Episode 66: Interview with Bruce Schreiner of the North Dakota Wild Pheasant Hunt

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Hello and welcome to the WWIA Podcast. We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes.

If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you if you're a returning listener. Thanks for coming back. Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing.

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.

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'll enjoy, so let's go ahead and jump into the conversation with John and Bruce now.

He and his community in Garrison, North Dakota have been helping the foundation coming up on nine years by providing an amazing Wild Pheasant hunt in that part of the country. Welcome to the program. Bruce Schreiner.

Thank you.

How are you?

I am good. How are you?

Good. Are you at home right now? In Garrison.

I am.

You know, I looked at it on the map today and I was just kind of like, it gives me an opportunity to kind of put myself maybe in, you know, in your shoes for a moment. I love the Dakotas, first off. I mean, it's sparsely populated. You know, I've driven through the Dakotas several times and I love it.

And of course, you know, the history is just rich, especially when you're, if you're like, I am a student, you know, who likes to learn about, you know, American history and especially, you know, the American Indian wars. I just, you know, and Lewis and Clark and all that. I mean, that's like, man, that's right up your, your alley there.

But you have the Missouri river, like, right to your south, don't you?

Yes. Three miles south of Garrison is Lake Sakakawea, which is on the Missouri river system.

Yeah.

The lake was formed when they built the Garrison Dam back in the early 50s for flood control. So the, the lake was, was formed then. And it's a great recreation area.

I'm a guess there's walleye in there.

Premier walleye fishing in the world.

Is it really?

Yeah.

How big? See, we fished. I didn't know that. Now that I do, you guys are in trouble. But I love fishing walleye. I grew up fishing walleye in Wisconsin.

But we have an event, you probably saw it there in Ohio on Erie. And I have a couple of fishing events there and they're pulling.

I went to one of those events and they were catching 28 inch, close to sometimes 30 inch walleye. Now. It's a great lake, you know.

Yep.

But, but, but I was like dumbfounded because of how large those fish were. Like, when I grew up, if you caught a walleye that was, let's just say it was 22 or 23 inches. That's a big walleye. Yeah.

You know, but you say, you know, it's a, it's a, you know, world class, world renowned fishery. That's, that's, that warms my heart.

Yeah. And, and there's lots of 20, 30, 32 inch in that lake.

In that lake. Yeah. That's fantastic. So that means there's a lot of bait.

Yeah.

And that lake's probably got some good structure to it and all of that. I mean, that's, that's phenomenal. Plus wild pheasants. Right. I mean, you guys, I hunted. 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 if you can see that or not, but that's my dad and one of my best buddies, Dixon, Me in the middle and my.

He was, he was my Labrador, Grizzly, sir grizzly Clifton. And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Seven or eight wonderful pheasants, right, that we got in North Dakota where we hunted and it snowed.

So, you know, the snow had, had fallen. There's a little bit of snow, but those were all wild birds. My dad was a big time pheasant hunter and.

Which kind of made me a big time pheasant hunter. And, you know, I just, I just loved it. I mean, that there's something to be said about, you know, chasing those critters.

They're just a beautiful, one of the most beautiful game birds on the planet. They taste great. And, and you guys have been doing that now with us for like eight years. Oh, my gosh, look at that.

Here's a picture of this year's hunt. One of the days.

What is there like 25, 30 birds on that table? Hard to say.

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 the guys going home with pheasant? I would imagine, yes.

They, they, they, they get to take. Our daily possession limit is three in North Dakota, and we basically hunt four days. So they all get to take 12 birds home with them.

Oh, my gosh. And you guys got guys 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 lot of them are labs, but there are a couple pointers and stuff in there as well.

Yeah. You know, my dad, we hunted behind, believe it or not, Irish setters.

My dad was a big fan of the setters, and they're typically pointing dogs, but he trained Brandy, which was his dog, to be more of a flusher because we were in Wisconsin and hunted a lot of farmland. You know, if a dog will lock up on a bird and, you know, in a cornrow, nine times out of 10, by the time the hunter gets up there, that bird's gone.

