June 9, 2025 • 52 mins
When Navy veteran Evan Graver's motorcycle collided with a semi-truck in 2001, his life changed forever. The accident left him a T10 paraplegic, abruptly ending his military career just months before 9/11 and forcing him to rebuild his identity from the ground up. Yet two decades later, Evan has transformed this devastating injury into a launchpad for an extraordinary life of purpose and service.
In this raw, honest conversation, Evan takes us through his journey from enlistment in 1997 to his current role as a prolific thriller author with 24 published books. He recounts the darkest moments of his recovery with surprising humor – from his memorable five-day odyssey to reach the Cleveland VA ("hospital purgatory") to the pivotal moment when he found himself on his bedroom floor, unable to get back into bed. These seemingly small victories became the building blocks of his remarkable resilience.
What makes Evan's story so powerful isn't just his personal triumph, but how he's channeled his experiences into helping fellow veterans. As a board member for two impactful nonprofits – Dive for Vets and Fishing with America's Finest – he helps disabled veterans discover healing through underwater adventures and fishing expeditions in the Florida Everglades. These organizations embody what Evan calls the essential elements of recovery: "purpose, belonging, and connection."
The conversation also explores Evan's writing process, his supportive marriage to Becky (whom he's known since before birth), and the unexpected ways his injury prepared him to embrace life's challenges. Now exactly half his life has been spent in a wheelchair – 24 years walking, 24 years rolling – giving him a unique perspective on adaptation and finding joy regardless of circumstances.
Whether you're a veteran seeking inspiration, someone facing your own life-changing challenge, or simply looking for an uplifting story of human resilience, Evan's journey demonstrates how tragedy can become transformation when viewed through the lens of possibility rather than limitation. Learn more about his nonprofit work at diveforvets.org and fwaf.net.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott (00:00):
Welcome to the podcast.
I'm Scott McLean.
My guest today is Evan Graver.
Evan is a Navy veteran, he's anauthor and he is part of two
veteran nonprofits.
How you doing, evan?
I'm doing great.
Glad to be here.
Yeah, thanks for coming on.
Thanks for coming on.
So give us a little background,as it usually goes.
(00:21):
Why did you go in the Navy?
Evan Graver (00:24):
background, as it usually goes.
Why did you go in the Navy so?
Right out of high school I knewI wasn't going to go to college
and I ended up going toMotorcycle Mechanics Institute
in Phoenix, arizona, to learnhow to fix motorcycles.
I did that for a couple ofyears and I decided it wasn't
the career path I wanted to godown.
I was searching around forsomething and I was like, well,
I don't really have the moneyfor college.
I just broke up with my fiance.
(00:51):
I called the Coast Guardrecruiter.
He said I was living inKnoxville, tennessee.
He said you drive, drive toAtlanta to see me.
And I said no.
I called the army recruiter.
He said I can come.
You can come see me in twoweeks.
Let's make an appointment.
I called the Navy recruiter andhe said how soon can you get
here?
And I joined the Navy.
Scott (01:09):
What year was that?
Evan Graver (01:10):
It was 97.
I walked into his officelunchtime from work and took the
ASVAB.
I think I went to MEPS a weeklater and I shipped two weeks
later and went to bootcampDecember 13th of 97.
Throws my ass off in greatmistakes, snowed.
Scott (01:33):
And we're let the listeners know that that I'm
familiar with that term.
I've heard it.
I have Navy friends, I've heardit.
Evan Graver (01:39):
Great mistake.
Great lakes Naval Station inChicago, Illinois, yeah.
Scott (01:45):
And you were there in December.
Evan Graver (01:46):
Yeah, I was there in December, december through
February, so you know Christmas,new Year's, all that stuff and
I don't know.
It didn't bother me, we frozeour ass off.
But I left in the middle ofFebruary, a day before a major
snowstorm hit there and itdumped like two or three feet,
and was sitting on the beach inPensacola, florida, at my a
(02:08):
school, so I was happy aboutthat all right, and where did
that?
Scott (02:13):
where did?
Where did the navy take you?
What different places greatmistakes, obviously.
Evan Graver (02:18):
And then, uh, pensacola for a school for six
months, and then I did most ofmy time and was spent in norfolk
, virginia.
Of course, we hopped aroundquite a bit with our squadron
throughout the united states.
We had a continuous debt tobahrain, so we rotated out there
for six months and then it wasjust all over the place.
(02:41):
Basically, yeah, yeah, it was.
It was a lot of fun.
Scott (02:44):
And you were in for how long again?
Evan Graver (02:46):
I was in from 97 to 01.
I got hurt in March of 01.
I just made E5 on the test andI think we took it in January.
So I was supposed to get paidfor E5 in September and they put
me out on August 28th of 2001.
So if I, if, if I had put meout on September 1st, I would've
(03:09):
got paid for E5 and, um, Iwould've been part of the post
9-11.
So yeah it is what it is, soit's the government.
Scott (03:22):
You want to talk about the accident.
Evan Graver (03:25):
Uh, got ran over by a semi, yeah, but yeah.
So we we got off work on afriday afternoon and uh, I
roused my buddy out of bed andwe went riding motorcycles and I
got got hit by a semi.
So I mean, I was doing 25around the corner.
It was a blind corner and thesemi was on my side of the road
(03:48):
and I couldn't see it.
So I hit the back of thetrailer and ended up on my
stomach.
The bike ended up on top of meand he drug me about 25 feet
back the way I came.
So I had a one-piece leatherracing suit on that, never worn
before.
That was the first day.
The old superstition is thatwhen you buy a racing suit or
(04:12):
you buy new pucks for the racingsuit, you should take the pucks
out and scrub them and get them, you know, scuffed up before
you ride.
And I didn't do that.
So maybe, what are the pucks?
The pucks go on your knees to,so when you're leaning in the
corner the puck will scrape theground.
That's it.
So the old superstition is toscrape the pucks before you go
(04:33):
out riding.
Um, yeah, whether that's true ornot I don't know, but I could
tell you that it didn't help mebecause I didn't scrape the
pucks, so but uh, anyways wewere, I, we were out in the
middle of nowhere and all um anduh, what they call pongo, which
is south of virginia beach,right on that north carolina
(04:55):
border.
We're out there in the middleof nowhere.
I guess they talked aboutbringing a life flight for me
and then they couldn't figureout where to land it and then 45
minutes later the ambulanceshowed up and um the accident.
The ambulance report says thatI woke up in the ambulance um
(05:17):
and asked how my motorcycle wasdoing.
Scott (05:19):
Right, so yeah, what did uh?
Evan Graver (05:32):
what was the outcome of the accident?
Uh, I became a t10 paraplegic,which is right around the belly
button area.
When I hit the truck, I bentover backwards and t10 and t11,
11 just basically folded back onthemselves and exploded.
So they, I did, uh, I stoppedat uh in Virginia beach, at the
hospital there, and they kind ofstabilized me with some
(05:53):
steroids and then they sent meto Norfolk Sentara and, uh, we
did all the paperwork for thesurgery.
I talked to the chaplain, Italked to all these people,
signed all the paperwork.
I don, I talked to the chaplain, I talked to all these people,
signed all the paperwork.
I don't remember any of it,which is fine because I don't
want to remember it.
Because, yeah, I rememberwaking up in the uh intensive
(06:16):
care after every after theaccident and, uh, after the
surgery and everything.
And the first thing I rememberremember is spitting onions out,
because we had hamburgers forlunch and you know you're not
supposed to eat before surgery.
So I was spitting the giantpieces of onion out and the
nurse comes running in and jamsthis tube down my throat Stop
spitting, you know so.
(06:38):
And then the doctor came in andhe said uh, he uh asked me to
wiggle my toes and I'm like,asked me to wiggle my toes and
I'm like, okay, looking at mytoes, they're not doing anything
.
And he runs one of those Q-tipsup and down, asked me if I feel
it, he stabs him with a youknow safety pin.
And then he comes over andstands right beside my head,
(07:02):
right here on the right side ofthe bed, and he looks at me and
says, son, you're never going towalk again.
And I was like, what do youmean by that?
I don't remember the rest ofthe conversation because I
blacked back out again.
My parents came in.
I told them that we had to stopmeeting like this because the
(07:23):
last time I saw them was inJanuary the previous January,
when I broke both bones in mylower leg Doing wheelies on my
motorcycle.
You know I was sitting on thegas tank with my feet over the
windscreen doing wheelies, yeah,rode it into a ditch, jumped up
, started running back to thebike and I looked down and you
(07:45):
know my legs been off the wrongway.
So that was an ambulance ride,yeah, but uh, it was a, I know.
After the act, after my parentscame in, I don't know we, I
don't remember a whole lot.
They moved me into a step downroom.
Eventually um what's that?
Scott (08:02):
what's a step down?
Evan Graver (08:03):
it's a room between intensive care and when you're
going to go to a regular roomjust like a holding room, okay,
like we don't have a place toput you, but we're going to
stick you in this corner.
It's kind of like hospitalpurgatory, yeah, kind of you're
waving, it was just.
Uh, you know, I was there.
I think I was in the hospitalin norfolk for two weeks and
(08:26):
then they put me on an airplaneto cleveland to do all my rehab
at the va.
And if you've ever seen themovie deer slayer about vietnam,
deer hunter, deer hunter yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah oh yeah, yeah,
so all that was shot, the, themovie was shot in the cleveland
(08:52):
va.
Okay, so we're, we're the Iforget which character is john
savage, the actor john savagehe's paralyzed.
So all that was shot in the wardat the cleveland va.
So that's what I knew about theCleveland VA.
When they said you're goingthere Interesting, and I was
like you gotta be kidding me.
So, but it was closer to home.
(09:12):
I was still three hours from mymom and dad.
I wasn't 10 and a half Um, sothat's um.
Air force gladly gave me a ridethat took five days.
So that was a fun, five days,five days.
So we left Norfolk and mygirlfriend was with me my
(09:34):
girlfriend at the time she waswith me and we got on the plane
and we left Norfolk and they'resupposed to drop me off in
Cleveland.
And the pilot came on the radioand says on the speaker and
says we are now descending intoSt Louis.
And I was like what the fuckare you talking about?
(09:56):
So we spent the night in StLouis.
They put me back on anotherplane supposed to drop me off in
Cleveland.
Scott (10:01):
Where did they put you In another hospital?
They just brought you to ahospital and then you stayed in
a hospital room for the night.
Yeah, right here on base yeah,and they're there, and then like
you're literally there for likemaybe eight to ten hours, and
then back to the airport, Yep.
