November 18, 2025 • 28 mins
After returning home from a tour in Afghanistan, retired U.S. Marine Corps pilot David Deep hit the throttle on a new mission — one that started with buying a boat.
“Getting on the water was my way of getting back into normal life,” Deep recalled.
For the Huntsville, Alabama native, watersports became more than just a hobby; it was therapy after 28 years of military service. Deep’s journey began at 18 years old when he enrolled in Auburn’s ROTC program.
“ROTC became my fraternity at Auburn,” he said.
By 1988, Deep had earned his degree in aviation management and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. From there, his career soared—logging over 250 combat flight hours during deployments to Somalia, the Persian Gulf and beyond.
“Honored to do it,” he said.
Then came Sept. 11, 2001. Deep was back in action, flying Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopters in Afghanistan. When the dust finally settled, a new calling surfaced for the naval aviator.
After striking up a friendship with a fellow Marine who was a double amputee, Deep sought to share his passion for the water and wondered if someone without lower limbs could learn to wakeboard. The answer wasn’t just yes; it was life changing.
“It wasn’t about being on the water,” Deep said. “It was about the relationship we built."
That experience led Deep to start Wake for Warriors (WFW), a nonprofit grassroots movement that’s grown into a nationwide lifeline for injured veterans. Since its founding in 2012, the organization hosts more than 50 multi-day events across more than 20 states, serving over 600 veterans each year.
“It’ s basically a gateway to connect veterans with each other,” Deep said.
Deep, who retired from the military in 2016, today serves as a first officer on the Airbus A350 with Delta Air Lines. Between international flights, he coordinates WFW events from his home in Salem, Alabama. He relies on a team of volunteers who lend their boats and their time, offering up their houses and even some delicious southern vittles.
“Breakfast is not a jelly roll or donuts,” Deep joked. “It’s 80-year-old ladies bringing in their custom grits and biscuits that have been blessed.”
Aside from catching waves, WFW retreats break down barriers and build new bonds for those who have sacrificed so much for our country.
“I tell them, ‘Don’ t be afraid to tell your story, because it might help somebody that may be behind you in their journey of healing,’” Deep said.
Enter U.S. Air Force veteran Tyler Densford. The Olive Branch, Mississippi native served in the 155th Air Guard Unit in Memphis. In the summer of 2016, he fell 40 feet from a Blackhawk helicopter during a training mission. The accident paralyzed him from the chest down.
Months later, Densford arrived at a WFW event carrying more than physical scars. He was searching for hope and healing. Alongside his loyal service dog, Able, he discovered a new community who lifted him higher than any wake ever could.
“My life changed because of the impact that Wake for Warriors had on me,” Densford said. “Now I get to share that experience with other people and help them have a better life.”
WFW has extended beyond combat veterans to include first responders and adaptive sports participants. Recently, the group hosted Auburn’s Wheelchair Basketball team for a challenging day of wakeboarding on nearby Lake Harding.
Thanks to a lineup of generous sponsors, WFW retreats are free for veterans and their families. Visit their website to get plugged into the mission!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hello and welcome to EverythingAuburn, the podcast here
at Auburn University,where we get to speak
to a new member of the Auburn Familyevery single month.
And I am so excitedthat you're here with us today.
And joining me today is, am I correct?
Is that Dalton Odom,a co-host here with me? Wow.
Hey, everybody,you're back from Special Assignment.
I'm back sick.
Thrilled to be back in a minute.
Thank you for joining me.
(00:26):
Thank you for having me.
It's like a homecoming. Honestly, I'm.
I'm truly glad you're here.
For many reasons,but mostly pressure is off.
I'm no longer a solo host right now.
Well, great to be back.
For those of you don't know,I work for the Alumni Association
now, so I get to travel the country.
Yeah, work with plenty.
Of cool Auburn people.
Traveling places like Dallasand Savannah and Memphis and,
(00:48):
you know, just making my rounds aroundthe country.
Didn't want to have an officenext to meeting Auburn people.
Yeah, I no longerhave an office next to Carter.
That's why he cries every day.
So y'all send one up for him?
Yep. That's right.
But speaking of incredible Auburnalums, we have an incredible guest today.
Today we have Mr.
David Deep David how are you doing?
(01:10):
Great. Good.
Thanks for having me.
Welcome to everything Auburn I hate it.
Glad to be here. Yeah.
Well, we're glad you're here.
You know,this is such a great opportunity for us
and as well as and we'll get into it.
But what an awesome timeto have you in in November.
We're here, you know,focusing on Veterans Day
and just really,the whole month, obviously.
But Veterans Day is coming upand just a really awesome
to have you here and be ableto shine a light on the work you do.
(01:32):
Thank you. Awesome. Yeah.
So we'll start out withjust, you know,
some some basic questions.
You know,something along the lines of like,
just tell me your Auburn story. Okay.
Which is reallywhat this podcast is centered around,
you know, talking about Auburn,but tell us how you got to Auburn.
What does Auburn mean to you today?
What did it mean to youwhen you were a student?
(01:52):
Just tell us a little bitabout that, okay?
Yeah.
Well, I grew up in Huntsvilleand I was one of seven kids.
Apparently, I was the favorite.
My mom told me so.
So it's gotta be true.
And,I, you know, went to high school,
graduate high schoolthere, and I was interested
in the Marine Corpsand wanted to become an officer.
And the ROTC programhere had a great reputation at Auburn.
(02:16):
So I applied for that.
In between that I in the summer,right after graduation from high school,
I went to, Marine Corps boot campas a reservist.
So for those of you don't know,there's active duty full time
and then there's reserved where you canbasically do one week and a month.
Two weeksa year would be like the standard,
thing.
So your part time military person.
(02:38):
So I did thatwhile I was going to Auburn as well.
And you know, I the ROTC herebecame my fraternity with great times,
great people,learned a lot here at Auburn
and and just had a great time,great experiences, learn everything.
You know. It's so fun.
(02:58):
And then, graduatedwith a degree in aviation management.
That same day,I got a commission as a second
lieutenant in the Marine Corps, and,became a helicopter pilot
for the Marines.
Flew CH46’s,which is a kind of a transport.
Assault support helicopterand did that for,
(03:22):
ten years of active duty.
And then I decided to pursuean airline career and left active duty
for a while.
And then I kind of missed it.
The camaraderieof hanging out with
fellow Marines and all that.
And so I joined a marine CorpsReserve unit flying
(03:44):
H-1 w Cobra helicopters.
And so I was actually in that schoolthat training on 911.
And I knew that,yeah, yeah, I was out in California.
So a couple hours behind. Yeah.
Buddy of mine calls me up.
Hey, turn on the TV.
And I look, I'm like, oh, yeah,my world is about to turn upside down.
