Episode 63: Interview with Purple Heart Hero and WWIA Guide Jeremy Smith

Jeremy Smith: 00:00:00

Foreign.

Narrator: 00:00:04

Hello, and welcome to the WWIA Podcast. We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes.

If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you. If you're a returning listener, thanks for coming back.

Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing. We have another exceptional guest on this episode of the WWIA podcast.

WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel is honored to share some time and a wonderful conversation with one of America's tremendous Purple Heart heroes and a steadfast friend and supporter of our mission, Mr. Jeremy Smith. Jeremy served two and a half years in the US army with the 101st Airborne Division.

In: 2006

Jeremy currently lives in Burke, South Dakota, with his beautiful wife, April and their daughter Natalie and son, Matthew. For the past three years, Jeremy has owned and operated Star Lake Outfitters, providing exciting hunting and fishing expeditions.

Hunting and fishing have always been a part of his life, but it never played such an important role until now. Since leaving the military, Jeremy has found special solace in the conservation of the outdoors and the tranquility and peace it provides.

ended his first WWIA event in: 2011

It's with great pride that we introduce you to Jeremy and share some of his journey with you. Without further ado, let's join the conversation with John and Jeremy now.

John McDaniel: 00:02:11

Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action Foundation. This is our podcast, Honor, Connect and Heal.

So today I have with me one of our illustrious guides, an amazing American who I respect a great deal and know quite well. Jeremy Smith, welcome to the program.

Jeremy Smith: 00:02:33

Thanks, John. I appreciate it.

John McDaniel: 00:02:35

Yeah, so for the folks that don't know, Jeremy and I are looking at each other on a screen. He's not in my office. Where are you right now? Are you in South Dakota or are you in Virginia?

Jeremy Smith: 00:02:47

I am home in South Dakota. Burke, South Dakota.

John McDaniel: 00:02:50

Burke, South Dakota. Perfect. So, by way of introduction, I, you know, I met so many people. I'm just trying to think where you and I very first met. And I.

And I know it wasn't Camp Hack. And we've been all over the place together. Because you're a guide, you're a Purple Heart recipient.

Can you tell me, do you remember where we first met?

Jeremy Smith: 00:03:15

Yes.: 2011

John McDaniel: 00:03:28

Yeah, okay, perfect, perfect. So anyway, that's where we met. I was impressed by it. You impressed other people.

You've been through our guide school, you've been to our safety symposium and now, and you've helped host and co host many events. Your, your leadership is something that we value a great deal.

You got a tremendous story and I want to get to that during the podcast so folks can get to know you a little bit better. But basically. Well, let me ask you, where did you grow up? Let's start there.

Jeremy Smith: 00:04:05

Rural New York. So about 80 miles north, west of New York City in Orange County. Everybody knows the famous Orange county choppers. That's the county we grew up in.

Very rural. Farming, dairy stuff, Hunting, fishing. Everyday part of life. Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:04:25

And is that, do they call that upstate? I mean, isn't anything north of, of the city upstate?

Jeremy Smith: 00:04:30

Anything that's not the five boroughs is upstate.

John McDaniel: 00:04:33

Upstate. Okay, Right on. So I remember your story. You know, I, you know, I think you, I remember you telling me once upon a time that your dad was a mechanic.

Or was that, is that true?

Jeremy Smith: 00:04:48

Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:04:48

Yes, Your dad, your dad was a mechanic. And you spent a lot of time with your dad, noting how he fixed things, helping him fix things.

And that was sort of the stepping stone, as I recall you telling the story for you to. When you did get into the army, you gravitated towards being a mechanic, didn't you?

Jeremy Smith: 00:05:09

Correct? Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:05:11

So tell us that story.

Tell, tell us about, you know, joining the army and, you know, being a mechanic and then, and then take us, take us through your, your service until the time that you, you know, you get, you know, wounded, you earn your purple Heart and then we'll go from there. I'd love, I love everybody to hear that story.

Jeremy Smith: 00:05:34

Sure. So I graduated high school and thought college was the way.

Went to college and just wasn't loving it, so decided to join the army and went and saw the recruiter with a buddy. My buddy, turns out, doesn't go. I leave, go through MEPs and all that, go to Fort Jackson, which I just found out you had. Went to Fort Jackson.

John McDaniel: 00:05:58

I am, I am a, I am a basic training graduate. Tank hill.

Jeremy Smith: 00:06:04

Yeah, yeah, 88, but yeah, yeah. So when Jackson, I did basic and AIT. So I joined as a 63 Bravo, which is a wheel mechanic.

