These Fukken Feelings Podcast© - Season 2.5 - Episode 105 - Interview with Jason Steiner - Herostock 2023

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

Send us a Text Message.Get ready for an eye-opening episode of These Fukken Feelings Podcast©, hosted by Micah Bravery & Rebecca, featuring a very special guest, Jason Steiner of Herostock in Nebraska. In Season 2.5 episode 105, we delve into the critical topic of veteran mental health and the sobering fact that 22 veterans commit suicide every day.But we don't just talk about the problem – we also explore solutions and what we can do to better support our heroes. Jason brings his unique ...

you don't have to be positive all the time it's perfectly okay to feel sad angry annoyed frustrated scared and anxious having feelings doesn't make you a negative person it doesn't even make you weak it makes you human and we are here to talk through it all we welcome you to these fucking feelings podcast a safe space for all who needs it. Grab a drink and take a seat. The session begins now. What's up guys? Welcome to These Fucking Feelings Podcast, season 2.5. We're continuing to talk about mental health. I am Micah. I got Rebecca over here with me. Hi, guys. And we have Jason Steiner with us tonight. How's it going, everyone? Sorry. Sorry, we have our routine. But we believe that no one can sell you like you can sell you. So go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and the reason why you're here.

So I'm Jason Steiner. I served in the Marine Corps from 96 to 2000. Once I got out of the Marines, I kind of pushed back from military stuff until 2019. I got involved with the Nebraska Warrior Hockey Program. I was one of the founding members. I started seeing how veteran nonprofits can help with the mental health of our veterans. You know, a lot of these guys that went over and saw a combat in Afghanistan and Iraq and come back with a PTSD and mental health issues that need to be addressed in the country and being a small nonprofit, that was kind of the way I could give back to them by making this nonprofit

and making it run. So that was kind of my, my start back into the military side of, of life 20 or last year, 2022, I was approached where I was trying to figure out a night for veterans to just hang out so that we could have time to just chill, not have to chase the dollar trying to run the nonprofit or set stuff up. It was just a night to hang out. And I had a neighbor come down and he said, hey, I got a band that wants to come in and play. And I was like, oh, cool. You know, we'll throw some fire pits out, drink some beer, listen to some music, hang out, just talk, just be veterans. Two days later, he comes down and he goes, hey, I got another band that wants to come in and play.

And I said, okay, well, I guess we're going to make this an event. And Vetstock was born September, I'm sorry, October 22nd, 2022. It was a one night deal, just people hanging out. After the event and kind of during the event, I saw how good it was for people to be able to meet somebody that they've never met that has the same mindset or rekindle a friendship from somebody that they served with. Right. After the event, my phone exploded. I had text calls, emails going, Hey, you, you have to do this again. And so we, a week after the event, we started planning for VetStock 2. During the planning phase, we actually decided to include the first responders, law enforcement, fire, rescue, EMS, Gold Star families. Gold Star families have, you know, they gave a loved one for this country.

Definitely. So we included all of them into it and we changed the name to Hero Stock, kind of as a play on Woodstock. Right. And it has absolutely taken off. So the growth of it has been incredible just in the last couple months. Wow. Wow. It sounds pretty awesome. We trying to get Beyonce this year?

I'm trying. I don't think she's going to hit, but I'm trying. I'm going to put it out there for Beyonce. Okay. 23, Beyonce. What's the date for this event?

It's going to be September 9th. We're holding it out at round the bend steakhouse in Ashland, Nebraska. We do have four out at Round the Bend Steakhouse in Ashland, Nebraska. We do have four bands slated to come in. One of them is a veterans group out of Omaha. It's a national chapter, but we have a chapter here in Omaha called Guitars for Veterans. They're going to be coming out to play. We have the Blue Collar Band coming in from western Nebraska that does 70s, 80s rock, some country, kind of anything you can throw at them, they can play.

The third band is kind of a third guy has kind of an interesting one is named Scotty Hastings. He he was wounded in combat in Afghanistan, took 10 rounds from his thigh, left thigh to his right shoulder wow um ended up coming back to walter reed went into their archery program which was something that they offered for the veterans for recovery just to keep them moving and and keep their mind off of everything else and because he didn't have feeling in his right hand he was like skipping arrows off the concrete and sticking them in the ceiling. And the instructor's like, dude, you can't do this. You're a safety risk. And he's like, well, I was so hard headed. I grabbed a left-handed bow and started shooting left-handed.

And he made like the Paralympic team for the military shooting bows, doing competition shooting. COVID came, shut it down. He picked up a guitar, taught himself how to play guitar and started hitting the outskirts of Nashville doing open mic nights. He's now a signed artist. Wow. So huge story. Great story. Super nice guy. Scotty Hastings Music. And then we have Dylan Bloom Band. They're a band out of central Nebraska. Great group of guys, huge veteran supporters. They're coming in. They're going to close us down that night. And they have a lot of their own songs, but they also do some cover stuff.

So bands are going to be off the chain this year. Um, we've got two food trucks coming in. We have a free cornhole tournament with prizes. We have a silent auction, uh, wheels for warriors has given away a motorcycle that night to a veteran. Um, it's just, it's a jam packed day and night. Like it's my father was a Vietnam vet is my brother is a fireman so can i come let's go bring it on you guys are more than welcome to come out i challenge me i will be there okay cool so now i just wanted to go back a little bit and talk about the mental health

because that's kind of like the first thing you started doing. So what what was the I guess you kind of touched on the reason, but was there anything in particular that made you realize, like, wow, you know, there's mental health issues amongst veterans and they need help? Sure. You know, we all hear that 22 a day, you know, 22 veterans a day commit suicide. You start thinking about that. The veteran community is 1% of the United States population. Right. And we have 22 a day that are committing suicide. You know, I mean, it's an insane number. When you start adding that up at 365 days a year, it's a staggering number.

