March 19, 2025 • 50 mins
In this episode of "Nice Ashes," hosts Mike and Nate participate in the 3rd annual Podcast-a-Thon, where over 1,500 podcasts highlight charities. This week, they smoke a Deadwood Crazy Alice with special guest Zach Johnson, CEO of Roger Up, a nonprofit focused on providing outdoor adventures for veterans, first responders, and their families, emphasizing mental health support. The episode features an engaging discussion on Zach's journey, the importance of mental health in the military community, and diverse therapies offered by Roger Up. The trio also enjoys a unique cigar, the Deadwood Cigar Crazy Alice, sharing their thoughts about flavor and experience. Listeners are encouraged to check out Roger Up's website for more information and ways to support the organization. Tune in for compelling stories and insights on advocating for veterans and mental health awareness.
This episode is part of the 2025 Podcasthon.
Please spread the word and consider supporting and/or donating to Roger Up.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Nice Ashes, I'm Mike.
(00:06):
And I'm Nate.
And this episode of Nice Ashes, we're participating in the third annual podcast thon, which is
a collaborative effort.
This year, it's over 1500 podcasts are joining in and we dedicate an episode each one of
those podcasts dedicates an episode to a nonprofit or charity that they want to highlight.
(00:28):
And so this episode we are highlighting Roger up and we've got the founder CEO, Zach Johnson
on with us here.
Say hello, Zach.
Hey everybody.
Thank you for having me.
Appreciate you guys.
Thank you for being on.
And what are we smoking this episode with Zach, Mike?
So we are smoking a cigar that is very popular right now.
(00:48):
It is the Dead with Cigar Crazy Alice, which I believe is a Drew Estates product.
Yes.
And this one looks weird.
Yes, it is a ball, four inch torpedo or a triangle.
I'm sorry, triangular pyramid.
And it's flavored, of course, and should be short and sweet.
(01:09):
What are you carrying your cigar with Nate?
Oh, I am pairing mine with a Kona Big Wave.
How about you?
Either of you?
I'm going with a cup of coffee because it's been a long day.
There you go.
That works too.
There we go.
I don't want to drink all coffee, but it's too late for me to drink coffee.
(01:30):
So I have the Summit Nihilus Irish Dark NA.
Oh, OK.
Good choices.
Yeah.
All right.
So this one has a pigtail.
Do we just pop this one off or do we cut it, Mike?
I would say rip it off or you can cut it if you have a little tiny cutter.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah, I gave mine a cut.
Yeah, the cap is sweet.
It's definitely got a beautiful fragrance to it.
(01:52):
Interesting.
The second puff, I had a little bit of harshness.
Oh, OK.
Yeah.
It's getting pretty much all good things.
It is a very different shape for a cigar.
I'm kind of digging the uniqueness to it.
It's just shape and everything to it.
Yeah.
This is definitely the most aggressive torpedo shaped or not torpedo.
I keep on saying that pyramid shaped cigar that I've ever smoked.
(02:14):
I've had a few shrews that were a similar overall shape to this, but not this aggressive.
It's three quarters of an inch on one side and a quarter inch on the other.
So it's pretty stiff taper.
Yeah, it looks almost like one of those little, I don't know, communion candles or something
where you go and everybody lights off with the other one, you know.
(02:36):
It is similar.
All right.
Well, we're very glad to have you on, Zach.
And you, your company and nonprofit is Roger Up.
Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
Yeah, absolutely.
So by day, I do have a paid job.
I work for the Disabled American Veterans.
So I get to help out with disability claims, benefits, resources, and that's the job that
(02:57):
keeps food on the table and the bills paid.
Back in 2016, I came up with the idea for Roger Up.
And that was just because of the things that I had been through with the VA healthcare
system, the benefits side of things, and just really feeling the need to do away with a
lot of red tape that I was seeing.
(03:19):
So we became accredited with the state of Minnesota in 2018.
And that's where our logo comes into play with the establishment date.
And then we came up or got our 501C3 status back in July of 2023.
And we went full bore September 1st of 2023 with a website, with programming, with team
(03:46):
members, any and everything other than the merchandise line.
And it's been an absolute whirlwind.
It's been such a blessing.
Now to date, in 18 months, we have raised $240,000, which is unheard of.
And I am so proud of my team.
So what Roger Up does is we take veterans, first responders, and their families on all
(04:13):
access paid outdoor adventures with an emphasis on mental health.
So what we try to do is have a licensed psychologist or a mental health professional that comes
out on our trips with us.
And that's whether we are hunting, fishing, camping, backpacking, dog sledding, snowmobiling,
doing all kinds of fun activities for both abled and disabled bodies.
(04:35):
And so we try to have mental health sessions if we can during those things.
So mainly what our bread and butter is, is paying for a lot of those short-term and mental
health care needs.
Some people have been through the VA system and it's just not it for them.
And they need something that's maybe just an outside the box approach to it.
Maybe it's utilizing equine assisted therapy.
(04:58):
Maybe it's using service animals.
Maybe it's EMDR rapid eye movement therapy or personal training needs, dietary needs.
Maybe people are looking at getting back into their faith and it's just really a one shoe
doesn't fit all approach to mental health.
So we do have a faith and fitness team.
We have a women's engagement coordinator for women's specific resources and activities
(05:24):
or outreach events.
And then we just have a fantastic team all around to help out with mental health needs.
So 14 of us, 15 of us now, I suppose, and we are all volunteers.
We don't have any paid staff.
As in, I'm also very proud that on top of the work and the not for profit, I am a full-time
student at St. Claude State University.
(05:46):
I'm getting my master's degree as a clinical mental health counselor, which is going to
allow me to better serve our community on a more individual basis through the organization.
Awesome.
Yeah.
It's been a lot of fun so far.
We've had some amazing experiences between the different rodeos we go to being at the
Duluth Air Show, which we are going again this year, the Blue Angels will be there.
(06:09):
And so we have a booth set up for that weekend and just a lot of other fun activities.
We already have two pheasant hunts planned, a memorial goose hunt for a veteran who passed
away last year.
Their family reached out to us to ask for help to do a fundraiser.
And so it's just going to be an incredible summer.
(06:29):
You know, it's always the winter months or the calm before the storm.
And we really start to ramp up for turkey season.
We already have a turkey hunt planned for April and then it's just gangbusters all summer.
That's great.
I didn't know that you did all the additional therapies.
I went quick and looked you up and I found hunting with veterans, but I didn't know you
(06:53):
did all the other stuff.
That's pretty great.
Yeah.
No, it's wonderful.
And we keep evolving it because we have people that come to us and they ask for just different
things.
Hey, do you guys do this?
Do you do this?
And I mean, hey, I need a resource for this.
Well, if somebody needs a resource for fixing a vehicle or paying for bills that they may
(07:13):
be behind on that they don't have the financial means.
We try to exhaust all current accessibility, whether it be through their county, through
health and human services, through other not for profit organizations that have some seniority
to us, say like the American Legion, the VFW, the DAV or other local agencies that may be
(07:35):
available that have the funding.
And if we've exhausted all those angles, then we actually have paid to fix vehicles for
veterans.
We have paid for getting people caught up on their mortgages, getting people caught
up on their electricity bill, water bill, whatever it may be, utilities.
We just want people to...
The term Roger Up, I guess is the best way to describe it is when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan,
(07:58):
mainly in Afghanistan, a lot of the times we would always go out there after we did
our morning review of what the mission brief is going to be.
Hey, this is the plan of the day.
This is where we're going.
This is how things need to be.
We need to be mindful of enemy activity.
And then I would always go out there.
We'd go to the vehicles if we were mounted and we'd say all vehicles, all vehicles, Roger
(08:19):
Up.
And what I meant is your food, your water, your weapons systems, your serialized gear,
your personnel, your communication systems, the trucks, is everything good to go squared
away so that we have the ability to go get in the fight for days on end if need be.
(08:41):
And so then now what it means to me is, are you okay?
Are you okay with your personal life, your marital status, your childcare, your child
issues?
Are you okay with financial?
Are you employed?
Are you underemployed?
Are you, you know, are you looking for a new career?
(09:01):
Is your disability stuff okay?
We want to make sure that everything is squared away so they are Roger Up to where they are
living the epitome of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That's excellent.
That's awesome.
It's a, it's the work is unbelievably fulfilling.
I can't tell you how many times that, you know, we have people that come to us and just
(09:23):
in tears and saying thank you.
I don't know what I would have done without you guys.
And it's, it's an amazing feeling to know that, you know, they're very prideful group
of individuals with the veterans and the first responders, whether it's male or female, very,
very prideful group.
So for them to ask for help takes a lot.
And it's, and it isn't easy.
(09:43):
I dealt with the same thing coming back from Afghanistan.
It was a stressful deployment.
I hit a 150 to 200 pound ID.
It killed one of my Marines and my driver and I were medevaced.
And so it took me a long time to ask for help myself.
And now I feel like I've, I've weathered that storm and now it's, it's time to give back
(10:05):
as much as possible to help others to heal because we don't want to have any more suicides.
Our statistics, our statistic rate is too high and whatever Roger up can help do to
combat those 22, 23 veterans that are committing suicide every day, along with our first responders
who have taken their own lives.
These are not easy jobs and we acknowledge that.
(10:26):
And we want to make sure that we are the frontline for defense to help them.
Yeah, for sure.
Zach, I was curious on how do most veterans find you or is it more of their family members
finding you on their behalf?
I know when we talked before the show, you said it's also the, the program is also for
(10:46):
family members of veterans or the whole families of veterans.
Yep, absolutely.
And a lot of times the best way to get ahold of us is always just to go to the website.
I mean, you know, when we're out and about, we leave a lot of our handouts at VFWs American
Legions.
We go to, we are in support of the 800 first responders through the Hennepin County Sheriff's
(11:09):
Department.
And that includes the dispatchers, the corrections officers, the deputies, the patrolmen, all
of those 800 employees are supported in the peer support team that Roger Up supports.
And so our goal is to really try to keep connecting with all fire departments, all police departments,
EMTs, corrections officers, getting the word out there about the, the organization, the
(11:34):
programs that we have, the fact that we try to take care of every bit of expense.
So none of that is incurred by the veteran, the first responder, the family member.
And so really going to the RogerUp.org website is always the front, the first way to go about
it.
They can go through the website, whether they want to volunteer, whether they want to purchase
(11:55):
clothing or whether they truly just need support.
It's all on the website.
We have a Facebook page also, as well as an Instagram.
So at Instagram is RogerUp2018, which is our establishment year.
And then with our, with our Facebook, we're growing.
We're over 2,200 followers right now.
(12:16):
We're proud of that.
And it's just growing at a, at a really, really great rate.
And so the word is getting out there a little bit by a little bit, but every piece helps
because a lot of people are not going to ask for help until they hear about what we're
doing.
