February 1, 2026 • 58 mins
Our event Hosts play a vital role in our mission to bring healing and restoration to our combat-wounded Veterans. Their selfless generosity and hard work behind the scenes truly set the stage for a memorable and life-changing time in the field, on the water, or around the dinner table or campfire. On today’s episode, WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel welcomes one of our remarkable and long-standing event Hosts to the show, Mr. Bruce Schreiner.
Bruce Schreiner is the co-host of the North Dakota Wild Pheasant Hunt, in Garrison North Dakota. This is a memorial event dedicated to Bruce’s brother Glenn, who also hosted the event and had a deep reverence and respect for Veterans until his passing in 2019.
Bruce has lived in Garrison his entire life and has three children and five grandchildren. He doesn’t just live in the community, he is an active part of it, having had a wonderful career at Garrison State Bank & Trust for 38 years retiring in 2021 as President. He’s also been a member of the Garrison Fire Department & Rescue Squad since 1984, serving as Chief from 1993 until 2025, and is also active in the State Firefighters Association. He further serves on the local Chamber of Commerce, Garrison Area Improvement Association and Better Living for Garrison. His family are fourth generation farmers, and his two nephews now operate the family farm, carrying on a proud and storied tradition. This is an outstanding episode that we know you will enjoy. Let’s go ahead and jump into the conversation with John and Bruce.
Takeaways:
- The WWIA Podcast emphasizes the importance of community involvement in supporting combat wounded veterans.
- Event hosts like Bruce Schreiner play a vital role in creating impactful experiences for Purple Heart recipients.
- The dedication of local businesses and volunteers significantly enhances the success of veteran-related events.
- Personal stories shared by veterans during these events foster healing and connection among participants.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- WWIA
- Wounded Warriors in Action
- Krause's Market
- Garrison State Bank and Trust
- Garrison Fire Department
- Garrison Area Improvement Association
- Better Living for Garrison
- Garrison Chamber of Commerce
- West River Transit
This episode is sponsored by ABLEnow. ABLEnow is a national ABLE savings program designed specifically for people with disabilities.
It allows eligible individuals to save and invest money in a tax-advantaged account without risking certain means-tested benefits, such as SSI or Medicaid.
ABLEnow is available nationwide and serves eligible individuals in all 50 states. Learn more at https://www.ablenow.com/
Mentioned in this episode:
ABLEnow
This episode of the WWIA Podcast is sponsored by ABLEnow. ABLEnow is a national ABLE savings program designed specifically for people with disabilities. It allows eligible individuals to save and invest money in a tax-advantaged account without risking certain means-tested benefits, such as SSI or Medicaid. ABLEnow is available nationwide and serves eligible individuals in all 50 states. Learn more about ABLEnow: https://t.co/r5071ltB0G
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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. Our eventhosts play a vital role in our mission
to bring healing andrestoration to our combat wounded
veterans. Their selflessgenerosity and hard work behind the
scenes truly set the stage fora memorable and life changing time
(00:45):
in the field, on the water oraround the dinner table or campfire.
On today's episode, WWIAfounder and CEO John McDaniel welcomes
one of our remarkable and longstanding event hosts to the show,
Mr. Bruce Schreiner. BruceSchreiner is the co host of the North
Dakota Wild Pheasant Hunt inGarrison, North Dakota. This is a
(01:09):
memorial event dedicated toBruce's brother Glenn, who also hosted
the event and had a deepreverence and respect for veterans
until his passing in 2019.Bruce has lived in Garrison his entire
life and has three childrenand five grandchildren. He doesn't
just live in the community,he's an active part of it, having
(01:30):
had a wonderful career atGarrison State bank and Trust for
38 years, retiring in 2021 aspresident. He's also been a member
of the Garrison FireDepartment and rescue squad since
1984, serving as chief from1993 until 2025 and is also active
in the State FirefightersAssociation. He further serves on
(01:53):
the local Chamber of Commerce,Garrison Area Improvement association
and Better Living forGarrison. His family are fourth generation
farmers and his two nephewsnow operate the family farm carrying
on a proud and storiedtradition. This is an outstanding
episode that we know you'llenjoy, so let's go ahead and jump
into the conversation withJohn and Bruce now.
(02:21):
Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founderand CEO of the Wounded warriors in
Action foundation and this isour podcast Honor, Connect and Heal.
And so today, here we are inDecember of 2025 and it's my honor
to introduce to you a veryspecial person who has been helping
(02:42):
the foundation. He and hiscommunity in Garrison, North Dakota
have been helping thefoundation coming up on nine years
by providing an amazing WildPheasant hunt in that part of the
country. Welcome to theprogram. Bruce Schreiner.
Thank you.
(03:02):
How are you?
I am good. How are you?
Good. Are you at home rightnow? In Garrison.
I am.
You know, I looked at it onthe map today and I was just kind
of like, it gives me anopportunity to kind of put myself
maybe in, you know, in yourshoes for a moment. I love the Dakotas,
(03:23):
first off. I mean, it'ssparsely populated. You know, I've
driven through the Dakotasseveral times and I love it. And
of course, you know, thehistory is just rich, especially
when you're, if you're like, Iam a student, you know, who likes
to learn about, you know,American history and especially,
(03:46):
you know, the American Indianwars. I just, you know, and Lewis
and Clark and all that. Imean, that's like, man, that's right
up your, your alley there. Butyou have the Missouri river, like,
right to your south, don't you?
Yes. Three miles south ofGarrison is Lake Sakakawea, which
is on the Missouri river system.
(04:07):
Yeah.
The lake was formed when theybuilt the Garrison Dam back in the
early 50s for flood control.So the, the lake was, was formed
then. And it's a greatrecreation area.
I'm a guess there's walleye in there.
Premier walleye fishing in the world.
(04:29):
Is it really?
Yeah.
How big? See, we fished. Ididn't know that. Now that I do,
you guys are in trouble. But Ilove fishing walleye. I grew up fishing
walleye in Wisconsin. But wehave an event, you probably saw it
there in Ohio on Erie. And Ihave a couple of fishing events there
(04:55):
and they're pulling. I went toone of those events and they were
catching 28 inch, close tosometimes 30 inch walleye. Now. It's
a great lake, you know.
Yep.
But, but, but I was likedumbfounded because of how large
those fish were. Like, when Igrew up, if you caught a walleye
that was, let's just say itwas 22 or 23 inches. That's a big
(05:19):
walleye. Yeah. You know, butyou say, you know, it's a, it's a,
you know, world class, worldrenowned fishery. That's, that's,
that warms my heart.
Yeah. And, and there's lots of20, 30, 32 inch in that lake.
In that lake. Yeah. That'sfantastic. So that means there's
a lot of bait.
(05:39):
Yeah.
And that lake's probably gotsome good structure to it and all
of that. I mean, that's,that's phenomenal. Plus wild pheasants.
Right. I mean, you guys, Ihunted. I have a picture. Well, I
mean, I'm going to pull it.The audience won't be able to see
it, but let me Grab it. Okay,so this is a picture. I don't know
(06:04):
if you can see that or not,but that's my dad and one of my best
buddies, Dixon, Me in themiddle and my. He was, he was my
Labrador, Grizzly, sir grizzlyClifton. And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8. Seven or eight wonderfulpheasants, right, that we got in
(06:26):
North Dakota where we huntedand it snowed. So, you know, the
snow had, had fallen. There'sa little bit of snow, but those were
all wild birds. My dad was abig time pheasant hunter and. Which
kind of made me a big timepheasant hunter. And, you know, I
just, I just loved it. I mean,that there's something to be said
about, you know, chasing thosecritters. They're just a beautiful,
(06:50):
one of the most beautiful gamebirds on the planet. They taste great.
And, and you guys have beendoing that now with us for like eight
years. Oh, my gosh, look at that.
Here's a picture of thisyear's hunt. One of the days.
What is there like 25, 30birds on that table? Hard to say.
(07:10):
The first day it's a pile.First day we had 60 birds, and the
second day we had 50 some birds.
That's incredible. Are theguys going home with pheasant? I
would imagine, yes.
They, they, they, they get totake. Our daily possession limit
is three in North Dakota, andwe basically hunt four days. So they
(07:33):
all get to take 12 birds homewith them.
Oh, my gosh. And you guys gotguys that are handling that are dog
handlers. Yeah, too. That are,that are, that are, you know, that
are, are they pointers,flushers, or a combination of the
both or what?
Yeah, some labs. Most, A lotof them are labs, but there are a
(07:54):
couple pointers and stuff inthere as well.
Yeah. You know, my dad, wehunted behind, believe it or not,
Irish setters. My dad was abig fan of the setters, and they're
typically pointing dogs, buthe trained Brandy, which was his
dog, to be more of a flusherbecause we were in Wisconsin and
(08:15):
hunted a lot of farmland. Youknow, if a dog will lock up on a
bird and, you know, in acornrow, nine times out of 10, by
the time the hunter gets upthere, that bird's gone. So it's
better to have them hunt closeand flush. That's been my experience.
You know, the, and the labsare real good at that. And I know
there's pointing labs today,but, you know, I don't want to get,
(08:37):
get into a big discussionabout all of that, but yeah, so love
the pointers too. I've had.I've had a couple pointers and a
couple of retrievers in myday, but I'm sure the guys just absolutely
love it. I've heard nothingbut great things. So tell us a little
bit, Bruce, about how youstarted getting involved with the
(08:58):
foundation and then we'regoing to talk about you. I've scribbled
a bunch of notes because Ican't wait to learn more about you
because you've got a reallyinteresting history going there.
But tell us about how theevent started, who the key players
are, and then if you don'tmind. You know, what I'd love to
(09:20):
hear about is the impact thatthe work has had on, on, on you.
I think we all know the work,the impact, you know, that the heroes
receive from our work. But Ialways am really interested in hearing
about the impact on youpersonally, your community, your
family, that kind of thing. Soif you don't mind, sir.
(09:42):
Sure. The event was startedwith my brother glenn and Roy McKenzie.