Then I did the Hotel 8 identifier, which was rector operator. My dad was a mechanic. He was a heavy tow truck operator. That stuff just kind of fell into place, you know, stuff I liked, enjoyed and knew.

Decided I wanted to go to airborne school, but I had to choose between airborne school and that Hotel 8. And I thought, boy, I can do. I'm going to the 101st Airborne.

I already knew where my duty station was, so I said, I'll go there, become an air assault guy, you know. It's going to be great.

John McDaniel: 00:06:53

Because even though it says 101st Airborne, back in World War II, they were jumping out of planes, but modern day 101 is, you know, a helicopter assault unit. There might be some worse D guys jumping out of planes, but the division's not a jumping division.

Jeremy Smith: 00:07:08

Correct. And I heard right. So I'm out of the loop now. Quite a few years. The 101st got their airborne tab taken and they're now an aerosol unit.

It's the 101st aerosol. I probably should have done research on that, but I. Yeah, that's what it is.

John McDaniel: 00:07:27

God bless them, but nobody will ever.

Jeremy Smith: 00:07:29

Forget them as the 101st airport.

John McDaniel: 00:07:31

Screaming Eagles, baby. Right.

Jeremy Smith: 00:07:33

Puking chickens. Same thing. Yeah, yeah. Love the history and. Yeah, glad to have been a part of that. But, yeah. So I got there. Oh, I think it was early 06.

. Cheese.: 2005

It's a big scramble, John. I should have wrote all these dates down.

John McDaniel: 00:08:11

No, no, it's a better this way because I'll straw. I'll struggle right with you.

Jeremy Smith: 00:08:16

Yeah. April: 2006

We were just kind of coming, filling gaps, you know, a few of us had flown in and filled in some gaps in the unit. So what.

John McDaniel: 00:08:33

What brigade are you in at this point? Fourth Brigade. Okay.

Jeremy Smith: 00:08:37

Yeah. Headquarters company, you know, that's where all the mechanics and engineers. We had everybody in that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:08:48

You guys fix a lot of broken stuff. That's your job.

Jeremy Smith: 00:08:50

Yeah. And we.

John McDaniel: 00:08:51

And in a war. In a war zone, I bet there's.

Jeremy Smith: 00:08:54

A lot of fix almost every day. Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:08:56

Everything, everything.

Jeremy Smith: 00:08:57

Missions and, you know, running into concrete barricades because you can't see out of those NVGs. And driving truck and it's interesting stuff, all of that. Yeah. So, yeah, we were there. So like I said, they'd already been there six months.

So I would have only had about six months to do a 12 month tour with them. 11 days before we were coming home. You know, two ID was coming in to relieve us.

At this point in oh 6, the Iraqis have really understood what the influx of traffic and the patches on our shoulders mean. And they knew this 12 month cycle, right. They learned, hey, now there's going to be an influx of more.

So they started to really hammer us with mortar attacks and bombings.

John McDaniel: 00:09:53

And IEDs are starting to pop their ugly heads up at this point, aren't they?

Jeremy Smith: 00:09:57

They were pretty much in the thick of it then. Yeah, if we, if there wasn't a truck that hit one once a week, it wasn't happening. I mean, it was all the time.

John McDaniel: 00:10:06

And for those that don't know, an IED is an improved explosive device.

This is where the bad guys, you know, whether they were insurgents and we could spend a whole, you know, probably podcast session or a week on who the bad guys were.

But nonetheless, the, you know, the insurgents that we were fighting had figured out, thanks to, you know, I'm sure some support by other organizations and entities that were fueling the fire. Okay. And supporting the bad guys.

But they figured out how to take things like 105 howitzers and know, mortars and any sort of munition and wire it so that, and bury it in the ground on a, on a major route of some sort or an intersection and then detonate it remotely, you know, not being right at the scene of the, you know, incident, but being able to blow up this improved explosive device, which was basically a bomb that was electronically detonated.

And they would do it, timing it on, generally during a convoy when there was a series of vehicles moving down the road and they would, they would usually try to isolate that.

So if you, if you broke, if you blew, you know, if you detonated this thing when say, you know, a quarter of the unit was north or south or ahead of the, the area that was, you know, where the bomb was, where the device was, then, you know, you could create, you could separate a force and then generally there was an ambush or something else that followed. Right. So that's the idea of an ied. Sorry to interrupt, but I, I wanted to explain that because we use that term because we, you know, we lived it.

