January 7, 2025 • 50 mins
At every WWIA event, there is a certified WWIA Guide present. WWIA Guides are an essential part of accomplishing our mission, as they have been recommended by their fellow Purple Heart peers and are certified through our WWIA Guide School. WWIA Guide School is the world’s first multidisciplinary adaptive sporting guide program and prepares our Guides to lead and serve their fellow Purple Heart recipients and assist the event Hosts on each WWIA mission we conduct across North America.
On today’s episode of the WWIA Podcast, WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel, is honored to welcome Purple Heart Hero and WWIA Guide, Gabe Fierros to the program. Gabe, along with his wife and son, reside in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Gabe joined the Army after high school and was deployed to Iraq three times during his service. After being medically retired from the Army, Gabe worked in Anchorage, Alaska as a contractor for the Army. He later relocated to northeast Pennsylvania and took a federal position with Tobyhanna Army Depot, where he continues his career.
Gabe initially heard about WWIA from one of the guys in his unit and soon after attended his first duck hunting event in southwestern Ohio. He found it both relaxing and cathartic to be around like-minded people who understood his experiences and found that the camaraderie and experience was just what he needed. Gabe now proudly leads WWIA events as a Guide and enjoys giving back to his fellow combat-wounded Warriors. We hope you enjoy getting to know Gabe and hearing more about his story. Let’s join the conversation with John and Gabe now.
Takeaways:
- The WWIA Podcast focuses on bringing honor and healing to America's combat wounded veterans.
- Gabe Fierros shares his journey from soldier to guide, emphasizing the importance of camaraderie.
- The WWIA Guide School prepares veterans to support their peers during outdoor events.
- Gabe's experiences highlight the therapeutic value of outdoor activities for healing.
- The foundation creates a space for veterans to reconnect and bond over shared experiences.
- Gabe's story underscores the significance of mentorship and support within the veteran community.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Hello and welcome to the WWIAPodcast. We're honored to have you
join us in our mission tobring honor, connection and healing
to America's combat woundedPurple Heart heroes. If this is your
first time listening to thispodcast, we welcome you. If you're
a returning listener. Thanksfor coming back. Please be sure to
(00:25):
tell others about our podcastand leave us a review. If you're
enjoying what you're hearingat every WWIA event, there's a certified
WWIA Guide present. WWIAGuides are an essential part of accomplishing
our mission as they've beenrecommended by their fellow Purple
Heart peers and are certifiedthrough our WWIA Guide School. WWIA
(00:50):
Guide School is the world'sfirst multidisciplinary adaptive
sporting guide program andprepares our guides to lead and serve
their fellow Purple Heartrecipients and assist the event hosts
on each WWIA mission weconduct across North America. On
today's episode of the WWIAPodcast, WWIA founder and CEO John
(01:12):
McDaniel is honored to welcomePurple Heart Hero and WWIA Guide
Gabe Fieros to the program.Gabe, along with his wife and son
reside in Long Pond,Pennsylvania. Gabe joined the army
after high school and wasdeployed to Iraq three times during
his service. After beingmedically retired from the Army G
Gabe worked in Anchorage,Alaska as a contractor for the Army.
(01:34):
He later relocated toNortheast Pennsylvania and took a
federal position with TobyHana Army Depot where he continues
his career. Gabe initiallyheard about WWIA from one of the
guys in his unit and soonafter attended his first duck hunting
event in southwestern Ohio. Hefound it both relaxing and cathartic
to be around like mindedpeople who understood his experiences
(01:58):
and found that the camaraderieand experience was just what he needed.
Gabe now proudly leads WWIAEvents as a guide and enjoys giving
back to his fellow combatWounded Warriors. We hope you enjoy
getting to know Gabe andhearing more about his story. Let's
join the conversation withJohn and Gabe now.
(02:22):
Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founderand CEO of the Wounded warriors in
Action foundation and this isour podcast Honor, Connect and Heal.
So today I have with me agentleman who I've known for 14 years
and he is an army guy that Imet on an event. He's become a guide
(02:45):
for the foundation and he'sjust a great American. I've got very
fond memories spending timewith this person. We share a lot
in common and I thought I'dask him on the program. Gabe Fieros,
welcome to the program.
Thanks John, thanks for havingme today.
Absolutely. So I'm looking atGabe and, because you guys can't
see, but we see each other bythe modern miracles of technology
(03:08):
through our podcast thinghere. But Gabe's got a big old honking
Jeremiah Johnson beard goingthere. He's wearing his WWI ball
cap, and he's actually at TobyHanna. He's in Toby Hanna, Pennsylvania,
at the Army Deep Depot there.Taking a little break from work to
chat with us. But you hailfrom Pennsylvania. That's where you
(03:32):
live, Gabe.
That's currently where I live.I was born and raised in Ringo, Illinois,
which is north Illinois, about90 minutes north of Chicago, about
20 minutes from Wisconsin border.
Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah,yeah, I didn't know. Well, we share
that, too. I wasn't born andraised in Illinois, but my parents
moved. I was born in EastLansing, Michigan, and then we moved
(03:58):
to the suburbs of Chicago, so.Palatine, Illinois. I grew up there
for many years until about thesixth or seventh grade, we moved
to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. So,yeah, we share that in common as
well. Cool. All right, solet's just talk about your service
real quick. You were in theArmy. So tell it. Tell us a little
(04:21):
bit about your, you know, youjoined the Army, you know, and. And
take us up to the point whereyou go to combat, and then we'll
take a quick tactical pausebecause I do want to chat about your
Purple Heart. So tell us yourArmy story, Gabe. I'd love to hear
it.
So my Army story started inJune of. Or June of 1998. Joined
(04:43):
the army as a heavy wheeledvehicle mechanic. I don't know if
you knew that.
I did not know that.
Yeah, so I did that. You know,I went to South Carolina, Jackson,
or Jackson for AIT shortly,first station was Korea. After that
initial one year deployment,you know, I headed down to Fort Stewart,
(05:05):
Georgia, where I was in 169Armor or 369 Armor. Sorry.
Okay.
And I spent a couple yearsthere, and long story short is I
was there. I was the Colonel'sdriver. I was kind of not behaving
too well.
Wait a minute. Stop, stop. Igotta say something. I gotta say
something, man. We're bothsmiling at each other like a, like
(05:26):
a fox eating yellow jackets. Istole that from Jake Whipkey, by
the way. But anyway, so youknow, the fact that you. Well, first
off, you're mechanicallyinclined. I didn't really know that.
But now that I know, I may askyou a lot of questions about that.
But, so that's really cool.But you were also the, you were,
(05:47):
you were the. Would you saythe CO's driver?
Yeah, it was a battalion commander.
So here's the thing, man. Youdon't get picked to be. And then
he said you were in trouble alot. Well, here's the thing. You
know this as well as I do. Youdon't get picked to be the Battalion
Commander's driver unlessyou're squared away. Right. That
is a fact. You know, theydon't just pick some dirt bag to
(06:09):
go drive the BattalionCommander, the Lieutenant Colonel
around. So you had somethingon the ball, but then you said...
said you were getting in trouble.
Yeah. So, you know, so I was amechanic, and they. And they assign
you, you know, a platoon.Right. So I was assigned to the Scalpoon.
So trouble ensues, you know,in the barracks, and one day I'm
(06:30):
in the motor pool working onsomething and tuning. Sergeant comes
up and says, hey, the SergeantMajor wants to see you for an interview.
And I'm like, interview forwhat? And I walk. And, you know,
they schedule it, and I walkin the office, and Sergeant Major
throws a map on the table andsays, plot these grids. And so I
go through the wholeinterview, and he's like, all right,
great. I'll let you know. So Igo back down the motor pool, I think.
(06:54):
I don't think it was evenhalfway through the day. Yep, you're
going up to be the Colonel'sdriver. So that started that. So
I went up to there. A lot ofguys were like, oh, look at him.
He gets to go up there.
That's right.
Be in the head shed. Right.Not doing anything.
That's quite a privilege,actually. I think.
Yeah. Yeah. So we deployed toKosovo. I was a driver.
(07:18):
I didn't know you were there.I was. I did one there, too. Cool.
Yeah, we were up there for ayear, up Tampona Steel. Long story
short is we're in country, andhe says, hey, Gabe. He says, hey,
Specialist Fierros, I thinkyou're in the wrong MOS. And I'm
like, sir, what do you mean?Something's just not rubbing me right
(07:38):
about you being a mechanic.He's like, you need to be an infantryman.
There you go.
And I was like, what, sir? I'mlike, you're out of your mind. Like,
no way.
So good judge of character, Imight add.
Yeah. Yeah. So about two, wecome back off of deployment from
Kosovo, and I hit thatreenlistment window, and they sent
(07:58):
me the reenlistment nco, andhe's like, hey, you get a bonus if
you go to infantry. And I wasalready an E4P, so I went to PLDC,
which I don't know what theycall it now.
Yeah, I know what that is.
Yeah. So head down there,reenlist, go to infantry school.
I had to go back to Benningfor seven weeks.
(08:19):
Benning School for Boys!
Yeah, Benning School for Boys.Right. So you can just imagine E4P
showing up to Benning. Youhave unit patches, you already have
awards on your uniform. And.
Right.
You know, you forget about allthis stuff that happens at basic
training. And I can rememberthe first time the Drill Sergeant's
meeting us, and I'm like, hey,Sergeant. And he's like, you know,
(08:40):
the death stare, and he goes,what the beep? You know. You know,
not very kind words afterthat. But so. Because.
Why? Because you just said,hey, Sergeant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know. You know, theywork hard for that, that badge, so.
Right.
We understood. And we.
It should have been Drill Sergeant.
(09:01):
Correct.
And it should have been Goodmorning. It should have been Good
morning, Drill Sergeant orGood afternoon, Drill Sergeant.
Yeah.
Right.
Yep.
Okay, cool. Well, interesting,you know, interesting. And then so
you. That's what you did. Youchanged Moses and you became an infantryman.
Is that where. Is that whenyou landed in Alaska to the 501st?
(09:23):
No, so. Actually, I went toFort Bragg. First.
82Nd Airborne.
Yeah.
They sent you. Wow. That'sunusual. They sent you.
Yeah, my bonus was forInfantry. Airborne. Fort Bragg.
Oh, so you knew you were goingto the 87 and falling out of perfectly
good planes.
That's correct.
(09:43):
Did you already have yourAirborne wings at the time?
No, I went right after Icompleted infantry school.
Oh, all right. So I gotta askyou, man. Was. Now, now, the story
goes on. Right. But was yourboss right?
He was right.