And I know what we're doing is changing lives.
And I've seen it firsthand.
Yeah, for sure.
How many, how many, I guess people at a time do you typically, typically assist or help?
(12:41):
Yeah.
Right now we're about 45 to 60 veterans, first responders and family members on a monthly
basis.
So it's a good number.
I mean, it's, it's, there are some days that it's gangbusters and it's 30 phone calls in
a day.
Sure.
But they are more or less being case managed, if you will, because they have multiple things.
(13:03):
They have a housing issue, they have financial issues, they have disability claim issues.
And then, yeah, it's, it's, it's just about each individual.
And the part that I love the most about the work is when I sit here and have these conversations
with these individuals, everybody's story is so very different, whether it's a soldier,
(13:26):
a sailor, a Marine, an airman, spaceman, you know, any of these, because we have to, we've
got to include the Space Force now they are, they're there and we love them.
And, you know, we want to make sure that they're included in this conversation.
And so to be able to hear the different stories about how did you serve, where did you serve,
when did you serve, you know, what branch were you in?
(13:46):
What did you do for a job while you were in?
It's, there's so many similarities, but so many differences that make up the military
in the United States and the same thing with the first responders.
They all have been on some extremely incredibly heroic events or calls and whether it's saving
lives or preventing, you know, mass casualty, there's just so many different stories to
(14:11):
it.
And, you know, unfortunately, then mental health comes right in tow with that because
you can't sit there and go through discharging your firearm or in one of our team members
cases there was somebody who took their own life right in front of them.
Very sad, you know, you're working day in day out and, you know, you got to go back
(14:32):
to the shop.
You got to go through, you know, the process of filling out all your paperwork and then
you're supposed to go home like it's okay.
And truth of the matter is you just had one of the most stressful days of your life and
you're supposed to go home like it's a job.
Yeah.
Very, very instances that are very traumatic or potentially very traumatic, not like, not
like getting an angry email from your boss traumatic, but, you know.
(14:57):
Right, exactly.
So, yeah, you can, you can deal with that.
Yeah, different, different kind of traumatic than maybe most of the American population
would realize.
I did see for our listeners, the last time they did, they pulled these statistics in
2023, there are 15.8 million veterans in the United States, which is about 6.1% of the
(15:19):
civilian population, 18 and older.
Yeah.
And we have a little under, we have a little under 300,000 veterans in Minnesota.
And coincidentally, the majority of our veteran population in Minnesota is Vietnam veterans.
We have a high density.
We actually, I think it's, I want to say it's 56 or 58% of all veterans in Minnesota are
(15:41):
Vietnam vets.
So, high density there.
And then also of our entire veteran population, we have, I think it's 8.9.
And I have the pictures on there.
I just don't want to, I don't want to close out of this and lose, lose the feed, but I
do have some of those.
The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs actually just put out its numbers a couple
(16:03):
of weeks ago for census to know how many we have.
But yeah, that's where we just, you know, again, we want to make sure we're capturing
all the different demographics that we have.
And the only, the only ones that we won't help are dishonorable discharges, because
usually there is something from a legal standpoint that falls in line with that.
(16:24):
We won't help any felony sex offenders or felony aggressive, you know, who have been
found guilty.
So, whether it's, you know, murder or assault or things like that.
So that, but otherwise we want to make sure we're trying to help everybody.
We understand that even some of those who are discharged characterized as general,
(16:48):
under honorable conditions or other than honorable.
Now there may be something that's with there is that maybe was unfair and we need to take
a look at that to see if their character of discharge can't be changed.
I actually have two veterans right now that I'm working with on just that.
And one of them has a situation where she was married and it was unfortunate because
she was forced into a situation where she, her husband at the time while she was in forced
(17:13):
her to use, you know, marijuana and alcohol.
And it ended up causing her to pop on a urinary analysis, which is a no-go in the military.
And because of her situation being forced into that because of certain things, it's
really sad.
And you're going, well, the department of the air force is reviewing it right now.
And so fingers crossed that she comes out of this with an honorable discharge and gets
(17:38):
to continue on her road because she's at school right now for criminal justice.
And she is kicking butt at life right now being a single mom.
Well, that's great.
I had no idea you could, you could contest or you could change those statuses.
They're very difficult, very difficult, but it is something you can always take a look
at, but there has to be some good ground behind it.
(18:00):
It's not just because, well, I felt it was unfair.
Well, I'm sure you did, but truth of the matter is this is what you did while you were in
and you got a cowboy up to that or a cowgirl up to that.
That's just what it is.
Yeah.
And there's also some administration stuff too, right?
There could potentially be an issue where the person did nothing wrong and their superior
was vindictive or I'm sure that's very far and few between, but I've seen enough episodes
(18:24):
of mash to know that.
Well, and it is, and there are times where it goes on all angles, going up the ranks
or going down the ranks in certain instances.
And the sad part about it is, the part that breaks my heart is probably 96, 98% of all
women that I help through the DAV and through Roger Up are military sexual trauma survivors.
(18:48):
And so there's definitely a very high percentage in the military and we are going to do everything
in our power to make sure that with Roger Up, that when we have our women's specific
retreats, we're doing things to help them to recover from some of that.
And it never goes away completely.
None of our traumas do, but we want to give them some peace of mind to know that we're
(19:10):
going to be here and we're going to be supportive of them.
Sure.
Yeah.
And you guys can feel free to ask any questions.
I'm an open book.
You want to know about, so I'm a Purple Heart recipient.
You want to hear that story, whatever you guys want to talk about, I'll talk about it.
Yeah, Mike, do you have anything?
Otherwise I'm down to hear the Purple Heart story.
I'm definitely down to hear a Purple Heart story.
(19:31):
It's not that glorious.
I definitely wasn't crawling up Iwo Jima like some of the World War II guys and who were
Medal of Honor recipients.
But yeah, I saw on April 2nd, 2010, I was in Helmand province of Afghanistan and we
were building a SWA hut, 20 foot by 40 foot building structure.
(19:55):
And my head, my whole section out there.
So I had eight combat engineers and I had eight infantry guys and we were building this
thing and about four o'clock in the afternoon, we got a call that our explosive ordinance
disposal team needed to go out.
So I called QRF, which means quick reaction force.
My guys dropped their tools, they go running, they grab their gear and there was another
(20:19):
unit in the neighboring area of operation that had been hit by an IED lead vehicle got
hit, passenger broke a leg and everybody was okay.
No KIA killed in action, none in that situation.
And so we loaded up the trucks after we got the report on it, told the OD, talked to them
(20:39):
about where we're going.
And so we escort the explosive ordinance disposal team up there.
And so I'm in the lead vehicle, I got the explosive ordinance disposal team behind me
and then two of my other trucks.
Now I'm skinned, I'm down two Marines because I had to send them down to Dwyer to pick up
concertina wire because our commanding officer had a freaking hard on for putting up force
(21:01):
protection and getting more C wire on the outside.
We're in a huge mansion in the middle of a damn desert.
We don't need any more frickin C wire up there was just ridiculous.
So either way, we had up to 605 and we cross into third battalion 10th Marines area of
operation there an artillery unit, we passed their front gate, give them a wave, whatever.
(21:26):
And then we had down a no name road.
It's not, it's not named on any of the other maps.
So we head down there and we come down and there's a fork in the road and in the fork
in the road, I'm sitting on there on two forms of communication.
I'm communicating with what the other team or the other guys were communicating with
third battalion 10th Marines, making sure we're trying to figure out kind of where we're
(21:47):
supposed to be going.
We're looking at our blue forest trackers, computer screen in front of us.
So kind of got a lot going on.
Well, we stopped at this fork in the road because I'm going, well, I know they're on
like the other side of this house, but which way do I go left or right to get there?
Now the area that we're in, that we had just put, had just driven into the guy who is on
(22:08):
the FBI most wanted list for terrorists is he's number 10 on that list.
This is his area.
This is where he's at.
And even like right before we get hit, I'm watching motorcycles go away and my, my, the
driver of our vehicle, Brian Thompson goes do the hair on the back of my neck standing
up right now.
And I said, all right.
And I said to corporal Curtis, Michael Swenson, he's Lance corporal at the time.
(22:31):
I said, Hey, Swen get down.
So he's up in the turret.
He gets down a little bit and Thompson and I are doing that.
Well, I can see fresh tracks to the left hand side.
And so what, but then, you know, what I'd come to find out is the team that had gotten
hit, they started to go left.
They backed their trucks up and they ended up going right.
So when they went to the right side, they got hit by an IED.
(22:53):
We went down on the left side.
Boom.
They got hit by our IED and it was a big boy.
And so we flew, it split the mine rollers, cold rolled steel, cottering pins were still
hooked in, cut through that, rolled the right mine rollers forward.
We flew about 20 feet in the air, landed on our back, rolled over backwards.
(23:14):
So Swenson was killed and then Thompson smashed his face on the steering wheel, bit through
the end of his tongue, traumatic brain injury.
I hit my head on the blue force tracker, blow up all four screws, took the computer off
the fricking mount.
And we had just put our seat belts on because we were in one of the brand new MATVs.
And when Thompson said my hairs are standing up on the back of my neck, I said, hey, seat
(23:37):
belts on.
And so we started putting our stuff on.
And literally I remember looking down, I'm putting this last one in, click.
I looked up, boom, spray came up over the front of the vehicle and then I'm lights out.
And then my understanding is I was unconscious for about three to five minutes.
And that was the time it took for them to get up towards the vehicle because they had
(23:58):
to break out metal detectors, get them warmed up, sweep all the way up to us to make sure
there weren't any secondaries.
And then I had to have the other only because I only had two other up guns.
So I had to have them mounted either way.
So they had to have 180 degrees on each one of them because we didn't have a third gun
on the EOD truck because again, I was missing two guys, but we still need to go out.
(24:19):
So we went out with less than the minimum we were supposed to.
You're supposed to have basically three per vehicle.
So I should have had 12 and I had 11.
Well, we got sent out anyways, because what are they going to say?
No, you can't.
So and then, yep.
And then after that, I, when I, when I came to, my face was bleeding and I got a puddle
(24:40):
of blood underneath me, which is on the ceiling because the vehicle is now upside down.
And so my, my rifle's wedged in the door.
I can't get it out.
So I ended up crawling out and they called in what we call a nine line.
Nine line is for getting the medevac going.
And so they call in nine line, they called in two KIA and only one of them.
They only thought I was the only survivor.
(25:02):
Brian, Brian Thompson comes out second, but yeah, we were fricking screaming our heads
off for Swenson and there was no response there.
And soon as they pulled us back to the EOD truck, I pulled the camera out of my flag
jacket.
I handed it to one of our guys.
I just said, I don't know what's telling me this right now, but I need somebody to start
taking pictures because I know I'm concussed right now.