So it's better to have them hunt close and flush. That's been my experience. You know, the, and the labs are real good at that.

And I know there's pointing labs today, but, you know, I don't want to get, get into a big discussion about 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 my day, but I'm sure the guys just absolutely love it.

I've heard nothing but great things. So tell us a little bit, Bruce, about how you started getting involved with the foundation and then we're going to talk about you.

I've scribbled a bunch of notes because I can't wait to learn more about you because you've got a really interesting history going there. But tell us about how the event started, who the key players are, and then if you don't mind.

You know, what I'd love to hear about is the impact that the 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 I always am really interested in hearing about the impact on you personally, your community, your family, that kind of thing. So if you don't mind, sir.

Sure. The event was started with my brother glenn and Roy McKenzie. They, they started the very first pheasant hunt.

And I do not know exactly what precipitated them to start the event. I was still working at the bank at that time full time, so I.

And I was just getting ready to start retirement. I retired at the end of 21, so I, I stepped in and, and worked with Roy to continue to hunt as it is today.

My brother lived out on the farm and that's where we headquartered the hunt out of. We have very generous neighbors out there that I'll allow us to, to hunt on their land.

Yeah, love.

And, and we've also got six or seven, eight guides that have dogs that, that just love the event and they look forward to it every year. So, so we've got the land, we've got the dogs.

Man.

The foundation is, is very good with getting five heroes to come for the hunt and, and it, and it's just a wonderful experience for, for Everybody. There's usually 20 of us or so that, including the, the heroes that, that are. That make up the, the party for the, for the hunt.

And like I said, it's just from our perspective, it's just really gratifying when you get to visit with the heroes and hear their stories and watch them interact with Normally four other heroes that they've never met before and how they interact with each other, it's just really gratifying.

It is even for me to this day, some 20 years into this, I still host an event up there in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, place we call Camp Hackett and same thing.

I mean, just watching the heroes interact amongst each other and sharing stories and, and we're further away from the war than we were when we started. And I say the war, the war went on in Iraq, Afghanistan for 20 years, but we're further away from that now than we were back then.

And I think the guys in general are in a much better position to let their guards down. You know, 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, you know, get past some of it.

But that fireside chat, that, that, that idea of being, you know, delivered and going to a place that you've never been and people you've never met and these people are going to bring their A game for you as a way of saying thanks for what you did.

And then you're gonna get to sit around a fire that night and, you know, talk about what you did and you know, not just what you did in the pheasant fields, but maybe what you did over there. And, and, and it's just the gears like almost immediately mesh, you know, and, and with them.

And then when you're, when you're, when you're an active participant in that, mostly like, you know, just absorbing it, that's what I, I do. I don't, I try to stay out of the limelight as much as I can.

Sometimes I can't avoid doing my job as the host, but I'm always impressed and feel like there's a great sense of gratification in that process. And I can't really explain it.

It's just, you know, the only word I could ever come up with to describe it is the magic, you know, what's happening around, you know, the fire pit, if you will. But it's really cool.

I'm glad that, and all the events share one of those similar things, but, or similar set of circumstances or outcomes, if you will.

But let me ask you tell us about Kraus Market and that, that lash up there because I, I, I, I, I, I met Roy McKenzie, great American, you know, he and, and your brother Glenn were the co founders and now you've stepped in there. But tell us about Kraus Market because they've been Very generous to us.

Yeah. Krause's Market originates in Hazen, North Dakota, which is 55 miles southwest of Garrison. Our local super value store owners were looking to retire.

Krauses ended up buying them, and they also bought a market down in washburn, which is 35 miles south of us. And they are just terrific community people. Roy was their meat cutter here in Garrison, so.

So when him and my brother started the hunt, they went to Krauses, and Krauses jumped on board to help sponsor it. They supply product for the meals and a banquet that we have between them and their vendors.

So they're a huge part of making the event happen and making it happen so that it's not overly burdensome on the cost.

