Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 223 | Uncle Si’s Resurrection Duck Hunt, Phil Breaks the Robertson Code & Redneck Explosions

Episode Date: February 10, 2021

Guests Matt Lyda of Nine Line Apparel and Jay Stone of Duck Commander talk about the veterans-only duck hunt that got Si back in the blind after beating COVID. An explosion nearby brings the ducks in. Phil breaks the “Robertson Code” of not telling your brothers what to do. Jay talks about Si's struggle with COVID. And Matt tells the story of Nine Line Apparel, his salvation, and how he uses his platform to reach others. -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So we got a couple of guests today. Jase is on assignment. He's out looking for new stories to tell. So we send him out. New stories to tell. Yeah, we send him out about once every couple of months just to discover some new stories he can tell on the podcast. Because Jace is never going to run out of stories, is he dad? Ever. I'll tell you what, he has the same ability as Uncle Suss.

Well, he is Jason Silas Robertson, so it makes perfect. His storytelling is, bar none, the greatest, well, other than Si, he's the greatest storyteller of all times. Yeah, because it's a little thing with the nugget of truth in it, but when he tells it, because we got Stone and we got Matt Lider, so Stone, you were telling us, he told the story about the Sand Hill Crayam. Yeah. So then you listen to it.

I listen to the story. So give us now once everybody heard it because it was, you know, Dan there. Stone, I know you're saying this about Si and Jay's. But Jason's stories at least make a little more sense than Si. Well, yeah. He makes them more believable than Side does. Side tends to go for the, you know, over-the-top supernatural-esque type ending. But they both have the same.

ability of storytelling. Oh, yeah. So when you told me, when you heard the story about San Diego Craney, he said, well, that's not all the way it went down. But it was a great story. Have Jason made it really good? Well, nothing in there was a lie. It was just, he made it so elaborate that, you know, I don't know.

When the old days, Chase used to always go out of the blind on these Stilken missions and all this stuff and now that's more Jay's expertise but he would come back and so he'd be gone an hour sometimes more and we'd always say the same thing oh jays he's got a story he's just have a story he'll have a story I mean we always knew and sure enough he'd get in and said well boys and here we go he would tell this elaborate tale oh yeah he was he was talking about how we had a conversation with the sandhill crane you know back and forth well I never heard the sandhill crane talking back. He was just flying around in a circle. We heard them in Texas is where he got that. We heard them when they're flying over in Texas. I said, hmm, but every once in a while now they

even show up here. So shocker, Jase was doing all the talking to the San-El. Well, actually it was me. I just looked at it. And Jace looked at me and, oh, evil eye, he started laughing, you know. Oh, that was when we talked about evil eye. Yeah. Which we tried to change his name to Wild eye. Because Jace doesn't like the word evil in someone's nickname. so I heard Stone call him out but I didn't know what he's name was

well once again here's another here's another latter the truth of the matter is last year was the first time evil eyes showed up

hunting with us he came with Kyle Hughes who's a friend of ours who deals with Yamaha so anyway evil eye shows up and he's looking around he's only got one eye

the other one's a glass eye and Phil we were trying to get in the blind and Phil looked back care says don't get old evil eye and the blind down there make sure he don't poke that other eye out and we laughed and carry out how did he lose that eye by the way i forgot he told me a hundred times but i forgot because uh but he laughs about that story and he don't mind us calling him evil eyes his name is less and he did listen to that episode and loved it right because we talked about jackie lumb and all that

oh yeah so so this so matt is in town you actually matt works for a company called nine lines which we've mentioned on podcast before. And I was trying to think the first time I met you, Matt, we were our mutual friend, Graham Allen. We were doing a show with him on place. And so our production company was doing some pilots with him. And so it was Chad Prather and you and Graham. Yeah.

What you don't know about that, Al, is we're standing there, getting ready to film that day. And me and Chad are standing beside each other. And you walked up and you said, hey, guys, I'm running over here at the convenience store. said, y'all want anything to drink, snacks, whatever. And I said, yeah, I'd take an energy drink or something. And you went over to the store.

I looked at Chey and I said, God, that guy looks familiar. Chey goes, I know. He sure does. I said, who is that? I said, how do I know him? I said, we must have run across at a trade show or something at some point. And Graham walks up there and he goes, y'all know who that is, right? I said, no, who is it, man?

He goes, that's Alan Robertson from Duck Dynasty. And I go, what? He said, yeah. I looked at him and I said, boys, we have made it. And he goes, what do you mean? I said, we've got Duck Dynasty going to get us snacks. We're going to get coffee. That was pretty good.

So we had, we were doing that we were filming these pilots. And of course, we were just starting a production company. And I knew a lot about production from doing our Duck Hall videos and, you know, me watching the production of our show, but I didn't know a lot about it. So we had Seth and a lot of the other guys there that kind of knew all the technical stuff. I didn't, you know, technically I was the boss there, but I didn't know what to do. So I was like, I can go get some coffee. Yeah.