(25:24):
And I got a picture of me covered in blood and I look like I'm a deer in the headlights.
And so I ripped open my chin, traumatic brain injury, level three concussion, vertigo, migraines.
I've got tinnitus, bilateral hearing loss.
I got my trapezius muscles, both service connected, whiplash in my neck, my C6 and my L4 vertebrae
are offset.
(25:44):
My hips are twisted and offset.
Bilateral damage to both knees, left ankle, broken tendon, left foot got banged up.
And then just from other deployment stuff, respiratory digestive issues.
And then I got the mental health that goes with all of it.
But I joke around all the time.
The moneymaker is still good.
I can still close a deal.
(26:05):
I can still close a deal if you will.
And I know that my purpose on this planet is Roger up and to be here.
And the work that I do is to honor Corporal Curtis Michael Swenson, to honor his family,
his mom and dad, their Gold Star family.
They live in Rochester, Minnesota, Kay and Dave Swenson.
(26:25):
The work that I do honors their family and their son's legacy.
And it motivates me to get my butt up every morning to make sure that I am here to help
others and there's good days and bad days like everybody else.
And there's days I don't want to get up, but I'm reminded that Curtis paid the ultimate
sacrifice for this great nation and that if I don't get out of bed, I'm doing him a disservice
(26:46):
and I'm disrespecting him.
So it's a good motivation to get up every day to do the work that we're doing.
And we got medevacked out.
It was kind of funny because we're standing at the back of the vehicles.
They moved us all the way to the back of the fourth vehicle or something at that time,
I think.
And all of a sudden we see some guy walking up in front of a bunch of trucks and we go,
(27:06):
oh, who's this jackass?
And well, that'd be a full bird colonel.
So not exactly a jackass.
He's a heavy, heavy brass, heavy officer level six, he's one before a one star general.
So yeah, he's command some weight and he's like, when he comes up to us, why the fuck
aren't the birds on station yet?
Oh, good afternoon, sir.
(27:28):
Well, sir, they said they said air six hours out.
Bullshit, give me that fucking horn.
All right.
Yes, sir.
And freaking handed him.
He goes, break, break, break all channels, all channels, clear AO.
This is Oscar six.
And we're just like, dude, this dude just laid his shit on a table.
And my goodness, like, unbelievable.
(27:49):
You just like you're like, dang, dude, that's what freaking heavy brass brings to the table.
And all of a sudden, bang, two Blackhawks are on the deck.
We got two more gunships on station that are doing circles around us, making sure that
everything's good.
And there I didn't have a care in the world at that point.
And so they put myself and Thompson on one Blackhawk and then a good buddy of mine, him
(28:13):
and one other person carried Swenson's body, put him on the other Blackhawk.
We flew out.
They flew us to Bastone, which is the British side.
And we got stitched up over there.
And yeah.
And then we were we were there when we got cleared.
They flew us back out and we were back out on the mission eight days after the event.
(28:34):
So April 10th, I went back out of the mission.
My hand was absolutely shaking.
But even my commanding officer was like, well, you can be the corporal of the guard.
We'll give you a set of keys and a radio and you can go open doors or else we could send
you back to Germany and send you home.
And it was I know you're not supposed to cuss at an officer.
But I said, said, sir, there's no fucking way.
(28:54):
So my section needs me.
I got to get back on this horse and they need to see that we can live through the worst
of it and we can still stand tall and we can get back up and get back in the fight.
And so after that meeting was over with the commanding officer and a higher level enlisted,
we're walking out and my master sergeant, E8, mass sergeant John Grimsley comes over
puts me in a headlock and he goes, God damn devil dog, you motivate the shit out of me.
(29:17):
But if I hear you talk like that again, we're going to have a real problem.
So note to self, it was your one get out of jail free card to cuss towards an officer
and you're not cussing at him.
I would just you're not supposed to swear at all around them.
That was I screwed up on that one.
But at the same time, I kind of wanted to make my point.
So yeah.
(29:38):
And then they put me back out on in Vic three.
And so I was no longer allowed to be in lead vehicle anymore.
I finished the deployment and we came back and we honored Kurt.
That's a heck of a story for sure.
I said, it's a blessing to be here.
I mean, Iraq, we got shot at 11 times, mostly snipers.
We got mortared and RPG five times.
And again, it's a blessing to be able to talk about it because I've seen seen the dead
(30:01):
Iraqis.
I've seen the dead Afghanis.
I've seen dead children.
That was that's probably still my hardest thing that I've seen as a dead child.
And the story behind that.
But all of it builds me into somebody where I can go do keynote speakings.
I can do a podcast like this.
I'm not clammy.
I have the ability to talk about it.
And I know it's it's it's I'm a firm believer that, you know, there is a brighter day if
(30:23):
you put in the time, effort and energy to work on yourself, whether it's needing to,
you know, some people need to go to treatment.
Some people just need mental health help.
Some people just need a break from life.
But ultimately, there is things to look forward to opportunities out there.
And life's been pretty incredible these last couple of years.
(30:44):
And a lot of that I attest to my faith.
I read the Bible for the first time while audiobook cover to cover.
And I've just really put that at the forefront.
And that has opened up every single piece to my life that if I put faith first, if I
listen and adhere to the word, it's moving mountains in my life.
It's it's unbelievable.
(31:05):
Yeah, that's that's great.
Nate, are you still there?
Yeah, I'm here.
I just.
OK, big, big story, you know.
Oh, yeah.
No, that's a little different than, you know, other things.
And yeah, very, very intense story.
Oh, yeah.
I was going to say, I think what's I don't want to say nice, but I think with the newer
generation of soldiers, military dispatchers, correction officers, all of those roles.
(31:33):
Right.
My grandfather was World War Two vet, didn't talk about anything except nothing.
No, except like a monkey they picked up off off an island and it lived on the ship for
a while.
Right.
But you never heard anything, you know, and that doesn't I mean, that's that's their generation.
They didn't they didn't have the mental health or the really helping in any other way at
(31:57):
the forefront of their thing.
It wasn't part of society.
It wasn't part of the culture.
And to have the younger generation or this new generation, I suppose we're not the youngest
generation anymore, but whatever.
But to have people that can go through something like that and talk about it and talk about
it freely and help other people who have gone through similar things, you know, you just
don't hear a lot of that older generation that had, you know, that told stories of their
(32:22):
time.
It was just something they did and it was their duty.
And then they came back and.
Well, that's how that's how it was.
I mean, even, you know, the, you know, the, the D.A.V., the Disabled American Veterans
has now been around.
This is our centennial year.
We've been around for a hundred years.
So you think 20, you know, 1925, you know, what was just coming to an end?
World War One, right?
(32:43):
Yeah.
And you got kind of that time frame and you got even just before that, you got the Veterans
of Foreign Wars that set about I think they're at about one hundred and four years now.
And the American Legion's just like right neck and neck with them.
And you're going, OK, you got these old school three organizations that have been around
since World War One.
They went through World War Two.
(33:03):
But you know what?
What you did is, hey, you've been having a tough time since you got home.
Hey, come down to the American Legion.
Grab a beer with us.
Grab a steak.
Well, you know what?
One of the guys in our generation and the culture that's in the barracks is is frat
boy.
You know, let's pound beers and, you know, drink ourselves stupid.
Well, that's not going to work for everybody who may struggle with that.
(33:25):
So how do we get them out to things where you can go out ice fishing and, you know,
it might not be as fun as you think it used to be because you pounded Blackberry brandy
and beers, but that's OK.
You can still go out and ice fish and enjoy your time out there catching fish and enjoying
these experiences, because you're not spending money every week at the bar.
Well, now your fishing experiences can be a little bit more expensive, maybe where you
(33:49):
can go on these trips or, hey, get plugged into the different ones.
I mean, between memories made outdoors, take a vet fishing, fishing for life.
I mean, I can I can sit here, hometown heroes outdoors, mandatory fun outdoors.
I can go on and on and on about these outdoor organizations that do this kind of stuff.
So you can you can jam pack your entire hunting season going through organization, organization
(34:14):
almost.
And you know what?
There are people like myself that love to go out, love to be in the community, raise
the money to give these experiences to other people, because I will tell you, when they
are done with that hunt, that fishing trip, the smiles on their faces, the memories they
had from it.
I mean, they're ear to ear.
And you just know you're like, that's all natural endorphin.
(34:36):
It's all it is.
Just pure joy.
You know, the World War Two guys, I mean, my grandfather, World War Two Navy, and come
to doing his his history, come to find out he's on the USS Curtis.
That's always given me goosebumps that Curtis was my Marine who ended up getting killed,
how there was that little correlation in there.
But you know, come to find out, oh, yeah, Mike, I only heard a story the one time.
(34:57):
Oh, yeah, I had a kamikaze hitter at our hospital.
OK, I started doing the history of the USS Curtis.
Come to find out, you know, it was part of Pearl Harbor.
You know, I don't know if he was the ship that was in Pearl Harbor, if he was outside
where they had docked, you know, the majority of the fleet because they knew something might
have been coming.
But it was just really cool to know that, like, you know, I am carrying the torch of
(35:19):
like the next generation to serve because you got a lot of people where, you know, freedom
of speech and freedom.
A lot of things is, you know, at the forefront of a lot of battles here that we have on our
own soil.
Whether you lean one way or another way, it's irrelevant to us with Roger up.
If you need help and you're a good person, we're going to help you.
But those World War Two guys, it was their duty to go serve.
(35:42):
It was their duty to go to World War One or World War Two.
And it was their duty to just you just came back and you just sucked it up and dealt with
it because they're just they are the greatest generation.
They are the hardest, you know, once that, you know, ever walked our soil.
So I have so much respect for them and very proud that my grandfather served.
(36:02):
I'm very proud to have the honor of gotten to meet Herschel Woody Williams, Iwo Jima
Medal of Honor recipient.
One of my prized possessions is I have an autographed Roger up board that I had just
was kind of coming up with things and he signed the Roger up board with our logo and tagline
and everything.
And I also got a picture of him with President Harry Truman and his warrant from his Medal
(36:26):
of Honor.
And little five foot four guy and he went hand to hand and, you know, took down, you
know, I don't know how many different Japanese guys hand to hand.
And then also took a flamethrower and took out a bunch of pill boxes that had, you know,
guns shooting at him.
This is one of the I mean, his Medal of Honor story is next level and he deserves every
(36:48):
bit of it.
But the fact that I got the day after the Super Bowl was here in Minnesota, I got to
go down to the VFW in Minneapolis and I was only one of six people sitting at the table
and I got to have lunch sitting across from him and he's a United States Marine also.
So like he's this, he could have me in front of, you know, I don't know, name an actor
or an actress.
I'd whatever.
(37:08):
Okay, cool.
Put me in front of him.
I turn into a stuttering little, I don't even know what I was.
I was just stammering.
