November 4, 2025 • 42 mins
We have another exceptional guest on this episode of the WWIA Podcast. WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel is honored to share some time and a wonderful conversation with one of America’s tremendous Purple Heart Heroes, and a steadfast friend and supporter of our mission, Mr. Jeremy Smith.
Jeremy served 2-1/2 years in the U.S. Army with the 101st Airborne Division. In 2006 he was injured by mortar shrapnel in Baghdad, Iraq, and was awarded the Purple Heart medal. After several surgeries and months of physical therapy, he was medically retired from service.
Jeremy currently lives in Burke, South Dakota with his beautiful wife April, and their daughter Natalie and son Matthew. For the past three years Jeremy has owned and operated Star Lake Outfitters, providing exciting hunting and fishing expeditions. Hunting and fishing have always been a part of his life, but it never played such an important role until now. Since leaving the military, Jeremy has found special solace in the conservation of the outdoors, and the tranquility and peace it provides.
Jeremy attended his first WWIA event in 2011 and graduated from the Inaugural WWIA Guide School in 2016.
He has been an active member of WWIA, leading events all over the country. It is with great pride that we introduce you to Jeremy and share some of his journey with you.
Takeaways:
- The WWIA Podcast highlights the profound journeys of America's Purple Heart heroes, focusing on their resilience and healing.
- John McDaniel, the founder, emphasizes the importance of bringing honor and connection to combat-wounded veterans.
- Jeremy Smith, a guest on the podcast, shares his experiences of service, injury, and eventual healing through outdoor activities.
- The episode discusses the therapeutic benefits of nature for veterans, showcasing how outdoor adventures aid in recovery.
- Listeners are encouraged to support the WWIA mission by spreading awareness and participating in events.
- The podcast illustrates the strong bonds formed among veterans during shared outdoor experiences, which significantly contribute to their healing.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign.
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
(00:21):
a returning listener, thanksfor coming back. Please be sure to
tell others about our podcastand leave us a review if you're enjoying
what you're hearing. We haveanother exceptional guest on this
episode of the WWIA podcast.WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel
is honored to share some timeand a wonderful conversation with
(00:44):
one of America's tremendousPurple Heart heroes and a steadfast
friend and supporter of ourmission, Mr. Jeremy Smith. Jeremy
served two and a half years inthe US army with the 101st Airborne
Division. In 2006, he wasinjured by mortar shrapnel in Baghdad,
Iraq, and was awarded thePurple Heart Medal. After several
(01:05):
surgeries and months ofphysical therapy, he was medically
retired from service. Jeremycurrently lives in Burke, South Dakota,
with his beautiful wife, Apriland their daughter Natalie and son,
Matthew. For the past threeyears, Jeremy has owned and operated
Star Lake Outfitters,providing exciting hunting and fishing
expeditions. Hunting andfishing have always been a part of
(01:27):
his life, but it never playedsuch an important role until now.
Since leaving the military,Jeremy has found special solace in
the conservation of theoutdoors and the tranquility and
peace it provides. Jeremyattended his first WWIA event in
2011 and graduated from theinaugural WWIA Guide School in 2016.
(01:49):
He's been an active member ofWWIA, leading events all over the
country. It's with great pridethat we introduce you to Jeremy and
share some of his journey withyou. Without further ado, let's join
the conversation with John andJeremy now.
(02:11):
Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founderand CEO of the Wounded warriors in
Action Foundation. This is ourpodcast, Honor, Connect and Heal.
So today I have with me one ofour illustrious guides, an amazing
American who I respect a greatdeal and know quite well. Jeremy
Smith, welcome to the program.
(02:33):
Thanks, John. I appreciate it.
Yeah, so for the folks thatdon't know, Jeremy and I are looking
at each other on a screen.He's not in my office. Where are
you right now? Are you inSouth Dakota or are you in Virginia?
I am home in South Dakota.Burke, South Dakota.
Burke, South Dakota. Perfect.So, by way of introduction, I, you
(02:57):
know, I met so many people.I'm just trying to think where you
and I very first met. And I.And I know it wasn't Camp Hack. And
we've been all over the placetogether. Because you're a guide,
you're a Purple Heartrecipient. Can you tell me, do you
remember where we first met?
Yes. 2011 Mocan. Before itwas, it was really just the Missouri
(03:23):
ducks and bucks, right? Yeah.Way early in its infancy.
Yeah, okay, perfect, perfect.So anyway, that's where we met. I
was impressed by it. Youimpressed other people. You've been
through our guide school,you've been to our safety symposium
and now, and you've helpedhost and co host many events. Your,
(03:45):
your leadership is somethingthat we value a great deal. You got
a tremendous story and I wantto get to that during the podcast
so folks can get to know you alittle bit better. But basically.
Well, let me ask you, wheredid you grow up? Let's start there.
(04:05):
Rural New York. So about 80miles north, west of New York City
in Orange County. Everybodyknows the famous Orange county choppers.
That's the county we grew upin. Very rural. Farming, dairy stuff,
Hunting, fishing. Everydaypart of life. Yeah.
(04:25):
And is that, do they call thatupstate? I mean, isn't anything north
of, of the city upstate?
Anything that's not the fiveboroughs is upstate.
Upstate. Okay, Right on. So Iremember your story. You know, I,
you know, I think you, Iremember you telling me once upon
a time that your dad was amechanic. Or was that, is that true?
(04:48):
Yeah.
Yes, Your dad, your dad was amechanic. And you spent a lot of
time with your dad, noting howhe fixed things, helping him fix
things. And that was sort ofthe stepping stone, as I recall you
telling the story for you to.When you did get into the army, you
gravitated towards being amechanic, didn't you?
(05:09):
Correct? Yeah.
So tell us that story. Tell,tell us about, you know, joining
the army and, you know, beinga mechanic and then, and then take
us, take us through your, yourservice until the time that you,
you know, you get, you know,wounded, you earn your purple Heart
(05:29):
and then we'll go from there.I'd love, I love everybody to hear
that story.
Sure. So I graduated highschool and thought college was the
way. Went to college and justwasn't loving it, so decided to join
the army and went and saw therecruiter with a buddy. My buddy,
turns out, doesn't go. Ileave, go through MEPs and all that,
(05:52):
go to Fort Jackson, which Ijust found out you had. Went to Fort
Jackson.
I am, I am a, I am a basictraining graduate. Tank hill.
Yeah, yeah, 88, but yeah,yeah. So when Jackson, I did basic
and AIT. So I joined as a 63Bravo, which is a wheel mechanic.
(06:17):
Then I did the Hotel 8identifier, which was rector operator.
My dad was a mechanic. He wasa heavy tow truck operator. That
stuff just kind of fell intoplace, you know, stuff I liked, enjoyed
and knew. Decided I wanted togo to airborne school, but I had
(06:38):
to choose between airborneschool and that Hotel 8. And I thought,
boy, I can do. I'm going tothe 101st Airborne. I already knew
where my duty station was, soI said, I'll go there, become an
air assault guy, you know.It's going to be great.
Because even though it says101st Airborne, back in World War
II, they were jumping out ofplanes, but modern day 101 is, you
(07:01):
know, a helicopter assaultunit. There might be some worse D
guys jumping out of planes,but the division's not a jumping
division.
Correct. And I heard right. SoI'm out of the loop now. Quite a
few years. The 101st got theirairborne tab taken and they're now
an aerosol unit. It's the101st aerosol. I probably should
(07:23):
have done research on that,but I. Yeah, that's what it is.
God bless them, but nobodywill ever.
Forget them as the 101st airport.
Screaming Eagles, baby. Right.
Puking chickens. Same thing.Yeah, yeah. Love the history and.
Yeah, glad to have been a partof that. But, yeah. So I got there.
(07:45):
Oh, I think it was early 06.Got to Campbell. We fast tracked
some training because thedivision was deployed. They were
in Iraq at the time. So byApril of 20. Cheese. 2005. Okay,
(08:07):
2006. It's a big scramble,John. I should have wrote all these
dates down.
No, no, it's a better this waybecause I'll straw. I'll struggle
right with you.
Yeah. April 2006, deployed toIraq. We were in the thick of it
at that point. They'd alreadybeen there six months. We were just
kind of coming, filling gaps,you know, a few of us had flown in
(08:29):
and filled in some gaps in theunit. So what.
What brigade are you in atthis point? Fourth Brigade. Okay.
Yeah. Headquarters company,you know, that's where all the mechanics
and engineers. We hadeverybody in that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You guys fix a lot of brokenstuff. That's your job.
(08:50):
Yeah. And we.
And in a war. In a war zone, Ibet there's.
A lot of fix almost every day. Yeah.
Everything, everything.