They, they started the veryfirst pheasant hunt. And I do not
know exactly what precipitatedthem to start the event. I was still
(10:03):
working at the bank at thattime full time, so I. The first couple
years I didn't have a wholelot of involvement with the planning
or any of that. And thenunfortunately, in 2019, my brother
passed away and we've decidedas a family that we wanted to continue
(10:25):
the event. And I was justgetting ready to start retirement.
I retired at the end of 21, soI, I stepped in and, and worked with
Roy to continue to hunt as itis today. My brother lived out on
(10:53):
the farm and that's where weheadquartered the hunt out of. We
have very generous neighborsout there that I'll allow us to,
to hunt on their land.
Yeah, love.
And, and we've also got six orseven, eight guides that have dogs
(11:19):
that, that just love the eventand they look forward to it every
year. So, so we've got theland, we've got the dogs.
Man.
The foundation is, is verygood with getting five heroes to
come for the hunt and, and it,and it's just a wonderful experience
(11:42):
for, for Everybody. There'susually 20 of us or so that, including
the, the heroes that, thatare. That make up the, the party
for the, for the hunt. Andlike I said, it's just from our perspective,
(12:03):
it's just really gratifyingwhen you get to visit with the heroes
and hear their stories andwatch them interact with Normally
four other heroes that they'venever met before and how they interact
with each other, it's justreally gratifying.
(12:25):
It is even for me to this day,some 20 years into this, I still
host an event up there in theNorthwoods of Wisconsin, place we
call Camp Hackett and samething. I mean, just watching the
heroes interact amongst eachother and sharing stories and, and
(12:52):
we're further away from thewar than we were when we started.
And I say the war, the warwent on in Iraq, Afghanistan for
20 years, but we're furtheraway from that now than we were back
then. And I think the guys ingeneral are in a much better position
(13:17):
to let their guards down. Youknow, we still got a ways to, you
know, to go. There's still,you know, some things that, you know,
we all need to do to, youknow, get past some of it. But that
fireside chat, that, that,that idea of being, you know, delivered
and going to a place thatyou've never been and people you've
(13:40):
never met and these people aregoing to bring their A game for you
as a way of saying thanks forwhat you did. And then you're gonna
get to sit around a fire thatnight and, you know, talk about what
you did and you know, not justwhat you did in the pheasant fields,
but maybe what you did overthere. And, and, and it's just the
gears like almost immediatelymesh, you know, and, and with them.
(14:04):
And then when you're, whenyou're, when you're an active participant
in that, mostly like, youknow, just absorbing it, that's what
I, I do. I don't, I try tostay out of the limelight as much
as I can. Sometimes I can'tavoid doing my job as the host, but
(14:26):
I'm always impressed and feellike there's a great sense of gratification
in that process. And I can'treally explain it. It's just, you
know, the only word I couldever come up with to describe it
(14:47):
is the magic, you know, what'shappening around, you know, the fire
pit, if you will. But it'sreally cool. I'm glad that, and all
the events share one of thosesimilar things, but, or similar set
of circumstances or outcomes,if you will. But let me ask you tell
us about Kraus Market andthat, that lash up there because
(15:11):
I, I, I, I, I, I met RoyMcKenzie, great American, you know,
he and, and your brother Glennwere the co founders and now you've
stepped in there. But tell usabout Kraus Market because they've
been Very generous to us.
Yeah. Krause's Marketoriginates in Hazen, North Dakota,
(15:34):
which is 55 miles southwest ofGarrison. Our local super value store
owners were looking to retire.Krauses ended up buying them, and
they also bought a market downin washburn, which is 35 miles south
(15:56):
of us. And they are justterrific community people. Roy was
their meat cutter here inGarrison, so. So when him and my
brother started the hunt, theywent to Krauses, and Krauses jumped
on board to help sponsor it.They supply product for the meals
(16:22):
and a banquet that we havebetween them and their vendors. So
they're a huge part of makingthe event happen and making it happen
so that it's not overlyburdensome on the cost.
Excellent. Krausey's Market.
Yes.
(16:42):
Yeah. God bless you. Thanksfor all that you guys have done.
You know, I scribbled somethings. I was, you know, last couple
days, I just, like I said, Iwas trying to have a tendency to
want to, like, get to know asmuch as I can about people I have
not met. And once upon a timeI had met everybody, you know, and
it's just not possible. Iwill, I will come meet you one of
(17:07):
these days. I'm bound anddetermined to get up there. I can't
wait to see it. It's one ofthe top three events from a selfish
perspective that I want to goto. Not just to hunt the pheasants,
but to be up in that part ofthe country and to meet your family
(17:29):
and friends and your communityand say thank you. I'm committed
to doing that just not happenon the timeline that I wanted it
to by. For lots of reasons. But.
Well, you come up some Julyand. And I'll. I'm not a fisherman,
but July is probably the bestmonth for walleye fishing.
(17:52):
So I might be bringing my twoboys. They would, they would love
that. They would love that.
That would be.
That's a great. That's a greatinvitation. I. I appreciate that,
that, that that might behappening sooner than later. I actually
prefer to. To be honest withyou, you know, I actually prefer
Bruce to do it like thatbecause if I rock up in an event,
(18:12):
then it's just, it's. I'm a.I'm a distractor, you know, even
though I keep my mouth closedmost of the time, I'm a distractor
to that event anymore and Idon't want that. So I would way rather
do it in the summertime, youknow, where we can, you know, wet
a line and relax for a fewDays and the boys and I could get
(18:34):
to, you know, they would loveit. I mean, there's so much cool
stuff happening there. Iappreciate that. Imitation. Be careful
what you ask for.
I welcome you to come up andbring your boys.
Yeah, that's cool.
Great.
So I have here, I wrote somethings down here. So I'm a simple
(18:56):
person. So I like to breakthings down into block and tackle,
you know, the essence ofthings. I just have a tendency to.
To want to do that. And so thethings I wrote down about you are
father, banker, fireman,farmer and philanthropist. Those
are the words that I'm. Thelabels, the stickers that I wrote
(19:20):
down about you. And Iunderstand you have three children
and five grandchildren.
Yep.
Wow. So that's good. Any boysin that equation? You have three
children, so tell me about them.
Two sons and a daughter.
(19:41):
Okay. Are the boys involved inthe farm?
No, my oldest son was actuallykilled in a plane crash, so he was
a farmer. He farmed west ofGarrison. And. And my other son works
(20:02):
in the oil fields, but doesparticipate in the hunt.
Okay.
As he is allowed with his work schedule.
Okay. I'm sorry.
He's. He's got a daughter anda. And a son and his. My grandson
is a senior in high schoolthis year and looks forward to the
(20:24):
hunt every year, so.
Oh, that's great. That's greatto have family involved, isn't it?
Yeah. And then, and then we'vegot a, A daughter that lives in.
By Jamestown, North Dakota,which is a couple hundred miles away
from here, but they have twodaughters, they both live in Bismarck.
(20:44):
Okay. One is married and oneis engaged, so.
Okay. So always somethinggoing on.
Yeah, yeah. Family's close, sowe get to spend time with them.
Good, good. So banker, that'snext. You, you were in banking for,
for, for 38 years you were a banker?
(21:06):
Yeah.
And you, you were, you, you,you. Your career as a banker turn
culminated, if you will, asthe president of a bank. Right. They
were a president of a bank.
Correct.
So I gotta ask you. Okay, soit's like if you asked me, give me
a snapshot of your day. Mylife and the day of. You know, with
(21:28):
my professional work here, Icould tell you they would bore people,
but I would tell you, but Ialways like to ask that question,
you know, like you're the.When you were president of a bank,
what? Like what. Give me atypical, you know, day in the life
of. What kind of things is thepresident of a bank doing?
(21:51):
Well, first of all, I had aterrific crew underneath me, approximately
35 employees, mostly women,But didn't need a whole lot of. Of
(22:13):
direction. Everybody knew whattheir jobs were and they did it.
And, and, and that was kind ofa legacy that came from the owner
of the bank as he passed downthe torch. But, you know, it was
just making sure thateverybody had what they needed, had
(22:33):
the tools to do their job andmake sure that you were out in the
community, making sure thecommunity had. The owner of the bank
was very instrumental ingetting Garrison to where it is today.
(22:54):
He was very big on thecommunity and was always. As I started
in the bank, he would comeinto my office all the time and say,
okay, what does the communityneed next? What does the community
need next? And that was how hedid it. And his philosophy just kind
(23:16):
of was passed down to me. Andso I would make sure that if there
were things going on in thecommunity, how the bank could be
involved with it.
That's great. Yeah. So Iassume the bank. As a banker, you
probably. There were lots,probably lots of loans and things
(23:40):
like this relative to farmingin the community. Because, I mean,
I'm guessing that Garrison,North Dakota is dominated by the
agriculture industry, if I'm guessing.
Yeah. And I. I'd say 85% ofour business was egg related.
(24:04):
Yeah. Equipment loans, farmloan, you know, this kind of thing.
Yeah.
Operating equipment, real estate.
Yep, you betcha. Awesome. So Ialso. I also mentioned firemen. You
were a chief, you know,volunteer firefighter. You know,
tell us about that.
Well, when I started at thebank in 1984, my father was. Was
(24:27):
on the fire department, and.And I was asked to join. There was
an opening. Garrison, our firedepartment, is made up of 40 members.
Volunteers. All volunteers.And they had an opening, and I was
asked to join, so I joined.And I don't know, a few years after
(24:54):
that, I became one of theassistant chiefs. And then in 1993,
when the chief retired becausehe was moving out of town, I was
asked to become chief. So Ibecame chief, and they wouldn't let
me out of it until last yearin 2025. So I was chief for 32 years.
(25:15):
Wow. Wow. I mean, that. Wow.That's a heck of a run right there,
right?
Yeah, it was 30.
Yeah. Well, you must have beendoing something right. You're either
probably a really good cookand a really. And a great leader.
You know, I was always amazedwhen or when I started. I had some
friends that werefirefighters, and I'd always ask
them because, you know, it'ssomething I didn't do. But I reckon
(25:38):
it's a lot like its service,of course, especially as a volunteer.