I could hardly get my words out.
I'm so excited to be sitting there.
It was so fun.
That's awesome.
You said your grandfather served what branch was he in?
Yeah, he was technically a merchant Marine.
(37:28):
So he operated all the guns on the ships and he was off the beach of Normandy and then
he was stationed off of Okinawa right before the bombs dropped.
And the one thing he did tell us because we had an aunt that was pretty far on the spectrum
the other way.
(37:49):
Not that Mike and I are, you know, we're not Republican or Democrat really, or I'm not.
I'm not going to talk for Mike, but we've had plenty of other political episodes where
we're kind of like not pro one side or the other, but she was very liberal and trying
to get into an argument with him about how dropping the bombs on Japan was a bad thing.
Oh, I bet that was fun.
(38:09):
That's something he don't really do with a World War II vet anywhere, especially one
that was stationed off the ship, you know, off the shore of Japan when it happened.
And he told us that his commanding officer came and got everybody assembled and said,
you know, if you have any last things you want to do or any last things you want to
say on this earth, like now is the time because we're going to launch our invasion and a lot
(38:32):
of us aren't coming back.
And then they dropped the bombs and they all came back.
So yeah, I'll tell you, I mean, I didn't go in until I was 23 years old.
So I was actually one of the old men, you know, in there, but you know, to see some
of these 16, 17, 18 year old men and we're all sitting in the room together and you are
writing your life insurance policy.
(38:52):
You're writing your will at 18 years old.
You know, for me at 23, that is a different feeling of how real this is.
The sacrifice that could be made is I signed 13 or so pieces of paper to join the United
States Marine Corps.
And then now I'm sitting here writing my life insurance policy because this could very
(39:15):
well happen.
This could be real.
Yeah.
And we got lucky.
We got lucky that those days in Iraq that, you know, the sniper wasn't dialed in because
I swear there's a couple of times where that bullet, I heard the crack and boy, it had
to be in, have been within three feet of me.
So that's a different feeling to know that somebody's staring at you in a crosshair,
pull the trigger and well, God bless it.
(39:37):
It wasn't, he wasn't dialed in that day.
Well, and I think you can be against the war.
You can be against the administration.
You can be against war in general, but don't be against our veterans.
And that's where I met with it.
And that's where, you know, I have to maintain, you know, keeping my own political beliefs
out of the work that we do because we have people that have come up to me and tried to
(39:59):
engage me in that.
And I catch it right away and I don't allow it.
And I go to a school that's extremely liberal.
And there are times where maybe once in a while the professors may try to bait you and
that's, you just have to, you know, people do that to others.
I don't understand it.
Why they want to, why they want to pick an argument.
If we want to sit and have a conversation, sit and let's have a constructive conversation
(40:20):
together.
We don't have to agree on things.
And that's the beautiful part about this country is we can agree to disagree.
Doesn't mean I hate you.
It doesn't mean I, you know, there's no, there's no animosity, but it's a sad state that we're
in that we can't have some of those conversations that we need to scream our heads off instead.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that a lot of our, let's say societal conversations mirror a
(40:43):
lot of the nightly news conversations where you've got these talking heads yelling at
one another and interrupting one another.
And you know, it's like, that's not, that's not how we should be modeling, modeling discussions
and conversations in our culture and society.
You know, people can have different opinions.
Studies have come back and somebody that has a different opinion than you doesn't actually
(41:04):
harm you.
It's crazy.
What a concept.
What a concept.
Any other questions you guys have about military life or Roger up or anything else?
I did have a question actually, which I didn't want to interrupt.
Are you involved with the veteran hunting events at Camp Ripley?
Yeah.
So the last one wasn't Roger up.
(41:25):
I actually go up there on behalf of the DAV.
So when they have that disabled vets hunt, whether it is, they got the turkey hunt that's
coming up here in the next, next month.
So I should be up there for that, but that's on behalf of the DAV.
We go up to that and then there's trolling for troops in June.
And then they do the disabled vets deer hunt there.
(41:46):
They also do a disabled vets deer hunt down in Rochester.
The DV is great when it comes to outdoor adventures.
So anybody can go onto the DAV of Minnesota website.
There are opportunities that are on there to go fishing down in Florida, hog hunting
in Texas, fishing up on Lake of the Woods or Northern Minnesota.
(42:10):
And so again, if you want to get outdoors, there are so many ways to do it simply by
just signing up.
For those who are combat wounded, you've got wounded warriors in action, which is a phenomenal
organization.
And they are national.
They've got chapters all over the country for Purple Heart recipients.
(42:30):
If there's anybody else who, you know, just again, just needs to get out, there's plenty
of ways to do it.
And but it's fun to go up to there.
And even last time I was up there, all I did was I rode with a Marine and she and I went
out to go pick up a vet who is in his tracks wheelchair and he gets out there and he backs
up the tracks wheelchair and there's a hoist thing on this whole trailer.
(42:54):
This thing is so cool.
And then it like automatically lift or lowers him down.
He wheels himself out, wheels himself over, gets in the truck.
We take his tracks wheelchair, we bring it to the back and put it up on there, strap
it down and everything.
And it's like just to be up there to volunteer, just to do what you can to help out is just
such a great time.
And there's some big deer that come off a Ripley.
(43:15):
Holy cow, I saw a picture of one.
It was a I think the guy had it was 12 pointer that was early in the early in the bull season.
But like this year was huge.
Yeah, they they have some bruises out there for sure.
Some impressive animals.
Yeah, yeah.
Even even the bear out there.
Pretty date, pretty good size, too.
(43:35):
Oh, yeah.
Well, they're not they're not molested for the majority of the year.
So they can generally grow and live.
That base is massive when you look at it on the map.
So yeah.
Well, when you start driving the roads, if you don't have a map with you, it's very easy
to get lost.
And they're done that saw because I actually I actually did some training up there.
(43:57):
So when I got back, I wasn't ready to put down my uniform.
So I actually joined the MWSS 471, the Marine Corps Reserve Unit down in at Ripley or at
Fort Snelling.
And yeah, our second training was sleeping in World War One tents in the middle of the
snow at Camp Ripley.
Yeah, I didn't last long there.
(44:20):
I'm going you guys were fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Why are we sleeping in the snow in February?
It doesn't work for me.
Yeah, I worked for the Boy Scouts and I'm an Eagle Scout and been in the Boy Scouts
for a long time.
We always would do the scouting event out at Fort Ripley.
And when I was so we slept in the barracks and eight MREs and things like that.
(44:40):
Yeah, we were getting shelled or shot at or, you know, blown up.
So there was that.
The lack of privacy around the toilets was a little traumatizing for, you know, like
a 12 year old.
But other than that, one of my co-workers was when I was working for the Scouts was
an Iraq veteran and he came back and just never got never got back used to the Minnesota
(45:05):
winters.
He was like forever forever his body was like forever changed.
Like he couldn't handle the cold anymore.
So we always had always had layers and layers and layers.
Yeah, I've got I've actually got a team member right now or she's literally sat here and
talked to us like, oh, yeah, I don't know how many years I'm lasting here.
It's too cold for me.
I can't do these.
And again, it does.
It's because you know, you tweaked it.
(45:26):
You hear these guys.
Oh, yeah, you know, wow, you're limping today.
OK.
Oh, yeah, you know, old football injury from high school.
That old football injury, just like those old rickety, you know, issues with your knees,
your back, whatever those can turn into arthritis after 30, 40 years.
So when that starts to happen, the cold is not your friend.
(45:46):
So I feel like we kind of missed our mid cigar cigar check because there was an intense story
happening.
But we can do a cigar check cigar check.
Now I've only got about an inch left.
Where is everyone else?
I put mine down for a bit and let mine go out.
So I got to when I and of course, when I'm caffeinated, I can turn into Chetty Cathy.
(46:07):
I know that about myself.
Where are you at, Mike?
I'm at about an inch also.
OK.
So was it was it a pretty deep?
I mean, that's about an hour.
That's a pretty decent burn.
Yeah, it actually lasted longer than I thought, given its size.
But it does start out a lot girthier than it is at the end.
So you know, yes.
Yeah.
(46:27):
So it was sweet.
It wasn't as flavored as I thought it was going to be.
Yeah, it was.
It was sweet, but not as sweet as like a factory sweets or even I mean, the factory sweets
are just kind of a general sweet.
But this is less sweet than that.
I liked it.
It's getting a little sour here at the last inch I've found.
But I like it.
(46:47):
Yeah, and I kind of expected that because now it's down to maybe a quarter inch and
a inch long.
And it's got a lot of tar buildup.
Yeah.
Yeah, I suppose that cone shape almost.
Yeah.
Well, I guess let's Mike and Zach, we can do give our ratings on this one and then we'll
(47:08):
do a couple of things to wrap up.
So I don't know if you've smoked enough of it, Zach, to give it a rating or not, we go
on a five point scale.
If it was like the best thing ever, if it was like better than sex cigar, that's cake.
Then you can give it above a five.
But for me, probably, I would say like 3.2, definitely above average, but I wouldn't say
it's the tops for me.
(47:30):
Sure.
What about you, Mike?
I would give it a three.
Okay.
I would give it a three.
It's fine.
It's a medium bodied cigar and it's got a light sweet flavor, but I don't understand
why they're so popular.
Other than they look really cool.
The label is incredible.
They look really cool.
I think it doesn't appear to be a huge time investment either.
(47:52):
I gave it a three as well.
Yeah.
I feel like one of these, if you were, so I'm thinking like golf cars.
Like if it's something you're like one or two puffs on and you're throwing it on the
ground to do your putt or you're throwing it up at the tee box as you're teeing off,
it's like I could put it to something like that.
Maybe one or two of these on a course where you're having a couple light beers or something
(48:14):
like that.
I could see that, but maybe one on the front nine and one on the back nine, if anything.
Well, I wanted to say for any of our listeners, go to RogerUp.org.
That's Zach's website, his company's website.
Down at the very, very bottom, if you have any questions or want to help, they have a
contact, contact us.
(48:34):
There's a whole, and I appreciate this in terms of web design.
They have a whole thing.
What can we help you with?
I'm in need of services.
I want to support RogerUp.
I want to join the team.
I want to volunteer.
I have questions or other, and you can send a message there.
They've got really sharp looking swag.
They do have a donate option, which I've linked in the episode description.
I've linked their website in the episode description as well.
(48:56):
So if you want to find out more about them, you want to support or have other questions
that we didn't answer on the show today, then feel free to reach out to them.
They have a big support button at the top, so feel free to hit that and give them some
support.
And again, this episode is part of the 2015, no, no, not 2015.
Dear God, the 2025.
(49:17):
That's where we are now in history.
The 2025.
We've gone back into time in the last hour.
I knew it was going to happen.
I feel younger.
We must have hit 88 miles per hour somewhere in there.