He was right. See? Yeah, theycan tell. I can tell, too, man. It's
(10:07):
like. I can tell, like, insideof every. You say inside of every
good Marine is an army guywaiting to get out. My Marine buddies
are gonna love that. Butanyway, I digress. You know, it's
like inside of every goodmechanic is an infantryman dying
to get up. Right. That's the thing.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, but you can tellwhen somebody's got that. You know,
(10:27):
that. That. I don't know. Jene sais quoi, as the French might
say. Hard, hard to put yourfinger on it, but, you know, an Infantryman,
if he has the metal to be anInfantryman, you're like, yeah, I
don't know what you're doing,you know, as a wrench. You need to
be, you need to be anInfantry. You know, I could just,
I can just see it because he,because he liked you, you know, and
you're, you were a goodsoldier. I guarantee that's what
(10:50):
it was. You might be realhumble about it, but I can guarantee
that's what it was because.Yeah. So anyway, was he an Infantry
guy?
No, he was an Armor guy.
Holy cow. And he said, youshould be an infantryman. That's,
that's quite, that is quite acompliment. Okay, very good. So you
go to the 82nd. What happens next?
So that's about 2002. Right.So I walk into my first unit, which
(11:15):
was 3rd Battalion, 325, whichis no longer there, but I was in
Charlie Company and first weekthey're out in the field. I get there,
they're like, hey, by the way,Sergeant Fierros, pack your stuff
up. We're doing trenchclearing for the week. So I walk
in, I think it was like aThursday and they were coming back
Sunday. So quick introductionto trench clearing. And shortly after
(11:40):
that, you know, the wind upprior to Iraq started. So lots of
jumps, lots of tactical stuff,lots of trains up, JRTC, NTC.
Did you fit in? Was it hardfor you to fit in because, you know,
the 82nd, there's a lot ofnepotism. I never served in the 82nd,
so I don't, I mean, I bet alot of my friends did, but I know
(12:03):
that there's a fair amount ofnepotism that goes into, you know,
like there's a lot of guysthat grew up in the 82nd. Well, you
didn't grow up in the 82nd.No, you, you know, you, you got transported.
Transported to, you know, to,to there through, you know, divine
intervention. But did you, didyou find it difficult to integrate
(12:25):
into the 82nd after you wentthrough this training and got reblued
as an infantry guy? Was that adifficult transition or not?
It was at first it was. As anE5, you're always unsure. Right.
I'm a brand new E5 Infantry.
Right.
You're gonna stick me with, ina leadership position.
You're gonna be a Fire TeamLeader. Right?
Right. So that wholetransition was, was difficult. Right.
(12:48):
I'm learning the language of Infantry.
Yes.
And you're eating.
And the culture. And theculture. Right. Language, culture,
it's a whole thing.
Yep. So I would say in mySquad Leader at the time, I said,
hey, Sergeant AB was his nameand like, hey look, I came from mechanic
background Like, I'm an NCO,brand new, have no Infantry and experience.
(13:11):
He's like, don't worry aboutit. He throws me a stack of manuals
and says, start looking, startreading, start gaining information.
There was never a questionfrom any of my guys whether or not
I could lead. It was justlearning information fast enough
to put it in practice.
Right, Right.
So, wow.
(13:33):
You know, and that's great.And now. So let me ask you this,
but did you grow up huntingand fishing?
I grew up fishing. Not so much hunting.
Really? Okay, interesting,because what I find is in. And always
found, you know, as a careerInfantry dude, you know, I always
found that the, the soldiersthat, that I had that were, you know,
(13:57):
sportsmen, outdoor sportsmen,hunting, fishing, kind of guys, you
know, took to that line ofwork, you know, quite well. You know,
I mean, you're always in theoutdoors. You know, you're. You're
doing. You're doing something,you know, in the field. And a lot
of guys that like to, youknow, the outdoors gravitate towards
(14:17):
the infantry or the army ingeneral, but more so the infantry
and those units that spent alot of time in the field. I was just,
just curious. Okay, so, allright, we're at the 82nd Airborne,
and then take us. Take us to.You go from there to Alaska. Is that
what happened? Or did you gofrom there? Did you get hurt when
you were with the 82nd?
(14:38):
So, yeah.
So first.
So we deployed for theinvasion, Iraq with the 82nd. So
sometime in that deployment,probably somewhere about halfway
through, we were doing someriot control on one of the main supply
highways. And, you know, we'rewaiting for the MPs to come. We just
come off patrol from being inthe Green Zone and said, hey, by
(15:02):
the way, there's peopleblocking the highway for supplies.
Let's go. Try to push themout. So they send the whole company
out. Things ensue, helicoptersstart dusting the people, try to
move them off the road. Duringthat whole process, something came
in the air and there was a bigboom. And. And I remember falling
(15:22):
to the ground and being like,okay. I don't. You know, I don't
feel anything wrong. So I tryto stand up, and I just fall to the
ground. And I'm like, huh?What happened? I don't see anything.
You know, I'm not bleedingright away. And some. I'm like, can't
stand up. I look down at myright leg, and there's a hole in
it. And so it's not a very bighole. You probably stick your Pinky
(15:43):
finger in it.
What time. What year is this?What this is.
This is tail end of O3. Sowe're going into.
Things are getting cranked up.
Yeah. Things are gettingcranked up.
Yeah. By 05, it's a shit show.
Yeah.
But. But, oh, three things arethe drum beats happening, right?
(16:04):
Yeah.
Okay, so. So go on. I'm sorry,I interrupted you.
No, no, you're so. You know,they realize I'm hit. So we get in
the back of, you know, the Humvee.
This is a gunshot wound. Isthis shrapnel? What is this? No,
it's.
It's shrapnel. So a coupleother guys got hurt. This is all
(16:24):
going on. They throw us in aHumvee. And, you know, infantry guys,
when you're in a bad situationand you're all stuck in the back
of this truck, you startpicking on each other, right? So
we're in the back of thistruck, and I got a bandage over mine,
and I look over and one of theguys. My guys got Kerlux or gauze
(16:44):
in between his butt cheeks.And so we're. We're laughing. It's
not a funny situation. Like, Ilaugh now, but, you know, all seriousness,
we're trying to lower themood, the adrenaline, right? So we're
cracking jokes. And, you know,if you see that and you're in the
back of a truck, a bare,naked, you know, infantryman with
Kerlux in between them. So.
(17:08):
Tragedy plus time equalsfunny. That's the equation.
Yeah. Yeah. So we get donewith that. They send us out to cache
in Baghdad, slap a bandage,take some X rays, and they say, well,
we can't take the shrapnelout, but we're not going to evacuate
because it's not that bad. Wedon't think it's that bad. So they
send me back to the FOB or alittle company FOB, and I pull guard
(17:33):
duty for about 30 days untilI'm probably about able to walk on
patrol again. So. Wow. Yep. Wecompleted. I think that tour ended
in February of 2004 onValentine's Day.
Wow. There you go. Well, thereyou go. Well, God bless you. You
know. You know, I say, I sayit can always be worse, right? I
(17:58):
mean, that's. That's the thingis, like, you know, you essentially
return to duty. Didn't get youback from theater, which is. Which
is great, all thingsconsidered, because that thing could,
you know, hit you in thetemple and then you wouldn't be here.
Right.
You know, so anyway, well,wow. I appreciate you sharing that.
That story with us. So you gofrom the 82nd. Eventually that deployment
(18:22):
ends. I'm trying to get toAlaska because when I first met you
in 2010, I think it was. Wewere hunting in Ohio. Right. With
Dave Studenka and Dan Doll'smission. And now, of course, Richard
Wright's involved in that andseveral others, but I think that
(18:46):
was 14 years ago. So call that2010. And at the time, weren't you
in Alaska or, you know, wasthat right? Am I right? Do I have
that right?
So. So, yeah, I did two tourswith the 82nd, and then a third in
2006 when I moved up toAlaska. So about January 2006, I
(19:06):
got orders to go up to FortRichardson, Alaska, up there at the
501st.
Yeah. So we share that incommon as well. I was. I was in Charlie
Company, 1501 Airborne. Andyou were an HHC1 501 Airborne at
Richardson. Right? That'swhere I was at, Rich.
Yep.
And you got orders. Did youwant to go there, or did they just
(19:28):
send you there?
There's a story behind that,too, but it was unplanned. I was
supposed to go to recruitingduty, and at the time, I had torn
my labrum and my shoulderdoing combatives at the 82nd.
Okay.
And what do you call them?Your Service Manager or your.
(19:52):
Your Branch dude?
Yeah, your Branch guy. He'slike, well, if you can't go to recruiting
school, we're gonna send youup to Alaska to help step up. New
brigade up there, which was a425th at the time, because now they
are the 11th Airborne Corps.
Yeah, I missed all that. Idon't. When I was there, it was a
division. It was a 5thInfantry Division. And you had a
(20:15):
brigade north of the range? Idon't want to say it was a brigade.
It was a brigade north of therange and then a kind of a brigade
south of the range, centeredaround the first of the 501st Airborne,
as I recall. Yeah. So anyway.All right, so. And how long did you
(20:38):
serve there?
I was up there from 06 to,well, I left there in 2012, but in
that time, I deployed to Iraqagain, where I was injured again.
We were out of Iskandaria inIraq this time and happened to be
in the S3 shop working Ravens,the small UAVs, but also working
(21:02):
in the detainee center. Andthey said, hey, Sergeant Fierros,
we gotta send some detaineesdown to camp Proper. And I back.
Are you an E6?
At this point, I'm still in E5at this point.
Oh, my gosh. Okay, so you'restill in E5. Must be a senior E5
at that. You must be gettingready to make. You must be getting
ready to make staff sergeantthis time. Okay, so. All right, so
(21:22):
go on, tell us. Tell us what happened.
So, you know, we load theprisoner into the helicopter, we
take off, we land a couplesmall fobs, pick up some guys about
the third landing, we comeback up, and I think we're in the
air for maybe five minutes,and all of a sudden, something shoots
down the center of the plane.Things I can remember was it felt
like a baseball bat hit me inthe face. And so I didn't... I don't
(21:47):
remember passing out, but Iremember things slowing down in slow
motion and looking around inthe Blackhawk, and I'm like, well,
there's smoke, but there's nofire. I put my hands up to my face
because my face hurt reallybad. Looked down at my gloves, and
there was nothing on mygloves. So I did it again, and it
was just streaming frominjury. So basically what happened
(22:07):
was shrapnel came through thebottom of the plane, entered my left
eye socket or my retina, nasalpassages, and face, so.
Wow. Where did it enter? Wheredid the shrapnel enter?
So it came through my nasalpassages and through my face and
my eye orbit.
(22:29):
Can you. Did they. I didn'tknow. I didn't know that. That. I
did not know. Did. Can you. Doyou have any issues seeing?
I have one blind spot. Myvision gets. You know, my vision's
getting progressively worseevery year, so.
Is it in one eye or both?
One eye, mostly.
Okay. Wow. I didn't know thatyou had two Purple Hearts. I guess
(22:51):
I did know that. I just gotforgotten. I apologize. It's been
a while, man. So two PurpleHearts. God bless you, man. You're
lucky to be alive. That one.That. That. That one. Holy smokes.
So did you guys do anemergency crash landing? What happened?
