Mike Barker & Bo Sandoval - Intrepid Care / Texas A&M

In Episode 95 of the Big Tex Ordnance Podcast, hosts Ike and Chris welcome special guests Mike Barker, founder of Intrepid Care, and Bo Sandoval from Texas A&M Athletics. Join us for an inspiring conversation about supporting veterans through outdoor activities, sports, and community events. Learn about Intrepid Care's mission, upcoming fundraising events, and how you can get involved in making a difference in veterans' lives.

Find out more about Intrepid Care at https://intrepidcare.org/

Timeline of Key Points:

00:00:00 - Introduction and casual conversation about hunting experiences
00:05:00 - Mike Barker introduces himself and explains the origins of Intrepid Care
00:07:00 - Bo Sandoval introduces himself and his role at Texas A&M Athletics
00:08:00 - Discussion of various events and activities organized by Intrepid Care
00:15:00 - Explanation of Intrepid Care's mission and support for veterans
00:20:00 - Mike shares stories about hunting experiences with veterans
00:26:00 - Overview of different types of events organized by Intrepid Care
00:29:00 - Introduction of the upcoming USA sanctioned boxing event on October 19th
00:31:00 - Bo describes the venue for the boxing event (Hall of Champions at Kyle Field)
00:35:00 - Discussion of ticket prices and auction items for the fundraising event
00:39:00 - Detailed description of custom knives by Neil Kamimura for auction
00:43:00 - Mike talks about the growth of Intrepid Care and future fundraising ideas
00:48:00 - Conversation about archery and upcoming Total Archery Challenge
00:51:00 - Brief discussion about Garmin chronographs and their usefulness
00:52:00 - Information on how to find and support Intrepid Care
00:54:00 - Closing remarks and podcast information

Find out more about Big Tex Ordnance at bigtexordnance.com

Transcript

0:01

Yeah, I've been looking at him out of the tree and he's man, you could tell, I couldn't tell if this thing was just waiting to pounce on me or if it was scared and he's I couldn't tell if it was just a gnarly look eye to eye with this thing. I think if I remember him I think it was about a 30 yard shot out of a tree, put it right in his heart, dumped him, but he's massive cat, really big cat. If you see, you can Google the photo. You do a lot of stuff down around San Antonio I figure, huh? Mostly like South Texas, Texas based, Texas primarily, but like we, we have stuff in Florida. We've done hunts in Nebraska and Colorado, Oklahoma, Louisiana. Like we're out there. Air rifle, Iguana hunt. We can make it happen. Let's do it. Let's do it. Python Cowboy. Yeah. Mike he's a buddy of mine. Really? Yeah. We shot a PRS event together for SIG up in Wyoming a few years ago and he was on my team and I was like, why do they call you Python Cowboy? He's shows me his Instagram. He's a nut. I said, we should have named our thing make a wish veteran edition or something. If you can think it and dream it up I'm like, all right, let's figure that shit out. Cause we can probably do it. Yeah. There's a couple of different things that are on my check the block, like that I wanted to do. What was it? Jack was doing in Louisiana. Nutria. Yeah. They were in airboats with full auto suppressed ARs. I was like, I was about to say that was my childhood. We definitely didn't have full auto suppressed ARs. We had like air guns and slingshots and gigs and yeah. That's a Luke. Luke's been trying to get me to go up to Colorado to do the the mountain lion hunt with dogs. Oh man. That's on my list. That's on my list too. It's up there. Yeah. Is that a, I've never thought about it and I've never actually been a place where they actually have hunting seasons, but are they, is that to the point where they're hunting them with dogs now? Oh yeah. Yeah. And some of them, that's, there's a lineage to it. And there's like generations of families that raise the dogs and do the lion hunting other predators too. But, and there's a whole industry for it. Those ranchers. Contract them out to come and basically take care of all the predation so they can run livestock. And there's a group called blood origins that actually just did a really cool documentary on it because they're trying to outlaw lion hunting in certain states. You can guess who's trying to do that, but man, the documentary is amazing. You can, they have a YouTube channel, blood origins, and man, you hear the stories from some of those Cowboys that have been raising those dogs for three, four generations. And it's more about the dogs to them than the lion hunting. They just happened to trap a lion every now and then, every now and then they happen to kill a lion, but it's really about the dogs. It's pretty, pretty cool. I'm putting that on my list to watch now. I'm texting myself that. Yeah. Yeah. NFL player played for the Broncos. Derek Wolf. Yes, he did. He got a lot of backlash when he posted it on social media about lion hunting. He killed a monster line. He's six, six. He probably walks around two 80 to 90 right now. And he's holding this thing and a bear hug and it's feeder on the ground. And it was nasty looking. He told me a story about it. We were at an event in Montana, 40 of ours that has a bladesmith. He had a grand opening and so I was like, man, I want to hear the story of this lion hunt and And when you hear him talk about the legend, they heard about this lion before they even got up there. His buddy just called in and goes, Hey man, got some dogs. You want to go lion hunting? He's yeah, let's do it. And he runs a podcast in Denver sports slash outdoors kind of thing. And he actually was late getting to work cause he was driving down off the mountain. Then when he got there, this one, they were like, what have you been doing? Are you running late? And he's out of breath. And he's man, I just, we just went on this lion hunt and he starts talking about it. They were like, chill out, cause they didn't know if all their viewership was into that. Yeah. But he said when they got there, they're poking around this town, small town in the mountains and it's before dark. And he could see like a guy on this front on this like wooden, I don't know, log cabin looking out his window at him and he was like, Oh, and so he was trying to peacefully just put his hands up. And so the guy opens the door. He's y'all here for the lion? And he was like yeah. And we saw some tracks out here. He was like, man, I thought that was the lion walking around on my porch. He's I'm glad it was you. They was like, what? And he's man, this thing is big and he'll come up underneath my porch and people's dogs and cats are missing. And so then they've worked their way through this town and track this thing, trailed it up into these foothills and they ended up tree in it. He's got a great picture right before he shot it with his bow of it looking at him. Yeah. I've been looking at him out of the tree and he's man, you could tell, I couldn't tell if this thing was just waiting to pounce on me or if it was scared. He's I couldn't tell if it was just a gnarly look. Eye to eye with this thing, but I think if I remember him I think it was about a 30 yard shot out of a tree. Put it right in his heart and dumped him. But he is massive cat, really big cat. If you see, you can google the photo. It's, yeah, you have to check it out. Check it out. I got a whole list of things to do. It's big. Anyways, we gotta get an intro. We gotta get an intro here. So yeah, welcome to the BTO podcast where we talk about everything. No, that that's pretty. We got some homework to do now on some awesome things. Anyways, I'm Ike, we have Chris here and our guests today are Mike from Intrepid Care and Beau, and