Evan Graver (10:15):
So they put me back on the plane and it's like, I
don't know, I'm supposed todivert to Cleveland and get off.
And the pilot comes on and sayswe're now descending into
Washington DC.
And I spent a night, two nights, in Walter Reed.
(10:36):
And they're like, okay, we'regoing to fly you to Cleveland
again, but you're going to.
And I was like, oh, oh boy,okay, my girlfriend says I gotta
get back to work.
You know.
So if, if we stop in Norfolk,I'm gonna get off.
And I was like we're notstopping in Norfolk, you can
(10:57):
just put that out of your mind.
Yeah, um, so we got on theplane again.
The first stop was Norfolk andshe got off.
I went to, uh, charleston,south Carolina, biloxi,
mississippi, san Antonio, texas,and back to St Louis, all in
one day.
Don't ask me why.
Scott (11:18):
Yeah, okay, he saw it.
He saw the look on my face, heknew it was coming.
Don't ask me why.
We'll skip over the why's then.
Evan Graver (11:27):
We're getting into St Louis.
The guy that took me off theplane in St Louis the second
time was the same guy that tookme off the first time.
And he looks at me and goesdude, what are you doing back
here?
And I go, bro, I wish I fuckingknew, because I don't know.
And so the next day theyfinally took pity on me and
(11:47):
dropped me off in cleveland.
So five days after I leftnorfolk we were in cleveland.
They put me in an ambulancecivilian run ambulance to go to
the va.
And the guy says do you want togo lights and sirens?
And I said I don't give a fuck,just get me there.
So we went lights and sirensfrom the airport to the va.
And we get to the va and theambulance driver hits a parked
(12:12):
car and knocks the mirror offthe car.
So we pull up to the, to theentrance and the.
The Cleveland VA is undergoinga major renovation at the time.
It just keeps getting betterhuh.
So they unload me out of theambulance and I'm laying there
on the stretcher looking up andwe're going up this entry ramp,
(12:35):
through this makeshift plywoodand two-by-fours entry, and I'm
thinking in my mind what thefuck is going on.
This looks, you know, I it'sjust like the movie.
Why am I, you know?
So we get into the to the VA,take me up to the sixth floor,
(12:57):
which has been completelyrenovated for spinal cord
patients and at the timeCleveland was the top spinal
cord rehab in the VA system andthey had just renovated the
sixth floor.
So I got my own room and it was.
You know, I wasn't in the ward,but I had a bunch of nurses who
(13:18):
were actually in that movie andwho had been in the ward and
all said that the ward wasbetter because patients weren't
isolated in their rooms.
So you either had a single roomor you were in a room with
another patient, whereas in theward you were all together and
everybody was just.
You know how veterans are youjust roast each other and you
try to push each other forward.
(13:39):
And here I am, stuck in thislittle room by myself.
My world's just ticking a giantshit.
I can't walk.
Before I left the hospital inNorfolk, the chief came in and
did all the paperwork to retireme.
So you know, even though I waslike, come on, bro, there's
(14:00):
parking, handicapped parking onthe base, Let me do something,
he was like no, we can't.
You can't deploy to a ship, soyou're not technically
functional to stay in the Navy.
So we're giving you fullretirement.
Be glad about that.
And I was like, yeah, I guessthree and a half years beats 20.
Scott (14:20):
So yeah, you're laughing and the people listening.
I'm not laughing.
I'm laughing because of thefaces.
That he's just it's it.
Evan Graver (14:30):
I guess you have to look at it that way, right, you
just have to look at it thatway, so I mean, I last, actually
just march of this year um, Ihad 24 years in a wheelchair, so
that's like the dividing pointin my life.
Half my life was walkingbecause I was 24 and I got hurt,
(14:51):
and now I spent 24 years in achair.
So, I mean, there was a lot oftimes when I first got hurt, you
know, I was at the hospital andpeople would come in and and
say your life is going to begreat.
I specifically remember thisguy named Jake.
We were in rehab and Jake was avery low injury like L1, down
(15:12):
to tailbone area, and he got,you know, regained the ability
to walk with one leg, sobasically, he could stand with
the help of a walker.
He could, you know, it was verydifficult for him to do, though
, but, uh, so he stands up inthe walker, he gets out of his
jewelry chair, he stands up andhe just looks at me and he's
(15:33):
telling me how great my life is.
And I'm just thinking in mymind you dude, you need to sit
down and shut the up, becauseyou don't know what you're
talking about.
Um, you know, and and I saw Jakeintermittently in the next
couple of years and I startedgoing out to the VA has what
(15:56):
they call the Winter Games,which is a winter sports clinic
basically.
So you go out to Snowmass,colorado, and they put on this
big thing for disabled veteranswhere you learn to ski,
snowboard.
They got a whole bunch ofactivities and so I started
going out there and skiingbecause I used to love this snow
ski.
So I got back into it sittingdown.
(16:18):
You know we have a special skisand all that stuff.
And a couple of years into thatJake would come every year too,
because he was lived in Buffaloand he skied a lot in New York,
cause you know that's like thesnow capital of the world right
there in the United States wouldcome every year too because he
he was lived in buffalo and heskied a lot in new york, because
you know that that's like thesnow capital of the world right
there in the united states.
But so I said to jake, I sawhim one day and I go, bro, I got
(16:40):
to tell you this story.
So I said do you remembercoming into rehab and telling me
how great my life is going tobe?
And he says, yeah, I rememberthat.
And I said I said honestly, youknow, I said at the time I
wanted you to just sit down andshut up and leave me alone.
I said but you're right, lifeis great.
I mean, this is, I said I.
(17:02):
I do more stuff in a wheelchairthan I ever did, um walking
around, because there's just notonly the VA gives you the
opportunities to do stuff, likethey put on summer games and
winter games and you know they.
They have activities throughoutthe year and we used to have
(17:25):
this guy who would come into thespinal cord unit and he would
take us out to do stuff.
And my doctor was Dr Ho and Iused to call him Dr no because
he never liked patients to havefun.
So towards the end of my stay,the guy, the recreational
(17:49):
therapist, came in and he sayswe're going to six flags or
whatever it is right there bycleveland.
And I was like well, sign me upfor this.
I want to get out of thehospital, right.
So we go to the six flags andthey're like come on, evan,
let's go do this stuff.
And I'm like my first mission isa cold beer.
I haven't had one in like fourmonths.
(18:12):
So I go get a beer, I drink abeer, I ride the roller coasters
, I do all the fun shit at SixFlags I can do because guys in
wheelchairs get headlineprivileges.
Back then we could go ride theroller coasters and look in
these kids' faces when you pullup and be like I'm getting in
this car, and they'd start tocry because they were right
there getting ready to get inthe car and they're like, oh
(18:34):
sorry, kid, putting this guy ina wheelchair in there.
So we get back to the hospitaland the doctor's just furious
that I drank beer and roderoller coasters and I was only
three months post injury and I'mlike, dude, what am I supposed
to do?
(18:54):
Go there and do nothing?
So I think that was in.
I got hurt in March and then,like June, they finally sent me
home and I think that was one ofthe things that was.
The doctor was like well, youdon't need to be here anymore
Because obviously if you'regoing to go out and drink beer
and ride roller coasters, youcan go home.
Scott (19:16):
You're good.
Evan Graver (19:18):
So I went home and I don't know how much.
What do you want to hear?
Scott (19:23):
I mean, oh no, this is fascinating to me, Absolutely.
I mean, you're really giving areally insider thing thing.
A lot of people don't.
They don't think of thesethings, right, they don't, for
whatever human nature is, yeah,people maybe don't want to think
about it, or they just don'task you because they think you
(19:44):
might get offended.
People are funny, so you andand I appreciate this immensely
uh, you telling this story,somebody's gonna hear it and it
gives them an idea, and youcould be there jake was his name
, yeah, yeah.
So this is why I like to hearthese things.
This is why I like to hearthese things.
Evan Graver (20:05):
Um, so this is a funny.
I don't know if it's funny, butso there's times in your life
when you look back and go.
Was that coincidence or wasthat preparing me for the future
?
Because I remember as a youngkid being outside playing and,
for whatever reason, it poppedin my mind like, what do
(20:25):
paraplegics go through?
I mean, how do you drag yourlegs?
So I was laying in the grasslike to as a kid right, and then
I I was in the you know, likethe months leading up to my
accident, I would uh, get offwork and as I'm coming home, I
(20:46):
would always listen to theoldies country station on the am
radio and I would come home andalmost every night, like the
lead week leading up to myaccident, they would play don't
take your love to town.
And that's about um, aparalyzed soldier coming home
from Vietnam, and his girlfrienddoesn't want anything to do
(21:07):
with him and keeps going intotown.
And I'm like what's it?
Why is he playing a song everynight, you know?
And like, then my accidenthappened and I'm like I, just
I'm like it was telling mesomething bad was going to
happen there.
Or is it just you know thiscoincidence?
Scott (21:28):
It's interesting that you , that those things flash back
to you and you start piecingthose little things out of
everything that you did as a kid, out of everything that you
picked, those two specificthings, and you're like is there
a correlation there?
It was, like you said, a signof things to come right.
Evan Graver (21:44):
Well, and the third thing was that I was in my room
one day you know about thattime, right before I got hurt
For some reason, I was in myroom and then it hit me again.
It's like what did paraplegicsdo?
And I was like trying to getoff the floor onto my bed.
And you know, of course, youknow I can use my legs and you
(22:09):
know, of course you know I canuse my legs.
And then I get home after thehospital, after the rehab
supposed to rehab, I get homeand I fall out of the bed Exact
same bed I was trying to getback into, you know, a couple
months earlier, trying to figureout how a paraplegic does this.
I could not get back in intobed to save my life and I'm
(22:33):
laying on the floor just bawlingmy eyes out because I can't do
it.
And you know it's, it's twofeet, two and a half feet,
whatever it is just trying toget back into bed and I'm like I
can't, I can't do it, I'm notstrong enough, or I can't, you
know.
So my bed was also also haddrawers under it, you know.
(22:56):
So my dad, years ago, had builtthis bed for me, so it had
drawers you could pull out andall the clothes would go
underneath it.
So I had this sliding boardthat the VA gave me so that when
you transfer you can slideacross the board from the bed
onto the wheelchair or into thecar.
So I put the sliding board onthe drawer, the clothing drawer,
(23:18):
and I made like little stepsfor me to get up into the bed
and I could take the littlesteps.
I just couldn't do the bighurdle and I guess that was just
, you know, one of those thingsthat had, you know, had to click
in your mind that just howgreat it felt to get back in bed
(23:39):
after laying on the groundcrying, going I'm never gonna
get this, I'm gonna be here tillsomebody comes to rescue me, to
actually figuring it out.