Missions and, you know,running into concrete barricades
because you can't see out ofthose NVGs. And driving truck and
it's interesting stuff, all ofthat. Yeah. So, yeah, we were there.
(09:12):
So like I said, they'd alreadybeen there six months. So I would
have only had about six monthsto do a 12 month tour with them.
11 days before we were cominghome. You know, two ID was coming
in to relieve us. At thispoint in oh 6, the Iraqis have really
(09:34):
understood what the influx oftraffic and the patches on our shoulders
mean. And they knew this 12month cycle, right. They learned,
hey, now there's going to bean influx of more. So they started
to really hammer us withmortar attacks and bombings.
And IEDs are starting to poptheir ugly heads up at this point,
(09:57):
aren't they?
They were pretty much in thethick of it then. Yeah, if we, if
there wasn't a truck that hitone once a week, it wasn't happening.
I mean, it was all the time.
And for those that don't know,an IED is an improved explosive device.
This is where the bad guys,you know, whether they were insurgents
and we could spend a whole,you know, probably podcast session
(10:19):
or a week on who the bad guyswere. But nonetheless, the, you know,
the insurgents that we werefighting had figured out, thanks
to, you know, I'm sure somesupport by other organizations and
entities that were fueling thefire. Okay. And supporting the bad
guys. But they figured out howto take things like 105 howitzers
(10:42):
and know, mortars and any sortof munition and wire it so that,
and bury it in the ground ona, on a major route of some sort
or an intersection and thendetonate it remotely, you know, not
being right at the scene ofthe, you know, incident, but being
able to blow up this improvedexplosive device, which was basically
(11:04):
a bomb that was electronicallydetonated. And they would do it,
timing it on, generally duringa convoy when there was a series
of vehicles moving down theroad and they would, they would usually
try to isolate that. So ifyou, if you broke, if you blew, you
know, if you detonated thisthing when say, you know, a quarter
of the unit was north or southor ahead of the, the area that was,
(11:28):
you know, where the bomb was,where the device was, then, you know,
you could create, you couldseparate a force and then generally
there was an ambush orsomething else that followed. Right.
So that's the idea of an ied.Sorry to interrupt, but I, I wanted
to explain that because we usethat term because we, you know, we
lived it. But most folks, somefolks that are listening to this
(11:48):
might not know what IED was.So there you have it. Go ahead, Jeremy.
Yep. That's a good explanationof it. Yeah, they. And they got crafty
with that.
Oh yeah.
You know, within the city ofBaghdad, a lot of pavement. So they
had, they couldn't just dig ahole and bury those things. They
would light fires on thestreets to soften the pavement to
(12:11):
then be able to dig them up.It was, it was wild. They were pretty
crafty. They got good. Theywere doing.
Yep, yep, yep.
So 2 ID came in to relieve11ish days left of, you know, us
leaving. And the attacksstarted to get heavy while I was
(12:32):
trying to work on a truck, fixa fan belt on a hemet fueler of all
things. So thousands ofgallons of fuel in this truck. And
the first mortar landed. So Iget back to the motor sergeant's
office, which, if you can callit an office, right? Small concrete
building, plywood door, justsomewhere where the computer stays
(12:55):
dry. So there's about eight ofus tucked in there, just kind of
riding out the bombing likeyou would a rainstorm, you know,
mortar sheets falling. Onelands right behind, blows dust through
the little back boardedwindow. And we all just kind of locked
eyes like that was close thatthe next thing you know, they walk
(13:16):
them across. So yeah, we're,we're just thinking we're next. And
it landed just to the outsideedge of the door on the edge of the
concrete sidewalk that wasthere. So within four feet of the
door, mortar lands. I wasseated with my left side to the door.
(13:36):
One of Those guys from 2ID wasstanding in the doorway, so he took
quite a bit of shrapnel. Hedid not die, thank God, because that
would have really made aterrible moment for me, but. So I
was struck in the left leg andshoulder with mortar. Shrapnel broke
my tibia. I think five of usout of the eight that were in there
(13:59):
were wounded. So we scrambledand got out and, you know, our medics
tended to us and flew us offto somewhere. There's kind of a big
haze there for a little while.Lots of drugs and yeah, not understanding
what quite what's going on.Sergeant Major Coup, who you are.
(14:23):
Oh, yeah, I know. Great American.
Yeah. He came to see me beforeI left country.
Timothy Coup, right?
That's right. Yeah. So he camewith my first sergeant at the time,
who I can't remember, which isterrible, but he was a great guy
too. But Sergeant MajorCoupon, first arm came, made sure
(14:47):
I satellite phoned home. But Iknew, you know, my dad being a Vietnam
vet and already worried that Ideployed. I didn't want to call him
and tell him I was wounded. SoSergeant Major gives me this phone.
I call him and I told him Ibroke my leg because I tripped. And
Coop is standing there lookingat me. Sergeant Major gives me this
(15:09):
look and I was like. He'slike, you bet. He just takes the
phone from me and he tells himwhat's going on and, you know, I'll
be okay and they'll send mehome and no problem. Don't worry
about it. And just click.That's it. Wow. Yeah. So then a few
shuffles, you know, go up toGermany for a week. I was in Longstuhl
(15:31):
for a week, which was prettyneat. Had a friend stationed in Germany,
so he took the train down,visited with me for an hour or two.
The same friend that Ioriginally tried to enlist with.
He later did get in. I'll bedarn stationed in Germany. Finds
out somehow. I don't know ifmy wife or one of my other friends
(15:54):
had let him know, but yeah, hefound out where I was and came to
launch. Duh. And visited withme for a little bit. So that was
kind of cool. A little bit ofhome away from home.
Right? Right.
Yeah. And then hopped, youknow, a couple different bases, got
back to Fort Campbell, spentsome time in the hospital there,
(16:15):
and the surgeons did someoperations and removed some shrapnel
and closed some wounds, butthey couldn't put me in a hard cast
because of the amount ofwounds to fix that bone. So I had
a soft cast that you weren'tsupposed to really walk, but of course
we're going to do it. So I mayhave pro longed my healing process
(16:41):
by not following all therules, but we're stubborn and we're
men and that's what we do.
Hard headed.
Absolutely. Yeah.
A little hard headed.
Yeah, That's.
That's how that works. Right.Or you wouldn't be doing what you're
doing.
Yeah, well, we lived on base.My wife and I lived on base at the
time. And the only bathroom inthe home was upstairs. Well, I couldn't
(17:06):
stay upstairs all day, so I'dbe downstairs and then have to scoot
up and downstairs. And it waskind of a hassle. But yeah, made
it through. We're here and awesome.
Yeah. So. Well, I appreciateyou sharing that story with us. You
know, we have one of thecommon themes that I, you know, that
(17:28):
I obviously I see a lotbecause I do these podcasts with
y' all and it's easy for me tokind of see Some of those themes
that run throughout, and oneof them keep popping up in my mind
anyway, is just the idea ofthe, you know, being resilient, you
know, and, and having to dealwith, you know, tragedy and, you
(17:54):
know, being wounded and, andthen all of a sudden, at some point,
you know, you, you are eithertold or you recognize that the one
thing you wanted to do, whichwas go serve your country, that there's
a, there's an, there's an endcoming to that faster perhaps than
you expected. Like yourtimeline is, is been shortened. And
(18:17):
that realization has eitherhit you or, or alternatively, guys
are like, you know, I, I, Iwas up. My enlistment time was up,
and I just thought that, that,that I had done, you know, enough.
And so I, you know, decidedto, to, to get out of the service.
So which one of those twoscenarios? I mean, fast forwarding
(18:40):
through your recovery period,you know, you obviously got out of
the service. Did the, did theservice tell you? Did the army tell
you, hey, you know, love you,but you gotta go? Or did you reach
your, you know, ETS date inyour time of service and said, I'm
done? What happened there?
Oh, I was kind of pushed out.There was no love you buy? It was,
(19:03):
hey, get out of the way. Weneed bodies and yours isn't working.
Right. Right.
So they just kind of pushed meout. I tried to appeal it to go to
the med board.
Yeah, you got med. You got medboard is what they say, right?
Yeah. So medically discharged.Right. Based on your front of the
(19:24):
medical board. And this verysweet colonel called me, and she
talked me out of coming down.You know, here I am, E4 Smith, and
this is Colonel so and so,head of this medical board. And she
said, don't waste your time.Don't waste your unit's money. We're
not going to change our minds.It's not worth appealing your case.
(19:45):
You're done. Yes, ma'. Am.
Well, at least it's straighttalk, right? At least it's not.
Yeah.
And, you know, guys like usappreciate straight talk. It might
be a pill I don't want toswallow. Yeah. But at least it's
straight talk, right?
Yeah. So I did not go. Itucked tail and left.
(20:05):
Wow.
And then went right back toworking because I had no choice.