So, yeah, so no, at this time,you know, the cab filled with, or
(23:13):
the, you know, cockpits filledwith smoke. And all of a sudden,
you know, we're looking aroundme and the other guys, and we see
fire coming out from behindour heads. So we're screaming for
fire extinguishers. Andfinally the pilot set it down. And
this field, like, luckily, ithad just been plowed, so it was a
harder landing. We pile out,we pull everyone we need to pull
out, and I can remember, wepull everyone out everyone's got
(23:39):
their weapons and we havethese HVTs with us. And, you know,
a million things are runningthrough your head at that time.
Because at the time, highvalue targets, right? I mean, these
are. You have. You've detaineda couple of high value targets and
you're taking them, you'retransporting them back for interrogation
or safeguard or whatever thecase might be. And this is when you
(24:01):
get hit.
Yeah. Okay, so, you know,helicopters on fire. We're in this
field setting up security. Andat that time, that's when all that
crazy beheading and capturingwas going on. So we can hear gun
trucks that we know are notours getting closer and closer. And
(24:21):
I can remember we're sittingon a berm and we all have M4s and
we're like, where's the 249that's on the helicopter? You know,
where's the gun helicopter? Sowe're looking around and I can remember
another E6 that was on theflight yells, go get that machine
gun. And so the guy runs backand gets machine gun. What seemed
(24:42):
like 20 minutes went by, andfinally the second helicopter in
our group there shows back up,lands, and we all pile in this helicopter,
and you can tell it's severelyoverloaded. They had probably another
eight or nine packs in theirflight. Plus us is a Blackhawk. It's
(25:02):
a Blackhawk. Yeah.
Yeah.
So we fly to the cache inBaghdad. I'm swollen up. I can't
see out of one eye. And I getto the cache there. They're like,
you have shrapnel in yourface. You have a torn retina. We're
going to evacuate you toLaunch tool. So go to launch tool.
(25:24):
They figure out I have atraumatic brain injury along the
way, along with the eyebright.So they sent me to Walter Reed. So
I end up at Walter Reed forseven months. And while I'm there,
yeah, so while I'm there, youknow, they run the TBI test. And
I can remember the doctorsaying, hey, I'm gonna ask you to
do some simple tasks. And I'mlike, sure, I can handle that. Right?
(25:48):
So he hands me money and hesays, so an item cost $19 or 1975,
give me back change. And Iremember staring at the money and
staring at him and staring atthe money, staring at him. And it
wasn't clicking.
Wow.
It wasn't clicking. You know,it's 25 cents, right? So it wasn't
(26:08):
clicking at all. But long run,you know, they put me all through
the therapy, cognitive,behavioral, some gait I was having
problems with balance. Theyfixed my retina. But so seven months
and then I went back to theWTU there at Fort Richardson, Alaska.
(26:28):
At this point, you're probablylike, okay, so I've been wounded
twice. They said I should bean after trimming, and I did. And
then I got hit twice. Maybeit's time for me to look for a new
career field.
Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
(26:49):
No, not at all. Huh. So tellus what happens. Man, I love it.
So, you know, after sevenmonths there, send me back to Alaska,
WTU and I have to hang outthere. I can't go back to the.
That's the Warrior TransitionUnit. That's where they send the,
the guys that are, you know,that are trying to either get out
or get back in or, you know,it's. They're, They're wounded or
(27:14):
injured you know, this kindof thing. They're kind of. It's like
it being in limbo a little bit.
Yeah. So you're in limbo,right? And I'm there and unit comes
back, Commander comes in,checks on you and says, you know,
hey, what's going on? How arethings going? And, you know, I'm
still going through therapy.I'm getting, you know, botox for
(27:34):
migraines. I'm still doingcognitive therapy. So it comes up
where I'm heading, they'relike, well, you have a lot of injuries
and you have a lot ofproblems, so we're going to run you
through a medical board. So Iended up med boarding in May of 2009.
And then, you know, I tooksome time off from the Army. You
(27:55):
know, you're in Alaska, yougot to travel, right? So, you know,
you go to Homer and you go toSeward and drive around from the
family. So after that, I get ajob as Fleet service at the Anchorage
Airport, you know, workingcleaning aircraft for a year. And
I get a phone call one daywhile I'm out fishing for red salmon.
(28:17):
And it's TACOM, which is TankArmament Command up in Warren, Michigan.
And they're like, hey, do youwant to interview for a job with.
Working with left behindequipment for the units there in
Alaska? And I say, sure, I'llinterview. So interview goes on.
I'm like, oh, I did horriblein the interview, right? And a couple
weeks later, I get a callback. At the time, the Supervisor's
(28:41):
like, hey, we're gonna offeryou the position. So I was a contractor
in Alaska up until 2012, andthen I applied for a job at Toby
Hannah Army Depot As a QualityControl Inspector.
Wow. Yeah. So when you get medboarded, basically, the army's saying
to you, hey, listen, we'regonna put you through a medical board,
(29:02):
and we're gonna find. We'regonna determine. The medical board's
gonna determine whether or notyou're fit or capable of continuing
your service. And if you are,you get to go back to the service
if you want, I guess. And ifyour enlistment's not up, but the
other option is you are foundunfit or not capable of performing
(29:26):
your duties as assigned, or insome cases, you know, no duties whatsoever
because of the nature of yourinjuries or wounds, and then. And
then they separate you fromthe service. Isn't that how that
works?
Yeah. So when I went throughmy med board, I applied for COAD,
(29:46):
which is continuation onactive duty. So you submit your pack
up up to big army, and theymake a decision on whether or not,
you know, we can reclass youor we can send you somewhere. During
that process, it kind of slowsdown. It goes up to this whole big
Army. And I was getting itchy.I was a little bit worried about
what was going on because Ididn't heard anything. And I'm calling
(30:09):
the contact number for thisprogram, and the med board's like,
you need to make a decision.Right. Need to figure out what's
going on. So I'm like, well,just med board, Right. Because at
this time, I'm. I'm on a lotof medications. I'm. I, at the time,
I probably wasn't thinkingright. You know.
Right.
I kind of lost that whole, I'mgoing to fight for this because I
(30:30):
really want to do this. And Isaid, you know what? Just. I'm gonna
cut strings right here. Sothey med board me. I'm 70% temporary
retired from the Army. So theyretired me out of Fort Richardson.
And I, you know, a coupleyears there at Fort Rich as, you
(30:50):
know, civilian, and then as acontractor for the Army.
Wow. So I meet you. I think wemet, like I said earlier, we met
in Ohio, and then we huntedducks together. And I thought to
myself, you know, I was justgoing to be honest. Yeah, I like
this guy. He's kind of quiet.He's very observant. Yeah. He's got
(31:16):
a great personality, easy tobe around. And I just absolutely
enjoyed meeting you andspending time with you in Ohio. And
then I think I either askedyou or. Because at the time that.
That time frame, 12 years agoor whatever it was, I think I was
(31:38):
the guy doing the assignments.You Know, I mean, yeah, I was the
guy calling people up, going,hey, man, you want to go on another
event? Certain thing. And.And. And so I think I. You know,
this opportunity in Washingtoncame by, and I think I called you
up, and. And I just. I waslike, if I'm going to have to go
on this event, this is how Iwas thinking, you know, how it all
(32:01):
started. And Jake, of course,you know, was part of the first wave
of guys who I identified asbeing dudes I liked, you know, that
I knew would perform well inthis space. And that was the foundation
for the guide school that weultimately started that you went
through and have graduatedfrom. And so it was. For me, it was
(32:26):
like easy math. Like, I'm notgonna pick somebody. I don't like
to go on an event with me, youknow, for four or five days, sleep
in a bunk, you know, in closeproximity. And, you know, all of
this, I'm like, I'm an armyguy, you know, I'm gonna pick the
dudes I like, you know, Ithink are cool dudes, you know. And
so we went up to Washingtontogether, and I remember we stayed
(32:49):
in a Quonset hut or some ofsome sort. Remember that?
Yeah, I do. That was a smallcabin just off the. Was it Skajit
River?
That's right. Skagit. Yeah.Somebody. Maybe they say Skijack.
I don't know.
I don't either. But anyway, wewere salmon fishing and. And this
thing was like a littlechalet. It was, you know, you had
(33:10):
to go outside to change yourmind. It's pretty tight quarters
in there. But it was cool. Itwas like public. I don't know what
the heck. It was like publiccampgrounds or something.
It was like a state park, I think.
State park. There you go.Yeah, that's right.
Karina would know that.
Karina would definitely know.That's a fact. And so anyway, we.
We. That's when we got to knoweach other. And I think that's when
(33:31):
I asked you, you know, if youwere interested in, you know, getting
more involved or somethinglike that. But I just remember you
saying to me, you know, John,whatever you need, you know, And
I just thought, wow, that'sjust the right answer right there.
That. That's a guy, you know,this is the right person for this
job. So you ultimately gothrough our guide school, and I think
(33:52):
you were the first. Were youpart of the first guide school? Were
you the first guide school?Yeah. Okay. I think we're on seven
now, and we do it every otheryear, so if you know, we're on seventh
iteration. We do it everyother year. And you were the very
first class, your class one ofwhatever that was and whatever year
(34:16):
that was. And yeah, I rememberPat Corcoran came, we were doing
the knots and the rope corral.I know, I remember that. That gave
you. I remember looking atyour. I remember certain things very
well. And I remember lookingat your face, you know, was. You
were, you were, you know, the,the knot, the knots, I remember kind
(34:38):
of gave you a touch...a bi ofa fit. But that had to be because
your, your brain injury,right. It's like the money too. You're
an infantry guy. You're an82nd, you're in the 501st. You know,
knots dead... deadpan out,straight up, man. And, and, and here
there was a couple of knots ornot. And that, that knot test is
no joke, is run by a, youknow, it was at the time run by a
(35:00):
Ranger from 6th RangerTraining Battalion. So he was a,
he was a knot guy, and he waslike cutting no slack jack.
No, no, there was no slack.
There's no slack jack, man.Time limits. Yeah, that's right.
And he stress test themafterwards, right? He's saying expect
them and trust stress testthem. And if you don't get your knots
right here, no go Ranger,you're going back.
(35:22):
You know, So I remember wewere testing and Pat Corchoran, you
know, grabs my. Goes lastknot, right? So we're last knot of
the test. He's like, this seat So I'm like, oh yeah, I got
this.
Yeah, right?
Yeah, I didn't have it. Yep.One wrong turn on the seat and he's
like, you're a no go. And Iremember just sheer panic. I'm sitting,
(35:44):
I'm like, shoot. I'm like,John sent us to this because he believes
we're going to make it throughthe first time. And here I go and
I miss it. Cause it's Swissseat. And I remember packing. Listen,
calm down, take your time.We'll retest you on your knot and
you know, you know, simplemistakes. Right. You know, but it
was. So knots were difficultat that time, right. Remembering
(36:07):
all those different knots and.