But most folks, some folks that are listening to this might not know what IED was. So there you have it. Go ahead, Jeremy.

Jeremy Smith: 00:11:53

Yep. That's a good explanation of it. Yeah, they. And they got crafty with that.

John McDaniel: 00:11:59

Oh yeah.

Jeremy Smith: 00:12:00

You know, within the city of Baghdad, a lot of pavement. So they had, they couldn't just dig a hole and bury those things.

They would light fires on the streets to soften the pavement to then be able to dig them up. It was, it was wild. They were pretty crafty. They got good. They were doing.

John McDaniel: 00:12:18

Yep, yep, yep.

Jeremy Smith: 00:12:21

So 2 ID came in to relieve 11ish days left of, you know, us leaving. And the attacks started to get heavy while I was trying to work on a truck, fix a fan belt on a hemet fueler of all things.

So thousands of gallons of fuel in this truck. And the first mortar landed. So I get back to the motor sergeant's office, which, if you can call it an office, right?

Small concrete building, plywood door, just somewhere where the computer stays dry. So there's about eight of us tucked in there, just kind of riding out the bombing like you would a rainstorm, you know, mortar sheets falling.

One lands right behind, blows dust through the little back boarded window. And we all just kind of locked eyes like that was close that the next thing you know, they walk them across.

So yeah, we're, we're just thinking we're next. And it landed just to the outside edge of the door on the edge of the concrete sidewalk that was there. So within four feet of the door, mortar lands.

I was seated with my left side to the door. One of Those guys from 2ID was standing in the doorway, so he took quite a bit of shrapnel.

He did not die, thank God, because that would have really made a terrible moment for me, but. So I was struck in the left leg and shoulder with mortar. Shrapnel broke my tibia. I think five of us out of the eight that were in there were wounded.

So we scrambled and got out and, you know, our medics tended to us and flew us off to somewhere. There's kind of a big haze there for a little while. Lots of drugs and yeah, not understanding what quite what's going on.

Sergeant Major Coup, who you are.

John McDaniel: 00:14:23

Oh, yeah, I know. Great American.

Jeremy Smith: 00:14:26

Yeah. He came to see me before I left country.

John McDaniel: 00:14:30

Timothy Coup, right?

Jeremy Smith: 00:14:32

That's right. Yeah. So he came with my first sergeant at the time, who I can't remember, which is terrible, but he was a great guy too.

But Sergeant Major Coupon, first arm came, made sure I satellite phoned home. But I knew, you know, my dad being a Vietnam vet and already worried that I deployed. I didn't want to call him and tell him I was wounded.

So Sergeant Major gives me this phone. I call him and I told him I broke my leg because I tripped. And Coop is standing there looking at me. Sergeant Major gives me this look and I was like.

He's like, you bet. He just takes the phone from me and he tells him what's going on and, you know, I'll be okay and they'll send me home and no problem.

Don't worry about it. And just click. That's it. Wow. Yeah. So then a few shuffles, you know, go up to Germany for a week. I was in Longstuhl for a week, which was pretty neat.

Had a friend stationed in Germany, so he took the train down, visited with me for an hour or two. The same friend that I originally tried to enlist with. He later did get in. I'll be darn stationed in Germany. Finds out somehow.

I don't know if my wife or one of my other friends had let him know, but yeah, he found out where I was and came to launch. Duh. And visited with me for a little bit. So that was kind of cool. A little bit of home away from home.

John McDaniel: 00:16:06

Right? Right.

Jeremy Smith: 00:16:07

Yeah.

And then hopped, you know, a couple different bases, got back to Fort Campbell, spent some time in the hospital there, and the surgeons did some operations and removed some shrapnel and closed some wounds, but they couldn't put me in a hard cast because of the amount of wounds to fix that bone. So I had a soft cast that you weren't supposed to really walk, but of course we're going to do it.

So I may have pro longed my healing process by not following all the rules, but we're stubborn and we're men and that's what we do.

John McDaniel: 00:16:47

Hard headed.

Jeremy Smith: 00:16:48

Absolutely. Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:16:51

A little hard headed.

Jeremy Smith: 00:16:52

Yeah, That's.

John McDaniel: 00:16:53

That's how that works. Right. Or you wouldn't be doing what you're doing.

Jeremy Smith: 00:16:57

Yeah, well, we lived on base. My wife and I lived on base at the time. And the only bathroom in the home was upstairs.

Well, I couldn't stay upstairs all day, so I'd be downstairs and then have to scoot up and downstairs. And it was kind of a hassle. But yeah, made it through. We're here and awesome.