Just the deletion of being ableto do that was, yeah, so, and
then I think about that time itreally triggered in my mind that
, all right, dude, you got toget off your ass and and stop
feeling sorry for yourself andfigure out what life is and, um,
(24:03):
what you're going to do next.
And and I and it still took mea long time to figure out that
um, you know, life was worthliving and having fun and yeah.
So I had some buddies in theNavy that I used to ride
motorcycles with and shortlyafter I got out of the hospital
they came and, uh, they drovefrom Norfolk up to my house and
(24:25):
picked me up.
It's like a 10 and a half 11hour drive.
And my buddy Richie he, he sayshe called me and said we're
going to come pick you up andwe're going to take you to my
mom and dad's house in WestVirginia.
And I was like sweet, and thisis like labor day and um, so him
(24:45):
and my buddy Daryl show up atthe house and I'm like I got my
bags packed and I'm like waitingat the door like a little puppy
, like where's my buddy showingup when they come in?
So they pull into the drive andI'm like I don't care that, you
just drove 12 hours, I'm gettingin the truck and we're fucking
leaving this place.
I can't, I don't want to behere anymore.
And they just wanted to passout and take a nap and go back,
(25:09):
go to his house in the morning.
But we ended up.
I convinced him to drive backto West Virginia and we did a
lot of fun things.
They ended up throwing me on amotor, on a four wheeler, and we
rode all over the place and sothat you know, and Richie was
(25:30):
like dude, you're the same guy.
I don't care if you're in awheelchair, you're the same dude
.
We're going to keep doingthings, and we have, and I go to
visit him in North Carolina allthe time.
Scott (25:45):
Dude people, that's a good friend right there.
That's more than a friend.
That's yeah, he's a good friendright there.
That's more than a friend.
That's he, yeah, he was, he wasmeant to be.
You talk about these thingslike he was meant to be a friend
in life.
Evan Graver (25:59):
Man, yeah, that's amazing an amazing thing is that
he was there with me on thatride, so he was there the day
that I got hurt yeah and um,I've asked him you know what
happened?
And uh, all he says is that youscreamed a lot, yeah, and that,
and he doesn't want to talkabout it, which is fine.
Yeah, I understand, I can'tremember any of it, so, and I
(26:21):
don't remember there you go andI don't want to be the one to
bring it up or dredge it up.
Scott (26:26):
So so okay, fast forward.
You're married now, right?
Evan Graver (26:32):
Yeah, we've been married.
We got to hear about her.
Scott (26:35):
Yeah, we got to hear about her, because that's a good
woman.
Evan Graver (26:41):
She is.
And so we actually knew ourmoms were pregnant together.
Our parents went to the samechurch.
We actually knew our moms werepregnant together.
Our mom, our parents, went tothe same church and, um, I was
born in August of 76 and she wasborn in November of 76.
So we're fairly the same ageand she calls me her older man.
(27:02):
So, hey, so I was like, yeah, Igot me younger woman.
But so after I got hurt, I um,I don't know, I moved back home.
Uh, my girlfriend at the time, I, I thought things were pretty
serious with her, and then itjust changed and you know, she
didn't want to deal with theinjury and she didn't want to
(27:23):
deal with the distance betweenus, whatever it was.
It worked out, um, becky, um,my wife's name is becky, so my,
my cousin julie, had a newyear's eve party and she invited
everybody and becky and I wereonly two single people there.
Um, at the time she had a ninemonth old son named named
(27:47):
Patrick, and he sat on my lapwithout crying, which flat-out
amazed everybody, because Inicknamed him PT Screamer.
His name is Patrick Thomas andI nicknamed him PT Screamer
because he screamed abouteverything.
You put him in the car.
(28:07):
He screamed.
He would scream the whole timein the car.
It wasn't until he turned hiscar seat around and he could see
out the window that he was.
He was all right, but uh, so we, we ended up.
We started dating and ended upgetting married in 2005, and so
(28:28):
20 some years later.
Scott (28:29):
Yeah, you're coming up on up on 20 years, right?
Have you already hit the 20th?
Evan Graver (28:33):
20 years in March.
Yeah, yeah, congratulations.
I got a lot of things going onin March.
We got married in March, myson's birthday is in March, so I
adopted Patrick.
Scott (28:44):
So Jake was right.
Evan Graver (28:45):
Yeah.
Scott (28:46):
Life is great.
Evan Graver (28:46):
Yeah, life is great , excellent.
Scott (28:50):
When did you start getting into writing?
How did you get into writing?
How many books do you have outright?
Evan Graver (28:56):
now.
Uh, I have like 24 books outright now um what's the genre?
it's really a genre.
They're all thrillers.
They they're all set in theCaribbean, florida, caribbean
area, central America.
I have one series that's setbasically in LA, because the
(29:20):
guy's a stuntman, so he livesthere.
But I got into it.
I started writing, you know,really young.
I wrote a lot of short storiesin high school.
I always kind of wrote shortstories on and off just for my
own personal satisfaction, tokeep my brain active, I guess.
And then when I got hurt in2001, I was in a hospital and I
(29:45):
started writing a story aboutmilitia that got their hands on
some missiles and kept them inold grain silos because the
grain silos in the midwest areprolific and like what better
place to hide missiles.
So the whole premise of thebook was that the militia takes
over the government and Icouldn't figure out how to tie
(30:07):
it all together and I put it onthe shelf.
And then in 2016, when Obamawas coming to his end of his
term and I wrote it like Ipulled it out and finished it
because it was like I hate whatthe government is doing, I hate
(30:28):
where it's going and I hopeHillary doesn't win.
Right right and so, long storyshort, the militia takes over
the government, because theydon't.
But I started writing that bookin 2016 and I didn't publish it
right away.
I kind of put it on the shelfand started writing my Ryan
(30:48):
Wilder Thriller series, whichtakes place in the Caribbean.
He's a former Navy EOD diver,gets into commercial work and
it's just like a privatemilitary contractor around the
Caribbean and he just lives on asailboat, got hot girlfriends.
Scott (31:07):
Lots of guys, yeah, and so how is your writing process?
What is the?
Is it typing like?
You know what I mean.
Like, what are the?
What's the mechanics of it?
Technology today, right as wetalked about earlier, kind of
dictates that you can do thingsa little easier than back in the
(31:30):
day everything from how youtranscribe it, how you put it
down on paper or now onto yourlaptop, and how it gets edited
and how.
So what's the process?
And was there a lot of bumpsalong the way?
Evan Graver (31:45):
when you said I am going to just now be a writer
like this is shit I want to do,I don't know if there were well,
first of all, I had to learnhow to write and how to use the
english language effectively,and my, my big area is
punctuation, and where does thatdamn comma go?
and colon, semicolons but Istill sit down on the keyboard
(32:06):
every morning.
My daily goal was always 2 000words words a day.
One of my favorite authors isJohn D McDonald and he wrote a
22-book series about TravisMcGee and he lived on a
houseboat at Slip F-18, b-h-m-rin Fort Lauderdale and it takes
(32:27):
place in the 60s 70s and he wasone of the first great series
noir guys.
Yeah, and John Dee would sitthere.
He treated it like a job.
This guy published like 66books in his lifetime, uh-huh,
and a lot of short stories andhe said this is my job and he
(32:49):
would sit down and write foreight hours a day and I was like
, well, if I'm going to be awriter, I have to at least match
that right.
You know I have to treat it asa job.
So my goal was 2,000 words aday.
Sometimes I get 500 in becausethe scene is really tough and I
(33:09):
don't know where I'm going withthe story or I got the right
dreaded writer's block andsometimes it just falls out and
I can write five, six, 7,000words in a day.
It's all typed because I stillhaven't figured.
I hate talking into the phoneand going a voice to text
(33:30):
quotation mark.
Blah, blah, blah.
I mean I can type it fasterthan I can and then I don't like
going back and you know you cando a voice to text, but then
you got to go back and put allthe punctuation in and do all
this stuff and it's like I couldjust do that from the beginning
and save myself time.
And maybe I don't, I don't know, but I like to type it out.
And then you know you got aneditor that looks at it and a
(33:53):
proofreader and AI that can tellyou where all the commas go.
Right.
Scott (33:59):
Right, exactly, exactly, exactly.
So you also are involved withtwo veteran nonprofits.
Yes, let's talk about them andhow you got involved with each
one of them.
Evan Graver (34:14):
The first one I got involved with was called Die
for Vets, and I met the founder.
His name is Kerry McNeil.
He was a Marine Corps recruiterliving in Toledo at the time
and after I got hurt, I just hada bucket list of stuff I wanted
to do, cause, you never know,life's too short, you know.
(34:35):
I don't know if I can.
You know, in my older years amI going to be able to physically
do all this stuff that I coulddo?
Right then.
So I'm going to do it all rightthen.
And one of the key bucket thingswas learning how to dive.
So I went to the, you know,learn how to dive.
And then in Ohio you dive inquarries.
So the quarry fills, you know.
(34:55):
They stop using the quarry andit fills up with water and it's
like taking a bath in an icebucket.
So we would all get together atthis quarry in Portage, ohio,
which is just south of BowlingGreen, and it was just like a
big party scene.
They had a beach and all thecollege kids from Bowling Green
University would come and partyand we would dive and drink beer
(35:18):
.
in the afternoon they hadcampers for people.
So I met Kerry there and thenwe went on and did other stuff
and he ended up moving toFlorida and buying a dive shop
called Aquatic Ventures.
Ended up moving to florida andbuying a dive shop called
(35:38):
aquatic ventures and he heblames me for this non-profit
because he was like I got tohelp veterans because I saw you
dive and and uh so.
So if you're a disabled veteranor you're a veteran that wanted,
wants to dive, dive for vets,you can go to diveforvetsorg.
You can apply to send us yourdd214 and your va disability
(35:59):
letter.
We'll teach you to dive forfree.
That will help you getdiscounted dive gear and just to
help you stay in a communitythat cares.
And the thing about diving isthat you know it is a community.
So you know you got the diveshop and then you got the dive
(36:22):
boats and you got the diving.
You know so.
And there's a lot of veteransthat like to dive and there's a,
you know, because Carrie is aveteran owner.
There's a lot of veterans thatcome into our shop.
So we get that veterancamaraderie.
You get that.
You know no bullshit, noquarter given kind of thing
(36:45):
there.
And diving is great because it'sI equate it to motorcycle
riding where you're in thepresent moment every time.
You know you get that's.
What I loved about motorcycleriding was that you were always
in the moment.