Yeah, you know, I tell youwhat, man, I'm just so proud of you
and all, all guys like youthat, that, you know, we created
a school, the Guide School.Not. It's not an easy school. You
know, we, you know, you gothrough the WWIA Guide School. You
know, I don't want to sayit's. It's somewhere. It's some it's
(36:29):
not like a gut check likeRanger School. We don't do that.
But, you know, we have to. Youtake tests, you know, you get. You'd
get trained on a certainmaterial. You take a test, your hands
on, you know, knots is one ofthem, you know, and it's one of those
things, you know, we learn alot about people, you know, when
you put them under a littlebit of stress. Now, we're not trying
to put you in any more stress.You don't need any more stress in
(36:50):
your life. That's not whatit's designed to do, but, you know,
it is a gradable thing and,you know, it's challenging, right?
And that's what we want to do.We want to challenge guys, you know,
a little bit there and. Andput them back in the kind of challenging
environment that you found,you know, without, you know, anybody
shooting at you again, youknow, you know, that you found and
(37:13):
fell in love with in. In theArmy. You were challenged in the
Army, and, you know, it's nota cakewalk, and. And nobody wants
anything just given to them,right? So that's why we. But anyway,
so you've been serving ourHeroes now for 14 years, you know,
and you're a trained andCertified Guide. I have to ask you,
(37:38):
man, tell us. We were talkingin the pre, in the pre show. You
and I were just chatting alittle bit. You said you thought
maybe ask you how many eventsyou think you'd been on in, you know,
in your 14 years with theFoundation or whatever it's been.
And you said, well, I mean,guess probably 20. So, you know,
(38:00):
you've got...you formed...soin 20, if there's. If there's an
average of four dudes on everyevent that you don't know on average,
sometimes more, sometimesless. But, you know, let's just say
it's four on average. And, youknow, you, you know, or five, you
know, you're getting. You'vebeen on events and led over 100 combat-wounded
(38:22):
Purple Heart recipients in thefield environment as WWIA Guide.
So in that process, you formsome opinions. You've got a perspective
that few people do. You'recontinuing to serve in a very unique
capacity, helping theseveterans, you know, with their challenges.
(38:45):
You know, you are the Guide,our guide... Our guides, plural,
the Foundation's Guides arethe critical link between the Heroes
we serve, the hosts that puton these events, and the Foundation.
You're at the center of all ofthat, and it's the most critical
position that we have. Itreally Is, I mean, I'll someday in
(39:09):
a few years, be gone, and thisthing's going to carry on. And the
weight of the Guides, theimportance of the guides is just
going to continue tostrengthen because you really are
that critical link, right? Andso I gotta hear from you...tell us
(39:29):
about, you know, yourexperience with the Foundation as
a Guide, you know, what's itmean to you and what kind of observations
do you have about this work.
So as a Guide, you know, firstof all, attending the event as a
Hero, right? You never knowwhat to expect. And when I had my
(39:51):
first event from Foundation,right, which was a duck hunt, never
duck hunted in my life. I wasalways, you know, fishing, you know,
panfish, bluegill, bass. Thatfirst duck hunt, and I was like,
wow, this is awesome. Iremember laying in that blind and
you said you had a pitcher,right? And I remember that morning,
and it was two minutes beforeshoot, and all those ducks got off
(40:13):
that gravel pit.
And they were right in ourface. In our face. Hundreds of ducks,
Hundreds of ducks in our face.And we didn't get to shoot them,
did we?
Yeah. So you know, that hunttwo minutes before shooting light.
Yeah.
No, I'm telling you what, Inever forget that either. I mean,
it was two minutes becauseusually you'll hear the guide because
there's... there's gamewardens out there and they're listening
(40:35):
there. Then they got their,watch out. You pop off two minutes
before shooting light and killa bunch of ducks. Guess who's going
to pay you a visit. That's right.
Yep. Absolutely.
So anyway, go on. I didn'tmean to interrupt you, but I remember.
Remember that.
So, you know, I went on thathunt and I was thinking, man, this
is a great program. You know,you guys took care of us. We didn't
(40:55):
have to worry about anything.Everything we were, you know, was
smooth, right? And I thought,oh, this is great. You know, that
ended, went back home and Igo, oh, man, I gotta, you know, tell
some other people about this.I had such a great experience. And,
you know, time went on and Iwas like, ah, you know, I would every
(41:16):
once in a while at the time,Facebook was just starting...you'd
see a couple things here orthere. And I remember he called me
for the Washington State. Andyou say, hey, you know, I can't find
anyone. Would you be willingto go? So this is my first week at
Toby Hanna. And my Supervisorgoes, what are you doing? I'm like,
I'm part of a, you know,veterans group that takes Purple
(41:37):
Heart recipients on thesehunts and fishing events and he's
like, he's like, just go. He'slike, have out. So like, I remember,
I think it was like two orthree days before the event. I can't
remember what happened to spursuch a quick thing. But as a Guide,
the way you organize it, youmake it so seamless for the Guides
(41:58):
and the Hosts. You know, theOPORDER, Right? Is a big part of
everything we do. Tells youwhere to be, when to be there, how
to get there, what to bring,what not to bring. Right. You know,
it means a lot. It means, youknow, I was struggling in a place
where I didn't, I didn't knowwho to talk to. Right. You kind of
shut down, you get out and youlose that sense of camaraderie and
(42:23):
you're like, what am I goingto do? What am I doing with myself?
Nobody understands reallywhat's going on. Yeah. And that's
what the Foundation did forme. You know, I was able to be there
with like minded people thatunderstood what we, you know, things
that happen over there and thethings that you go through, you know,
we're not all the same story,but similar incidents. Right. So
(42:45):
for me it, you know, it gaveme a sense of purpose, you know,
that sense of being back in asmall unit. And I think, you know,
what we're doing currentlywith these smaller groups and keeping
it that way is the best thingyou can do for the Foundation. It
really works. And you canreally see these guys bonding in
just three or four days andusually by the end of the first night
(43:06):
they're pretty much, you know,already bonding as already snapped
in, aren't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I gotta, I appreciatethat your opinion means a lot to
me. You know, and we'vetinkered with the form formula for,
you know, we did at least whenwe were starting out and you know,
in the first few years. Buttoday it's pretty much a standard,
(43:30):
you know, deal, you know, andI think, and I have always thought
that the small group of, youknow, not to exceed say, you know,
six to eight, you know, andpreferably, you know, right around
six, because that's, that is avery manageable span of control for
(43:51):
one guide, you know, one Guideand five heroes. One Guide and four
heroes. You know, that's thesize of a Fire Team. You know, you
were a Fire Team and that'scritical because you guys are used
to that and so are they. Thatis the fun that, you know, the squad
is the fundamental fightingunit. But a squad is comprised of
two Fire Teams. You know, yougot a Sergeant E6 in charge of a
(44:15):
squad, and you got two E5s or,you know, E4 promotable in charge
of a team. Two teams equal asquad. It's perfect. It, you know,
it's just the right answer,you know, and so we do have events
that go beyond that, but wealways throw in two Guides so that
it breaks up into basicallytwo teams, you know, a squad of guys.
(44:36):
And it's just, you're right,it's intimate. Nobody gets lost in
the sauce. There's bonding,you know, happening almost like immediately,
whether, regardless of. Of theservice branch that you were in.
So, you know, you're right. Iappreciate you sharing that with
us because, you know, it'ssuper important. It's just this idea
(44:59):
of, you know, belonging, youknow, again, back. Back on a team,
you know, again, feelingcomfortable because nobody's going
to judge you feelingcomfortable because you all share
something in common, you know,very important in common. And like
you said, everybody's story isdifferent, but the one story that
(45:21):
stays, that remains constant,is that you are all awarded the purple
heart for being, you know,wounded in combat. And nobody wanted
to be wounded at combat. Itwasn't like you went there and said,
yeah, let me, let me get aPurple Heart. And not, you know,
Not! Not so. Anyway, you're agreat American, buddy. I genuinely
(45:44):
appreciate what you've donefor the Foundation. You know, our
friendship means the world tome. I'm really happy you're on the
program. It's great to see youagain. And I know you're a family
man. You've got a son that'snow, what, a sophomore? Yeah, yep,
sophomore in high school. Youjust got a new job, you said, you
(46:05):
know, same. You know, you're,you're, you got to be getting close
to her over 20 years as acivil servant now, right, with your
Army time combined, Aren't yougetting that close to that?
Yeah, yeah, I'm over the 20year mark.
There you go, man. So life isgood. You made it, you know, you
made it through all of that,and you look great and everybody
(46:28):
likes you, man. I mean, theword on the street, everybody likes
you. You know, nobody eversays anything bad about Gabe. And
you are just a solid, solidcitizen. You know, thanks for what
you did for this country andthanks for what you're continuing
to do to support your fellowbrothers and sisters who were wounded
(46:50):
in combat. I'll give you thelast whack at the pinata here, buddy.
You got anything you want totell us?
No, John, just thank you forletting me be part of this awesome
team and Foundation that youhave. Hopefully it continues to grow...with
the succes that we're having.You know, getting these guys out
in the outdoors and you know,getting these guys to, you know,
(47:12):
first duck hunts and firstpheasant hunts. You know, it's always
awesome to see that. I thinkmy last event here in North Dakota,
we had a first time pheasanthunter and I can remember the look
on his face when he shot hisfirst pheasant and knowing that it
was his and you know, that'swhat the Foundation is about. Right.
Not only bring these guystogether to bond and talk about,
you know, things that havehappened to them, but seeing those
(47:33):
first time things just likeyou guys were there for my first
duck. Right? So I want to saythank you for that.
Well, it's our pleasure. Youknow, you mentioned earlier about
how, you know, it's well, youknow, planned the op order, you know,
and you know, we've got agreat team, you know, that puts this
(47:53):
thing on. You know, I'm herein the headquarters in Apollo beach,
you know, there are twoemployees here. You know, David does
all our social media andspecial projects, you know, and he's
in the Carolinas and then ofcourse Corrina, you know, out West,
you know, there is doing allof the logistics planning and that
(48:15):
includes the interactions withthe Host and you Guides and the Heroes,
the selection and yeah, it's,it's, it all comes together and it
is a lot of work behind thescenes and we're just fortunate because
we have a great team pullingthis thing off and we try to make
it look like when you guysshow up on the event that it's, that
(48:37):
I don't want to say it's easy,it's not easy. Your work is not easy,
the work that you do. But youare the critical link. And we just
try to, you know, the folksback here at the headquarters that
are helping make it all happenare trying to do it, set you guys
up for as much success aspossible. So when you hit the ground,
(49:00):
essentially the table is set,you know, and all you, you have to
do is focus on, you know,being a good guide and being there
for them and making, makingsure everything is, you know, running,
running well. And, and you dothat along with the other guides
exceptionally, exceptionallywell. And it's, you know, I, I feel
like a very, very fortunateperson to, you know, have such an
(49:24):
amazing team. So keep up thegood work, buddy. And it's our pleasure.