John McDaniel: 00:17:20

Yeah. So. Well, I appreciate you sharing that story with us.

You know, we have one of the common themes that I, you know, that I obviously I see a lot because I do these podcasts with y' all and it's easy for me to kind of see Some of those themes that run throughout, and one of them keep popping up in my mind anyway, is just the idea of the, you know, being resilient, you know, and, and having to deal with, you know, tragedy and, you know, being wounded and, and then all of a sudden, at some point, you know, you, you are either told or you recognize that the one thing you wanted to do, which was go serve your country, that there's a, there's an, there's an end coming to that faster perhaps than you expected. Like your timeline is, is been shortened. And that realization has either hit you or, or alternatively, guys are like, you know, I, I, I was up.

My enlistment time was up, and I just thought that, that, that I had done, you know, enough. And so I, you know, decided to, to, to get out of the service. So which one of those two scenarios?

I mean, fast forwarding through your recovery period, you know, you obviously got out of the service. Did the, did the service tell you? Did the army tell you, hey, you know, love you, but you gotta go?

Or did you reach your, you know, ETS date in your time of service and said, I'm done? What happened there?

Jeremy Smith: 00:18:58

Oh, I was kind of pushed out. There was no love you buy? It was, hey, get out of the way. We need bodies and yours isn't working.

John McDaniel: 00:19:08

Right. Right.

Jeremy Smith: 00:19:09

So they just kind of pushed me out. I tried to appeal it to go to the med board.

John McDaniel: 00:19:16

Yeah, you got med. You got med board is what they say, right?

Jeremy Smith: 00:19:19

Yeah. So medically discharged. Right. Based on your front of the medical board. And this very sweet colonel called me, and she talked me out of coming down.

You know, here I am, E4 Smith, and this is Colonel so and so, head of this medical board. And she said, don't waste your time. Don't waste your unit's money. We're not going to change our minds. It's not worth appealing your case. You're done.

Yes, ma'. Am.

John McDaniel: 00:19:48

Well, at least it's straight talk, right? At least it's not.

Jeremy Smith: 00:19:51

Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:19:52

And, you know, guys like us appreciate straight talk. It might be a pill I don't want to swallow. Yeah. But at least it's straight talk, right?

Jeremy Smith: 00:20:00

Yeah. So I did not go. I tucked tail and left.

John McDaniel: 00:20:05

Wow.

Jeremy Smith: 00:20:06

And then went right back to working because I had no choice. You don't just sit around and do nothing.

John McDaniel: 00:20:13

Right? So you're still at, you're at this point, when you get out, you stay at Campbell or you go back to New York. What do you do?

Jeremy Smith: 00:20:21

Moved back to New York. That's my Wife and I were both from New York. I had a job lined up with a guy I worked for before, like, during high school at a machine shop.

Went back to work for him, ran that machine shop, and we used to build parts for elevators that we shipped down to Manhattan. It was a pretty neat deal. Lots of learning there. Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:20:45

Cool. And so at some point, I mean, so, you know, you, You. You were hurt. You.

Jeremy Smith: 00:20:51

You.

John McDaniel: 00:20:51

You. You got. You got wounded in 06, correct?

Jeremy Smith: 00:20:55

Yep. October 28th, you meet.

John McDaniel: 00:20:57

You meet me in 11 at Mocan. So five years go by, right? You go to. You go to who's on that event? Jake.

Jeremy Smith: 00:21:05

Jake Whipkey.

John McDaniel: 00:21:07

Jake Whipkey. You two are like brothers of sorts. You know, it. It's, you know, love you both, man. But you meet Jake, and you're at Mocan and I'm there. Right.

Like you said, I. I was there. Okay. So I've been there a few times, so I don't remember. You know, I. I want to say the first Mocan would have been like 09, I think.

So it was a couple years.

Jeremy Smith: 00:21:32

Yeah. This would be the year before. So in 11, you were still staying in the hotel. There was no club. Yeah. Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:21:41

Those are the old days. Yeah.

Jeremy Smith: 00:21:43

I was invited back in 12 by those guys because we did not harvest any deer. They know I've been deer hunting for like, 13 years and never killed one. So they made sure I came back in the on the 12 event.

And that was the first year we ever stayed at nature, which is now just a.

John McDaniel: 00:22:01

It's a monster. Yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Smith: 00:22:04

Beauty there, that place.