(04:05):
I don't know what.
Yeah, sucks about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So couple years later,I find myself in Afghanistan flying,
Cobra helicopters,you know, taking care of the
people on the ground. Wow.
So, yeah, all total.
I did about, 28 years of,active and reserve and, retired in 2016.
And,that's my kind of Auburn story.
(04:29):
Well, before we go anywhere really quick,I just want to say
thank you for your service.
And thank you for everythingthat you've done. For our country.
Thank you. Really appreciate it.
I was honored to do, like.
But I had an amazing experience.
Met the greatest people you'd everwant to meet.
You've had a lot of reallyinteresting time in the Marines.
Having come out of the Marines,you started
(04:49):
this really wonderful program.
You're going on 13 years,and I'm saying the wait
four year program. Right.
Walk me through when you created that,what that program is
and what kind of the servicethat it provides
for, for veteransthat are kind of coming out of service.
Yeah.
So Wake for Warriorsis a water sports
therapy program for injured, veterans.
(05:10):
And it's basically a kind of a gateway,a way of doing something
that's fun and easy.
But you're also connectingveterans with each other.
And the thing is,we're kind of creating a family
to where,you know, if you had a family member
that needed something,you would do whatever they need,
(05:31):
whether they need a jobor they need help mentally or physically.
We have those kind of resources.
It didn't start that way.
It started with me like,I had this cool idea.
Well, we go all the way back.
I was patient number one.
Let's let's go all the way back.
Let's get into it.
Yeah, let's do it.
So, you know, if you if youhaven't experienced, like, combat
(05:53):
or some traumatic experiencethat had to be combat, it could be,
you know, you had canceror you got in a serious accident.
And those traumatic experienceschange the way
you think about everything.
Your priorities are totally different.
Your life outlook is different.
And so that was kind of the the evidenceof how wakeful warriors got started.
For me, getting on the waterwas my way of getting back
(06:18):
into like normal life.
So I came back from Afghanistanand one of the first things
I did was buy a boat,because I, I had previous experience
getting on the waterwas something
that was very healingand therapeutic for me.
And so it was natural to do that.
And eventually I was like, man,I need to share this with people and
(06:41):
I was at amarine Corps birthday celebration
and I met this, marinedouble amputee
and I was like, hey, man,I got this idea.
I want to teach people how to wakeboard.
You want to come to my house?
And you know, his storieslike this
random dude walks out and he's like, hey,do you want to come in my house?
(07:01):
You know, which is.
But but to his credit,you know, he's like, yeah, I'll do you.
That's a brave guy, right? The great guy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So,that was the first week
for his event was one guyand neither one of us
really knew what we were doing.
I didn't know what to teacha guy with no legs.
I had a wakeboardand he didn't know how to wakeboard.
(07:22):
But between the two of us,we figured it out.
And the other part of that wasit wasn't about being on the water,
it was about the relationshipthat we sure
that we established with each other.
And that was in 2012.
And he is still on the board,he's still
advising, he's still coaching, andhe's he's a great wakeboard. Now
(07:47):
I know some.
Yeah.
And it's and he'syou know it hasn't slowed him down.
And he's been a great resourcefor me to learn
about all the challengesthat you have
when you have a setback like that.
So you've been doing thisfor about 13 years now
from just the random guy you ran into.
Yeah.
And coerced himin the coming on the lake, right? Yeah.
(08:08):
To today.
How has it kind of grownover those 13 years?
And some of those experiencesthat you've had? Yeah.
Well, first of all,it wasn't peer pressure.
No. Yeah.
No, it was, it was aggressive motivation.
There you go.
There you go.
That's a very military.
Yes.
But, yeah. Yeah.
It's changed a tremendous amountbecause, you know, when I first started,
it was me going to,you know, Craigslist and buying boards
(08:30):
and the, the boat that I could afford,which was an a lot.
And, you know, just me out there.
But then since then, it's growninto a family of people
that it's all volunteer.
So people are doing itbecause they want to do it.
And they,they want to live on these
people that are coming. Andso that's the big
change, is that it's waybigger than one person.
(08:53):
It started with one person.
But in the end I can only do so much.
And I rely on awesome peoplewho volunteer their boats, their time,
they open up their houses,provide food,
they donate all those things thatI needed and couldn't provide for,
you know, myself.
So it's become this big familyand we do events across the country.
(09:17):
We have about 22 or 23 statesthat we do these events,
and we spend a little over100 days on the water each year.
Oh, man, that's incredible.
So it just sort of that one personand actually the second,
event was his buddy next doorwho was also a double amputee. Oh, wow.
Yeah,it's a kind of a funny story,
(09:38):
because they arethe only two people that live on.
They both had houses provided by, but,an organization,
and they built these two housesright next to each other
because they were good friends.
And that's on the streetwhere the there's only two houses
there do housesand they petitioned the city
to change the name ofthe street to No Leg Lane.
(10:00):
So.
Right.
And the city's like, no,I don't think so. Yeah.
But lady chose like,I don't know that quite,
you know, in my experience,local governments don't quite
have the same sense of humor. Yeah.
So but I was like,what a great attitude
that these guys have.
You know,they just kind of put themselves and,
you know, it's not like.
And that was the otherpart of my learning process is like,
(10:22):
you know, how do you handle all that?
Right.
And so the first time I metTony was the
where's the first person that I taught?
I was like, oh, you know,how do I tiptoe around this?
And what do I do?
And it's like, no,I'm not looking at Tony the amputee.
It's just Tony, my buddy now.
Yeah.
And same with,you know, 100 other guys that have these.
(10:43):
They've had setbacks in their lives.
But now I just look at them as,oh that's my buddy.
That's my buddy Tyler.
Tell us a little bitkind of about the events that y'all do.
And who can participate okay.
In these events,do you have to be in the military
or formerly? Did you not have to be?
That is a great questionbecause it started as, oh,
you know, combat only veteransthat have been injured.
(11:03):
But, you know, as we've expandedand have opportunities
to share thiswith others, we now do other events
with first responders and,just folks
that have had setbacks and lives.
So not military,but we have the opportunity
to share this, this fun sport.
And we have the equipment,we have the talent and the gear
(11:24):
and people and peoplethat want to
share this experience with othersso that it's kind of evolved
into being more open.
But your typicalevent starts on a Thursday.
You come in, Thursday evening,have dinner, get set up.
The beautiful thingabout many of our events is people
on that lake open up their housesand like, yeah, stay here for free.
(11:48):
Very cool.
Yeah, it does to one of many things.
But one thing isyou've already established a relationship
and you're creating a vibe like, hey,come over to my lake house
and hang out, right?
Which is a great way to get started.
Yeah.