And, and God bless you foryour service and what you're continuing
to do. And I wish you and yourfamily, you know, a wonderful holiday
season as that's coming up.
Yeah, thank you, John.
And anything ever, you everneed, anything, you got my digits,
(49:44):
man. Just ding me.
Okay.
All right, buddy. Thanks foryour time.
Yeah, thanks.
Okay, bye.
Thank you for listening to theWWIA podcast. To learn more about
the Wounded warriors in Actionfoundation and how you can get involved,
please visit ourwebsite@wwiaf.org or follow us on
(50:09):
social media on Facebook,Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
If you'd like to comment oroffer feedback about our podcast
or if you have a suggestionfor a future episode, please email
us at podcast@wwiaf.org thankyou for your support and for helping
us honor, connect and heal ourcombat wounded Purple Heart heroes
(50:33):
through the power of the great outdoors.
Hello and welcome to the WWIAPodcast. We're honored to have you
join us in our mission tobring honor, connection and healing
to America's combat woundedPurple Heart heroes. If this is your
first time listening to thispodcast, we welcome you. If you're
a returning listener. Thanksfor coming back. Please be sure to
(00:25):
tell others about our podcastand leave us a review. If you're
enjoying what you're hearingat every WWIA event, there's a certified
WWIA Guide present. WWIAGuides are an essential part of accomplishing
our mission as they've beenrecommended by their fellow Purple
Heart peers and are certifiedthrough our WWIA Guide School. WWIA
(00:50):
Guide School is the world'sfirst multidisciplinary adaptive
sporting guide program andprepares our guides to lead and serve
their fellow Purple Heartrecipients and assist the event hosts
on each WWIA mission weconduct across North America. On
today's episode of the WWIAPodcast, WWIA founder and CEO John
(01:12):
McDaniel is honored to welcomePurple Heart Hero and WWIA Guide
Gabe Fieros to the program.Gabe, along with his wife and son
reside in Long Pond,Pennsylvania. Gabe joined the army
after high school and wasdeployed to Iraq three times during
his service. After beingmedically retired from the Army G
Gabe worked in Anchorage,Alaska as a contractor for the Army.
(01:34):
He later relocated toNortheast Pennsylvania and took a
federal position with TobyHana Army Depot where he continues
his career. Gabe initiallyheard about WWIA from one of the
guys in his unit and soonafter attended his first duck hunting
event in southwestern Ohio. Hefound it both relaxing and cathartic
to be around like mindedpeople who understood his experiences
(01:58):
and found that the camaraderieand experience was just what he needed.
Gabe now proudly leads WWIAEvents as a guide and enjoys giving
back to his fellow combatWounded Warriors. We hope you enjoy
getting to know Gabe andhearing more about his story. Let's
join the conversation withJohn and Gabe now.
(02:22):
Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founderand CEO of the Wounded warriors in
Action foundation and this isour podcast Honor, Connect and Heal.
So today I have with me agentleman who I've known for 14 years
and he is an army guy that Imet on an event. He's become a guide
(02:45):
for the foundation and he'sjust a great American. I've got very
fond memories spending timewith this person. We share a lot
in common and I thought I'dask him on the program. Gabe Fieros,
welcome to the program.
Thanks John, thanks for havingme today.
Absolutely. So I'm looking atGabe and, because you guys can't
see, but we see each other bythe modern miracles of technology
(03:08):
through our podcast thinghere. But Gabe's got a big old honking
Jeremiah Johnson beard goingthere. He's wearing his WWI ball
cap, and he's actually at TobyHanna. He's in Toby Hanna, Pennsylvania,
at the Army Deep Depot there.Taking a little break from work to
chat with us. But you hailfrom Pennsylvania. That's where you
(03:32):
live, Gabe.
That's currently where I live.I was born and raised in Ringo, Illinois,
which is north Illinois, about90 minutes north of Chicago, about
20 minutes from Wisconsin border.
Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah,yeah, I didn't know. Well, we share
that, too. I wasn't born andraised in Illinois, but my parents
moved. I was born in EastLansing, Michigan, and then we moved
(03:58):
to the suburbs of Chicago, so.Palatine, Illinois. I grew up there
for many years until about thesixth or seventh grade, we moved
to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. So,yeah, we share that in common as
well. Cool. All right, solet's just talk about your service
real quick. You were in theArmy. So tell it. Tell us a little
(04:21):
bit about your, you know, youjoined the Army, you know, and. And
take us up to the point whereyou go to combat, and then we'll
take a quick tactical pausebecause I do want to chat about your
Purple Heart. So tell us yourArmy story, Gabe. I'd love to hear
it.
So my Army story started inJune of. Or June of 1998. Joined
(04:43):
the army as a heavy wheeledvehicle mechanic. I don't know if
you knew that.
I did not know that.
Yeah, so I did that. You know,I went to South Carolina, Jackson,
or Jackson for AIT shortly,first station was Korea. After that
initial one year deployment,you know, I headed down to Fort Stewart,
(05:05):
Georgia, where I was in 169Armor or 369 Armor. Sorry.
Okay.
And I spent a couple yearsthere, and long story short is I
was there. I was the Colonel'sdriver. I was kind of not behaving
too well.
Wait a minute. Stop, stop. Igotta say something. I gotta say
something, man. We're bothsmiling at each other like a, like
(05:26):
a fox eating yellow jackets. Istole that from Jake Whipkey, by
the way. But anyway, so youknow, the fact that you. Well, first
off, you're mechanicallyinclined. I didn't really know that.
But now that I know, I may askyou a lot of questions about that.
But, so that's really cool.But you were also the, you were,
(05:47):
you were the. Would you saythe CO's driver?
Yeah, it was a battalion commander.
So here's the thing, man. Youdon't get picked to be. And then
he said you were in trouble alot. Well, here's the thing. You
know this as well as I do. Youdon't get picked to be the Battalion
Commander's driver unlessyou're squared away. Right. That
is a fact. You know, theydon't just pick some dirt bag to
(06:09):
go drive the BattalionCommander, the Lieutenant Colonel
around. So you had somethingon the ball, but then you said...
said you were getting in trouble.
Yeah. So, you know, so I was amechanic, and they. And they assign
you, you know, a platoon.Right. So I was assigned to the Scalpoon.
So trouble ensues, you know,in the barracks, and one day I'm
(06:30):
in the motor pool working onsomething and tuning. Sergeant comes
up and says, hey, the SergeantMajor wants to see you for an interview.
And I'm like, interview forwhat? And I walk. And, you know,
they schedule it, and I walkin the office, and Sergeant Major
throws a map on the table andsays, plot these grids. And so I
go through the wholeinterview, and he's like, all right,
great. I'll let you know. So Igo back down the motor pool, I think.
(06:54):
I don't think it was evenhalfway through the day. Yep, you're
going up to be the Colonel'sdriver. So that started that. So
I went up to there. A lot ofguys were like, oh, look at him.
He gets to go up there.
That's right.
Be in the head shed. Right.Not doing anything.
That's quite a privilege,actually. I think.
Yeah. Yeah. So we deployed toKosovo. I was a driver.
(07:18):
I didn't know you were there.I was. I did one there, too. Cool.
Yeah, we were up there for ayear, up Tampona Steel. Long story
short is we're in country, andhe says, hey, Gabe. He says, hey,
Specialist Fierros, I thinkyou're in the wrong MOS. And I'm
like, sir, what do you mean?Something's just not rubbing me right
(07:38):
about you being a mechanic.He's like, you need to be an infantryman.
There you go.
And I was like, what, sir? I'mlike, you're out of your mind. Like,
no way.
So good judge of character, Imight add.
Yeah. Yeah. So about two, wecome back off of deployment from
Kosovo, and I hit thatreenlistment window, and they sent
(07:58):
me the reenlistment nco, andhe's like, hey, you get a bonus if
you go to infantry. And I wasalready an E4P, so I went to PLDC,
which I don't know what theycall it now.
Yeah, I know what that is.
Yeah. So head down there,reenlist, go to infantry school.
I had to go back to Benningfor seven weeks.
(08:19):
Benning School for Boys!
Yeah, Benning School for Boys.Right. So you can just imagine E4P
showing up to Benning. Youhave unit patches, you already have
awards on your uniform. And.
Right.
You know, you forget about allthis stuff that happens at basic
training. And I can rememberthe first time the Drill Sergeant's
meeting us, and I'm like, hey,Sergeant. And he's like, you know,
(08:40):
the death stare, and he goes,what the beep? You know. You know,
not very kind words afterthat. But so. Because.
Why? Because you just said,hey, Sergeant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know. You know, theywork hard for that, that badge, so.
Right.
We understood. And we.
It should have been Drill Sergeant.
(09:01):
Correct.
And it should have been Goodmorning. It should have been Good
morning, Drill Sergeant orGood afternoon, Drill Sergeant.
Yeah.
Right.
Yep.
Okay, cool. Well, interesting,you know, interesting. And then so
you. That's what you did. Youchanged Moses and you became an infantryman.
Is that where. Is that whenyou landed in Alaska to the 501st?
(09:23):
No, so. Actually, I went toFort Bragg. First.
82Nd Airborne.
Yeah.
They sent you. Wow. That'sunusual. They sent you.
Yeah, my bonus was forInfantry. Airborne. Fort Bragg.
Oh, so you knew you were goingto the 87 and falling out of perfectly
good planes.
That's correct.
(09:43):
Did you already have yourAirborne wings at the time?
No, I went right after Icompleted infantry school.
Oh, all right. So I gotta askyou, man. Was. Now, now, the story
goes on. Right. But was yourboss right?
He was right.
He was right. See? Yeah, theycan tell. I can tell, too, man. It's
(10:07):
like. I can tell, like, insideof every. You say inside of every
good Marine is an army guywaiting to get out. My Marine buddies
are gonna love that. Butanyway, I digress. You know, it's
like inside of every goodmechanic is an infantryman dying
to get up. Right. That's the thing.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, but you can tellwhen somebody's got that. You know,
(10:27):
that. That. I don't know. Jene sais quoi, as the French might
say. Hard, hard to put yourfinger on it, but, you know, an Infantryman,
if he has the metal to be anInfantryman, you're like, yeah, I
don't know what you're doing,you know, as a wrench. You need to
be, you need to be anInfantry. You know, I could just,
I can just see it because he,because he liked you, you know, and
you're, you were a goodsoldier. I guarantee that's what
(10:50):
it was. You might be realhumble about it, but I can guarantee
that's what it was because.Yeah. So anyway, was he an Infantry
guy?
No, he was an Armor guy.
Holy cow. And he said, youshould be an infantryman. That's,
that's quite, that is quite acompliment. Okay, very good. So you
go to the 82nd. What happens next?
