not a man fan with a lot of things, but this guy. This guy's a good looking dude, right? Professional hockey player. The legs on that guy too. He he calls them Greyhound legs. Yeah. ⁓ 'cause they're about that thin. And ⁓ but he can move. He can move in him. But but no we're we're so excited to have you back and and you know one thing I wanna jump right into is the Warrior for Life Fund 'cause you you know, started it and tell us a little bit about you know, what how that happened and kinda, you know, what it's all about. 'Cause we know But a lot of people might not understand what it is and and they hear it a lot, you know, on our podcast, they hear it a lot 'cause we talk about it a lot. Right. So, i the ho my hockey journey started ⁓ age thirty-five. I was assigned to the war college to get a year long master's degree up there, which is part of promotion for ⁓ for naval officers. ⁓ I went up there and I'd I'd had probably done six deployments overseas and you know, I had some mental health things going on and you know, you know, just kind of coping and dealing with that. I went up there as a geo bachelor and don't ever do that. You know, I'd ⁓ a what? We we call it geographic bachelor. Geographic bachelor. That's what I thought you said. And I'm like d what so it's a military term. We say that when we're not with our family and ⁓ we may be living in a really small apartment or maybe have no food or anything because we are geographically away from our families, but it's not it's not a way for me to pull one over on my ex wife at the time or anything like that. That that was not the intent. But I'm up there, I'm a geo bachelor, ⁓ and I'm looking for things to do to keep me busy because you know I didn't want to go I didn't want to go hang out at the bars and do any of those things and I I really kinda just wanted to focus in on myself a little bit. So I was fortunate at Boss Ice Arena in ⁓ Rhode Island they had just put a new a new facility together, stadium together, ⁓ Rink. So ⁓ they had open skates from noon to two every day. So every day that I was up there, I would go skate from noon to two ⁓ and then come back and and ⁓ really eat dinner and just go to bed. I was just so tired. It was just so consuming ⁓ while I was out there. But it it did have a great effect for me mental health wise because you know when I'm in the when I'm in the rink and I'm skating and I'm trying to learn how to do this, you have to be completely in the moment. Right. You can't be focused on anything else that's going on. And for us it it kind of puts me back into the arena and I get the I get my flow from it, right? Yeah. I I feel like I'm you know, you know, like I'm still you know, still an active man, military guy, gives me that that feedback of maybe being in the kill house or being out on a range somewhere, how you'd feel there, maybe doing some shooting and moving. So I related to it really well. But ⁓ just as a coping mechanism, it it it was it was just incredibly therapeutic for me. So I I was hooked up there and then ⁓ my next Well could you did you learn to skate before that? I couldn't stand up on skates. It was it was yeah it was a thing. Wow. And you know, I have to be honest, you know, it those those noon skates sometimes would turn into a pickup game and some of the University of Rhode Island kids would be out there and ⁓ they didn't really enjoy the fact that I didn't know how to skate, you know, too much. And ⁓ I learned a lot from those guys, but man, they were yeah, they weren't happy I was there some of the. So just put it we'll just put it that way. I was just, you know, up there bouncing around and I'm a tripod and they'd flip me over backwards and I'd get up and you know, it was ⁓ and truthfully that was that ⁓ that happened a number of times, but it was a total blessing for me and ⁓ I brought that back to Virginia Beach. I kinda saw what it did for me and you know, selfishly I'm like I wanna I wanna play more, so I created a morning hockey league for For me really to to so that I could play in the mornings and ⁓ and do that. And that was the that was the genesis of the club. And then we just started bringing more and more people out. I started talking about my story, not ever skating before, learning the game late and ⁓ and being ⁓ able to pick it up and spend time with it in a therapeutic value. So I just started teaching that to more and more people. And ⁓ I ran it like that. It was called the Virginia Beach Hockey Club. Mondays and to Mondays and Fridays, seven thirty in the morning. every Monday and Friday. Made a deal with the rink and they let us in and let it let us do that. ⁓ so it was great. And I think it was about seven years later, ⁓ Tony Cabana comes down. ⁓ he had met the Navy SEAL Foundation, ⁓ Robin King. e executive director and she said, Hey, we have a hockey program. We just bought them a new shed because they bought us a shed to put our gear in, you know, kinda at that point. So ⁓ Tony comes, well Tony calls me like I don't know for like four or five months and I won't answer the answer the call because I have no idea who this kid is or what he wants and and those type of things. So I finally get on a phone call with him. And then I agreed to have him come down for one of our ⁓ we called a memorial games at the time where we would memorialize one of the guys that we'd that we had lost over the last couple of years and ⁓ you know, post nine eleven and we'd bring the families out to be honored and we would talk about their loved one and we would tell stories and ⁓ maybe poke a little fun, you know, ⁓ at each other and and and you know, just kind of enjoy being around each other and just appreciate who you know, them and who they were and and ⁓ you know just our community. So, ⁓ Tony came down for one of and ⁓ the event cost like I think it cost six hundred dollars in total, right? And six six hundred dollars, right? That's it. And it was at the ice and our after party and the beer and all that stuff and I get the bill and Tony's like, That's great. How much money do you have in the bank account for the non profit? I'm like, about five hundred. And ⁓ it was it was amazing. He's like, ⁓ man, we're gonna have to fix this. And ⁓ you know, ever since that time Tony led us to the Bruins alumni. The Bruins led us to the NHL. And ⁓ just this past year we're now partnered with ⁓ the Anaheim Ducks, the Bruins, and ⁓ and now New Balance. So we we have grown just significantly and we've been able to take those that money that we have now ⁓ to ⁓ create a facility that we operate out of now, a lot of hockey, but it's really about wellness at this point. You know, we use hockey as that. Therapeutic tool about seven times a week, you know, and a lot of it is beginner hockey. A lot of it is just, you know, sustainment hockey where guys can just play. But then on the weekends we have an adaptive program, which you've seen. Yep. And then we have an adult learn to play, which is the exact thing that I did at at Newport Rhode Island. We've taken guys in their mid thirties that don't know how to play hockey. We teach them the game. from go and then we see them transition up into the ranks and play, you know, a life sport that is ⁓ that works out really, really well. So long story, roundabout. No, no, no. Love it. Hockey's great. Hockey's a beautiful thing. It's like it's therapeutic for everybody involved. And it's a life sport, I mean, I look at the Bruins, there's there's some guys playing in the Bruins alumni. Seventy two, seventy three years old they're still out there playing. Yeah. So I mean it's great. I mean what the Brewers alumni d do with Frank Simonetti and all that for all those special charities and and the programs, like like I you follow ⁓ on social media, like every single guy, thank you for showing up. Thank you for showing up. And hockey people I think of ⁓ especially of all the sports are guys that always show up and they're the best ones off the ice. Like and this is a great partnership for you and your your program with Warrior for Life and everything they do, it's awesome. So I mean hockey's great. Yeah, I d I think there's no doubt there. I mean y look at the look at the Olympics. Right. I mean, it was it was probably three. Yeah. Golden hatric. Yeah. Golden hatric. But the best hockey I've seen in a long time. You show me another professional sport where they show up for the Olympics or an all star game or four nations and they play harder in that game and hit more than they even do as they're What's going on right now with the baseball right you know, you got USA Ven Venezuela going on. That game's tonight and you know Passion that the hockey people show, it's like you they're even talking about it on the radio. Like they're like hockey people, like it just it's a different environment. It means something more, and just more passion involved, I think, in hockey than any other sport really. And I I don't know what it is, but just getting out there and just skating and just feeling that like the wind in your in your in your face and just having that freedom and just that ability to just go skate. Like I see it in my daughter my daughter. She goes out there like she just likes to skate and just enjoys being out there. And it's like a huge smile just for her just skating, skating around. And like I can only imagine like something something we you've been through and just that mental health and and how that's therapeutic and what you're doing for somebody that, you know, sitting back and having having an issue and hopefully this brings to light to someone, hey, just go throw some skates on and go go out and wheel and get yourself out of bed and hopefully you you come out of the you know, your dark place. Yeah, and we're fortunate because we have such great access to the rink. Yeah. And it's not used during the day. And you know, there are times when me and a couple of other guys will use it. as an intervention for somebody that's really struggling. Just say, hey, come on out to the rink and let's go out on the ice and there'll be maybe two or three of us out there. You know, no one else out there. And just go and you could take somebody who has never skated in their life. You can go out there, do a little bit of edge work, but you can transition that to the stick and just teaching somebody how to pass that puck across the ice with a stick. I think people are always amazed at how accurate you can be with just very, very little practice or skill. And I mean you mentioned something too like cost, right? Like hockey's very expensive sport. Ice is expensive, the rinks expensive, even just turn the lights on, the building's expensive. And you know, there's a lot of really good programs out there that donate their time, donate their ice to programs and charities like yourself, like even the Terriers, like like they they help us out with referees. Here you go. I'll give you a free hour, here's here's a classroom, whatever we need to just make the game better. And that's hockey people in general. So like that's awesome, and that's the other thing people probably worry about is the cost of even even doing that. Right. And I and for us for veterans that are playing, it's it's free. ⁓ you know, we'll we even you know, we call it zer zero barrier to entry. It's like if you want to play, come to us. We have the equipment. A lot of times donated by professional players that can donate their extra gear. Now we have a part good partnership with New Balance and Warrior Hockey where they're supplying a lot of gear for us and it it's it's it's a game changer because guys won't come out if they have to spend twelve hundred dollars to start a sport right that they don't even know if they're gonna stick with. Right. So ⁓ that is that is a key part you know, to our program is is just being able to get them from zero to out there on the gear and ⁓ and learn how to play, you know, the game. And, you know, sometimes we do it where we're teaching we're teaching veterans and their kids at the same time. The neat thing is it's not like basketball, it's not like soccer where you're the dad, so you're bigger, stronger, faster, so therefore you're gonna learn faster or just overpower your kid. The beauty of it is they learn together and they almost it it just kinda sinks them up as far as brings them down to the same level and you see them talking laughing, communicating a way that they wouldn't have done it otherwise because the dad doesn't he can't try to be, you know, the dad do it like this because I'm telling you how to do it because he's struggling just as much. So that that's the magic I think with teaching, you know, those two groups. And a lot of these dads have been gone for, you know, years and months and and don't really know how to even to talk to their kids. Yeah. Yeah. And this gives that connection back something that they can ⁓ do together and participate together. Do you think the reason hockey helps with like you said you had mental health issues going on, ⁓ because of everything that you've gone gone through and these other guys, do you think that hockey is therapeutic to you just because of like what you had done, like being a service man or woman, like you gotta have intense attention to detail and you gotta think quick and be calm. And it's a team sport. Do you think there's a lot that goes into what you guys do that you can Yeah, re channel into the sport of hockey. Yeah, I do. I think that we we spot, assess and recruit guys that actually are prior athletes and they are they are really good in the arena, whether that arena was football, whether it was boxing or whatever sport it was that though that they played. We actively are recruiting those guys. So to see that they excel or or feel comfortable in that environment later and