Excellent. Krausey's Market.

Yes.

Yeah. God bless you. Thanks for all that you guys have done. You know, I scribbled some things.

I was, you know, last couple days, I just, like I said, I was trying to have a tendency to want to, like, get to know as much as I can about people I have not met. And once upon a time I had met everybody, you know, and it's just not possible. I will, I will come meet you one of these days.

I'm bound and determined to get up there. I can't wait to see it. It's one of the top three events from a selfish perspective that I want to go to.

Not just to hunt the pheasants, but to be up in that part of the country and to meet your family and friends and your community and say thank you. I'm committed to doing that just not happen on the timeline that I wanted it to by. For lots of reasons. But.

Well, you come up some July and. And I'll. I'm not a fisherman, but July is probably the best month for walleye fishing.

So I might be bringing my two boys. They would, they would love that. They would love that.

That would be.

That's a great. That's a great invitation. I. I appreciate that, that, that that might be happening sooner than later. I actually prefer to.

To be honest with you, you know, I actually prefer Bruce to do it like that because if I rock up in an event, then it's just, it's. I'm a. I'm a distractor, you know, even though I keep my mouth closed most of the time, I'm a distractor to that event anymore and I don't want that.

So I would way rather do it in the summertime, you know, where we can, you know, wet a line and relax for a few Days and the boys and I could get to, you know, they would love it. I mean, there's so much cool stuff happening there. I appreciate that. Imitation. Be careful what you ask for.

I welcome you to come up and bring your boys.

Yeah, that's cool.

Great.

So I have here, I wrote some things down here. So I'm a simple person. So I like to break things down into block and tackle, you know, the essence of things. I just have a tendency to.

To want to do that. And so the things I wrote down about you are father, banker, fireman, farmer and philanthropist. Those are the words that I'm.

The labels, the stickers that I wrote down about you. And I understand you have three children and five grandchildren.

Yep.

Wow. So that's good. Any boys in that equation? You have three children, so tell me about them.

Two sons and a daughter.

Okay. Are the boys involved in the farm?

No, my oldest son was actually killed in a plane crash, so he was a farmer. He farmed west of Garrison. And. And my other son works in the oil fields, but does participate in the hunt.

Okay.

As he is allowed with his work schedule.

Okay. I'm sorry.

He's. He's got a daughter and a. And a son and his. My grandson is a senior in high school this year and looks forward to the hunt every year, so.

Oh, that's great. That's great to have family involved, isn't it?

Yeah. And then, and then we've got a, A daughter that lives in.

By Jamestown, North Dakota, which is a couple hundred miles away from here, but they have two daughters, they both live in Bismarck. Okay. One is married and one is engaged, so.

Okay. So always something going on.

Yeah, yeah. Family's close, so we get to spend time with them.

Good, good. So banker, that's next. You, you were in banking for, for, for 38 years you were a banker?

Yeah.

And you, you were, you, you, you. Your career as a banker turn culminated, if you will, as the president of a bank. Right. They were a president of a bank.

Correct.

So I gotta ask you. Okay, so it's like if you asked me, give me a snapshot of your day. My life and the day of.

You know, with my professional work here, I could tell you they would bore people, but I would tell you, but I always like to ask that question, you know, like you're the. When you were president of a bank, what? Like what. Give me a typical, you know, day in the life of.

What kind of things is the president of a bank doing?

Well, first of all, I had a terrific crew underneath me, approximately 35 employees, mostly women, But didn't need a whole lot of. Of direction. Everybody knew what their jobs were and they did it.

And, and, and that was kind of a legacy that came from the owner of the bank as he passed down the torch.

But, you know, it was just making sure that everybody had what they needed, had the tools to do their job and make sure that you were out in the community, making sure the community had. The owner of the bank was very instrumental in getting Garrison to where it is today. He was very big on the community and was always.

As I started in the bank, he would come into my office all the time and say, okay, what does the community need next? What does the community need next? And that was how he did it. And his philosophy just kind of was passed down to me.