You don't just sit around anddo nothing.
Right? So you're still at,you're at this point, when you get
out, you stay at Campbell oryou go back to New York. What do
you do?
Moved back to New York. That'smy Wife and I were both from New
York. I had a job lined upwith a guy I worked for before, like,
(20:28):
during high school at amachine shop. Went back to work for
him, ran that machine shop,and we used to build parts for elevators
that we shipped down toManhattan. It was a pretty neat deal.
Lots of learning there. Yeah.
Cool. And so at some point, Imean, so, you know, you, You. You
(20:50):
were hurt. You.
You.
You. You got. You got woundedin 06, correct?
Yep. October 28th, you meet.
You meet me in 11 at Mocan. Sofive years go by, right? You go to.
You go to who's on that event? Jake.
Jake Whipkey.
Jake Whipkey. You two are likebrothers of sorts. You know, it.
(21:13):
It's, you know, love you both,man. But you meet Jake, and you're
at Mocan and I'm there. Right.Like you said, I. I was there. Okay.
So I've been there a fewtimes, so I don't remember. You know,
I. I want to say the firstMocan would have been like 09, I
think. So it was a couple years.
Yeah. This would be the yearbefore. So in 11, you were still
(21:36):
staying in the hotel. Therewas no club. Yeah. Yeah.
Those are the old days. Yeah.
I was invited back in 12 bythose guys because we did not harvest
any deer. They know I've beendeer hunting for like, 13 years and
never killed one. So they madesure I came back in the on the 12
event. And that was the firstyear we ever stayed at nature, which
(21:59):
is now just a.
It's a monster. Yeah, yeah.
Beauty there, that place.
It's like the Taj Mahal ofduck hunting and deer hunting. Yeah,
they did a great job withthat, didn't they? Terry Supple and
crew. And, And. And you knowBrian Rodrick, of course. I mean,
it just sounds like Brian, oh,well, you're coming back, you know,
(22:19):
you didn't get a deer. I canjust hear him, you know, so that's
awesome. So you came back, wemet, and then, you know, at some
point, you got roped into, youknow, identified and roped into guide
school. You went to our guide school.
Right.
And. And then, you know, youstarted leading missions. This is
with the. Part of the grandplan, you know, you guys leading
(22:41):
missions without, you know, mebeing around and. And. And things
just kind of have. Have gonefrom there. Let me ask you this,
okay. Because I, I like to.I'm always fascinated by people's
answers that you guys answersto this question. But you obviously,
you know, you said when wekicked off the program, that you
(23:02):
like to hunt and you fish. Youlike to hunt and fish and, and you're
an outdoorsman. You grew up inupstate New York. So all of that
makes a lot of sense to me.You, you have a servants mentality.
And I don't mean that. I meanthat in the most affectionate way.
Meaning, hey, you, you joinedthe army in a time of war, okay.
You volunteered. There was nodraft, right? You said, I'm going.
(23:22):
My dad served in Vietnam. I'mgoing. Okay? So you go and you get
wounded, you get, you know,discharged, medically, boarded out,
and, and, and then you findthis organization, wwia. You go on
an event, you don't get adeer. They, they, they, they, they
have you come back. I didn'tknow that. That doesn't surprise
(23:44):
me.
Yeah.
Because at all, that doesn't.That's a zero surprise in that for
me because, like, I don'tmicromanage, you know, down to that
level. If Brian said, hey, Iwant this guy back, you know, you
know, you're, you're, you'recoming back, you know, and I respect
that. You know, that's part ofthe program is, is trusting your,
(24:05):
you know, your leaders outthere to do the right thing, whatever
they think that right thingmight be. And so I'm surprised, I'm
not surprised at all that thathappened. Actually. It makes me feel
good that, that it did happen.You know, I'm learning of something
that happened, you know, 14years ago. You know, it's hard to
believe that it was that longago, but, you know, right, there
(24:28):
you go. So that's beautiful.And then, but my question is, you
know what? Now that you're inthis space and you're serving, we'll
get to what you're doing inthe Dakotas with your pheasant operation
and your guide service,because I want to hit that pretty
hard next. But what do you getout of this? When you're doing your
(24:53):
job as a guide, interactingwith the other combat wounded Purple
Heart recipients in the fieldon one of our missions, whether that's
your own or another, andyou're doing this thing, what do
you get out of it? When it'sall said and done and it's over,
the guys leave, or you getback on a plane or get in your truck
(25:13):
and drive home and you havesome windshield time or tractor time,
and you're thinking about whatyou just did, what are you left with?
It's just a completelyhumbling experience. John, you talk
to some of these guys. Youknow, I had A very short lived military
career. Kind of forced out.Short, sweet, done. You know, some
(25:36):
of these guys have done 20, 25years, some are still active. Two
Purple Hearts, several deployments.
14. I know of a dude who'sdone 14. It's probably more than
that now, but you can, you caneven get your head around 14 deployments.
Yeah. Leaving their familyevery six to 12 months. Four, six
to 12, eight months at a time.Just absolutely incredible to be
(25:59):
sharing a blind or a treestand or even just the truck ride
in the morning with theseguys. I went through dark times.
It was bad. The foundation hasbeen my saving grace. So to get back
together with these guys andtalk to them and hang out and just
(26:19):
be us, you know.
It'S, it's a lifetime ofstuff. Right. You get, and it just
keeps, the layers just keepgetting, you know, deeper and, and,
and, and more meaningful. And,you know, it's like when you see
some of these guys afteryou've spent, you know, time together
(26:40):
in the field doing somethingand you see them again, man, it's
just like instantaneous bondlike, you know, and I don't know
how you describe that feeling,but to be able to serve them. The
reason I'm saying this, Feelthe same way you do. I feel exactly
the same way. It's an honor.You know, it's hard for me to describe
(27:01):
in any meaningful way whatdoes that mean to do an event at
Camp Hackett and serve theseheroes or have been on Mocan and,
you know, seen the smiles andgot to know guys and, and, and, and
share that experience and thenget away from it and go, I was just
doing that for four days. AndI feel like, I always call it the
(27:21):
post event coma. You know, Ialways feel like, like how do you
sort through the emotions thatyou just had? How do you sort through
the feelings that are runningthrough your veins? You know, how
do you sort through, you know,how complex and yet how simple it
all was and what does thatmean to you? And so I go through
personally much of the same.And so when I hear somebody like
(27:44):
you say it, I just go, wow.You know, I, I, I, I, I appreciate
you sharing that.
Yeah, it's, it's definitelyspecial. And I like to check in with
those guys that we're with,you know, a little bit later in the
year, two years later. I'mthinking about one of the guys right
now. He was on the NorthDakota hunting event with me last
(28:06):
year. Haven't really touchedbase with him lately. That event's
coming. Makes me think Hey, Ishould shoot him a message, see what
he's up to.
Yeah.
And. And the hosts do the samething. And it's fun. You know, you
just get a random message. Itcould be two or three years later
and somebody just shoots you amessage like, hey, I just saw this
(28:27):
memory and I was thinkingabout you. What's going on? Like,
do you remember when we weredoing this? It's just a great time.
Yeah.
You know, memories that'llnever be taken away from us.
That's right. So now you're inSouth Dakota. You've got this pheasant
(28:48):
operation. The guide serviceconnected to a pheasant operation.
I'd like to hear about that.Can you tell us, share that with
us a little bit?
Sure. Three years ago, Ibought Star Lake Outfitters, or I
bought out another company,renamed it Star Lake Outfitters.
Okay.
(29:09):
We primarily pheasant hunt. Wecan chase grouse and chucker and
partridge and prairie chicken.We have all those on our lease. The
lease is 1800 acres just southof the town of Gregory, which is
eight miles west of me.Population 1200 over there. It's
a pretty big place aroundhere. So we are in the thick of it.
(29:33):
We are in pheasant country.They call it the Golden Triangle.
Okay.
It's great habitat. Good stuff.
Awesome.
We have a lot of fun with it.Have a four bedroom lodge in town.
Is that how you do it? You gotthe lodge in town and then. And then
you. You meet the guys and yougo. You go out. Guys got dogs. That's
(29:58):
great. Guys don't have dogs?What are they just beating the brush?
Are you.
You got, got. You got dogs?What's going on?
Every hunt, sometimes we haveguys who come in, they want to DIY
their own stuff and we'll letthem do it. Or if they have a dog,
it's welcome to join us. Butyeah, I've got four crazy labs and
a little wild pointer who istrying to learn the ropes here, but
(30:23):
we'll get her.
I. I don't mean to put you onthe spot. So. So I'm sorry, I just
gotta say it because it's likesomething. I feel like it's like
the, the elephant in the room.Why don't you do an event there?
Thought about it. My concernis fundraising.