no surprise at all. You know, I think that's I think that's there. And then there's some learned things that that happen over time. that creates a little bit more of the need for them. And that is ⁓ you know, ex it you know, exposure to combat operations, and then have to sit back and think about what you did and reflect on that. And ⁓ it, you know, that may have been a win for them as a man at the time, but as they sit back and for me, go to the the war college for a year, now you're sitting back, you're thinking about everything that you saw and you did, and you're re-evaluating it. You're going, ⁓ I don't know if that was the right decision. Yeah. I think it was, I think it was at the time, but where I sit now, ⁓ maybe I wouldn't do the same thing based on experience. So you have a lot of those thoughts that go through your mind, so the time kind of impacts you. and then there's there's you know traumatic brain injury. What we know about TBI in the military, you know, at this point, you know, it's clear and there's evidence out there. Home Base has done a lot of the research, a lot of with all the other ⁓ national organizations, the National Intrepid Center of Excellence out of Walter Reed. But they're looking at the brain of of professional athletes and they're looking at the brain of SEALs and Rangers and all and and that group. And what they're seeing when they look at those two brains is similarity in the CTE injury that happens. These guys were athletes a lot growing up. They have a lot of those same CTE issues on their brain. And and we know that a lot of the athletes, you know, pro athletes have that and struggle with it later in life. But they're also seeing another a phenomenon on in the in the military brain. And what they're seeing is ⁓ damage from repetitive blast or repetitive impacts. And they're seeing that scarring that happens over to the top of the brain, ⁓ in addition to the CTEs. Right. And and they're only they're have only been able to detect this now post mortem. So this is after we've lost somebody either through suicide or whatever. And we lost a couple of those guys that said, I need you to look at my brain when w you know, when I when I commit suicide. So they're going back and they're looking at it and they can see it. It's identifiable. What they think, you know, what the cause is for ⁓ you know, suicide, depression and a lot of these things is you're dealing with guys that really functioned at a high level for a good part of their career. and they were able to cognitively process, do all these things and now They find themselves in a place where they can't do it anymore. You know, they can hear but they can't process what's going on. And so that leads into depression, alcoholism and and these these these other type things. So we now know that it that's what's going on and we're looking at at treatments for it and how do you deal with it. ⁓ and it's one of the things that we have taken on at Warrior for Life, ⁓ at our facility there in Virginia Beach. Which is amazing by the way. Josh and I have the benefit of coming down, you hosted us and ⁓ What you have there and what you do there is just incredible. Absolutely incredible. You can just see in it for the short time we did. Like I rethink everything like the cause the attention, the detail that you guys have at that facility. Like you were showing us like each chair has a specific meaning and place and position and like I've never viewed a room like that and like now I I like I'm like I can't believe like I can't imagine like this room causing me anxiety. But it does to them 'cause right. They're brother. Right. And is that like John Eccles, our good friend who's been on, we call him Good Deal Eccles. Good deal eccles? Yeah, I think we're gonna yeah 'cause he always finds good deals. He always finds a good deal. Yeah, I like him. He did not invite so he was here for the ⁓ Saint Patrick's Day ⁓ celebration we had. ⁓ he did not invite himself. I reached out to him as a representative of the Warrior for Life Fund because we could we needed him. ⁓ Yeah. He has his way of creeping in there. He's in your head and you don't even know it. That's what's going on. But he talked about how, you know, you guys after after you you retire, you don't your brain doesn't shut off about how it thinks as a seal. And he's like, you know, you could see him we we had dinner in this very room. And you could see him assessing everything and like And he said your brain you can't stop that. You can't turn that off. And one of the things you have is that I don't know what you call it, that chair you put us in. Mm-hmm. Like the sh Yeah. That thing was incredible because it teaches the brain to calm down. Right. That was pretty cool. I also feel like it like pulls your brain away from whatever it's stuck on to, 'cause like when I was in that chair I wasn't thinking about all the things that I was thinking about, like at that point in time. And even though it's like not the same, but I feel like when John was saying that like you can't turn your brain off. Like I'm trying to like relate it to things that I know that like you y you might know this. Like when you're you're writing stand up jokes and you're you're thinking con like you start looking at everything like how is that a joke? How is that how can I like you just get trained into a certain way of thinking, you can't just shut it off and s you gotta redirect it somewhere. And I I I don't know that you know, if anyone looks at being an athlete or in the military or whatever, has a coach or a commander ever looked at you and said, All right, I need you guys to sit back, relax, let's meditate a little bit and let's pull ourselves back and and, you know, go into, you know, parasympathetic or sympathetic. Yeah. H have we ever done that? The answer's no. And that's that's That's the other issue that, you know, a lot of guys are having is they know how to put the throttles forward but they don't know how to pull ⁓ back. Right. So ⁓ and that needs to be taught. And you know, shout out to the shift wave guys. You know, that tool is amazing in doing that and it give because it gives you that immediate feedback as far as what's going on. So they're talking, guided meditation and they're using vibration through a zero gravity chair to reinforce where they're trying to take you, sympathetic or parasympathetic. And it can also So they have programs on there as well that ramps you up and is kind of intended to do that. But for me, you you can feel and and use breathing techniques to try and help you get there. And then I don't think you guys saw it, but there's an actual biofeedback piece on there as well that's actually can see where you are and see if you're matching up with you know where they're trying to take you. Yeah, you had mentioned that. It's that little box thing. Yeah. And I I think certainly. I think what what people don't realize is, you know, you hear, he's a retired Navy SEAL, or he's a Ranger, or he was just even in the military and deployment, no one can really understand that unless you're there. And these are the things that I think educate people on how much trauma, whether it's physical, mental, emotional, that you guys go through. that you now have to deal with and be in regular life. Regular life. Just think of the trauma and it like a lot of people deal with being in the fender bender. Like then they get nervous, get behind the wheel and the like times that by a million. Yeah, there and there's a number of things, ⁓ everything from the guys that are outside the wire that are actually going after going after our adversaries, our enemies, assaulting targets, finding the local population in the middle of that assault and then trying to figure out who's dangerous and who's not, how to engage and how to leave it alone and you know, ⁓ you know, war is imperfect. So it you know, there are gonna be there are gonna be things that happen and you have to re you have to think about that. But ⁓ one of the toughest things for me is having been through that and then come back to the battlefield as a commander, you have to make decisions that impact guys' lives, whether you go or you don't go, and you don't have that that direct ⁓ combat operation direct experience with them. You know, I was right there with you and we were doing this and we s held right and went left. When you have to make the decision for them to go and then you have to observe what they're doing and you're not there with them, that and when that doesn't go well, that that can really impact you you know, psychologically, mental health standpoint, and makes you want to pull back and say, ⁓ I don't know if we want to take this much risk next time. And ⁓ you know, it can lead to risk aversion. ⁓ the the I was a commanding officer of SEAL team four and on the give you an example, on the next rotation, the commanding officer ⁓ Job Price, rest in peace, ⁓ was out on the battlefield and had made a couple decisions, ⁓ no one's fault, but he had lost a couple of guys. And three days later he ended up commit committing suicide in Barracks overseas. And not only you think about what a loss for him and his family and a wonderful family still does, ⁓ but think of the impact to the command, think of the impact to the operators, to the support people, everything that's going on, it really makes you question, you know, what we're doing over there, and you know, is it worth it? And and how much how much can you take before you have to just you know pull guys off? so yeah, that that's an example. ⁓ and for me, those are the those are the moments I think that keep me up more so than. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. And it could it could be those are just my two experiences. And I'm sure other people that have gone over there and seen different things, whether you're inside the wire or outside the wire, you know, you're still at risk of indirect fire every night that goes on. You still, you know, have to go to the bunker every time you hear that. You're still s you know, reinforcing your sleeping position with steel on top of you so that you can take a mortar round that's coming over. I mean, those things that was just the way that we lived for ⁓ every deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq, and it was just just the way of life in Sleeping under metal to be able to take a a mortar sounds to me like, well I'm not sleeping. Yeah, I don't I don't yeah. Now I I I wanna get into as you know, Navy SEALs, you guys are my rock stars. I and I we all think the same way. but what you do is just neck level. I do wanna jump back to hockey and compare 'cause I've heard guys talk about this. The SEAL teams, it's all about the guy next to you, where hockey is very similar in other than life or death, that and and there's that, you know, kind of crossover there. And it seems like that's why it it was natural for hockey to find its way into that therapeutic piece. And I was even thinking if a guy like you probably can speak to this, you've never played hockey before. Well, you were never a SEAL before, Bud's training. So you had to go through that to learn how to be a SEAL. You have to go through how to play ho how to skate first and then play hockey. There's just so many parallels. Right. It's amazing how the two kind of melded together with Warrior for Life. Yeah, i absolutely and from a hockey perspective. You're almost looking at the same type of athlete, right? For all positions. It's kind of the same type of athlete that you're looking for. ⁓ you know, you don't have ⁓ offensive tackles that play hockey and you don't have offensive tackles that are SEALs because we have to do a lot of things with our weight and be able to manipulate our body, you know, based on that. And I think it's a very similar type of athlete. The other thing that I find fascinating is the majority of what we do when we're when we're on target or moving towards a target or in the kill house, we're not necessarily calling everything out. You're just moving in a way to support your partner, right? ⁓ so that you're providing ⁓ cover fire support, you're prepared to provide him, you know, support the entire time, especially in a in a ⁓ urban, urbanized, you know, scenarios, you're kind of looking and you're trying to cover where ⁓ you know somebody would be able to exploit your patrol. Same thing with hockey. If you think about ⁓ you know what's happening offensively, defensively, puck support. You know, puck support is almost the same thing that I was that I was just describing. Yeah you're trying to support the guy that has the puck. And where can I put myself to give him an out. ⁓ if he needs one. ⁓ so I the similarities are are the same where it's almost like you can be creative. ⁓ when you're doing it. As long as you're you know you're figuring out how to give that support, you know, to ⁓ your your partner, your shooting buddy, or your teammate. Yeah. And and being a a s a SEAL team leader, Master Chief, I don't want to ⁓ mess up the term. So I was the commander. Okay. Right. So ⁓ you just call me captain is cool. That's how I usually Yeah no I have you refer to me. The last thing I want to do is mess up with a SEAL. I know you and all, and I know you're that's what I mean. Where we got some options here. but would you liken that to being again, on a different scale, yeah. A coach in hockey where you gotta make decisions and put your players or put your soldiers in a certain place and hopefully to succeed, but not always and you have to adapt like I that's absolutely, you know, a great analogy of ⁓ when you're the commander, when you're a commander of a SEAL team and you're forward, you may have two hundred, you may have four hundred people working for you. Right. And you know, you have your seven or eight maneuver elements that are on the battlefield and a lot of times those maneuver elements that are attached to you aren't SEALs. A lot of times they're army rangers. I had ⁓ I had a a Delta troop that was attached to me for a while and ⁓ you know, they were kinda in my area of operations and I was conducting, you know, I was kinda orchestrating what they were doing and and ⁓ providing fire, lift, medevac, casovac, ⁓ AC one thirty gunship, you name it. We're we're still Stacking all these things on top of your operators that are there on the ground and and you're, you know, you're just trying to support them any way you can. so yeah, I think that's a good analogy. ⁓ I do think, you know, in in some of the larger ⁓ maneuver operations, you may see the, you know, the commanding officer and the command master chief out on the operation with them. You know, that's a battalion level size operation. And we didn't do much of that. That really wasn't how we were designed in either Iraq or Afghanistan. But ⁓ yeah. I think it's a great analogy. Yeah. now what I love hearing seal stories and I know you can't share everything. You did share a couple stories like when you went for the five mile swim in the middle of the fucking Atlantic Ocean, which still blows my mind. I still people tell people that one. but what's one that you can tell us from when you were outside the wire. I love the I love the terminology. SEAL team's my favorite show. And I you know, I I just love it. I'm a nerd when it comes to that. But matter of fact, we had John, we did ⁓ I believe we called it an Xville of Terry Ryan when he was in town at the bar. We gotta get him out of there so he'd show up the next day for the parade. And we went in and literally put him in the trunk of my car and drove away. So ⁓ it's kinda cool, I felt like How many people have you put in a trunk? That's a selfie question right there. I know a guy. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah, like like missions, like rescue missions, you ever go like rescue like a hostage situation. Like what what do you like any any kind of situations like that? Yeah. I have. I've done that. ⁓ I was involved in the ⁓ Jessica Lynch operation. and and that was that was pretty amazing, ⁓ just to watch it all come together and It w interesting w I mean when we first started to get it the intel and what was going on, I was absolutely this will never happen. There's no way we're gonna find this person. ⁓ and it it just continued to ⁓ it continued to develop and and then and then we we actually get get di get the intelligence. I was there outside the outside of the Anna. We'd we'd my element had gone north. I linked up with a tank platoon north of Ann Nazaria. And she was at a hospital kind of in the center of the city. So we had I'd moved with my troop north, linked up with these tankers and we thought we were, you know, we're special operations guys, so we're going to we're gonna take you on to the we'll we'll show you where you need to go, right? And ⁓ these tankers are up there. There it was a It was a reserve marine tank platoon. Okay. So they have three Abrams tanks and we're talking about it. I'm looking at this guy and I'm like, so we're gonna put one Abrams tank in the in the front, and there's gonna be seals. We've got some Rangers with us, and then we're gonna have two Abrams tanks behind us. Right. And I look at these guys, I'm like, hey, can you guys drive on nods? And this dude's dipping it. He's like, yes, sir, it's no problem. ⁓ and these guys have been living out, they've been living out in, you know, on their own for like 45 days. You know, they got their MREs laid out, they got their tanks in a like a like a wagon, like pioneers that are that are out crossing ⁓ crossing the West. So we're like, okay, so this guy turns and we get right behind him, and we're about ready to start the movement that the ⁓ the heel. assault forces coming from the south. This tank, I don't know if you've ever seen how these tanks fire up. But you know, they have this ⁓ they have this jet engine that they throw on and that's what powers it. And it's like woo, and you just got warming up and you're like, holy shit, what's happening here? This tank took off and we could not keep up with it. It was gone. It ended up blowing right past everything. We're trying to keep up with them. We're driving with our nods on, smokes everywhere, and it was a bit of a shit show, honestly. It was like survival war at this point, yeah. What just happened? So the tanks blew by and then we rolled in and then the the the ⁓ the Helos came and ⁓ we ended up doing an assault on the objective and it was ⁓ it was successful. You know, it was it was it was just an amazing, ⁓ thrilling thing to do and and talk about feeling good as an American, I mean ⁓ rescuing one of your own is just you know, is just that's awesome beyond compare. You know, there were some downsides of it too though. ⁓ we had to, you know, Lori Pestua had w was ⁓ was killed as part of the as part of the ambush and we had to recover her. and she was she was in a shallow grave and do you know some of these other things that that kind of get on your mind a little bit, but you know, we weren't gonna leave anyone behind. So we ended up getting ⁓ policing all that up and then ⁓ and then you know patrolling out of there. ⁓ but I do remember you know So that's kind of like what everyone wants to talk about, but there was really a lot more to it. That makes us lethal as a force, and that's not the operators, it's not the tank drivers, it's the entire combined joint operation that goes on. and this one in particular, we landed two C-17s ⁓ on an airstrip called Talil Airstrip outside of Annazaria. We didn't even have it, wasn't even a secure airfield. Half of it was controlled by the Iraqis still, and I think we had an ODA on the other end. So these two C-17s. came in and just dropped it right down there. We rolled off the back and they took off and it was on this desert strip landing thing. And that was absolutely amazing. If you've ever seen the C17, those things and that's the magic because that's what put everything in place. The intelligence on top of that, the ability to do some jamming and to do some other things really turned off the town when we were dri when we were coming in. So it was effective and ⁓ you know we had task force 160 there doing what they do. And And ⁓ it was just amazing. But really it was about the logistics, I think, more than anyone. That's I think what made it, you know, made it really special. The the planning that goes into it, I mean that's the the operation itself is one thing, but planning and the and the execution of that plan is really the the planning is the biggest part. Right? I mean that's you know, you don't say, hey, we're gonna go find Osama tomorrow and go in and do it. Like There's that whole piece leading up to that. I was literally thinking s like the way of thinking similar leading up to that 'cause I w I kept looking at John when me and you were freaking out getting ready for the parade and I was like, he's so calm 'cause this is just silly to him We're like, We can't decorate it right now. Yeah and then but I'm like he's he he calmed everybody down, friggin' was like, You go there, you go there Then you had Jedi, he was there, he zipped a couple of things, he was all set. But I remember I remember John saying, ⁓ dude, calm down, I work in chaos. Yeah. And I'm like, this is a parade float. Like what he's seen, he's probably like, you idiots. You know you can't figure out how to get a pay. He he wouldn't say that 'cause he's too nice of a guy, but that planning piece and all that just I don't think, you know, like The show SEAL team. They do they show that, but it's like, you know, two minutes and they have the plan, which we know is bullshit. It takes so much time to plan that and then go in and actually execute it and hope that it all goes well. And things are probably constantly changing too, right? Right. And I believe it or not, i because of the way that we've created the force, you know, ⁓ you know, post you know, the Iranian hostage situation in nineteen eighty, right? That caused the military to change as an organization completely. It created US Special Operations Command, gave them their own authorities to pay for things and to train things, but it also created ⁓ the Joint Special Operations Command, which is, you know, ⁓ really the National National Mission Force. And it forced units like Task Force 160 and Development Group and CAG and all these other units to work together on a habitual relationship. So when it does come to execution, it's not it it's not a pickup game. We all know each other. Like I know the guy flying the helicopter, I know what his call sign is. I've been training with him for the past two years. So a lot of it is just pickup. And if we're doing you know, if you're hostage rescue for instance, there's a couple of ways to do it. ⁓ and you can decide pretty quickly which way you need to do it based on the threat to the hostage and the threat to the force. I guess sometimes you have to do it quick. Like you might get some intel, hey, we're moving like tonight, like Yeah. Get your shit ready, yeah. And and that's how it is, I think, today, especially with that force, ⁓ we call it time sensitive target, TST. You're like we're gonna go on a TST and we're getting intel as we're flying to the objective and really doing it there. But it's not a pickup game, it's like hockey. This is what scroll yeah, this is the this is the power play today. And when you're thinking of when you're thinking of, you know, the SEAL team quote moving down the ice, I would say think of Task Force one sixty, ⁓ Development group, Rangers, comms, you know, fire support, all of it is moving down. And that's the way you should think of the game, how it's really moving, instead of thinking in of individuals, because that's that's what makes that organization so so effective and lethal is they can do it on a pickup. It's like listening to the team that went and got Osama, right? Like just that whole operation and how that all went down, right? Just like listening to those guys and how they just got They didn't even know what the hell they were doing until they were pretty ⁓ pretty much on the way. But they all knew it, or they had a feeling, an inkling, but like look how long that took to get ⁓ Right. And then all of a sudden you put together and rock and roll. And and that you know, that the the hilo going down, right, that made everything change on a whim. And the fact that they were able to I mean that's the stuff that's just amazing is that ability to think on your feet and it's not thinking like No different than refereeing, like like you if you can correct an error quickly you can, right? Like say you put your arm up, I probably should take both. Fuck it, yeah, that wasn't a good penalty, but I got not I got an out here, I'm gonna take it, right? Yeah. That's not life and death. Well they I know but there's well no, it's all on a it's all relative. But they did a study that Hockey players from a very early age from when they first start are athletes that process information so quickly and much more quickly than any other sport. Right. And yeah, I'm biased. Hockey's the greatest sport in the world. But they they did this study and you know, again, there's so many parallels 'cause you guys process information at a level that's not like anyone else. Yeah, it's it's about managing time and space. Especially when you're in favorite term. You know, when especially when you're in in a house or ⁓ in environment where you don't have much room to make a decision. So ⁓ and and that's where I feel the similarities are almost the exactly the same as inside a kill house doing you know, something internal in playing hockey. It is the same field. It's time and space management the other time. Looking at threats, looking at opportunities, you know, seeing you seeing where your teammates are, seeing where you need to put the shot, seeing where you need, you know, what's available to you. Get comfortable in traffic, right? Yeah, that i you know is is absolutely I'd I'll tell you about the you know we call it contingencies. You know, if we lose a helicopter, we've already talked about what we're gonna do on the way in. If we lose one helicopter we're gonna this. If we lose this we're gonna this and this is going to be a Mission abort if that happens. So we know that and we and we're we're kind of taking that in as well. It's like chess, right? Like three three four moves ahead almost, right? Kinda. But I would I would also say that, you know, every mission is not the same. Right? So if if I'm gonna go do ⁓ key leader engagement and I'm flying two helicopters to the there to sit down and yes We're gonna come out with guns and all those other things, but we're gonna engage with the population or whatever it is that we're gonna do on on kind of the lower end of priority. You know, if you lose a helicopter there, I always look at the guys and say, Okay, what are you gonna do if you lose a helicopter? And they're like, we're gonna continue mission until we secure the objective. And I'm like, No. No. If you lose it, go get your guys and come back tomorrow. Right. You know, and it's it's ⁓ you have to under that's that's the thing. But you're going after you're going after you d you don't want to make a low risk ⁓ a low risk low payoff operation high risk. Right. Those two things are that is not a match. Right. This ain't life or death right now. We're going home, we can come back tomorrow. We'll do high risk. High risk, high payoff. Right. So that's when you're on the objective with ⁓ UBL, high risk, high payoff. Helicopter goes down, we're gonna continue mission. We could have lost two and we're gonna continue mission. We could have lost them all and then we're gonna continue mission. That's how important that was. No one is three to two in the dirt, we'll know what's on a seven to one. Yeah. But You know, how many times is the mission that important to where you just have to say, I cannot come back tomorrow. I've gotta make this thing happen today. Right. I'd say it's very few. And that's I think that's the art of risk management is understanding where does this mission sit on the ⁓ you know, on the payoff on the payoff side. How much of the like the training and the repetition 'cause I'm always curious about like Riley, you probably remember the first time you were on stage or like doing comedy like There's gotta be a first time you see action or like it's it's the real deal and it's not training anymore. Does is there an amount of training that makes the real deal kind of just seem routine, or is there still like is there still like you gotta learn how to manage your anxiety? 