he works at some small little college that's down the road called Texas A& M. In the athletics department over there doing a lot of, a handful of things over there, but so guys, thanks for coming down and tell us a little bit about. Yeah. My name is Mike Barker. I'm a eight year army veteran. I was a combat medic for eight years. I worked physical therapy at brook army medical center and the center for the intrepid for 14 years rehabbing critically wounded service members from battlefield injuries. And just became a way of wanting to give back and help people. So I've been in the Non profit space for a long time, helping vets and just continue to want to do that. And we started intrepid care last November after one of our service members have passed away. Her name was Jules Gattaca. She's a Marine Corps veteran died in a car accident and her her. Dream was to start out her own organization and continue to help service members. So I worked with the family and created intrepid care and we're been off and running now almost for a year now and just creating some events and helping veterans and just doing doing what we can to give back. I love hearing it every time. Yeah most hand of all, I I'm an assistant athletics director at Texas A& M currently in the strength and conditioning department. I've been a strength coach for about 24 years now, so I've got a little bit of mileage, some different places along the way. The Olympic training center, the university of Michigan. The UFC in Vegas and then now in Texas, which has been nice in Texas. It's a lot closer to family for us. So to not have to buy four plane tickets every time you want to go see family and just jump in the car and go down the road. That's been a blessing that we just didn't know we were missing. And yeah, Aggieland has been good to us. Obviously a lot of demand to be successful down there. We've got a lot of programs. 16 programs that are trending very well right now. It's been fun to be a part of that. And I've interacted with a handful of veteran groups, nonprofit groups over the years with events, just a lot of times connecting athletes with vets and trying to provide them with a wow experience as. Groups just like Mike's are putting together events and things like that for him. It was actually a former fighter. He used to work with and introduced me to Mike. He's man, you're in college station. You got to meet Mike Barker. He's down there quite a bit. So he told me a little bit about his organization. And so first chance he got, Corey was down there pig hunting with him. And he's Hey, you want to come watch them stab some pigs with a knife? And I was like, what? Like I thought you were like rifle hunting. He's no man. I walk up and poke him with a knife. I'm like, yeah, I got to see it. So I went down, met Mike and some of his crew and they actually had some vets there at the time. So they were in the middle of it, man. They were running an event. Super cool to see, hear those guys kind of John with each other and just have it's deer camp, but also. A unique group of individuals that have a thing in common with their history and their work history. So that was cool to see and mike was like, man, I want to get your contact and be cool to link up on some stuff. And so he reached out a little while later and was starting to cook up this idea about a combat sport event And I've spent about 15 of my career years around combat sports, wrestling, boxing, and MMA. And so yeah, what can I do to help? So here we are. Yeah. And, fortunately along the way too, I've met a bunch of fighters and have a great relationship with a bunch and he knows a lot of the same guys. So just, we have a. A lot of the same mutual friends and just like, how can we work together to, build something to to create and further give back. And if you haven't already figured out, if you're listening to the podcast you're both avid outdoorsman, right? Both. Is that a little, is that a little spiel before the, is that going to get air? Because yeah, it's a good, it's a good. That's a good hook, right? Yeah. It's a good hook for sure. If I could find a way to make a living in the outdoors, I would be, I'm just not good enough and I'm not, I don't shoot, I don't shoot good enough. I don't kill big enough animals, but if I could buddy, I would. Yeah. So talk about your challenge you're doing right now. Shoot to eat. Yeah. There's a, actually there's a company I've done a lot of business with building weight rooms over the years. Sorenex shout out to Bert Soren and his crew over in South Carolina. But a few years ago, he built a branch onto their brand called Soarnex Outdoors. Cause he knew a lot of his clientele, a lot of his colleagues are avid outdoorsman from all over all walks of life from spot and stock hunters out West to tree stand hunters down South and out in the Midwest and started running an event every year called Soarnex Summer or Winter Strong. And it's in February every year. So it's cold. It's in the middle of South Carolina and we go and we pitch tents and there's 500 of us that. Play boy scout over the weekend and they run events. We do marksmanship events. We do we knife forge, we we go jump in cold lakes, we do fishing tutorials, all kinds of stuff related to the outdoors, how to build fire with primitive tools and anyhow, and there's always, subject matter experts from all over that come in and speak on those things. But after that, a couple of years started noticing a large contingency of the folks that attend or archers. And so archery hunters and. Some competitive archers, traditional archers, along with the compound guys. Not that we frown upon crossbows, but we don't really get those there. It's mostly compound and traditional, but so Bert cooked up this idea last year. He's Hey, we're moving into whitetail season. What have we had? They've got a pretty good social media followings. He's what if we get on and we do this little thing, we'll call it shoot to eat and basically you get up in the morning, cold bore, you can have a drink of water, but nothing else. Out of bed, you take a shot, pick your distance. If you hit it, you get to eat breakfast. If you don't hit it, you don't get to eat breakfast. So basically if you miss and famish, and and so the rule is that if you hit the next morning, when you get up, You got to back up a yard. You do it again next morning, back up a yard. So it's 15 days long. So you should be 15 yards deeper than what you started at. Of course, people put all kinds of spins on it and tweak around. I shoot in my backyard a lot and I got, I had 22 yards as far as I can go. So what I started doing they pass out these Soren X outdoors targets, their stickers, you just stick them on your target. So what I started doing last year, since I couldn't max out my distance, I just started cutting this target down. So I would take a half inch off every time. So it ended up, it started about a little smaller than a pie plate and it ended up about the size of a dime. And so I missed a couple of breakfasts, but what it does is man, it really, it's fun and you're interacting with guys. Cause as soon as you take, you film it, you're posting it and there's hundreds of people posting on this. So you've seen how everybody's doing it and where they're shooting. And it was cool because it adds a different layer of pressure of focusing on your shot process. Once you miss breakfast a couple of times and you're going to work, you're going to take care of your kids or whatever. You're like, dude, I don't want to miss breakfast. I'm a grumpy bastard if I miss breakfast. So it just makes you dial in and focus your shot process, which we thought would be a really cool