And the feedback that we've hadis like immediately when I walked
in, all these like, coolpeople, like, surrounding me,
they're welcoming me.
(12:08):
And I feel like,you know, this is super cool
and relaxing.
It's not like, oh, I'm trying to,you know, do whatever, right? Right.
This isn't like an Olympic sport or,you know, it's
just like hanging out withwith your with your new family.
So you get settled, have dinner,go over a little, you know,
what's going to happen forthe next few days. And
(12:30):
they head back the next morning.
There's breakfast.
And this isn't like your normal like,hey, here's a,
you know, jelly roll or whatever.
Some donuts.
This is like80 year old ladies bring in their
custom grits, knowtheir special gifts and
and biscuits that haven't been blessed.
(12:50):
You know that kind of like.
Yeah, that thing.
And you're like, mostly butter.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Well, that's the first ingredientand probably the last. Yeah.
Of course.
Yeah.
And so, you know,we have people come in
from all over the country, right.
These Californianslike one of those things, right.
Where somebody from,you know, the Midwest or,
you know, North or whateverand saw the screen.
What are these,what are these the flavor.
It's it's it's.
(13:11):
Yeah.
So yeah, they, you know, they're fun.
And thenwe get out a little safety brief
and they ride in the morning till lunch,take a little break
and then go right back outand ride until dinner and then dinner.
After dinner you're kind of hanging out.
They're pretty much worn out.
You know, it's a lot of work,especially if you're out in the zone
(13:33):
and you'relearning for the first time
and you're using musclesand you're not used to and, and all that.
So you're,you're wearing yourself out for sure,
but you're also ecstaticthat you could done something
new and you've met these peopleand you're hanging out.
And sobut the day doesn't the night
doesn't, like, go rage.
There's no raging parties.
Oh, sure, sure.
(13:53):
Oh, it's 830. Maybe we should have had.
So, But it's on already.
But it's great, you know,because you have that,
you know, you're hanging out,and that's
when all the conversations start talking.
You've had a great day.
You're relaxed, and then, you know,maybe you're going to tell
the story of how,you know, you got to where you were.
(14:14):
And it's not in a big group.
It's mostly like one on one or,you know, a couple people hanging out,
telling their story.
And I encourage people to do that.
One of the first things I dowhen I, you know,
welcome them and do your brief has like,look around.
Yeah, there's a lot of uglypeople here,
but they have some incredible storiesthat you should get to know these people
(14:37):
and tell your story.
Don't be afraid totell your story either.
Because it might help somebody out.
You know, they may bebehind you in their journey of healing,
but you could share your storyas an encouragement of,
you know, where you were towhere you are now.
So all those thingsthere's nothing that's program.
It just magically happens.
(14:58):
We're just creating an environmentwhere you're feeling relaxed
and you're loved and you're cared about,and they know that
and we're doing something fun.
But in the end,you're just putting people together
to create these,to build this relationship
in these families.
And so that's day one.
Oh yeah.
(15:21):
Then, you know, you're okay.
You've kind of learnedhow to do this thing.
You've learned a wakeboardor, and, or wake surf
and you don't want it to end.
So there's a whole nother day.
Beautiful that you're out thereand you're challenging each other.
Course.
You know, it's not likeI try to tell people like,
you're not going to get to the Olympicson wakeboarding, right? Surfing.
(15:44):
I mean, I'msure they all believe you in there
too, right? Yeah.
We do.
We do actually have competitions,you know, that have competitions that we,
we for with our partners.
We were able to get these guysand to challenge themselves
and each other.
But you know of courseyou also dealing with people that are
have that type of a,you know, super intense
(16:04):
oh yeah mentality. Right.
And I have to tell them,hey man, you got to kind of relax.
This is surfing.
This isn't like you're not kicking downdoors.
You're not you'rejumping out of airplanes.
You're just with learnto not go to the hospital. Yes.
So you got to dial it down.
Yeah.
And a lot of itis just part of the
learning process of it is okay.
(16:26):
You just got to relax and listen.
Don't try to do all your work yourself.
Let the boat help you out.
Listen to what we're telling you.
I was like, hey, man,you your intensity
level is like bank robbery.
Kind of like you're goingto go steal something.
I need you to breathe.
You need to, like, relaxand dial it down to, like,
at least steal on a candy baror something like that.
(16:48):
And, you know,you're on a heist and get petty theft.
Yes. Yeah.
Little smash and grab.
Now you're like, don't go crazy, right?
So learning,you know, once they learn to relax,
then things flow a lot easier.
And, so again Thursday.
Right.
All day Friday, all day Saturday.
(17:10):
And Sunday head out.
That's our typical.
And I know it varies a little bit.
And we do some a few variances of thatdepending on where we are
and that we just wrapped upan event in Arizona last this weekend.
I wasn't there, but their,the way they do it is come on Thursday.
Right.
(17:30):
All day Fridayand then half day Saturday
and then Saturday.
All these people that have these, FordRaptors show up, and it's a family event.
So families all hop in these vehiclesand they whip out in the desert
and get around and cruise, right?
Yeah, brother. Yeah.
I had a blast.
So fun to do some desert surfing.
(17:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that's one of thethings that kind of varies.
And then we actually havesome winter sports as well.
Kind of keep playing all year round.
Snowboarding.
We partner with other organizationsthat know what they're doing.
I could not teach one personthat a snowboarder.
Well, that we don't have the equipmentthat they do.
So we basically provide themveterans that want to learn
(18:15):
and be challenged in that.
On the wet snow.
Yeah,I think it's probably good that
the alabamian isn't teaching people.
Yeah, true statements and snowboarding.
Yeah.
You know, I'm sure you can be good,but I know my limitations.
Like trust in the fat chef, right?
I believe, you know,I'll take somebody from Colorado
to teach me, right? Right. Yeah.
And there's another thing.
I wanted to make sure we got a chanceto talk about.
(18:37):
It's adjacent to Wake Forest.
But I know you also have a passionfor adaptive sports.
There's something that happens hereat Auburn is, you know,
wheelchair basketball, for instance.
It's a great thing to do here.
I wanted to get a chanceto talk about some other things
that you're really involvedin and passionate about,
kind of adjacent to your work for years.
Yeah. Jack here.
Well, yeah,I mean, again, I kind of comes back to,
like, you had a setback in your life.
(18:58):
Yeah.
And how are you going to deal with it?
Right?
Are you going to just, like,sit and feel sorry for yourself,
or are you going to,you know, like, well,
this is my lot in lifethat's going to be
or am I going to go out thereand push myself and try to do,
you know, things,challenge myself, don't be afraid.
Whatever pops up.
So, we had an opportunity.
(19:20):
We we met, we got connectedwith the Auburn wheelchair
basketball team, and,we had an event on Lake Harding,
which is right down the road.