'Cause like anxiety exists for a reason. You just gotta learn how to harness it and channel it, but yeah, I think they do do a ⁓ you know, the US military special operations commands, they do ⁓ understand how to simulate really well to put you in a position where you're when you're on the objective you you know, you've been through most of the scenarios and if you don't you know how to solve the problem, you know, to get you know, to get to the answer. ⁓ whether it's you know, a lot of times it's it's not about the assault that's going through, it's your ability to breach deep inside of the building. So that's a whole different that's a whole different thing. Easy to secure, but how do you penetrate? That that's where it gets you know, a little bit a little bit harder. I the thing between I would say the main difference between training and and combat is If you're on if you're on combat operations or you're in theater, that you always think there's one more thing you can do. What else can we do? We want to study not only the routes and how we get in and and the objectives and all those things, but let's continue and let's just make it bigger and bigger. And you just have this sense that you can never shut it down. Like I'm always thinking of what else I could do because I want to be as prepared as possible for when I need to be, when my teammate needs me. ⁓ so I think that thought process never being able To shut it down is really the primary difference. I think the execution part, you know, generally is not I think you're prepared. Yeah. Well, you gotta be a certain kind of person to reach a high level of anything, but especially in that, like, I think any of those guys would be successful in anything that they pick. Cause the the I remember you I still think about it all the time. The painting, ⁓ the guy who paints, he's got tattoos and like he never skated before and now he's like I don't know if he was a painter before, but I mean they were amazing paintings and he's learning how to play hockey. It's just like you find something and you're just like, How do I figure this out? How do I do better? Yeah, he he Matt is just incredible ⁓ person. He just has some really ⁓ amazing skill sets. And he's again like he's similar to what I did, you know, the first you know the last six months I think he's been on the ice like every day. and I think it's really, really connected with him. So yeah, and again, going back to hockey, it's just ⁓ it's just amazingly therapeutic and ⁓ I think anybody that plays it ⁓ sees that and understands it. I I gotta ask this because I asked John and he recommended a book War Elite and all about Bud's training. reading that I listen into the book. I don't read. I can, but I don't. you just hear this stuff and you're like, how the hell can anyone go through this? How how crazy was Bud's training? ⁓ man, I I I I really didn't think it was it was I didn't think it was bad. You know, I I spent that's why you're a SEAL and I'm a comedian. I thought somebody's gonna ring the bell. No, no, no. I spent four years at the Virginia Military Institute. ⁓ and I slept on cots for four years. And ⁓ after ⁓ breakfast roll call you rolled your bed up and you put your cot up against the wall. No air conditioning, no screens in the windows, school six days a week, parade twice a week, and and academics on top of that. So when I got Get out the buds initially, I was like. is actually not that bad. I have air conditioning. I have th three good meals. I get paid a little bit of money. I get the evenings off, you know, 'cause a after about six o'clock you're you're really done, you know, unless you're you know in Hell Week and and the weekends are off as well. So I was like, hmm, this isn't a bad ⁓ now hell now now Hell Week aside. Hell week Hell Week aside, you know, that was you know, that was I don't even know how how you do it. I think you just continue on. You you always you're just looking for the next evolution. So that's what you put in your mind. And how do you how do you eat a ⁓ an elephant and one bite at a time? So all right, I'm gonna go and I would count meals. Four meals, you're gonna eat four meals and I have four meals, I got three more days left, 12 meals and I'm done. ⁓ and you just you know continue to go just roll through that. And I mean you we would fall asleep ⁓ with your between your fork and your food to your mouth, you'd fall asleep right there, you know, the entire time. And it was it was just some pretty crazy stuff. They did they did do an academic exercise with us, like I don't know, we're on day four or something. They put us in the classroom and they had us write some stuff. You know what I mean? And it I couldn't get through a a word. No. And I'd fall asleep and my my pen would just kind of trail off. ⁓ another funny thing and again you have to just laugh at some of this stuff. We did this one drill where you you have to take a paddle. You're on your knees on the beach and you have a paddle and you're holding it up over your teammate's head and you had to close your eyes and what would happen is you'd fall asleep on top of the head. And then it would go back and your teammate would be like, son of fam. And you hit you back. Next thing you know you guys are just smacking each other with it. And that's kind of what it felt like. But it was just, you know, I you just kinda you just kinda get through it. They they did they did let us sleep for 30 minutes one time and they put us in a tent on the beach. on a cot, thirty minutes, you go to sleep, and it was the worst thing ever. Because when you woke up, all your joints were swollen. Everything. And you just couldn't get moving again. You couldn't like I couldn't, you know, my hands wouldn't move. And it took about two or three hours of moving again. And then that that went away for us, for for me in particular. But yeah, those things are are the hardest. And even when I say that you get the weekend off in b in buds, they psychologically they do that for a reason. They're gonna give you a really tough evolution on Friday and then on Monday. morning, they're gonna you're gonna have something that's even harder. Right. like ⁓ you know ⁓ pool comp or something like that. You're gonna fail it on Friday and you know you have to come back on Monday. Well those two days off give you a little bit of time to think about it. You're kinda like, ⁓ I don't know if I want I don't know if I want to do that. And it the the majority of the quitters other than Hell Week were on those weekends. They would not show up on Monday and your ranks would just be a lot smaller. So ⁓ yeah, it's ⁓ there's a little bit to giving people a little bit of time to think about it. And, you know, 'cause i i otherwise Hell Week you you didn't really have time to think about it. You're just going from one thing, you know, to the next. But what was the worst evolution for you? You know, the swims were tough. We had some pretty good swimmers. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't born to be a swimmer. I ⁓ I learned how to do it, you know, to ⁓ to do that. But you know, some of the ⁓ the swims ⁓ were tough to pass, two mile swims in eighty minutes. And you were kinda dependent on your partner too. So one person would usually navigate as you're swimming. You're still trying to get inside or outside of the littoral currents. So you wanna you know, if you make a bad choice there, you're swimming against the current for a short period of time, you're not gonna you're not gonna get there. ⁓ so having a good partner that could actually drive well was ⁓ was always good. I had a I had a a guy that was a swimmer, last name Bartlett and he did all the naving and I just put out as much as I could to keep up with him and ⁓ and made it through on that thing. But yeah, some of the swims were tough for me to, you know, to get through. pool comp's always a bear. ⁓ you know, go into the bottom of the pool and have ⁓ you know, shut off your hose and then you have to stay down there and be calm ⁓ for a period of time. So ⁓ Yeah, that that's a little that was a little crazy. I I did learn this trick though when I you were there are quarries out here and I learned this trick when I was a kid. So I used to scuba dive ⁓ in college and really practicing to go to go to buds. Well my crazy scuba instructor taught me how to dive without ⁓ a regulator. So just pull in my tank underwater and I'd pull my tank up and just hit the bubbles and I'd breathe the bubbles and just continued my dive. I'd do 40-foot dives through you know school buses at the bottom of of quarries in o in in Ohio. You know, just to kind of mess around and play with it. But it gave me a a different degree of confidence in the pool, right? So I'm in ⁓ pool comp. And it one of the toughest evolutions and they tie what's called a whammy knot. You have two ⁓ hoses and then you're breathing through those two hoses and your ⁓ your tanks are behind you. Well the instructors will come back and they tie a whammy knot, and that is that's where you're supposed to do all your procedures, go to the bottom and ask to come back up. You're gonna ditch your gear, right? So my instructors tie a whammy knot on me and I'm pulling on it and you know, they're waiting for me to go through the the the ⁓ the ditch procedure and I put pull my hose and it just starts free-flowing. So I just started doing this and stayed down and just continued my dive the entire time. They did not think that was funny. And they came down, smacked me on top of the head, and smart ass, get out of the pool. But I never had to do, I never had to do it again. So it was done. But ⁓ kind of took the kind of took the pressure off me a little bit. So yeah. I think the tough part is you know when you have guys that don't do well on one evolution, then the instructors start to look at them harder. If they realize that you're not comfortable in the water as soon as they realize that they're gonna make it much much harder on you once they identify that and ⁓ if you get on if if you have a tough time for that one reason or another you could end up you know have the instructors look at you pretty hard and you didn't want to be there. Right. Yeah. When did you know you wanted to be a SEAL? Wow so I was at VMI I wanted to be an aviator like everyone in my generation. ⁓ I was on a navy Navy scholarship there and a guy named J Colonel John Ripley, who by the way is gonna get the Medal of Honor here in the next couple of next couple of weeks. But he was a Marine incredibly decorated, but he was my ROTC commander. And ⁓ he came to me and I'd taken the the aviator H T F A R which you know basically ⁓ assesses your ability to become an aviator. I did okay on it. But he looked at it and he looked at kind of where my scores were and he's like Have you ever thought about being a SEAL? And I'm like, what do those guys do? I didn't really didn't quite really know. I mean to be honest. That sounds fun. What are you talking about? And he's like, just from aptitude and looking at, you know, you know, where your strengths and weaknesses are, he's like, I think this would be the right place for you to go. So I said, okay, so I put in an application, and then I went between my junior and senior year. You go out there for six weeks and you go through buds for six weeks, and then you go back and then They actually select you later on. So by the time that I was selected, they already knew who I was. They already knew, they were already basically inviting me back. So I knew at the end of that year, at the end of that summer, yeah, this is gonna be this is the right thing for me. And I knew that I was gonna get picked, you know, to go there. And so that's that's how it worked. The the ⁓ the accession process for officers is really long. It's like 24 months because of what he just described. You have to go out there the summer before, and then the next summer you're gonna get picked, and then you get to go, you know, after that. So it takes a lot. lot of time to get into that pipeline. Wow. I just can't imagine. When me and Riley went down to Virginia Beach not too long ago, I forget how long. Right at ⁓ Thanksgiving Day weekend. Thanksgiving weekend. you had sent us an email with like an itinerary of stuff that was going on that day after we landed. Were you serious about having us swim? no, that was ⁓ I was trying to get in I was trying to get in with you. ⁓ because I was like, Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna do the ocean swim. ⁓ i and where I c where I came up with that is I think everyone knows Kevin Miller Defenseman for the Boston Bruins. Everyone knows. Yeah. ⁓ just an amazing guy. And he played he played in the NHL I believe he was a great athlete, but his character is