I mean, I was a little bit of everything. I went viral on that, uh, that episode too, and I didn't realize it. I woke up one morning. My phone blew up. And I said, what? The world's going on. Everybody's texting me. You were on Fox News this morning.

And I said, what? And I looked and Graham had done a session that morning. And they had played the clip of me saying that parents need to whip their kids more at Walmart. And they'd be it a little bit better off in this world. That apparently ruffled some feathers with some people. But for the most part, people agreed with it. It's biblical. Oh, absolutely spared the rods, pulled the child.

My daddy lived by that verse. And I always say that, you know, I never. Now, Jace would argue, of course. So I'll argue for him, I guess, since he's not here, that I never got one I didn't deserve. And Dad missed some opportunities where I deserve some. So, I mean, I was never treated unfairly. Everyone I got, I deserved them and missed a few more. But Jay's, he's got a couple of tales of, you know, he was the interrelated.

Seriously, don't appreciate discipline until you have your own children. Then all of a sudden, the chickens come home to roost. Well, one of the best stories of all time was when Phil lined y'all up on that car. and some old boy and nobody knew he got in there with y'all and he has lined up light on the back of a big old night. I knew three out of four of them with that full of little teenage drunken spree the night before and the parents of one of the guys said, I wish you could go down there and tear his butt up. And I said, so you don't mind me striking your child with the belt.

They said he needs it, but we're too afraid to try. Oh. I said, well, let's get out there and get them rounded up. Well, one guy just happened to be there with them. I said, son, they were going, binning over the car. Three licks for everybody for getting drunk. And the last one walked up and looked at me. I said, I don't know who you are.

I said, but you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Beening over that car. Shockingly, never came back. No, 40 years later. Then you lose friends. I was up there 40 years ago. This guy walks up and he says, Phil, you remember me? I said, everybody says that.

You know, I said, nah, your face kind of looked for me. Who are you? He said, I was that fourth man in that butt whipping back there 40 years. He said, at the time, it made me mad. And he said, I tell you what, that old coot. He said, but 40 years later, I'm here to tell you, I needed more of that. That's right. He said, but I'm on track now.

I'm just letting you know, I'm back on track. And he said, there's showing old drunkenness. So 40 years later, he proved the correction right. He wound up in the Air Force, and the same thing happened to me. He came up to me, and I was looking at him. And, you know, that's a long time to go by because we were young. But some things you remember. We've never forgotten that.

And he said the same thing. He said, you remember me? And I was like, you look super familiar. And he told me his name. And I was like, oh, dude, I hadn't seen you since we all got whipped on the back of the car. You know, so that was the first lead in. And I said, what are you even doing? He said, well, I got into drugs and a lot of problems, you know, after all that.

And he said, then I got lined out. got in the Air Force and, you know, got his lifeline out, which was really cool. But he was saying the thing. He was appreciative. Yeah, by the way, a guy showed up yesterday, and he's worked, he is a member of the Air Force, and he's stationed at Barksdale, which is about 10 miles south of Dixie, where we spent about 10 or 12 years when I was being raised as a boy. So old home place. Oh, home place. So, but he's stationed at Barksdale, but he came all the way over. He said, I want you to baptize him, Mr. Robertson. He said, I've been. following your podcast and all that said yeah i'll do that that's good so that was a good deed yesterday

of yesterday i think we all need to talk about what happened yesterday i was that's what i want to talk about because so we we set this up i think in the last podcast we one of the last couple of podcasts we talked about the the whole setup about the veteran hunt and how much we appreciate you know getting to do that where you get that extra day after season or when typically there's a lot of ducks still around and we can't hunt anymore so uh the the authority have allowed the veterans and the youth to have an extra day. By the way, that was the first time as a duck hunter over the last 60 years. That's the first time I've ever seen that give the veterans a duck hunt day.

So whoever pushed that through, Jay's claims he did it. Well, if he did, we appreciate it. I don't know if it was my conversation with Don Jr. or not. but all I'm saying is we had the conversation and then it happened. So you put two and two together. I had to hunt gold, Stone. Oh, well. Tell us who, tell us who all you had.

Okay. Because you're probably going to have to explain the Uncle Si. We haven't talked about Uncle Sai, but I know y'all talked about it on your podcast. So tell us the story. So Cy has been out of commission for about a month now. No duck hunting. And that man lives and breathes ducking.

He loves it, loves to have fun. So it's just killing him. He's stuck at home. It really depressed. It depressed him. It almost killed him. For about three or four days, I was worried that he didn't have the strength or the will to get out of bed. Because he had come out of COVID.

He'd been in the hospital for about five days. He was doing really good. Too many Winston's earlier. So he's out bad lungs. Bad lungs. And he was struggling before COVID. Now, he would get winded just walking to the full winter. And he told me, he said,

Stone, he's something like that old Chris Stapleton song. I ain't got nobody to blame but me. Some of my preacher says. He goes, I don't know if smoke going to send you to hell, but it might kill you a little earlier than what you're supposed to be. They'll send you somewhere quicker than you want to. But then he said, hey, no regret, son. I'm ready to go.