Right.
Yeah. I've hosted an event inVirginia. I know what events cost.
(30:45):
Yeah, taken. These are smallcommunities and they all pour their
hearts out to everybody.
Is there a. Is there a VFW orAmerican Legion post or something?
Like. Right, see. Okay.Anyway. Let's not. Let's not get
into that too de. And Icertainly don't want to push this
on you. Okay. By any means,but. But I just, like, I gotta hear
(31:06):
why. And I understand that thefundraising pieces is, you know,
a part of it, because this isexpensive business, especially getting
to South Dakota. I mean, Iassume they'd have to fly into, like,
Bismarck.
No, you could fly to SiouxFalls, but Sioux Falls. Hour drive
after that.
After Sioux Falls, yeah.
Yeah. So you fly probably all day.
(31:26):
Let's chat about that. Let'schat about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We can do this if you have thewill, buddy.
Well, we want to host. Do you?
Let's. Do we. Let's not. Ithink we can. I know we can. Okay.
Yeah. So what we've done inplace of that was just donate a hunt
to raise money to help other events.
Yeah, no, let's. Let's.
(31:47):
It's been great.
Let's just make this happen.
Okay.
Let's chat afterwards. But Ithink it's a great idea if that.
If that's something you andyour family want to do. Let's not
let money stop us. You knowwhat I mean? Because I can guarantee
you we can. We can make thishappen. Piece of cake, man. I know
we can. All right, so that's.That's good. All right. Awesome.
(32:07):
So you now, are you raisingbirds, too? Is that what's going
on?
No, they're.
They're all natural.
No, they're not. There. Thereare wild birds out there, Right?
So pheasants, not a nativespecies that was introduced into
the Americas back in the late1800s, and it's. It's had its rise
and fall. There are wild birdpopulations, but no commercial outfitter.
(32:31):
No matter how hard they tellyou, I'm going to spoil the industry,
spoil their secrets here. Youcannot run a wild population in the
quantities that these guys do.
Yeah.
In fact, the state mandatesthat hunting preserves like we have
a hunting preserve. It lets usextend our season and our limits
and our regulations.
(32:52):
Right.
We have to Release at least600 birds a year within those acres.
Yeah. And some of those aregoing to get shot. Some of them are
going to get eaten by fox.Some of them are going to survive
and reproduce, you know, so.Right. Isn't this. It's like stocking
a pond with fish.
Yep. You just have to put inmore than you take out. That's all
(33:13):
right. Yep.
That's right. Yeah. I grew up.I remember I grew up in. In Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, and my dad was abig pheasant hunter. We had Irish
setters, of all things. And sohe would go out on opening day. You
could take opening day inWisconsin was, I think, some Saturday
(33:35):
in October. It may have beenSeptember, but in the fall, and it
opened at noon, and you wereallowed to take two birds. That was
the limit. And there was nofar. I mean, they were, these were
wild birds, you know, I mean,there was no. Or anywhere around
us I am unaware of. And I knowthere wasn't any stocked birds, but
(33:55):
if you took, you know, and he,he, he would hunt until he got at
least one, and sometimes hewould come home with two. But it
was like a banner day. Like,that was for my dad, and it was a
solo event. Like, he didn'tsay, hey, I want you to take off
a school.
Yeah.
You know, my dad did this forhim and his dog, you know, and so
I, I just, you know, I'llalways have fond memories, you know,
(34:20):
pheasant hunting. When thatbird decides to get up off the ground
from its little hide locationand just bust off with a, you know,
rooster with a cackle.
Yeah.
And they come, they come uplike a helicopter, and then they
decide to go, you know, and,and it's a nice big target. And they're
so beautiful.
They are.
And they're delicious to eat.I mean, if, I mean, I love that bird.
(34:43):
It's a great game bird. And,you know, I mean, there's just something
about it sitting there withthat and holding this thing, you
know, especially when you, youthrow in the dog piece. You know,
the dogs are working and thisthing, you know, dog retrieves and
brings it to your hand. Imean, it's just an amazing thing.
So I'm, I'm happy you're doingthat. And it sounds to me like some
(35:03):
of that, that bug has got to you.
Absolutely. Yeah. I love it. Ichange it for the world now. My wife
hates South Dakota, and ascold as it is. And I said, well,
I said, we can live somewhereelse all year long, but when it comes
time to be here for huntingseason, we're back. So get over it,
honey.
(35:25):
Well, you know, I, I, I, I, Iappreciate what you're doing, and
it's not easy. You know,that's being a guide, a professional
guide, as a profess, you know,that's not easy because, you know,
you're out in the middle ofnowhere. So Star Lake Outfitters
is. Do you have a, do you havea website?
Yep, just starlakeoutfitters.com.
(35:47):
Okay. So if anybody'slistening to this and wants to go
have an amazing experiencewith Jeremy. How do they get a hold
of you? They go on the websiteand there's a link for them to communicate
with you or what?
Yep. Websites got my phonenumber, it's got an email, it's got
a contact us button.Everything's in there.
(36:08):
Okay, cool. StarlinkOutfitters and Jeremy Smith. God
bless you, man. So. So here.Here, here. Here we are. Tell us
a little bit about your. Yourfamily, because I. I know you're
a family man. I. I respectthat a great deal. And I'd like to
hear about your family if yougot a few minutes.
Yeah, my kids are getting big.My daughter is in her second year
(36:30):
of college. She's going to anLPN course here in South Dakota,
about two hours away. My son'sa high school senior now. Just crazy,
you know?
That's nuts, man.
It is.
That's nuts. What's he gonnado, dude? Does he know yet?
(36:51):
Blue? We're really trying togroom that out of him right now and
see what's happening. Yeah,he's not sure. The world is his oyster.
But what's really neat is Igot a call from a very good friend
of mine yesterday, and hesaid, hey, your son's been asking
me about skunk works, shortsquirrel stuff that Lockheed Martin
does. And so he's researchingthings. He's. He's asking the great
(37:15):
people about good, you know,neat things that are happening in
the world, so figure it out.
Cool.
Yeah. If he's not in school,he's out there hunting with me, so.
He loves it.
Yeah. Running dogs, chasingdoves of whatever we're doing.
Cool.
Yeah. He'll drive an hour togo see friends and goose hunt. Yeah,
(37:36):
he's. He's ate up. The bug hasgot him.
That's awesome, man. Well, youlook good. It's, you know, you look
like you're. You're. You'rehealthy and in a good spot. I hope
that's the case. We certainlyappreciate all that you've done to
support the foundation overthe. You know, over the years, and
(37:57):
by way of, you know, being aguide and a. And a friend and just
a general supporter, I mean,you're. You're one of those guys,
man, and I appreciate it.
Wow. Thanks, John. Iappreciate you. Without you in the
foundation, I may not besitting here today, and you know
that.
Listen, man, I mean, we'reproud of you and honored to have
(38:21):
you in our inner circle. Youknow, it's. It's more just getting
Warmed up. Let's. Let's. Let'schat and we'll end this podcast.
I always like to give my guestthe last whack at the pinata. So
if you've got some savedrounds in your bandolier that you'd
like to fire off, then by allmeans, the floor is yours, my friend.
(38:43):
Yeah, thanks. I appreciatethat. You know, none of this happens
without our hosts and oursupporters and our guides. You know,
thank you to all of them andfor. And for your vision. You know,
this started with you justwanting to do something. I remember
you saying this very early onabout just kind of like, hey, I am
(39:08):
seeing my soldiers hurting andneeding something. What can I do?
So none of this happenedwithout you, John, So thank you.
Just blessed to be. Honestly,I'm blessed to be, you know, part
of it, that you have an ideathat other people like and, you know,
can get behind and, you know,to. To look at it now through the
(39:30):
lens of almost coming up on 20years, you know, and see the goodness
that's. It's created mostlybecause of people like you. And like
you said, our hosts andsupporters who've gotten behind this
and helped has really madethis something very, very valuable
in the sense of the work thatit's doing. And it's not just focusing
(39:56):
on our combat wounded. Ofcourse, that's the centerpiece. You
guys are the centerpiece, thereason that we're doing this. But
there's also so many othergood things that are happening that
are tangential to that orconnected to that in a way by way
of community support and byway of, hey, it's a channel people
can. Can get behind. Like,this is a pathway. If I wanted to
(40:20):
help, I want to serve. I don'tknow what I can do. And the foundation
always finds a way to. To getpeople involved. You just got to
take that. That step. And onceyou do take that step, you know,
what usually follows isseveral other steps.
Absolutely. You know, yeah,people. People are like, step.
Yeah, take that step, man.Yeah, yeah, exactly.
(40:41):
It's a hard step, but you needto take it.
That's right. That's right.Don't be afraid, man. Take that step.