Every time you got on the bike,there was nothing but me and
(37:08):
the bike.
There was no otherextemporaneous stuff.
There was no otherextemporaneous stuff, and that's
what diving is, because you'reunderwater breathing off a tank
and if you fuck up you're goingto die.
So you have to concentrate andbe in the moment.
And being in that moment andbeing underwater is the studies
(37:35):
have shown that it helpstremendously to reduce ptsd.
It the pressure on your body,the extra oxygen being pressured
into you helps reduce thecortisol in the brain, helps you
to recover injuries faster andreduces that ptsd reduces,
reduces the barriers that youhave to getting back into
society or getting interpersonalbarriers or whatever.
(37:59):
We have a girl named Melissa andshe'll probably hate me for
telling this story, but she isan Army veteran and she came
into the shop through the Diefor Vets program shop through
the die for vets program and she, after she got out of the army
she had she was on drugs and shegot off drugs and she's
(38:19):
phenomenal girl because just tojust to be hooked on drugs and
to be able to have thededication to get yourself off
of them is, to me, is aphenomenal thing and she has
that single-minded focus to dothat and she would come into the
shop and she'd be verywithdrawn and if you pick on her
or talk to her she would buryherself in the phone, she would
(38:40):
kind of giggle and bury, but nowshe's an instructor for us.
Now, over the years she's andyou could watch her grow and
bloom and now she's aninstructor.
Watch her grow and bloom andnow she's an instructor.
And just the change we've seenin her is the whole reason for
having a foundation, because youdraw people out.
(39:02):
You brought them from beingthat withdrawn or being that
fearful of doing things to now.
We're introducing you tosomething new and the brain
responds not only by reductionof cortisol, reduction of stress
, reduction of all this stuff,but also your frontal lobe
starts to grow because you'restressed and your body loves
(39:27):
being stressed.
Your brain grows when you'restressed.
So all these things you know,putting people in a new
situation, learning new skills,and then you're in the
camaraderie of other veterans,other divers, and you're part of
the.
You learn to be part of thecommunity.
You go on a dive boat.
You're part of the community,you know it's.
(39:47):
So we try to bring as manyveterans in as we can and we try
to keep them active in thediving community by giving them
free trips we have a lot ofshore dives, so those are always
free Just bringing people backinto the society and back into
the fold.
So it's great to see peopleblossom.
Scott (40:08):
Like I say, in the One man, one Mike Foundation purpose
, belonging and connection.
It's really all about thatgreat to see people blossom,
like I say in the one man, onemike foundation, purpose,
belonging and connection yeah,it's really exactly all about
that all of these non-profitsshould be, and they mostly are
about that.
I just coined the phrase pbc.
It's not palm beach county it'spurpose, belonging and
connection.
(40:29):
So that's it's my line for youpeople out there.
You can use it, though I'll letyou.
It's a good one.
It's the truth too.
Yeah, and the other veterannonprofit.
Evan Graver (40:41):
The second one I'm involved with is Fishing with
America's Finest.
It's F-W-A-F, dot O-R-G or dotnet.
I can never remember.
Even though I run the website,I can never remember the website
name.
Scott (40:55):
Welcome to my world or I'm in your world.
One or the other I got you.
Evan Graver (41:01):
You'll get to it either way.
Org or net, fwaf.
Fishing with America's Finest.
Neil Stark is the founder.
His uncle was in the military.
Retired from the military, neilwanted to give back.
Um, neil is a professionalangler.
He spent years fishing offshoreand inshore.
(41:21):
He's won the king of the gladestournament.
I've been on the professionalbass fishing circuit and he
wanted to give something back toveterans and he knew how he
felt being out in nature, thestress, reduced stress, skill
learning, just the enjoyment ofcatching fish.
So he wanted to give back andhe started fishing with
(41:43):
America's Finest about 19 yearsago.
We have two pontoon boats so wecan take handicapped, disabled
people out.
Obviously he takes me out.
So whether both the both thosepontoon boats are parked at
everglades holiday park offgriffin road that's out there.
Scott (42:02):
Yeah, I've been there a couple times, so yeah.
Evan Graver (42:05):
So it's a foundation that we take veterans
fishing for free.
So we'll take take you for free.
We provide the boats, the lunch, the drinks, the tackle, the
bait.
All you do is show up and comefishing.
We'll take you and your familyfishing for free.
And if you go to the websiteand you want to sign up, you can
(42:26):
shoot me a message on there,because I'll be the one
answering the messages.
We can get you on the schedule.
We'll take you out in theEverglades and put you on some
great fish.
We've had 100 fish days outthere where your thumb is just
raw from hooking them andthrowing them off.
But it again, it's aboutcamaraderie, it's about being in
(42:48):
nature, the reduction of thestress, building new skills, and
I got involved with it becauseNeil took me fishing.
I wanted to catch a peacockbass and that was always on my
bucket list and I never knewthat they had them in South
Florida until I moved down here.
I always thought I had to go toBrazil.
(43:10):
Why a peacock bass?
I don down here.
Scott (43:13):
I always thought I had to go to Brazil.
Evan Graver (43:13):
Why a peacock bass?
I don't know.
I just they're fat, they'rejust beautiful fish and down in
the Amazon they get to, you know, 30, 40 pounds.
They're just amazing fish.
And so the FWC released themhere in Florida and the canals
in South Florida to combat theinvasive species the Mayan
(43:35):
cichlids and the Oscars and someof those other invasive species
that people were releasing fromour canals.
So the peacock bass are herebecause we released them.
It's the only place in theUnited States where they can
live, because if it gets below60 degrees and the water gets
below 60, they'll die.
So I wanted to catch a peacockbass and so I got in touch with
(43:57):
neil and he took me out and wejust had an amazing day.
We smacked him, I caught likesix different species of fish.
It was did you get your peacockbass?
I did there you go, happy endingso, one of the things you know,
I started fishing again, causethat's one of the things I love.
You know I ride.
I rode motorcycles with one setof friends and I fished with
(44:20):
another.
So getting back into intofishing was great, because down
here you can, I can, walk thecanal.
You know, roll the canal.
Scott (44:30):
You roll.
I'm not, I wasn't going totouch that.
But okay, don't pick on me.
I can't stand up for myself.
I can't stand up.
I got you, you got, you gotthem all.
I know you got them all.
Evan Graver (44:45):
So so I got, I got back into fishing.
I started going along thecanals because it's flat, you
can cast down in there and youcan.
You can just smack fish all dayand it's great.
It's like catching them in anaquarium.
So I got.
Neil kept pestering me.
He's like get involved in mynonprofit.
So now I'm on the board of thenonprofit, so we're we do a lot
(45:07):
of fundraisers, we do a lot ofevents.
Palm beach, p we do a lot ofevents.
Palm Beach, pompano city ofMiami, lakes, and then, of
course, we're always takingpeople out fishing in the
Everglades.
Yeah, yeah.
Scott (45:22):
Well, my friend, let's give those two nonprofits again.
And, if you don't mind, my uh,the website for the vets
connection podcast has becomeover 55 episodes.
It's become its own resourcepage, because what I do is I'm
going to take this interview,I'm going to publish it, I
publish them all.
It goes right to my website andthen what I have is a whole
resource page of everyone I'veinterviewed, every nonprofit or
(45:45):
for-profit that works in theveteran space and it's their
logo and it's a link right totheir website.
So if people go on there,you're going to be on there for
both of those.
Well, the both nonprofits willbe on there, if that's okay,
that's great.
I would love that.
Evan Graver (46:00):
Yeah.
Scott (46:00):
The more we can put on there, the more there is out
there for veterans to see.
I know there's a hundred, youknow there's 500 resource pages.
You just can't have enough.
It shouldn't be just one.
But the unique part of mine isthere's actually an episode of
the podcast so you can look atit and go to the page and you
(46:21):
can listen to what it's reallyall about in there.
So I'm not trying to top all theother nonprofits, it's just
what I do, and the VetsConnection podcast is not a
nonprofit.
So there you go, I'm helpingjust what I do.
It's just just.
And the Vets Connection podcastis not a nonprofit.
So there you go, I'm helpingall the nonprofits.
Yeah, let's give those websitesone more time.
Evan Graver (46:39):
Diveforvetsorg and fwafnet.
Scott (46:44):
You know what?
We're going to straighten thisout.
I'm, I'm.
I've never done this before,but this is what it'snet.
Okay, good Cause, I was goingto run it on my phone and see
which one it is Okay.
Evan Graver (46:57):
Fishing with America's finest.
If you Google it, you'll get itto our webpage.
Scott (47:02):
You're the web.
Evan Graver (47:03):
You're the web guy, if you hit the chat you'll talk
to me and you can go.
Hey, dumbass.
Scott (47:11):
You're going to start getting screenshots.
Yeah, just in case you forgot.
Well, evan, my friend, and Ijust want to let the audience
know I met Evan.
He is one of the veterans thatreached out to the One man, one
Mic Foundation and wanted tolearn about podcasting, and he's
(47:31):
a great student.
I can tell you that they allare.
They all are that I reallycan't put some on top of the
other, but he's one of thoseguys that I and and then there's
women too.
You go down the course andyou're like this, this is in
like the second week.
He's like okay, I got this.
I guess I believe during ourfirst class, you created your
thumbnail and you came up with acatch line.
(47:54):
I was like are you kidding me?
Evan Graver (47:57):
I had it ready for you because I've been thinking
about this for months.
I love it.
Scott (48:03):
And you're going to have a podcast, right, and what's it
going to be called?
Evan Graver (48:07):
Plot Recon, where thrillers get tactical, and
it'll be me talking to otherauthors about writing.
Scott (48:13):
There you go.
He did that while we were inclass Like he's that student.
So I couldn't have been prouder.
I was like I guess this reallydoes work.
So we're going to keep workingon that and the way you're
moving, this is going to be upand running sooner than you
think.
Evan Graver (48:30):
I'm ready.
Yes.
Scott (48:34):
Yeah, he is.
Okay, my friend will listen.
I'm going to do my outro andthen you know you're going to
stick around because we'rerecording this at my house.
So he came up for a class onhow to edit on garage band on
the Mac and so I said, well, whydon't I interview?
I didn't have an interviewlined up and uh, and I'm going
to actually interview you foryour first episode when we're
(48:55):
ready to do all that and I getmy roadcast squared away.
We're going to get that alldone, and you're.
It's also going to be a videopodcast also.
Right, that's the hope it willhappen.
It will happen, my friend, sostick around.
Let me do the outro.
Well, we built another bridgetoday.
This is a great bridge.
I hope you liked it.
If you like it, share it.