event leading right into white tail season. Just get people dialed in and treat it more like a competition. Oh yeah. Yeah. Versus going out there blowing arrows and wounding animals. And, this year has been interesting because Brian trainer, who's a good friend, he's the throwing world, he had his time where he was at the, he was the cream of the crop as a thrower and was, I can't remember if Brian qualified for, I know he threw it a couple of Olympic trials. I don't want to quote wrong, but anyhow. Great dude, big outdoorsman. I still got to get out to Colorado to go elk hunt with him. But he messaged me and says, Hey man, for shoot to eat this year. How about this? How about we trade? I shoot. If I hit, you get to eat. If I miss, you don't get to eat. And same for you. If you shoot, if you miss, I don't get to eat. So we're swapping that way. That's a little different. Now you're like, you don't want to let your buddy down, not to eat breakfast. So that was cool. Cause I shot yesterday and this morning, and it adds a different little. of pressure, but yeah, so shout out to soar next outdoors for putting that on. It definitely brings a bunch of guys and girls together on, on social media and we see each other and jockey and talk shit back and forth too. But then ultimately we're all just getting ready for whitetail season, which we're really excited about. So coming up, it's coming up. Did you eat breakfast this morning? I did. Fantastic. Brian smoked one. He started farther than me. So what distance was that, where are you out or is he I started at 18, I think Brian started at 45 or 50, but he's in Colorado. He's got a good stretch out. There's Awesome. And those western guys are used to those longer. Wow. That's a lovely. My buddies will definitely shit on me. If I had the room I would have to start at least 40. They'll shit on me for starting at 18, but that's all I get in my backyard. Yeah, that's good. So I'll have to start getting creative. Once I max out to my 22 yards, I'll start kneeling. I'll sit down on my butt. You got to make it difficult somehow. So back to the focus. That's that was really cool. You were talking about that in the warehouse. I was like, I got to get that into the podcast. So Mike, what does intrepid care do? Like deep dive into it a little bit for me. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So intrepid care, we provide programs for veterans, service members, first responders, and their family members. Basically sports outdoors, recreation, getting people out of the house, enjoying life again, reintegrating back into society. And it's open to active duty national guard reservists honorably discharged veterans of any branch, any service, regardless of how you served. Because I really feel like the most underserved community is the non deployed service member who Never got injured in combat. Like those people just flap out there in the wind, right? There's things for purple heart recipients. There's things for combat wounded guys. There's things for, amputees and there's things, multitude of people who. Okay. Have willingly, gone and sacrificed a lot for our country and are totally in to whatever they're receiving. I'm glad there's programs specifically for those people that that serve that way, but then there's a whole group of people who either served in combat or didn't ever deploy that. There's really nothing for them other than their VA, healthcare. That's, as we all know, is less than stellar. So trying to really just include those people it's really just an inclusive organization is really all it is. And provides for those folks as well, that may not have those kinds of opportunities to, to do some of the things that they want to be able to do too, through, through the activities that we provide. We've got. done a little bit of financial assistance too, because, one of the most asked things that I get asked is Hey man, like I'm short on my car payment or a man like, you rinse through this month and I don't have it. So where do I go? And it's I know these organizations, they reach out to them and they're like I don't qualify because I'm this, or I don't qualify for this. Because I'm that, or I haven't got my eviction notice yet. It's like, why are we waiting to give somebody an eviction notice to help them out when we can just help them out now? If we're going to help them out anyway, why not just help them out? We've done some of that kind of stuff too, where, you know, just one of the things, and obviously the economy that we're in right now and jobs and things for veterans, just it's not that great for, Everyone out there in the community. So we just try to be that beacon of light of, Hey man, I may not be able to help you, but I'm going to try to find that help for you as well. Man, I spent a lot of time on the phone. That's what Bo asked me on the way here too, man. He's like, how many miles you put on your a week? And I'm like a lot, and it's just meeting with veterans, finding out where they're at and how we can be. Somewhat of a an assistance, whether it's us physically helping them like we've helped people move out of their house. Like we've helped we helped a guy that that did get evicted. His, all of his stuff was in his garage and we went and packed it up on a trailer and move it to a storage unit for him, but he wasn't physically able to do it himself. He was a older veteran and four or five of us went over there and. Packed up his whole garage and moved it to a storage unit for him. Just little things like that, that, you don't think are big things, for someone who's in that situation that has no capability of doing something like that, that could be, the difference between someone making a poor decision. And that's really what we try to do, man, is just to be there as a As an advocate for veterans that so they don't make a poor decision, the temporary problems in making the longterm solution just that's always been my motive is to be that right. Be that guy. You can always call if if you need someone to reach out to and speak. And I've been to veterans house where they've had the gun on the couch and I was the first one through the door, and. I could have walked in on a suicide or, I got there before the cops got there and they took the pistol with them, like I, I've been that guy. I've taken a guy down from hanging himself, it's just, when you build those types of relationships with veterans before a lot of other people know that a bad decision is about to happen. So yeah, that's just, it's just been my my calling for whatever reason, I don't know why God chose me, but man, it's sometimes it's a heavy ruck to carry to trying to be that guy for a lot of people. So let's talk about, how'd you come up with the name? Like we heard a little bit about the. Foundation story. Yeah. So I worked at the center for the intrepid. Intrepid is the name intrepid is brave in the face of danger. And all of the people that were wounded during service their time overseas, they come back to the center for the intrepid. And I worked there for 14 years, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, not only on my side. And I think that's where Bo and I relate a lot to, being the trainer side for high level athletes. I was the therapist for a bunch of high level. Athletes that were in the military, cause they're very similar. The job is very similar, climbing ladders up and down, running on and off trucks, you guys know as well, it's when you're down range it's like you're an athlete, just a highly trained one with. Hopefully with a rifle and so being that in that role where you're the guy who's responsible for putting someone back together and I just I really loved that