But podcastthon.org, for more information, over 1,500 podcasts are participating in this.
(49:39):
Maybe they're talking to a charity you're aware of or one that you want to hear about.
And again, donate, ask questions to RogerUp.
And thank you to Zach for being on.
Thank you to Zach for your service for our country.
Thank you for thanking me and thank you for having me, guys.
It's been great chatting with you.
This was great.
Thanks for listening.
Be safe.
(49:59):
See you.
Welcome to Nice Ashes, I'm Mike.
(00:06):
And I'm Nate.
And this episode of Nice Ashes, we're participating in the third annual podcast thon, which is
a collaborative effort.
This year, it's over 1500 podcasts are joining in and we dedicate an episode each one of
those podcasts dedicates an episode to a nonprofit or charity that they want to highlight.
(00:28):
And so this episode we are highlighting Roger up and we've got the founder CEO, Zach Johnson
on with us here.
Say hello, Zach.
Hey everybody.
Thank you for having me.
Appreciate you guys.
Thank you for being on.
And what are we smoking this episode with Zach, Mike?
So we are smoking a cigar that is very popular right now.
(00:48):
It is the Dead with Cigar Crazy Alice, which I believe is a Drew Estates product.
Yes.
And this one looks weird.
Yes, it is a ball, four inch torpedo or a triangle.
I'm sorry, triangular pyramid.
And it's flavored, of course, and should be short and sweet.
(01:09):
What are you carrying your cigar with Nate?
Oh, I am pairing mine with a Kona Big Wave.
How about you?
Either of you?
I'm going with a cup of coffee because it's been a long day.
There you go.
That works too.
There we go.
I don't want to drink all coffee, but it's too late for me to drink coffee.
(01:30):
So I have the Summit Nihilus Irish Dark NA.
Oh, OK.
Good choices.
Yeah.
All right.
So this one has a pigtail.
Do we just pop this one off or do we cut it, Mike?
I would say rip it off or you can cut it if you have a little tiny cutter.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah, I gave mine a cut.
Yeah, the cap is sweet.
It's definitely got a beautiful fragrance to it.
(01:52):
Interesting.
The second puff, I had a little bit of harshness.
Oh, OK.
Yeah.
It's getting pretty much all good things.
It is a very different shape for a cigar.
I'm kind of digging the uniqueness to it.
It's just shape and everything to it.
Yeah.
This is definitely the most aggressive torpedo shaped or not torpedo.
I keep on saying that pyramid shaped cigar that I've ever smoked.
(02:14):
I've had a few shrews that were a similar overall shape to this, but not this aggressive.
It's three quarters of an inch on one side and a quarter inch on the other.
So it's pretty stiff taper.
Yeah, it looks almost like one of those little, I don't know, communion candles or something
where you go and everybody lights off with the other one, you know.
(02:36):
It is similar.
All right.
Well, we're very glad to have you on, Zach.
And you, your company and nonprofit is Roger Up.
Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
Yeah, absolutely.
So by day, I do have a paid job.
I work for the Disabled American Veterans.
So I get to help out with disability claims, benefits, resources, and that's the job that
(02:57):
keeps food on the table and the bills paid.
Back in 2016, I came up with the idea for Roger Up.
And that was just because of the things that I had been through with the VA healthcare
system, the benefits side of things, and just really feeling the need to do away with a
lot of red tape that I was seeing.
(03:19):
So we became accredited with the state of Minnesota in 2018.
And that's where our logo comes into play with the establishment date.
And then we came up or got our 501C3 status back in July of 2023.
And we went full bore September 1st of 2023 with a website, with programming, with team
(03:46):
members, any and everything other than the merchandise line.
And it's been an absolute whirlwind.
It's been such a blessing.
Now to date, in 18 months, we have raised $240,000, which is unheard of.
And I am so proud of my team.
So what Roger Up does is we take veterans, first responders, and their families on all
(04:13):
access paid outdoor adventures with an emphasis on mental health.
So what we try to do is have a licensed psychologist or a mental health professional that comes
out on our trips with us.
And that's whether we are hunting, fishing, camping, backpacking, dog sledding, snowmobiling,
doing all kinds of fun activities for both abled and disabled bodies.
(04:35):
And so we try to have mental health sessions if we can during those things.
So mainly what our bread and butter is, is paying for a lot of those short-term and mental
health care needs.
Some people have been through the VA system and it's just not it for them.
And they need something that's maybe just an outside the box approach to it.
Maybe it's utilizing equine assisted therapy.
(04:58):
Maybe it's using service animals.
Maybe it's EMDR rapid eye movement therapy or personal training needs, dietary needs.
Maybe people are looking at getting back into their faith and it's just really a one shoe
doesn't fit all approach to mental health.
So we do have a faith and fitness team.
We have a women's engagement coordinator for women's specific resources and activities
(05:24):
or outreach events.
And then we just have a fantastic team all around to help out with mental health needs.
So 14 of us, 15 of us now, I suppose, and we are all volunteers.
We don't have any paid staff.
As in, I'm also very proud that on top of the work and the not for profit, I am a full-time
student at St. Claude State University.
(05:46):
I'm getting my master's degree as a clinical mental health counselor, which is going to
allow me to better serve our community on a more individual basis through the organization.
Awesome.
Yeah.
It's been a lot of fun so far.
We've had some amazing experiences between the different rodeos we go to being at the
Duluth Air Show, which we are going again this year, the Blue Angels will be there.
(06:09):
And so we have a booth set up for that weekend and just a lot of other fun activities.
We already have two pheasant hunts planned, a memorial goose hunt for a veteran who passed
away last year.
Their family reached out to us to ask for help to do a fundraiser.
And so it's just going to be an incredible summer.
(06:29):
You know, it's always the winter months or the calm before the storm.
And we really start to ramp up for turkey season.
We already have a turkey hunt planned for April and then it's just gangbusters all summer.
That's great.
I didn't know that you did all the additional therapies.
I went quick and looked you up and I found hunting with veterans, but I didn't know you
(06:53):
did all the other stuff.
That's pretty great.
Yeah.
No, it's wonderful.
And we keep evolving it because we have people that come to us and they ask for just different
things.
Hey, do you guys do this?
Do you do this?
And I mean, hey, I need a resource for this.
Well, if somebody needs a resource for fixing a vehicle or paying for bills that they may
(07:13):
be behind on that they don't have the financial means.
We try to exhaust all current accessibility, whether it be through their county, through
health and human services, through other not for profit organizations that have some seniority
to us, say like the American Legion, the VFW, the DAV or other local agencies that may be
(07:35):
available that have the funding.
And if we've exhausted all those angles, then we actually have paid to fix vehicles for
veterans.
We have paid for getting people caught up on their mortgages, getting people caught
up on their electricity bill, water bill, whatever it may be, utilities.
We just want people to...
The term Roger Up, I guess is the best way to describe it is when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan,
(07:58):
mainly in Afghanistan, a lot of the times we would always go out there after we did
our morning review of what the mission brief is going to be.
Hey, this is the plan of the day.
This is where we're going.
This is how things need to be.
We need to be mindful of enemy activity.
And then I would always go out there.
We'd go to the vehicles if we were mounted and we'd say all vehicles, all vehicles, Roger
(08:19):
Up.
And what I meant is your food, your water, your weapons systems, your serialized gear,
your personnel, your communication systems, the trucks, is everything good to go squared
away so that we have the ability to go get in the fight for days on end if need be.
(08:41):
And so then now what it means to me is, are you okay?
Are you okay with your personal life, your marital status, your childcare, your child
issues?
Are you okay with financial?
Are you employed?
Are you underemployed?
Are you, you know, are you looking for a new career?
(09:01):
Is your disability stuff okay?
We want to make sure that everything is squared away so they are Roger Up to where they are
living the epitome of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That's excellent.
That's awesome.
It's a, it's the work is unbelievably fulfilling.
I can't tell you how many times that, you know, we have people that come to us and just
(09:23):
in tears and saying thank you.
I don't know what I would have done without you guys.
And it's, it's an amazing feeling to know that, you know, they're very prideful group
of individuals with the veterans and the first responders, whether it's male or female, very,
very prideful group.
So for them to ask for help takes a lot.
And it's, and it isn't easy.
(09:43):
I dealt with the same thing coming back from Afghanistan.
It was a stressful deployment.
I hit a 150 to 200 pound ID.
It killed one of my Marines and my driver and I were medevaced.
And so it took me a long time to ask for help myself.
And now I feel like I've, I've weathered that storm and now it's, it's time to give back
(10:05):
as much as possible to help others to heal because we don't want to have any more suicides.
Our statistics, our statistic rate is too high and whatever Roger up can help do to
combat those 22, 23 veterans that are committing suicide every day, along with our first responders
who have taken their own lives.
These are not easy jobs and we acknowledge that.
(10:26):
And we want to make sure that we are the frontline for defense to help them.
Yeah, for sure.
Zach, I was curious on how do most veterans find you or is it more of their family members
finding you on their behalf?
I know when we talked before the show, you said it's also the, the program is also for
(10:46):
family members of veterans or the whole families of veterans.
Yep, absolutely.
And a lot of times the best way to get ahold of us is always just to go to the website.
I mean, you know, when we're out and about, we leave a lot of our handouts at VFWs American
Legions.
We go to, we are in support of the 800 first responders through the Hennepin County Sheriff's
(11:09):
Department.
And that includes the dispatchers, the corrections officers, the deputies, the patrolmen, all
of those 800 employees are supported in the peer support team that Roger Up supports.
And so our goal is to really try to keep connecting with all fire departments, all police departments,
EMTs, corrections officers, getting the word out there about the, the organization, the
(11:34):
programs that we have, the fact that we try to take care of every bit of expense.
So none of that is incurred by the veteran, the first responder, the family member.
And so really going to the RogerUp.org website is always the front, the first way to go about
it.
They can go through the website, whether they want to volunteer, whether they want to purchase
(11:55):
clothing or whether they truly just need support.
It's all on the website.
We have a Facebook page also, as well as an Instagram.
So at Instagram is RogerUp2018, which is our establishment year.
And then with our, with our Facebook, we're growing.
We're over 2,200 followers right now.
(12:16):
We're proud of that.
And it's just growing at a, at a really, really great rate.
And so the word is getting out there a little bit by a little bit, but every piece helps
because a lot of people are not going to ask for help until they hear about what we're
doing.
And I know what we're doing is changing lives.
And I've seen it firsthand.
Yeah, for sure.
How many, how many, I guess people at a time do you typically, typically assist or help?
(12:41):
Yeah.
Right now we're about 45 to 60 veterans, first responders and family members on a monthly
basis.
So it's a good number.
I mean, it's, it's, there are some days that it's gangbusters and it's 30 phone calls in
a day.
Sure.
But they are more or less being case managed, if you will, because they have multiple things.