And on that Sunday,the whole team shows up, dude.
And all I have is names and a list oftheir, you know, what?
(19:42):
What happened to them?
Or, you know,they have a lot of bifida or,
you know, empty whatever.
So I'm trying to, like, figure outwhere am I gonna put
these people on boats.
We have like five boatstrying to plug them all in,
and we don't want them to, like,be delayed and and be like,
a long and boring and, you know, like,people struggle.
(20:02):
Well, they show up and they're athletes,you know.
Yeah.
That yeah, they they certainly are.
Right.
They underestimated thembecause they went out there
and they crushed it.
It was so fun to see itwell won their enthusiasm.
And that team, they alreadyhad an amazing amount of camaraderie.
(20:24):
Oh sure.
And just the banter that was going onand yeah well aggressive
motivation right right right right.
Yeah.
They were having a blastand it was just so fun to be around.
And they're young, they're energeticand they're just out there.
But we're alsothey're used to being coached.
So it's like, hey man, just do this boom.
(20:44):
And they're up and runningand they're having a blast.
So we had a great day with themand we look forward to do it again.
Well this is not a one and done.
We've you knowwe've kind of built a relationship
with the now.
And like thethey had a tournament here yesterday
or this past weekend.
And a lot of the volunteers,we had 20 or 25 people
from Lake Harding that was thereon that Sunday when they came.
(21:07):
Oh yeah, we want to gowatch the basketball game.
Oh, awesome.
And it was so fun to just likesit in the stands and watch those guys.
You tried out a surfer wakeboardout there.
Just I mean, itblew me away with the athleticism.
Oh yeah.
These guys they are so good. Yeah.
And we'll be back.
Yeah. Highly recommend going to a game.
(21:28):
Anybody listening or watching us.
Ever been. Yeah.
They're so fun to watch.
Truly impressive.
Yeah. Yeah. Real athletes there.
Yes for sure. Yeah.
Well speaking about that that Auburn tieyou know again
like I said earlierobviously with this being the
Everything Auburn podcast.
Yeah. Brock until I gotta take time off.
(21:48):
You're just sayingCarter just had a rock on hand. Hanson.
You know, but.
And with you being an alum, I'mjust curious what to you,
how does weight for Warriorsrelate to the
the Auburn Creed in any way to you?
You know, it'ssomething that Carter and I talk
about all the time.
And Carter and I will get all gushytalking about the Creed.
But yeah, I will leave it to you.
You don't need to cry thatwell, the obvious one.
(22:11):
You know, there's talk about,you know, supporting your country and,
you know, you love,love your country and all that.
That would be too easy.
I think the one that talks about beingof sound mind and sound body,
in a spirit that is not afraid.
Yeah, yeah.
That I think embodieswhat we're trying to do.
(22:31):
Again,you've had a setback in life, right?
And you're going to be afraidto do things.
I think everybody is,regardless of what were you,
man and all that,you're going to have things
that you're going to be scared to do.
Do what? Scared?
Don't be afraid to challenge yourself.
You're just Isometimes I say it's just us girls.
(22:51):
You just,you know, you're going to you're around
family, right? Yeah.
You're around family.
And if you fail, we're going to be there.
We're not going to like, man, you suck.
You.
It's going to be like, hey, let's do it.
Let's try.
You know, you probably not goingto get up on the first try. That's fine.
You know, let's just keep goingand we'll figure out
a way to make it happen.
(23:13):
So if you're scared, do it.
Scared.
Come off that.
That's been truly incredible.
All right, so another thing that,I definitely wanted to touch on.
You know,I more than one thing that I think
is really cool about this programis that it's free to participate.
And so if you don't mindtalking about that, talk
about sponsorship a little bit.
Also, yeah,we are very fortunate to have the best,
(23:36):
partnerships and water sports industry,not boats.
As our primary, partner,they provide not only a boat for us, but
also a network of dealersacross the country.
So they've introduced is the people thatown Nordics or Ham,
(23:57):
in addition to thedealerships all over the country.
So that is a great network, too.
And you know, thatwe've had that partnership since 2017
and it's not just,oh, it's just the boat company.
No, those are peoplethat are my family now.
They're my friends.
We've been to their weddings.
(24:17):
We've, you know, experiencedlike family type things.
We hang out, you know, together.
And these different events.
So I and that's pretty much the wayall of our partners are.
It's not just, you know,some corporate person like,
oh, we're going to write you a checkand we're going to send you whiteboards.
It's,you know, I can't, call my friend, hey,
a burger wakeboard. Can you help me out?
(24:37):
Oh, yeah. No problem. Then they send it.
So that's the kind offamily support that we have.
And we couldn't do it without them. So,the motor that's in
the these boats is a GM product.
So GMmarinas are another partner of ours.
And they provide uswith a really sweet truck
to drag that boat around the country.
(24:58):
And Piper lightweight boards,those are a big three folks.
And the, you know, the trailerbut made trailers,
all these folksthat I don't want to sound like I'm
a NASCAR guy, but hey, you know,hey, it's working.
Yeah, but, you know, I, wethey don't get
a lot of praise necessarily.
They're doing itbecause they want to do it
(25:18):
and they want to support us.
And I'm super grateful for thembecause we could not do it without them.
And, so that it's it's an awesome,you know, group of folks that
have surrounded us to make it happen.
And we're super grateful for that.
Awesome.
Well,as we kind of round out here,
I wanted to make sureyou got a chance to talk about,
(25:41):
who can participate.
I think I know the answer to that one,but I just want to make sure we get that,
and how to sign up. Where to?
Contacting you guys across.
You know, the whole countrytraveled all over the place.
What's what's the sign up process?
How to get in touchwith you to learn more?
If there's somebody up there listeningwho is interested.
Yeah, well, first of all, I want to say,if, you know,
if you're not a veteran,but, you know, a veteran
(26:03):
that could maybe benefit from this,reach out to them.
That's the best way you can help us isgetting the word out. Because
not everybody obviouslyknow a lot of people
don't know about work for Warriors.
You know, you'll see it on a truck.
And, you know,I get asked a hundred times a day
like, hey, what's that?
And I get those other names,which I'm happy to do
because we want to get that word outand let those that can benefit from it
(26:27):
to get out there and sign up.
So if you do know somebodythat you know that can use it,
please let them know.
Otherwiseyou can go on or you know,
we have social media like for Warriors,we have like four
is that org where there is a placewhere you can sign up if you want to.
You don't have to be military.
(26:47):
You just have to have alittle heart of giving
and you can sign up doesn't doesn't know.
It doesn't matterif you know how to drive a boat
or coach or whatever,if you can make some really big
and grits, you know,maybe we can plug in somewhere, right?