And so I would make sure that if there were things going on in the community, how the bank could be involved with it.

That's great. Yeah. So I assume the bank. As a banker, you probably.

There were lots, probably lots of loans and things like this relative to farming in 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% of our business was egg related.

Yeah. Equipment loans, farm loan, you know, this kind of thing. Yeah.

Operating equipment, real estate.

Yep, you betcha. Awesome. So I also. I also mentioned firemen. You were a chief, you know, volunteer firefighter. You know, tell us about that.

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 that, I became one of the assistant chiefs.

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 been doing something right. You're either probably a really good cook and a really. And a great leader.

You know, I was always amazed when or when I started. I had some friends that were firefighters, and I'd always ask them because, you know, it's something I didn't do.

But I reckon it's a lot like its service, of course, especially as a volunteer.

But it's probably a lot like what the average infantryman in the military goes through, which is, you know, Life is essentially 99 minutes of sheer boredom interrupted by 1 minute of sheer panic.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, a good day is no fire. A bad day's a fire, you know, and, you know, having to do 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 fire truck in the parking lot of the Publix grocery store where I shop routinely near my house.

And they're often going in there shopping for food, you know, which I think is great, you know, because I know 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 you're gonna. I don't, I don't know how long you stay on shift, but, you know, the firefighters 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 not calling you at home and saying, hey, come get your stuff on when you're on duty. You're, you're, you're on duty, right.

And if there's a fire, you're. You're gonna slide into your boots and run down the 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 basically on call 247 365.

When there's a emergency, we get paged out and in a way we go.

Cool. All right, so now I got to ask you about farming because what I don't know is what are you guys farming there? I mean, I could take a wild guess.

I'm guessing corn and soybean, but those are just guesses. What is going on? I mean, you've been associated with a farm and so has your family for generations. So tell us about what are you doing on the farm?

Okay, well, my grandfather farmed basically back in those days. It was. For us, it was, was, was dirt. You know, that was what 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 that they make pasta out of being.

Okay.

And that was basically all we grew. And then my father got into farming and then we started growing. Besides Durham, we started growing some flax and sunflowers eventually.

What do you do with the sunflowers? Do they make sunflower seeds?

No. What? We, we grew oil for oil. So.

So the oil is in the seeds.

Oils in the seed.

Did you have to extract that or did you export the seeds?

Yeah, we just harvested it and hauled to the elevator and then they, they shipped it to wherever and. And it went to a crushing plant and then they turned it into sunflower oil.

I got to ask you, Bruce. You know the big silos that you see all over the place with big.

You know, the farms, like the, you know, sometimes they get the blue and white, they're different colors, but, you know, they're. They're monster. Some of them are huge.

And they might have three or four of them and you might even find a common place where there'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. What's going on there?

Usually the silos are mostly for dairy farms. They'll. That's usually where they'll store their. Feed the corn and stuff. They feed them. You will find some beef farmers that will also have silos.

And again, they store the feed in them for.

Those are like, you know, corn. They're corn that got harvested. We're not talking about sweet corn. We're just talking about corn that's going for feed for, for cattle.

Yeah.

And so they're, they're climate 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'm not exactly sure exactly why, but. But that was just. The silo seemed to be the way that they stored them and, And I knew that they do have some temperature.

Controls and so they don't get rot and all this other crap again. Okay, so, so, all right, so I interrupted you. So, so sunflower. What about today? Are you still doing the same thing?

No, today we don't grow Durham anymore because it's a little bit finicky to raise quality wise. And if you don't have the quality, of course, it doesn't make good pasta. So what?

My, my nephews who took over the farm after my brother, they grow wheat and they grow flax. And they grow peas. Edible, Dry, edible peas. Okay. Soybeans and canola are basically the main 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 bean or something?

Soybeans.

Is that what canola is made from? Soy?

Canola is. It's a real small seed, but again, it's. It's oil. So they crush it for oil.

Well, and that's where canola comes from.