(13:03):
They have a housing issue, they have financial issues, they have disability claim issues.
And then, yeah, it's, it's, it's just about each individual.
And the part that I love the most about the work is when I sit here and have these conversations
with these individuals, everybody's story is so very different, whether it's a soldier,
(13:26):
a sailor, a Marine, an airman, spaceman, you know, any of these, because we have to, we've
got to include the Space Force now they are, they're there and we love them.
And, you know, we want to make sure that they're included in this conversation.
And so to be able to hear the different stories about how did you serve, where did you serve,
when did you serve, you know, what branch were you in?
(13:46):
What did you do for a job while you were in?
It's, there's so many similarities, but so many differences that make up the military
in the United States and the same thing with the first responders.
They all have been on some extremely incredibly heroic events or calls and whether it's saving
lives or preventing, you know, mass casualty, there's just so many different stories to
(14:11):
it.
And, you know, unfortunately, then mental health comes right in tow with that because
you can't sit there and go through discharging your firearm or in one of our team members
cases there was somebody who took their own life right in front of them.
Very sad, you know, you're working day in day out and, you know, you got to go back
(14:32):
to the shop.
You got to go through, you know, the process of filling out all your paperwork and then
you're supposed to go home like it's okay.
And truth of the matter is you just had one of the most stressful days of your life and
you're supposed to go home like it's a job.
Yeah.
Very, very instances that are very traumatic or potentially very traumatic, not like, not
like getting an angry email from your boss traumatic, but, you know.
(14:57):
Right, exactly.
So, yeah, you can, you can deal with that.
Yeah, different, different kind of traumatic than maybe most of the American population
would realize.
I did see for our listeners, the last time they did, they pulled these statistics in
2023, there are 15.8 million veterans in the United States, which is about 6.1% of the
(15:19):
civilian population, 18 and older.
Yeah.
And we have a little under, we have a little under 300,000 veterans in Minnesota.
And coincidentally, the majority of our veteran population in Minnesota is Vietnam veterans.
We have a high density.
We actually, I think it's, I want to say it's 56 or 58% of all veterans in Minnesota are
(15:41):
Vietnam vets.
So, high density there.
And then also of our entire veteran population, we have, I think it's 8.9.
And I have the pictures on there.
I just don't want to, I don't want to close out of this and lose, lose the feed, but I
do have some of those.
The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs actually just put out its numbers a couple
(16:03):
of weeks ago for census to know how many we have.
But yeah, that's where we just, you know, again, we want to make sure we're capturing
all the different demographics that we have.
And the only, the only ones that we won't help are dishonorable discharges, because
usually there is something from a legal standpoint that falls in line with that.
(16:24):
We won't help any felony sex offenders or felony aggressive, you know, who have been
found guilty.
So, whether it's, you know, murder or assault or things like that.
So that, but otherwise we want to make sure we're trying to help everybody.
We understand that even some of those who are discharged characterized as general,
(16:48):
under honorable conditions or other than honorable.
Now there may be something that's with there is that maybe was unfair and we need to take
a look at that to see if their character of discharge can't be changed.
I actually have two veterans right now that I'm working with on just that.
And one of them has a situation where she was married and it was unfortunate because
she was forced into a situation where she, her husband at the time while she was in forced
(17:13):
her to use, you know, marijuana and alcohol.
And it ended up causing her to pop on a urinary analysis, which is a no-go in the military.
And because of her situation being forced into that because of certain things, it's
really sad.
And you're going, well, the department of the air force is reviewing it right now.
And so fingers crossed that she comes out of this with an honorable discharge and gets
(17:38):
to continue on her road because she's at school right now for criminal justice.
And she is kicking butt at life right now being a single mom.
Well, that's great.
I had no idea you could, you could contest or you could change those statuses.
They're very difficult, very difficult, but it is something you can always take a look
at, but there has to be some good ground behind it.
(18:00):
It's not just because, well, I felt it was unfair.
Well, I'm sure you did, but truth of the matter is this is what you did while you were in
and you got a cowboy up to that or a cowgirl up to that.
That's just what it is.
Yeah.
And there's also some administration stuff too, right?
There could potentially be an issue where the person did nothing wrong and their superior
was vindictive or I'm sure that's very far and few between, but I've seen enough episodes
(18:24):
of mash to know that.
Well, and it is, and there are times where it goes on all angles, going up the ranks
or going down the ranks in certain instances.
And the sad part about it is, the part that breaks my heart is probably 96, 98% of all
women that I help through the DAV and through Roger Up are military sexual trauma survivors.
(18:48):
And so there's definitely a very high percentage in the military and we are going to do everything
in our power to make sure that with Roger Up, that when we have our women's specific
retreats, we're doing things to help them to recover from some of that.
And it never goes away completely.
None of our traumas do, but we want to give them some peace of mind to know that we're
(19:10):
going to be here and we're going to be supportive of them.
Sure.
Yeah.
And you guys can feel free to ask any questions.
I'm an open book.
You want to know about, so I'm a Purple Heart recipient.
You want to hear that story, whatever you guys want to talk about, I'll talk about it.
Yeah, Mike, do you have anything?
Otherwise I'm down to hear the Purple Heart story.
I'm definitely down to hear a Purple Heart story.
(19:31):
It's not that glorious.
I definitely wasn't crawling up Iwo Jima like some of the World War II guys and who were
Medal of Honor recipients.
But yeah, I saw on April 2nd, 2010, I was in Helmand province of Afghanistan and we
were building a SWA hut, 20 foot by 40 foot building structure.
(19:55):
And my head, my whole section out there.
So I had eight combat engineers and I had eight infantry guys and we were building this
thing and about four o'clock in the afternoon, we got a call that our explosive ordinance
disposal team needed to go out.
So I called QRF, which means quick reaction force.
My guys dropped their tools, they go running, they grab their gear and there was another
(20:19):
unit in the neighboring area of operation that had been hit by an IED lead vehicle got
hit, passenger broke a leg and everybody was okay.
No KIA killed in action, none in that situation.
And so we loaded up the trucks after we got the report on it, told the OD, talked to them
(20:39):
about where we're going.
And so we escort the explosive ordinance disposal team up there.
And so I'm in the lead vehicle, I got the explosive ordinance disposal team behind me
and then two of my other trucks.
Now I'm skinned, I'm down two Marines because I had to send them down to Dwyer to pick up
concertina wire because our commanding officer had a freaking hard on for putting up force
(21:01):
protection and getting more C wire on the outside.
We're in a huge mansion in the middle of a damn desert.
We don't need any more frickin C wire up there was just ridiculous.
So either way, we had up to 605 and we cross into third battalion 10th Marines area of
operation there an artillery unit, we passed their front gate, give them a wave, whatever.
(21:26):
And then we had down a no name road.
It's not, it's not named on any of the other maps.
So we head down there and we come down and there's a fork in the road and in the fork
in the road, I'm sitting on there on two forms of communication.
I'm communicating with what the other team or the other guys were communicating with
third battalion 10th Marines, making sure we're trying to figure out kind of where we're
(21:47):
supposed to be going.
We're looking at our blue forest trackers, computer screen in front of us.
So kind of got a lot going on.
Well, we stopped at this fork in the road because I'm going, well, I know they're on
like the other side of this house, but which way do I go left or right to get there?
Now the area that we're in, that we had just put, had just driven into the guy who is on
(22:08):
the FBI most wanted list for terrorists is he's number 10 on that list.
This is his area.
This is where he's at.
And even like right before we get hit, I'm watching motorcycles go away and my, my, the
driver of our vehicle, Brian Thompson goes do the hair on the back of my neck standing
up right now.
And I said, all right.
And I said to corporal Curtis, Michael Swenson, he's Lance corporal at the time.
(22:31):
I said, Hey, Swen get down.
So he's up in the turret.
He gets down a little bit and Thompson and I are doing that.
Well, I can see fresh tracks to the left hand side.
And so what, but then, you know, what I'd come to find out is the team that had gotten
hit, they started to go left.
They backed their trucks up and they ended up going right.
So when they went to the right side, they got hit by an IED.
(22:53):
We went down on the left side.
Boom.
They got hit by our IED and it was a big boy.
And so we flew, it split the mine rollers, cold rolled steel, cottering pins were still
hooked in, cut through that, rolled the right mine rollers forward.
We flew about 20 feet in the air, landed on our back, rolled over backwards.
(23:14):
So Swenson was killed and then Thompson smashed his face on the steering wheel, bit through
the end of his tongue, traumatic brain injury.
I hit my head on the blue force tracker, blow up all four screws, took the computer off
the fricking mount.
And we had just put our seat belts on because we were in one of the brand new MATVs.
And when Thompson said my hairs are standing up on the back of my neck, I said, hey, seat
(23:37):
belts on.
And so we started putting our stuff on.
And literally I remember looking down, I'm putting this last one in, click.
I looked up, boom, spray came up over the front of the vehicle and then I'm lights out.
And then my understanding is I was unconscious for about three to five minutes.
And that was the time it took for them to get up towards the vehicle because they had
(23:58):
to break out metal detectors, get them warmed up, sweep all the way up to us to make sure
there weren't any secondaries.
And then I had to have the other only because I only had two other up guns.
So I had to have them mounted either way.
So they had to have 180 degrees on each one of them because we didn't have a third gun
on the EOD truck because again, I was missing two guys, but we still need to go out.
(24:19):
So we went out with less than the minimum we were supposed to.
You're supposed to have basically three per vehicle.
So I should have had 12 and I had 11.
Well, we got sent out anyways, because what are they going to say?
No, you can't.
So and then, yep.
And then after that, I, when I, when I came to, my face was bleeding and I got a puddle
(24:40):
of blood underneath me, which is on the ceiling because the vehicle is now upside down.
And so my, my rifle's wedged in the door.
I can't get it out.
So I ended up crawling out and they called in what we call a nine line.
Nine line is for getting the medevac going.
And so they call in nine line, they called in two KIA and only one of them.
They only thought I was the only survivor.
(25:02):
Brian, Brian Thompson comes out second, but yeah, we were fricking screaming our heads
off for Swenson and there was no response there.
And soon as they pulled us back to the EOD truck, I pulled the camera out of my flag
jacket.
I handed it to one of our guys.
I just said, I don't know what's telling me this right now, but I need somebody to start
taking pictures because I know I'm concussed right now.
(25:24):
And I got a picture of me covered in blood and I look like I'm a deer in the headlights.
And so I ripped open my chin, traumatic brain injury, level three concussion, vertigo, migraines.
I've got tinnitus, bilateral hearing loss.
I got my trapezius muscles, both service connected, whiplash in my neck, my C6 and my L4 vertebrae
are offset.
(25:44):
My hips are twisted and offset.
Bilateral damage to both knees, left ankle, broken tendon, left foot got banged up.