Do something, you know, and.And so, anyway, well, listen, God
bless you. We'll end this, andthen we'll. You'll. We'll chat. Stay
on the line for a minute,because I got some ideas about, you
know, Star Lake Outfittersand. And the WWI working together
(41:02):
a little bit more in a. In aformal way. So thank you very much.
God bless you and your family,my friend.
Thank you.
And it's great to see you.
Okay, thanks.
All right, we're out.
Thank you for listening to theWWIA podcast. To learn more about
(41:25):
the Wounded warriors in Actionfoundation and how you can get involved,
please visit our website atWWIA or follow us on social media
on Facebook, Instagram,Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you'd like
to comment or offer feedbackabout our podcast, or if you have
a suggestion for a futureepisode, please email us@podcastwwiaf.org
(41:52):
thank you for your support andfor helping us honor, connect and
heal our combat wounded PurpleHeart heroes through the power of
the great outdoors.
Foreign.
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
(00:21):
a returning listener, thanksfor coming back. Please be sure to
tell others about our podcastand leave us a review if you're enjoying
what you're hearing. We haveanother exceptional guest on this
episode of the WWIA podcast.WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel
is honored to share some timeand a wonderful conversation with
(00:44):
one of America's tremendousPurple Heart heroes and a steadfast
friend and supporter of ourmission, Mr. Jeremy Smith. Jeremy
served two and a half years inthe US army with the 101st Airborne
Division. In 2006, he wasinjured by mortar shrapnel in Baghdad,
Iraq, and was awarded thePurple Heart Medal. After several
(01:05):
surgeries and months ofphysical therapy, he was medically
retired from service. Jeremycurrently lives in Burke, South Dakota,
with his beautiful wife, Apriland their daughter Natalie and son,
Matthew. For the past threeyears, Jeremy has owned and operated
Star Lake Outfitters,providing exciting hunting and fishing
expeditions. Hunting andfishing have always been a part of
(01:27):
his life, but it never playedsuch an important role until now.
Since leaving the military,Jeremy has found special solace in
the conservation of theoutdoors and the tranquility and
peace it provides. Jeremyattended his first WWIA event in
2011 and graduated from theinaugural WWIA Guide School in 2016.
(01:49):
He's been an active member ofWWIA, leading events all over the
country. It's with great pridethat we introduce you to Jeremy and
share some of his journey withyou. Without further ado, let's join
the conversation with John andJeremy now.
(02:11):
Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founderand CEO of the Wounded warriors in
Action Foundation. This is ourpodcast, Honor, Connect and Heal.
So today I have with me one ofour illustrious guides, an amazing
American who I respect a greatdeal and know quite well. Jeremy
Smith, welcome to the program.
(02:33):
Thanks, John. I appreciate it.
Yeah, so for the folks thatdon't know, Jeremy and I are looking
at each other on a screen.He's not in my office. Where are
you right now? Are you inSouth Dakota or are you in Virginia?
I am home in South Dakota.Burke, South Dakota.
Burke, South Dakota. Perfect.So, by way of introduction, I, you
(02:57):
know, I met so many people.I'm just trying to think where you
and I very first met. And I.And I know it wasn't Camp Hack. And
we've been all over the placetogether. Because you're a guide,
you're a Purple Heartrecipient. Can you tell me, do you
remember where we first met?
Yes. 2011 Mocan. Before itwas, it was really just the Missouri
(03:23):
ducks and bucks, right? Yeah.Way early in its infancy.
Yeah, okay, perfect, perfect.So anyway, that's where we met. I
was impressed by it. Youimpressed other people. You've been
through our guide school,you've been to our safety symposium
and now, and you've helpedhost and co host many events. Your,
(03:45):
your leadership is somethingthat we value a great deal. You got
a tremendous story and I wantto get to that during the podcast
so folks can get to know you alittle bit better. But basically.
Well, let me ask you, wheredid you grow up? Let's start there.
(04:05):
Rural New York. So about 80miles north, west of New York City
in Orange County. Everybodyknows the famous Orange county choppers.
That's the county we grew upin. Very rural. Farming, dairy stuff,
Hunting, fishing. Everydaypart of life. Yeah.
(04:25):
And is that, do they call thatupstate? I mean, isn't anything north
of, of the city upstate?
Anything that's not the fiveboroughs is upstate.
Upstate. Okay, Right on. So Iremember your story. You know, I,
you know, I think you, Iremember you telling me once upon
a time that your dad was amechanic. Or was that, is that true?
(04:48):
Yeah.
Yes, Your dad, your dad was amechanic. And you spent a lot of
time with your dad, noting howhe fixed things, helping him fix
things. And that was sort ofthe stepping stone, as I recall you
telling the story for you to.When you did get into the army, you
gravitated towards being amechanic, didn't you?
(05:09):
Correct? Yeah.
So tell us that story. Tell,tell us about, you know, joining
the army and, you know, beinga mechanic and then, and then take
us, take us through your, yourservice until the time that you,
you know, you get, you know,wounded, you earn your purple Heart
(05:29):
and then we'll go from there.I'd love, I love everybody to hear
that story.
Sure. So I graduated highschool and thought college was the
way. Went to college and justwasn't loving it, so decided to join
the army and went and saw therecruiter with a buddy. My buddy,
turns out, doesn't go. Ileave, go through MEPs and all that,
(05:52):
go to Fort Jackson, which Ijust found out you had. Went to Fort
Jackson.
I am, I am a, I am a basictraining graduate. Tank hill.
Yeah, yeah, 88, but yeah,yeah. So when Jackson, I did basic
and AIT. So I joined as a 63Bravo, which is a wheel mechanic.
(06:17):
Then I did the Hotel 8identifier, which was rector operator.
My dad was a mechanic. He wasa heavy tow truck operator. That
stuff just kind of fell intoplace, you know, stuff I liked, enjoyed
and knew. Decided I wanted togo to airborne school, but I had
(06:38):
to choose between airborneschool and that Hotel 8. And I thought,
boy, I can do. I'm going tothe 101st Airborne. I already knew
where my duty station was, soI said, I'll go there, become an
air assault guy, you know.It's going to be great.
Because even though it says101st Airborne, back in World War
II, they were jumping out ofplanes, but modern day 101 is, you
(07:01):
know, a helicopter assaultunit. There might be some worse D
guys jumping out of planes,but the division's not a jumping
division.
Correct. And I heard right. SoI'm out of the loop now. Quite a
few years. The 101st got theirairborne tab taken and they're now
an aerosol unit. It's the101st aerosol. I probably should
(07:23):
have done research on that,but I. Yeah, that's what it is.
God bless them, but nobodywill ever.
Forget them as the 101st airport.
Screaming Eagles, baby. Right.
Puking chickens. Same thing.Yeah, yeah. Love the history and.
Yeah, glad to have been a partof that. But, yeah. So I got there.
(07:45):
Oh, I think it was early 06.Got to Campbell. We fast tracked
some training because thedivision was deployed. They were
in Iraq at the time. So byApril of 20. Cheese. 2005. Okay,
(08:07):
2006. It's a big scramble,John. I should have wrote all these
dates down.
No, no, it's a better this waybecause I'll straw. I'll struggle
right with you.
Yeah. April 2006, deployed toIraq. We were in the thick of it
at that point. They'd alreadybeen there six months. We were just
kind of coming, filling gaps,you know, a few of us had flown in
(08:29):
and filled in some gaps in theunit. So what.
What brigade are you in atthis point? Fourth Brigade. Okay.
Yeah. Headquarters company,you know, that's where all the mechanics
and engineers. We hadeverybody in that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You guys fix a lot of brokenstuff. That's your job.
(08:50):
Yeah. And we.
And in a war. In a war zone, Ibet there's.
A lot of fix almost every day. Yeah.
Everything, everything.
Missions and, you know,running into concrete barricades
because you can't see out ofthose NVGs. And driving truck and
it's interesting stuff, all ofthat. Yeah. So, yeah, we were there.
(09:12):
So like I said, they'd alreadybeen there six months. So I would
have only had about six monthsto do a 12 month tour with them.
11 days before we were cominghome. You know, two ID was coming
in to relieve us. At thispoint in oh 6, the Iraqis have really
(09:34):
understood what the influx oftraffic and the patches on our shoulders
mean. And they knew this 12month cycle, right. They learned,
hey, now there's going to bean influx of more. So they started
to really hammer us withmortar attacks and bombings.
And IEDs are starting to poptheir ugly heads up at this point,
(09:57):
aren't they?
They were pretty much in thethick of it then. Yeah, if we, if
there wasn't a truck that hitone once a week, it wasn't happening.
I mean, it was all the time.
And for those that don't know,an IED is an improved explosive device.