that time that I spent there and I wanted to pay tribute to those that I served and and treated by incorporating intrepid into it. Cause you know brave in the face of danger and then providing care, so I was a combat medic. I want to be able to provide care and I do this because I care, and that's what I wanted people to understand too, is I could go get a job doing physical therapy at a retirement home or outpatient orthopedic clinic, or, do something different. But I really help veterans because ultimately it's because I care, I care about making a difference in the lives of the, of not only for them, but for their families as well. Fantastic. I appreciate it. Yeah, for sure, man. That's a, it's a labor of love, man. I tell people all the time, man, like I literally do this because I love doing it. There's, just being in the outdoors, I love doing that too. But ultimately I do the outdoors. I never grew up hunting. Like I never hunted until I was. Out of the military. And I think I was 35, 36 and someone invited me as a veteran on a turkey hunt. And I was like, I've never been hunted before in my life. I don't know. I don't even know what to do. And they're just like, just show up, we got a shotgun sitting the blind with us and I'm like, all right I have no idea what I'm doing, but if you can lead me to the water, I can pull the trigger, so I went on my first turkey hunt. And from there I was like, man, this is pretty cool. Then, I was like this would be cool to Have other people go do, and then started taking some veterans on some hunts. And there's a lot of veterans that can't shoot. I found that out too. It's just being there with a veteran when they shoot their first animal, they've never been hunting before, man. Like I'm more excited than they are. And I'm just like, man this is awesome. There's just the highs of, and then obviously like when you're sitting in the blind with a vet man, like that one on one time that you get, like slowly those walls start getting broken down and they're feeling more comfortable, it's just like the campfire, the. The I forget what you called it, the hunt camp, hunting camp, that hunting camp environment where, you get to be a dude and you just get to be out in the outdoors. But I think that time in the blind sometimes, man, it's just that time where, you know, man, I've feel comfortable sharing some of my struggle, and, and a lot of times too, like I. I share my struggle with a veteran, so they feel comfortable sharing their story, their struggle with me. So we, just, and we have a, granted I'm the guy, but at the same time, like we have a bunch of other veterans that pour into this thing too, and give their time and give their talents that they have. And, obviously folks like Bo and Corey Anderson, who introduced us to, Us to get each other and, a whole bunch of people that are behind this thing and pouring into it to to make it successful. But you get in that blind and you really just start breaking that wall down. And you find out a lot of the things that are the struggle, right? Hey man, like I've got post traumatic stress. My wife just left me, I got two kids, I just lost my job. I don't know how I'm going to make ends meet. And it's those things don't come up. If you don't have that one on one time and you have that, time where you've broken down some of those walls where, I'm willing to share that struggle now, and now I'm ready to get help. And that's, to me, that's the part as a veteran community, when a veteran finally gets to the point where they're willing to share the struggle. And you're not there to help them. That's where, because that time leading up to sharing, whatever it is, whatever that, if it's. Times we spent down range, if it's wife, kids, job, whatever the stress is that is going on, if if someone shares that and no one's there to help them, that's where bad decisions, I feel like it made. And just try to be that guy that sit and listen and be that That's what I do. That resource, basically I feel like I'm just a resource for a lot of vets that I know the answer, but I'll go look at, I'll go find it, like just know that, you can always call me and I'll pick up, so cool, man. Really cool. What's one of the. Speaking of cool stuff. I know we were talking about some hunting stories earlier. What's your favorite hunt so far, man? I you know, I'm a hunt to eat kind of guy, right? So like I you know, you have cool trophies on the wall. They look cool and all that, you know It's always a nice reminder, but man my favorite hunt probably was an oryx hunt that I did with another vet. He he wanted to come down and brought, we brought them down from Louisiana and man, we tried to get this. I don't know if you ever shot an oryx scimitar horn oryx. Very skittish. Very skittish. But then at the same time, like trying to. You Decipher between male and female is very difficult because basically it's just like a little button on their belly, which they both have horns, so just try to decipher which one to shoot. And yeah we hunted for three or four days long, like long hours trying to find the right one. And finally he got it, man. And that was not only from just the standpoint of the hunt and just that time with him. But then at the same time, man, just some Oryx meat is just phenomenal. It was just oryx steaks and ground meat and it's just, it was so good to eat. Yeah, that was probably one of my favorite ones. And then we do this annual dog and knife hunt, which I think I've told you about and you're going to come hopefully in January if you're available but yeah, we do a dog and knife hunt. So I don't know. We probably had what, 15, 16 veterans all on side by sides driving around the Caraba ranch up in college. Station. And man, we, we dropped the dogs early in the morning and start chasing hogs with dogs and chase them into the bush and put them down and stab them right in the heart. And it's literally the adrenaline of that hunt, man, your heart, your hearts is racing and, takes you back a little bit, a little bit of a deployed environment, nobody's shooting at you, but get your heart racing a little bit, that this is every one of those guys that came out with a bloody knife. They were noticeably like swollen up. Shaken. Yeah. Right when they get back to the crack of beer or light a cigar, like it was just like how was it? How was it? Man, I didn't expect it to be that intense. Like it was a pretty big, generally dump, oh, big time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't think so until you're. Actually, the one running towards the hog and then you walk in and then two guys have hands on it. It's chaos. You got one dog's got an ear, another one's got a leg, and they're just you walking into the hogs laying down, squealing, like, and you just, and it's intense. It is, man. It's not for the faint of heart. That's for sure. Yeah. It's a, it's awesome. If you do it in August, when it was 120, it would definitely be a combat experience. It would be bringing back full battle rattle, 110 degrees. Yeah. It's January. Yeah. A little smarter. Yeah. That's one great thing about doing your own thing is you can plan better than the military. We, we definitely enjoy the planning. We turn off our Outdoor training calendar, about the second week of May here in Texas. Yeah, you made up September, you got to get me out of state. You got to travel somewhere or do an indoor range or I'm not. Yeah, I've done that before. I'll go to, I'll go to, I'll go to New Hampshire in August and do it. They're like, Oh, it's 85 here. I'm like, there. Yeah. Yeah. We do all kinds of crazy hunts though, man. Like right now, even like today, we've got two vets going up to Louisiana to do a a thermal coyote hunt. Oh, nice. They start at 10, 10 PM at night and go to two, three, four in the morning. And that's it. Chase coyotes with thermals and suppressors and, try to shoot three or four. And we just, we do all kinds of crazy stuff that it's just this is really cool shit and it's really fun, and it's you're out there doing it with another vet, so now you're bonding and building that relationship and it's man, we just, we have some great supporters. Yeah. I think earlier you said it's make a wish for better. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I said, man. You dream it up, man. I'll try to figure out how to do it. Air rifles for iguanas, if you can, we definitely got to get you in contact with Mike down there. He, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we can make that happen. What other kind of events are, sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, and then you guys have actually taken them to sporting events as well, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like we've done UFC fights, baseball games, basketball games. Just getting out of the house, like even actually, I was driving here on the way. Somebody was like, Hey, I've got two tickets tonight to the, Suicide boys concert. I want you to send two, two veterans too. Concerts, entertainment, just something to get out of the house with either another vet or a loved one or a family member and just have that time, it's at that time that you don't have the kids and it's just can be the husband and wife or, something like we, we sent two vets to the big three basketball game in San Antonio And this guy took his kid, and he's man, my kid had the greatest time just watching old basketball players, play three on three basketball. And just that sometimes that time that you have, you don't think about, but then when you're in that moment, you're like, man, like this is valuable. Yeah. And so we just try to create that, it's fun getting out to a sport and event like that. Even if you're. Yeah. Even if you're not, I've been to, a dozen, two dozen Astros games. I'm not the biggest baseball fan. Like I have to like, who's that? Okay. I've heard of him, but a lot of the times, back in the day when I was in, I would come down and my wife's boss had season tickets to the Astros and it was like, like really good, like right behind the Astros dug out three or four rows back. Oh, dang. And yeah, it was good. Good seats. But he would look, Hey, is Chris coming to town this weekend? She's yeah. He's Hey, I'm not going to take my seats for sure. And that was cool to be able to go and experience it. We've done a lot of UFC fights. Justin Gage, he's a good friend and supporter. And we've been to quite a few of his fights. And if you've never been to a live UFC fight, you got to go. Cause there's literally no sporting event that I've ever been to. I've never been to the Superbowl. I can imagine the Superbowl is probably the same, but man, there's just an electricity inside of a UFC event. Live, especially when Justin fights, they know how to put on an event. I'm telling you, like it is, I've been to ones where he hasn't fought too, and it's just as good. So whatever they're doing, it makes sense. And it works because it's literally the best live sporting events that I've ever been to. So go ahead. Nope. After you, I was going to say, speaking of UFC fights and sporting events like that, y'all have a, an event coming up there in college station here in a couple of months. Yeah. October the 19th. Yeah. We're doing a USA sanctioned boxing fight, amateur boxing. And it's at the hall of champions at Kyle field, which is, right there in Aggieland. Right there in Aggieland where Bo works. And yeah it's going to be a great time. We'll have, it's a tabled event, private events where you can come out and bring some buddies and watch some fights and support some vets. And we'll have some live auction items and some raffles and just different ways to support. But, this is our first one that we've ever done of, it's an actual full on fighting event that we're putting on. So it's it's really awesome. And this is to raise money for, Yep, for TrevorCare. Yeah, it's a fundraiser for the organization for us to be able to provide more opportunities for veterans and service members and their families. And we added a first responders as well, just cause we're very big on, just because you don't go down range doesn't mean you can't be serving your community. So we wanted to offer things to that community as well. I think it should be a fun one. Sounds like it. Yeah. Yeah. For boxing. Tell us a little bit about the hall. Ford Hall of Champions is it's a, basically a giant expo area that's down on the ground floor of the stadium. But A& M, we use it athletics for anything from all staff meetings to galas to dinners. And it's an awesome space. It's shaped like a big football. It's got some incredible ambiance, tall ceilings the, how we're going to be able to do production and the walkouts and the ring and everything. It's going to be a cool, very intimate setting. So when you hear fans that go to a fighting event, Typically, like it's a very different experience sitting on the floor versus sitting up in the nosebleeds. And we almost have that offered all the way around the ring is a, almost a ringside experience, even if you are back a little bit, just because it's such a tight little spot. I remember there was an event that we hosted I think it was at the palms theater. It was a smaller fight card, but. Israel Adesanya was on that card fighting Brad Tavares. And this is when Izzy was still making his rise in the UFC. And but this little arena was tight. We even had to put up a smaller cage. A typical cage is 30 by 30. And this one was 25 by 25, but the fans were right on top of it everywhere. There wasn't a bad seat in the place. The Ford hall of champions reminds me of that because it really puts you into it. When you think about amateur boxing too, a lot of these are strong up and comers that are, they're vying for. Increasing their improving their position in the rankings and things along those lines. Their families and their small supports of their cornermen and things like that, it's going to be a really cool environment for them. Cause it's going to feel big. It's going to feel like a, they're at Madison square garden, just because it's going to be tight. We're going to provide a lot of energy. A lot of the folks that are going to be there are going to want to be there. One, because they're a fight fan, but also they're highly passionate about supporting intrepid care. So it's we're looking forward to be bad ass. Sounds like a pretty exciting event. I can't wait, man. Yeah, I keep checking off the days to, to get there. So it's coming. How many do you have any fights are scheduled on that? I think there was like 30, 30, just because they are shorter fights. Like some of them are three, one minute round fights. You can do quite a few fights there. Yeah, I think there was around 30 total fights, just depending on how many guys are ready to fight at that time. And, we have Windy City Boxing or Windy Boxing Club is helping us get the fighters together. It's a local boxing and MMA gym there in College Station as well. That is helping coordinate the fights and all that kind of stuff while we put the whole event together. But they're helping with the the card. And so they're getting the fighters together and. Hopefully we'll see some knockouts, that's imagine that's a pretty big undertaking trying to coordinate 60 people's different schedules, like I'll try. I've never even looked into setting up a fight, but just like thinking the logistics