So that's about 2002. Right.So I walk into my first unit, which
(11:15):
was 3rd Battalion, 325, whichis no longer there, but I was in
Charlie Company and first weekthey're out in the field. I get there,
they're like, hey, by the way,Sergeant Fierros, pack your stuff
up. We're doing trenchclearing for the week. So I walk
in, I think it was like aThursday and they were coming back
Sunday. So quick introductionto trench clearing. And shortly after
(11:40):
that, you know, the wind upprior to Iraq started. So lots of
jumps, lots of tactical stuff,lots of trains up, JRTC, NTC.
Did you fit in? Was it hardfor you to fit in because, you know,
the 82nd, there's a lot ofnepotism. I never served in the 82nd,
so I don't, I mean, I bet alot of my friends did, but I know
(12:03):
that there's a fair amount ofnepotism that goes into, you know,
like there's a lot of guysthat grew up in the 82nd. Well, you
didn't grow up in the 82nd.No, you, you know, you, you got transported.
Transported to, you know, to,to there through, you know, divine
intervention. But did you, didyou find it difficult to integrate
(12:25):
into the 82nd after you wentthrough this training and got reblued
as an infantry guy? Was that adifficult transition or not?
It was at first it was. As anE5, you're always unsure. Right.
I'm a brand new E5 Infantry.
Right.
You're gonna stick me with, ina leadership position.
You're gonna be a Fire TeamLeader. Right?
Right. So that wholetransition was, was difficult. Right.
(12:48):
I'm learning the language of Infantry.
Yes.
And you're eating.
And the culture. And theculture. Right. Language, culture,
it's a whole thing.
Yep. So I would say in mySquad Leader at the time, I said,
hey, Sergeant AB was his nameand like, hey look, I came from mechanic
background Like, I'm an NCO,brand new, have no Infantry and experience.
(13:11):
He's like, don't worry aboutit. He throws me a stack of manuals
and says, start looking, startreading, start gaining information.
There was never a questionfrom any of my guys whether or not
I could lead. It was justlearning information fast enough
to put it in practice.
Right, Right.
So, wow.
(13:33):
You know, and that's great.And now. So let me ask you this,
but did you grow up huntingand fishing?
I grew up fishing. Not so much hunting.
Really? Okay, interesting,because what I find is in. And always
found, you know, as a careerInfantry dude, you know, I always
found that the, the soldiersthat, that I had that were, you know,
(13:57):
sportsmen, outdoor sportsmen,hunting, fishing, kind of guys, you
know, took to that line ofwork, you know, quite well. You know,
I mean, you're always in theoutdoors. You know, you're. You're
doing. You're doing something,you know, in the field. And a lot
of guys that like to, youknow, the outdoors gravitate towards
(14:17):
the infantry or the army ingeneral, but more so the infantry
and those units that spent alot of time in the field. I was just,
just curious. Okay, so, allright, we're at the 82nd Airborne,
and then take us. Take us to.You go from there to Alaska. Is that
what happened? Or did you gofrom there? Did you get hurt when
you were with the 82nd?
(14:38):
So, yeah.
So first.
So we deployed for theinvasion, Iraq with the 82nd. So
sometime in that deployment,probably somewhere about halfway
through, we were doing someriot control on one of the main supply
highways. And, you know, we'rewaiting for the MPs to come. We just
come off patrol from being inthe Green Zone and said, hey, by
(15:02):
the way, there's peopleblocking the highway for supplies.
Let's go. Try to push themout. So they send the whole company
out. Things ensue, helicoptersstart dusting the people, try to
move them off the road. Duringthat whole process, something came
in the air and there was a bigboom. And. And I remember falling
(15:22):
to the ground and being like,okay. I don't. You know, I don't
feel anything wrong. So I tryto stand up, and I just fall to the
ground. And I'm like, huh?What happened? I don't see anything.
You know, I'm not bleedingright away. And some. I'm like, can't
stand up. I look down at myright leg, and there's a hole in
it. And so it's not a very bighole. You probably stick your Pinky
(15:43):
finger in it.
What time. What year is this?What this is.
This is tail end of O3. Sowe're going into.
Things are getting cranked up.
Yeah. Things are gettingcranked up.
Yeah. By 05, it's a shit show.
Yeah.
But. But, oh, three things arethe drum beats happening, right?
(16:04):
Yeah.
Okay, so. So go on. I'm sorry,I interrupted you.
No, no, you're so. You know,they realize I'm hit. So we get in
the back of, you know, the Humvee.
This is a gunshot wound. Isthis shrapnel? What is this? No,
it's.
It's shrapnel. So a coupleother guys got hurt. This is all
(16:24):
going on. They throw us in aHumvee. And, you know, infantry guys,
when you're in a bad situationand you're all stuck in the back
of this truck, you startpicking on each other, right? So
we're in the back of thistruck, and I got a bandage over mine,
and I look over and one of theguys. My guys got Kerlux or gauze
(16:44):
in between his butt cheeks.And so we're. We're laughing. It's
not a funny situation. Like, Ilaugh now, but, you know, all seriousness,
we're trying to lower themood, the adrenaline, right? So we're
cracking jokes. And, you know,if you see that and you're in the
back of a truck, a bare,naked, you know, infantryman with
Kerlux in between them. So.
(17:08):
Tragedy plus time equalsfunny. That's the equation.
Yeah. Yeah. So we get donewith that. They send us out to cache
in Baghdad, slap a bandage,take some X rays, and they say, well,
we can't take the shrapnelout, but we're not going to evacuate
because it's not that bad. Wedon't think it's that bad. So they
send me back to the FOB or alittle company FOB, and I pull guard
(17:33):
duty for about 30 days untilI'm probably about able to walk on
patrol again. So. Wow. Yep. Wecompleted. I think that tour ended
in February of 2004 onValentine's Day.
Wow. There you go. Well, thereyou go. Well, God bless you. You
know. You know, I say, I sayit can always be worse, right? I
(17:58):
mean, that's. That's the thingis, like, you know, you essentially
return to duty. Didn't get youback from theater, which is. Which
is great, all thingsconsidered, because that thing could,
you know, hit you in thetemple and then you wouldn't be here.
Right.
You know, so anyway, well,wow. I appreciate you sharing that.
That story with us. So you gofrom the 82nd. Eventually that deployment
(18:22):
ends. I'm trying to get toAlaska because when I first met you
in 2010, I think it was. Wewere hunting in Ohio. Right. With
Dave Studenka and Dan Doll'smission. And now, of course, Richard
Wright's involved in that andseveral others, but I think that
(18:46):
was 14 years ago. So call that2010. And at the time, weren't you
in Alaska or, you know, wasthat right? Am I right? Do I have
that right?
So. So, yeah, I did two tourswith the 82nd, and then a third in
2006 when I moved up toAlaska. So about January 2006, I
(19:06):
got orders to go up to FortRichardson, Alaska, up there at the
501st.
Yeah. So we share that incommon as well. I was. I was in Charlie
Company, 1501 Airborne. Andyou were an HHC1 501 Airborne at
Richardson. Right? That'swhere I was at, Rich.
Yep.
And you got orders. Did youwant to go there, or did they just
(19:28):
send you there?
There's a story behind that,too, but it was unplanned. I was
supposed to go to recruitingduty, and at the time, I had torn
my labrum and my shoulderdoing combatives at the 82nd.
Okay.
And what do you call them?Your Service Manager or your.
(19:52):
Your Branch dude?
Yeah, your Branch guy. He'slike, well, if you can't go to recruiting
school, we're gonna send youup to Alaska to help step up. New
brigade up there, which was a425th at the time, because now they
are the 11th Airborne Corps.
Yeah, I missed all that. Idon't. When I was there, it was a
division. It was a 5thInfantry Division. And you had a
(20:15):
brigade north of the range? Idon't want to say it was a brigade.
It was a brigade north of therange and then a kind of a brigade
south of the range, centeredaround the first of the 501st Airborne,
as I recall. Yeah. So anyway.All right, so. And how long did you
(20:38):
serve there?
I was up there from 06 to,well, I left there in 2012, but in
that time, I deployed to Iraqagain, where I was injured again.
We were out of Iskandaria inIraq this time and happened to be
in the S3 shop working Ravens,the small UAVs, but also working
(21:02):
in the detainee center. Andthey said, hey, Sergeant Fierros,
we gotta send some detaineesdown to camp Proper. And I back.
Are you an E6?
At this point, I'm still in E5at this point.
Oh, my gosh. Okay, so you'restill in E5. Must be a senior E5
at that. You must be gettingready to make. You must be getting
ready to make staff sergeantthis time. Okay, so. All right, so
(21:22):
go on, tell us. Tell us what happened.
So, you know, we load theprisoner into the helicopter, we
take off, we land a couplesmall fobs, pick up some guys about
the third landing, we comeback up, and I think we're in the
air for maybe five minutes,and all of a sudden, something shoots
down the center of the plane.Things I can remember was it felt
like a baseball bat hit me inthe face. And so I didn't... I don't
(21:47):
remember passing out, but Iremember things slowing down in slow
motion and looking around inthe Blackhawk, and I'm like, well,
there's smoke, but there's nofire. I put my hands up to my face
because my face hurt reallybad. Looked down at my gloves, and
there was nothing on mygloves. So I did it again, and it
was just streaming frominjury. So basically what happened
(22:07):
was shrapnel came through thebottom of the plane, entered my left
eye socket or my retina, nasalpassages, and face, so.
Wow. Where did it enter? Wheredid the shrapnel enter?
So it came through my nasalpassages and through my face and
my eye orbit.
(22:29):
Can you. Did they. I didn'tknow. I didn't know that. That. I
did not know. Did. Can you. Doyou have any issues seeing?
I have one blind spot. Myvision gets. You know, my vision's
getting progressively worseevery year, so.
Is it in one eye or both?
One eye, mostly.
Okay. Wow. I didn't know thatyou had two Purple Hearts. I guess
(22:51):
I did know that. I just gotforgotten. I apologize. It's been
a while, man. So two PurpleHearts. God bless you, man. You're
lucky to be alive. That one.That. That. That one. Holy smokes.
So did you guys do anemergency crash landing? What happened?
So, yeah, so no, at this time,you know, the cab filled with, or
(23:13):
the, you know, cockpits filledwith smoke. And all of a sudden,
you know, we're looking aroundme and the other guys, and we see
fire coming out from behindour heads. So we're screaming for
fire extinguishers. Andfinally the pilot set it down. And
this field, like, luckily, ithad just been plowed, so it was a
harder landing. We pile out,we pull everyone we need to pull
out, and I can remember, wepull everyone out everyone's got
(23:39):
their weapons and we havethese HVTs with us. And, you know,
a million things are runningthrough your head at that time.
Because at the time, highvalue targets, right? I mean, these
are. You have. You've detaineda couple of high value targets and
you're taking them, you'retransporting them back for interrogation
or safeguard or whatever thecase might be. And this is when you
(24:01):
get hit.