This is where the bad guys,you know, whether they were insurgents
and we could spend a whole,you know, probably podcast session
(10:19):
or a week on who the bad guyswere. But nonetheless, the, you know,
the insurgents that we werefighting had figured out, thanks
to, you know, I'm sure somesupport by other organizations and
entities that were fueling thefire. Okay. And supporting the bad
guys. But they figured out howto take things like 105 howitzers
(10:42):
and know, mortars and any sortof munition and wire it so that,
and bury it in the ground ona, on a major route of some sort
or an intersection and thendetonate it remotely, you know, not
being right at the scene ofthe, you know, incident, but being
able to blow up this improvedexplosive device, which was basically
(11:04):
a bomb that was electronicallydetonated. And they would do it,
timing it on, generally duringa convoy when there was a series
of vehicles moving down theroad and they would, they would usually
try to isolate that. So ifyou, if you broke, if you blew, you
know, if you detonated thisthing when say, you know, a quarter
of the unit was north or southor ahead of the, the area that was,
(11:28):
you know, where the bomb was,where the device was, then, you know,
you could create, you couldseparate a force and then generally
there was an ambush orsomething else that followed. Right.
So that's the idea of an ied.Sorry to interrupt, but I, I wanted
to explain that because we usethat term because we, you know, we
lived it. But most folks, somefolks that are listening to this
(11:48):
might not know what IED was.So there you have it. Go ahead, Jeremy.
Yep. That's a good explanationof it. Yeah, they. And they got crafty
with that.
Oh yeah.
You know, within the city ofBaghdad, a lot of pavement. So they
had, they couldn't just dig ahole and bury those things. They
would light fires on thestreets to soften the pavement to
(12:11):
then be able to dig them up.It was, it was wild. They were pretty
crafty. They got good. Theywere doing.
Yep, yep, yep.
So 2 ID came in to relieve11ish days left of, you know, us
leaving. And the attacksstarted to get heavy while I was
(12:32):
trying to work on a truck, fixa fan belt on a hemet fueler of all
things. So thousands ofgallons of fuel in this truck. And
the first mortar landed. So Iget back to the motor sergeant's
office, which, if you can callit an office, right? Small concrete
building, plywood door, justsomewhere where the computer stays
(12:55):
dry. So there's about eight ofus tucked in there, just kind of
riding out the bombing likeyou would a rainstorm, you know,
mortar sheets falling. Onelands right behind, blows dust through
the little back boardedwindow. And we all just kind of locked
eyes like that was close thatthe next thing you know, they walk
(13:16):
them across. So yeah, we're,we're just thinking we're next. And
it landed just to the outsideedge of the door on the edge of the
concrete sidewalk that wasthere. So within four feet of the
door, mortar lands. I wasseated with my left side to the door.
(13:36):
One of Those guys from 2ID wasstanding in the doorway, so he took
quite a bit of shrapnel. Hedid not die, thank God, because that
would have really made aterrible moment for me, but. So I
was struck in the left leg andshoulder with mortar. Shrapnel broke
my tibia. I think five of usout of the eight that were in there
(13:59):
were wounded. So we scrambledand got out and, you know, our medics
tended to us and flew us offto somewhere. There's kind of a big
haze there for a little while.Lots of drugs and yeah, not understanding
what quite what's going on.Sergeant Major Coup, who you are.
(14:23):
Oh, yeah, I know. Great American.
Yeah. He came to see me beforeI left country.
Timothy Coup, right?
That's right. Yeah. So he camewith my first sergeant at the time,
who I can't remember, which isterrible, but he was a great guy
too. But Sergeant MajorCoupon, first arm came, made sure
(14:47):
I satellite phoned home. But Iknew, you know, my dad being a Vietnam
vet and already worried that Ideployed. I didn't want to call him
and tell him I was wounded. SoSergeant Major gives me this phone.
I call him and I told him Ibroke my leg because I tripped. And
Coop is standing there lookingat me. Sergeant Major gives me this
(15:09):
look and I was like. He'slike, you bet. He just takes the
phone from me and he tells himwhat's going on and, you know, I'll
be okay and they'll send mehome and no problem. Don't worry
about it. And just click.That's it. Wow. Yeah. So then a few
shuffles, you know, go up toGermany for a week. I was in Longstuhl
(15:31):
for a week, which was prettyneat. Had a friend stationed in Germany,
so he took the train down,visited with me for an hour or two.
The same friend that Ioriginally tried to enlist with.
He later did get in. I'll bedarn stationed in Germany. Finds
out somehow. I don't know ifmy wife or one of my other friends
(15:54):
had let him know, but yeah, hefound out where I was and came to
launch. Duh. And visited withme for a little bit. So that was
kind of cool. A little bit ofhome away from home.
Right? Right.
Yeah. And then hopped, youknow, a couple different bases, got
back to Fort Campbell, spentsome time in the hospital there,
(16:15):
and the surgeons did someoperations and removed some shrapnel
and closed some wounds, butthey couldn't put me in a hard cast
because of the amount ofwounds to fix that bone. So I had
a soft cast that you weren'tsupposed to really walk, but of course
we're going to do it. So I mayhave pro longed my healing process
(16:41):
by not following all therules, but we're stubborn and we're
men and that's what we do.
Hard headed.
Absolutely. Yeah.
A little hard headed.
Yeah, That's.
That's how that works. Right.Or you wouldn't be doing what you're
doing.
Yeah, well, we lived on base.My wife and I lived on base at the
time. And the only bathroom inthe home was upstairs. Well, I couldn't
(17:06):
stay upstairs all day, so I'dbe downstairs and then have to scoot
up and downstairs. And it waskind of a hassle. But yeah, made
it through. We're here and awesome.
Yeah. So. Well, I appreciateyou sharing that story with us. You
know, we have one of thecommon themes that I, you know, that
(17:28):
I obviously I see a lotbecause I do these podcasts with
y' all and it's easy for me tokind of see Some of those themes
that run throughout, and oneof them keep popping up in my mind
anyway, is just the idea ofthe, you know, being resilient, you
know, and, and having to dealwith, you know, tragedy and, you
(17:54):
know, being wounded and, andthen all of a sudden, at some point,
you know, you, you are eithertold or you recognize that the one
thing you wanted to do, whichwas go serve your country, that there's
a, there's an, there's an endcoming to that faster perhaps than
you expected. Like yourtimeline is, is been shortened. And
(18:17):
that realization has eitherhit you or, or alternatively, guys
are like, you know, I, I, Iwas up. My enlistment time was up,
and I just thought that, that,that I had done, you know, enough.
And so I, you know, decidedto, to, to get out of the service.
So which one of those twoscenarios? I mean, fast forwarding
(18:40):
through your recovery period,you know, you obviously got out of
the service. Did the, did theservice tell you? Did the army tell
you, hey, you know, love you,but you gotta go? Or did you reach
your, you know, ETS date inyour time of service and said, I'm
done? What happened there?
Oh, I was kind of pushed out.There was no love you buy? It was,
(19:03):
hey, get out of the way. Weneed bodies and yours isn't working.
Right. Right.
So they just kind of pushed meout. I tried to appeal it to go to
the med board.
Yeah, you got med. You got medboard is what they say, right?
Yeah. So medically discharged.Right. Based on your front of the
(19:24):
medical board. And this verysweet colonel called me, and she
talked me out of coming down.You know, here I am, E4 Smith, and
this is Colonel so and so,head of this medical board. And she
said, don't waste your time.Don't waste your unit's money. We're
not going to change our minds.It's not worth appealing your case.
(19:45):
You're done. Yes, ma'. Am.
Well, at least it's straighttalk, right? At least it's not.
Yeah.
And, you know, guys like usappreciate straight talk. It might
be a pill I don't want toswallow. Yeah. But at least it's
straight talk, right?
Yeah. So I did not go. Itucked tail and left.
(20:05):
Wow.
And then went right back toworking because I had no choice.
You don't just sit around anddo nothing.
Right? So you're still at,you're at this point, when you get
out, you stay at Campbell oryou go back to New York. What do
you do?
Moved back to New York. That'smy Wife and I were both from New
York. I had a job lined upwith a guy I worked for before, like,
(20:28):
during high school at amachine shop. Went back to work for
him, ran that machine shop,and we used to build parts for elevators
that we shipped down toManhattan. It was a pretty neat deal.
Lots of learning there. Yeah.
Cool. And so at some point, Imean, so, you know, you, You. You
(20:50):
were hurt. You.
You.
You. You got. You got woundedin 06, correct?
Yep. October 28th, you meet.
You meet me in 11 at Mocan. Sofive years go by, right? You go to.
You go to who's on that event? Jake.
Jake Whipkey.
Jake Whipkey. You two are likebrothers of sorts. You know, it.