I said, I know it, but I ain't ready for you to go. But you and what's the other guy that was. Philip McMillan. Y'all got together and made sure he was being fed. and he get on his medical regime, whatever they wanted him to do. Oh, yeah. What'd y'all do? Just barge in there.

Yeah. Philip moved in with him. I came once a day and brought him his lunch and made sure he took his medicine on his auction. Philip moved into him when things were looking their worst. Yeah. When things were looking bad, like he wasn't going to make it out of it. Philip moved in with him, made him eat, made him drink, made him take his medicine. So Philip, for the audience, is size kind of right-hand man.

he travels with him, sets up all of his appearances and stuff like that. And a wonderful guy. He's on Duck Dinestiel. He was the McMillan, the villa known. And John and Paula Galwin came over and spent multiple hours making sure he knew how to operate his oxygen machine and all that was because Paula was proficient with that. Yeah, rest story therapists. And anyways, we got him lying back out and that sucker.

He made it. Oh, he made it. So this hunt, really, we were calling it because Jay had taken Sigh down south and waxing some blue-wing teal right before he got COVID. And then he got COVID. So then now we're all worried that was his last hunt. So this veteran's hunt turned out to be sort of the resurrection hunt for South. I did ask him.

I said, at any time during your ailment with your bad lungs, did the resurrection cross your mind? He said, oh, it was right there. Right there. Actually, when we went south, he had it when I picked him up. Yeah. He'd already had, because I could tell he was someone right. It was peeked, you know. He wasn't laughing and carrying on like he normally does.

He's just sitting there. But he was going to go till hunting. Yeah. He was going to go. I said, side, we can stay here. He said, no, no, no, let's go. And he'd stand up, just bop, bop, bop, sit back down. He'd stand up, bop, bop, bong, sit back down.

It wasn't none of that. I was three for three, four for three, like he normally does. You know what it was? It was just like me when I had my ruptured appendix and went hunting that last time before. before I had to go get fixed. I was like, I couldn't even shoot. I just sat there and Jeff said, Dad, I was not looking too good.

It's kind of great. And dad said, what time is it? Somebody said, 9.30, said, let's get them to 11. Then we'll get away out of here. I didn't know your appendix had blown up. I was dying, but, you know, other than that. Hang on, Joe. Let's take a break.

You know, Si had a heart attack in the blind. And about 10 years ago. Same thing happened. You know, he's just kind of laying there. And somebody said, sigh, well, you're all right? He's like, no. And somebody said, well, we need to get sigh to the bank. It feels like, what time is it?

Trust me, you don't want to come down with anything in the blind. That's not your best. Yeah. And that dog had a heart attack on the same hunt. Remember, Jace went after that crippled Mallard Drake and that dog tried to keep up with Jace. And about 10 minutes later, we heard. Vegas, Vegas up dog. Oh, yeah.

We heard, it was that dog. She was just up in between some privates. Yep. That's a tree. And she was just sitting there. And I thought she had made it right there as far as she goes. As far as she goes, she never got over. That was it.

Wow. Had a heart attack. Heart attack. Yep. Her and sigh had one the same day. It was a rough morning of wading, fall. Yeah. It was rough.

All right. So tell the story. of the hunt. Of course, who all, Sy was on the hunt. So, this is Sy's first hunt back. Yep. Since COVID. We had Matt, his brother, J.R., who was fixing

to retire from the Air Force. 30 years. 30 years. And I have to admit when I saw him, because I was looking at John, which you'll just got to admit, and I thought, well, that must be his brother because he looked like he was your age. Like, I was looking for like the old, 10-year-old. That's what the Air Force does for you.

30 years in the Air Force is like a couple of years. in the Army. Stolen to you. Not a lot of stress. You can go through the Air Force encampment. You're looking around, you know, everything, you know, looks like this. Well, I told you, I said, when did you go in when you were 14? He said, well, 17.

Yeah, yeah. I think my parents had a sign or something like that. So, anyway, we had JR. Then we had two of my buddies that served with me in Afghanistan, Mikey Pierce and Daniel Freeland. And awesome guys. Love to have a good time. Didn't you have a major in the Marine Corps?

And lastly, we had. we had the major. Old John. Oh, John. And look, he's squared, jawed, wild-eyed, had a big cigar in his mouth on us on. He's sitting there the whole time just with a cigar in his mouth and that blind. Oh, he looked like that kind of guy you still wouldn't want to mess with. No, no, sir.

But he's got a heart of gold. Oh, yeah. And he prayed over the second hunt, wasn't it or something like that? Yeah. Well, no, he asked me to pray for the second hunt. Yeah, the first hunt he prayed over. First hunt, he prayed over. Yeah.

Like that. Nobody got hurt. Of course, there was shotgun barrels waving around, you know. But we had a huge time. Now, yesterday's duck hunting weather was terrible. Cloudy, no wind. Steel. Still.

Yeah. Everything's real loud. You know, so it's hard to get ducks to decoy in weather like that. I got ready to persecute the brothers where I was meeting on the Sunday morning. You should have been down there at that blind? I walked out there and I sat down on the porch. I sat down on the steps on the porch. I'm just sitting there drinking coffee.