(49:15):
If you didn't, well, thanks forlistening, for I don't have my
time wrong, but I don't knowabout an hour.
It's a good.
This was a great interview.
Do me a favor and stick aroundfor the public service
announcement at the end of thepodcast.
It's quick, it's like 30seconds, but talks about 988-211
(49:37):
and a couple of other things.
For veterans and family membersof veterans and friends of
veterans.
It's an informative 30 secondpublic service announcement, and
I think that's it, and I wantto thank you guys for listening.
This podcast has done reallywell it's.
It's exceeded my expectationsand it's because of you.
You are the engine that runsthis machine.
Uh, without you, it would justbe me talking into a microphone,
(49:58):
and I do that anyways.
So, but I'm glad you'relistening and I will try to
bring you more and more.
Uh, this isn't going to end.
There's a lot out there thatI'm going to bring you.
So, with all that said, youwill hear me next week.
Welcome to the podcast.
I'm Scott McLean.
My guest today is Evan Graver.
Evan is a Navy veteran, he's anauthor and he is part of two
veteran nonprofits.
How you doing, evan?
I'm doing great.
Glad to be here.
Yeah, thanks for coming on.
Thanks for coming on.
So give us a little background,as it usually goes.
(00:21):
Why did you go in the Navy?
Evan Graver (00:24):
background, as it usually goes.
Why did you go in the Navy so?
Right out of high school I knewI wasn't going to go to college
and I ended up going toMotorcycle Mechanics Institute
in Phoenix, arizona, to learnhow to fix motorcycles.
I did that for a couple ofyears and I decided it wasn't
the career path I wanted to godown.
I was searching around forsomething and I was like, well,
I don't really have the moneyfor college.
I just broke up with my fiance.
(00:51):
I called the Coast Guardrecruiter.
He said I was living inKnoxville, tennessee.
He said you drive, drive toAtlanta to see me.
And I said no.
I called the army recruiter.
He said I can come.
You can come see me in twoweeks.
Let's make an appointment.
I called the Navy recruiter andhe said how soon can you get
here?
And I joined the Navy.
Scott (01:09):
What year was that?
Evan Graver (01:10):
It was 97.
I walked into his officelunchtime from work and took the
ASVAB.
I think I went to MEPS a weeklater and I shipped two weeks
later and went to bootcampDecember 13th of 97.
Throws my ass off in greatmistakes, snowed.
Scott (01:33):
And we're let the listeners know that that I'm
familiar with that term.
I've heard it.
I have Navy friends, I've heardit.
Evan Graver (01:39):
Great mistake.
Great lakes Naval Station inChicago, Illinois, yeah.
Scott (01:45):
And you were there in December.
Evan Graver (01:46):
Yeah, I was there in December, december through
February, so you know Christmas,new Year's, all that stuff and
I don't know.
It didn't bother me, we frozeour ass off.
But I left in the middle ofFebruary, a day before a major
snowstorm hit there and itdumped like two or three feet,
and was sitting on the beach inPensacola, florida, at my a
(02:08):
school, so I was happy aboutthat all right, and where did
that?
Scott (02:13):
where did?
Where did the navy take you?
What different places greatmistakes, obviously.
Evan Graver (02:18):
And then, uh, pensacola for a school for six
months, and then I did most ofmy time and was spent in norfolk
, virginia.
Of course, we hopped aroundquite a bit with our squadron
throughout the united states.
We had a continuous debt tobahrain, so we rotated out there
for six months and then it wasjust all over the place.
(02:41):
Basically, yeah, yeah, it was.
It was a lot of fun.
Scott (02:44):
And you were in for how long again?
Evan Graver (02:46):
I was in from 97 to 01.
I got hurt in March of 01.
I just made E5 on the test andI think we took it in January.
So I was supposed to get paidfor E5 in September and they put
me out on August 28th of 2001.
So if I, if, if I had put meout on September 1st, I would've
(03:09):
got paid for E5 and, um, Iwould've been part of the post
9-11.
So yeah it is what it is, soit's the government.
Scott (03:22):
You want to talk about the accident.
Evan Graver (03:25):
Uh, got ran over by a semi, yeah, but yeah.
So we we got off work on afriday afternoon and uh, I
roused my buddy out of bed andwe went riding motorcycles and I
got got hit by a semi.
So I mean, I was doing 25around the corner.
It was a blind corner and thesemi was on my side of the road
(03:48):
and I couldn't see it.
So I hit the back of thetrailer and ended up on my
stomach.
The bike ended up on top of meand he drug me about 25 feet
back the way I came.
So I had a one-piece leatherracing suit on that, never worn
before.
That was the first day.
The old superstition is thatwhen you buy a racing suit or
(04:12):
you buy new pucks for the racingsuit, you should take the pucks
out and scrub them and get them, you know, scuffed up before
you ride.
And I didn't do that.
So maybe, what are the pucks?
The pucks go on your knees to,so when you're leaning in the
corner the puck will scrape theground.
That's it.
So the old superstition is toscrape the pucks before you go
(04:33):
out riding.
Um, yeah, whether that's true ornot I don't know, but I could
tell you that it didn't help mebecause I didn't scrape the
pucks, so but uh, anyways wewere, I, we were out in the
middle of nowhere and all um anduh, what they call pongo, which
is south of virginia beach,right on that north carolina
(04:55):
border.
We're out there in the middleof nowhere.
I guess they talked aboutbringing a life flight for me
and then they couldn't figureout where to land it and then 45
minutes later the ambulanceshowed up and um the accident.
The ambulance report says thatI woke up in the ambulance um
(05:17):
and asked how my motorcycle wasdoing.
Scott (05:19):
Right, so yeah, what did uh?
Evan Graver (05:32):
what was the outcome of the accident?
Uh, I became a t10 paraplegic,which is right around the belly
button area.
When I hit the truck, I bentover backwards and t10 and t11,
11 just basically folded back onthemselves and exploded.
So they, I did, uh, I stoppedat uh in Virginia beach, at the
hospital there, and they kind ofstabilized me with some
(05:53):
steroids and then they sent meto Norfolk Sentara and, uh, we
did all the paperwork for thesurgery.
I talked to the chaplain, Italked to all these people,
signed all the paperwork.
I don, I talked to the chaplain, I talked to all these people,
signed all the paperwork.
I don't remember any of it,which is fine because I don't
want to remember it.
Because, yeah, I rememberwaking up in the uh intensive
(06:16):
care after every after theaccident and, uh, after the
surgery and everything.
And the first thing I rememberremember is spitting onions out,
because we had hamburgers forlunch and you know you're not
supposed to eat before surgery.
So I was spitting the giantpieces of onion out and the
nurse comes running in and jamsthis tube down my throat Stop
spitting, you know so.
(06:38):
And then the doctor came in andhe said uh, he uh asked me to
wiggle my toes and I'm like,asked me to wiggle my toes and
I'm like, okay, looking at mytoes, they're not doing anything
.
And he runs one of those Q-tipsup and down, asked me if I feel
it, he stabs him with a youknow safety pin.
And then he comes over andstands right beside my head,
(07:02):
right here on the right side ofthe bed, and he looks at me and
says, son, you're never going towalk again.
And I was like, what do youmean by that?
I don't remember the rest ofthe conversation because I
blacked back out again.
My parents came in.
I told them that we had to stopmeeting like this because the
(07:23):
last time I saw them was inJanuary the previous January,
when I broke both bones in mylower leg Doing wheelies on my
motorcycle.
You know I was sitting on thegas tank with my feet over the
windscreen doing wheelies, yeah,rode it into a ditch, jumped up
, started running back to thebike and I looked down and you
(07:45):
know my legs been off the wrongway.
So that was an ambulance ride,yeah, but uh, it was a, I know.
After the act, after my parentscame in, I don't know we, I
don't remember a whole lot.
They moved me into a step downroom.
Eventually um what's that?
Scott (08:02):
what's a step down?
Evan Graver (08:03):
it's a room between intensive care and when you're
going to go to a regular roomjust like a holding room, okay,
like we don't have a place toput you, but we're going to
stick you in this corner.
It's kind of like hospitalpurgatory, yeah, kind of you're
waving, it was just.
Uh, you know, I was there.
I think I was in the hospitalin norfolk for two weeks and
(08:26):
then they put me on an airplaneto cleveland to do all my rehab
at the va.
And if you've ever seen themovie deer slayer about vietnam,
deer hunter, deer hunter yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah oh yeah, yeah,
so all that was shot, the, themovie was shot in the cleveland
(08:52):
va.
Okay, so we're, we're the Iforget which character is john
savage, the actor john savagehe's paralyzed.
So all that was shot in the wardat the cleveland va.
So that's what I knew about theCleveland VA.
When they said you're goingthere Interesting, and I was
like you gotta be kidding me.
So, but it was closer to home.
(09:12):
I was still three hours from mymom and dad.
I wasn't 10 and a half Um, sothat's um.
Air force gladly gave me a ridethat took five days.
So that was a fun, five days,five days.
So we left Norfolk and mygirlfriend was with me my
(09:34):
girlfriend at the time she waswith me and we got on the plane
and we left Norfolk and they'resupposed to drop me off in
Cleveland.
And the pilot came on the radioand says on the speaker and
says we are now descending intoSt Louis.
And I was like what the fuckare you talking about?
(09:56):
So we spent the night in StLouis.
They put me back on anotherplane supposed to drop me off in
Cleveland.
Scott (10:01):
Where did they put you In another hospital?
They just brought you to ahospital and then you stayed in
a hospital room for the night.
Yeah, right here on base yeah,and they're there, and then like
you're literally there for likemaybe eight to ten hours, and
then back to the airport, Yep.
Evan Graver (10:15):
So they put me back on the plane and it's like, I
don't know, I'm supposed todivert to Cleveland and get off.
And the pilot comes on and sayswe're now descending into
Washington DC.
And I spent a night, two nights, in Walter Reed.
(10:36):
And they're like, okay, we'regoing to fly you to Cleveland
again, but you're going to.
And I was like, oh, oh boy,okay, my girlfriend says I gotta
get back to work.
You know.
So if, if we stop in Norfolk,I'm gonna get off.
And I was like we're notstopping in Norfolk, you can
(10:57):
just put that out of your mind.
Yeah, um, so we got on theplane again.
The first stop was Norfolk andshe got off.
I went to, uh, charleston,south Carolina, biloxi,
mississippi, san Antonio, texas,and back to St Louis, all in
one day.
Don't ask me why.
Scott (11:18):
Yeah, okay, he saw it.
He saw the look on my face, heknew it was coming.
Don't ask me why.