But it's probably a lot likewhat the average infantryman in the
military goes through, whichis, you know, Life is essentially
99 minutes of sheer boredominterrupted by 1 minute of sheer
(25:58):
panic.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, a good dayis no fire. A bad day's a fire, you
know, and, you know, having todo your thing. But I imagine, you
know, I see it all the time.Time when I. Not all the time, not
infrequently do I see the firetruck in the parking lot of the Publix
(26:20):
grocery store where I shoproutinely near my house. And they're
often going in there shoppingfor food, you know, which I think
is great, you know, because Iknow they're going back and, and
they're cooking, you know,they're cooking some big thing for
everybody, you know, I mean,that's part of the deal, right? If
(26:41):
you're gonna. I don't, I don'tknow how long you stay on shift,
but, you know, thefirefighters have. It's. It's 247
365. Right. I mean, you're,you're not, you're not waking up,
you know, not. Somebody's notcalling you at home and saying, hey,
come get your stuff on whenyou're on duty. You're, you're, you're
on duty, right. And if there'sa fire, you're. You're gonna slide
(27:02):
into your boots and run downthe pole and get on the truck and
go, right?
Yep, yep. We're, like I said,We're a 40 member department, all
volunteer. So we're basicallyon call 247 365. When there's a emergency,
we get paged out and in a waywe go.
(29:19):
Cool. All right, so now I gotto ask you about farming because
what I don't know is what areyou guys farming there? I mean, I
could take a wild guess. I'mguessing corn and soybean, but those
are just guesses. What isgoing on? I mean, you've been associated
with a farm and so has yourfamily for generations. So tell us
(29:43):
about what are you doing onthe farm?
Okay, well, my grandfatherfarmed basically back in those days.
It was. For us, it was, was,was dirt. You know, that was what
(30:06):
Durham, which is a wheat durm.D E R M D u r u m what they make
pasta.
I didn't even know it existed.
Yeah, that's. That, that,that's a type of wheat. It's a type
of wheat. It's a wheat thatthey make pasta out of being.
Okay.
(30:26):
And that was basically all wegrew. And then my father got into
farming and then we startedgrowing. Besides Durham, we started
growing some flax andsunflowers eventually.
What do you do with thesunflowers? Do they make sunflower
seeds?
No. What? We, we grew oil foroil. So.
(30:46):
So the oil is in the seeds.
Oils in the seed.
Did you have to extract thator did you export the seeds?
Yeah, we just harvested it andhauled to the elevator and then they,
they shipped it to whereverand. And it went to a crushing plant
and then they turned it intosunflower oil.
I got to ask you, Bruce. Youknow the big silos that you see all
(31:10):
over the place with big. Youknow, the farms, like the, you know,
sometimes they get the blueand white, they're different colors,
but, you know, they're.They're monster. Some of them are
huge. And they might havethree or four of them and you might
even find a common place wherethere's, you know, 10 of them or
something. Right?
Yeah.
Just monster silos.
Yeah.
What is going on in the silo?I've always wondered. I mean. Yeah.
(31:31):
What's going on there?
Usually the silos are mostlyfor dairy farms. They'll. That's
usually where they'll storetheir. Feed the corn and stuff. They
feed them. You will find somebeef farmers that will also have
silos. And again, they storethe feed in them for.
(31:52):
Those are like, you know,corn. They're corn that got harvested.
We're not talking about sweetcorn. We're just talking about corn
that's going for feed for, for cattle.
Yeah.
And so they're, they'reclimate controlled or they're, they're
air. I mean, why do you need,why do you need that, that, that
thing that, why do you need that?
We never had cattle, so I'mnot exactly sure exactly why, but.
(32:15):
But that was just. The siloseemed to be the way that they stored
them and, And I knew that theydo have some temperature.
Controls and so they don't getrot and all this other crap again.
Okay, so, so, all right, so Iinterrupted you. So, so sunflower.
What about today? Are youstill doing the same thing?
No, today we don't grow Durhamanymore because it's a little bit
(32:39):
finicky to raise quality wise.And if you don't have the quality,
of course, it doesn't makegood pasta. So what? My, my nephews
who took over the farm aftermy brother, they grow wheat and they
grow flax. And they grow peas.Edible, Dry, edible peas. Okay. Soybeans
(33:07):
and canola are basically themain crops that. That we grow now.
Canola is in, like, the canola oil?
Yeah, that's another oil crop.
Okay. And what is it, a beanor something?
Soybeans.
Is that what canola is madefrom? Soy?
Canola is. It's a real smallseed, but again, it's. It's oil.
(33:32):
So they crush it for oil.
Well, and that's where canolacomes from.
Oil comes from.
Oh, be darned. I had no idea.Awesome. Now, I gotta ask you, are
there, I'm guessing that inNorth Dakota you have whitetail deer.
Yep.
And you get big whitetaildeer, too, don't you?
(33:55):
Some, some. We have bothwhitetail and mule mule deer.
You got mule deer all over thestate or just out west?
Started out west, but weactually have some mule deer in our
area now.
Really?
Migrated a little bit.
Wow. And what aboutfurbearers? I mean, you got probably
everything. I mean, as youknow, you got coyotes, fox, all of
(34:18):
it. Salt there. Yeah, exactly.You got all the water, you got all
the ingredients. Are therestill places where there's pockets
of timber?
No, up. Up in the north,northeast corner of the state, they
have some timber up there,but. But for the most part, we're
all flat farmland. You get.You get out to the west, and that's
(34:42):
where there's the badlands,which. Right, which, you know, but.
But in the center part of thestate, not much for trees, just basically
flat farmland.
What's the temperature like today?
Today it's about 20 degrees,but it's. It's going to get cold
here. The high tomorrow isnegative two, I think, and similar
(35:06):
for Saturday. And then Sundayit warms back up and they're talking
30s, close to 40 degrees firstpart of next week.
Do you got any snow on theground right now?
Yeah, we've got probably eightinches or so.
But that wind. That wind canjust hawk through there, can it?
Yep. Yeah, like.
(35:27):
Like I. I once was on astretch of road in. In the Dakotas
and a storm came up and I. Itwas a long time ago, so I don't.
I don't recall. I knew it wasthe wintertime, and I don't recall,
like, you know, checking theweather forecast or anything. I had
someplace to go, and so I wasdoing that and this storm rolls up
and I was like, whoa, daddy,you gotta get off this road. Or this
(35:49):
road is disappearing.
Yeah.
Like, literally before myeyes, the road was disappearing and
the drifts were happening. Andit happened like that.
Yeah.
I was like, and I'm saying,I'm telling you, that wind had to
be 40, 50 knots and orgreater. It was just whoa. So you
get that sometimes there,don't you?
(36:10):
Absolutely, yeah.
I mean, there's no, there's noplace to hide.
Like three days ago we had 30mile an hour winds with gusts up
to 55.
Yeah. When that storm rolled through.
Yeah, yeah.
Right on. So the last, theother thing I want to talk about
here is, you know, and I guessit dovetails back into our work with
(36:35):
the combat wounded, you know,is you as a, and your community really,
you know, as philanthropists,you know, doing good deeds, especially
for, you know, in this case,our combat wounded and those great
veterans that they are now.What's that mean? What's that mean
(37:01):
to you? Like what? Like whatdo you take away when you get done
with an event? Right. What areyou left with when the guys are back
on the, you know, they leavethe farm, they're, they're heading
back home. What's that likefor you.
Again? I'd say it's verygratifying and humbling at the same
(37:22):
time because, you know, we'vedone this for eight years and we've
only had the same guide acouple times. So you're talking at
least four fresh faces every year.
Do you like that? Is that goodfor you?
(37:43):
It's fantastic. As much as I'dlike to see these guys come back,
it's always nice when a newgroup comes because you make new
friends and you learn of newexperiences and, and again, it's
just fantastic when these guysleave, you start, you start to appreciate
(38:10):
everything that they had gonethrough in their career as a soldier
of whatever they were,whatever branch they were, branch
of the army or branch of theservice they were in. And it's just,
like I said, it's veryhumbling and gratifying to think
(38:34):
back on what they went throughso that we could enjoy what we enjoy
today.
Well, that's patriotism, man.That's it right there. That defines
it as far as I'm concerned. Imean, I thought when I first started
doing this, I thought tomyself, I surely can't be the only
(38:55):
guy on the planet that thinksthis is a good idea. I mean, we're
going to go hunting andfishing with these combat wounded
veterans. What possibly couldgo wrong there, you know, and to
be a part of an organizationthat's still doing that, but doing
that, you know, by a factor of40 something, you know, across the
(39:18):
country in these individualevents, you know, well, you know,
you're onto something rightthere. You know, I mean, because
what I. I look at it like,Bruce, I say, okay, you know, it's
not my opinion that thatmatters. If you want it all out,
I'll give it to you. Butmostly it's what you're. It's what
(39:38):
your customers say, you know,or your clients, however you want
to, you know, phrase that. Andthat's our. In this case, our clients,
the foundation's clients arethe Purple Heart recipients. And,
you know, they. They, youknow, overwhelmingly they. They have
nothing but great things tosay about what we're doing. And.
(40:02):
But if it wasn't for you andyour family and your. And your, you
know, extended community ofsupport, this wouldn't be happening.
I mean, if you think aboutwaking up one day in Tupelo, Mississippi,
and somebody says, you know,the phone rings and said, hey, you
know, how would you like to gohunt pheasants in North Dakota? Heck,
(40:26):
yeah, I do. Are you kiddingme? Like, when do I get to go do
that? And then they show up.And then the people, they don't know,
they would never go toGarrison, North Dakota, probably
ever in their life. You know,whether they're from California,
Mississippi, the state ofWashington, New York, it doesn't
matter.
Yeah.