Perfect.
Wonderful.
So, yeah.
(27:08):
And so there's, there's ways of helping.
And if you just, you know, it,it does
it does cost money to do these things.
And, it is like I said,it is all volunteer and,
but we do have to pay for things,you know, boat gas and
equipment.
Our primary things are food,travel, lodging and special equipment.
(27:30):
And insuranceunfortunately, is very expensive.
They're getting more expensive.
So we have to cover ourselveswith liability and all that.
So all those things cost moneyand that's where all the money goes to.
So. Yeah. Cool.
Well, I want to say thank youfor what you do
and for all the service you provideand all the incredible memories
and experiencesyou've given to all these people
(27:52):
and continue to do so,proud that someone's doing that and proud
that it's an alum doing it even more.
Thank you.
And thank you very much.
Thanks for spend some time with us.
And Ithink that'll be it for today's episode.
And thank you for listening.
We're so glad that you were hereto spend some time with us,
getting to know another memberof the Auburn family.
(28:13):
We'll be back again next monthwith another special
end of the year holiday.
Festivities, a bang.
Yeah, a big holiday.
Holiday get together.
But until then, we got 11 more episodesthat we filmed.
Or ten other episodes.
I'm not good at math.
Episodes.
We filmed the rest of the year as volumego back the year before and even back
then to see some reallyincredible people.
(28:33):
We've been able to have,some awesome conversations with.
Absolutely.
But until then, we'll see you next time.
And War Eagle! War Eagle!War Eagle!
Hello and welcome to EverythingAuburn, the podcast here
at Auburn University,where we get to speak
to a new member of the Auburn Familyevery single month.
And I am so excitedthat you're here with us today.
And joining me today is, am I correct?
Is that Dalton Odom,a co-host here with me? Wow.
Hey, everybody,you're back from Special Assignment.
I'm back sick.
Thrilled to be back in a minute.
Thank you for joining me.
(00:26):
Thank you for having me.
It's like a homecoming. Honestly, I'm.
I'm truly glad you're here.
For many reasons,but mostly pressure is off.
I'm no longer a solo host right now.
Well, great to be back.
For those of you don't know,I work for the Alumni Association
now, so I get to travel the country.
Yeah, work with plenty.
Of cool Auburn people.
Traveling places like Dallasand Savannah and Memphis and,
(00:48):
you know, just making my rounds aroundthe country.
Didn't want to have an officenext to meeting Auburn people.
Yeah, I no longerhave an office next to Carter.
That's why he cries every day.
So y'all send one up for him?
Yep. That's right.
But speaking of incredible Auburnalums, we have an incredible guest today.
Today we have Mr.
David Deep David how are you doing?
(01:10):
Great. Good.
Thanks for having me.
Welcome to everything Auburn I hate it.
Glad to be here. Yeah.
Well, we're glad you're here.
You know,this is such a great opportunity for us
and as well as and we'll get into it.
But what an awesome timeto have you in in November.
We're here, you know,focusing on Veterans Day
and just really,the whole month, obviously.
But Veterans Day is coming upand just a really awesome
to have you here and be ableto shine a light on the work you do.
(01:32):
Thank you. Awesome. Yeah.
So we'll start out withjust, you know,
some some basic questions.
You know,something along the lines of like,
just tell me your Auburn story. Okay.
Which is reallywhat this podcast is centered around,
you know, talking about Auburn,but tell us how you got to Auburn.
What does Auburn mean to you today?
What did it mean to youwhen you were a student?
(01:52):
Just tell us a little bitabout that, okay?
Yeah.
Well, I grew up in Huntsvilleand I was one of seven kids.
Apparently, I was the favorite.
My mom told me so.
So it's gotta be true.
And,I, you know, went to high school,
graduate high schoolthere, and I was interested
in the Marine Corpsand wanted to become an officer.
And the ROTC programhere had a great reputation at Auburn.
(02:16):
So I applied for that.
In between that I in the summer,right after graduation from high school,
I went to, Marine Corps boot campas a reservist.
So for those of you don't know,there's active duty full time
and then there's reserved where you canbasically do one week and a month.
Two weeksa year would be like the standard,
thing.
So your part time military person.
(02:38):
So I did thatwhile I was going to Auburn as well.
And you know, I the ROTC herebecame my fraternity with great times,
great people,learned a lot here at Auburn
and and just had a great time,great experiences, learn everything.
You know. It's so fun.
(02:58):
And then, graduatedwith a degree in aviation management.
That same day,I got a commission as a second
lieutenant in the Marine Corps, and,became a helicopter pilot
for the Marines.
Flew CH46’s,which is a kind of a transport.
Assault support helicopterand did that for,
(03:22):
ten years of active duty.
And then I decided to pursuean airline career and left active duty
for a while.
And then I kind of missed it.
The camaraderieof hanging out with
fellow Marines and all that.
And so I joined a marine CorpsReserve unit flying
(03:44):
H-1 w Cobra helicopters.
And so I was actually in that schoolthat training on 911.
And I knew that,yeah, yeah, I was out in California.
So a couple hours behind. Yeah.
Buddy of mine calls me up.
Hey, turn on the TV.
And I look, I'm like, oh, yeah,my world is about to turn upside down.
(04:05):
I don't know what.
Yeah, sucks about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So couple years later,I find myself in Afghanistan flying,
Cobra helicopters,you know, taking care of the
people on the ground. Wow.
So, yeah, all total.
I did about, 28 years of,active and reserve and, retired in 2016.
And,that's my kind of Auburn story.
(04:29):
Well, before we go anywhere really quick,I just want to say
thank you for your service.
And thank you for everythingthat you've done. For our country.
Thank you. Really appreciate it.
I was honored to do, like.
But I had an amazing experience.
Met the greatest people you'd everwant to meet.
You've had a lot of reallyinteresting time in the Marines.
Having come out of the Marines,you started
(04:49):
this really wonderful program.
You're going on 13 years,and I'm saying the wait
four year program. Right.
Walk me through when you created that,what that program is
and what kind of the servicethat it provides
for, for veteransthat are kind of coming out of service.
Yeah.
So Wake for Warriorsis a water sports
therapy program for injured, veterans.
(05:10):
And it's basically a kind of a gateway,a way of doing something
that's fun and easy.
But you're also connectingveterans with each other.
And the thing is,we're kind of creating a family
to where,you know, if you had a family member
that needed something,you would do whatever they need,
(05:31):
whether they need a jobor they need help mentally or physically.
We have those kind of resources.
It didn't start that way.
It started with me like,I had this cool idea.
Well, we go all the way back.
I was patient number one.
Let's let's go all the way back.
Let's get into it.
Yeah, let's do it.