John McDaniel: 00:22:05

It's like the Taj Mahal of duck hunting and deer hunting. Yeah, they did a great job with that, didn't they? Terry Supple and crew. And, And. And you know Brian Rodrick, of course.

I mean, it just sounds like Brian, oh, well, you're coming back, you know, you didn't get a deer. I can just hear him, you know, so that's awesome.

So you came back, we met, and then, you know, at some point, you got roped into, you know, identified and roped into guide school. You went to our guide school.

Jeremy Smith: 00:22:33

Right.

John McDaniel: 00:22:34

And. And then, you know, you started leading missions. This is with the.

Part of the grand plan, you know, you guys leading missions without, you know, me being around and. And. And things just kind of have. Have gone from there. Let me ask you this, okay. Because I, I like to.

I'm always fascinated by people's answers that you guys answers to this question. But you obviously, you know, you said when we kicked off the program, that you like to hunt and you fish.

You like to hunt and fish and, and you're an outdoorsman. You grew up in upstate New York. So all of that makes a lot of sense to me. You, you have a servants mentality. And I don't mean that.

I mean that in the most affectionate way. Meaning, hey, you, you joined the army in a time of war, okay. You volunteered. There was no draft, right? You said, I'm going. My dad served in Vietnam.

I'm going. Okay? So you go and you get wounded, you get, you know, discharged, medically, boarded out, and, and, and then you find this organization, wwia.

You go on an event, you don't get a deer. They, they, they, they, they have you come back. I didn't know that. That doesn't surprise me.

Jeremy Smith: 00:23:44

Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:23:44

Because at all, that doesn't. That's a zero surprise in that for me because, like, I don't micromanage, you know, down to that level.

If Brian said, hey, I want this guy back, you know, you know, you're, you're, you're coming back, you know, and I respect that.

You know, that's part of the program is, is trusting your, you know, your leaders out there to do the right thing, whatever they think that right thing might be. And so I'm surprised, I'm not surprised at all that that happened. Actually. It makes me feel good that, that it did happen.

You know, I'm learning of something that happened, you know, 14 years ago. You know, it's hard to believe that it was that long ago, but, you know, right, there you go. So that's beautiful.

And then, but my question is, you know what?

Now that you're in this space and you're serving, we'll get to what you're doing in the Dakotas with your pheasant operation and your guide service, because I want to hit that pretty hard next. But what do you get out of this?

When you're doing your job as a guide, interacting with the other combat wounded Purple Heart recipients in the field on one of our missions, whether that's your own or another, and you're doing this thing, what do you get out of it?

When it's all said and done and it's over, the guys leave, or you get back on a plane or get in your truck and drive home and you have some windshield time or tractor time, and you're thinking about what you just did, what are you left with?

Jeremy Smith: 00:25:23

It's just a completely humbling experience. John, you talk to some of these guys. You know, I had A very short lived military career. Kind of forced out. Short, sweet, done.

You know, some of these guys have done 20, 25 years, some are still active. Two Purple Hearts, several deployments.

John McDaniel: 00:25:43

14. I know of a dude who's done 14. It's probably more than that now, but you can, you can even get your head around 14 deployments.

Jeremy Smith: 00:25:50

Yeah. Leaving their family every six to 12 months. Four, six to 12, eight months at a time.

Just absolutely incredible to be sharing a blind or a tree stand or even just the truck ride in the morning with these guys. I went through dark times. It was bad. The foundation has been my saving grace.

So to get back together with these guys and talk to them and hang out and just be us, you know.

John McDaniel: 00:26:21

It'S, it's a lifetime of stuff. Right. You get, and it just keeps, the layers just keep getting, you know, deeper and, and, and, and more meaningful.

And, you know, it's like when you see some of these guys after you've spent, you know, time together in the field doing something and you see them again, man, it's just like instantaneous bond like, you know, and I don't know how you describe that feeling, but to be able to serve them. The reason I'm saying this, Feel the same way you do. I feel exactly the same way. It's an honor.

You know, it's hard for me to describe in any meaningful way what does that mean to do an event at Camp Hackett and serve these heroes or have been on Mocan and, you know, seen the smiles and got to know guys and, and, and, and share that experience and then get away from it and go, I was just doing that for four days. And I feel like, I always call it the post event coma. You know, I always feel like, like how do you sort through the emotions that you just had?

How do you sort through the feelings that are running through your veins? You know, how do you sort through, you know, how complex and yet how simple it all was and what does that mean to you?

And so I go through personally much of the same. And so when I hear somebody like you say it, I just go, wow. You know, I, I, I, I, I appreciate you sharing that.