And Mr. Kay said, what are you doing? We figured leave in about 15 minutes. I said, I'm listening for gunfire over on the private hole. I said, I disheard around. I said, they kid on a few depths there. Because our account was about 787. We talked about that, which we'll talk about that. So I said, you boys might push us over the 800 mark.

Well, before the smoke cleared, how many y'all end up with? 35. 35. Oh, you got 13 and many to spare. Oh, yeah, we got them. All right. But the morning hunt was pretty slow. They would kill 10.

So we needed 36 to get our limit for the day. So we came in, had a lunch. Phil cooked us some of his famous fried burgers. Hey, what about that? Let me tell you something. Those burgers were talked about the entire time we were in the blind. You know, I was, I did the right. My mama raised me right, so I didn't eat too much.

You know, I only had four of them. Every time Phil would make them, I'd just, I'd look around if nobody's in line. I'd just walk up here and give me another one. I got four ahead of them, and I said, all you can eat, when you get tired of eating, we shut it down. Let's go to the meat runs out or y'all run out. So I'm cooking four at a time. You know, we got a smoke going in there. Oh, yeah.

Oh, it's a haze. We need to cook something. There's something about the, I mean, they're smaller, but they got that char on the outside of them. I mean, it's just a really good. I'm going to be honest with you. I eat a lot. I love food. And I tried to just be a good Christian yesterday.

If you'd have kept cooking them things, Phil, I'd have kept eating. I think the record is seven, I heard, but I don't know. Oh, I could have put that. I could have put that in the rearview mirror. Somebody said, no cheese on mine. I said, I got you. That was my brother. That's a cheese off of them.

You know what I mean? And I mean, they were going from here to here. I'm like, they just kept. going to finally they just like, well, the funny thing was we got in there and Stone cut up everything and got all the fixings ready and the meat's just sitting there. And two different times, somebody said, well, do you want us to go ahead and put the patties together?

Stone goes, oh, no. He said, if you do that, he said, Phil won't like that. And we were hungry, though. That was the major. Oh, yeah. The major. Yeah. I can tell he was struggling a little bit because I know he's used to being in charge.

But when he got that duck blind and I gave everybody to run through, here's how. it's going to happen. I'm going to call the shot. Y'all just get under the roof and be still. I'll let you know when they're coming. He's looking down there at me. I can tell he did not like taking orders from a corporal. He didn't like that. He had a couple of good shots. Oh, I'll tell you one thing. He was on point. He was ready to go. Him and Cy both. They were the elders in the blind. Of course, Sy was down there on your corner. He never misses. He never. So, you know what? This is what I learned on this duck hunt. Okay?

That's what I learned. Sinai, we are a lot more alike than we are different. We have an older brother that gets on to us about everything. It tells us we ain't never shot anything. And I'm going on a couple of hunts with my brother now. And apparently, I ain't never hit a bird according to him. That's it. But old John there, Bessavi.

John was like, man, a pretty good shot, man. I said, thank you. And there was one time where I pop up. I'm the only one to shot. Duck falls John looked at him and said, good job.

My brother's on the other side and he goes, good shot, Cy didn't he pull the trigger. Cy goes, thanks, Jay, I said,

I said, I thought you were on my side by NSID didn't even pull the trigger and he was mine. Oh yeah. So you mentioned an older brother so I just thought

when Sai was in the worst of the COVID deal. So you were really worried about side and so you called dad. Well, actually I talked to Jace first and I said, I told him, I said, man, he don't have the will to do anything.

He's just laying there. He said, well, he said, Phil's the one that got him to quit smoking cigarettes. Maybe you can get Phil to call him and motivate him. I don't know. It's worth a shot. So I call Phil. I said, Phil, I said, I mean, Jay's think you need to call sigh and try to motivate him to eat and drink, take his medicine. He said, Phil said, that's against the code.

I said, do what? He said, the Robertson men have a code out of, well, you don't ever tell your brother or cousin or anybody what they should be doing. That's the code. I'm like, hey, he said, he said, Denfield said, well, I think it's time we broke the code. What's his number? What did you tell him when you called him? I've never asked you. I basically said, sigh, the word is, unless you at least make an attempt to get up and move around a little bit and start eating.

I said, you quit eating and you're just lying on your bed staring at the ceiling. I said, I know it's rough from what I hear. He said, I'm too tired to get up and walk around. I said, this is the time

you just got to suck it up and get up and they said if you start moving around a little bit, I mean, your lungs in pretty bad shape anyway. I'm just saying, I was trying to be easy with him. I'm not barking at them like a brother does.

So I just said, so I'm just telling you, have I ever called you and told you something like this? He says, no, you ain't ever come. I said, well. I'm breaking the code. All in now.

I said, I'm just telling him, man. I said, it's a bad disease. I said, we've been praying for you. I think the Almighty bring you through it. I said, you got divine help here. And that's when I said, is the resurrection during all this looming bigger all the time? He said, oh, it's right in my face. Well, what I didn't realize.