And then just from other deployment stuff, respiratory digestive issues.
And then I got the mental health that goes with all of it.
But I joke around all the time.
The moneymaker is still good.
I can still close a deal.
(26:05):
I can still close a deal if you will.
And I know that my purpose on this planet is Roger up and to be here.
And the work that I do is to honor Corporal Curtis Michael Swenson, to honor his family,
his mom and dad, their Gold Star family.
They live in Rochester, Minnesota, Kay and Dave Swenson.
(26:25):
The work that I do honors their family and their son's legacy.
And it motivates me to get my butt up every morning to make sure that I am here to help
others and there's good days and bad days like everybody else.
And there's days I don't want to get up, but I'm reminded that Curtis paid the ultimate
sacrifice for this great nation and that if I don't get out of bed, I'm doing him a disservice
(26:46):
and I'm disrespecting him.
So it's a good motivation to get up every day to do the work that we're doing.
And we got medevacked out.
It was kind of funny because we're standing at the back of the vehicles.
They moved us all the way to the back of the fourth vehicle or something at that time,
I think.
And all of a sudden we see some guy walking up in front of a bunch of trucks and we go,
(27:06):
oh, who's this jackass?
And well, that'd be a full bird colonel.
So not exactly a jackass.
He's a heavy, heavy brass, heavy officer level six, he's one before a one star general.
So yeah, he's command some weight and he's like, when he comes up to us, why the fuck
aren't the birds on station yet?
Oh, good afternoon, sir.
(27:28):
Well, sir, they said they said air six hours out.
Bullshit, give me that fucking horn.
All right.
Yes, sir.
And freaking handed him.
He goes, break, break, break all channels, all channels, clear AO.
This is Oscar six.
And we're just like, dude, this dude just laid his shit on a table.
And my goodness, like, unbelievable.
(27:49):
You just like you're like, dang, dude, that's what freaking heavy brass brings to the table.
And all of a sudden, bang, two Blackhawks are on the deck.
We got two more gunships on station that are doing circles around us, making sure that
everything's good.
And there I didn't have a care in the world at that point.
And so they put myself and Thompson on one Blackhawk and then a good buddy of mine, him
(28:13):
and one other person carried Swenson's body, put him on the other Blackhawk.
We flew out.
They flew us to Bastone, which is the British side.
And we got stitched up over there.
And yeah.
And then we were we were there when we got cleared.
They flew us back out and we were back out on the mission eight days after the event.
(28:34):
So April 10th, I went back out of the mission.
My hand was absolutely shaking.
But even my commanding officer was like, well, you can be the corporal of the guard.
We'll give you a set of keys and a radio and you can go open doors or else we could send
you back to Germany and send you home.
And it was I know you're not supposed to cuss at an officer.
But I said, said, sir, there's no fucking way.
(28:54):
So my section needs me.
I got to get back on this horse and they need to see that we can live through the worst
of it and we can still stand tall and we can get back up and get back in the fight.
And so after that meeting was over with the commanding officer and a higher level enlisted,
we're walking out and my master sergeant, E8, mass sergeant John Grimsley comes over
puts me in a headlock and he goes, God damn devil dog, you motivate the shit out of me.
(29:17):
But if I hear you talk like that again, we're going to have a real problem.
So note to self, it was your one get out of jail free card to cuss towards an officer
and you're not cussing at him.
I would just you're not supposed to swear at all around them.
That was I screwed up on that one.
But at the same time, I kind of wanted to make my point.
So yeah.
(29:38):
And then they put me back out on in Vic three.
And so I was no longer allowed to be in lead vehicle anymore.
I finished the deployment and we came back and we honored Kurt.
That's a heck of a story for sure.
I said, it's a blessing to be here.
I mean, Iraq, we got shot at 11 times, mostly snipers.
We got mortared and RPG five times.
And again, it's a blessing to be able to talk about it because I've seen seen the dead
(30:01):
Iraqis.
I've seen the dead Afghanis.
I've seen dead children.
That was that's probably still my hardest thing that I've seen as a dead child.
And the story behind that.
But all of it builds me into somebody where I can go do keynote speakings.
I can do a podcast like this.
I'm not clammy.
I have the ability to talk about it.
And I know it's it's it's I'm a firm believer that, you know, there is a brighter day if
(30:23):
you put in the time, effort and energy to work on yourself, whether it's needing to,
you know, some people need to go to treatment.
Some people just need mental health help.
Some people just need a break from life.
But ultimately, there is things to look forward to opportunities out there.
And life's been pretty incredible these last couple of years.
(30:44):
And a lot of that I attest to my faith.
I read the Bible for the first time while audiobook cover to cover.
And I've just really put that at the forefront.
And that has opened up every single piece to my life that if I put faith first, if I
listen and adhere to the word, it's moving mountains in my life.
It's it's unbelievable.
(31:05):
Yeah, that's that's great.
Nate, are you still there?
Yeah, I'm here.
I just.
OK, big, big story, you know.
Oh, yeah.
No, that's a little different than, you know, other things.
And yeah, very, very intense story.
Oh, yeah.
I was going to say, I think what's I don't want to say nice, but I think with the newer
generation of soldiers, military dispatchers, correction officers, all of those roles.
(31:33):
Right.
My grandfather was World War Two vet, didn't talk about anything except nothing.
No, except like a monkey they picked up off off an island and it lived on the ship for
a while.
Right.
But you never heard anything, you know, and that doesn't I mean, that's that's their generation.
They didn't they didn't have the mental health or the really helping in any other way at
(31:57):
the forefront of their thing.
It wasn't part of society.
It wasn't part of the culture.
And to have the younger generation or this new generation, I suppose we're not the youngest
generation anymore, but whatever.
But to have people that can go through something like that and talk about it and talk about
it freely and help other people who have gone through similar things, you know, you just
don't hear a lot of that older generation that had, you know, that told stories of their
(32:22):
time.
It was just something they did and it was their duty.
And then they came back and.
Well, that's how that's how it was.
I mean, even, you know, the, you know, the, the D.A.V., the Disabled American Veterans
has now been around.
This is our centennial year.
We've been around for a hundred years.
So you think 20, you know, 1925, you know, what was just coming to an end?
World War One, right?
(32:43):
Yeah.
And you got kind of that time frame and you got even just before that, you got the Veterans
of Foreign Wars that set about I think they're at about one hundred and four years now.
And the American Legion's just like right neck and neck with them.
And you're going, OK, you got these old school three organizations that have been around
since World War One.
They went through World War Two.
(33:03):
But you know what?
What you did is, hey, you've been having a tough time since you got home.
Hey, come down to the American Legion.
Grab a beer with us.
Grab a steak.
Well, you know what?
One of the guys in our generation and the culture that's in the barracks is is frat
boy.
You know, let's pound beers and, you know, drink ourselves stupid.
Well, that's not going to work for everybody who may struggle with that.
(33:25):
So how do we get them out to things where you can go out ice fishing and, you know,
it might not be as fun as you think it used to be because you pounded Blackberry brandy
and beers, but that's OK.
You can still go out and ice fish and enjoy your time out there catching fish and enjoying
these experiences, because you're not spending money every week at the bar.
Well, now your fishing experiences can be a little bit more expensive, maybe where you
(33:49):
can go on these trips or, hey, get plugged into the different ones.
I mean, between memories made outdoors, take a vet fishing, fishing for life.
I mean, I can I can sit here, hometown heroes outdoors, mandatory fun outdoors.
I can go on and on and on about these outdoor organizations that do this kind of stuff.
So you can you can jam pack your entire hunting season going through organization, organization
(34:14):
almost.
And you know what?
There are people like myself that love to go out, love to be in the community, raise
the money to give these experiences to other people, because I will tell you, when they
are done with that hunt, that fishing trip, the smiles on their faces, the memories they
had from it.
I mean, they're ear to ear.
And you just know you're like, that's all natural endorphin.
(34:36):
It's all it is.
Just pure joy.
You know, the World War Two guys, I mean, my grandfather, World War Two Navy, and come
to doing his his history, come to find out he's on the USS Curtis.
That's always given me goosebumps that Curtis was my Marine who ended up getting killed,
how there was that little correlation in there.
But you know, come to find out, oh, yeah, Mike, I only heard a story the one time.
(34:57):
Oh, yeah, I had a kamikaze hitter at our hospital.
OK, I started doing the history of the USS Curtis.
Come to find out, you know, it was part of Pearl Harbor.
You know, I don't know if he was the ship that was in Pearl Harbor, if he was outside
where they had docked, you know, the majority of the fleet because they knew something might
have been coming.
But it was just really cool to know that, like, you know, I am carrying the torch of
(35:19):
like the next generation to serve because you got a lot of people where, you know, freedom
of speech and freedom.
A lot of things is, you know, at the forefront of a lot of battles here that we have on our
own soil.
Whether you lean one way or another way, it's irrelevant to us with Roger up.
If you need help and you're a good person, we're going to help you.
But those World War Two guys, it was their duty to go serve.
(35:42):
It was their duty to go to World War One or World War Two.
And it was their duty to just you just came back and you just sucked it up and dealt with
it because they're just they are the greatest generation.
They are the hardest, you know, once that, you know, ever walked our soil.
So I have so much respect for them and very proud that my grandfather served.
(36:02):
I'm very proud to have the honor of gotten to meet Herschel Woody Williams, Iwo Jima
Medal of Honor recipient.
One of my prized possessions is I have an autographed Roger up board that I had just
was kind of coming up with things and he signed the Roger up board with our logo and tagline
and everything.
And I also got a picture of him with President Harry Truman and his warrant from his Medal
(36:26):
of Honor.
And little five foot four guy and he went hand to hand and, you know, took down, you
know, I don't know how many different Japanese guys hand to hand.
And then also took a flamethrower and took out a bunch of pill boxes that had, you know,
guns shooting at him.
This is one of the I mean, his Medal of Honor story is next level and he deserves every
(36:48):
bit of it.
But the fact that I got the day after the Super Bowl was here in Minnesota, I got to
go down to the VFW in Minneapolis and I was only one of six people sitting at the table
and I got to have lunch sitting across from him and he's a United States Marine also.
So like he's this, he could have me in front of, you know, I don't know, name an actor
or an actress.
I'd whatever.
(37:08):
Okay, cool.
Put me in front of him.
I turn into a stuttering little, I don't even know what I was.
I was just stammering.
I could hardly get my words out.
I'm so excited to be sitting there.
It was so fun.
That's awesome.
You said your grandfather served what branch was he in?
Yeah, he was technically a merchant Marine.
(37:28):
So he operated all the guns on the ships and he was off the beach of Normandy and then
he was stationed off of Okinawa right before the bombs dropped.
And the one thing he did tell us because we had an aunt that was pretty far on the spectrum
the other way.