We'll skip over the why's then.
Evan Graver (11:27):
We're getting into St Louis.
The guy that took me off theplane in St Louis the second
time was the same guy that tookme off the first time.
And he looks at me and goesdude, what are you doing back
here?
And I go, bro, I wish I fuckingknew, because I don't know.
And so the next day theyfinally took pity on me and
(11:47):
dropped me off in cleveland.
So five days after I leftnorfolk we were in cleveland.
They put me in an ambulancecivilian run ambulance to go to
the va.
And the guy says do you want togo lights and sirens?
And I said I don't give a fuck,just get me there.
So we went lights and sirensfrom the airport to the va.
And we get to the va and theambulance driver hits a parked
(12:12):
car and knocks the mirror offthe car.
So we pull up to the, to theentrance and the.
The Cleveland VA is undergoinga major renovation at the time.
It just keeps getting betterhuh.
So they unload me out of theambulance and I'm laying there
on the stretcher looking up andwe're going up this entry ramp,
(12:35):
through this makeshift plywoodand two-by-fours entry, and I'm
thinking in my mind what thefuck is going on.
This looks, you know, I it'sjust like the movie.
Why am I, you know?
So we get into the to the VA,take me up to the sixth floor,
(12:57):
which has been completelyrenovated for spinal cord
patients and at the timeCleveland was the top spinal
cord rehab in the VA system andthey had just renovated the
sixth floor.
So I got my own room and it was.
You know, I wasn't in the ward,but I had a bunch of nurses who
(13:18):
were actually in that movie andwho had been in the ward and
all said that the ward wasbetter because patients weren't
isolated in their rooms.
So you either had a single roomor you were in a room with
another patient, whereas in theward you were all together and
everybody was just.
You know how veterans are youjust roast each other and you
try to push each other forward.
(13:39):
And here I am, stuck in thislittle room by myself.
My world's just ticking a giantshit.
I can't walk.
Before I left the hospital inNorfolk, the chief came in and
did all the paperwork to retireme.
So you know, even though I waslike, come on, bro, there's
(14:00):
parking, handicapped parking onthe base, Let me do something,
he was like no, we can't.
You can't deploy to a ship, soyou're not technically
functional to stay in the Navy.
So we're giving you fullretirement.
Be glad about that.
And I was like, yeah, I guessthree and a half years beats 20.
Scott (14:20):
So yeah, you're laughing and the people listening.
I'm not laughing.
I'm laughing because of thefaces.
That he's just it's it.
Evan Graver (14:30):
I guess you have to look at it that way, right, you
just have to look at it thatway, so I mean, I last, actually
just march of this year um, Ihad 24 years in a wheelchair, so
that's like the dividing pointin my life.
Half my life was walkingbecause I was 24 and I got hurt,
(14:51):
and now I spent 24 years in achair.
So, I mean, there was a lot oftimes when I first got hurt, you
know, I was at the hospital andpeople would come in and and
say your life is going to begreat.
I specifically remember thisguy named Jake.
We were in rehab and Jake was avery low injury like L1, down
(15:12):
to tailbone area, and he got,you know, regained the ability
to walk with one leg, sobasically, he could stand with
the help of a walker.
He could, you know, it was verydifficult for him to do, though
, but, uh, so he stands up inthe walker, he gets out of his
jewelry chair, he stands up andhe just looks at me and he's
(15:33):
telling me how great my life is.
And I'm just thinking in mymind you dude, you need to sit
down and shut the up, becauseyou don't know what you're
talking about.
Um, you know, and and I saw Jakeintermittently in the next
couple of years and I startedgoing out to the VA has what
(15:56):
they call the Winter Games,which is a winter sports clinic
basically.
So you go out to Snowmass,colorado, and they put on this
big thing for disabled veteranswhere you learn to ski,
snowboard.
They got a whole bunch ofactivities and so I started
going out there and skiingbecause I used to love this snow
ski.
So I got back into it sittingdown.
(16:18):
You know we have a special skisand all that stuff.
And a couple of years into thatJake would come every year too,
because he was lived in Buffaloand he skied a lot in New York,
cause you know that's like thesnow capital of the world right
there in the United States wouldcome every year too because he
he was lived in buffalo and heskied a lot in new york, because
you know that that's like thesnow capital of the world right
there in the united states.
But so I said to jake, I sawhim one day and I go, bro, I got
(16:40):
to tell you this story.
So I said do you remembercoming into rehab and telling me
how great my life is going tobe?
And he says, yeah, I rememberthat.
And I said I said honestly, youknow, I said at the time I
wanted you to just sit down andshut up and leave me alone.
I said but you're right, lifeis great.
I mean, this is, I said I.
(17:02):
I do more stuff in a wheelchairthan I ever did, um walking
around, because there's just notonly the VA gives you the
opportunities to do stuff, likethey put on summer games and
winter games and you know they.
They have activities throughoutthe year and we used to have
(17:25):
this guy who would come into thespinal cord unit and he would
take us out to do stuff.
And my doctor was Dr Ho and Iused to call him Dr no because
he never liked patients to havefun.
So towards the end of my stay,the guy, the recreational
(17:49):
therapist, came in and he sayswe're going to six flags or
whatever it is right there bycleveland.
And I was like well, sign me upfor this.
I want to get out of thehospital, right.
So we go to the six flags andthey're like come on, evan,
let's go do this stuff.
And I'm like my first mission isa cold beer.
I haven't had one in like fourmonths.
(18:12):
So I go get a beer, I drink abeer, I ride the roller coasters
, I do all the fun shit at SixFlags I can do because guys in
wheelchairs get headlineprivileges.
Back then we could go ride theroller coasters and look in
these kids' faces when you pullup and be like I'm getting in
this car, and they'd start tocry because they were right
there getting ready to get inthe car and they're like, oh
(18:34):
sorry, kid, putting this guy ina wheelchair in there.
So we get back to the hospitaland the doctor's just furious
that I drank beer and roderoller coasters and I was only
three months post injury and I'mlike, dude, what am I supposed
to do?
(18:54):
Go there and do nothing?
So I think that was in.
I got hurt in March and then,like June, they finally sent me
home and I think that was one ofthe things that was.
The doctor was like well, youdon't need to be here anymore
Because obviously if you'regoing to go out and drink beer
and ride roller coasters, youcan go home.
Scott (19:16):
You're good.
Evan Graver (19:18):
So I went home and I don't know how much.
What do you want to hear?
Scott (19:23):
I mean, oh no, this is fascinating to me, Absolutely.
I mean, you're really giving areally insider thing thing.
A lot of people don't.
They don't think of thesethings, right, they don't, for
whatever human nature is, yeah,people maybe don't want to think
about it, or they just don'task you because they think you
(19:44):
might get offended.
People are funny, so you andand I appreciate this immensely
uh, you telling this story,somebody's gonna hear it and it
gives them an idea, and youcould be there jake was his name
, yeah, yeah.
So this is why I like to hearthese things.
This is why I like to hearthese things.
Evan Graver (20:05):
Um, so this is a funny.
I don't know if it's funny, butso there's times in your life
when you look back and go.
Was that coincidence or wasthat preparing me for the future
?
Because I remember as a youngkid being outside playing and,
for whatever reason, it poppedin my mind like, what do
(20:25):
paraplegics go through?
I mean, how do you drag yourlegs?
So I was laying in the grasslike to as a kid right, and then
I I was in the you know, likethe months leading up to my
accident, I would uh, get offwork and as I'm coming home, I
(20:46):
would always listen to theoldies country station on the am
radio and I would come home andalmost every night, like the
lead week leading up to myaccident, they would play don't
take your love to town.
And that's about um, aparalyzed soldier coming home
from Vietnam, and his girlfrienddoesn't want anything to do
(21:07):
with him and keeps going intotown.
And I'm like what's it?
Why is he playing a song everynight, you know?
And like, then my accidenthappened and I'm like I, just
I'm like it was telling mesomething bad was going to
happen there.
Or is it just you know thiscoincidence?
Scott (21:28):
It's interesting that you , that those things flash back
to you and you start piecingthose little things out of
everything that you did as a kid, out of everything that you
picked, those two specificthings, and you're like is there
a correlation there?
It was, like you said, a signof things to come right.
Evan Graver (21:44):
Well, and the third thing was that I was in my room
one day you know about thattime, right before I got hurt
For some reason, I was in myroom and then it hit me again.
It's like what did paraplegicsdo?
And I was like trying to getoff the floor onto my bed.
And you know, of course, youknow I can use my legs and you
(22:09):
know, of course you know I canuse my legs.
And then I get home after thehospital, after the rehab
supposed to rehab, I get homeand I fall out of the bed Exact
same bed I was trying to getback into, you know, a couple
months earlier, trying to figureout how a paraplegic does this.
I could not get back in intobed to save my life and I'm
(22:33):
laying on the floor just bawlingmy eyes out because I can't do
it.
And you know it's, it's twofeet, two and a half feet,
whatever it is just trying toget back into bed and I'm like I
can't, I can't do it, I'm notstrong enough, or I can't, you
know.
So my bed was also also haddrawers under it, you know.
(22:56):
So my dad, years ago, had builtthis bed for me, so it had
drawers you could pull out andall the clothes would go
underneath it.
So I had this sliding boardthat the VA gave me so that when
you transfer you can slideacross the board from the bed
onto the wheelchair or into thecar.
So I put the sliding board onthe drawer, the clothing drawer,
(23:18):
and I made like little stepsfor me to get up into the bed
and I could take the littlesteps.
I just couldn't do the bighurdle and I guess that was just
, you know, one of those thingsthat had, you know, had to click
in your mind that just howgreat it felt to get back in bed
(23:39):
after laying on the groundcrying, going I'm never gonna
get this, I'm gonna be here tillsomebody comes to rescue me, to
actually figuring it out.
Just the deletion of being ableto do that was, yeah, so, and
then I think about that time itreally triggered in my mind that
, all right, dude, you got toget off your ass and and stop
feeling sorry for yourself andfigure out what life is and, um,
(24:03):
what you're going to do next.
And and I and it still took mea long time to figure out that
um, you know, life was worthliving and having fun and yeah.
So I had some buddies in theNavy that I used to ride
motorcycles with and shortlyafter I got out of the hospital
they came and, uh, they drovefrom Norfolk up to my house and
(24:25):
picked me up.
It's like a 10 and a half 11hour drive.
And my buddy Richie he, he sayshe called me and said we're
going to come pick you up andwe're going to take you to my
mom and dad's house in WestVirginia.