So, you know, if you if youhaven't experienced, like, combat
(05:53):
or some traumatic experiencethat had to be combat, it could be,
you know, you had canceror you got in a serious accident.
And those traumatic experienceschange the way
you think about everything.
Your priorities are totally different.
Your life outlook is different.
And so that was kind of the the evidenceof how wakeful warriors got started.
For me, getting on the waterwas my way of getting back
(06:18):
into like normal life.
So I came back from Afghanistanand one of the first things
I did was buy a boat,because I, I had previous experience
getting on the waterwas something
that was very healingand therapeutic for me.
And so it was natural to do that.
And eventually I was like, man,I need to share this with people and
(06:41):
I was at amarine Corps birthday celebration
and I met this, marinedouble amputee
and I was like, hey, man,I got this idea.
I want to teach people how to wakeboard.
You want to come to my house?
And you know, his storieslike this
random dude walks out and he's like, hey,do you want to come in my house?
(07:01):
You know, which is.
But but to his credit,you know, he's like, yeah, I'll do you.
That's a brave guy, right? The great guy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So,that was the first week
for his event was one guyand neither one of us
really knew what we were doing.
I didn't know what to teacha guy with no legs.
I had a wakeboardand he didn't know how to wakeboard.
(07:22):
But between the two of us,we figured it out.
And the other part of that wasit wasn't about being on the water,
it was about the relationshipthat we sure
that we established with each other.
And that was in 2012.
And he is still on the board,he's still
advising, he's still coaching, andhe's he's a great wakeboard. Now
(07:47):
I know some.
Yeah.
And it's and he'syou know it hasn't slowed him down.
And he's been a great resourcefor me to learn
about all the challengesthat you have
when you have a setback like that.
So you've been doing thisfor about 13 years now
from just the random guy you ran into.
Yeah.
And coerced himin the coming on the lake, right? Yeah.
(08:08):
To today.
How has it kind of grownover those 13 years?
And some of those experiencesthat you've had? Yeah.
Well, first of all,it wasn't peer pressure.
No. Yeah.
No, it was, it was aggressive motivation.
There you go.
There you go.
That's a very military.
Yes.
But, yeah. Yeah.
It's changed a tremendous amountbecause, you know, when I first started,
it was me going to,you know, Craigslist and buying boards
(08:30):
and the, the boat that I could afford,which was an a lot.
And, you know, just me out there.
But then since then, it's growninto a family of people
that it's all volunteer.
So people are doing itbecause they want to do it.
And they,they want to live on these
people that are coming. Andso that's the big
change, is that it's waybigger than one person.
(08:53):
It started with one person.
But in the end I can only do so much.
And I rely on awesome peoplewho volunteer their boats, their time,
they open up their houses,provide food,
they donate all those things thatI needed and couldn't provide for,
you know, myself.
So it's become this big familyand we do events across the country.
(09:17):
We have about 22 or 23 statesthat we do these events,
and we spend a little over100 days on the water each year.
Oh, man, that's incredible.
So it just sort of that one personand actually the second,
event was his buddy next doorwho was also a double amputee. Oh, wow.
Yeah,it's a kind of a funny story,
(09:38):
because they arethe only two people that live on.
They both had houses provided by, but,an organization,
and they built these two housesright next to each other
because they were good friends.
And that's on the streetwhere the there's only two houses
there do housesand they petitioned the city
to change the name ofthe street to No Leg Lane.
(10:00):
So.
Right.
And the city's like, no,I don't think so. Yeah.
But lady chose like,I don't know that quite,
you know, in my experience,local governments don't quite
have the same sense of humor. Yeah.
So but I was like,what a great attitude
that these guys have.
You know,they just kind of put themselves and,
you know, it's not like.
And that was the otherpart of my learning process is like,
(10:22):
you know, how do you handle all that?
Right.
And so the first time I metTony was the
where's the first person that I taught?
I was like, oh, you know,how do I tiptoe around this?
And what do I do?
And it's like, no,I'm not looking at Tony the amputee.
It's just Tony, my buddy now.
Yeah.
And same with,you know, 100 other guys that have these.
(10:43):
They've had setbacks in their lives.
But now I just look at them as,oh that's my buddy.
That's my buddy Tyler.
Tell us a little bitkind of about the events that y'all do.
And who can participate okay.
In these events,do you have to be in the military
or formerly? Did you not have to be?
That is a great questionbecause it started as, oh,
you know, combat only veteransthat have been injured.
(11:03):
But, you know, as we've expandedand have opportunities
to share thiswith others, we now do other events
with first responders and,just folks
that have had setbacks and lives.
So not military,but we have the opportunity
to share this, this fun sport.
And we have the equipment,we have the talent and the gear
(11:24):
and people and peoplethat want to
share this experience with othersso that it's kind of evolved
into being more open.
But your typicalevent starts on a Thursday.
You come in, Thursday evening,have dinner, get set up.
The beautiful thingabout many of our events is people
on that lake open up their housesand like, yeah, stay here for free.
(11:48):
Very cool.
Yeah, it does to one of many things.
But one thing isyou've already established a relationship
and you're creating a vibe like, hey,come over to my lake house
and hang out, right?
Which is a great way to get started.
Yeah.
And the feedback that we've hadis like immediately when I walked
in, all these like, coolpeople, like, surrounding me,
they're welcoming me.
(12:08):
And I feel like,you know, this is super cool
and relaxing.
It's not like, oh, I'm trying to,you know, do whatever, right? Right.
This isn't like an Olympic sport or,you know, it's
just like hanging out withwith your with your new family.
So you get settled, have dinner,go over a little, you know,
what's going to happen forthe next few days. And
(12:30):
they head back the next morning.
There's breakfast.
And this isn't like your normal like,hey, here's a,
you know, jelly roll or whatever.
Some donuts.
This is like80 year old ladies bring in their
custom grits, knowtheir special gifts and
and biscuits that haven't been blessed.
(12:50):
You know that kind of like.
Yeah, that thing.
And you're like, mostly butter.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Well, that's the first ingredientand probably the last. Yeah.
Of course.
Yeah.
And so, you know,we have people come in
from all over the country, right.
These Californianslike one of those things, right.
Where somebody from,you know, the Midwest or,
you know, North or whateverand saw the screen.
What are these,what are these the flavor.
It's it's it's.
(13:11):
Yeah.
So yeah, they, you know, they're fun.
And thenwe get out a little safety brief
and they ride in the morning till lunch,take a little break
and then go right back outand ride until dinner and then dinner.
After dinner you're kind of hanging out.
They're pretty much worn out.
You know, it's a lot of work,especially if you're out in the zone
(13:33):
and you'relearning for the first time
and you're using musclesand you're not used to and, and all that.