what is what they wanted on that team. And and I've gotten to know him personally and and that guy just separates himself from others because of that. So everybody loved him. I got to beat Kevin about ten years ago. He he's since now on our board of directors and helps out quite a bit and he helps us. So we were trying to help him with the Martian Milko ⁓ show that they have and him and Brad Martian were gonna come down and we're we were talking about some things that we could do and and by the way Kevin Miller is we've done some things on the range with him. He shoots better probably than any SEAL I know. This guy is shooting moves he is amazing. And he's in such great shape too. So I bet he spends a lot of time with weapons. But where where he where he where he wouldn't do well is we were gonna we were gonna we're talking about options. Hey we could do this when you come down. We put ⁓ in the wind tunnel. We had him repelling, fast roping, doing all the stuff. He did super well, exceeded expectations. And then I told him, okay, maybe what we could do is we'll drop you guys off about a hundred yards off the beach and we'll just have you guys we'll simulate swimming across the beach with guns and doing all that stuff. And he looked at me and he said, In the ocean? I said, Yeah. He goes, where the sharks are? And I said, uh-huh. He's like, No way am I ever gonna do that? And Brad Marshan was right next to him, like, uh-uh, nope, not getting we're not going in the ocean. So I was like, I finally found something. There you go. That ⁓ that was me reading the email. I was like, wow. He called me, he goes, he's not serious about the swim thing, is he? And I was like, I don't know. He said we were gonna do seal shit. Maybe that's what we're gonna do. Yeah. And so I need 15 to get used to the water. That's done six hour dives, you know, underwater before and that that's a long time. You're underwater for six hours? ⁓ yeah. Mm-hmm. Gold ⁓ dredging up in Alaska? What no so you're ⁓ the the the rig ⁓ that we use is called a dregger and ⁓ it's a hundred percent oxygen so you have to bleed all the air out of your your system and then you start breathing 100% oxygen and and because of the the way that the tank works and the scrubber works and that stuff you can dive it for about six hours. We would call it diving to exhaustion you know we do a combat swimmer operation maybe swim in a couple miles do the operation you know on you know shipping whatever we're gonna do and then we'd have to get out as well. And then we would dive to exhaustion on the way out. So, you know, you're, you know, one mile away, two miles away, and then you may have to surface at that at that point. And then we roll over and do what's called a turtle back to get out of there. But you don't want to be, and you know, there's no bubbles. So you're diving and you know, there's not a single bubble that's that's kind of happening around you. So it's it's interesting. But there's a lot of funny stuff that goes on with your with your partner. Like when you think it's as dark as ever can be, and then you see something or feel something swim by. You and it casts a little bit of a shadow and you're like and you know, you can talk through this little thing because there's there's you know there's O2 basically air that you can talk through on your on your tubes and you can communicate like and ⁓ you know you might have to hightail it out of there. The other thing that's interesting The other thing that's interesting is I get upset when my ball goes in the sand trap. I was gonna say I I pulled a muscle this past summer because a sunfish touched my leg. Yeah. Yeah, we've been you every n every now and then you'll get you'll just get bumped by something and you're like, what was that? I don't know. And I think usually ⁓ I think dolphins are famous for doing it, but it could you know, it could have been Yeah, it was a dolphin. It could have been anything. Yeah. Keep telling yourself that. And then when you when you when you get under when you go underneath the ship It is it is a whole new level of darkness. and it is you can hear mechanical systems working, you can hear suctions working underneath there, and it is it is so vacuum dark underneath the ship. And you want to get out and you want to get underneath that thing and get out of there as fast as you can. You want to find the keel, get take the keel to the stern, do what you have to do, and then get your tail out of there. Because it it is high pressure and ⁓ is just it's it's like being in space. That's the way I would describe it. I've never been in space, but I'm saying it you you kind of feel like you're in a hole of nothing. ⁓ you can't light anything up because you can't be seen. No, I mean there's yeah, even s even if you did, there would be nothing that wouldn't matter. Yeah, yeah, nothing that you could. could ⁓ that you could determine. But the other part is when you're underneath the pier, it sounds like snap crackle pop. It's just crackling the entire time and it's ⁓ it's like very noisy. Yeah. That's like I d I'm just I b I get chills when like, you know, 'cause you guys come up on the beach too. Like you ever do the beach thing? Yeah. Where you come out and it's all cool and you got the gun, you know? And the hat. I I don't know. Watch the too many shows. I think that's for T V a a little bit. But yeah, the the the beach is easy relatively speaking. Really? And ⁓ you know, then diving in ⁓ I'm trying to put fins on when I go snorkeling. Standing in knee deep water and it just seems like you guys take ⁓ on and off like nothing. Yeah. You know? Yeah, but that th I think that is really, you know, that that training and that confidence in those situations are they do I think that is what sets us apart from, you know, from other units. Not that we're better or worse, but ⁓ we're just different and that we've we've been trained on how to, you know, operate in those in in that environment. So like with I don't even know if there's a good question to ask. You can cut it out, but like with the amount of time you've spent in the ocean and under the water and stuff, do you think that's a good place for aliens to hide? Yeah, that could have been bumping you, yeah. You started on the alien stories, but yeah, maybe maybe that's what was bumping you when you're underneath there. Yeah. ⁓ not a dolphin. It could have been aliens. May have been. Okay. May have been. Octopi, octopus. Could have been an alien dolphin. There you go. Never know. Yeah. No they might be able to maybe dolphins are aliens. That's what you're getting at, right? I know a lot of dolphins are aliens. I never gave a thought to that. They do communicate well. Yeah. And they seem to you know I don't know. That's Yeah. Dolphins are aliens. See anything comes up on this thing. Yeah. You know? Like we go from sack tap and moose to dolphins is aliens. I I know you're trying to pull me into the alien discussion. No, it's I am. I just say now I know you know shit that no one knows. I know you can't say anything. Well we're gonna find Mark and Aquarius. I think there's aliens. How can they not be? Hey, Obama said they're aliens. Remember he that came out facts. So you know Well I got a friend Tell us about I got a friend, Mitch Tenson, who's a comedian that was a Navy ⁓ pilot, flew F sixteens. ⁓ yeah. And he said he saw shit up there that you wouldn't believe if he described it. Yeah. They were Russians. Yeah. So thousand miles an hour. I don't know. You know, eight hundred miles an hour, making ninety degree turns, bouncing around like that. Okay. Yeah, no, he yeah. There's that's ⁓ we can do a whole podcast on that. Yeah. Aliens. Right. Well then. I saw sa I mean I don't know a lot about the like movement and the things that you guys have or like if it was what I saw something that was moving a little too quick and disappeared off in the distance a little too fast then I think human mechanics can Yeah it's yeah we call that mushroom. ⁓ that's what it was. Okay. As you put it? I I was on the light of then but so ⁓ For the Warrior for Life Fund, where is it headed? Yeah. ⁓ what's the future for we'll we'll start with aliens and we could talk s I could talk it while forever. But like what's next for Warrior for Life? 'Cause it's you know, obviously you guys have grown and evolved, but what's next? What's the next step? So I was talking a little earlier about the ⁓ traumatic brain injury and what we're seeing with the veteran brains and ⁓ and we've invested ⁓ with partnerships with some of the best practitioners that we can find. One of them's my wife. So ⁓ hi Annie. If ⁓ if I see you out there, I promise I won't talk too much about the brain ⁓ because I'm not she'll tell me I'm not qualified. But what what we so we're partnered with her and a couple of other modalities ⁓ to bring services to the guys to focused on that repetitive blast part and we've been doing it now for we've been doing it now for th four months ⁓ and ⁓ and it's we've gotten incredible Feedback, not enough data yet to talk about what we think we've accomplished because we've only had about 12 people that have made it through the program. So once we get to about 50 or 100, we'll be able to put out something with a little bit more detail on it. But ⁓ what we're doing, there's two issues. One is the treatment of these three modalities. One of is is mental health trauma, the other one is vestibular PT, and the other one is cognitive training through ⁓ some speech pathology that ⁓ that's out there. Really teaching. How to cope with what symptoms that you have, and then in hopes that ⁓ you know through exercise and diet and activity a little neuroplasticity can happen and you can kind of rewire the brain a little bit ⁓ to keep guys in there. So we've been doing it for you know, like I said, we've doing it for about four months. ⁓ we actually bill insurance for it because it is ⁓ it's medical treatment, it's not it's not psychedelics like you like to do. And it's And that really gets our dollar to go a long way. So we're starting to have we're starting to have ⁓ wait lists on that. We're doing it twice a week right now, soon to be doing it three times a week. ⁓ and then I think we're gonna open it up to the aviation community and a lot of the other communities that are there because I don't think it it's it's it's it's a SEAL special operations problem. The SWIC community that we have, our boat drivers, we're seeing a lot of ⁓ a lot of these diagnoses in them as well. So that's where we're going. ⁓ we're gonna try and do it more. And more often. The key to it though is is not necessarily just the modalities, it's the way we deliver them. So we deliver them in a cohort. So if you tried to hit three appointments a week at, you know, ⁓ you know, medical providers in Virginia Beach, it would probably take you 15 hours in a week to do it. And it's just too much. So you have to decide what you're gonna do and not do. We deliver it in a way where all the providers come to one place, our human performance center, ⁓ and then the patients go from room to room. So in three hours, they get their three modalities. They get a workout, they get some nutrition, and they're out the door. 12-week program, and ⁓ we're gonna see incredible success. The I we I think we are the only program in the country ⁓ that I'm aware of that does treatment for a repetitive blast, traumatic brain injury. And some of it is come we're getting referrals from home base up here in Boston. Yep. They're doing the diagnosis up there. If they're back in the Virginia Beach area, they're referring them and we're putting them through the program. So we're gonna we're gonna do more of that. ⁓ we're gonna double our gym and our ⁓ therapy center in size in the next ⁓ in the next couple of months ⁓ right there at ⁓ in ⁓ virginia beach town center area right next to the hockey rink so we can use all those modalities together and and layer them so that guys can get you know what they need. we also have a a great substance abuse program and ⁓ through SEALs and recovery that works out of our space and that has been ⁓ very very effective and ⁓ and and helpful so I think we're just gonna continue to be present in the community, listen to what the needs are of the Gold Star families, their kids, ⁓ our operators and our veterans ex especially to help them transition and ⁓ and you know, just you know find a purpose for their life and find out what they're gonna do, you know, on their next chapter, you know, of ⁓ you know of their life. So that's where we are. Amazing work. And for people who don't know, a gold star family, explain what that is 'cause I I didn't know when I first heard the term Right ⁓ with the Bruins alumni when I first, you know, met you guys. Right. So a g a Gold Star family is a family that lost their ⁓ their mom or dad ⁓ in combat or training ⁓ as as part of service. So they're identified as gold star families and we hold them ⁓ in great prestige and honor. We make sure that we take care of them and ⁓ you know they have their own groups, they have their own events and things like that. In fact for the Granite Lynx golf tournament I think you're gonna talk about here ⁓ after we're done rambling around is ⁓ we're bringing ⁓ May Ling Houston up and she lost her husband kev husband Kevin extortion 17 which is the call sign of an aircraft that ⁓ that went down in Afghanistan and this is the First time, first event that she's gonna be honored ⁓ you know, as part of that. So she's really excited. Kevin's from the Cape Cod area, so his family's up here as well. So they'll be coming ⁓ right here and she'll be here to receive and host everyone, ⁓ raise some money for Warrior for Life. But we're also looking to raise a ⁓ a cash payout for every gold star senior getting ready