And I was like sweet, and thisis like labor day and um, so him
(24:45):
and my buddy Daryl show up atthe house and I'm like I got my
bags packed and I'm like waitingat the door like a little puppy
, like where's my buddy showingup when they come in?
So they pull into the drive andI'm like I don't care that, you
just drove 12 hours, I'm gettingin the truck and we're fucking
leaving this place.
I can't, I don't want to behere anymore.
And they just wanted to passout and take a nap and go back,
(25:09):
go to his house in the morning.
But we ended up.
I convinced him to drive backto West Virginia and we did a
lot of fun things.
They ended up throwing me on amotor, on a four wheeler, and we
rode all over the place and sothat you know, and Richie was
(25:30):
like dude, you're the same guy.
I don't care if you're in awheelchair, you're the same dude
.
We're going to keep doingthings, and we have, and I go to
visit him in North Carolina allthe time.
Scott (25:45):
Dude people, that's a good friend right there.
That's more than a friend.
That's yeah, he's a good friendright there.
That's more than a friend.
That's he, yeah, he was, he wasmeant to be.
You talk about these thingslike he was meant to be a friend
in life.
Evan Graver (25:59):
Man, yeah, that's amazing an amazing thing is that
he was there with me on thatride, so he was there the day
that I got hurt yeah and um,I've asked him you know what
happened?
And uh, all he says is that youscreamed a lot, yeah, and that,
and he doesn't want to talkabout it, which is fine.
Yeah, I understand, I can'tremember any of it, so, and I
(26:21):
don't remember there you go andI don't want to be the one to
bring it up or dredge it up.
Scott (26:26):
So so okay, fast forward.
You're married now, right?
Evan Graver (26:32):
Yeah, we've been married.
We got to hear about her.
Scott (26:35):
Yeah, we got to hear about her, because that's a good
woman.
Evan Graver (26:41):
She is.
And so we actually knew ourmoms were pregnant together.
Our parents went to the samechurch.
We actually knew our moms werepregnant together.
Our mom, our parents, went tothe same church and, um, I was
born in August of 76 and she wasborn in November of 76.
So we're fairly the same ageand she calls me her older man.
(27:02):
So, hey, so I was like, yeah, Igot me younger woman.
But so after I got hurt, I um,I don't know, I moved back home.
Uh, my girlfriend at the time, I, I thought things were pretty
serious with her, and then itjust changed and you know, she
didn't want to deal with theinjury and she didn't want to
(27:23):
deal with the distance betweenus, whatever it was.
It worked out, um, becky, um,my wife's name is becky, so my,
my cousin julie, had a newyear's eve party and she invited
everybody and becky and I wereonly two single people there.
Um, at the time she had a ninemonth old son named named
(27:47):
Patrick, and he sat on my lapwithout crying, which flat-out
amazed everybody, because Inicknamed him PT Screamer.
His name is Patrick Thomas andI nicknamed him PT Screamer
because he screamed abouteverything.
You put him in the car.
(28:07):
He screamed.
He would scream the whole timein the car.
It wasn't until he turned hiscar seat around and he could see
out the window that he was.
He was all right, but uh, so we, we ended up.
We started dating and ended upgetting married in 2005, and so
(28:28):
20 some years later.
Scott (28:29):
Yeah, you're coming up on up on 20 years, right?
Have you already hit the 20th?
Evan Graver (28:33):
20 years in March.
Yeah, yeah, congratulations.
I got a lot of things going onin March.
We got married in March, myson's birthday is in March, so I
adopted Patrick.
Scott (28:44):
So Jake was right.
Evan Graver (28:45):
Yeah.
Scott (28:46):
Life is great.
Evan Graver (28:46):
Yeah, life is great , excellent.
Scott (28:50):
When did you start getting into writing?
How did you get into writing?
How many books do you have outright?
Evan Graver (28:56):
now.
Uh, I have like 24 books outright now um what's the genre?
it's really a genre.
They're all thrillers.
They they're all set in theCaribbean, florida, caribbean
area, central America.
I have one series that's setbasically in LA, because the
(29:20):
guy's a stuntman, so he livesthere.
But I got into it.
I started writing, you know,really young.
I wrote a lot of short storiesin high school.
I always kind of wrote shortstories on and off just for my
own personal satisfaction, tokeep my brain active, I guess.
And then when I got hurt in2001, I was in a hospital and I
(29:45):
started writing a story aboutmilitia that got their hands on
some missiles and kept them inold grain silos because the
grain silos in the midwest areprolific and like what better
place to hide missiles.
So the whole premise of thebook was that the militia takes
over the government and Icouldn't figure out how to tie
(30:07):
it all together and I put it onthe shelf.
And then in 2016, when Obamawas coming to his end of his
term and I wrote it like Ipulled it out and finished it
because it was like I hate whatthe government is doing, I hate
(30:28):
where it's going and I hopeHillary doesn't win.
Right right and so, long storyshort, the militia takes over
the government, because theydon't.
But I started writing that bookin 2016 and I didn't publish it
right away.
I kind of put it on the shelfand started writing my Ryan
(30:48):
Wilder Thriller series, whichtakes place in the Caribbean.
He's a former Navy EOD diver,gets into commercial work and
it's just like a privatemilitary contractor around the
Caribbean and he just lives on asailboat, got hot girlfriends.
Scott (31:07):
Lots of guys, yeah, and so how is your writing process?
What is the?
Is it typing like?
You know what I mean.
Like, what are the?
What's the mechanics of it?
Technology today, right as wetalked about earlier, kind of
dictates that you can do thingsa little easier than back in the
(31:30):
day everything from how youtranscribe it, how you put it
down on paper or now onto yourlaptop, and how it gets edited
and how.
So what's the process?
And was there a lot of bumpsalong the way?
Evan Graver (31:45):
when you said I am going to just now be a writer
like this is shit I want to do,I don't know if there were well,
first of all, I had to learnhow to write and how to use the
english language effectively,and my, my big area is
punctuation, and where does thatdamn comma go?
and colon, semicolons but Istill sit down on the keyboard
(32:06):
every morning.
My daily goal was always 2 000words words a day.
One of my favorite authors isJohn D McDonald and he wrote a
22-book series about TravisMcGee and he lived on a
houseboat at Slip F-18, b-h-m-rin Fort Lauderdale and it takes
(32:27):
place in the 60s 70s and he wasone of the first great series
noir guys.
Yeah, and John Dee would sitthere.
He treated it like a job.
This guy published like 66books in his lifetime, uh-huh,
and a lot of short stories andhe said this is my job and he
(32:49):
would sit down and write foreight hours a day and I was like
, well, if I'm going to be awriter, I have to at least match
that right.
You know I have to treat it asa job.
So my goal was 2,000 words aday.
Sometimes I get 500 in becausethe scene is really tough and I
(33:09):
don't know where I'm going withthe story or I got the right
dreaded writer's block andsometimes it just falls out and
I can write five, six, 7,000words in a day.
It's all typed because I stillhaven't figured.
I hate talking into the phoneand going a voice to text
(33:30):
quotation mark.
Blah, blah, blah.
I mean I can type it fasterthan I can and then I don't like
going back and you know you cando a voice to text, but then
you got to go back and put allthe punctuation in and do all
this stuff and it's like I couldjust do that from the beginning
and save myself time.
And maybe I don't, I don't know, but I like to type it out.
And then you know you got aneditor that looks at it and a
(33:53):
proofreader and AI that can tellyou where all the commas go.
Right.
Scott (33:59):
Right, exactly, exactly, exactly.
So you also are involved withtwo veteran nonprofits.
Yes, let's talk about them andhow you got involved with each
one of them.
Evan Graver (34:14):
The first one I got involved with was called Die
for Vets, and I met the founder.
His name is Kerry McNeil.
He was a Marine Corps recruiterliving in Toledo at the time
and after I got hurt, I just hada bucket list of stuff I wanted
to do, cause, you never know,life's too short, you know.
(34:35):
I don't know if I can.
You know, in my older years amI going to be able to physically
do all this stuff that I coulddo?
Right then.
So I'm going to do it all rightthen.
And one of the key bucket thingswas learning how to dive.
So I went to the, you know,learn how to dive.
And then in Ohio you dive inquarries.
So the quarry fills, you know.
(34:55):
They stop using the quarry andit fills up with water and it's
like taking a bath in an icebucket.
So we would all get together atthis quarry in Portage, ohio,
which is just south of BowlingGreen, and it was just like a
big party scene.
They had a beach and all thecollege kids from Bowling Green
University would come and partyand we would dive and drink beer
(35:18):
.
in the afternoon they hadcampers for people.
So I met Kerry there and thenwe went on and did other stuff
and he ended up moving toFlorida and buying a dive shop
called Aquatic Ventures.
Ended up moving to florida andbuying a dive shop called
(35:38):
aquatic ventures and he heblames me for this non-profit
because he was like I got tohelp veterans because I saw you
dive and and uh so.
So if you're a disabled veteranor you're a veteran that wanted,
wants to dive, dive for vets,you can go to diveforvetsorg.
You can apply to send us yourdd214 and your va disability
(35:59):
letter.
We'll teach you to dive forfree.
That will help you getdiscounted dive gear and just to
help you stay in a communitythat cares.
And the thing about diving isthat you know it is a community.
So you know you got the diveshop and then you got the dive
(36:22):
boats and you got the diving.
You know so.
And there's a lot of veteransthat like to dive and there's a,
you know, because Carrie is aveteran owner.
There's a lot of veterans thatcome into our shop.
So we get that veterancamaraderie.
You get that.
You know no bullshit, noquarter given kind of thing
(36:45):
there.
And diving is great because it'sI equate it to motorcycle
riding where you're in thepresent moment every time.
You know you get that's.
What I loved about motorcycleriding was that you were always
in the moment.
Every time you got on the bike,there was nothing but me and
(37:08):
the bike.
There was no otherextemporaneous stuff.
There was no otherextemporaneous stuff, and that's
what diving is, because you'reunderwater breathing off a tank
and if you fuck up you're goingto die.
So you have to concentrate andbe in the moment.
And being in that moment andbeing underwater is the studies
(37:35):
have shown that it helpstremendously to reduce ptsd.
It the pressure on your body,the extra oxygen being pressured
into you helps reduce thecortisol in the brain, helps you
to recover injuries faster andreduces that ptsd reduces,
reduces the barriers that youhave to getting back into
society or getting interpersonalbarriers or whatever.