Definitely. And that was part of the reason why I got in with the Nebraska Warriors and got that started, but I didn't really understand it until once we got into it. And the guys would talk to me, but because I wasn't combat, they wouldn't get into the details. You know, hey, I was in Afghanistan. And that was about all the further they'd take it with me. But you'd see him in the locker room and they're sitting next to another

guy that they'd never met. And they're like, what branch? I was army. Oh, I was army too. Where'd you deploy to? I was in Afghanistan. Oh, we're not in Afghanistan. You know, and they'd start this conversation and it opened a dialogue. And honestly, I think that's, if we can get guys to open up and talk about that kind of stuff and what they've seen and what they've had to deal with, I think that's probably one of the best ways to heal. And seeing that open line of communication, you know, and pretty soon you're seeing them on Facebook and they're out at a bar drinking or they're at a concert together or, you know, stuff like that. And it's like, it's getting them out of their house. It's getting them involved in something. It's finding your civilian battle buddy

to be able to talk to somebody and have somebody that has been there and done that. Right. And, and you can relate to. It's like a community building a community, basically. Definitely. Definitely. Huge network, huge network, you know, and knowing that the, that you always have somebody that has your six, you know, that that's always watching out for you. That's to me, that's huge. And then that kind of understands you, you know, you know,

is that intimacy of like this person knows, you know, maybe not exactly, but very close to what i've been through and so that has to be pretty cool to kind of see also yeah and so did you kind of because you were at marine corps so did i even say that right is that's that's different yeah yep i was non-combat okay um yeah i served 96 served 96 to 2000, so I missed, you know, I was after Desert Storm and Smolia and all that and before Desert Shield and that kind of stuff. So, or Afghanistan. So, I was fortunate, man. I didn't have to see it. And, you know, and on the backside of that, there is guilt that goes along with that, you know, to a certain degree where I was out for, what, a year and five months or six months when the towers got hit.

You know, and I struggled really hard with, do I go back in? Right. Knowing that I would be front lines. I was a combat MOS, do I go back in and jump in with the boys, you know, or do I stay home and raise my family? And so I struggled with that quite a bit. And I still do, you know, today, you know, there's still days where it's like, I probably should have been there. You know, I should have done what I signed up for. And, you know, I did my four years and I did them honorably. And, but, you know, could I have done more? Yeah. You know, I could have jumped back into it. So. Yeah. But I bet your family appreciated

having you around. Right. Right. You know, I trust, I mean, I don't get what you're saying because, you know, I never did any branch of military, but I can see how that could be hard for you. There's a family that is grateful that you didn't go because of all the heartache and pain, you know, just, you know, worried and scared. You know, my my sister was in Afghanistan and she was there when it was pretty tough and she was a medic. So, you know, and I mean, it was to after that, she was like, as soon as I reach my time to get out, I am getting out. Right. Right. She just kind of like, you know, I think the moment that she actually had to kill somebody and then the moment that that happened to her, it's kind of like changed her whole life. Sure. Sure. And she, and she did therapy and she's a nurse now and she's doing pretty cool, but I know. Yeah. I'm just saying, I'm pretty sure your family is thankful. Any, any little guilt? Yeah. I was thinking that maybe this just, that means that you were meant to be here right now in this moment doing what you're

doing for the vets sure you know get them help them be okay right right yep yeah and that's that's kind of the way i look at it too now now i've kind of found my passion with the hero stock and seeing even like last year, you know, it was a very small event because we only had 45 days from the day of the idea to the day of the event. Oh, wow. So we were only advertised on Facebook for like 15 days and we had 100 people show up. That's impressive. It was. It was crazy. I was hoping I'd get six.

You know, I was kind of worried. I didn't know. I had no idea what I was going to get. And we had about 100 that showed up, and they kind of came in and out through the day. Some of them stayed all day long. But the laughs and the hugs and the people that I met that I'd never met before in the veteran community, and I've been involved in the veteran community for four years. Right. You know, I'm meeting people that I'd never met before in the veteran community. And I've been involved in the veteran community for four years. Um, you know, I'm meeting people that I'd never met before, um, seeing faces that I

hadn't seen for years, you know, and, and getting to reconnect and that kind of stuff. So that was really a cool part of it. And then the networking side of it too, was like a huge part of it. And it still is. That's, that's one of the big parts of it is the networking side of it to be able to not only show them that you have somebody, but hey, look, there's all these different veterans organizations that you can join and be part of. And, you know, whether you like motorcycles, you like hunting and fishing, you like hockey, whatever it is, there's a veterans organization out there for you. And to me, that's huge to have some place where you can go where you're safe. You're with your military family and be able to speak freely.