(21:13):
It's, you know, love you both,man. But you meet Jake, and you're
at Mocan and I'm there. Right.Like you said, I. I was there. Okay.
So I've been there a fewtimes, so I don't remember. You know,
I. I want to say the firstMocan would have been like 09, I
think. So it was a couple years.
Yeah. This would be the yearbefore. So in 11, you were still
(21:36):
staying in the hotel. Therewas no club. Yeah. Yeah.
Those are the old days. Yeah.
I was invited back in 12 bythose guys because we did not harvest
any deer. They know I've beendeer hunting for like, 13 years and
never killed one. So they madesure I came back in the on the 12
event. And that was the firstyear we ever stayed at nature, which
(21:59):
is now just a.
It's a monster. Yeah, yeah.
Beauty there, that place.
It's like the Taj Mahal ofduck hunting and deer hunting. Yeah,
they did a great job withthat, didn't they? Terry Supple and
crew. And, And. And you knowBrian Rodrick, of course. I mean,
it just sounds like Brian, oh,well, you're coming back, you know,
(22:19):
you didn't get a deer. I canjust hear him, you know, so that's
awesome. So you came back, wemet, and then, you know, at some
point, you got roped into, youknow, identified and roped into guide
school. You went to our guide school.
Right.
And. And then, you know, youstarted leading missions. This is
with the. Part of the grandplan, you know, you guys leading
(22:41):
missions without, you know, mebeing around and. And. And things
just kind of have. Have gonefrom there. Let me ask you this,
okay. Because I, I like to.I'm always fascinated by people's
answers that you guys answersto this question. But you obviously,
you know, you said when wekicked off the program, that you
(23:02):
like to hunt and you fish. Youlike to hunt and fish and, and you're
an outdoorsman. You grew up inupstate New York. So all of that
makes a lot of sense to me.You, you have a servants mentality.
And I don't mean that. I meanthat in the most affectionate way.
Meaning, hey, you, you joinedthe army in a time of war, okay.
You volunteered. There was nodraft, right? You said, I'm going.
(23:22):
My dad served in Vietnam. I'mgoing. Okay? So you go and you get
wounded, you get, you know,discharged, medically, boarded out,
and, and, and then you findthis organization, wwia. You go on
an event, you don't get adeer. They, they, they, they, they
have you come back. I didn'tknow that. That doesn't surprise
(23:44):
me.
Yeah.
Because at all, that doesn't.That's a zero surprise in that for
me because, like, I don'tmicromanage, you know, down to that
level. If Brian said, hey, Iwant this guy back, you know, you
know, you're, you're, you'recoming back, you know, and I respect
that. You know, that's part ofthe program is, is trusting your,
(24:05):
you know, your leaders outthere to do the right thing, whatever
they think that right thingmight be. And so I'm surprised, I'm
not surprised at all that thathappened. Actually. It makes me feel
good that, that it did happen.You know, I'm learning of something
that happened, you know, 14years ago. You know, it's hard to
believe that it was that longago, but, you know, right, there
(24:28):
you go. So that's beautiful.And then, but my question is, you
know what? Now that you're inthis space and you're serving, we'll
get to what you're doing inthe Dakotas with your pheasant operation
and your guide service,because I want to hit that pretty
hard next. But what do you getout of this? When you're doing your
(24:53):
job as a guide, interactingwith the other combat wounded Purple
Heart recipients in the fieldon one of our missions, whether that's
your own or another, andyou're doing this thing, what do
you get out of it? When it'sall said and done and it's over,
the guys leave, or you getback on a plane or get in your truck
(25:13):
and drive home and you havesome windshield time or tractor time,
and you're thinking about whatyou just did, what are you left with?
It's just a completelyhumbling experience. John, you talk
to some of these guys. Youknow, I had A very short lived military
career. Kind of forced out.Short, sweet, done. You know, some
(25:36):
of these guys have done 20, 25years, some are still active. Two
Purple Hearts, several deployments.
14. I know of a dude who'sdone 14. It's probably more than
that now, but you can, you caneven get your head around 14 deployments.
Yeah. Leaving their familyevery six to 12 months. Four, six
to 12, eight months at a time.Just absolutely incredible to be
(25:59):
sharing a blind or a treestand or even just the truck ride
in the morning with theseguys. I went through dark times.
It was bad. The foundation hasbeen my saving grace. So to get back
together with these guys andtalk to them and hang out and just
(26:19):
be us, you know.
It'S, it's a lifetime ofstuff. Right. You get, and it just
keeps, the layers just keepgetting, you know, deeper and, and,
and, and more meaningful. And,you know, it's like when you see
some of these guys afteryou've spent, you know, time together
(26:40):
in the field doing somethingand you see them again, man, it's
just like instantaneous bondlike, you know, and I don't know
how you describe that feeling,but to be able to serve them. The
reason I'm saying this, Feelthe same way you do. I feel exactly
the same way. It's an honor.You know, it's hard for me to describe
(27:01):
in any meaningful way whatdoes that mean to do an event at
Camp Hackett and serve theseheroes or have been on Mocan and,
you know, seen the smiles andgot to know guys and, and, and, and
share that experience and thenget away from it and go, I was just
doing that for four days. AndI feel like, I always call it the
(27:21):
post event coma. You know, Ialways feel like, like how do you
sort through the emotions thatyou just had? How do you sort through
the feelings that are runningthrough your veins? You know, how
do you sort through, you know,how complex and yet how simple it
all was and what does thatmean to you? And so I go through
personally much of the same.And so when I hear somebody like
(27:44):
you say it, I just go, wow.You know, I, I, I, I, I appreciate
you sharing that.
Yeah, it's, it's definitelyspecial. And I like to check in with
those guys that we're with,you know, a little bit later in the
year, two years later. I'mthinking about one of the guys right
now. He was on the NorthDakota hunting event with me last
(28:06):
year. Haven't really touchedbase with him lately. That event's
coming. Makes me think Hey, Ishould shoot him a message, see what
he's up to.
Yeah.
And. And the hosts do the samething. And it's fun. You know, you
just get a random message. Itcould be two or three years later
and somebody just shoots you amessage like, hey, I just saw this
(28:27):
memory and I was thinkingabout you. What's going on? Like,
do you remember when we weredoing this? It's just a great time.
Yeah.
You know, memories that'llnever be taken away from us.
That's right. So now you're inSouth Dakota. You've got this pheasant
(28:48):
operation. The guide serviceconnected to a pheasant operation.
I'd like to hear about that.Can you tell us, share that with
us a little bit?
Sure. Three years ago, Ibought Star Lake Outfitters, or I
bought out another company,renamed it Star Lake Outfitters.
Okay.
(29:09):
We primarily pheasant hunt. Wecan chase grouse and chucker and
partridge and prairie chicken.We have all those on our lease. The
lease is 1800 acres just southof the town of Gregory, which is
eight miles west of me.Population 1200 over there. It's
a pretty big place aroundhere. So we are in the thick of it.
(29:33):
We are in pheasant country.They call it the Golden Triangle.
Okay.
It's great habitat. Good stuff.
Awesome.
We have a lot of fun with it.Have a four bedroom lodge in town.
Is that how you do it? You gotthe lodge in town and then. And then
you. You meet the guys and yougo. You go out. Guys got dogs. That's
(29:58):
great. Guys don't have dogs?What are they just beating the brush?
Are you.
You got, got. You got dogs?What's going on?
Every hunt, sometimes we haveguys who come in, they want to DIY
their own stuff and we'll letthem do it. Or if they have a dog,
it's welcome to join us. Butyeah, I've got four crazy labs and
a little wild pointer who istrying to learn the ropes here, but
(30:23):
we'll get her.
I. I don't mean to put you onthe spot. So. So I'm sorry, I just
gotta say it because it's likesomething. I feel like it's like
the, the elephant in the room.Why don't you do an event there?
Thought about it. My concernis fundraising.
Right.
Yeah. I've hosted an event inVirginia. I know what events cost.
(30:45):
Yeah, taken. These are smallcommunities and they all pour their
hearts out to everybody.
Is there a. Is there a VFW orAmerican Legion post or something?
Like. Right, see. Okay.Anyway. Let's not. Let's not get
into that too de. And Icertainly don't want to push this
on you. Okay. By any means,but. But I just, like, I gotta hear
(31:06):
why. And I understand that thefundraising pieces is, you know,
a part of it, because this isexpensive business, especially getting
to South Dakota. I mean, Iassume they'd have to fly into, like,
Bismarck.
No, you could fly to SiouxFalls, but Sioux Falls. Hour drive
after that.
After Sioux Falls, yeah.
Yeah. So you fly probably all day.
(31:26):
Let's chat about that. Let'schat about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We can do this if you have thewill, buddy.
Well, we want to host. Do you?