Jeremy Smith: 00:27:50

Yeah, it's, it's definitely special. And I like to check in with those guys that we're with, you know, a little bit later in the year, two years later.

I'm thinking about one of the guys right now. He was on the North Dakota hunting event with me last year. Haven't really touched base with him lately. That event's coming.

Makes me think Hey, I should shoot him a message, see what he's up to.

John McDaniel: 00:28:16

Yeah.

Jeremy Smith: 00:28:16

And. And the hosts do the same thing. And it's fun. You know, you just get a random message.

It could be two or three years later and somebody just shoots you a message like, hey, I just saw this memory and I was thinking about you. What's going on? Like, do you remember when we were doing this? It's just a great time.

John McDaniel: 00:28:34

Yeah.

Jeremy Smith: 00:28:35

You know, memories that'll never be taken away from us.

John McDaniel: 00:28:39

That's right. So now you're in South Dakota. You've got this pheasant operation. The guide service connected to a pheasant operation. I'd like to hear about that.

Can you tell us, share that with us a little bit?

Jeremy Smith: 00:28:59

Sure. Three years ago, I bought Star Lake Outfitters, or I bought out another company, renamed it Star Lake Outfitters.

John McDaniel: 00:29:08

Okay.

Jeremy Smith: 00:29:09

We primarily pheasant hunt. We can chase grouse and chucker and partridge and prairie chicken. We have all those on our lease.

The lease is: 1800

They call it the Golden Triangle.

John McDaniel: 00:29:39

Okay.

Jeremy Smith: 00:29:40

It's great habitat. Good stuff.

John McDaniel: 00:29:44

Awesome.

Jeremy Smith: 00:29:44

We have a lot of fun with it. Have a four bedroom lodge in town.

John McDaniel: 00:29:50

Is that how you do it? You got the lodge in town and then. And then you. You meet the guys and you go. You go out. Guys got dogs. That's great. Guys don't have dogs?

What are they just beating the brush?

Jeremy Smith: 00:30:01

Are you.

John McDaniel: 00:30:02

You got, got. You got dogs? What's going on?

Jeremy Smith: 00:30:05

Every hunt, sometimes we have guys who come in, they want to DIY their own stuff and we'll let them do it. Or if they have a dog, it's welcome to join us.

But yeah, I've got four crazy labs and a little wild pointer who is trying to learn the ropes here, but we'll get her.

John McDaniel: 00:30:25

I. I don't mean to put you on the spot. So. So I'm sorry, I just gotta say it because it's like something. I feel like it's like the, the elephant in the room. Why don't you do an event there?

Jeremy Smith: 00:30:38

Thought about it. My concern is fundraising.

John McDaniel: 00:30:40

Right.

Jeremy Smith: 00:30:41

Yeah. I've hosted an event in Virginia. I know what events cost. Yeah, taken. These are small communities and they all pour their hearts out to everybody.

John McDaniel: 00:30:50

Is there a. Is there a VFW or American Legion post or something? Like. Right, see. Okay. Anyway. Let's not. Let's not get into that too de.

And I certainly don't want to push this on you. Okay. By any means, but. But I just, like, I gotta hear why.

And I understand that the fundraising pieces is, you know, a part of it, because this is expensive business, especially getting to South Dakota. I mean, I assume they'd have to fly into, like, Bismarck.

Jeremy Smith: 00:31:17

No, you could fly to Sioux Falls, but Sioux Falls. Hour drive after that.

John McDaniel: 00:31:23

After Sioux Falls, yeah.

Jeremy Smith: 00:31:24

Yeah. So you fly probably all day.

John McDaniel: 00:31:26

Let's chat about that. Let's chat about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can do this if you have the will, buddy.

Jeremy Smith: 00:31:33

Well, we want to host. Do you?

John McDaniel: 00:31:35

Let's. Do we. Let's not. I think we can. I know we can. Okay.

Jeremy Smith: 00:31:40

Yeah. So what we've done in place of that was just donate a hunt to raise money to help other events.

John McDaniel: 00:31:46

Yeah, no, let's. Let's.

Jeremy Smith: 00:31:47

It's been great.

John McDaniel: 00:31:48

Let's just make this happen.

Jeremy Smith: 00:31:50

Okay.

John McDaniel: 00:31:50

Let's chat afterwards. But I think it's a great idea if that. If that's something you and your family want to do. Let's not let money stop us. You know what I mean?