Yeah, that is huge. Is there, is there like any contact that you can give for people who don't know? Like, is there like a list, a place out there that you know of that, who don't know? Like, is there like a list, a place out there that you know of that, you know, vets can find help at if they don't know? The biggest thing is, is you can, you can pound 988. That's the suicide number. You know, if you get to that point, if you don't know about your veteran nonprofits, start looking because it really doesn't take much research to find veteran nonprofits. I'm actually still finding them as I'm putting this together. I'm finding places and people that

I'd never heard of, you know, and they're coming to this event. So this is going to be, I want this to kind of be the pinnacle veteran first responder type event to highlight whether it's our nonprofits in Nebraska or whether it's a nonprofit out of Michigan or Florida or wherever that comes in and says, Hey, this is who we are. Right. Um, and, and open that line of communications. Um, one of the things that I'd always said is I kind of wanted to just keep it Nebraska, um, and do, you know, strictly everything's here. Um, because I don't, I own my own business, so I don't really have time to go out and, and research and set up venues in another state and that kind of stuff.

Um, but I did have a kid reach out from Michigan and I talked to him for about three hours on the phone and he's running a nonprofit out from Michigan and I talked to him for about three hours on the phone. And he's running a nonprofit out of Michigan called Primal Outdoors. And they do fishing trips for first responders and veterans. He's a young Marine. They do fishing trips, they do camping and survival, and they do hunting trips. And, you know, through this conversation, he was like, you know, our nonprofits won't work together. All of our nonprofits wants the whole pie to themselves.

Instead of working hand in hand with each other to make everybody better. They want their nonprofit to be the only one. Right. And that's what we're trying to get away from. Because if I got if I know somebody that likes to ride horses and I know this group is about horse riding, I want to put them in touch with that group. Definitely. You know, and so we're possibly talking about going up this summer to do a fishing trip with this kid and kind of check out their area and possibly doing a on the road show, kind of a pre hero stock party to show these veteran nonprofits that guess what? Everybody needs to work together. Definitely create the one goal. And if you're not willing to, then you're in the wrong business.

Hundred percent. You know, definitely be willing to. It's very cool to hear you say this. My dad was a Vietnam vet and I don't know much of, you know, I hear stories now that I'm older, you know, my mom tells us stories about how he used to disappear at days at a time and, you know, went through depression and there was really nobody that, you know, she dealt with it and she of course covered up for him, but, you know, he went through so much stuff she didn't know because he just disappeared. Right. And it wasn't until like the creation of the Internet make me sound old. Right. Really, it wasn't until kind of like the Internet came and he was able to like go into chat rooms and actually talk to other people and do things like that,

that he kind of seems to change and, you know, and kind of get himself together. You know, we always thought it was like, oh, cause he's getting older, he's getting more responsible. You made yourself there saying chat rooms also. I was going to say something, but I let it slide. There's nothing like a co-host. I got just saying. There's nothing like a co-host. I got you back. You're wrong.

But no, it kind of like, now that we're talking about it, it just came to me to think, like, you know, I think the more he got to connect with his community and just be able to talk to people who understood, I felt like that was where his change came from. So it was really, really cool to see you guys trying to, you know, accomplish this big task. And, you know, maybe we could reach out to the airlines and they can offer some free flights to our veterans to get them out here to Hero Stop. Definitely. Definitely. I love that idea. Yeah. We need to push them. We'll take anyone that I help, you know. Right. Right. Yeah. For sure. That's, you know, these are heroes. You got your big money. You can afford a couple of seats. Right. Exactly. There are people right now that have been upgraded to first class because it was empty. Right. Right. And when did you say your event was again? September 9th. So in September, you know, we say a couple of days, airlines.

We need you to make some first class seats available for our veterans to get out here to Nebraska to attend Hero Stock. OK, so we're going to we're going to we're going to, how you say it, we're going to form a coalition to get people to start participating in these events. I love it. We actually, we have about 30 organizations that are already set up to come out to the event this year. Some of them are for profit, but they're veteran owned. Most of them are for profit, but they're veteran owned. Um, most of them are veteran nonprofits. Um, we're reaching out right now to the police and fire locally to get some of their nonprofit stuff out there, um, to, to come out to it because we want everybody to feel welcomed.

We want them to have a place. We want them to find a home away from home, um home and be able to find their civilian battle buddy, you know, whatever, whatever branch, whatever service, whatever it is you're in, and you need somebody, I want you to be able to find somebody there that you can talk to. Right. And I think you're right. You know, like with your dad, when, when, when you get that chance to be able to talk to somebody that you can communicate with, because veterans in general have a different lingo than civilians. You know, it's, it's, it's a different way of talking. It's a different way of seeing the world, whether you were combat or not.

It's a totally different way. So to be in that environment where you're surrounded by people that think the same way you do and have that same lingo, it's much easier to open up and talk about stuff. Right. Probably brings out a sense of a different sense of comfort. Definitely. Yeah. And then also, you know, I feel like I remember my dad just talking and, you know, I never really heard like horrible stories, you know. So I feel like there was a lot of things that he witnessed that he kept from us.