Yeah. Okay, so, you know,helicopters on fire. We're in this
field setting up security. Andat that time, that's when all that
crazy beheading and capturingwas going on. So we can hear gun
trucks that we know are notours getting closer and closer. And
(24:21):
I can remember we're sittingon a berm and we all have M4s and
we're like, where's the 249that's on the helicopter? You know,
where's the gun helicopter? Sowe're looking around and I can remember
another E6 that was on theflight yells, go get that machine
gun. And so the guy runs backand gets machine gun. What seemed
(24:42):
like 20 minutes went by, andfinally the second helicopter in
our group there shows back up,lands, and we all pile in this helicopter,
and you can tell it's severelyoverloaded. They had probably another
eight or nine packs in theirflight. Plus us is a Blackhawk. It's
(25:02):
a Blackhawk. Yeah.
Yeah.
So we fly to the cache inBaghdad. I'm swollen up. I can't
see out of one eye. And I getto the cache there. They're like,
you have shrapnel in yourface. You have a torn retina. We're
going to evacuate you toLaunch tool. So go to launch tool.
(25:24):
They figure out I have atraumatic brain injury along the
way, along with the eyebright.So they sent me to Walter Reed. So
I end up at Walter Reed forseven months. And while I'm there,
yeah, so while I'm there, youknow, they run the TBI test. And
I can remember the doctorsaying, hey, I'm gonna ask you to
do some simple tasks. And I'mlike, sure, I can handle that. Right?
(25:48):
So he hands me money and hesays, so an item cost $19 or 1975,
give me back change. And Iremember staring at the money and
staring at him and staring atthe money, staring at him. And it
wasn't clicking.
Wow.
It wasn't clicking. You know,it's 25 cents, right? So it wasn't
(26:08):
clicking at all. But long run,you know, they put me all through
the therapy, cognitive,behavioral, some gait I was having
problems with balance. Theyfixed my retina. But so seven months
and then I went back to theWTU there at Fort Richardson, Alaska.
(26:28):
At this point, you're probablylike, okay, so I've been wounded
twice. They said I should bean after trimming, and I did. And
then I got hit twice. Maybeit's time for me to look for a new
career field.
Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
(26:49):
No, not at all. Huh. So tellus what happens. Man, I love it.
So, you know, after sevenmonths there, send me back to Alaska,
WTU and I have to hang outthere. I can't go back to the.
That's the Warrior TransitionUnit. That's where they send the,
the guys that are, you know,that are trying to either get out
or get back in or, you know,it's. They're, They're wounded or
(27:14):
injured you know, this kindof thing. They're kind of. It's like
it being in limbo a little bit.
Yeah. So you're in limbo,right? And I'm there and unit comes
back, Commander comes in,checks on you and says, you know,
hey, what's going on? How arethings going? And, you know, I'm
still going through therapy.I'm getting, you know, botox for
(27:34):
migraines. I'm still doingcognitive therapy. So it comes up
where I'm heading, they'relike, well, you have a lot of injuries
and you have a lot ofproblems, so we're going to run you
through a medical board. So Iended up med boarding in May of 2009.
And then, you know, I tooksome time off from the Army. You
(27:55):
know, you're in Alaska, yougot to travel, right? So, you know,
you go to Homer and you go toSeward and drive around from the
family. So after that, I get ajob as Fleet service at the Anchorage
Airport, you know, workingcleaning aircraft for a year. And
I get a phone call one daywhile I'm out fishing for red salmon.
(28:17):
And it's TACOM, which is TankArmament Command up in Warren, Michigan.
And they're like, hey, do youwant to interview for a job with.
Working with left behindequipment for the units there in
Alaska? And I say, sure, I'llinterview. So interview goes on.
I'm like, oh, I did horriblein the interview, right? And a couple
weeks later, I get a callback. At the time, the Supervisor's
(28:41):
like, hey, we're gonna offeryou the position. So I was a contractor
in Alaska up until 2012, andthen I applied for a job at Toby
Hannah Army Depot As a QualityControl Inspector.
Wow. Yeah. So when you get medboarded, basically, the army's saying
to you, hey, listen, we'regonna put you through a medical board,
(29:02):
and we're gonna find. We'regonna determine. The medical board's
gonna determine whether or notyou're fit or capable of continuing
your service. And if you are,you get to go back to the service
if you want, I guess. And ifyour enlistment's not up, but the
other option is you are foundunfit or not capable of performing
(29:26):
your duties as assigned, or insome cases, you know, no duties whatsoever
because of the nature of yourinjuries or wounds, and then. And
then they separate you fromthe service. Isn't that how that
works?
Yeah. So when I went throughmy med board, I applied for COAD,
(29:46):
which is continuation onactive duty. So you submit your pack
up up to big army, and theymake a decision on whether or not,
you know, we can reclass youor we can send you somewhere. During
that process, it kind of slowsdown. It goes up to this whole big
Army. And I was getting itchy.I was a little bit worried about
what was going on because Ididn't heard anything. And I'm calling
(30:09):
the contact number for thisprogram, and the med board's like,
you need to make a decision.Right. Need to figure out what's
going on. So I'm like, well,just med board, Right. Because at
this time, I'm. I'm on a lotof medications. I'm. I, at the time,
I probably wasn't thinkingright. You know.
Right.
I kind of lost that whole, I'mgoing to fight for this because I
(30:30):
really want to do this. And Isaid, you know what? Just. I'm gonna
cut strings right here. Sothey med board me. I'm 70% temporary
retired from the Army. So theyretired me out of Fort Richardson.
And I, you know, a coupleyears there at Fort Rich as, you
(30:50):
know, civilian, and then as acontractor for the Army.
Wow. So I meet you. I think wemet, like I said earlier, we met
in Ohio, and then we huntedducks together. And I thought to
myself, you know, I was justgoing to be honest. Yeah, I like
this guy. He's kind of quiet.He's very observant. Yeah. He's got
(31:16):
a great personality, easy tobe around. And I just absolutely
enjoyed meeting you andspending time with you in Ohio. And
then I think I either askedyou or. Because at the time that.
That time frame, 12 years agoor whatever it was, I think I was
(31:38):
the guy doing the assignments.You Know, I mean, yeah, I was the
guy calling people up, going,hey, man, you want to go on another
event? Certain thing. And.And. And so I think I. You know,
this opportunity in Washingtoncame by, and I think I called you
up, and. And I just. I waslike, if I'm going to have to go
on this event, this is how Iwas thinking, you know, how it all
(32:01):
started. And Jake, of course,you know, was part of the first wave
of guys who I identified asbeing dudes I liked, you know, that
I knew would perform well inthis space. And that was the foundation
for the guide school that weultimately started that you went
through and have graduatedfrom. And so it was. For me, it was
(32:26):
like easy math. Like, I'm notgonna pick somebody. I don't like
to go on an event with me, youknow, for four or five days, sleep
in a bunk, you know, in closeproximity. And, you know, all of
this, I'm like, I'm an armyguy, you know, I'm gonna pick the
dudes I like, you know, Ithink are cool dudes, you know. And
so we went up to Washingtontogether, and I remember we stayed
(32:49):
in a Quonset hut or some ofsome sort. Remember that?
Yeah, I do. That was a smallcabin just off the. Was it Skajit
River?
That's right. Skagit. Yeah.Somebody. Maybe they say Skijack.
I don't know.
I don't either. But anyway, wewere salmon fishing and. And this
thing was like a littlechalet. It was, you know, you had
(33:10):
to go outside to change yourmind. It's pretty tight quarters
in there. But it was cool. Itwas like public. I don't know what
the heck. It was like publiccampgrounds or something.
It was like a state park, I think.
State park. There you go.Yeah, that's right.
Karina would know that.
Karina would definitely know.That's a fact. And so anyway, we.
We. That's when we got to knoweach other. And I think that's when
(33:31):
I asked you, you know, if youwere interested in, you know, getting
more involved or somethinglike that. But I just remember you
saying to me, you know, John,whatever you need, you know, And
I just thought, wow, that'sjust the right answer right there.
That. That's a guy, you know,this is the right person for this
job. So you ultimately gothrough our guide school, and I think
(33:52):
you were the first. Were youpart of the first guide school? Were
you the first guide school?Yeah. Okay. I think we're on seven
now, and we do it every otheryear, so if you know, we're on seventh
iteration. We do it everyother year. And you were the very
first class, your class one ofwhatever that was and whatever year
(34:16):
that was. And yeah, I rememberPat Corcoran came, we were doing
the knots and the rope corral.I know, I remember that. That gave
you. I remember looking atyour. I remember certain things very
well. And I remember lookingat your face, you know, was. You
were, you were, you know, the,the knot, the knots, I remember kind
(34:38):
of gave you a touch...a bi ofa fit. But that had to be because
your, your brain injury,right. It's like the money too. You're
an infantry guy. You're an82nd, you're in the 501st. You know,
knots dead... deadpan out,straight up, man. And, and, and here
there was a couple of knots ornot. And that, that knot test is
no joke, is run by a, youknow, it was at the time run by a
(35:00):
Ranger from 6th RangerTraining Battalion. So he was a,
he was a knot guy, and he waslike cutting no slack jack.
No, no, there was no slack.
There's no slack jack, man.Time limits. Yeah, that's right.
And he stress test themafterwards, right? He's saying expect
them and trust stress testthem. And if you don't get your knots
right here, no go Ranger,you're going back.
(35:22):
You know, So I remember wewere testing and Pat Corchoran, you
know, grabs my. Goes lastknot, right? So we're last knot of
the test. He's like, this seat So I'm like, oh yeah, I got
this.
Yeah, right?
Yeah, I didn't have it. Yep.One wrong turn on the seat and he's
like, you're a no go. And Iremember just sheer panic. I'm sitting,
(35:44):
I'm like, shoot. I'm like,John sent us to this because he believes
we're going to make it throughthe first time. And here I go and
I miss it. Cause it's Swissseat. And I remember packing. Listen,
calm down, take your time.We'll retest you on your knot and
you know, you know, simplemistakes. Right. You know, but it
was. So knots were difficultat that time, right. Remembering
(36:07):
all those different knots and.
Yeah, you know, I tell youwhat, man, I'm just so proud of you
and all, all guys like youthat, that, you know, we created
a school, the Guide School.Not. It's not an easy school. You
know, we, you know, you gothrough the WWIA Guide School. You
know, I don't want to sayit's. It's somewhere. It's some it's
(36:29):
not like a gut check likeRanger School. We don't do that.
But, you know, we have to. Youtake tests, you know, you get. You'd
get trained on a certainmaterial. You take a test, your hands
on, you know, knots is one ofthem, you know, and it's one of those
things, you know, we learn alot about people, you know, when
you put them under a littlebit of stress. Now, we're not trying
to put you in any more stress.You don't need any more stress in
(36:50):
your life. That's not whatit's designed to do, but, you know,
it is a gradable thing and,you know, it's challenging, right?