(40:46):
You know, we're deliveringthese guys as a package with leadership
to a place they've never been.And people like you and your family
and your community are goingto open their arm, your arms, and
you're going to give them thebest you got on that day. That blows
me away, man. That'sphilanthropy. That just blows me
away. And I got to thank you,and I hope, you know, your community,
(41:10):
some of them, your key playersare listening to this. But I will
tell you flat out, full stop,that it means a lot to them. I know
it does. Even if some of themdon't express it. But look at the
smile on their faces. Look atthe joy that it's bringing them and
(41:31):
the healing piece to this. Imean, can you imagine going off to
some country, some place inthe world, and you're 19, 20 years
old, or however old you are,and, you know, you join the army
or the Marine Corps, you raiseyour right hand, you know, swore
(41:51):
to uphold the Constitution ofthe United States and the orders
that the officers appointedover you, and then you found yourself
in some crap hole, you know,having to do deeds that nobody should
have to do, and then you getwounded in the process, and now you're
back on the block, you know.Yeah, I can't take your uniform off
(42:12):
because of the wounds yousustained. You're no longer part
of the thing, the one thingyou wanted to be a part of. Now you're
back on the block, just JoeSchmo. And what now? You know, what
now? And there's a big voidthere. They all say it. They all
express it, you know, in oneform or another. There's a void.
(42:33):
And that void is, you know, abig part of me is now gone. Now,
hey, granted, they got woundsand injuries sometimes that are horrific,
you know, and that's onething. You know, the stitches, the,
you know, medication, therehab, all of that, the physical
side. But then there's this,you know, emotional side, this. This.
(42:55):
This cognitive side where thatjust doesn't go away. And then, P.S.
this big part of you ismissing. It's just gone. And they
want that back. They all saythe same thing. You've probably heard
it. Man, I would go back in asecond, in a nanosecond. Can you
(43:17):
believe that they would goback in a nanosecond to go do that?
Because it was as odd as itsounds, it was comfortable. It was
what they knew. It was whothey loved and what they loved to
do, and that's gone. And sothat transition back to, quote, unquote,
normal is a long road. Andsometimes it's a lifetime road. To
(43:40):
be honest with you, it takes alifetime sometime for these guys
to. To. To readjust. But whenpeople like you and your community
don't ask anything in return,I'm just. We're just going to ask
you to have a good time andenjoy yourself. I might ask you to
be polite and respectful, ofcourse, but, you know, yeah, go out.
Go out there and have a. Havea great time. Get to know people.
(44:05):
That feeling, you know, whatyou're left with when you walk away
with that, when you get backon that plane and you get back on
your couch at home and you'rescratching your dog's chin and staring
at the ceiling tiles, thinkingabout what just happened, that. That
sense of, oh, my gosh, theydid that for me. Like, if that's
(44:26):
not validating, I don't knowwhat is. And I don't know if. I mean,
I don't know who else, ifanybody thinks of it that way. Maybe,
maybe not. But that's the wayI see it. And I gotta tell you, man,
it's amazing. So I want totell everybody out there in North
Dakota and around everybodyelse who's listening, if you're involved
(44:48):
in this work, you know. Thankyou from, from the bottom of my heart
and from the bottom, a bunchof Purple heart recipients because,
you know, it's pretty cool.You know, what you're doing is very,
very awesome. So thank you.
You're welcome. And I can tellyou that the group that, that we
(45:08):
have that helps with the eventand stuff, they all feel the same
way. These, these guys comeand. They never complain. They tell
us that they would go back anddo it again, and they don't want
us to feel sorry for. Yeah,you know, they, they, they, they
(45:33):
just. It's like I said, it'sso heartwarming to, to listen to
the heroes and what they'vegone through, what they've done.
And we relate it back to thefact that it's because of them that
(45:55):
we enjoy what we enjoy today.And the group that we have that helps
with this event are alsoappreciative of. Of what they have
done for us.
Yeah, well, you know, and, youknow, what you say is exactly right.
(46:17):
You know, and we appreciatewhat they did, but not only this
generation, but I mean, as weknow, many generations, you know,
going back to the, you know,World War I, you know, World War
II, Korea and Vietnam, youknow, those amazing Americans, many
(46:39):
of them came home without suchfanfare, without such welcome. You
know, there wasn't these kind.You know, people came home and were
just really quiet about whatthey did.
Yeah.
You know, and that's why the,the Veterans service organization
sprung up. You know, the VFWis the American Legions. You know,
this kind of thing. Theysprung up because it was a place
(46:59):
for. For the veterans to beable to go and do what? Yeah, break
bread, you know, drink a beer,share camaraderie, you know, this,
this kind of thing. But itwas. They were done very quietly.
They didn't know where else togo, you know, and, and how can you
explain what you just did andhad to go through to, you know, the
(47:22):
average person? Well, youknow, it's hard. It's difficult to
do that. Right. Yeah. I wantto, before we close the program here.
And I'm going to give you,Bruce, the last whack at the pinata
here. But I have a picture inmy hand. It's a view, and then there's
(47:43):
two other people in thepicture with a pile of pheasants
on a table. I'm going to showit to you here. Do you recognize
that photo?
Yep.
Okay. Who is the young man? Isthat your son?
That's my grandson.
That's Your grandson, what'shis name?
His name is Landon.
Landon.
(48:04):
He lives here in Garrison,goes to school. He's a senior this
year, but he has come out thelast four or five years and hunts.
We're fortunate that theweekend of the pheasant hunt is also
(48:25):
where he has a break. He getsa couple days off so he doesn't have
school, so he gets to come outand hunt. Hunt the days with us and,
and really enjoys it. And it'sbeen really fun to watch him interact
(48:46):
with, with the heroes becausehe's kind of a quiet to himself guy.
But I'll tell you what, these,these guys drag it out of them.
They do, man. They'll get it.They'll get it out of you. There's
no, you can't hide net crowd, man.
No. And the other, the gallonthere is my wife and she, She's.
(49:14):
She doesn't hunt, but she's.She's out there helping get lunches
ready and, and all of that.
And what's your wife's name?
Sue.
I was gonna say that lookslike your daughter. I'm. I have to
tell her that I said that, butthat she doesn't look old enough
to be your. Your wife. And theother thing I was gonna say is whatever
(49:34):
that, that, that, that WWIgear she's got in that camouflage
shirt right there.
Yep.
See that?
Yep.
That is so cool. I never knewthat environment existed.
That's another thing thatKrauses do. They buy, they buy a
hoodie like that every yearfor, for the warriors, and then usually
(49:57):
they'll buy a few extra onesthat get passed around to the people
that are, that are helpingwith, with the event. But that's
another thing that crowsthese. Provides so cool for the heroes.
That's a good looking piece ofkit right there. It always warms
my heart when I see, when Isee, you know, the foundation's logo
(50:18):
on a piece of kit that I, thatI personally admire.
Yep.
It doesn't matter if I admireit or not. I just makes. It just
warms my heart to see, youknow, y' all taking leadership roles
and the initiative and doinggreat things like that, you know,
supporting the heroes and thebrand and of course, the, the mission.
(50:39):
It's really, it's reallygreat. Well, Bruce, as we close up
here, as I like to do, I'llgive you the, the, the last word.
Is there anybody you'd like tosingle out or, or, or, you know,
that we've forgotten toacknowledge or, or say thank you
to, or if you just have, youknow, give you the, the, the last
word here.
Yeah, you know, there's,there's so many people that I'm not
(51:04):
going to name names, but youknow, we have a couple gals in town
that do quilts for the heroesevery year. We've got a bunch of
firemen that, that willusually help put on the Friday night
meal and then put on thebanquet for the Saturday night meal.
Fire department lets us usethe fire hall to do that in so we
(51:27):
don't have to, don't have torent a spot for it or anything. And
you know, there's, like Isaid, there's eight guides or so
that have got dogs that justlook forward to the event every year.
And so many people. TheAmerican Legion does flag ceremony
(51:49):
for the banquet and stuff andthere's a local called West River
Transit that will go up withus to the airport and pick up the
heroes and bring them back atno charge. And you know, there's
just, it's a, it's a wellrounded community event that there's
(52:11):
so many fingers in the potthat it's all what makes it happen.
Right. It's like, it's like,it's kind of like herding cats, you
know, but in a good way. And Imean that in a good way because if
you give good people amission, you know, spirit and intent,
(52:33):
you know, task and purpose,you know, they're going to do, they're
going to knock it out of thepark and they're gives them maximum
degrees of, of, you know, afreedom of action and taking the
initiative and just stand backand watch, watch the magic happen.
It's so like, what I always,what I always thought about philanthropy
(52:57):
is that, you know, it isexactly that people giving of their
time, their talents and theirenergy, you know, to make something
happen, something good happen.And it's really impressive. And I
can't wait to get up there andshake your paw and you know, get
(53:20):
to know your family a littlebit and see your countryside and
enjoy that part of Americabecause I know it's great.
Yeah, no, like I said, you,you come up, bring your boys up some
July and I'll get you out onthe lake and you can catch. But again,
it's just, you know, everybodythat we ask to help, I don't even
(53:48):
get it out of your, my mouth.And they're saying, absolutely, you
know, from the, from theneighbors out on the, on the farm,
yeah, we have enough land thatwe could hunt and, and probably have
a successful hunt, but notnearly as successful as we do, if
we didn't have the neighborsthat, that allow us to hunt their
(54:08):
land as well. And, and you askthe, the people with the dogs and,
you know, they, I have somethat will, will text me in the middle
of summer and say, okay, whatare the dates again? They want to
get another calendar becausethey're coming.
You know, you're doing a goodjob. When people start talking about
(54:30):
next year when the event's noteven over.
Yeah, you know, absolutely.
And that's, that's so. It's sotrue. Wow. Well, I'm, I'm thankful
and grateful and humbled by,by this and your work, and I know
the heroes are. And I, youknow, I wish you the absolute best
this winter. I hope that it'smild for you and that maybe you need
(54:53):
some snow for the fields.
I don't know, whatever, somesnow. But my wife and I are actually
leaving next Thursday. We godown to Alabama, right on the Alabama
Florida line, and we spend twoand a half months or so down there.
Good for you. Good for you.Where? Whereabouts?
(55:13):
We go to Orange Beach.
Okay, cool. Well, very good.Well, then you're snowbirds a little
bit. Thank you. I know you'veearned it. Yeah. Well, hopefully
this summer or this winterdown here will be mild for you and
enjoyable. And again, I lookforward to meeting you. Thanks for
(55:35):
all you guys do out there.It's amazing. And you did a great
job on the podcast, and I'msure folks are just going to love
hearing about your story andthe great work you're doing. Bruce,
thank you very much and thank you.