You know, I mean, we heard about, you know, a couple of cool things that he did because he thought they were cool. But, you know, we didn't hear about his best friend being killed. And, you know, it was like he always kept those stories from us. And maybe it was just to hide it himself or maybe trying to spare us the pain. So I guess, you know, like you said, it's cool when you when someone does understand you. Right. Yeah. I kind of just wanted, I guess, to touch to ask really quickly if there are a podcast makes it across to some veteran organizations and they want to reach out to you and participate in these events, how do they contact you? Um, the best way would be, um, email Jason at Jason dot hero stock at gmail.com. Um,

we also have our webpage up it's www.herostock.org. And then our Facebook page is up on, on Facebook there. And we have an event page. You can go to any of those. You can hit me up on my personal page. If you have questions, you know, need answers, whatever, if you want to be part of it, you can Facebook message me, whatever to get ahold of me. So. And, and people who want to attend, what do they have to do? Show up. That's all you have to do is show up. If you want to be part of the Cornhole Tournament,

we are going to have a link to that on the Facebook page, and you'll have to sign up on that. And like I said, we're doing prizes for probably the top three or five depending on how many prizes we get in um for the top three to five teams and then i want to do a prize for the first team knocked out uh just as kind of a funny joke yeah you're the biggest loser right right exactly exactly that's funny and um is uh if people wanted to contribute. I was just going to ask that too. So we will have a donate button once we get all of our 501c3 paperwork in.

There's going to be a live donate button on the webpage. Just click on that. It's Give Butter. Click on that and it'll take you into the link to give. I like that. Give Butter. That's cute. And my grandpa, he was a World War II vet.

And I never knew that he served in the war until the day I was leaving for the boot camp. And he actually talked about it for about two to three minutes. And that was the most any of our family had heard him talk about it. Um, 10 years after I got out, we sat down with him one night, me and my brother, and he opened up and he, he talked for about four hours. Wow. And didn't get into any of the gruesome stuff. Um, you know, he was a combat engineer. They landed on Omaha beach, um, blew up bridges, some of that kind of stuff, you know, to keep troops from moving or whatever. But I think it helped him, you know, being able because I was military to be able to sit down and say, you know, this is what I did. And he was to the point where he wouldn't watch a war movie.

He wouldn't talk about it. He nothing like he basically blocked it out of his head right and that's actually what i was just gonna ask was there like after you found out was there things about him that like kind of made sense now like you know 100 his uh his temper you know when he would hit that point and his temper would snap, it was like, I know, I understand. You know, I get that now. His sense of being on time. If you weren't there 15 minutes early, you were late.

And I didn't understand that until I was in the military. And that's, you know, 15 minutes prior to 15 minutes prior. That's when you show up. It's still a lesson I ain't learned. Yeah. My ex-husband's grandfather was in the Navy. He was a chief in the Navy. And I was young when I started dating my ex-husband.

But anyway, that's besides the point. So anyway, I kind of grew up around him and he had a very kind of strict sense of humor about him too. Very punctual. Everything had its place. You did this at a certain time of day and that was that. And he expected you to do everything right. And that was that. If you messed up something you were you were done you pretty much written off get out of my face yep yep it's crazy because my father was completely opposite like he was the one person that connected the community he always threw the parties it was always him barbecuing and laughing and you know i feel like he learned how to like laugh through

his pain. Like he never really dealt with it, but he learned how to, you know, laugh through it. You know, I have, I have memories of him being a great dad, you know, to me, I thought he was really good dad. And it's crazy now to be older and to like hear that he was flawed, you know, not my dad. Like, it's, it's, you know, it's like we're human. And I think that's kind of the thing that people should get, especially when it comes to mental health is that we're all human, you know, when it comes to that, like, there's no perfection. Like we, right. We need to learn how to ask and seek help, you know, even the strongest people need help.

And I think that's kind of, it's cool what you're doing because it's kind of breaking that barrier people put up, you know, especially men and then men in the military and, you know, because they're very proud and, you know, so it's like. Women are proud too. I'm sorry. Right. She go. Yes. The men and women of the military are proud too. Sorry. She go. Yes, the men and women of the military

are proud too. That's what I said. You didn't hear me say that? I didn't. Right, Jason? Right. I heard everything. But like with the military though, you can never be the broken one.

You don't want to be the one that stands up and says, man, I'm having issues. You, you can never be the broken one because then you're looked upon as a different person in the military. So for military people, you carry that once you get out, you can't be the weak one. You can't be the broken one. You can't be, you can't need help. You've got to do it all yourself or it's a minute military mindset that needs to be broken.

Is it still the same way? Yeah. It's, it's hard to get people to ask for help. Right. Yeah. So if we can't stop that, you're going to continue to see this 22 a day number. Right. And that's, it's insane, you know, and, and it not only affects, you know, that person, it affects their family. It affects their kids. It affects their community. We actually, we just lost a warrior from the Chicago Blackhawks. They have a warrior team and he, he just committed suicide like two days ago. And he was, he posted on Facebook and actually wrote his whole basically suicide note and posted it on Facebook. And it was,

you know, I, I can't sleep at night. This is one way I can sleep. I can't talk to anybody. I'm dark. You know, I go in this hole, I get lost and I don't want to be found. And, and he did, he, he wouldn't really ask for help, but it ended up being that he took his life, you know, and now he's left behind a wife and a kid and a hockey community that he played in and, and veterans groups that he was involved in. And, and you, you scroll through his Facebook page and every one of them has him smiling and, and, you know, you'd never know it looking at the pictures. Yeah. It's funny. I was actually telling people about that trend. I don't know if you ever saw it on TikTok, but it's like post a time when you were at your lowest and nobody knew it.