He was actually, actually was he was prepared to move on. I think he was. It really was. When Stone told me that, I realized, Matthew, that I didn't realize. Nobody told me there was that code. I mean, it wasn't like written down anywhere. But I started thinking about it, though, well, you know, I've been living by the same

code because I don't let my brothers and tell them. It's a natural thing because that banter, especially between brothers, is something else. And I've got a sister as well. And until my brother's able to grow a beard, I've got two sisters. And, you know, in that blind yesterday, just I love giving my brother a hard time. He loves giving me a hard time. I looked over at side. He's sitting right to the left of me.

My brother's, we got John in between me and him, and I said, Sa, it was kind of quiet. I said, who's the, outside of my brother, who's the worst hunter you've ever hunted with? So I just kind of laughs. Everybody in the blind laughs. And it gets quiet again. And he goes, hmm, probably you, Matt. Oh.

And I go, come on, man. And my brother just, he ate that one up. He was playing alone. Let's take another break. Well, Sa had figured out, let's see. God has alienated from God at one time

we were all his enemies in our mind because of our evil behavior but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death

to present you holy in his sight that's what Jesus did without blemish free from accusation if you continue in your faith established and firm and here's what Osai said

here's what I'm gonna stand on not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. So the difference between a son of God, Isaiah is, and the rest of the world, he has hope, and he knows it. Because you think about it, physical death may come early, may come late, but it's coming. So the bottom line is when Jesus conquered it for us, that was a big event, a big, big event.

And one thing that got to meet one day when I was over there, when he was pretty bad off, He looked up at me. He said, you don't have to keep me alive. And I looked at him. I said, I know I don't have to, but I want to. I said, will you let me? He said, I reckon. So that to me stood out more than anything.

He said, you don't have to keep me alive into look in his eye. It was like, there's no fear. No fear of death. There is not. Well, I tell you what he did yesterday and what you did and this whole Veterans Hunt. I mean, the stories, I mean, you know, all those guys that were sitting there, they've seen him on TV and, you know, probably fans and everything else of him. But him telling those stories about being in the military and everything, it, those are going to be stories and memories that those guys and myself are going to pass along for forever with him and to be able to sit in a duck blind with, you know, what people consider the, you know, literally a duck dynasty with the Robertson family.

And to be able to sit in there with him and do that hunt, it's going to be more appreciated than he probably will ever, he'll ever know. Let's remember, my man. We were more than happy to honor y'all serving your country, you know, and serving God too. It all come together, eat good meals, stay in a duck blind. It was a great way to. Well, I noticed that whenever, I mean, we have a lot of people at our house all the time.

entertaining people, hospitality. Jay's usually cooking and we have a good time visiting. Sometimes a spiritual conversation, sometimes just laughing. But I noticed with Jay, when a group of veterans come in, it's a little different thing with them. There's kind of a, and I want you all to talk about that. Kind of a camaraderie. Yeah, the band of brothers kind of mindset. And especially if you guys get to talking about things you experience and things like that, I guess other people, and I like just listening, because a lot of times it's just, You know, I'm kind of on the outside listening, looking at it, but really intrigued by that. Something to think about Jay and I were in Iraq.

You were in Iraq in 2003, right? No, Afghanistan. He was in Afghanistan in 2003. I was in Iraq and 03. So I was part of the invasion. He's over in Afghanistan. We're both at that time in theater, fighting the enemy, away from our families. We have no idea who each other are at that point.

Right. almost 20 years later, we're sitting here being able to share stories, being able to share our love of God, family, hunting, the outdoors, all of those things, right? And we have now, both of us with me working at Nine Line and him being part of this mess you guys got going over here in North Louisiana. We have a platform that I believe God gave us to be able to share the word with other veterans. that if you aren't a veteran, it's hard to have those conversations. Right. You know, even if you're Alan Robertson, even if you're Phil Robertson, you've never experienced what Stone and I, and those men that sat there and ate them cheeseburgers yesterday had to go through.

We hunt ducks and we're not hunted by men, life and death. No, that's a whole different. Well, I told Stone, we came through a couple weeks ago, and I said, hey, man, I said, I know you guys always got people in the blinds. I said, I got a couple of guys. And you came over and, you know, one of the guys, my buddy, Zach, that works with us. And I said, you know, these guys, they've never duck hunted. I said, one of them's hunted for men, but they've never hunted for ducks.

And, you know, we weren't fishermen of men back then. It's a band of brothers that, no matter what, you know, getting on to my brother about being in the Air Force, what he's been able to accomplish in 30 years is very proud. You know, we are so proud of him in our home. I will never tell that to him to his face, but when he listens to this. But what Stone did this weekend, when this man married into this family, there was an upgrade. He brought value. And I would never tell him that outside of me behind this microphone.