Let's. Do we. Let's not. Ithink we can. I know we can. Okay.
Yeah. So what we've done inplace of that was just donate a hunt
to raise money to help other events.
Yeah, no, let's. Let's.
(31:47):
It's been great.
Let's just make this happen.
Okay.
Let's chat afterwards. But Ithink it's a great idea if that.
If that's something you andyour family want to do. Let's not
let money stop us. You knowwhat I mean? Because I can guarantee
you we can. We can make thishappen. Piece of cake, man. I know
we can. All right, so that's.That's good. All right. Awesome.
(32:07):
So you now, are you raisingbirds, too? Is that what's going
on?
No, they're.
They're all natural.
No, they're not. There. Thereare wild birds out there, Right?
So pheasants, not a nativespecies that was introduced into
the Americas back in the late1800s, and it's. It's had its rise
and fall. There are wild birdpopulations, but no commercial outfitter.
(32:31):
No matter how hard they tellyou, I'm going to spoil the industry,
spoil their secrets here. Youcannot run a wild population in the
quantities that these guys do.
Yeah.
In fact, the state mandatesthat hunting preserves like we have
a hunting preserve. It lets usextend our season and our limits
and our regulations.
(32:52):
Right.
We have to Release at least600 birds a year within those acres.
Yeah. And some of those aregoing to get shot. Some of them are
going to get eaten by fox.Some of them are going to survive
and reproduce, you know, so.Right. Isn't this. It's like stocking
a pond with fish.
Yep. You just have to put inmore than you take out. That's all
(33:13):
right. Yep.
That's right. Yeah. I grew up.I remember I grew up in. In Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, and my dad was abig pheasant hunter. We had Irish
setters, of all things. And sohe would go out on opening day. You
could take opening day inWisconsin was, I think, some Saturday
(33:35):
in October. It may have beenSeptember, but in the fall, and it
opened at noon, and you wereallowed to take two birds. That was
the limit. And there was nofar. I mean, they were, these were
wild birds, you know, I mean,there was no. Or anywhere around
us I am unaware of. And I knowthere wasn't any stocked birds, but
(33:55):
if you took, you know, and he,he, he would hunt until he got at
least one, and sometimes hewould come home with two. But it
was like a banner day. Like,that was for my dad, and it was a
solo event. Like, he didn'tsay, hey, I want you to take off
a school.
Yeah.
You know, my dad did this forhim and his dog, you know, and so
I, I just, you know, I'llalways have fond memories, you know,
(34:20):
pheasant hunting. When thatbird decides to get up off the ground
from its little hide locationand just bust off with a, you know,
rooster with a cackle.
Yeah.
And they come, they come uplike a helicopter, and then they
decide to go, you know, and,and it's a nice big target. And they're
so beautiful.
They are.
And they're delicious to eat.I mean, if, I mean, I love that bird.
(34:43):
It's a great game bird. And,you know, I mean, there's just something
about it sitting there withthat and holding this thing, you
know, especially when you, youthrow in the dog piece. You know,
the dogs are working and thisthing, you know, dog retrieves and
brings it to your hand. Imean, it's just an amazing thing.
So I'm, I'm happy you're doingthat. And it sounds to me like some
(35:03):
of that, that bug has got to you.
Absolutely. Yeah. I love it. Ichange it for the world now. My wife
hates South Dakota, and ascold as it is. And I said, well,
I said, we can live somewhereelse all year long, but when it comes
time to be here for huntingseason, we're back. So get over it,
honey.
(35:25):
Well, you know, I, I, I, I, Iappreciate what you're doing, and
it's not easy. You know,that's being a guide, a professional
guide, as a profess, you know,that's not easy because, you know,
you're out in the middle ofnowhere. So Star Lake Outfitters
is. Do you have a, do you havea website?
Yep, just starlakeoutfitters.com.
(35:47):
Okay. So if anybody'slistening to this and wants to go
have an amazing experiencewith Jeremy. How do they get a hold
of you? They go on the websiteand there's a link for them to communicate
with you or what?
Yep. Websites got my phonenumber, it's got an email, it's got
a contact us button.Everything's in there.
(36:08):
Okay, cool. StarlinkOutfitters and Jeremy Smith. God
bless you, man. So. So here.Here, here. Here we are. Tell us
a little bit about your. Yourfamily, because I. I know you're
a family man. I. I respectthat a great deal. And I'd like to
hear about your family if yougot a few minutes.
Yeah, my kids are getting big.My daughter is in her second year
(36:30):
of college. She's going to anLPN course here in South Dakota,
about two hours away. My son'sa high school senior now. Just crazy,
you know?
That's nuts, man.
It is.
That's nuts. What's he gonnado, dude? Does he know yet?
(36:51):
Blue? We're really trying togroom that out of him right now and
see what's happening. Yeah,he's not sure. The world is his oyster.
But what's really neat is Igot a call from a very good friend
of mine yesterday, and hesaid, hey, your son's been asking
me about skunk works, shortsquirrel stuff that Lockheed Martin
does. And so he's researchingthings. He's. He's asking the great
(37:15):
people about good, you know,neat things that are happening in
the world, so figure it out.
Cool.
Yeah. If he's not in school,he's out there hunting with me, so.
He loves it.
Yeah. Running dogs, chasingdoves of whatever we're doing.
Cool.
Yeah. He'll drive an hour togo see friends and goose hunt. Yeah,
(37:36):
he's. He's ate up. The bug hasgot him.
That's awesome, man. Well, youlook good. It's, you know, you look
like you're. You're. You'rehealthy and in a good spot. I hope
that's the case. We certainlyappreciate all that you've done to
support the foundation overthe. You know, over the years, and
(37:57):
by way of, you know, being aguide and a. And a friend and just
a general supporter, I mean,you're. You're one of those guys,
man, and I appreciate it.
Wow. Thanks, John. Iappreciate you. Without you in the
foundation, I may not besitting here today, and you know
that.
Listen, man, I mean, we'reproud of you and honored to have
(38:21):
you in our inner circle. Youknow, it's. It's more just getting
Warmed up. Let's. Let's. Let'schat and we'll end this podcast.
I always like to give my guestthe last whack at the pinata. So
if you've got some savedrounds in your bandolier that you'd
like to fire off, then by allmeans, the floor is yours, my friend.
(38:43):
Yeah, thanks. I appreciatethat. You know, none of this happens
without our hosts and oursupporters and our guides. You know,
thank you to all of them andfor. And for your vision. You know,
this started with you justwanting to do something. I remember
you saying this very early onabout just kind of like, hey, I am
(39:08):
seeing my soldiers hurting andneeding something. What can I do?
So none of this happenedwithout you, John, So thank you.
Just blessed to be. Honestly,I'm blessed to be, you know, part
of it, that you have an ideathat other people like and, you know,
can get behind and, you know,to. To look at it now through the
(39:30):
lens of almost coming up on 20years, you know, and see the goodness
that's. It's created mostlybecause of people like you. And like
you said, our hosts andsupporters who've gotten behind this
and helped has really madethis something very, very valuable
in the sense of the work thatit's doing. And it's not just focusing
(39:56):
on our combat wounded. Ofcourse, that's the centerpiece. You
guys are the centerpiece, thereason that we're doing this. But
there's also so many othergood things that are happening that
are tangential to that orconnected to that in a way by way
of community support and byway of, hey, it's a channel people
can. Can get behind. Like,this is a pathway. If I wanted to
(40:20):
help, I want to serve. I don'tknow what I can do. And the foundation
always finds a way to. To getpeople involved. You just got to
take that. That step. And onceyou do take that step, you know,
what usually follows isseveral other steps.
Absolutely. You know, yeah,people. People are like, step.
Yeah, take that step, man.Yeah, yeah, exactly.
(40:41):
It's a hard step, but you needto take it.
That's right. That's right.Don't be afraid, man. Take that step.
Do something, you know, and.And so, anyway, well, listen, God
bless you. We'll end this, andthen we'll. You'll. We'll chat. Stay
on the line for a minute,because I got some ideas about, you
know, Star Lake Outfittersand. And the WWI working together
(41:02):
a little bit more in a. In aformal way. So thank you very much.
God bless you and your family,my friend.
Thank you.
And it's great to see you.
Okay, thanks.
All right, we're out.
Thank you for listening to theWWIA podcast. To learn more about
(41:25):
the Wounded warriors in Actionfoundation and how you can get involved,
please visit our website atWWIA or follow us on social media
on Facebook, Instagram,Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you'd like
to comment or offer feedbackabout our podcast, or if you have
a suggestion for a futureepisode, please email us@podcastwwiaf.org
(41:52):
thank you for your support andfor helping us honor, connect and
heal our combat wounded PurpleHeart heroes through the power of
the great outdoors.
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