And like all the videos of people laughing and having a good time. And it's like, wow, that's when they were at their lowest is like, you really know, you really do not know kind of what people are going through. But I wanted to ask you, so now there's a person who's watching us,

hopefully, and they're at that point where that young man was, where I just want to end this. What is your advice to them? Reach out to a brother. Reach out to a brother or sister. If you're in a veteran community, if you're in a veteran organization, reach out to somebody you trust. Talk. And you don't even have to talk about your problems

just talk and and if you're a veteran reach out to a brother or sister they may be struggling and you don't even know it right you know and they need somebody they need that phone to ring that day just to say hey how you doing man you know it's as simple as that a buddy check right and if you can do that and you can you can make a connection you may have saved that life that day right even just making that phone ring yep may have done that yeah just knowing that somebody wants to be there for him somebody wants to talk to him right all that wants to talk to them. That's all that matters, you know, and that may stop them from doing what they were going to do. And I guess it's kind of a, kind of a bummer podcast here, but it's serious.

I mean, that's, that's what you have to do. You know, you have to, you have to reach out, you have to talk and, and, and make sure your brothers and sisters are good. Right. Mental health is a tough topic. And in so many different ways, we've talked about it. And the veterans, they've been through a lot. You know, they've fought for our country.

They've saved our lives. They, they have to remember that they did this. They fought for our country. They deserve to get help and take care of themselves. Definitely. Definitely. And I think just us as a society need to recognize that in people and like appreciate it. You know, sometimes we overlook our veterans and the sacrifices they made and their families made and and you know it was like right you know sometimes it's funny we actually just had an interview with a person who had cancer but it's like he was talking about like it wasn't until cancer that he started appreciating like every day of life. And I feel like it's because of veterans that we're able to appreciate every day. Sure, sure.

And not just veterans, military people in general. You know, it's all branches. Like the people who choose to protect us are allowing us to see another day. Look at Ukraine and Russia. And it's been over a year year now and that could be us right it wasn't for these people who who decided like I'm gonna go out here and I'm gonna serve my country I can't imagine what it must be like to to come home and feel the way you feel or even be out there doing what you're doing to defend us. But to,

I just lost my train of thoughts. Oh my God. Oh, or how, okay. I'm going to go, I'm going to go on this for you. What just happened?

I kind of just want to build off that because I feel like I can. Yeah, I hope you can. Like, how does it feel as a veteran kind of to know like that you put your life on the line for us, this world and the condition we are in now? Right. It's you know, when the guys have fought in battle, it has to, it has to be terrible on them. You know, when they did the pullout of Afghanistan, we had a lot of blowback from that in the veteran community because the botched pullout, you know, and we lost 13 soldiers, you know, standing at the gate of the airport and that kind of stuff. And I had a lot of guys in my group that struggled with that because they're like, dude, we were there three times. Right. You know,

we did all of this fighting and all of this killing and we handed it right back over to the Taliban. Right. You know, and so there was a lot of blowback in the veteran community, veteran nonprofits because of that. And then you kind of see where, where everything's been headed. And it's like, well, why do we do what we do? You know, what, what were we protecting? If, if, you know, we're just going to hand everything away or if it's all going to go in the toilet or, you know, whatever. And, and that's part of the mental health issue that we have now.

Right. You know, and, and I think when you really, when you really break it down, it's going to be the grassroots, um, nonprofits, the ones that aren't there to make the buck. They're not there to collect a paycheck. They're there to help the veterans. Right. They're going to be the ones that are going to change that statistic. It's not going to be, you know, the government, the VA is overrun. They don't, they're understaffed. They're overrun. They can't help everybody. It's going to be the small veteran nonprofits that step up and say, we're done with this number. It's going to change. And you're going to make that change one person at a time.

Right. And it's pretty cool because I think what you're doing in your organization and Hero Stock that's coming up this year, I think that's what you're doing. You're kind of changing the narrative on, you know, on just communion in a way, just meeting each other, talking, have a community, you know, having an outlet. Essentially it's love is what it's doing. You know, it's, you know, these veterans, it's possible they can't, I feel like they can't live in today's society where we still have officers killing innocent people and, you know, us killing each other. You know, to me, I don't know. I feel like as a veteran, if I saw that, I'm like, I fought for this.

Yep. A hundred percent. Yeah. You know, so to be able to have an outlet where you can come together and just like express those things or rent those things or you know i actually have a friend of mine's now that thinks the worst thing he ever could have done was went in the military because he sacrificed so much and you know now he's home and he's broke and he's struggling and it's like and don't nobody you know no one cares right home and he's broke and he's struggling and it's like and don't know.

But, you know, no one cares. Right. Right. And that's what a lot of guys feel like, you know, is that there's nobody there for them. And they start getting in that dark hole and they can't dig themselves out. You know, it's it's the mindset and they don't want to reach out for help. You know, and if they don't reach out for help, it's hard to save them. That's, you know, the hero stock. We want this to be an event every year to give something for everyone to look forward to. Right. Because if you have something to look forward to, that may keep you alive. I just remembered my train of thought.

So where I was going with you know if they are over there and they they see what they see and they experience what they experience and they come back though they struggle with the PTSD and whatever they are going through now I just hope that my mind, my wish for them is that at some point they can realize what they've accomplished or what they've done for us and find that as like consoling for themselves and think of that in the moment when they're having that breakdown moment, you know? Sure. Yeah. And I think we can, we as a society can help with that just by being better people, you know, love it and don't be an ass. That's, you know what I mean?