We couldn't really appreciate his particular skill sets. And still, he got inside the family. That's right. And he just kind of bloomed. He's blossomed. But for what he and I have experienced and gone through and done and didn't know each other at the time, you know, those stories we get to share together and that camarader and that brotherhood without ever even really talking about it a lot, just kind of, you just kind of

know. Matt, tell Phil what the major does. Oh, so John is, like I was saying earlier, he's got a heart of gold. but he runs Camp Valor outdoors up in Missouri. And what he does is he takes veterans, disabled veterans, folks that are dealing with PTSD, whatnot. Takes him on hunts. And he has... Oh, so he does what he did here.

I mean, it's pretty much what Stone put together. I got you. Yeah, he does that for other veterans. And John's passionate about it. And, you know, I told him last night, I said, man, we're going to get you connected with duck commander because he also finds veterans that, let's say they're passionate about duck hunting.

He will go and purchase out of his own pocket duck calls for them, gets them lined up with someone that can teach them how to blow. And John's a pretty good blow or two, I think. I don't know anything about it. He's average. Around Jolly's average. Around normal people, he's good.

Boy, don't say that on there. You'll get that major off. He's going to come down here. He's going to come down here. He cut them eyes as me. He said, you want me to bring my duck I said, you leave him in your bag. He looked at me.

He takes veterans hunting and gets them lined up to where they can learn how to blow duck calls and just learn the educational part of what you do when you're out there. And he's passionate about that. And my brother is working with him now. My brother's about to retire in May. And he's going to do a lot with Camp Valor outdoors as well. But John, John's a good old boy. He's a good guy.

He's got a big heart and loves this country. He loves our veterans. He was enlisted, and then about 12, 13 years in, he decided to go become an officer. He wanted to make a little bit of money, I guess. By the way, two Marines came last year, and Stone shot a deer, and them dudes, they tracked at the deer, the blood trail in about waste deep water. I mean, they went through water and found the thing, but the Marine was the one to come up with them. just a tip of his horn sticking out. He finally just went down in the water.

Yeah, tripped. Nothing sticking out. Hang on, John. That's taking on break. So the Marine, I shoot this 10 point. I've been hunting all year. He's a 7-year-old 10-point. Old is the hills.

I shoot him. I thought I made a good shot, probably a long shot. Well, he runs off in that slew. So I find one speck of blood, one speck of blood 20 yards from it. So I can't find him. So I come back to the house. well there's two Marines staying in the lodge up here

so I knock on the door and Matthew opens the door one of the Marines he said yep I said you boys good blood trailers

he said we're Marines sounds like a Marine so he got his boy who was about 10 what a dumb question yeah his boy about 10

he had 12 had him with him and then his the other Marine both them I'm talking about hardcore devil dogs now. Yeah. They're there.

That's the boys. So I bring them in a four-witter. He said, all right, where's first blood? I said, first blood's right here. He said, stand right there. He said, stand right there. He said, where's second blood? I said, right up here 20 yards.

So he said, you stand right there. So now we got a line going, straight line. First blood, second blood. He's wading out there in waste heat water. He said, I got blood right here. I walk over there. There's a log about this long, about that big round. And there's just a little streak of,

of blood where that deer had jumped over that log. He said, I got, he said, somebody's staying right here. So we had three men in a row. He takes off walking. It's pitch black dark. It wasn't 20 seconds. He picked that deer's head out of the water. He says, is this the one you shot?

Like, maybe, maybe this one drown. I see, yep, that's him. But you know, that's the thing is what you get a bunch of veterans together. Those are pretty good retreat. We love things like that Because you know, you don't get that in normal And not only that We get him back to the layer up here

I hang him up I'm a pretty good deer skinner You know And he's watching me and he said Get out of the way He whipped out this knife And within five minutes That deer was skit

And quartered gutted and quartered And in the ice chest Well I would say seven to eight minutes I've never seen nothing like it That had come off that deer so fast and I've been keeping in touch with him a little bit since then. I tried to get him to come to the veterans hunt, but he was busy.

He's still active, by the way. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's still busy. Oh, he's busy. Yeah. Doing his thing. Doing his thing.

So one of the things that's really neat about the podcast is we get different, you know, organizations that will sponsor or have ads and stuff on here. Jay's wearing his black rifle coffee t-shirt. They're one of the ones because a veteran-owned company that's what we drink on the podcast. So Nine Lines is another interesting story. Tell our audience a little bit about kind of how that came to be and what you do for them. So we're a veteran-owned and operated apparel company, patriotic apparel, things that, you know, it hurts some people's feelings, the things that we put on T-shirts, you know. And it was kind of crazy.

Phil, I brought you a shirt that I felt like probably two of them that I think fits you perfectly. One is don't tread on me. And the other one is family, faith. Friends, flag, firearms, five things you don't mess with. I like it. And that shirt's pretty much the mantra and the motto of nine-line apparel. Yeah, this just from where you started with your speech, this doesn't sound woke. We're far from woke.

Our owner, Tyler, is definitely not woke. He's a former 160th helicopter pilot, the 160th, they are a special operations helicopter company. So if you watch any movies, we're taking Navy Seals in and stuff, that's the 160th. Which is kind of the logo, right? Yeah, so it's a black hawk. And if you look on the logo, there's a little, on the helicopter, there's a little prong that sticks out. And that is very, that is 160th. Right.