Wounded warriors in Actionfoundation is definitely made a huge
(55:57):
impact on my life with whatyou do, and it's very easy to put
on this event knowing thatyou're going to have five heroes
that are going to come and youcan, you can show what North Dakota
(56:19):
is all about and what pheasanthunting is all about.
Well, it's so cool. Well,we're honored to do it. And it couldn't
be done if it wasn't for, youknow, a lot of wonderful people stepping
up to the plate and reallyenriching this space. Because that's,
that's what it's all about isthat, you know, that, that, that
(56:41):
whole culture that is, in yourcase, you know, North Dakota. I can't
replicate that in Florida. Ican't replicate that in, in, you
know, New York City.
It.
It is what it is, and that'swhat makes it so great. Plus, obviously,
the resource, you know, sowe're very fortunate to have you
on the team and wish you thebest of luck in year nine as it comes
(57:02):
around, and, and wish you aMerry Christmas, you know, happy
Holidays, and the best in theNew Year.
You as well.
All right, Bruce, thanks foryour time. We're out.
Okay, thank you.
Bye.
Thank you for listening to theWWIA Podcast. To learn more about
(57:25):
the Wounded warriors in Actionfoundation and how you can get involved,
please visit ourwebsite@wwiaf.org or follow us on
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
(57:47):
us at. Podcast thank you foryour support and for helping us honor,
connect, and heal our combatwounded Purple Heart 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. Our eventhosts play a vital role in our mission
to bring healing andrestoration to our combat wounded
veterans. Their selflessgenerosity and hard work behind the
scenes truly set the stage fora memorable and life changing time
(00:45):
in the field, on the water oraround the dinner table or campfire.
On today's episode, WWIAfounder and CEO John McDaniel welcomes
one of our remarkable and longstanding event hosts to the show,
Mr. Bruce Schreiner. BruceSchreiner is the co host of the North
Dakota Wild Pheasant Hunt inGarrison, North Dakota. This is a
(01:09):
memorial event dedicated toBruce's brother Glenn, who also hosted
the event and had a deepreverence and respect for veterans
until his passing in 2019.Bruce has lived in Garrison his entire
life and has three childrenand five grandchildren. He doesn't
just live in the community,he's an active part of it, having
(01:30):
had a wonderful career atGarrison State bank and Trust for
38 years, retiring in 2021 aspresident. He's also been a member
of the Garrison FireDepartment and rescue squad since
1984, serving as chief from1993 until 2025 and is also active
in the State FirefightersAssociation. He further serves on
(01:53):
the local Chamber of Commerce,Garrison Area Improvement association
and Better Living forGarrison. His family are fourth generation
farmers and his two nephewsnow operate the family farm carrying
on a proud and storiedtradition. This is an outstanding
episode that we know you'llenjoy, so let's go ahead and jump
into the conversation withJohn and Bruce now.
(02:21):
Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founderand CEO of the Wounded warriors in
Action foundation and this isour podcast Honor, Connect and Heal.
And so today, here we are inDecember of 2025 and it's my honor
to introduce to you a veryspecial person who has been helping
(02:42):
the foundation. He and hiscommunity in Garrison, North Dakota
have been helping thefoundation coming up on nine years
by providing an amazing WildPheasant hunt in that part of the
country. Welcome to theprogram. Bruce Schreiner.
Thank you.
(03:02):
How are you?
I am good. How are you?
Good. Are you at home rightnow? In Garrison.
I am.
You know, I looked at it onthe map today and I was just kind
of like, it gives me anopportunity to kind of put myself
maybe in, you know, in yourshoes for a moment. I love the Dakotas,
(03:23):
first off. I mean, it'ssparsely populated. You know, I've
driven through the Dakotasseveral times and I love it. And
of course, you know, thehistory is just rich, especially
when you're, if you're like, Iam a student, you know, who likes
to learn about, you know,American history and especially,
(03:46):
you know, the American Indianwars. I just, you know, and Lewis
and Clark and all that. Imean, that's like, man, that's right
up your, your alley there. Butyou have the Missouri river, like,
right to your south, don't you?
Yes. Three miles south ofGarrison is Lake Sakakawea, which
is on the Missouri river system.
(04:07):
Yeah.
The lake was formed when theybuilt the Garrison Dam back in the
early 50s for flood control.So the, the lake was, was formed
then. And it's a greatrecreation area.
I'm a guess there's walleye in there.
Premier walleye fishing in the world.
(04:29):
Is it really?
Yeah.
How big? See, we fished. Ididn't know that. Now that I do,
you guys are in trouble. But Ilove fishing walleye. I grew up fishing
walleye in Wisconsin. But wehave an event, you probably saw it
there in Ohio on Erie. And Ihave a couple of fishing events there
(04:55):
and they're pulling. I went toone of those events and they were
catching 28 inch, close tosometimes 30 inch walleye. Now. It's
a great lake, you know.
Yep.
But, but, but I was likedumbfounded because of how large
those fish were. Like, when Igrew up, if you caught a walleye
that was, let's just say itwas 22 or 23 inches. That's a big
(05:19):
walleye. Yeah. You know, butyou say, you know, it's a, it's a,
you know, world class, worldrenowned fishery. That's, that's,
that warms my heart.
Yeah. And, and there's lots of20, 30, 32 inch in that lake.
In that lake. Yeah. That'sfantastic. So that means there's
a lot of bait.
(05:39):
Yeah.
And that lake's probably gotsome good structure to it and all
of that. I mean, that's,that's phenomenal. Plus wild pheasants.
Right. I mean, you guys, Ihunted. I have a picture. Well, I
mean, I'm going to pull it.The audience won't be able to see
it, but let me Grab it. Okay,so this is a picture. I don't know
(06:04):
if you can see that or not,but that's my dad and one of my best
buddies, Dixon, Me in themiddle and my. He was, he was my
Labrador, Grizzly, sir grizzlyClifton. And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8. Seven or eight wonderfulpheasants, right, that we got in
(06:26):
North Dakota where we huntedand it snowed. So, you know, the
snow had, had fallen. There'sa little bit of snow, but those were
all wild birds. My dad was abig time pheasant hunter and. Which
kind of made me a big timepheasant hunter. And, you know, I
just, I just loved it. I mean,that there's something to be said
about, you know, chasing thosecritters. They're just a beautiful,
(06:50):
one of the most beautiful gamebirds on the planet. They taste great.
And, and you guys have beendoing that now with us for like eight
years. Oh, my gosh, look at that.
Here's a picture of thisyear's hunt. One of the days.
What is there like 25, 30birds on that table? Hard to say.
(07:10):
The first day it's a pile.First day we had 60 birds, and the
second day we had 50 some birds.
That's incredible. Are theguys going home with pheasant? I
would imagine, yes.
They, they, they, they get totake. Our daily possession limit
is three in North Dakota, andwe basically hunt four days. So they
(07:33):
all get to take 12 birds homewith them.
Oh, my gosh. And you guys gotguys that are handling that are dog
handlers. Yeah, too. That are,that are, that are, you know, that
are, are they pointers,flushers, or a combination of the
both or what?
Yeah, some labs. Most, A lotof them are labs, but there are a
(07:54):
couple pointers and stuff inthere as well.
Yeah. You know, my dad, wehunted behind, believe it or not,
Irish setters. My dad was abig fan of the setters, and they're
typically pointing dogs, buthe trained Brandy, which was his
dog, to be more of a flusherbecause we were in Wisconsin and
(08:15):
hunted a lot of farmland. Youknow, if a dog will lock up on a
bird and, you know, in acornrow, nine times out of 10, by
the time the hunter gets upthere, that bird's gone. So it's
better to have them hunt closeand flush. That's been my experience.
You know, the, and the labsare real good at that. And I know
there's pointing labs today,but, you know, I don't want to get,
(08:37):
get into a big discussionabout all of that, but yeah, so love
the pointers too. I've had.I've had a couple pointers and a
couple of retrievers in myday, but I'm sure the guys just absolutely
love it. I've heard nothingbut great things. So tell us a little
bit, Bruce, about how youstarted getting involved with the
(08:58):
foundation and then we'regoing to talk about you. I've scribbled
a bunch of notes because Ican't wait to learn more about you
because you've got a reallyinteresting history going there.
But tell us about how theevent started, who the key players
are, and then if you don'tmind. You know, what I'd love to
(09:20):
hear about is the impact thatthe work has had on, on, on you.
I think we all know the work,the impact, you know, that the heroes
receive from our work. But Ialways am really interested in hearing
about the impact on youpersonally, your community, your
family, that kind of thing. Soif you don't mind, sir.
(09:42):
Sure. The event was startedwith my brother glenn and Roy McKenzie.
They, they started the veryfirst pheasant hunt. And I do not
know exactly what precipitatedthem to start the event. I was still
(10:03):
working at the bank at thattime full time, so I. The first couple
years I didn't have a wholelot of involvement with the planning
or any of that. And thenunfortunately, in 2019, my brother
passed away and we've decidedas a family that we wanted to continue
(10:25):
the event. And I was justgetting ready to start retirement.
I retired at the end of 21, soI, I stepped in and, and worked with
Roy to continue to hunt as itis today. My brother lived out on
(10:53):
the farm and that's where weheadquartered the hunt out of. We
have very generous neighborsout there that I'll allow us to,
to hunt on their land.
Yeah, love.
And, and we've also got six orseven, eight guides that have dogs
(11:19):
that, that just love the eventand they look forward to it every
year. So, so we've got theland, we've got the dogs.
Man.
The foundation is, is verygood with getting five heroes to
come for the hunt and, and it,and it's just a wonderful experience
(11:42):
for, for Everybody. There'susually 20 of us or so that, including
the, the heroes that, thatare. That make up the, the party
for the, for the hunt. Andlike I said, it's just from our perspective,
(12:03):
it's just really gratifyingwhen you get to visit with the heroes
and hear their stories andwatch them interact with Normally
four other heroes that they'venever met before and how they interact
with each other, it's justreally gratifying.
(12:25):
It is even for me to this day,some 20 years into this, I still
host an event up there in theNorthwoods of Wisconsin, place we
call Camp Hackett and samething. I mean, just watching the
heroes interact amongst eachother and sharing stories and, and
(12:52):
we're further away from thewar than we were when we started.