side on the back end, it's got to be pretty intensive. It's the whole putting the whole thing together is quite the ordeal. We've had two or three meetings at a and M already and walk the space and taking measurements and, trying to figure out all of the. But yeah, it's that's pretty cool that they're letting you all use that venue, like that's gotta be, I was going to say, Mike is also very good at getting in touch with super key people that have talents in certain areas. And so some of our supporters for this event I was amazed at how quick of a phone call it was for them to get. us access into the Fort hall of champions, because that's not, that's way outside my wheelhouse. But and then how much, how supportive each of them are. So while it is tedious putting all those pieces together, he's got three or four counterparts that kind of have some areas on lockdown and it was like, Oh, you need this. All right, I gotcha. I got a, production guy, Oh, you need that. Oh, I got an audio guy. Oh, I need food. Okay. Yeah. We. So that has been pretty cool to watch that just blow up in front of you. How many seats are you feeling? I think we have the opportunity, it's like 800 to 900, 800 to 900. I think just there's a, obviously I think there's 74 tables of 10 and eight, eight. And then there's 250 kind of standing room only there. So there's a second level in the Ford Hall of champions where it's like a standing room only. So you're actually looking, like I said, it's shaped like a football, so you're wrapped around the ring. Yeah. And you're you're looking right down into the action too. I think those are actually gonna be pretty good. See, that sounds like a pretty cool seat there. Yeah. Yeah. So it's and then, if you wanna sit at a table with your buddies and we're gonna be doing some gifts and things that the, obviously they're paying a nice price for those tables. But there's some goodies on the table there as well. And some people wanna be right there feeling sweat hit 'em Yeah. And stuff yeah. Yeah, if if anybody wants to support or get a table or, get a ticket and, they can always reach out to us and we can help steer them in the right direction. Mike's already begun posting flyers and showing we'll be pushing that more too on, on social media and along with some of the auction items that are going up as well. And just to try to. Buzz some energy around to get folks interested. Can y'all, yeah you're meeting here on the same track today, bro. So go ahead and ask the question. Can y'all talk a little bit about like maybe some of the auction items or pricing, or do you know how top of your head or for we can direct you. We can direct them to the website too, if that's okay. No, there's different packages, obviously for for tables. If you want to be ringside, it's 10, 000 for a ringside table, but at the same time you get a lot of swag and, we're doing some custom items for those folks and some different different. Branded type of things for that. And then obviously it tears down 5, 000, 2, 500, a thousand. So for a thousand bucks to get in the door with eight of your buddies you know, pretty affordable deal for, and then obviously the funds are going to help and raise money and but at the same time, you're getting to see a bunch of live boxing action up close and personal. And it's a really cool venue and and support a great group for it. Yeah. Really good cause. Yeah. So that, that's the table pricing. And then I think we did a hundred bucks a ticket for standing room only. If you want to do just stand up there and watch fights, a hundred bucks. And then I know we've got a trip to Africa African safari hunt donated already and working on some other items, I think yeah, we've got a custom hand forged. Knife from Neil Kamimura out in Kamimura blacksmith out in Hawaii. Yeah. You were telling me about him the last time you were here. So yeah, he's talk about that. That's that's cool. Neil, you have to look Neil up. I definitely can't tell his story in this podcast. It'd take us three days, but extraordinary blacksmith. He's a He's a Japanese Hawaiian. His grandfather was a bladesmith, blacksmith. And he didn't find it until later in his life. He was having his own struggles and things. And someone gave him an old anvil that had belonged to his grandfather. And had an old, actually original sign that hung on his shop in Kona. Or on the Big Island. That said Kamimura Blacksmith. And it just inspired him. He's I need to figure this out. And so started beating on metal. Now he had done a lot of metal fabrication with motorcycles and custom cars and stuff before. So definitely mechanically inclined. But once he found that he just took off and I want to say within, it was short within his first year, he got invited to go on to forge and fire. And one, the whole damn thing. And then they invited him back for their circle of champions. He started making more custom knives. He's really well known for his chef knives. His chef knives are purchased by some top tier culinary experts all over. He just did a show with with Gordon Ramsey not too long ago. He's been all over the place now, but anyhow, he he makes knives with Zach Brown. He's got a, he's got a custom line. He does with I think it's called Southern grind is Zach Brown's brand of cutlery, but he does make some hunter knives. He makes some, he makes, dude, he makes some amazing. Swords, you're going to wait a while if you order a sword from it, but it's all hand forged. The guy puts 120, 130 hours into some of these pieces. But they are not only aesthetically just amazing and beautiful, durable. He's known for durability. If he makes you something that's not going to break, it's going to cut the shit out of something. And he makes cleavers. He does all kinds of, they've got all the different styles of kitchen knives. I'll butcher all the names, but I know chef knife. But yeah, between the pairing knives and he's making a, he's made filet knives, but check him out. It's really cool. It's cool where he's at because the handle material that he gets, he's getting these ancient Kona trees that are there and they've got a mill right there on the farm and they're milling this stuff out and then they're going in there. Heat treating it, pressurizing it. And when you look at some of the handles he puts on these things, it blows your mind. You're like, that's wood. No way. That's wood. And he'll layer in different like bead materials or different bone materials. He has done some bone handle. Now he makes a lot of knives for Jason Momoa and a lot of his like film knives and things like that. So yeah, really interesting guy. Interesting background as a fabricator. But then also he's just an amazing artist when it comes to making really sharp stuff, a little slice. Yeah that's what I was going to say. That's they're literally like works of art and they also are really sharp. And he tells me when I buy a knife off of him, he's bro, okay, I know you think it's pretty, whatever you use the thing, get it bloody, get it patina. Let it do what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to age like whiskey, let it do its thing. And but his knives are amazing. And so to get your hands on one of those, which is tough. If you just call and you try to custom order your average wait time is about a year for him. And then he does do knife drops, so he'll make small batches and drop them. They sell out in 35 seconds. So it's good luck. He'll give an announcement on his newsletter. Hey, I'm making a drop and he'll drop five knives and they're gone less than 30 seconds. It's pretty cool to be able to auction an item like that off. We know it'll draw there's some knife junkies out there and