They have that. So they, Tyler, you know, was in the military. He's a West Point graduate. One of the smartest guys you'll ever meet in your life. A huge fan of Uncle Si. And Tyler is not a hunter. He's not an out, you know, that's not his thing. But he loves Uncle Si.

And his father reminds us a lot of Uncle Sai. He's the Uncle Sai of Nine Line. So Tyler was in the military and said, man, these shirts just aren't great. All of our morale shirts and company shirts that are always garbage. They were never good. And Tyler said, I can do better than this. And he went to work and, you know, bought some heat pressing machines and stuff like that and did it in his garage. Just started the company there, him and his family and just making sure.

for everybody and he's getting deployed and you know he's got friends and family back home that are you know shipping everything out of the garage and all that stuff the duck commander's story capitalism at his expense yeah yeah and he's you know selling furniture and selling cars and you know he's eating ramen and you know all those things right he's going on deployment so he can make a little extra money while he's on a deployment to be able to pay for things and and then before you know it um you know we got big time and was able to move into a 5,000 square foot building and that was going to be the the home and Tyler's it at this point at west point is an instructor and uh that's about the time I came along to the company and I always say you know I was the one that took us to the next level

so someone wants to order something what do they do they they go to you can go to nine line apparel dot com and yeah and we're inside of cabellas and all that stuff and I think we've got a little coupon go for everybody that's listening here for yeah duck 25 25% off you save you some money there you But Tyler, you know, from there, we moved into a building that was beside us at 10,000 square feet. And I came along and I remember the first conversation I had. He said, what are you going to do to change the sales team? And I'm sitting there with his brother who was working for the company at the time. And it was early in the morning.

No, there was nobody there. I said, well, I said, I'm like about 30 days, figure out what's going on with the folks. I said, but overall, I said, the Lord told me that I said, if I tithe, I said, he's going to bless me 100thold. I said, now, I get paid off of commissions here. I said, so the only way I can get 100-fold, I said, is that the sales go up. And I said, when the sales go up, I said, my 10th goes up. And I said, to get 100-fold off of that, sales have to go up again. And, you know, ever since then, you know, the Lord has blessed us.

We're in a 60,000 square foot facility now, 400 acres, blowing up stuff, acting like a bunch of fools. We've got about 250 people that worked for us. We've built six fully handicap accessible homes for disabled veterans. We built a tiny home village for homeless veterans. It's a great work. Yep. And we're doing a second village right now for tiny homes. Stone has – every time we've done a fundraiser,

always send us duck calls that are autographed and everything else for us and, you know, been able to auction them off and wrap them off. Well, that's – Grant one of those shirts. And hearing to the two greatest commands of the Bible, love God and love your neighbor. That's right. Guys got it down. They got it down.

And the good thing about when you support these guys, obviously, here's one of the shirts I want to show because a lot of people watch this on YouTube. So that was the one he was mentioning. You see that on the back. And then I love this. How are they in the mud? Oh, I think you'll test that out and let us know. It gives us a full report back. They feel like it's white T-shirts.

Yeah, because the mud doesn't show up on white T-shirt. Yeah. Let's take one. I'll send you a few of them. Let's take one last break. Yeah, so obviously. It's like a dress t-shirt for me. That's a church-going shirt.

That's one you'll wear the church. So my pastor, you see this thing right here? Oh, that's a good look. I got some hoodies too. I don't want to scare anybody. That's never been washed. And I've had this a decade. I just hang it up, let it air dry, it smells as fresh.

So about blowing stuff up where y'all work. So we got to finish the story of the duck hunt before you move on. So we had a slow morning. yesterday morning and weather was terrible but the farmer next door is is had had some water hold because the water the river's up and there was pile of ducks over there and I kept telling I said boys some ducks are right over there they'll get up and move sometime another I said we just got to be here when it happens you know and uh because we're not seeing nothing in the air I mean it's nothing so the major looks down there said brother stone say us a prayer to keep

it keep keep us safe in the hunt I said yes sir so I said a prayer, said amen, and I'm not kidding you. About that time. What, two minutes after I said amen. Are you talking about rednecks blowing stuff up? Things started booming. Boom. You know, the earth shook.

Them rednecks up the hill, shot and started shooting tannerite. And they do that about once a week. And when that tannerite blew up, boy, the heavens descended. Here come the duck. I mean, the sky turned the ducks. I said, good night. I said, all right, boys, get down. So for the first time ever, the crazy rednecks out here actually helped out.

I actually paid off. Usually when they do that during duck season, it runs everything off. We don't like it when they do. That's right. But there's nothing we can do about it. It's their property. You can shoot tannerite. It's American.

So when that tannerite blew up, them ducks got up off that backwater. And the sky turned it up. And we raised up, Bob, Bob, Bob, Pop, Bob, Pop, Bob. Uncle Siles down there, four for three. Boom, boom, boom,

four for three. Oh, gee. Them green winged teal came at it, boy. He was right to the left up, and he goes, oh, this is what I've been waiting on. Oh, yeah.