Sometimes you gotta be an ass all the time. Be a good person. The thing is, is you don't know what that next person's going through. Exactly. And almost those exact words were said on our previous interview. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

I mean. Yeah, no, it's true. Yeah. Yeah. You don't know what the other person's going through and I think you know just when you see somebody in uniform or you know that they serve military like the simple thanks for your service I think sometimes

that makes like a difference too you know it's like yeah it's like you're you know and the only reason I bring that up I remember having a kid recently you know just ask me like why you always say that and I'm like because you do not know what this person in this uniform has seen.

And they did it to protect us. Yep. Yep. So we can lay our head on the pillow every night and not have to worry about the wolf standing at the door. And I don't worry about it because I'm like, I be asleep. So seriously, though, you know, it's like sometimes there's simple things that we can do, you know, seriously, though, you know, it's like sometimes it's the simple things that we can do, you know, just to make sure that our vets are OK and that, you know, we're checking in in a way also. you should see or signs you should look for and be that advocate for them to want to go out there and get help and seek their community and attend Hero Stock because it's about keeping people around. And like you said, dropping that number, 22 ain't a good number. You need it at zero.

Yeah. It's a crazy number, man. And I'm going to throw one more statistic on that. For a veteran that commits suicide, one out of three children of veterans that commit suicide will also commit suicide. Wow. So you start adding those numbers into it and, you know, you're insane numbers. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's a pandemic. That's the true pandemic. That's the one that we really should be worried about is that number and the mental health of our country in general.

In general, definitely. You know, it's not just veterans. It's mental health in general. That's what I was going to say. Like, people, this is advice to everybody. You know, talk. And it saved my life. I started talking and I haven't shut up yet.

Right? You know, I was like, they got me talking so much, I'm going to start a podcast. And you know, it just talks. You know, it really is so freeing. You know, really, when you think about it, when you get you get to like put feelings into words, it helps process things. You know, that's what it's about. We have to learn to process the things we went through. Sometimes it's so traumatic that you just can't meditate and process them.

You actually have to put them into words, like make it a reality so that you can see it and deal with it. And the only way to do that is to talk. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Things may not even make sense to you in your head. So when you're trying to say them out loud, like quite often I stumble over my words because I don't make any sense in my head. But when you do talk to somebody and they can help you understand yourself a lot of times. Yep. Yep. Get that second set of eyes, second set of ears and be able to understand, you know, and translate.

Yeah, exactly. Translate. That's a good word. Make you understand what you're thinking. And I just, just with that is like, I feel like we all know or have somebody that we think is trustworthy of our thoughts. So it's like, you know, just don't go out here and talk to anybody and think they're going to respect, you know, what you have to say. And I think that's often what we do is, you know, many people have many stories about when they talked and they were silenced, you know? So it was like, you know, yeah, we're telling you to talk,

but also to seek, search for the person you could talk to. Search for the person that you really think can handle you or deal with you. There is somebody out there, I promise. A person who can translate your thoughts. They are out there. I promise you, you just have to find it. And a lot of times you already know it, but actually consider, you know, protect yourself and your feelings and consider who you give it to. Yeah, but definitely go do it. Yeah, yeah.

It goes back to that civilian battle buddy. And it doesn't have to be military. It can be anybody that has a civilian battle buddy. If you look it up online, what a battle buddy is, it's that guy that will stand next to you and cover your six, you know, when, when stuff gets dark and, and you need somebody, they're there. When, you know, the enemy's behind you, they got you covered. Right. They help you bury your body.

Right. Yeah, exactly. I was just wondering briefly, what was your experience in the service exactly? I actually had a really good experience. I had, when I got out of schools for amphibious assault vehicles, they took us all down to the ramp where they had all the DM tracks. And my section leader was the most senior section leader. And he comes out and he goes, who's my farm kids?

And there was four of us that raised our hands. And he goes, I want you four. And he kind of took us under his wing, protected us from some of the other NCOs, some of the higher ups. He was very well respected. So he had a lot of pull. My staff Sergeant, he was from Texas. He was a good old boy from Texas. Same thing. Just kind of grabbed the country kids and put them under his wing and, and watched out for us and guided us.

The military experience for me was awesome. i got to play with some really cool stuff i got to blow a lot of stuff up look that's that's what i was gonna ask i was like i don't i don't want to interrupt you but what's that stuff you said what was it so so the amphibious assault vehicle it is a it's a 36 ton aluminum tank that you can drive in water and land so we like take it on to ships the the infantry will get in the back of it and then we'll take them into shore from the ship drop the gate and then they jump out and they go do their thing okay um i was also in the landmine clearing platoon which was the same thing still it was the amtrak but it had three tubs of c4 in the back that held 500 pounds per tub and then it had three missiles that you

would shoot the missile out it would lay over constantina wire uh landmines that kind of stuff you'd hit the button and you'd blow up 500 pounds of c4 in one shot wow so all that stuff is just scary so yeah dude it was super cool it was the craziest stuff i ever got to play with you know and then the last two years i was in i was a marksmanship instructor for our battalion so i trained 1100 marines and navy corpsman a year on rifle and pistol um which was right up my alley i I love that. You know, and, and, and when I say, you know, I didn't, I didn't go to combat and like, I have guilt and yada, yada.

I look at it too as there are guys that I trained because ours, ours were, we were all men like on, on camp Delmar. It was all, all male. I know for Rebecca, just the, he's saying men because but the men that I train ladies out here okay and they got training somewhere else they just weren't on our way um but but the men that i trained they were going out slinging rounds down range they were in afghanistan they were in you know kuwait and and saudi arabia and iraq and you know they were deployed through the world and they were slinging rounds. And because of what I taught them may have saved them.