(37:49):
Not that Mike and I are, you know, we're not Republican or Democrat really, or I'm not.
I'm not going to talk for Mike, but we've had plenty of other political episodes where
we're kind of like not pro one side or the other, but she was very liberal and trying
to get into an argument with him about how dropping the bombs on Japan was a bad thing.
Oh, I bet that was fun.
(38:09):
That's something he don't really do with a World War II vet anywhere, especially one
that was stationed off the ship, you know, off the shore of Japan when it happened.
And he told us that his commanding officer came and got everybody assembled and said,
you know, if you have any last things you want to do or any last things you want to
say on this earth, like now is the time because we're going to launch our invasion and a lot
(38:32):
of us aren't coming back.
And then they dropped the bombs and they all came back.
So yeah, I'll tell you, I mean, I didn't go in until I was 23 years old.
So I was actually one of the old men, you know, in there, but you know, to see some
of these 16, 17, 18 year old men and we're all sitting in the room together and you are
writing your life insurance policy.
(38:52):
You're writing your will at 18 years old.
You know, for me at 23, that is a different feeling of how real this is.
The sacrifice that could be made is I signed 13 or so pieces of paper to join the United
States Marine Corps.
And then now I'm sitting here writing my life insurance policy because this could very
(39:15):
well happen.
This could be real.
Yeah.
And we got lucky.
We got lucky that those days in Iraq that, you know, the sniper wasn't dialed in because
I swear there's a couple of times where that bullet, I heard the crack and boy, it had
to be in, have been within three feet of me.
So that's a different feeling to know that somebody's staring at you in a crosshair,
pull the trigger and well, God bless it.
(39:37):
It wasn't, he wasn't dialed in that day.
Well, and I think you can be against the war.
You can be against the administration.
You can be against war in general, but don't be against our veterans.
And that's where I met with it.
And that's where, you know, I have to maintain, you know, keeping my own political beliefs
out of the work that we do because we have people that have come up to me and tried to
(39:59):
engage me in that.
And I catch it right away and I don't allow it.
And I go to a school that's extremely liberal.
And there are times where maybe once in a while the professors may try to bait you and
that's, you just have to, you know, people do that to others.
I don't understand it.
Why they want to, why they want to pick an argument.
If we want to sit and have a conversation, sit and let's have a constructive conversation
(40:20):
together.
We don't have to agree on things.
And that's the beautiful part about this country is we can agree to disagree.
Doesn't mean I hate you.
It doesn't mean I, you know, there's no, there's no animosity, but it's a sad state that we're
in that we can't have some of those conversations that we need to scream our heads off instead.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that a lot of our, let's say societal conversations mirror a
(40:43):
lot of the nightly news conversations where you've got these talking heads yelling at
one another and interrupting one another.
And you know, it's like, that's not, that's not how we should be modeling, modeling discussions
and conversations in our culture and society.
You know, people can have different opinions.
Studies have come back and somebody that has a different opinion than you doesn't actually
(41:04):
harm you.
It's crazy.
What a concept.
What a concept.
Any other questions you guys have about military life or Roger up or anything else?
I did have a question actually, which I didn't want to interrupt.
Are you involved with the veteran hunting events at Camp Ripley?
Yeah.
So the last one wasn't Roger up.
(41:25):
I actually go up there on behalf of the DAV.
So when they have that disabled vets hunt, whether it is, they got the turkey hunt that's
coming up here in the next, next month.
So I should be up there for that, but that's on behalf of the DAV.
We go up to that and then there's trolling for troops in June.
And then they do the disabled vets deer hunt there.
(41:46):
They also do a disabled vets deer hunt down in Rochester.
The DV is great when it comes to outdoor adventures.
So anybody can go onto the DAV of Minnesota website.
There are opportunities that are on there to go fishing down in Florida, hog hunting
in Texas, fishing up on Lake of the Woods or Northern Minnesota.
(42:10):
And so again, if you want to get outdoors, there are so many ways to do it simply by
just signing up.
For those who are combat wounded, you've got wounded warriors in action, which is a phenomenal
organization.
And they are national.
They've got chapters all over the country for Purple Heart recipients.
(42:30):
If there's anybody else who, you know, just again, just needs to get out, there's plenty
of ways to do it.
And but it's fun to go up to there.
And even last time I was up there, all I did was I rode with a Marine and she and I went
out to go pick up a vet who is in his tracks wheelchair and he gets out there and he backs
up the tracks wheelchair and there's a hoist thing on this whole trailer.
(42:54):
This thing is so cool.
And then it like automatically lift or lowers him down.
He wheels himself out, wheels himself over, gets in the truck.
We take his tracks wheelchair, we bring it to the back and put it up on there, strap
it down and everything.
And it's like just to be up there to volunteer, just to do what you can to help out is just
such a great time.
And there's some big deer that come off a Ripley.
(43:15):
Holy cow, I saw a picture of one.
It was a I think the guy had it was 12 pointer that was early in the early in the bull season.
But like this year was huge.
Yeah, they they have some bruises out there for sure.
Some impressive animals.
Yeah, yeah.
Even even the bear out there.
Pretty date, pretty good size, too.
(43:35):
Oh, yeah.
Well, they're not they're not molested for the majority of the year.
So they can generally grow and live.
That base is massive when you look at it on the map.
So yeah.
Well, when you start driving the roads, if you don't have a map with you, it's very easy
to get lost.
And they're done that saw because I actually I actually did some training up there.
(43:57):
So when I got back, I wasn't ready to put down my uniform.
So I actually joined the MWSS 471, the Marine Corps Reserve Unit down in at Ripley or at
Fort Snelling.
And yeah, our second training was sleeping in World War One tents in the middle of the
snow at Camp Ripley.
Yeah, I didn't last long there.
(44:20):
I'm going you guys were fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Why are we sleeping in the snow in February?
It doesn't work for me.
Yeah, I worked for the Boy Scouts and I'm an Eagle Scout and been in the Boy Scouts
for a long time.
We always would do the scouting event out at Fort Ripley.
And when I was so we slept in the barracks and eight MREs and things like that.
(44:40):
Yeah, we were getting shelled or shot at or, you know, blown up.
So there was that.
The lack of privacy around the toilets was a little traumatizing for, you know, like
a 12 year old.
But other than that, one of my co-workers was when I was working for the Scouts was
an Iraq veteran and he came back and just never got never got back used to the Minnesota
(45:05):
winters.
He was like forever forever his body was like forever changed.
Like he couldn't handle the cold anymore.
So we always had always had layers and layers and layers.
Yeah, I've got I've actually got a team member right now or she's literally sat here and
talked to us like, oh, yeah, I don't know how many years I'm lasting here.
It's too cold for me.
I can't do these.
And again, it does.
It's because you know, you tweaked it.
(45:26):
You hear these guys.
Oh, yeah, you know, wow, you're limping today.
OK.
Oh, yeah, you know, old football injury from high school.
That old football injury, just like those old rickety, you know, issues with your knees,
your back, whatever those can turn into arthritis after 30, 40 years.
So when that starts to happen, the cold is not your friend.
(45:46):
So I feel like we kind of missed our mid cigar cigar check because there was an intense story
happening.
But we can do a cigar check cigar check.
Now I've only got about an inch left.
Where is everyone else?
I put mine down for a bit and let mine go out.
So I got to when I and of course, when I'm caffeinated, I can turn into Chetty Cathy.
(46:07):
I know that about myself.
Where are you at, Mike?
I'm at about an inch also.
OK.
So was it was it a pretty deep?
I mean, that's about an hour.
That's a pretty decent burn.
Yeah, it actually lasted longer than I thought, given its size.
But it does start out a lot girthier than it is at the end.
So you know, yes.
Yeah.
(46:27):
So it was sweet.
It wasn't as flavored as I thought it was going to be.
Yeah, it was.
It was sweet, but not as sweet as like a factory sweets or even I mean, the factory sweets
are just kind of a general sweet.
But this is less sweet than that.
I liked it.
It's getting a little sour here at the last inch I've found.
But I like it.
(46:47):
Yeah, and I kind of expected that because now it's down to maybe a quarter inch and
a inch long.
And it's got a lot of tar buildup.
Yeah.
Yeah, I suppose that cone shape almost.
Yeah.
Well, I guess let's Mike and Zach, we can do give our ratings on this one and then we'll
(47:08):
do a couple of things to wrap up.
So I don't know if you've smoked enough of it, Zach, to give it a rating or not, we go
on a five point scale.
If it was like the best thing ever, if it was like better than sex cigar, that's cake.
Then you can give it above a five.
But for me, probably, I would say like 3.2, definitely above average, but I wouldn't say
it's the tops for me.
(47:30):
Sure.
What about you, Mike?
I would give it a three.
Okay.
I would give it a three.
It's fine.
It's a medium bodied cigar and it's got a light sweet flavor, but I don't understand
why they're so popular.
Other than they look really cool.
The label is incredible.
They look really cool.
I think it doesn't appear to be a huge time investment either.
(47:52):
I gave it a three as well.
Yeah.
I feel like one of these, if you were, so I'm thinking like golf cars.
Like if it's something you're like one or two puffs on and you're throwing it on the
ground to do your putt or you're throwing it up at the tee box as you're teeing off,
it's like I could put it to something like that.
Maybe one or two of these on a course where you're having a couple light beers or something
(48:14):
like that.
I could see that, but maybe one on the front nine and one on the back nine, if anything.
Well, I wanted to say for any of our listeners, go to RogerUp.org.
That's Zach's website, his company's website.
Down at the very, very bottom, if you have any questions or want to help, they have a
contact, contact us.
(48:34):
There's a whole, and I appreciate this in terms of web design.
They have a whole thing.
What can we help you with?
I'm in need of services.
I want to support RogerUp.
I want to join the team.
I want to volunteer.
I have questions or other, and you can send a message there.
They've got really sharp looking swag.
They do have a donate option, which I've linked in the episode description.
I've linked their website in the episode description as well.
(48:56):
So if you want to find out more about them, you want to support or have other questions
that we didn't answer on the show today, then feel free to reach out to them.
They have a big support button at the top, so feel free to hit that and give them some
support.
And again, this episode is part of the 2015, no, no, not 2015.
Dear God, the 2025.
(49:17):
That's where we are now in history.
The 2025.
We've gone back into time in the last hour.
I knew it was going to happen.
I feel younger.
We must have hit 88 miles per hour somewhere in there.
But podcastthon.org, for more information, over 1,500 podcasts are participating in this.
(49:39):
Maybe they're talking to a charity you're aware of or one that you want to hear about.
And again, donate, ask questions to RogerUp.
And thank you to Zach for being on.
Thank you to Zach for your service for our country.
Thank you for thanking me and thank you for having me, guys.
It's been great chatting with you.
This was great.
Thanks for listening.
Be safe.
(49:59):
See you.
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