He's been waiting on the Green Wing Till for 10 years. Yeah. He caught it the last day. On the Resurrection Hunt. The Resurrection Hut. The Resurrection Hut, that's right. So we piled up them green wings. I think we ended up with,

and it happened. It happened fast. I think we ended up with 25. So we had 35 for the day. I think we was seven shy of full limits. And boy, Uncle Syed looked down there. He said, boys, I shot 74 times. He brought three boxes and shells.

He had one shell left. Because it's been a good hunt, Matt. That's the ultimate night. All right. We only got a few minutes left, Matt. So I want to, you know, as you know, because you've listened to the podcast, we obviously it's a spiritual, biblical context. In the last few minutes we have here, give us a quick version of your testimony.

I mean, I know you had, you and I have talked a lot about it, kind of how you made some life change and kind of how that, what that's meant to. So I told you all beforehand, I was saved during my mother's first trimester with me. We went to church eight days a week. You know, I love her to death. And, you know, I'd come in in trouble and Daddy had met me with the belt and mama met me with the Bible. And this is actually my mother's Bible. And she gave this to my wife a few years ago. And it means probably if my house is burning, there's about three things I'm getting.

And this is one of them. That's why it's called Bible Belt. Yes. Yes. And the tear stains in this Bible are the reason I'm sitting here today because I joined the Army and got away from Mom and Dad in, you know, got away from this book and, you know, went into the world and came on from Iraq. And I thought to myself, well, if I made it out of that, I'm just going to live my life however I want to. And, you know, my wife and I were married. And about five years in our marriage, you know, she told me, she goes, I think you need to go somewhere else. And I went and, you know, slept on a couch and came home about a week later. And I said, well, you might not like me, but I think you love me still. And I said, we're going to work on this. I said, everybody, I know this guy in divorce,

said that they did everything they could, but they really didn't. I said, I'm going to. and for nine months we fought every day but I was going to church she wouldn't go to church with me you know I quit running around quit drinking quit going out I said I'm just going to be at home I'm going to study this and I'm going to pray

and about nine months after that she decided to start coming to church with me our life completely changed and if that wouldn't have happened I wouldn't be here today I was I was you know just living you know a horrible life and a life of sin and now the Lord is

when I came to nine line my pastor looked at me I said, I got two jobs. I said, there's one selling concrete and one selling T-shirts. I said, I don't know anything about T-shirts. I said, but I know a lot about concrete. I grew up around construction workers. Last night, I looked at my brother, and my brother was a big duck hunter.

I looked at him. I said, boy, I'm glad I didn't take that concrete job. And he said, and the pastor looked at him. He said, I don't know about this apparel thing. He said, but you ain't going there to sell T-shirts. He said, you're doing other things. And in that journey, I've sat in front of more celebrities and athletes than I would have ever thought in my life. And every time, some way, somehow I've been able to share

my relationship with Christ, the Word of God, with every one of them. And, you know, in my way, you know, I've sat down at, you know, at dinner tables and they go to order drinks. Everybody's ordering drinks. I'm ordering water. Why do you order water? That's my opening to be able to have that conversation. That's my ability to give my testimony. And because of that, you know, that's the reason I'm here is the reason my wife and I are in the situation that we're in now. And I was reading this morning sitting out here. I did a little prayer and a little bit of reading. And in Romans chapter 8, verse 18, I believe that this verse is great for anyone that's in the military dealing with PTSD, dealing with any struggles.

It says, and this is the new living version. It says, yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. So whoever is suffering right now in this, in whatever relationship you have or with PTSD or in your marriage or whatever, just remember that you can get through that and the glory that we will get on the other side. And here on earth, once you accept him, the joy and the peace and the love that you have is completely different than anything you'll ever experience. And that verse just really stood out to me this morning when I was reading. And it kind of hit me on that. That's good. And you're right, because we've got a lot of vets that listen to the podcast.

And I get a lot of emails from guys that struggle with just what you said. And the thing is, is I didn't go down into an altar at a church. Right. I was in the back of a potato chip truck working for Frito Lay in the parking lot of a dollar general in Statesbury, Georgia. And I fell on my knees. And I said, Lord, I can't do this alone. My marriage is falling apart. I'm falling apart.

I don't know what to do. You know, Romans chapter 7, on my chalkboard. And later on in here, because it's talking about it, even when I don't want to do sin, I continue to do it. But it says, oh, what a murder. And chapter 7, verse 24, oh, what a miserable person I am. Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?

And in verse 25, it says, thank God. The answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that is the answer to all problems. And every veteran that's out there, you know, no matter what you're struggling with, what you're dealing with. The answer is in Jesus Christ. Well, look, thank you, Matt and Jay for your service and all the, all our vets out there listening to us. Man, that was a quick, that was a quick podcast for us. So anytime you through,

Matt, always, we enjoy having you. So maybe we get you back on again sometime. Oh, absolutely. I didn't get to talk about Carmen alone. We thank you, guys. We really do for your service. We really do. We'll see you next time. We're unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. and don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes.

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