And I say the war, the warwent on in Iraq, Afghanistan for
20 years, but we're furtheraway from that now than we were back
then. And I think the guys ingeneral are in a much better position
(13:17):
to let their guards down. Youknow, we still got a ways to, you
know, to go. There's still,you know, some things that, you know,
we all need to do to, youknow, get past some of it. But that
fireside chat, that, that,that idea of being, you know, delivered
and going to a place thatyou've never been and people you've
(13:40):
never met and these people aregoing to bring their A game for you
as a way of saying thanks forwhat you did. And then you're gonna
get to sit around a fire thatnight and, you know, talk about what
you did and you know, not justwhat you did in the pheasant fields,
but maybe what you did overthere. And, and, and it's just the
gears like almost immediatelymesh, you know, and, and with them.
(14:04):
And then when you're, whenyou're, when you're an active participant
in that, mostly like, youknow, just absorbing it, that's what
I, I do. I don't, I try tostay out of the limelight as much
as I can. Sometimes I can'tavoid doing my job as the host, but
(14:26):
I'm always impressed and feellike there's a great sense of gratification
in that process. And I can'treally explain it. It's just, you
know, the only word I couldever come up with to describe it
(14:47):
is the magic, you know, what'shappening around, you know, the fire
pit, if you will. But it'sreally cool. I'm glad that, and all
the events share one of thosesimilar things, but, or similar set
of circumstances or outcomes,if you will. But let me ask you tell
us about Kraus Market andthat, that lash up there because
(15:11):
I, I, I, I, I, I met RoyMcKenzie, great American, you know,
he and, and your brother Glennwere the co founders and now you've
stepped in there. But tell usabout Kraus Market because they've
been Very generous to us.
Yeah. Krause's Marketoriginates in Hazen, North Dakota,
(15:34):
which is 55 miles southwest ofGarrison. Our local super value store
owners were looking to retire.Krauses ended up buying them, and
they also bought a market downin washburn, which is 35 miles south
(15:56):
of us. And they are justterrific community people. Roy was
their meat cutter here inGarrison, so. So when him and my
brother started the hunt, theywent to Krauses, and Krauses jumped
on board to help sponsor it.They supply product for the meals
(16:22):
and a banquet that we havebetween them and their vendors. So
they're a huge part of makingthe event happen and making it happen
so that it's not overlyburdensome on the cost.
Excellent. Krausey's Market.
Yes.
(16:42):
Yeah. God bless you. Thanksfor all that you guys have done.
You know, I scribbled somethings. I was, you know, last couple
days, I just, like I said, Iwas trying to have a tendency to
want to, like, get to know asmuch as I can about people I have
not met. And once upon a timeI had met everybody, you know, and
it's just not possible. Iwill, I will come meet you one of
(17:07):
these days. I'm bound anddetermined to get up there. I can't
wait to see it. It's one ofthe top three events from a selfish
perspective that I want to goto. Not just to hunt the pheasants,
but to be up in that part ofthe country and to meet your family
(17:29):
and friends and your communityand say thank you. I'm committed
to doing that just not happenon the timeline that I wanted it
to by. For lots of reasons. But.
Well, you come up some Julyand. And I'll. I'm not a fisherman,
but July is probably the bestmonth for walleye fishing.
(17:52):
So I might be bringing my twoboys. They would, they would love
that. They would love that.
That would be.
That's a great. That's a greatinvitation. I. I appreciate that,
that, that that might behappening sooner than later. I actually
prefer to. To be honest withyou, you know, I actually prefer
Bruce to do it like thatbecause if I rock up in an event,
(18:12):
then it's just, it's. I'm a.I'm a distractor, you know, even
though I keep my mouth closedmost of the time, I'm a distractor
to that event anymore and Idon't want that. So I would way rather
do it in the summertime, youknow, where we can, you know, wet
a line and relax for a fewDays and the boys and I could get
(18:34):
to, you know, they would loveit. I mean, there's so much cool
stuff happening there. Iappreciate that. Imitation. Be careful
what you ask for.
I welcome you to come up andbring your boys.
Yeah, that's cool.
Great.
So I have here, I wrote somethings down here. So I'm a simple
(18:56):
person. So I like to breakthings down into block and tackle,
you know, the essence ofthings. I just have a tendency to.
To want to do that. And so thethings I wrote down about you are
father, banker, fireman,farmer and philanthropist. Those
are the words that I'm. Thelabels, the stickers that I wrote
(19:20):
down about you. And Iunderstand you have three children
and five grandchildren.
Yep.
Wow. So that's good. Any boysin that equation? You have three
children, so tell me about them.
Two sons and a daughter.
(19:41):
Okay. Are the boys involved inthe farm?
No, my oldest son was actuallykilled in a plane crash, so he was
a farmer. He farmed west ofGarrison. And. And my other son works
(20:02):
in the oil fields, but doesparticipate in the hunt.
Okay.
As he is allowed with his work schedule.
Okay. I'm sorry.
He's. He's got a daughter anda. And a son and his. My grandson
is a senior in high schoolthis year and looks forward to the
(20:24):
hunt every year, so.
Oh, that's great. That's greatto have family involved, isn't it?
Yeah. And then, and then we'vegot a, A daughter that lives in.
By Jamestown, North Dakota,which is a couple hundred miles away
from here, but they have twodaughters, they both live in Bismarck.
(20:44):
Okay. One is married and oneis engaged, so.
Okay. So always somethinggoing on.
Yeah, yeah. Family's close, sowe get to spend time with them.
Good, good. So banker, that'snext. You, you were in banking for,
for, for 38 years you were a banker?
(21:06):
Yeah.
And you, you were, you, you,you. Your career as a banker turn
culminated, if you will, asthe president of a bank. Right. They
were a president of a bank.
Correct.
So I gotta ask you. Okay, soit's like if you asked me, give me
a snapshot of your day. Mylife and the day of. You know, with
(21:28):
my professional work here, Icould tell you they would bore people,
but I would tell you, but Ialways like to ask that question,
you know, like you're the.When you were president of a bank,
what? Like what. Give me atypical, you know, day in the life
of. What kind of things is thepresident of a bank doing?
(21:51):
Well, first of all, I had aterrific crew underneath me, approximately
35 employees, mostly women,But didn't need a whole lot of. Of
(22:13):
direction. Everybody knew whattheir jobs were and they did it.
And, and, and that was kind ofa legacy that came from the owner
of the bank as he passed downthe torch. But, you know, it was
just making sure thateverybody had what they needed, had
(22:33):
the tools to do their job andmake sure that you were out in the
community, making sure thecommunity had. The owner of the bank
was very instrumental ingetting Garrison to where it is today.
(22:54):
He was very big on thecommunity and was always. As I started
in the bank, he would comeinto my office all the time and say,
okay, what does the communityneed next? What does the community
need next? And that was how hedid it. And his philosophy just kind
(23:16):
of was passed down to me. Andso I would make sure that if there
were things going on in thecommunity, how the bank could be
involved with it.
That's great. Yeah. So Iassume the bank. As a banker, you
probably. There were lots,probably lots of loans and things
(23:40):
like this relative to farmingin the community. Because, I mean,
I'm guessing that Garrison,North Dakota is dominated by the
agriculture industry, if I'm guessing.
Yeah. And I. I'd say 85% ofour business was egg related.
(24:04):
Yeah. Equipment loans, farmloan, you know, this kind of thing.
Yeah.
Operating equipment, real estate.
Yep, you betcha. Awesome. So Ialso. I also mentioned firemen. You
were a chief, you know,volunteer firefighter. You know,
tell us about that.
Well, when I started at thebank in 1984, my father was. Was
(24:27):
on the fire department, and.And I was asked to join. There was
an opening. Garrison, our firedepartment, is made up of 40 members.
Volunteers. All volunteers.And they had an opening, and I was
asked to join, so I joined.And I don't know, a few years after
(24:54):
that, I became one of theassistant chiefs. And then in 1993,
when the chief retired becausehe was moving out of town, I was
asked to become chief. So Ibecame chief, and they wouldn't let
me out of it until last yearin 2025. So I was chief for 32 years.
(25:15):
Wow. Wow. I mean, that. Wow.That's a heck of a run right there,
right?
Yeah, it was 30.
Yeah. Well, you must have beendoing something right. You're either
probably a really good cookand a really. And a great leader.
You know, I was always amazedwhen or when I started. I had some
friends that werefirefighters, and I'd always ask
them because, you know, it'ssomething I didn't do. But I reckon
(25:38):
it's a lot like its service,of course, especially as a volunteer.
But it's probably a lot likewhat the average infantryman in the
military goes through, whichis, you know, Life is essentially
99 minutes of sheer boredominterrupted by 1 minute of sheer
(25:58):
panic.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, a good dayis no fire. A bad day's a fire, you
know, and, you know, having todo your thing. But I imagine, you
know, I see it all the time.Time when I. Not all the time, not
infrequently do I see the firetruck in the parking lot of the Publix
(26:20):
grocery store where I shoproutinely near my house. And they're
often going in there shoppingfor food, you know, which I think
is great, you know, because Iknow they're going back and, and
they're cooking, you know,they're cooking some big thing for
everybody, you know, I mean,that's part of the deal, right? If
(26:41):
you're gonna. I don't, I don'tknow how long you stay on shift,
but, you know, thefirefighters have. It's. It's 247
365. Right. I mean, you're,you're not, you're not waking up,
you know, not. Somebody's notcalling you at home and saying, hey,
come get your stuff on whenyou're on duty. You're, you're, you're
on duty, right. And if there'sa fire, you're. You're gonna slide
(27:02):
into your boots and run downthe pole and get on the truck and
go, right?
Yep, yep. We're, like I said,We're a 40 member department, all
volunteer. So we're basicallyon call 247 365. When there's a emergency,
we get paged out and in a waywe go.
(29:19):
Cool. All right, so now I gotto ask you about farming because
what I don't know is what areyou guys farming there? I mean, I
could take a wild guess. I'mguessing corn and soybean, but those
are just guesses. What isgoing on? I mean, you've been associated
with a farm and so has yourfamily for generations. So tell us
(29:43):
about what are you doing onthe farm?