Because I can guarantee you we can. We can make this happen. Piece of cake, man. I know we can. All right, so that's. That's good. All right. Awesome. So you now, are you raising birds, too?

Is that what's going on?

Jeremy Smith: 00:32:13

No, they're.

John McDaniel: 00:32:13

They're all natural.

Jeremy Smith: 00:32:14

No, they're not. There. There are wild birds out there, Right?

the Americas back in the late: 1800

No matter how hard they tell you, I'm going to spoil the industry, spoil their secrets here. You cannot run a wild population in the quantities that these guys do.

John McDaniel: 00:32:43

Yeah.

Jeremy Smith: 00:32:44

In fact, the state mandates that hunting preserves like we have a hunting preserve. It lets us extend our season and our limits and our regulations.

John McDaniel: 00:32:52

Right.

Jeremy Smith: 00:32:53

We have to Release at least 600 birds a year within those acres.

John McDaniel: 00:32:57

Yeah. And some of those are going to get shot. Some of them are going to get eaten by fox. Some of them are going to survive and reproduce, you know, so.

Right. Isn't this. It's like stocking a pond with fish.

Jeremy Smith: 00:33:10

Yep. You just have to put in more than you take out. That's all right. Yep.

John McDaniel: 00:33:13

That's right. Yeah. I grew up. I remember I grew up in. In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and my dad was a big pheasant hunter. We had Irish setters, of all things.

And so he would go out on opening day. You could take opening day in Wisconsin was, I think, some Saturday in October.

It may have been September, but in the fall, and it opened at noon, and you were allowed to take two birds. That was the limit. And there was no far. I mean, they were, these were wild birds, you know, I mean, there was no.

Or anywhere around us I am unaware of.

And I know there wasn't any stocked birds, but if you took, you know, and he, he, he would hunt until he got at least one, and sometimes he would come home with two. But it was like a banner day. Like, that was for my dad, and it was a solo event. Like, he didn't say, hey, I want you to take off a school.

Jeremy Smith: 00:34:10

Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:34:10

You know, my dad did this for him and his dog, you know, and so I, I just, you know, I'll always have fond memories, you know, pheasant hunting. When that bird decides to get up off the ground from its little hide location and just bust off with a, you know, rooster with a cackle.

Jeremy Smith: 00:34:30

Yeah.

John McDaniel: 00:34:30

And they come, they come up like a helicopter, and then they decide to go, you know, and, and it's a nice big target. And they're so beautiful.

Jeremy Smith: 00:34:38

They are.

John McDaniel: 00:34:39

And they're delicious to eat. I mean, if, I mean, I love that bird. It's a great game bird.

And, you know, I mean, there's just something about it sitting there with that and holding this thing, you know, especially when you, you throw in the dog piece. You know, the dogs are working and this thing, you know, dog retrieves and brings it to your hand. I mean, it's just an amazing thing.

So I'm, I'm happy you're doing that. And it sounds to me like some of that, that bug has got to you.

Jeremy Smith: 00:35:06

Absolutely. Yeah. I love it. I change it for the world now. My wife hates South Dakota, and as cold as it is.

And I said, well, I said, we can live somewhere else all year long, but when it comes time to be here for hunting season, we're back. So get over it, honey.

John McDaniel: 00:35:25

Well, you know, I, I, I, I, I appreciate what you're doing, and it's not easy. You know, that's being a guide, a professional guide, as a profess, you know, that's not easy because, you know, you're out in the middle of nowhere.

So Star Lake Outfitters is. Do you have a, do you have a website?

Jeremy Smith: 00:35:44

Yep, just starlakeoutfitters.com.

John McDaniel: 00:35:47

Okay. So if anybody's listening to this and wants to go have an amazing experience with Jeremy. How do they get a hold of you?

They go on the website and there's a link for them to communicate with you or what?

Jeremy Smith: 00:36:01

Yep. Websites got my phone number, it's got an email, it's got a contact us button. Everything's in there.

John McDaniel: 00:36:08

Okay, cool. Starlink Outfitters and Jeremy Smith. God bless you, man. So. So here. Here, here. Here we are. Tell us a little bit about your.

Your family, because I. I know you're a family man. I. I respect that a great deal. And I'd like to hear about your family if you got a few minutes.

Jeremy Smith: 00:36:27

Yeah, my kids are getting big. My daughter is in her second year of college. She's going to an LPN course here in South Dakota, about two hours away.

My son's a high school senior now. Just crazy, you know?

John McDaniel: 00:36:46

That's nuts, man.

Jeremy Smith: 00:36:47

It is.