to graduate high school. Her son is a junior, but we're gonna he's gonna be the first one that receives ⁓ ⁓ this. ⁓ we'll see how much money it is, five to ten thousand dollars. ⁓ not really for anything in particular. This is just as I rec as I call it, it's just some dad money. Graduation, go do ⁓ you can put this towards whatever you want to do. If you want to use it for college, great. If you want to use it for for a new car, great. If you want to start saving, great. Do that. I also reached out to our local ⁓ gold star ⁓ representative and I said, how many seals gold star families have seniors that are graduating ⁓ this year that we can we can do this to. And ⁓ I I was I wasn't shocked, but ⁓ you know, i i whenever I hear the number, so it's seven. So seven gold star families have seniors that are graduating this year. I always tell I always tell the story about my my daughter's ⁓ high school ⁓ soccer team that ⁓ won the state championship, but ⁓ four gold star kids on that team and one gold star coach. And that just gives you an idea of how deep you know, ⁓ this is in Virginia Beach. You know, that's and and these guys weren't just they weren't just SEALs. They were they were guys that were ⁓ leaders in the community, they were coaches, they were members of the church. And and that's that's kinda that that entire thing. Yeah. Is ⁓ is just you know, I I joke that I can't walk down the street without running into a gold star spouse or gold star kid. You know, we see each other at the gym, we don't always want to see each other, you know, but we just kinda Hit knuckles and and kinda go on. But yeah, and and I think that's one of the key things that Warrior for Life is focused on is taking care of the Gold Star families and whatever we can do to to make sure that they're cared for and and ⁓ and they know how much we appreciate them. It's it's amazing. So for the people watching the podcast and might not have like a close connection to any of this stuff but want to contribute, are there like way or like how can people contribute or If they can. Yeah. so Warrior for Life Fund dot org is the best place to do it. And you can you can hit the don donate button from there. ⁓ I would encourage people to go through our website and see our level of transparency we have, our platinum rating that we have. ⁓ we take ⁓ our responsibility as a as a nonprofit very seriously. and ⁓ there's a number of events that are out there and I would encourage people to ⁓ to participate in We're doing ⁓ we're the beneficiary of Run to Remember in Virginia Beach. Which is a a 5k put on by ⁓ the Gold Star spouses and golf tournaments. We do a number of things, but I always tell people come participate, be part of the organization. ⁓ we're always happy to have more money because that's what that's the only thing that lets us do what we do. Yep. So yeah, just encourage support and and go out. We we spend time with our website to make sure that it it really tells our story and we keep it pretty current. Yeah, and and we're gonna talk to Kevin Mason about the event June 1st, T Off of Heroes here at Granite Lynx. And we actually Josh and I were able to ⁓ experience face Off of Heroes out in Montana last year and just such a great event and just you know it just the those it's compu community stuff too like it builds that community that's so important and you know I I just can't say enough about it. Yeah and now we're reaching out ⁓ not just community with special operations and the NHL and w we're now bringing some army nonprofits in to, you know, kind of broaden the scope again. As I as I talked about, we fight as a joint force. And ⁓ you know, that's kind of what it's all about. So we brought in ⁓ Special Forces Trust last year. We brought them out there and we're gonna continue to do that in ⁓ in a number of different locations. ⁓ So we have the the the golf game coming up. It's gonna be first class. some of the celebrities that are coming and I know you're gonna talk about this with ⁓ I'm one of them with Kevin. Definitely. I'm one of them. But right right after right after that, we're gonna head over to ⁓ we're gonna head over to France and we're gonna play a game ⁓ in Normandy. ⁓ and and we're going to attend the D-Day ceremonies on the sixth of June. And ⁓ we'll we'll all be in Uniform and ⁓ even the active duty guys that will be over there. So we'll do that ceremony, and we're playing in a term tournament with ⁓ seven other allied nations that will be over there. So we're gonna stay over there for about three or four days right after that. ⁓ we weren't gonna do it because it wasn't in the budget or the schedule, but when I start talking to people about it, they all said out that they'll self-pay, self-pay to get over there because I think it's gonna be one of those just amazing events. So we're pretty excited about that. And ⁓ you know, that's gonna be the next one. And then, you know, I I think we do a good size event every thirty or forty five days, you know. That's awesome. You guys already have a podcast going to France? We don't. Or a referee. We don't. We need a referee to referee to get I did ⁓ all in Montana. I'm just saying. All right. I wouldn't mind going over there and 'cause my dad fought in World War Two. He was in the South Pacific Navy, right ⁓ destroyer escort. But I mean, you know, my uncle was in the Battle of Baljana Tank, so that World War Two Normandy I I mean just saying I Yeah, eleven thousand killed in battle of the ball. Just amazing. Just incredible. But ⁓ hey, that maybe that's the fourth podcast. And ⁓ then what are we gonna have to get yet? Yeah, yeah, we're gonna I don't know. ⁓ we have to think about gold slippers. ⁓ something. Maybe we go with zebra slippers. Yeah. Right? Or if it's in France, maybe a golden baguette. Yeah. ⁓ yeah, we could do that too. I like the I like the slippers. You know. We get ⁓ made out of real zebra skin. You know? Which sounds violent, but you know we're gonna invite you. Kevin Miller can hunt the zebra down and then we can use it that but yeah, now we have it on tape. Yep. So I it looks like we're going to France. And ⁓ I think that would be awesome. Well, I mean, Captain, it's great to have you on again. I know we're gonna have you on again in the future. ⁓ and thank you for your service. Thank you for all you do. Warrior for Life Fund is just I mean, I got I got it on the sleeve. ⁓ that we had you know, w you were part of the the ⁓ Saint Patrick's Day blowout we had and you know and the raffle and everything. I mean we believe in what you do so much and we're just so happy to be partnered with you and Warrior for Life and and the Navy SEALs because you guys are rock stars. So yeah. Appreciate you coming on. Yeah. Absolutely. It was it was awesome again. We'll see you ⁓ we'll see you in Normandy or maybe back at the beach. So we'll see you on June first. I'll be ⁓ J June first. ⁓ yeah. So Captain Ryan Crowley, everyone. Kevin, welcome to The tripping team was great to have you, man. ⁓ great to be here. And thanks for setting us up with ⁓ the backdrop here and Granite Links. I mean this is ⁓ the whole thing. The view. Well we plan on when it gets nicer, we want to be out there on the deck with the city behind us. So yeah, absolutely. We got a ⁓ pavilion expansion planned. It's ⁓ a little bit muddy right now. those who live in the Boston area know we had like five feet of snow out there two weeks ago, so now it's all gone. But we're doing a twenty five hundred square foot expansion to the pavilion tent. Wow. ⁓ to help out with the wedding business. So ⁓ I think one of the first, you know, events that we really get to utilize will be at T O Hero. So awesome. But ⁓ yeah. You guys definitely should come up and take advantage of that. We'd love to have you up here for it. My mo my brother got married here, ⁓ back in September. No way. Yeah, yeah. His his wedding was here and and I remember being out in the deck video and him coming in on a golf cart and the whole thing. ⁓ yeah. So ⁓ my brother my brother Teddy, the Bru Bruins former Bruins dentist. I've talked about him on the show. Doc. Doc, yeah, yeah. Charlie Flynn's best friend. Yes. Absolute Granite Links legend. ⁓ yeah. No, he he was a member before it you guys even opened. Yeah. Before there was even a building here, I think. Yeah, absolutely. It was a trailer out in Milton that they signed up. I think Charlie Flynn signed them up and that's how they knew each other. Yep, my sister too. But ⁓ and now my nephew here. I've played the course once. And Last summer, actually. No no lie. Last summer I played it and ⁓ but I've snuck on here a few times now. I have a feeling we're gonna play it more. ⁓ yeah now. But ⁓ no, it's a great I mean this place that we've never been, it's just amazing. And ⁓ I remember coming up here during COVID when like nobody can just go walk around. Me and my family just came up and yeah, we walked around up here. It was awesome. No one was around. It'd be my all time favorite view. It's it's unbelievable. I don't think there's a better one. Around. No. I mean seriously in the city. Yeah. Of of the whole CI line. I don't think you can find it. I think my brother in law would slap me if I didn't say it, but local in Hull, probably second best. Really? Sneaky, sneaky secret, go down there, third third floor, go ask the Lisa Powers. Unbelievable view. Really? You see from Eastie all the way over to Bear Cove. It's probably the only only venue that rivals Grand Lenks in this area. Hull's so easy to get in and out of, too. If you know, you know ⁓ what I mean. So minus that, it's great. Minus that, it's awesome. If you can get there, you might be there for a week. Right. ⁓ you're fine. Yeah. Take a canoe over from ⁓ I mean ⁓ the tip of it is right near. What is it? Skit situate or s w whatever? If you're not from here, you have no idea what we're talking about. Neither do you. ⁓ What's it called? He's from a place far, far away in central mass. ⁓ June first, T Off of Heroes. Yep. All right. it like it it's gonna be an incredible event. Give give us kind of an idea w what it's all about. Josh and I were part of the face off for heroes. kind of on the same line but I think much bigger. Yeah, absolutely. So you know, working directly with Frank and the Warrior for Life team, ⁓ I went down to V V Birginia Beach back in October with my wife. And ⁓ after playing in a game where I got laid out on the blue line first thirty seconds, I was in from that point on, right? It was it was amazing. ⁓ you know, Tony, you know Tony Cabana. ⁓ yeah, he came in chirping. ⁓ see that guy that got laid out. He got shot by one. ⁓ Hey, badge of honor, brother. Badge of honor, right? Shot! Shot me, and I suck. I've heard stories about Chris, but ⁓ I I don't know the gentleman's name. He the the train that ran me over. I told him I saw my dead grandparents and I thanked him for it, right? So they came in. If it was Chris Welly, I don't think you'd be No, no, no. This this guy was like ⁓ run pr he looked like it might have been Ryan. I I I got I got my eyes in Ryan. Might have been Aaron Bardoshian. He could play too. And he looks like he could take someone out. We ⁓ Josh called Chris Willie, ⁓ if ch Kevin Miller had a cheat code. Yeah, he's Kevin Miller. ⁓ man, that's funny. But yeah, all kidding aside, right, I went down there, I saw the human performance center, I saw all the good things that Ryan and his team and his wife is doing down there. It's it's unbelievable. So ⁓ jumped in with with you know with two feet and ⁓ you know decided you know ⁓ out of all the the the things that they have the there's so many so many ponds they can they can fish in to raise money, right? 'Cause everything they do goes right back into the community, whether it's T V I's or hockey or ⁓ the the substance abuse, the the like the the thousand things that Warrior for Life does. And ⁓ so we decided to do the golf tournament up here. It's ⁓ it's a twenty seven hole so ⁓ We're always on the receiving side of golf tournaments and we do that pretty damn well. Right. But this is the first time we've run a golf tournament and by by we, you know, it's it's a slight few of us that really, you know, ⁓ three hours a night to try to get this thing over the hump. But ⁓ it's it's I I have a very special appreciation for for Frank and the other guys who run golf tournaments. It's it's not easy, but we have fifty-four holes. It's the i I I'll take it back, it's the easiest thing I've ever sold. So we the Merryman We do a lot of ⁓ philanthropy within the city of Quincy and the South Shore with the five and ten thousand dollar denominations for people that are in need, whether it's you know, kids with cancer or, you know, someone ⁓ firefighter that's fallen on ⁓ hard times and like you know, out in workman's comp and you know, need to build a ramp or ⁓ a a a child with with disabilities. w we c we kinda struggle with that, right? It's it it's it's it's very tough to fundraise for that. But with Worry for Life, it's been the the spigots are on and it's unbelievable the the show of support that we've had for for Grand A Lynx and ⁓ for the Worry for Life Fund. We've we've had no one say no. ⁓ we sold out in seven business days. So fifty four groups, seven business days. Wow the sponsorships are rolling in now. It's it's been absolutely incredible. It's something that, you know, it's it's it's it's it shows you how meaningful the community is. And listen to the podcast and You you guys had John on, listen to Mark talk about it, Alby, those guys, and ⁓ hopefully, you know, listen to ⁓ Captain Crowley later on, right? It's ⁓ it's unbelievable the work these guys do. So June first, T Off for Heroes. It's a spin-off of Face Off for Heroes, which has been a wild success. I listened to the Bozeman talk that you guys did with with Mars and and John. ⁓ unbelievable stuff. I wish I got to be part of that. ⁓ but you know it's ⁓ it's a it's a spin off of that fifty four hole. ⁓ fifty four celebrities will be joining the fifty four Four sums that we have. I'm one of them. Yep, he is one of them. I don't want to point that out again, but I gave him Larry Bird, number thirty-three on the celebrity list. I'll take that. Hey, if there's fifty-four and I cracked Like four would have been nice, but that's all right 'cause I'm hockey. But I'll take that. We gave that to Bobby. So if Bobby or accepts, which you ⁓ fine. If he's here, then fine, I'll give that up. I'm just happy he didn't me like seventy seven out of fifty-four. For Ray Bork. Yep, yep, yep. So Ray will be here. So we ⁓ for celebrities, we we've done a great job so far, or Frank has done a great job so far with with recruiting people. ⁓ we have people through all walks of life. ⁓ we have football, we have baseball, we have hockey. Kevin Chapman, actor Chapman's coming Absolutely. ⁓ Great Bobby Farley, right? So ⁓ he's bringing Mungo. No way. Yeah, yeah. Mungo from ⁓ something of O'Meary. Wow. No, he's not. No, he's not. Does he golf? Yeah, right. But Bobby, Bobby great golfer, awesome dude. ⁓ he's ⁓ he's helping us do the recruiting process. ⁓ we got we got Rizzo, ⁓ Michael Ruzioni. So we're hoping ⁓ you know we're hoping the brewing season goes nice and long, but if not, we're hoping they're here with us. So it's it's gonna be a hell of a day. Don't forget Mark Riley. Mark Riley. So yeah, he's number thirty three in our hearts, number one in the Wait a If it shows up, he's gonna take thirty-three. Yeah, he he said, I'm not gonna show up. Mark's already got thirty-three. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think I remember him telling that when we showered together after after the warrior for life game. Yep. I've told that story, I won't tell it again. No, but ⁓ we're really excited about this from a f I moved on past. Big Z for a reason. Big Z for a reason. ⁓ soft transition, right? But no, we're luckily it was. Yeah, we're we're we're super excited about this one here, right? So it's our our mission statement at Grand Lynx, right? So we do a lot of golf tournaments, but we want to do the right golf tournaments, right? So ⁓ you know, and we don't want to run all of them, but this is the right one to run. So ⁓ the day of event, right, so we have the helicopter ball drop, so we have a ⁓ twenty five thousand dollar cash prize for for one winner. Unless two balls go in one cup, ⁓ you guys can talk about that outside. You said that with me sitting there two two five What are you thinking, man? What are you gonna take a turn for the worst real quick? But you know that doesn't happen. ⁓ yeah. So dial back in, right? Twenty five. How many balls are dropping, by the way? We we hope as many as we can. So we we're So it's an unlimited ball sale. ⁓ we we're trying to sell two thousand, right? But as many as we can. ⁓ It's it's $100 a ball. Wow. But $100 a ball, chance to win $25,000. Not bad. It's gonna be streamed live. ⁓ you can find you can buy tickets on worry for life.org worry for life fun dot org. Yep. ⁓ there's an Instagram handle for Worry for Life. We have a TR Heroes Instagram handle that you can you click on the link and you can ⁓ you can buy the ball. So ⁓ it's so we're starting off with that, ⁓ working with Boston Fire to get the bags here. ⁓ looking looking for a a dais of local politicians to come and support it. ⁓ the Haynes Group has sponsored the ball drop. ⁓ so they're actually ⁓ they've been unbelievable partners and when they they found out about Warrior for life, ⁓ they actually bought a a label and part of the label is to spent low cash. ⁓ they sound a lot like the the Rascal Flats. I love this life. Exactly. Unbelievable life. Same here. Seriously we I didn't I didn't know it was them. Low some band low cap I'm like what? They're my favorite song. Favorite country song. Yeah. I love this song. Yeah. Same same here. I had no idea it was them. I thought it was the Rascal Flats. And I apologize to the boys from Low Cash, but unbelievable song. I can't wait. They're gonna do a live concert after the event. Yeah. ⁓ we have a lot of stuff lined up for it. It's ⁓ if if if people walk away from here Not thinking this is the best golf tournament they ever went to. In the best cause, then then I failed. So ⁓ taking a lot of pride in this one. ⁓ it's for this year we're doing it in honor of Kevin Houston, who's a Cape Cod native. He ⁓ he perished in extortion seventeen. Yep. So ⁓ on that day, there was there was thirty American lives lost, ⁓ one one service dog barred. ⁓ but this year Me Ling, Kevin's Kevin's wife and and his ⁓ her son are coming up to to be part of the event. So on a serious note, right, it's it's it's a really good cause and ⁓ kind of a spin off of this with what everything that that Ryan does and the Worry for Life team does is the ⁓ the the gold star at attribute of it. So we talked about that with him. We've had such like awesome response that Ryan has started a charity ⁓ that goes directly to the the the sons and daughters of the Gold Star family. So we'll start off with a scholarship fund where ⁓ Ryan probably did a much better sell job than I did, but ⁓ I will do, but ⁓ you know, they there's no strings attached. Right. Right. They they get it, ⁓ whether they go into the trades, they go into they go to college, whether it's in Virginia Beach or it's, you know, somewhere else, they have a little bit of a slush fund, ⁓ from from dad or or mom to get their feet off the ground. So it's awesome. yeah, it's it's ⁓ it's something that Really, we've had no no trouble selling because it's such a great car. I mean, yeah. Great people as well. Well when I called Chappie to tell him about it, immediately he was like, I'm in. Yeah. Like y you know, 'cause he ran the shotball game a couple of years back for veterans and he didn't even didn't even he's like, I'll bring Diossi. No better place in the city to have it either. Right here at Grand Lakes. Yeah, yeah. We're super proud to have it here. the encourse offerings were like we're at the point now where we're like, ⁓ sorry, but we got We get seven people to wanna do this. ⁓ like it's they it's been it's been unbelievable the the the show of respect and support and you know, I think it's it's sign. When you get that much and that you know, this soon y you know you do them for the right cause. Right. Now the ball drop, whose helicopter are we using? Mine's in the shop. Yeah, yeah. So Number thirty three is is retired. ⁓ we actually have an ex ap Apache pilot. No way. Yeah, d they served in Desert Storm. ⁓ he he operates out of Norwood, ⁓ Chris. So he's gonna do that. ⁓ We're really looking forward to it. So he does ⁓ we did one for North Quincy High School and Quincy High School hockey. A ball drop back in November. He did that. So ⁓ he's very he's accustomed to the the area, the climate. ⁓ he's he's Where is it happening? So we're that that that might be a surprise. So typically we do it on the driving range, it's not gonna be in the driving range. We want we want a city overlook. Right. So yeah. ⁓ it's g it's gonna be pretty spectacular. So the ha the Haynes group is gonna help us with staging. And ⁓ really make it so that it's ⁓ a a very special event. We'll we'll stream it live for those who can ⁓ can't attend in person. And one cup. One cup. And what if by chance no balls go in the cup? The closest ball to the cup wins wins. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. We'll definitely buy a couple balls. Yeah, I mean you think about it, right? Two thousand balls, twenty five thousand dollars. That's better than buying a scratch ticket. Yeah, right. God damn right. And it goes to the right it doesn't go to the state. Yeah, that doesn't fix the puddles. I'd pay all that money just to be able to drop the balls. Absolutely. Yeah, you got the bunch of guys up there with Home Depot buckets dropping by Yeah. That's why I said flying it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I'd be remiss if I don't mention. So the the event sponsor is synergistic. They're out Cincinnati. ⁓ family tie. So my cousin Anthony, he went out there to go to ⁓ he went to X ⁓ Severian, then he went out there to go to Xavier's, you know, type with the school around Xaverian. I went there too, so just saying. G has to be a good guy though. Just saying. One hundred percent. So Anthony went out there and he started a a couple companies, but this one Focuses on ⁓ media relations and crisis management for for big companies, piggly wiggly and stuff like that. So he's Apple, Amazon, bunch of clients, but he's the event sponsor. ⁓ so he jumped in with two feet once he heard about it. So ⁓ he's coming out here to to to help out. He's got ⁓ a couple foresoms coming out and ⁓ we have a a live and a silent auction. ⁓ the silent auction is just riddled with awesome, unbelievable experiences from golf. ⁓ to to hockey, football memorabilia, like stuff that you y you can't get online, right? So awesome stuff. The live auction You know, I don't know what I'm allowed to say, but we've had some really cool stuff thrown at us at the last couple of days, some stuff by Ted Nugent ⁓ in his camp. It's not official yet, so I'm I can't go into like a whole lot of details, but we've had a a lot of ⁓ experience driven stuff that I think is going to generate some some awesome amounts for for the charity. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we we're super excited about it. ⁓ we also have the the hockey game on on four twenty-five. So the Merryman which I'm also associated with, which, you know, that they they helped out with the the parade for well, I gotta say, we w I wanna thank you for multiple reasons, because the Merrimen not only helped out put the raffle together to benefit the Warrior for Life Fund that we did with the with the ⁓ St. Patrick's Day blowout with the Shortsy guys, ⁓ you know, y your team set up a whole page for sponsorship and I mean it was ⁓ you know next level. It was way more than what I expected when we talked about it. I just thought you could run a raffle and give the money away. I didn't know there was a whole legal component. ⁓ and that's where you guys jumped in because you know, and so you you helped out huge with that and then hosting us here for dinner ⁓ that Saturday night. I mean, you know, top notch. ⁓ just can't say enough about you personally, 'cause you didn't, you know, you didn't have to do it. Yeah. But Granite Lynx and Granite Lynx also ⁓ was our biggest sponsor for the float. referees crease, one of our regular sponsors in Granite Lynx, ⁓ you know, you guys stepped up and Just ⁓ it made it an awesome event. So ⁓ we can't thank you enough. I mean, you know. I I I appreciate that. ⁓ my brother in law, Will and I, ⁓ and the rest of the O'Connell family, the Hannon family, ⁓ we love giving back to the community ⁓ in any way, shape, or form we can. ⁓ you know, you've helped me with Santa's Helpers upstairs, the the comedy show. Which was really fun. Yeah. Story for another day. We can go probably come over here an hour for that. Right. That might be a Netflix special. The best night the best part of that night was the golf cart ride over. From the line. I'm still Scott. The elf. I'm still Scott. Skim was dressed as an elf. Well's great. I played I played against him growing up in high school. I went to BC High. He was at Archie's, and then you know I see him all the time at the rinks. So I run into him all the time. Awesome. Great dude. Yes. Yep. ⁓ I I'd be remiss if I don't go back and Michelle. was unbelievable for for Merryman. So ⁓ she I had nothing to do with that. I just I said, Michelle, hey, they're there's a great cause. They're gonna help us out with Warrior for Life. Do you mind setting us up? We need the Merrymen to do it. And within like 15 minutes, we connected in text, she got it done. She's unbelievable. ⁓ I'm gonna give the the wives of the Merrym all the credit. The Merrymen so the both the Merrymen are great, right? But the wives are even better. They do a fantastic job donning I's crossing T's Not that the the rest of the Merrymen don't, but ⁓ you know, it's it's a it's a good team. Like it's well they I mean McKay Construction donated the the truck ⁓ with the giant trailer. I mean i it was just I can't say enough. It was just awesome. Yeah. And happy to help. N and and for just to give people, you know, where can they find out more about the Merrymen Foundation and you know, how they can help that too, 'cause that's an important yeah important organization. Yeah. Absolutely. So ⁓ it's a five ⁓ one C three. ⁓ you can find us on Instagram under the the Merryman handle. ⁓ our website is ⁓ Merryman dot org. ⁓ we do a couple events during the year but our biggest one is here at Cranolink. So we do a whether it's ⁓ Dalton the Sheriffs or ⁓ Hot Mess we do a ⁓ a Christmas themed party that's an Unbelievable time. We sell hundred dollar tickets at the door or you can buy ⁓ advance with a ten thousand dollar giveaway ⁓ and a bunch of awesome sounds. It was an awesome night. I joke about the comedy show, but it was it was awesome. I mean just to be there part of it. Hot mess was incredible. Incredible. I mean it was just a an an awesome night to be a part of. Yeah, no, and we appreciate you being there and I ⁓ I apologize for ⁓ It's ⁓ it it's it's horrible timing when like you know, Thanksgiving, right? You go back to the bar and you know, you you want to talk to the dude you haven't seen five, ten, fifteen years. ⁓ then you whip out the comedian and then everybody's talking off. I witnessed that. I witnessed that at a golf tournament. Yeah. ⁓ yeah, you were there when it happened. Yeah, at