Okay, well, my grandfatherfarmed basically back in those days.
It was. For us, it was, was,was dirt. You know, that was what
(30:06):
Durham, which is a wheat durm.D E R M D u r u m what they make
pasta.
I didn't even know it existed.
Yeah, that's. That, that,that's a type of wheat. It's a type
of wheat. It's a wheat thatthey make pasta out of being.
Okay.
(30:26):
And that was basically all wegrew. And then my father got into
farming and then we startedgrowing. Besides Durham, we started
growing some flax andsunflowers eventually.
What do you do with thesunflowers? Do they make sunflower
seeds?
No. What? We, we grew oil foroil. So.
(30:46):
So the oil is in the seeds.
Oils in the seed.
Did you have to extract thator did you export the seeds?
Yeah, we just harvested it andhauled to the elevator and then they,
they shipped it to whereverand. And it went to a crushing plant
and then they turned it intosunflower oil.
I got to ask you, Bruce. Youknow the big silos that you see all
(31:10):
over the place with big. Youknow, the farms, like the, you know,
sometimes they get the blueand white, they're different colors,
but, you know, they're.They're monster. Some of them are
huge. And they might havethree or four of them and you might
even find a common place wherethere's, you know, 10 of them or
something. Right?
Yeah.
Just monster silos.
Yeah.
What is going on in the silo?I've always wondered. I mean. Yeah.
(31:31):
What's going on there?
Usually the silos are mostlyfor dairy farms. They'll. That's
usually where they'll storetheir. Feed the corn and stuff. They
feed them. You will find somebeef farmers that will also have
silos. And again, they storethe feed in them for.
(31:52):
Those are like, you know,corn. They're corn that got harvested.
We're not talking about sweetcorn. We're just talking about corn
that's going for feed for, for cattle.
Yeah.
And so they're, they'reclimate controlled or they're, they're
air. I mean, why do you need,why do you need that, that, that
thing that, why do you need that?
We never had cattle, so I'mnot exactly sure exactly why, but.
(32:15):
But that was just. The siloseemed to be the way that they stored
them and, And I knew that theydo have some temperature.
Controls and so they don't getrot and all this other crap again.
Okay, so, so, all right, so Iinterrupted you. So, so sunflower.
What about today? Are youstill doing the same thing?
No, today we don't grow Durhamanymore because it's a little bit
(32:39):
finicky to raise quality wise.And if you don't have the quality,
of course, it doesn't makegood pasta. So what? My, my nephews
who took over the farm aftermy brother, they grow wheat and they
grow flax. And they grow peas.Edible, Dry, edible peas. Okay. Soybeans
(33:07):
and canola are basically themain crops that. That we grow now.
Canola is in, like, the canola oil?
Yeah, that's another oil crop.
Okay. And what is it, a beanor something?
Soybeans.
Is that what canola is madefrom? Soy?
Canola is. It's a real smallseed, but again, it's. It's oil.
(33:32):
So they crush it for oil.
Well, and that's where canolacomes from.
Oil comes from.
Oh, be darned. I had no idea.Awesome. Now, I gotta ask you, are
there, I'm guessing that inNorth Dakota you have whitetail deer.
Yep.
And you get big whitetaildeer, too, don't you?
(33:55):
Some, some. We have bothwhitetail and mule mule deer.
You got mule deer all over thestate or just out west?
Started out west, but weactually have some mule deer in our
area now.
Really?
Migrated a little bit.
Wow. And what aboutfurbearers? I mean, you got probably
everything. I mean, as youknow, you got coyotes, fox, all of
(34:18):
it. Salt there. Yeah, exactly.You got all the water, you got all
the ingredients. Are therestill places where there's pockets
of timber?
No, up. Up in the north,northeast corner of the state, they
have some timber up there,but. But for the most part, we're
all flat farmland. You get.You get out to the west, and that's
(34:42):
where there's the badlands,which. Right, which, you know, but.
But in the center part of thestate, not much for trees, just basically
flat farmland.
What's the temperature like today?
Today it's about 20 degrees,but it's. It's going to get cold
here. The high tomorrow isnegative two, I think, and similar
(35:06):
for Saturday. And then Sundayit warms back up and they're talking
30s, close to 40 degrees firstpart of next week.
Do you got any snow on theground right now?
Yeah, we've got probably eightinches or so.
But that wind. That wind canjust hawk through there, can it?
Yep. Yeah, like.
(35:27):
Like I. I once was on astretch of road in. In the Dakotas
and a storm came up and I. Itwas a long time ago, so I don't.
I don't recall. I knew it wasthe wintertime, and I don't recall,
like, you know, checking theweather forecast or anything. I had
someplace to go, and so I wasdoing that and this storm rolls up
and I was like, whoa, daddy,you gotta get off this road. Or this
(35:49):
road is disappearing.
Yeah.
Like, literally before myeyes, the road was disappearing and
the drifts were happening. Andit happened like that.
Yeah.
I was like, and I'm saying,I'm telling you, that wind had to
be 40, 50 knots and orgreater. It was just whoa. So you
get that sometimes there,don't you?
(36:10):
Absolutely, yeah.
I mean, there's no, there's noplace to hide.
Like three days ago we had 30mile an hour winds with gusts up
to 55.
Yeah. When that storm rolled through.
Yeah, yeah.
Right on. So the last, theother thing I want to talk about
here is, you know, and I guessit dovetails back into our work with
(36:35):
the combat wounded, you know,is you as a, and your community really,
you know, as philanthropists,you know, doing good deeds, especially
for, you know, in this case,our combat wounded and those great
veterans that they are now.What's that mean? What's that mean
(37:01):
to you? Like what? Like whatdo you take away when you get done
with an event? Right. What areyou left with when the guys are back
on the, you know, they leavethe farm, they're, they're heading
back home. What's that likefor you.
Again? I'd say it's verygratifying and humbling at the same
(37:22):
time because, you know, we'vedone this for eight years and we've
only had the same guide acouple times. So you're talking at
least four fresh faces every year.
Do you like that? Is that goodfor you?
(37:43):
It's fantastic. As much as I'dlike to see these guys come back,
it's always nice when a newgroup comes because you make new
friends and you learn of newexperiences and, and again, it's
just fantastic when these guysleave, you start, you start to appreciate
(38:10):
everything that they had gonethrough in their career as a soldier
of whatever they were,whatever branch they were, branch
of the army or branch of theservice they were in. And it's just,
like I said, it's veryhumbling and gratifying to think
(38:34):
back on what they went throughso that we could enjoy what we enjoy
today.
Well, that's patriotism, man.That's it right there. That defines
it as far as I'm concerned. Imean, I thought when I first started
doing this, I thought tomyself, I surely can't be the only
(38:55):
guy on the planet that thinksthis is a good idea. I mean, we're
going to go hunting andfishing with these combat wounded
veterans. What possibly couldgo wrong there, you know, and to
be a part of an organizationthat's still doing that, but doing
that, you know, by a factor of40 something, you know, across the
(39:18):
country in these individualevents, you know, well, you know,
you're onto something rightthere. You know, I mean, because
what I. I look at it like,Bruce, I say, okay, you know, it's
not my opinion that thatmatters. If you want it all out,
I'll give it to you. Butmostly it's what you're. It's what
(39:38):
your customers say, you know,or your clients, however you want
to, you know, phrase that. Andthat's our. In this case, our clients,
the foundation's clients arethe Purple Heart recipients. And,
you know, they. They, youknow, overwhelmingly they. They have
nothing but great things tosay about what we're doing. And.
(40:02):
But if it wasn't for you andyour family and your. And your, you
know, extended community ofsupport, this wouldn't be happening.
I mean, if you think aboutwaking up one day in Tupelo, Mississippi,
and somebody says, you know,the phone rings and said, hey, you
know, how would you like to gohunt pheasants in North Dakota? Heck,
(40:26):
yeah, I do. Are you kiddingme? Like, when do I get to go do
that? And then they show up.And then the people, they don't know,
they would never go toGarrison, North Dakota, probably
ever in their life. You know,whether they're from California,
Mississippi, the state ofWashington, New York, it doesn't
matter.
Yeah.
(40:46):
You know, we're deliveringthese guys as a package with leadership
to a place they've never been.And people like you and your family
and your community are goingto open their arm, your arms, and
you're going to give them thebest you got on that day. That blows
me away, man. That'sphilanthropy. That just blows me
away. And I got to thank you,and I hope, you know, your community,
(41:10):
some of them, your key playersare listening to this. But I will
tell you flat out, full stop,that it means a lot to them. I know
it does. Even if some of themdon't express it. But look at the
smile on their faces. Look atthe joy that it's bringing them and
(41:31):
the healing piece to this. Imean, can you imagine going off to
some country, some place inthe world, and you're 19, 20 years
old, or however old you are,and, you know, you join the army
or the Marine Corps, you raiseyour right hand, you know, swore
(41:51):
to uphold the Constitution ofthe United States and the orders
that the officers appointedover you, and then you found yourself
in some crap hole, you know,having to do deeds that nobody should
have to do, and then you getwounded in the process, and now you're
back on the block, you know.Yeah, I can't take your uniform off
(42:12):
because of the wounds yousustained. You're no longer part
of the thing, the one thingyou wanted to be a part of. Now you're
back on the block, just JoeSchmo. And what now? You know, what
now? And there's a big voidthere. They all say it. They all
express it, you know, in oneform or another. There's a void.
(42:33):
And that void is, you know, abig part of me is now gone. Now,
hey, granted, they got woundsand injuries sometimes that are horrific,
you know, and that's onething. You know, the stitches, the,
you know, medication, therehab, all of that, the physical
side. But then there's this,you know, emotional side, this. This.
(42:55):
This cognitive side where thatjust doesn't go away. And then, P.S.
this big part of you ismissing. It's just gone. And they
want that back. They all saythe same thing. You've probably heard
it. Man, I would go back in asecond, in a nanosecond. Can you
(43:17):
believe that they would goback in a nanosecond to go do that?