Oil comes from.

Oh, be darned. I had no idea. Awesome. Now, I gotta ask you, are there, I'm guessing that in North Dakota you have whitetail deer.

Yep.

And you get big whitetail deer, too, don't you?

Some, some. We have both whitetail and mule mule deer.

You got mule deer all over the state or just out west?

Started out west, but we actually have some mule deer in our area now.

Really?

Migrated a little bit.

Wow. And what about furbearers? I mean, you got probably everything. I mean, as you know, you got coyotes, fox, all of it. Salt there. Yeah, exactly.

You got all the water, you got all the ingredients. Are there still 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 where there's the badlands, which. Right, which, you know, but. But in the center part of the state, 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 is negative two, I think, and similar for Saturday.

And then Sunday it warms back up and they're talking 30s, close to 40 degrees first part of next week.

Do you got any snow on the ground right now?

Yeah, we've got probably eight inches or so.

But that wind. That wind can just hawk through there, can it?

Yep. Yeah, like.

Like I. I once was on a stretch of road in. In the Dakotas and a storm came up and I. It was a long time ago, so I don't. I don't recall.

I knew it was the wintertime, and I don't recall, like, you know, checking the weather forecast or anything. I had someplace to go, and so I was doing that and this storm rolls up and I was like, whoa, daddy, you gotta get off this road.

Or this road is disappearing.

Yeah.

Like, literally before my eyes, the road was disappearing and the drifts were happening. And it happened like that.

Yeah.

I was like, and I'm saying, I'm telling you, that wind had to be 40, 50 knots and or greater. It was just whoa. So you get that sometimes there, don't you?

Absolutely, yeah.

I mean, there's no, there's no place to hide.

Like three days ago we had 30 mile an hour winds with gusts up to 55.

Yeah. When that storm rolled through.

Yeah, yeah.

Right on.

So the last, the other thing I want to talk about here is, you know, and I guess it dovetails back into our work with 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 to you? Like what? Like what do you take away when you get done with an event? Right.

What are you left with when the guys are back on the, you know, they leave the farm, they're, they're heading back home. What's that like for you.

Again?

I'd say it's very gratifying and humbling at the same time because, you know, we've done this for eight years and we've only had the same guide a couple times. So you're talking at least four fresh faces every year.

Do you like that? Is that good for you?

It's fantastic.

As much as I'd like to see these guys come back, it's always nice when a new group comes because you make new friends and you learn of new experiences and, and again, it's just fantastic when these guys leave, you start, you start to appreciate everything that they had gone through in their career as a soldier of whatever they were, whatever branch they were, branch of the army or branch of the service they were in. And it's just, like I said, it's very humbling and gratifying to think back on what they went through so 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.

I mean, I thought when I first started doing this, I thought to myself, I surely can't be the only guy on the planet that thinks this is a good idea. I mean, we're going to go hunting and fishing with these combat wounded veterans.

What possibly could go wrong there, you know, and to be a part of an organization that's still doing that, but doing that, you know, by a factor of 40 something, you know, across the country in these individual events, you know, well, you know, you're onto something right there. You know, I mean, because what I. I look at it like, Bruce, I say, okay, you know, it's not my opinion that that matters.

If you want it all out, I'll give it to you. But mostly it's what you're. It's what your customers say, you know, or your clients, however you want to, you know, phrase that. And that's our.

In this case, our clients, the foundation's clients are the Purple Heart recipients. And, you know, they. They, you know, overwhelmingly they. They have nothing but great things to say about what we're doing. And.

But if it wasn't for you and your family and your. And your, you know, extended community of support, this wouldn't be happening.

I mean, if you think about waking up one day in Tupelo, Mississippi, and somebody says, you know, the phone rings and said, hey, you know, how would you like to go hunt pheasants in North Dakota? Heck, yeah, I do. Are you kidding me? 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 to Garrison, North Dakota, probably ever in their life. You know, whether they're from California, Mississippi, the state of Washington, New York, it doesn't matter.