collectors. He does a lot of shows in Texas as well. He comes out to blade show and does a lot down here. I know he collaborates with a couple of good leather guys down here as well on sheaths and things like that. He loves Texas. So when I asked him about it, he was like, Yeah. I'm really nervous about asking him stuff because he's the dude's busy. He's up to his neck and requests and things because it had to do with this cause because it had this affiliation with the veteran community. I knew it was worthwhile to mention it to him and he jumped all over it and he's really excited about it. Yeah. So we'll have one of those custom knives there for sure. We're slowly gathering some other items, and then we'll see. Bit high, bit often. That's what I always say. Yeah. The folks down at Bravo concealment. And I think they're in San Antonio. They threw out a bunch of gift cards for, holsters and accessories and all kinds of stuff. So they're really, we just mentioned it. It's been great. People are just like, yeah, let me see what I can do to help. They liked the idea of the fight event. They love his organization. Every since they started looking it up, they're like, yeah, what do you need? So that, that has been really. So it'll be really cool when we see that place filled up and everybody's going to anticipate in the first punch. And this is your first big fundraiser like this for sure. Yeah. First one. And hopefully first of many, cause we want to make this an annual event. And, we do other ones to golf tournaments and, just other things to raise money. We've working with one of our guys in Florida he's doing like a volleyball tournament, just different ways to use sports outdoors, recreation activity to raise money, but then to turn that money back into programming for veterans. Yeah, it's just getting it rocking and rolling. So it's and only you're a little over a year old now, huh? We'll be a year in November and November 16th. So congratulations. Yeah. It's a pretty rapid growth there. Like it seems like it's, you know, fortunately in some walks of life you run into a lot of good people and you meet a lot of the people that really have a heart for veterans and want to do good things. And I've been fortunate to run into a bunch of those. Yeah. Just people that really want to pour into making this thing successful. And, sometimes it's not who, but, or what, but who, and fortunately I know a lot of good folks that have have a lot of passion for this. How many people do you have affiliated with your organization right now? There's probably like day to day people that are actively putting in time to either help veterans or programming or fundraising and all of that. There's probably 75 to a hundred people that are behind this thing, trying to try to make it grow. And it, obviously we're San Antonio based, based in Texas, but we do things across the country, planning things across the country and, Corey Anderson wants to do a golf tournament in Illinois, so it's like, all right Corey Anderson, who's currently the Bellator light heavyweight champion, wants to do a fundraiser in Illinois. Figure out how to do a fundraiser in Illinois. So that's the thing is people were like, Hey man I want to be a part of this, CJ Vergara who fights in the UFC right now, he fights out of San Antonio. He's man it's I don't really know anything about golf, but he's like, I play a lot of poker and I know a lot of people that play poker, he's like, why don't we do a. A poker tournament in my name and, make it a fundraiser. And I'm like, yes, let's do that. So I was literally people just come up with ideas and I'm like, all right, man, let's run with it. It's if that's your passion and that's your, what you like to do, then why not? If you know the people and we can put it together and raise a little money to help veterans, let's do it. It's just all kinds of stuff. Ideas. Boy, I'm thinking like 3d archery tournament. Yeah, for sure. We'll see. Luke wants to do something like that. Yeah. Yeah. He's been peer pressure you the whole day about because he's got it. He's heared up now. So he's had someone incredible show him how to shoot it. And it's yeah, so we just got to nudge him a little. Here's the backstory on that. I'm a very avid. Texas hunter emphasis on Texas drive to the blind, sit in the blind, wait for the animal to come to the feeder, shoot it. It's just that's how I like to hunt. That's how I learned. And that's what I like to do. Just sitting in a tree stand, waiting for an animal and. sub Arctic conditions. And that just doesn't sound fun to me just because I've never done it. And, it just looks miserable. One of the nice things about not being in the army and someone telling you to sit in a tree and sub zero weather, it's I don't have to do that. Yeah. I'm a very South Texas Hunter 100, 150 yards. I'm locked in and it comes in, I lay it down. So Corey Anderson he's a huge bow Hunter and very much into shooting his bow. And I got a bow given to me by PSE to start shooting. And Corey's Hey man, like. When are you going to put that bow together? And this has probably been two years, right? It's been sitting in my office, like just never put it together. He's he actually just bought a new side by side about three months ago. And he was like, every time we go hunting down there, he's we drive your truck and we use somebody else's side by side. He's I'm going to donate my side by side to you guys. So anytime you guys take a veteran hunting, you guys always have a side by side to use to take them hunting. So we, all we had to do was drive up to Indiana, put it on the trailer and bring it back. And so now we actually have a side by side to use anytime we take vets hunting. So huge shout out to him for doing that. But yeah. He's a bow hunter. He was on me. He's just bring your bow. When you come to get the side by side and I'll put it together. So yeah, he's got a bow shop on site. Yeah. He's got a whole bow shop there. He put the sites on it and all that. And then he's now we've got to go out and shoot it. And I'm like, dude, I've never shot a bow before. So he's got a whole range out there. And I don't know if it's beginner's luck or it just happened to be good, or he's just really good at putting a boat together. But I'm at 20 and 30 yards, hitting ringers and he's just Holy shit. Like you're good at this. And I'm like, they say there is some connectivity with, if you're good with projectiles, you're good with projectiles. There's a little bit of skill development. Yeah. You got a good instructor and yeah, someone would put some good equipment in your hand, where to find. Yeah. So just in that 15, 20 minutes of taking my first, I don't know, 15, 20 arrows, I was hitting heart shots and lung shots at 20 and 30 yards. And he's dude you're actually pretty good at this. Like you need to shoot more often. Yeah. Yeah. There's fundamentals that apply. Sure. We did that Previous employer they have an indoor archery range. And they have one of the, he's like in the Texas archery hall of fame instructors there and he's Chris, come here. He's grab this. This is what you do. Blah, Blah. He's like right there. Do it. Now do it again. Do it again. Do it again. See, I told you it was like, it's. It's sights and trigger. Yeah. Yeah. When it breaks down yep. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. Now I'm learning how to become a a archery shooter. You could still sit in a comfy blind and shoot a bow. I'm all for it. Yeah. I'm fu . I'm all for it. You used to do it, you used to be pretty big in the Archie, weren't you? For a little while. Yeah. For a little. Yeah. Think guns took every life, jacket took over. Yeah. And this, yeah. And I don't, I don't think that I'll ever not be a gun guy. Oh yeah. Just 'cause that's just who I am. But archery's fun. It's a lot. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think it's definitely therapeutic. Yeah. That's, I think that's why I was, you gotta slow down a little bit. Yeah. I mean there's like a little bit of a physical aspect to it. There's a little bit of a physical aspect, but you really can't focus on anything else. Or that arrow will go all over the place. Oh yeah. And so it is, it's humbling in that regard. And it calmed me down. It just takes your mind off everything else. You can't focus on anything else, but that so yeah it's like we've been in the mid range, long range game here in the last two years is shooting a lot more distance. Cause that'll get you to calm down. Yeah. You got, you really got to. Yeah. There's some similarities. There. Yeah. A lot of fun. I don't need another. I don't need another hobby. I don't need another hobby, man. It's not a cheap one either. Let me tell you. Yeah. It's not. Barrier of entry is pricey. Then once you're in, it's not so bad as long as you don't just lose an arrow. It's a lot of money real, real quick on some archery stuff. Oh, for sure. Yeah, you can. They try to make it like everything else with guys, right? They try to turn it into the guy's Barbie doll. So you got to get the new site and you got to get the new strings and you got to get the new dampeners and the new whatever, like new release. So they nickel you like that, but yeah. So the plan is now that I have this bow and I've been shooting I made a deal with Corey that next year at a total archery challenge in San Antonio, that I would be proficient enough for him and I to go shoot at TAC together. And then we obviously invited Bo to come shoot on our team as well. So the three of us plan to go shoot TAC next year in San Antonio. Hopefully I'm good enough to not suck. Bring the team. That's a cool event too, because down there, tax are all over the country, but down there too, they do it around where the caverns are. And so there's some cool trailheads and it's a desert of where it's like, they're normally doing them like in park city and then big sky, Montana. So just beautiful rolling hills and mountains. And you're riding the gondola up, whereas this is different. You're like in this rocky desert and it's just a cool landscape change for a lot of those archers that travel around and do the tax stuff. So that's the plan. We're going to shoot it next year. I think it's what it's usually March, April, March, April. Yeah, and Bo was talking about the he's Hey man, how do you like those little garments? Oh, yeah. Yeah. We love zero. We're kicking, like I was saying, we were selling 30 to 40 a month. At least of them. And the one that we have it's better than anything else on the market. Like it does. It's so much smaller. It does everything you can do. Archery. You can do pistol. You can do rifle. Yeah. Like you can do everything. And it's so small, stupid, easy to use. Like I can figure it out. So like it's Josh uses almost every day. Yeah. Cause he's doing the velocity testing on, on, on stuff at the range. Every video, every ballistics video I look at now, they got it sitting on a bench and I'm just like, man, I want to guess that thing's pretty decent. And it's so small. You just throw it anywhere. Like it's phenomenal. Not having the big, yeah. You got the big, you got to shoot through it and not kill it. We took it to the last bruiser class that we did. And Part of that is getting, like a good four hours of Joe's classes, like how to learn the ballistic app, how to enter, build your gun, enter all your data in there. And if you're going off that box, the feet per second of what the box of ammo says, it's not, you're not right. Nope. At all. That's never elevation, certain length, certain atmosphere. Yeah. Everybody's running this dude. I'm running a 14, five. He's got an 18 inch. That guy's got a 16. I'm at a one in nine. So he's at a one in eight and we're all throwing different stuff. And so being able to go down that line and be like, Hey, all right. Shoot, shoot, shoot. I think Josh even did a couple of guys that didn't know he was Crono in them or didn't ask for it. And he just sat down and he's like, all right, your medians, 26, four. You're good. Okay, cool. Export that data too. Yeah, that's awesome. Just, yeah, Bluetooth it, all that stuff. So they, yeah that's awesome. Your products brought to you by Garmin. Yeah, that's my next, that's my next purchase. For sure. Get sponsored by when we were walking in the warehouse. I saw him sitting on the shelf. I'm like I know they don't sell shit unless it's worth their time. So that's why I asked about it, but they do really well. They do really well. And if you're going to the range, And not putting it there if you're sitting on a bench shooting, that's, you're just losing data every time. Yeah. Losing data. But anyway where can people find information about interpret care? We're on Facebook Instagram, our website, interpret care. org. We're out there doing things all over the place. Check us out, go go on all the socials and check out our website. And we're probably doing something around somewhere. We're at Texas trophy hunters this weekend in San Antonio. We were in Dallas last weekend or Fort worth Houston the weekend before we have a great partnership with Texas trophy hunters as well. That we just filmed a hunt with them a dog and knife on a second. Dog and knife hunt. We filmed with Texas trophy hunters. We have another partnership with Texas strong outdoors where we're going to film some veteran hunts with for the pursuit channel. We're we're out there doing some cool stuff and just make it a difference. That's the plan. Awesome. Pretty cool. We appreciate, thank you for introducing me. Yeah, I really appreciate that. Yep. Good looking forward to this event. Yeah, man, shout out to Nate Young for bringing me around here and meeting you guys. And I just he whispered in my ear Hey, I think this might be a good group to introduce to Intrepid. And as soon as I walked in the front door, Tell right away, but yeah, no, appreciate the hospitality and the willingness for sure. Anytime. Appreciate your time. Stay guys. Thanks for driving in. Thanks for jumping down. Thank you. And if you've watched the whole podcast, check them out at their website. All the links are down below. We'll also have links to the event. If you're going to be there, you're probably going to see some people you recognize at the event as well. Let us know and In the comments, what you thought of the podcast, you can find us on two channels on YouTube on the big text ordinance podcast channel on the big text ordinance pod. Or let me rephrase that. You can find us at the big text ordinance podcast on YouTube. You can find us on the big text ordinance. Channel on YouTube. You can find us on rumble now. Thank you. And Spotify, Amazon, Apple, all the things. Listen, download, subscribe, leave this review. Did you know we have 65 reviews on iTunes? Really? Yeah, we went from zero to 65, 65. I mentioned it. Yeah it's fantastic. Nobody had reviewed us for forever. And finally I started reviewing. Yeah. That means there's some really good reviews on there and specific episodes and stuff, but got on there yesterday or the other day doing podcast stuff and we had 60. 65 reviews on their awesome review us on rumble now. There you go Whatever that is just five different devices and play them all this all the same time, please do that It would help our numbers a lot. Anyway Thanks for watching listening and downloading. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you