So you're,you're wearing yourself out for sure,
but you're also ecstaticthat you could done something
new and you've met these peopleand you're hanging out.
And sobut the day doesn't the night
doesn't, like, go rage.
There's no raging parties.
Oh, sure, sure.
(13:53):
Oh, it's 830. Maybe we should have had.
So, But it's on already.
But it's great, you know,because you have that,
you know, you're hanging out,and that's
when all the conversations start talking.
You've had a great day.
You're relaxed, and then, you know,maybe you're going to tell
the story of how,you know, you got to where you were.
(14:14):
And it's not in a big group.
It's mostly like one on one or,you know, a couple people hanging out,
telling their story.
And I encourage people to do that.
One of the first things I dowhen I, you know,
welcome them and do your brief has like,look around.
Yeah, there's a lot of uglypeople here,
but they have some incredible storiesthat you should get to know these people
(14:37):
and tell your story.
Don't be afraid totell your story either.
Because it might help somebody out.
You know, they may bebehind you in their journey of healing,
but you could share your storyas an encouragement of,
you know, where you were towhere you are now.
So all those thingsthere's nothing that's program.
It just magically happens.
(14:58):
We're just creating an environmentwhere you're feeling relaxed
and you're loved and you're cared about,and they know that
and we're doing something fun.
But in the end,you're just putting people together
to create these,to build this relationship
in these families.
And so that's day one.
Oh yeah.
(15:21):
Then, you know, you're okay.
You've kind of learnedhow to do this thing.
You've learned a wakeboardor, and, or wake surf
and you don't want it to end.
So there's a whole nother day.
Beautiful that you're out thereand you're challenging each other.
Course.
You know, it's not likeI try to tell people like,
you're not going to get to the Olympicson wakeboarding, right? Surfing.
(15:44):
I mean, I'msure they all believe you in there
too, right? Yeah.
We do.
We do actually have competitions,you know, that have competitions that we,
we for with our partners.
We were able to get these guysand to challenge themselves
and each other.
But you know of courseyou also dealing with people that are
have that type of a,you know, super intense
(16:04):
oh yeah mentality. Right.
And I have to tell them,hey man, you got to kind of relax.
This is surfing.
This isn't like you're not kicking downdoors.
You're not you'rejumping out of airplanes.
You're just with learnto not go to the hospital. Yes.
So you got to dial it down.
Yeah.
And a lot of itis just part of the
learning process of it is okay.
(16:26):
You just got to relax and listen.
Don't try to do all your work yourself.
Let the boat help you out.
Listen to what we're telling you.
I was like, hey, man,you your intensity
level is like bank robbery.
Kind of like you're goingto go steal something.
I need you to breathe.
You need to, like, relaxand dial it down to, like,
at least steal on a candy baror something like that.
(16:48):
And, you know,you're on a heist and get petty theft.
Yes. Yeah.
Little smash and grab.
Now you're like, don't go crazy, right?
So learning,you know, once they learn to relax,
then things flow a lot easier.
And, so again Thursday.
Right.
All day Friday, all day Saturday.
(17:10):
And Sunday head out.
That's our typical.
And I know it varies a little bit.
And we do some a few variances of thatdepending on where we are
and that we just wrapped upan event in Arizona last this weekend.
I wasn't there, but their,the way they do it is come on Thursday.
Right.
(17:30):
All day Fridayand then half day Saturday
and then Saturday.
All these people that have these, FordRaptors show up, and it's a family event.
So families all hop in these vehiclesand they whip out in the desert
and get around and cruise, right?
Yeah, brother. Yeah.
I had a blast.
So fun to do some desert surfing.
(17:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that's one of thethings that kind of varies.
And then we actually havesome winter sports as well.
Kind of keep playing all year round.
Snowboarding.
We partner with other organizationsthat know what they're doing.
I could not teach one personthat a snowboarder.
Well, that we don't have the equipmentthat they do.
So we basically provide themveterans that want to learn
(18:15):
and be challenged in that.
On the wet snow.
Yeah,I think it's probably good that
the alabamian isn't teaching people.
Yeah, true statements and snowboarding.
Yeah.
You know, I'm sure you can be good,but I know my limitations.
Like trust in the fat chef, right?
I believe, you know,I'll take somebody from Colorado
to teach me, right? Right. Yeah.
And there's another thing.
I wanted to make sure we got a chanceto talk about.
(18:37):
It's adjacent to Wake Forest.
But I know you also have a passionfor adaptive sports.
There's something that happens hereat Auburn is, you know,
wheelchair basketball, for instance.
It's a great thing to do here.
I wanted to get a chanceto talk about some other things
that you're really involvedin and passionate about,
kind of adjacent to your work for years.
Yeah. Jack here.
Well, yeah,I mean, again, I kind of comes back to,
like, you had a setback in your life.
(18:58):
Yeah.
And how are you going to deal with it?
Right?
Are you going to just, like,sit and feel sorry for yourself,
or are you going to,you know, like, well,
this is my lot in lifethat's going to be
or am I going to go out thereand push myself and try to do,
you know, things,challenge myself, don't be afraid.
Whatever pops up.
So, we had an opportunity.
(19:20):
We we met, we got connectedwith the Auburn wheelchair
basketball team, and,we had an event on Lake Harding,
which is right down the road.
And on that Sunday,the whole team shows up, dude.
And all I have is names and a list oftheir, you know, what?
(19:42):
What happened to them?
Or, you know,they have a lot of bifida or,
you know, empty whatever.
So I'm trying to, like, figure outwhere am I gonna put
these people on boats.
We have like five boatstrying to plug them all in,
and we don't want them to, like,be delayed and and be like,
a long and boring and, you know, like,people struggle.
(20:02):
Well, they show up and they're athletes,you know.
Yeah.
That yeah, they they certainly are.
Right.
They underestimated thembecause they went out there
and they crushed it.
It was so fun to see itwell won their enthusiasm.
And that team, they alreadyhad an amazing amount of camaraderie.
(20:24):
Oh sure.
And just the banter that was going onand yeah well aggressive
motivation right right right right.
Yeah.
They were having a blastand it was just so fun to be around.
And they're young, they're energeticand they're just out there.
But we're alsothey're used to being coached.
So it's like, hey man, just do this boom.
(20:44):
And they're up and runningand they're having a blast.
So we had a great day with themand we look forward to do it again.
Well this is not a one and done.
We've you knowwe've kind of built a relationship
with the now.
And like thethey had a tournament here yesterday
or this past weekend.
And a lot of the volunteers,we had 20 or 25 people
from Lake Harding that was thereon that Sunday when they came.
(21:07):
Oh yeah, we want to gowatch the basketball game.
Oh, awesome.