Yeah. You were a King maker. Right. Right. So, you know, I mean, that was, I have the guilt, but at the same time I can sit back and look at it and go, you know what? I may have saved lives because of my training that I gave them. There is definitely no may in it. You absolutely saved lives. And we thank you for that. And thank you for your service.

For sure. Absolutely. I own two pistols. And two pistols. And I've never shot them. Because I won't shoot them until I get properly trained how to. Well, all I know is if you shoot like you I get properly trained how to. Well, all I know is if you shoot like you stutter, watch out world.

Listen, it's because my brain goes 9,000 miles per hour. My mouth just can't catch up. We're sorry, Jason. We're not going to have this argument in front of you. No, I'm sorry. Okay, so come to hero stock okay come a day early and i will take you out shooting and teach you how to shoot those pistols okay so that's an invite and we gonna come i'm just letting you know now my my gun is blue and it's camouflaged and it's so cute perfect we're talking about i'll teach you how to shoot it. See?

We actually have like five podcasts that will be coming in and they're actually going to be doing lives from the event. So if you guys wanted to do a live for your podcast, come on up. The podcast will pay for our flight, won't it? Yes, it will. And if we can do that, that will be amazing. Yeah.

And part of the thought process with that was, is I know there's men and women that can't be in large groups. And this probably will end up being a fairly large group this year. And so I want, and even some that are disabled enough to where they can't leave their house. I want to be able to include them in this event,

even if it's on an online scale. Definitely. Definitely. So. Yeah, that's great. That's. Yeah. And we're going to take you up on that. We bought the.

Yeah. I can come. I don't know about them. Is it a weekend day? Right. Because I'm the boss. Yeah, because we actually work together at our day job. Oh, okay.

So you've got to kind of run the show. Sure, sure. You can come and work from the hotel. Why does it got to be me who works from the hotel? Because I'm a girl. No, no. You want to be equal? No, I'm sorry.

He's making a hole. The show has taken a whole different turn right now a little grim there and i wanted to kind of live it up a little bit so we get to talk a little bit more about hero stock yes yes i think it's good i think it's going it's going to be it's going to be a crazy event so we actually we have wheels for warriors they're going to be a crazy event. So we actually have Wheels for Warriors. They're going to be donating the bike to a veteran this year. We have the local trade school, SEC, Southeast Community College. They're doing a rebuild on the bike right now. So they basically tear the bike down, put it back together, make sure it's 100% perfect. Their paint shop's actually going to do a custom paint job on the bike um and then they will be there while they present the the motorcycle to the veteran uh the veteran is

unknowing uh that they're they're receiving the bike um so it's it's a big surprise um for the veteran it's when they give away a bike, it's like a super cool, um, very emotional, um, presentation. They, they kind of talk about what they did, military, post-military, their families, that kind of stuff. It's a super cool deal. Um, but they're the guy that's, that runs wheels for warriors. He's actually working with another, uh, um, but they're the guy that's, that runs wheels for warriors. He's actually working with another, uh, um, they had a, they had a young girl that wanted to do something

for their program. So she started buying and selling motorcycle parts that were donated to her that she bought at a swap meet. And like the first year, I think she gave him like 50 bucks or something like that. Well, last year she donated almost 3000 from selling motorcycle parts. Um, and she wanted to do what they call ran his ride. It's a thousand mile iron butt ride. Um, so that actually starts on Friday night at eight o'clock. They leave the Harley dealership here in Lincoln. They'll drive to Moyer, Oklahoma, do the turnaround and staging for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas. Anybody that wants to jump in on this ride will stage there and then ride back to Herostock.

And yeah, that's pretty cool. We have Scott Fredenberg with Ruck It Up for Warriors. He's a newer nonprofit. He's going to do a ruck march that lands at Herostock. The Irreverent Warriors, which they have the national chapter, but it's the Nebraska chapter that we'll be doing the hike in. And they're going to land at Hero Stock. So it's going to be basically like a whole weekend event? It's basically all done in one day.

Oh, one day. It starts Friday at 8 o'clock and then ends at 1030 on Saturday. Oh, okay. So it's, it's 26 hours, you know, something like that, that, that are, yeah, 26 hours type of event, but there's all these different moving pieces that's going to be involved in it. So it's showing that the rucks still coming in and they're doing their thing, but they're supporting what I'm doing. And I'm supporting what they're doing their thing but they're supporting what i'm doing and i'm supporting what they're doing because you know i'm inviting them to do this ruck march into our our event um

and it's uh we're doing something this year i i my mind works 100 mile an hour while i'm working because i've done it so long that it just becomes second nature. So I can think, will I work? And I came up with an idea. You know, they always do the 50-50 raffles where the house keeps half and the other half goes to whoever wins. We're going to do a 100-0 raffle. So it's $10 for a business card. You write your name and phone number on it. You drop the money in the card in the bucket. And at the end of the night, we draw one name.