John McDaniel: 00:36:47

That's nuts. What's he gonna do, dude? Does he know yet?

Jeremy Smith: 00:36:51

Blue? We're really trying to groom that out of him right now and see what's happening. Yeah, he's not sure. The world is his oyster.

But what's really neat is I got a call from a very good friend of mine yesterday, and he said, hey, your son's been asking me about skunk works, short squirrel stuff that Lockheed Martin does. And so he's researching things. He's. He's asking the great people about good, you know, neat things that are happening in the world, so figure it out.

John McDaniel: 00:37:21

Cool.

Jeremy Smith: 00:37:22

Yeah. If he's not in school, he's out there hunting with me, so.

John McDaniel: 00:37:26

He loves it.

Jeremy Smith: 00:37:27

Yeah. Running dogs, chasing doves of whatever we're doing.

John McDaniel: 00:37:31

Cool.

Jeremy Smith: 00:37:31

Yeah. He'll drive an hour to go see friends and goose hunt. Yeah, he's. He's ate up. The bug has got him.

John McDaniel: 00:37:39

That's awesome, man. Well, you look good. It's, you know, you look like you're. You're. You're healthy and in a good spot. I hope that's the case.

We certainly appreciate all that you've done to support the foundation over the. You know, over the years, and by way of, you know, being a guide and a. And a friend and just a general supporter, I mean, you're.

You're one of those guys, man, and I appreciate it.

Jeremy Smith: 00:38:08

Wow. Thanks, John. I appreciate you. Without you in the foundation, I may not be sitting here today, and you know that.

John McDaniel: 00:38:17

Listen, man, I mean, we're proud of you and honored to have you in our inner circle. You know, it's. It's more just getting Warmed up. Let's. Let's. Let's chat and we'll end this podcast.

I always like to give my guest the last whack at the pinata. So if you've got some saved rounds in your bandolier that you'd like to fire off, then by all means, the floor is yours, my friend.

Jeremy Smith: 00:38:43

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate that. You know, none of this happens without our hosts and our supporters and our guides. You know, thank you to all of them and for.

And for your vision. You know, this started with you just wanting to do something.

I remember you saying this very early on about just kind of like, hey, I am seeing my soldiers hurting and needing something. What can I do? So none of this happened without you, John, So thank you.

John McDaniel: 00:39:19

Just blessed to be. Honestly, I'm blessed to be, you know, part of it, that you have an idea that other people like and, you know, can get behind and, you know, to.

To look at it now through the lens of almost coming up on 20 years, you know, and see the goodness that's. It's created mostly because of people like you.

And like you said, our hosts and supporters who've gotten behind this and helped has really made this something very, very valuable in the sense of the work that it's doing. And it's not just focusing on our combat wounded. Of course, that's the centerpiece. You guys are the centerpiece, the reason that we're doing this.

But there's also so many other good things that are happening that are tangential to that or connected to that in a way by way of community support and by way of, hey, it's a channel people can. Can get behind. Like, this is a pathway. If I wanted to help, I want to serve. I don't know what I can do. And the foundation always finds a way to.

To get people involved. You just got to take that. That step. And once you do take that step, you know, what usually follows is several other steps.

Jeremy Smith: 00:40:35

Absolutely. You know, yeah, people. People are like, step.

John McDaniel: 00:40:38

Yeah, take that step, man. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Jeremy Smith: 00:40:41

It's a hard step, but you need to take it.

John McDaniel: 00:40:43

That's right. That's right. Don't be afraid, man. Take that step. Do something, you know, and. And so, anyway, well, listen, God bless you.

We'll end this, and then we'll. You'll. We'll chat. Stay on the line for a minute, because I got some ideas about, you know, Star Lake Outfitters and.

And the WWI working together a little bit more in a. In a formal way. So thank you very much. God bless you and your family, my friend.

Jeremy Smith: 00:41:10

Thank you.

John McDaniel: 00:41:11

And it's great to see you.

Jeremy Smith: 00:41:12

Okay, thanks.

John McDaniel: 00:41:14

All right, we're out.

Narrator: 00:41:20

Thank you for listening to the WWIA podcast.

To learn more about the Wounded warriors in Action foundation and how you can get involved, please visit our website at WWIA or follow us on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

If you'd like to comment or offer feedback about our podcast, or if you have a suggestion for a future episode, please email us@podcastwwiaf.org thank you for your support and for helping us honor, connect and heal our combat wounded Purple Heart heroes through the power of the great outdoors.