And it was so fun to just likesit in the stands and watch those guys.
You tried out a surfer wakeboardout there.
Just I mean, itblew me away with the athleticism.
Oh yeah.
These guys they are so good. Yeah.
And we'll be back.
Yeah. Highly recommend going to a game.
(21:28):
Anybody listening or watching us.
Ever been. Yeah.
They're so fun to watch.
Truly impressive.
Yeah. Yeah. Real athletes there.
Yes for sure. Yeah.
Well speaking about that that Auburn tieyou know again
like I said earlierobviously with this being the
Everything Auburn podcast.
Yeah. Brock until I gotta take time off.
(21:48):
You're just sayingCarter just had a rock on hand. Hanson.
You know, but.
And with you being an alum, I'mjust curious what to you,
how does weight for Warriorsrelate to the
the Auburn Creed in any way to you?
You know, it'ssomething that Carter and I talk
about all the time.
And Carter and I will get all gushytalking about the Creed.
But yeah, I will leave it to you.
You don't need to cry thatwell, the obvious one.
(22:11):
You know, there's talk about,you know, supporting your country and,
you know, you love,love your country and all that.
That would be too easy.
I think the one that talks about beingof sound mind and sound body,
in a spirit that is not afraid.
Yeah, yeah.
That I think embodieswhat we're trying to do.
(22:31):
Again,you've had a setback in life, right?
And you're going to be afraidto do things.
I think everybody is,regardless of what were you,
man and all that,you're going to have things
that you're going to be scared to do.
Do what? Scared?
Don't be afraid to challenge yourself.
You're just Isometimes I say it's just us girls.
(22:51):
You just,you know, you're going to you're around
family, right? Yeah.
You're around family.
And if you fail, we're going to be there.
We're not going to like, man, you suck.
You.
It's going to be like, hey, let's do it.
Let's try.
You know, you probably not goingto get up on the first try. That's fine.
You know, let's just keep goingand we'll figure out
a way to make it happen.
(23:13):
So if you're scared, do it.
Scared.
Come off that.
That's been truly incredible.
All right, so another thing that,I definitely wanted to touch on.
You know,I more than one thing that I think
is really cool about this programis that it's free to participate.
And so if you don't mindtalking about that, talk
about sponsorship a little bit.
Also, yeah,we are very fortunate to have the best,
(23:36):
partnerships and water sports industry,not boats.
As our primary, partner,they provide not only a boat for us, but
also a network of dealersacross the country.
So they've introduced is the people thatown Nordics or Ham,
(23:57):
in addition to thedealerships all over the country.
So that is a great network, too.
And you know, thatwe've had that partnership since 2017
and it's not just,oh, it's just the boat company.
No, those are peoplethat are my family now.
They're my friends.
We've been to their weddings.
(24:17):
We've, you know, experiencedlike family type things.
We hang out, you know, together.
And these different events.
So I and that's pretty much the wayall of our partners are.
It's not just, you know,some corporate person like,
oh, we're going to write you a checkand we're going to send you whiteboards.
It's,you know, I can't, call my friend, hey,
a burger wakeboard. Can you help me out?
(24:37):
Oh, yeah. No problem. Then they send it.
So that's the kind offamily support that we have.
And we couldn't do it without them. So,the motor that's in
the these boats is a GM product.
So GMmarinas are another partner of ours.
And they provide uswith a really sweet truck
to drag that boat around the country.
(24:58):
And Piper lightweight boards,those are a big three folks.
And the, you know, the trailerbut made trailers,
all these folksthat I don't want to sound like I'm
a NASCAR guy, but hey, you know,hey, it's working.
Yeah, but, you know, I, wethey don't get
a lot of praise necessarily.
They're doing itbecause they want to do it
(25:18):
and they want to support us.
And I'm super grateful for thembecause we could not do it without them.
And, so that it's it's an awesome,you know, group of folks that
have surrounded us to make it happen.
And we're super grateful for that.
Awesome.
Well,as we kind of round out here,
I wanted to make sureyou got a chance to talk about,
(25:41):
who can participate.
I think I know the answer to that one,but I just want to make sure we get that,
and how to sign up. Where to?
Contacting you guys across.
You know, the whole countrytraveled all over the place.
What's what's the sign up process?
How to get in touchwith you to learn more?
If there's somebody up there listeningwho is interested.
Yeah, well, first of all, I want to say,if, you know,
if you're not a veteran,but, you know, a veteran
(26:03):
that could maybe benefit from this,reach out to them.
That's the best way you can help us isgetting the word out. Because
not everybody obviouslyknow a lot of people
don't know about work for Warriors.
You know, you'll see it on a truck.
And, you know,I get asked a hundred times a day
like, hey, what's that?
And I get those other names,which I'm happy to do
because we want to get that word outand let those that can benefit from it
(26:27):
to get out there and sign up.
So if you do know somebodythat you know that can use it,
please let them know.
Otherwiseyou can go on or you know,
we have social media like for Warriors,we have like four
is that org where there is a placewhere you can sign up if you want to.
You don't have to be military.
(26:47):
You just have to have alittle heart of giving
and you can sign up doesn't doesn't know.
It doesn't matterif you know how to drive a boat
or coach or whatever,if you can make some really big
and grits, you know,maybe we can plug in somewhere, right?
Perfect.
Wonderful.
So, yeah.
(27:08):
And so there's, there's ways of helping.
And if you just, you know, it,it does
it does cost money to do these things.
And, it is like I said,it is all volunteer and,
but we do have to pay for things,you know, boat gas and
equipment.
Our primary things are food,travel, lodging and special equipment.
(27:30):
And insuranceunfortunately, is very expensive.
They're getting more expensive.
So we have to cover ourselveswith liability and all that.
So all those things cost moneyand that's where all the money goes to.
So. Yeah. Cool.
Well, I want to say thank youfor what you do
and for all the service you provideand all the incredible memories
and experiencesyou've given to all these people
(27:52):
and continue to do so,proud that someone's doing that and proud
that it's an alum doing it even more.
Thank you.
And thank you very much.
Thanks for spend some time with us.
And Ithink that'll be it for today's episode.
And thank you for listening.
We're so glad that you were hereto spend some time with us,
getting to know another memberof the Auburn family.
(28:13):
We'll be back again next monthwith another special
end of the year holiday.
Festivities, a bang.
Yeah, a big holiday.
Holiday get together.
But until then, we got 11 more episodesthat we filmed.
Or ten other episodes.
I'm not good at math.
Episodes.
We filmed the rest of the year as volumego back the year before and even back
then to see some reallyincredible people.
(28:33):
We've been able to have,some awesome conversations with.
Absolutely.
But until then, we'll see you next time.
And War Eagle! War Eagle!War Eagle!
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