the Western, yeah. That's right, the Western. No, it's no, he just bombed. It's just one of the shot off. ⁓ no, it's horrible. Everybody's easy click in and it's like, ⁓ he's the comedian. And he gets wheeled out, he's like, Who's this guy? ⁓ my god. It's like what are you talking about? But it just I mean i i as as difficult as it was from my execution standpoint of doing comedy, it was still a great event to be a part of. Absolutely. You know, and the and the the twenty five or thirty two people out of five hundred that were listening, they loved it. I loved it. You know? So ⁓ You know, it's okay. But you gotta be a comedian lover in those environments to really appreciate that. You're like, ⁓ the comedians on I'm gonna pay attention. If you could give two shits about a comedian in that environment, you're eating in toy. Like they don't go to comedy shows, like I go to comedy should Some of them didn't even know I was telling jokes. Like who's just kind of talking? Like is he raffling something? Yeah, so but it's all good. I mean, just to be here. Yeah. Yeah. I I'd I'd love to be a part of it again, not you know, performing. But I I'd love to ⁓ yeah, yeah. We w in in whatever capacity you want to be in. Maybe I can do the live i'm very live podcast. We'll just tap in the side. Do I strip? Yeah. I did back in the day when ⁓ You know, but I'll do it again first. To raise money for any cause, especially the Merryman or the Warrior for Life Fund, I will do whatever it takes. I will. And ⁓ you know, whatever you need me to do. That's funny. Should we know? Should we talk about fr the the Frank Simonetti story? Why not? So this is lovely Frank story. So Frank's gonna kill me. I got I got I got the okay from the other side to tell this story, but not from the actual Frank City. All right, here we go. So I'm in I'm in Berlin, Germany in like two thousand three, two thousand and four and my my mentor, my boss at the time, this guy, ⁓ Wally Morse, ⁓ from from the great city of Brockton he's telling me about how he used to go in town and know, pick up chicks at Daisy Buchanan's and all the bars, cougar. Right, right. So you know the story's shit. So he's telling me he's like, yeah, I used to go in with an alias. Right? And then I'm I'm back. I mean Berlin, Germany probably, you know, had a couple in me, right? And I'm like, ⁓ yeah, what alias? I'm thinking Cam Nealy, Ray Bork, something like that. Like, you know, he's like Frank Simonetti. Right? So I I I tucked that back away in the back of my brain up until like maybe three or four months ago, where I'm on a phone call with Frank and we hang up, and I I look at ⁓ Pat Mullen Mully and I'm like, I gotta confirm this, but I'm pretty pretty sure my old boss used to go in under the alias Frank Simonetti. And freaking pick up chicks. And he's like, No, no way So I call him at night, I'm like, Hey, correct me if I'm wrong, Wally, did you used to go to Daisy's and pick up chicks on the Frank Simonetti? He goes Yeah, which was a problem. No, I'm like I was just on a call it. Yeah, no. I'm like, ⁓ you know, I was on a call with Frank today and I I vaguely remember the conversation from like twenty years ago, but like can you confirm it's accurate? So on TFA Heroes, the marquee event, right, for for the city of Quincy, for Warrior for Life, for Grand of Lynx, I think the undercard might be the meeting of fake Frank and real Frank. That might he might, don't know who the real celebrity is, Frank Simonetti or Fake Frank, but it it's ⁓ it's kind of fake Frank. Yeah, fake Frank. So I told Frank about it and his eyes are like, what? What the hell? But ⁓ it's kind of a compliment though. Yeah, it has I mean if it worked, right? I mean you go up and say, hey, I'm Frank Simonetti, and they go, yeah. But I mean clearly it wasn't a case. Yeah. That's impressive. You like the race card girl. I would ⁓ We don't have time on this episode to talk about this. Just the tease. Just the tease. We'll talk about that. He doesn't even Kev doesn't even know the whole story. We'll get into that later. Let's not bring that up now. Let's just say we had a great day that day. All right? And thank ⁓ Velo vodka for coming on the float. We're taking good time. ⁓ I know it was. It was a scene. Giddy up there. It's gonna be a yearly thing. You'll have to come on. Absolutely. You come on this next year, you have to be on it. ⁓ I don't know. Those poor kids sweep that balls. ⁓ good. ⁓ I want to be a zebra. No, the zebras were on rollerblading the whole way. ⁓ yeah. They rollerblade the whole one. I've got to blow up zebra costumes. ⁓ it was a nice start. My daughter just threw it on and like she's always on her fucking rollerblade. So like she put ⁓ on with her rollerblades on. I like That's gonna be in the parade. I need to fight texting them. I go. I set them up all the merch and ⁓ they nailed one of them caught a r caught a barrier. ⁓ he went down right away. Right off the bat. Popped right back up. ⁓ my god. ⁓ marketplace. You just keep going right. No, it was fucking St. Peter. You gotta go on because I think all the Shortsy guys are coming next year 'cause they already heard about it. Good is Yeah, no, that was that was quite an event. A couple of times we had to do that. Did he get our edge? ⁓ he was bundled. Yeah. I don't know how he did it. But he he was he was on for the podcast for He was a professional. Yeah. The first like hour he was and then the last he theater. But we were good. No, he's awesome. Those guys Dolo is one just a classroom to be and and I have a feeling that ⁓ well a couple of them I think might come for the tea off of heroes. Well no, I already we tweak things, but we're gonna do the show the night before. That's what we'll do. But you gotta be on the float. Yeah. Yeah, that's them. It's gonna be a year yearly thing now. Yeah. The zebras blowout. Shawzian zebras blowout. St. Father State Blowout. So ⁓ and actually getting more of these made. Yeah. ⁓ because everyone's Yeah, we're gonna buy one of those, isn't it? No, you'll have to buy one. They also have ones with their faces on. think anybody buys T shirts, yeah. We should have won more seven we missed the vote on that. We should have put some asshole out with a bucket with the T shirt just here you go. Fucking make the same make some well you live and learn. You live and learn yeah we'll do that next year. We know what we're doing. Save those T shirts for next year. ⁓ yeah, no that one hundred percent it doesn't say two thousand twenty six. There's a reason why I didn't put two twenty twenty six on those shirts. You never know. That's awesome. ⁓ no we'll have to have a seal. Yeah. So you gotta see if it's savors next year. You like you Actually my ⁓ yeah and they'll they'll sell really well. ⁓ my god, ⁓ we're looking forward to June first. Looking forward to the the Bruins alumni game. ⁓ if I'm not mistaken, I'm gonna be ⁓ referee in that one. Awesome. I will not shoot at your ankles. ⁓ no, well I'll I'll do my best to stay out of the way. Cr yeah I heard. I heard. I'll stay out of Christmas. Chris will be asked. That's one of those defense covers, like you how they put the Well it's like it was just one of those things. Wrong place, wrong time. But I mean it did give me a story about saying I got shot by a Navy SEAL and I survived. But he felt so bad and he sent me the co they have the the coins. ⁓ I got the show. Yeah, he unbelievable, right? And he sent me this ⁓ it's it's this special coin that like there's not many of them. Yeah, you know. And he sent me these shooting glasses. ⁓ gator shooting glasses. ⁓ yeah yeah and this you know nice long note and ⁓ so when I did Matt Light shootout the Matt Light shootout I I had the shooting glasses on I sent him a picture holding the shotgun saying I better be fucking good today because of his glasses. You know and he said good luck but ⁓ I heard he was gonna be there and I'm psyched. I I love Chris. I've never met him I love Chris he's ⁓ awesome awesome dude ⁓ just a great dude so I can't wait ⁓ I'll be there Josh will be there If if Gino doesn't have seventeen other things going on that weekend, he'll be there. So it'll be ⁓ it'll be good. Looking forward to June first. Great time. Yeah. We're looking forward to it. ⁓ no, no. So ⁓ definitely thanks for coming on. Thanks for thank you for having us. Thanks for thanks for letting us for everything. Yeah, yeah. Doing it for everything. Yeah. Doing it here, supporting the you know, our float back in the parade and you know, everything you do at the member event. ⁓ my god, we gotta give a shout out to Landmark. ⁓ That was great too. ⁓ Russ. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ he set out the food. And but and and the dinner here. I mean y just top notch. So we'll be I think you'll see a lot of us lot of lot of us around here in the next few months. Absolutely. Whether you like it or not. We're not going anywhere. No. But Kevin, thanks for coming on very much. Appreciate it. Yeah. Kevin Mason. Thank you. Awesome. Well, Kevin, we kept you around for the close. We thought we were gonna let you go. But yeah, we're back. We kept you around because ⁓ you you showed us something that you're holding here after we ⁓ thought we were gonna let you go. And I want you to show everyone, because this is something that everyone will get ⁓ that plays in the tournament here on June first, but also in other tournaments ⁓ that have sprung up around the country. Yeah, absolutely. So ⁓ we teamed up with ⁓ the the boys from ELAC out on the west coast in San Diego and we came up with some everything we're trying to do for TF for Heroes has a is a has a meaning. Right. So this is probably the most meaningful of them, like outside the challenge coins and the ball markets, things of that nature. But as I mentioned before, this is a memory of Kevin Houston, ⁓ on extortion seventeen. So we we worked with ⁓ the NSW community, specifically Frank, ⁓ Ryan. and ⁓ Natty ⁓ on the l the the West Coast. ⁓ the we have the the the head cover has seventeen stars in the front to signify extortion seventeen. And then on the back we have thirty gold stars for the the the ⁓ US soldiers that that that perished on that day. ⁓ one big star on the bottom here has ⁓ has Kevin Kevin Houston's initials on it and then the the small star And the the bottom ⁓ right has got ⁓ a star for the the service dog that that parised on that day as well. So ⁓ really special item. ⁓ the guys from Iliac were were awesome to work with. ⁓ we put this together at they're on the West Coast. I think we started texting at six AM. I'm a walking the dogs, I'm like, how do you do this? And then you know, we we we had ⁓ a lot of input from the from the guys on the team, so on this one to do it right. ⁓ it's Italian leather imported. They retail for like two hundred and twenty-five dollars. Like everything these guys make is Aces. So really proud to have this. Yeah, no, it's it's it's it's it's a great great piece. So everybody that golfs in it ⁓ golf in the tournament will receive one of these. Like we're our our mission statement or what we're trying to do out of this is like We want you to be proud to have this on your driver, right? We don't want to take it off. So it's it's a great way to spread Warrior for Life. ⁓ the T O Fahero Syndicate, we've been lucky enough ⁓ just spreading the word of Warrior for Life where you know you you talked about the other tournaments, ⁓ Defy security. So they're ⁓ there's a cybersecurity company. ⁓ they have a tournament and they were supposed to have it here, and then a buddy I played hockey with Adam, you he ⁓ he pearl hobbered me and he went to TPC, right? But that's okay. It's okay, we're okay with that. So Adam went to TPC. T P C we didn't have anybody to sponsor the tournament or to have the proceeds go from. So Adam, ⁓ you know, he he jumped on board, awesome dude, jumped in the fight with us. So ⁓ we're gonna send Grady who you know, out to T P C to to spread the the word for for Warrior for Life. ⁓ and then from that there's another tournament on the West Coast that's incredible. ⁓ a T P C in Cal in Cali. So we're gonna send one of our ambassadors out there to to carry the mission forward. So ⁓ it's just like, you know Blind Swirl, right? It's ⁓ unbelievable with you know, one event we've cascaded out and now we have three. So so cool. ⁓ we're proud to have it here, but we're also proud to have it at the other locations too. Well I think it's proof that, you know, you spread positive energy, it comes back to you, right? Absolutely. You do the right thing, people do right by us. Absolutely. Yeah. ⁓ but we had to keep we gotta have you stay for the and explain this 'cause you explained it to me and then I was I knew I wasn't gonna get everything in there. That's okay. So ⁓ Pretty good stuff. So ⁓ Kevin Mason, thank you. Thank ⁓ Captain Ryan Crowley. ⁓ I want to thank our sponsors, the referees, Trees, and also Damon Financial LLC. Wanna remind you to like and subscribe on YouTube, follow us on all social medias, the Instagram, the Facebook, and of course the TikTok. Yeah, he nails it every time. Every single time. and also wanna remind you to go to ⁓ chirpingzeebers.com, check out our merch. We got ⁓ Specialty merch, the quarter zips, ⁓ and the lace ⁓ hoodies. We also have the online store. We're also gonna have these bad boys out there too. ⁓ so check that out. Also, ⁓ if you want to find out more about Warrior for Life, go to Warrior for Lifefund.org and also Merriman Foundation.org and find out about these great organizations. June 1st, T Off of Heroes, right here at Granite Lynx. And we also want to thank Granite Lynx for letting us host this ⁓ this episode here. So for Gino Binder. Josh Dolan, I'm Mark Riley saying so long. We'll see you next time right here on the Chirping Zebras.