And that's what we want to do.We want to challenge guys, you know,
a little bit there and. Andput them back in the kind of challenging
environment that you found,you know, without, you know, anybody
shooting at you again, youknow, you know, that you found and
(37:13):
fell in love with in. In theArmy. You were challenged in the
Army, and, you know, it's nota cakewalk, and. And nobody wants
anything just given to them,right? So that's why we. But anyway,
so you've been serving ourHeroes now for 14 years, you know,
and you're a trained andCertified Guide. I have to ask you,
(37:38):
man, tell us. We were talkingin the pre, in the pre show. You
and I were just chatting alittle bit. You said you thought
maybe ask you how many eventsyou think you'd been on in, you know,
in your 14 years with theFoundation or whatever it's been.
And you said, well, I mean,guess probably 20. So, you know,
(38:00):
you've got...you formed...soin 20, if there's. If there's an
average of four dudes on everyevent that you don't know on average,
sometimes more, sometimesless. But, you know, let's just say
it's four on average. And, youknow, you, you know, or five, you
know, you're getting. You'vebeen on events and led over 100 combat-wounded
(38:22):
Purple Heart recipients in thefield environment as WWIA Guide.
So in that process, you formsome opinions. You've got a perspective
that few people do. You'recontinuing to serve in a very unique
capacity, helping theseveterans, you know, with their challenges.
(38:45):
You know, you are the Guide,our guide... Our guides, plural,
the Foundation's Guides arethe critical link between the Heroes
we serve, the hosts that puton these events, and the Foundation.
You're at the center of all ofthat, and it's the most critical
position that we have. Itreally Is, I mean, I'll someday in
(39:09):
a few years, be gone, and thisthing's going to carry on. And the
weight of the Guides, theimportance of the guides is just
going to continue tostrengthen because you really are
that critical link, right? Andso I gotta hear from you...tell us
(39:29):
about, you know, yourexperience with the Foundation as
a Guide, you know, what's itmean to you and what kind of observations
do you have about this work.
So as a Guide, you know, firstof all, attending the event as a
Hero, right? You never knowwhat to expect. And when I had my
(39:51):
first event from Foundation,right, which was a duck hunt, never
duck hunted in my life. I wasalways, you know, fishing, you know,
panfish, bluegill, bass. Thatfirst duck hunt, and I was like,
wow, this is awesome. Iremember laying in that blind and
you said you had a pitcher,right? And I remember that morning,
and it was two minutes beforeshoot, and all those ducks got off
(40:13):
that gravel pit.
And they were right in ourface. In our face. Hundreds of ducks,
Hundreds of ducks in our face.And we didn't get to shoot them,
did we?
Yeah. So you know, that hunttwo minutes before shooting light.
Yeah.
No, I'm telling you what, Inever forget that either. I mean,
it was two minutes becauseusually you'll hear the guide because
there's... there's gamewardens out there and they're listening
(40:35):
there. Then they got their,watch out. You pop off two minutes
before shooting light and killa bunch of ducks. Guess who's going
to pay you a visit. That's right.
Yep. Absolutely.
So anyway, go on. I didn'tmean to interrupt you, but I remember.
Remember that.
So, you know, I went on thathunt and I was thinking, man, this
is a great program. You know,you guys took care of us. We didn't
(40:55):
have to worry about anything.Everything we were, you know, was
smooth, right? And I thought,oh, this is great. You know, that
ended, went back home and Igo, oh, man, I gotta, you know, tell
some other people about this.I had such a great experience. And,
you know, time went on and Iwas like, ah, you know, I would every
(41:16):
once in a while at the time,Facebook was just starting...you'd
see a couple things here orthere. And I remember he called me
for the Washington State. Andyou say, hey, you know, I can't find
anyone. Would you be willingto go? So this is my first week at
Toby Hanna. And my Supervisorgoes, what are you doing? I'm like,
I'm part of a, you know,veterans group that takes Purple
(41:37):
Heart recipients on thesehunts and fishing events and he's
like, he's like, just go. He'slike, have out. So like, I remember,
I think it was like two orthree days before the event. I can't
remember what happened to spursuch a quick thing. But as a Guide,
the way you organize it, youmake it so seamless for the Guides
(41:58):
and the Hosts. You know, theOPORDER, Right? Is a big part of
everything we do. Tells youwhere to be, when to be there, how
to get there, what to bring,what not to bring. Right. You know,
it means a lot. It means, youknow, I was struggling in a place
where I didn't, I didn't knowwho to talk to. Right. You kind of
shut down, you get out and youlose that sense of camaraderie and
(42:23):
you're like, what am I goingto do? What am I doing with myself?
Nobody understands reallywhat's going on. Yeah. And that's
what the Foundation did forme. You know, I was able to be there
with like minded people thatunderstood what we, you know, things
that happen over there and thethings that you go through, you know,
we're not all the same story,but similar incidents. Right. So
(42:45):
for me it, you know, it gaveme a sense of purpose, you know,
that sense of being back in asmall unit. And I think, you know,
what we're doing currentlywith these smaller groups and keeping
it that way is the best thingyou can do for the Foundation. It
really works. And you canreally see these guys bonding in
just three or four days andusually by the end of the first night
(43:06):
they're pretty much, you know,already bonding as already snapped
in, aren't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I gotta, I appreciatethat your opinion means a lot to
me. You know, and we'vetinkered with the form formula for,
you know, we did at least whenwe were starting out and you know,
in the first few years. Buttoday it's pretty much a standard,
(43:30):
you know, deal, you know, andI think, and I have always thought
that the small group of, youknow, not to exceed say, you know,
six to eight, you know, andpreferably, you know, right around
six, because that's, that is avery manageable span of control for
(43:51):
one guide, you know, one Guideand five heroes. One Guide and four
heroes. You know, that's thesize of a Fire Team. You know, you
were a Fire Team and that'scritical because you guys are used
to that and so are they. Thatis the fun that, you know, the squad
is the fundamental fightingunit. But a squad is comprised of
two Fire Teams. You know, yougot a Sergeant E6 in charge of a
(44:15):
squad, and you got two E5s or,you know, E4 promotable in charge
of a team. Two teams equal asquad. It's perfect. It, you know,
it's just the right answer,you know, and so we do have events
that go beyond that, but wealways throw in two Guides so that
it breaks up into basicallytwo teams, you know, a squad of guys.
(44:36):
And it's just, you're right,it's intimate. Nobody gets lost in
the sauce. There's bonding,you know, happening almost like immediately,
whether, regardless of. Of theservice branch that you were in.
So, you know, you're right. Iappreciate you sharing that with
us because, you know, it'ssuper important. It's just this idea
(44:59):
of, you know, belonging, youknow, again, back. Back on a team,
you know, again, feelingcomfortable because nobody's going
to judge you feelingcomfortable because you all share
something in common, you know,very important in common. And like
you said, everybody's story isdifferent, but the one story that
(45:21):
stays, that remains constant,is that you are all awarded the purple
heart for being, you know,wounded in combat. And nobody wanted
to be wounded at combat. Itwasn't like you went there and said,
yeah, let me, let me get aPurple Heart. And not, you know,
Not! Not so. Anyway, you're agreat American, buddy. I genuinely
(45:44):
appreciate what you've donefor the Foundation. You know, our
friendship means the world tome. I'm really happy you're on the
program. It's great to see youagain. And I know you're a family
man. You've got a son that'snow, what, a sophomore? Yeah, yep,
sophomore in high school. Youjust got a new job, you said, you
(46:05):
know, same. You know, you're,you're, you got to be getting close
to her over 20 years as acivil servant now, right, with your
Army time combined, Aren't yougetting that close to that?
Yeah, yeah, I'm over the 20year mark.
There you go, man. So life isgood. You made it, you know, you
made it through all of that,and you look great and everybody
(46:28):
likes you, man. I mean, theword on the street, everybody likes
you. You know, nobody eversays anything bad about Gabe. And
you are just a solid, solidcitizen. You know, thanks for what
you did for this country andthanks for what you're continuing
to do to support your fellowbrothers and sisters who were wounded
(46:50):
in combat. I'll give you thelast whack at the pinata here, buddy.
You got anything you want totell us?
No, John, just thank you forletting me be part of this awesome
team and Foundation that youhave. Hopefully it continues to grow...with
the succes that we're having.You know, getting these guys out
in the outdoors and you know,getting these guys to, you know,
(47:12):
first duck hunts and firstpheasant hunts. You know, it's always
awesome to see that. I thinkmy last event here in North Dakota,
we had a first time pheasanthunter and I can remember the look
on his face when he shot hisfirst pheasant and knowing that it
was his and you know, that'swhat the Foundation is about. Right.
Not only bring these guystogether to bond and talk about,
you know, things that havehappened to them, but seeing those
(47:33):
first time things just likeyou guys were there for my first
duck. Right? So I want to saythank you for that.
Well, it's our pleasure. Youknow, you mentioned earlier about
how, you know, it's well, youknow, planned the op order, you know,
and you know, we've got agreat team, you know, that puts this
(47:53):
thing on. You know, I'm herein the headquarters in Apollo beach,
you know, there are twoemployees here. You know, David does
all our social media andspecial projects, you know, and he's
in the Carolinas and then ofcourse Corrina, you know, out West,
you know, there is doing allof the logistics planning and that
(48:15):
includes the interactions withthe Host and you Guides and the Heroes,
the selection and yeah, it's,it's, it all comes together and it
is a lot of work behind thescenes and we're just fortunate because
we have a great team pullingthis thing off and we try to make
it look like when you guysshow up on the event that it's, that
(48:37):
I don't want to say it's easy,it's not easy. Your work is not easy,
the work that you do. But youare the critical link. And we just
try to, you know, the folksback here at the headquarters that
are helping make it all happenare trying to do it, set you guys
up for as much success aspossible. So when you hit the ground,
(49:00):
essentially the table is set,you know, and all you, you have to
do is focus on, you know,being a good guide and being there
for them and making, makingsure everything is, you know, running,
running well. And, and you dothat along with the other guides
exceptionally, exceptionallywell. And it's, you know, I, I feel
like a very, very fortunateperson to, you know, have such an
(49:24):
amazing team. So keep up thegood work, buddy. And it's our pleasure.
And, and God bless you foryour service and what you're continuing
to do. And I wish you and yourfamily, you know, a wonderful holiday
season as that's coming up.
Yeah, thank you, John.
And anything ever, you everneed, anything, you got my digits,
(49:44):
man. Just ding me.
Okay.
All right, buddy. Thanks foryour time.
Yeah, thanks.
Okay, bye.
Thank you for listening to theWWIA podcast. To learn more about
the Wounded warriors in Actionfoundation and how you can get involved,
please visit ourwebsite@wwiaf.org or follow us on
(50:09):
social media on Facebook,Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
If you'd like to comment oroffer feedback about our podcast
or if you have a suggestionfor a future episode, please email
us at podcast@wwiaf.org thankyou for your support and for helping
us honor, connect and heal ourcombat wounded Purple Heart heroes
(50:33):
through the power of the great outdoors.
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