Because it was as odd as itsounds, it was comfortable. It was
what they knew. It was whothey loved and what they loved to
do, and that's gone. And sothat transition back to, quote, unquote,
normal is a long road. Andsometimes it's a lifetime road. To
(43:40):
be honest with you, it takes alifetime sometime for these guys
to. To. To readjust. But whenpeople like you and your community
don't ask anything in return,I'm just. We're just going to ask
you to have a good time andenjoy yourself. I might ask you to
be polite and respectful, ofcourse, but, you know, yeah, go out.
Go out there and have a. Havea great time. Get to know people.
(44:05):
That feeling, you know, whatyou're left with when you walk away
with that, when you get backon that plane and you get back on
your couch at home and you'rescratching your dog's chin and staring
at the ceiling tiles, thinkingabout what just happened, that. That
sense of, oh, my gosh, theydid that for me. Like, if that's
(44:26):
not validating, I don't knowwhat is. And I don't know if. I mean,
I don't know who else, ifanybody thinks of it that way. Maybe,
maybe not. But that's the wayI see it. And I gotta tell you, man,
it's amazing. So I want totell everybody out there in North
Dakota and around everybodyelse who's listening, if you're involved
(44:48):
in this work, you know. Thankyou from, from the bottom of my heart
and from the bottom, a bunchof Purple heart recipients because,
you know, it's pretty cool.You know, what you're doing is very,
very awesome. So thank you.
You're welcome. And I can tellyou that the group that, that we
(45:08):
have that helps with the eventand stuff, they all feel the same
way. These, these guys comeand. They never complain. They tell
us that they would go back anddo it again, and they don't want
us to feel sorry for. Yeah,you know, they, they, they, they
(45:33):
just. It's like I said, it'sso heartwarming to, to listen to
the heroes and what they'vegone through, what they've done.
And we relate it back to thefact that it's because of them that
(45:55):
we enjoy what we enjoy today.And the group that we have that helps
with this event are alsoappreciative of. Of what they have
done for us.
Yeah, well, you know, and, youknow, what you say is exactly right.
(46:17):
You know, and we appreciatewhat they did, but not only this
generation, but I mean, as weknow, many generations, you know,
going back to the, you know,World War I, you know, World War
II, Korea and Vietnam, youknow, those amazing Americans, many
(46:39):
of them came home without suchfanfare, without such welcome. You
know, there wasn't these kind.You know, people came home and were
just really quiet about whatthey did.
Yeah.
You know, and that's why the,the Veterans service organization
sprung up. You know, the VFWis the American Legions. You know,
this kind of thing. Theysprung up because it was a place
(46:59):
for. For the veterans to beable to go and do what? Yeah, break
bread, you know, drink a beer,share camaraderie, you know, this,
this kind of thing. But itwas. They were done very quietly.
They didn't know where else togo, you know, and, and how can you
explain what you just did andhad to go through to, you know, the
(47:22):
average person? Well, youknow, it's hard. It's difficult to
do that. Right. Yeah. I wantto, before we close the program here.
And I'm going to give you,Bruce, the last whack at the pinata
here. But I have a picture inmy hand. It's a view, and then there's
(47:43):
two other people in thepicture with a pile of pheasants
on a table. I'm going to showit to you here. Do you recognize
that photo?
Yep.
Okay. Who is the young man? Isthat your son?
That's my grandson.
That's Your grandson, what'shis name?
His name is Landon.
Landon.
(48:04):
He lives here in Garrison,goes to school. He's a senior this
year, but he has come out thelast four or five years and hunts.
We're fortunate that theweekend of the pheasant hunt is also
(48:25):
where he has a break. He getsa couple days off so he doesn't have
school, so he gets to come outand hunt. Hunt the days with us and,
and really enjoys it. And it'sbeen really fun to watch him interact
(48:46):
with, with the heroes becausehe's kind of a quiet to himself guy.
But I'll tell you what, these,these guys drag it out of them.
They do, man. They'll get it.They'll get it out of you. There's
no, you can't hide net crowd, man.
No. And the other, the gallonthere is my wife and she, She's.
(49:14):
She doesn't hunt, but she's.She's out there helping get lunches
ready and, and all of that.
And what's your wife's name?
Sue.
I was gonna say that lookslike your daughter. I'm. I have to
tell her that I said that, butthat she doesn't look old enough
to be your. Your wife. And theother thing I was gonna say is whatever
(49:34):
that, that, that, that WWIgear she's got in that camouflage
shirt right there.
Yep.
See that?
Yep.
That is so cool. I never knewthat environment existed.
That's another thing thatKrauses do. They buy, they buy a
hoodie like that every yearfor, for the warriors, and then usually
(49:57):
they'll buy a few extra onesthat get passed around to the people
that are, that are helpingwith, with the event. But that's
another thing that crowsthese. Provides so cool for the heroes.
That's a good looking piece ofkit right there. It always warms
my heart when I see, when Isee, you know, the foundation's logo
(50:18):
on a piece of kit that I, thatI personally admire.
Yep.
It doesn't matter if I admireit or not. I just makes. It just
warms my heart to see, youknow, y' all taking leadership roles
and the initiative and doinggreat things like that, you know,
supporting the heroes and thebrand and of course, the, the mission.
(50:39):
It's really, it's reallygreat. Well, Bruce, as we close up
here, as I like to do, I'llgive you the, the, the last word.
Is there anybody you'd like tosingle out or, or, or, you know,
that we've forgotten toacknowledge or, or say thank you
to, or if you just have, youknow, give you the, the, the last
word here.
Yeah, you know, there's,there's so many people that I'm not
(51:04):
going to name names, but youknow, we have a couple gals in town
that do quilts for the heroesevery year. We've got a bunch of
firemen that, that willusually help put on the Friday night
meal and then put on thebanquet for the Saturday night meal.
Fire department lets us usethe fire hall to do that in so we
(51:27):
don't have to, don't have torent a spot for it or anything. And
you know, there's, like Isaid, there's eight guides or so
that have got dogs that justlook forward to the event every year.
And so many people. TheAmerican Legion does flag ceremony
(51:49):
for the banquet and stuff andthere's a local called West River
Transit that will go up withus to the airport and pick up the
heroes and bring them back atno charge. And you know, there's
just, it's a, it's a wellrounded community event that there's
(52:11):
so many fingers in the potthat it's all what makes it happen.
Right. It's like, it's like,it's kind of like herding cats, you
know, but in a good way. And Imean that in a good way because if
you give good people amission, you know, spirit and intent,
(52:33):
you know, task and purpose,you know, they're going to do, they're
going to knock it out of thepark and they're gives them maximum
degrees of, of, you know, afreedom of action and taking the
initiative and just stand backand watch, watch the magic happen.
It's so like, what I always,what I always thought about philanthropy
(52:57):
is that, you know, it isexactly that people giving of their
time, their talents and theirenergy, you know, to make something
happen, something good happen.And it's really impressive. And I
can't wait to get up there andshake your paw and you know, get
(53:20):
to know your family a littlebit and see your countryside and
enjoy that part of Americabecause I know it's great.
Yeah, no, like I said, you,you come up, bring your boys up some
July and I'll get you out onthe lake and you can catch. But again,
it's just, you know, everybodythat we ask to help, I don't even
(53:48):
get it out of your, my mouth.And they're saying, absolutely, you
know, from the, from theneighbors out on the, on the farm,
yeah, we have enough land thatwe could hunt and, and probably have
a successful hunt, but notnearly as successful as we do, if
we didn't have the neighborsthat, that allow us to hunt their
(54:08):
land as well. And, and you askthe, the people with the dogs and,
you know, they, I have somethat will, will text me in the middle
of summer and say, okay, whatare the dates again? They want to
get another calendar becausethey're coming.
You know, you're doing a goodjob. When people start talking about
(54:30):
next year when the event's noteven over.
Yeah, you know, absolutely.
And that's, that's so. It's sotrue. Wow. Well, I'm, I'm thankful
and grateful and humbled by,by this and your work, and I know
the heroes are. And I, youknow, I wish you the absolute best
this winter. I hope that it'smild for you and that maybe you need
(54:53):
some snow for the fields.
I don't know, whatever, somesnow. But my wife and I are actually
leaving next Thursday. We godown to Alabama, right on the Alabama
Florida line, and we spend twoand a half months or so down there.
Good for you. Good for you.Where? Whereabouts?
(55:13):
We go to Orange Beach.
Okay, cool. Well, very good.Well, then you're snowbirds a little
bit. Thank you. I know you'veearned it. Yeah. Well, hopefully
this summer or this winterdown here will be mild for you and
enjoyable. And again, I lookforward to meeting you. Thanks for
(55:35):
all you guys do out there.It's amazing. And you did a great
job on the podcast, and I'msure folks are just going to love
hearing about your story andthe great work you're doing. Bruce,
thank you very much and thank you.
Wounded warriors in Actionfoundation is definitely made a huge
(55:57):
impact on my life with whatyou do, and it's very easy to put
on this event knowing thatyou're going to have five heroes
that are going to come and youcan, you can show what North Dakota
(56:19):
is all about and what pheasanthunting is all about.
Well, it's so cool. Well,we're honored to do it. And it couldn't
be done if it wasn't for, youknow, a lot of wonderful people stepping
up to the plate and reallyenriching this space. Because that's,
that's what it's all about isthat, you know, that, that, that
(56:41):
whole culture that is, in yourcase, you know, North Dakota. I can't
replicate that in Florida. Ican't replicate that in, in, you
know, New York City.
It.
It is what it is, and that'swhat makes it so great. Plus, obviously,
the resource, you know, sowe're very fortunate to have you
on the team and wish you thebest of luck in year nine as it comes
(57:02):
around, and, and wish you aMerry Christmas, you know, happy
Holidays, and the best in theNew Year.
You as well.
All right, Bruce, thanks foryour time. We're out.
Okay, thank you.
Bye.
Thank you for listening to theWWIA Podcast. To learn more about
(57:25):
the Wounded warriors in Actionfoundation and how you can get involved,
please visit ourwebsite@wwiaf.org or follow us on
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
(57:47):
us at. Podcast thank you foryour support and for helping us honor,
connect, and heal our combatwounded Purple Heart heroes through
the power of the great outdoors.
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