And that person will be able to gift a nonprofit or multiple nonprofits all of the money. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's cool. Well, and I figure you get 1,000 people and everybody buys one card. That's $10,000. people and everybody buys one card that's ten thousand dollars you know and that's that's huge for a small non-profit to just hand them ten thousand dollars that they can use towards their non-profit and make it grow yeah that's pretty cool though to open that up online also yeah yeah definitely definitely yeah and that's something we could look at doing too is doing an online

sale type thing and and making it to where people can donate from all over and buy these cards too. And it's going to be a nonprofit that is at Hero Stock. So if there's a nonprofit that comes in from Michigan that is at Hero Stock, they're as eligible as anybody else to get this money. Wow. That's pretty cool. And I know what it takes to run a nonprofit. I know the time that you put in to get the money to make it run. And it's a lot of time, you know, you're, you're knocking door to door,

you're going business to business, trying to find somebody to give you 250 bucks so you can take this veteran out on your boat to go fishing right um you know and and you drop 10 000 in their lap and that covers the whole year or maybe two years of getting veterans out and leo out to you know do hunting and fishing trips or whatever the the non-profit is right so my dad is a big fisher yeah and i mean it's you know it's just it's a way of, it's my way of helping without me personally giving or my organization personally giving to a specific one and have everybody go, well, this is just for Wheels for Warriors or this is just for this organization. That's the only reason why they're doing it.

Right. It's my way of showing them that, no, this is for everybody. Definitely. And, you know, even if you split the $10,000 up four ways, $2,500 in an organization is a big deal. Definitely. You know, so any way that we can add to help the veterans organizations or the nonprofits, the fire and rescue nonprofits to better their lives,

better the life of a veteran or multiple veterans. We want to do it. Definitely. And remember airlines, we want you guys to donate some flights. So I'm coming for you. We need you to don't. And Beyonce, I mean, if you free that day, you can stop by too. You can even come on a motorcycle now. I mean, I could shuffle bands a little bit to put Beyonce. She's going to have to be the opener, but we get it.

Right. But yeah, it's, and this will be a yearly event um and i'm i'm hoping within five years we're hosting 10 000 plus that's none of my goal right now woodstock right like a real yeah we're definitely gonna follow you and keep track and keep people updated because we want it to be the same year and we want to be invited every year you know well yeah yeah you guys are you guys are more than welcome my brother maybe i can you know get him to come with me and there you go cool yeah yeah and and i want to make you know being in the central united states i want this to be the pinnacle to where somebody in California, Oregon, Massachusetts, they're like, bro, we heard about Hero Stock and we're coming this year. That would be great.

You know, and just make this a mass gathering of our nation's heroes. Definitely. And we'll say we're supporting, we'll be supporting our heroes. It's just another way, you know, and then it's a fun way. That's the thing that's very, very cool about it about it right it doesn't have to be so serious you know we don't have to go it doesn't have to be about death and doom and what they saw but it's just about life and love and appreciating it and you know kind of like celebrating yeah letting letting our veterans know like we celebrate you like you're you made it, you changed our world,

but you're living in your world that you changed. So enjoy it. To get to the point that you can enjoy your hard work. Yep. Yep. For sure. A hundred percent. We definitely will have all of your contact information listed throughout the episode is going to play throughout this episode. But any last words you want to give to our viewers If you know somebody struggling, reach out to somebody close to them to help them. Keep the line of communication open. That's that's a big thing. Definitely. I like it for sure. Really good advice. Rebecca, any last words? No words for Beyonce. Beyonce, if you really want to come, I'll shuffle people around. We'll make it happen.

Beyonce, for real, you don't even got to sing you could just come just stand on the stage i mean you know whatever you just go come and get a beer yeah like just come get a beer and just i will buy the beer right okay and then i'll buy your second one yeah my boy beyonce he drops your name at like every opportunity he gets. Right. Well, because if we can get Beyonce to come to Hero Stock, then, you know, I'm for this. You know, I think what you're doing is really, really dope. Yes, for sure. I wish that, you know.

All kidding aside. Yeah, that my dad could have been here. He actually passed away a few years ago from COVID. But, you know, I kind of wish that kind of wish that something like this happened during his time. It's a place that we could have took him or sent him just to be free because we don't need to come along. But it sounds like a very open place and a freeing place for our vets to go. Or just all military. It doesn't have to be vets.

It's just our heroes out there, you know, people that decide to save our lives every day. It's a place that you get to come and like, not have to worry about us for a few hours, you know, release the demons for a day and just hang out. You know, you don't, you don't have to worry about them for a day. Just let them go for one day and hang out. Right.

So let's, yeah, Hero Stock, he said, I'm going to list all of the details. Just show up. Just come on. Get there. And you can sit in a corner by yourself, or you can be throwing bags and filming the bands and doing whatever. Let's have a break dance competition you never know what might start i mean it veterans drinking it anything could happen yeah and it's gonna be amazing yeah it's really really cool what you're doing thank you so much

for looking at our heroes and and taking care of the many people that decide to serve because, you know, without people like you, I think the number will be higher than 22. You know, so, you know, we see 22 as a bad number, but I see it as, you know, it could be worse. And there are people like you that, you know, is going to bring it down from 22. And we definitely appreciate you. Thank you know, it's going to bring it down from 22. And we definitely appreciate you. Thank you so much. Definitely. Definitely. Well, thank you for having me on and let me, let me pump hero stock and kind of, kind of

talk to mental health issues. And, and, uh, I really appreciate that. Yeah. We appreciate it as well. We hope that you get something from this. I'm gonna put all Jason's contact information, um, at the bottom of this episode, you can find his information on our website. Definitely check him out and we will see you next time. Thank you guys for watching.