(37:59):
We have a girl named Melissa andshe'll probably hate me for
telling this story, but she isan Army veteran and she came
into the shop through the Diefor Vets program shop through
the die for vets program and she, after she got out of the army
she had she was on drugs and shegot off drugs and she's
(38:19):
phenomenal girl because just tojust to be hooked on drugs and
to be able to have thededication to get yourself off
of them is, to me, is aphenomenal thing and she has
that single-minded focus to dothat and she would come into the
shop and she'd be verywithdrawn and if you pick on her
or talk to her she would buryherself in the phone, she would
(38:40):
kind of giggle and bury, but nowshe's an instructor for us.
Now, over the years she's andyou could watch her grow and
bloom and now she's aninstructor.
Watch her grow and bloom andnow she's an instructor.
And just the change we've seenin her is the whole reason for
having a foundation, because youdraw people out.
(39:02):
You brought them from beingthat withdrawn or being that
fearful of doing things to now.
We're introducing you tosomething new and the brain
responds not only by reductionof cortisol, reduction of stress
, reduction of all this stuff,but also your frontal lobe
starts to grow because you'restressed and your body loves
(39:27):
being stressed.
Your brain grows when you'restressed.
So all these things you know,putting people in a new
situation, learning new skills,and then you're in the
camaraderie of other veterans,other divers, and you're part of
the.
You learn to be part of thecommunity.
You go on a dive boat.
You're part of the community,you know it's.
(39:47):
So we try to bring as manyveterans in as we can and we try
to keep them active in thediving community by giving them
free trips we have a lot ofshore dives, so those are always
free Just bringing people backinto the society and back into
the fold.
So it's great to see peopleblossom.
Scott (40:08):
Like I say, in the One man, one Mike Foundation purpose
, belonging and connection.
It's really all about thatgreat to see people blossom,
like I say in the one man, onemike foundation, purpose,
belonging and connection yeah,it's really exactly all about
that all of these non-profitsshould be, and they mostly are
about that.
I just coined the phrase pbc.
It's not palm beach county it'spurpose, belonging and
connection.
(40:29):
So that's it's my line for youpeople out there.
You can use it, though I'll letyou.
It's a good one.
It's the truth too.
Yeah, and the other veterannonprofit.
Evan Graver (40:41):
The second one I'm involved with is Fishing with
America's Finest.
It's F-W-A-F, dot O-R-G or dotnet.
I can never remember.
Even though I run the website,I can never remember the website
name.
Scott (40:55):
Welcome to my world or I'm in your world.
One or the other I got you.
Evan Graver (41:01):
You'll get to it either way.
Org or net, fwaf.
Fishing with America's Finest.
Neil Stark is the founder.
His uncle was in the military.
Retired from the military, neilwanted to give back.
Um, neil is a professionalangler.
He spent years fishing offshoreand inshore.
(41:21):
He's won the king of the gladestournament.
I've been on the professionalbass fishing circuit and he
wanted to give something back toveterans and he knew how he
felt being out in nature, thestress, reduced stress, skill
learning, just the enjoyment ofcatching fish.
So he wanted to give back andhe started fishing with
(41:43):
America's Finest about 19 yearsago.
We have two pontoon boats so wecan take handicapped, disabled
people out.
Obviously he takes me out.
So whether both the both thosepontoon boats are parked at
everglades holiday park offgriffin road that's out there.
Scott (42:02):
Yeah, I've been there a couple times, so yeah.
Evan Graver (42:05):
So it's a foundation that we take veterans
fishing for free.
So we'll take take you for free.
We provide the boats, the lunch, the drinks, the tackle, the
bait.
All you do is show up and comefishing.
We'll take you and your familyfishing for free.
And if you go to the websiteand you want to sign up, you can
(42:26):
shoot me a message on there,because I'll be the one
answering the messages.
We can get you on the schedule.
We'll take you out in theEverglades and put you on some
great fish.
We've had 100 fish days outthere where your thumb is just
raw from hooking them andthrowing them off.
But it again, it's aboutcamaraderie, it's about being in
(42:48):
nature, the reduction of thestress, building new skills, and
I got involved with it becauseNeil took me fishing.
I wanted to catch a peacockbass and that was always on my
bucket list and I never knewthat they had them in South
Florida until I moved down here.
I always thought I had to go toBrazil.
(43:10):
Why a peacock bass?
I don down here.
Scott (43:13):
I always thought I had to go to Brazil.
Evan Graver (43:13):
Why a peacock bass?
I don't know.
I just they're fat, they'rejust beautiful fish and down in
the Amazon they get to, you know, 30, 40 pounds.
They're just amazing fish.
And so the FWC released themhere in Florida and the canals
in South Florida to combat theinvasive species the Mayan
(43:35):
cichlids and the Oscars and someof those other invasive species
that people were releasing fromour canals.
So the peacock bass are herebecause we released them.
It's the only place in theUnited States where they can
live, because if it gets below60 degrees and the water gets
below 60, they'll die.
So I wanted to catch a peacockbass and so I got in touch with
(43:57):
neil and he took me out and wejust had an amazing day.
We smacked him, I caught likesix different species of fish.
It was did you get your peacockbass?
I did there you go, happy endingso, one of the things you know,
I started fishing again, causethat's one of the things I love.
You know I ride.
I rode motorcycles with one setof friends and I fished with
(44:20):
another.
So getting back into intofishing was great, because down
here you can, I can, walk thecanal.
You know, roll the canal.
Scott (44:30):
You roll.
I'm not, I wasn't going totouch that.
But okay, don't pick on me.
I can't stand up for myself.
I can't stand up.
I got you, you got, you gotthem all.
I know you got them all.
Evan Graver (44:45):
So so I got, I got back into fishing.
I started going along thecanals because it's flat, you
can cast down in there and youcan.
You can just smack fish all dayand it's great.
It's like catching them in anaquarium.
So I got.
Neil kept pestering me.
He's like get involved in mynonprofit.
So now I'm on the board of thenonprofit, so we're we do a lot
(45:07):
of fundraisers, we do a lot ofevents.
Palm beach, p we do a lot ofevents.
Palm Beach, pompano city ofMiami, lakes, and then, of
course, we're always takingpeople out fishing in the
Everglades.
Yeah, yeah.
Scott (45:22):
Well, my friend, let's give those two nonprofits again.
And, if you don't mind, my uh,the website for the vets
connection podcast has becomeover 55 episodes.
It's become its own resourcepage, because what I do is I'm
going to take this interview,I'm going to publish it, I
publish them all.
It goes right to my website andthen what I have is a whole
resource page of everyone I'veinterviewed, every nonprofit or
(45:45):
for-profit that works in theveteran space and it's their
logo and it's a link right totheir website.
So if people go on there,you're going to be on there for
both of those.
Well, the both nonprofits willbe on there, if that's okay,
that's great.
I would love that.
Evan Graver (46:00):
Yeah.
Scott (46:00):
The more we can put on there, the more there is out
there for veterans to see.
I know there's a hundred, youknow there's 500 resource pages.
You just can't have enough.
It shouldn't be just one.
But the unique part of mine isthere's actually an episode of
the podcast so you can look atit and go to the page and you
(46:21):
can listen to what it's reallyall about in there.
So I'm not trying to top all theother nonprofits, it's just
what I do, and the VetsConnection podcast is not a
nonprofit.
So there you go, I'm helpingjust what I do.
It's just just.
And the Vets Connection podcastis not a nonprofit.
So there you go, I'm helpingall the nonprofits.
Yeah, let's give those websitesone more time.
Evan Graver (46:39):
Diveforvetsorg and fwafnet.
Scott (46:44):
You know what?
We're going to straighten thisout.
I'm, I'm.
I've never done this before,but this is what it'snet.
Okay, good Cause, I was goingto run it on my phone and see
which one it is Okay.
Evan Graver (46:57):
Fishing with America's finest.
If you Google it, you'll get itto our webpage.
Scott (47:02):
You're the web.
Evan Graver (47:03):
You're the web guy, if you hit the chat you'll talk
to me and you can go.
Hey, dumbass.
Scott (47:11):
You're going to start getting screenshots.
Yeah, just in case you forgot.
Well, evan, my friend, and Ijust want to let the audience
know I met Evan.
He is one of the veterans thatreached out to the One man, one
Mic Foundation and wanted tolearn about podcasting, and he's
(47:31):
a great student.
I can tell you that they allare.
They all are that I reallycan't put some on top of the
other, but he's one of thoseguys that I and and then there's
women too.
You go down the course andyou're like this, this is in
like the second week.
He's like okay, I got this.
I guess I believe during ourfirst class, you created your
thumbnail and you came up with acatch line.
(47:54):
I was like are you kidding me?
Evan Graver (47:57):
I had it ready for you because I've been thinking
about this for months.
I love it.
Scott (48:03):
And you're going to have a podcast, right, and what's it
going to be called?
Evan Graver (48:07):
Plot Recon, where thrillers get tactical, and
it'll be me talking to otherauthors about writing.
Scott (48:13):
There you go.
He did that while we were inclass Like he's that student.
So I couldn't have been prouder.
I was like I guess this reallydoes work.
So we're going to keep workingon that and the way you're
moving, this is going to be upand running sooner than you
think.
Evan Graver (48:30):
I'm ready.
Yes.
Scott (48:34):
Yeah, he is.
Okay, my friend will listen.
I'm going to do my outro andthen you know you're going to
stick around because we'rerecording this at my house.
So he came up for a class onhow to edit on garage band on
the Mac and so I said, well, whydon't I interview?
I didn't have an interviewlined up and uh, and I'm going
to actually interview you foryour first episode when we're
(48:55):
ready to do all that and I getmy roadcast squared away.
We're going to get that alldone, and you're.
It's also going to be a videopodcast also.
Right, that's the hope it willhappen.
It will happen, my friend, sostick around.
Let me do the outro.
Well, we built another bridgetoday.
This is a great bridge.
I hope you liked it.
If you like it, share it.
(49:15):
If you didn't, well, thanks forlistening, for I don't have my
time wrong, but I don't knowabout an hour.
It's a good.
This was a great interview.
Do me a favor and stick aroundfor the public service
announcement at the end of thepodcast.
It's quick, it's like 30seconds, but talks about 988-211
(49:37):
and a couple of other things.
For veterans and family membersof veterans and friends of
veterans.
It's an informative 30 secondpublic service announcement, and
I think that's it, and I wantto thank you guys for listening.
This podcast has done reallywell it's.
It's exceeded my expectationsand it's because of you.
You are the engine that runsthis machine.
Uh, without you, it would justbe me talking into a microphone,
(49:58):
and I do that anyways.
So, but I'm glad you'relistening and I will try to
bring you more and more.
Uh, this isn't going to end.
There's a lot out there thatI'm going to bring you.
So, with all that said, youwill hear me next week.
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