Yeah.

You know, we're delivering these guys as a package with leadership to a place they've never been.

And people like you and your family and your community are going to open their arm, your arms, and you're going to give them the best you got on that day. That blows me away, man. That's philanthropy. That just blows me away.

And I got to thank you, and I hope, you know, your community, some of them, your key players are 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 them don't express it.

But look at the smile on their faces. Look at the joy that it's bringing them and the healing piece to this.

I mean, can you imagine going off to some country, some place in the 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 raise your right hand, you know, swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the orders that the officers appointed over 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 get wounded in the process, and now you're back on the block, you know. Yeah, I can't take your uniform off because of the wounds you sustained. You're no longer part of the thing, the one thing you wanted to be a part of.

Now you're back on the block, just Joe Schmo. And what now? You know, what now? And there's a big void there. They all say it. They all express it, you know, in one form or another. There's a void.

And that void is, you know, a big part of me is now gone. Now, hey, granted, they got wounds and injuries sometimes that are horrific, you know, and that's one thing.

You know, the stitches, the, you know, medication, the rehab, all of that, the physical side. But then there's this, you know, emotional side, this. This. This cognitive side where that just doesn't go away. And then, P.S.

this big part of you is missing. It's just gone. And they want that back. They all say the same thing. You've probably heard it. Man, I would go back in a second, in a nanosecond.

Can you believe that they would go back in a nanosecond to go do that? Because it was as odd as it sounds, it was comfortable. It was what they knew. It was who they loved and what they loved to do, and that's gone.

And so that transition back to, quote, unquote, normal is a long road. And sometimes it's a lifetime road. To be honest with you, it takes a lifetime sometime for these guys to. To. To readjust.

But when people 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 and enjoy yourself.

I might ask you to be polite and respectful, of course, but, you know, yeah, go out. Go out there and have a. Have a great time. Get to know people.

That feeling, you know, what you're left with when you walk away with that, when you get back on that plane and you get back on your couch at home and you're scratching your dog's chin and staring at the ceiling tiles, thinking about what just happened, that. That sense of, oh, my gosh, they did that for me. Like, if that's not validating, I don't know what is. And I don't know if.

I mean, I don't know who else, if anybody thinks of it that way. Maybe, maybe not. But that's the way I see it. And I gotta tell you, man, it's amazing.

So I want to tell everybody out there in North Dakota and around everybody else who's listening, if you're involved in this work, you know. Thank you from, from the bottom of my heart and from the bottom, a bunch of 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 tell you that the group that, that we have that helps with the event and stuff, they all feel the same way. These, these guys come and.

They never complain. They tell us that they would go back and do it again, and they don't want us to feel sorry for. Yeah, you know, they, they, they, they just.

It's like I said, it's so heartwarming to, to listen to the heroes and what they've gone through, what they've done. And we relate it back to the fact that it's because of them that we enjoy what we enjoy today.

And the group that we have that helps with this event are also appreciative of. Of what they have done for us.

Yeah, well, you know, and, you know, what you say is exactly right.

You know, and we appreciate what they did, but not only this generation, but I mean, as we know, many generations, you know, going back to the, you know, World War I, you know, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, you know, those amazing Americans, many of them came home without such fanfare, without such welcome. You know, there wasn't these kind. You know, people came home and were just really quiet about what they did.

Yeah.

You know, and that's why the, the Veterans service organization sprung up. You know, the VFW is the American Legions. You know, this kind of thing. They sprung up because it was a place for.

For the veterans to be able to go and do what? Yeah, break bread, you know, drink a beer, share camaraderie, you know, this, this kind of thing. But it was. They were done very quietly.

They didn't know where else to go, you know, and, and how can you explain what you just did and had to go through to, you know, the average person? Well, you know, it's hard. It's difficult to do that. Right. Yeah. I want to, 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 in my hand. It's a view, and then there's two other people in the picture with a pile of pheasants on a table.

I'm going to show it to you here. Do you recognize that photo?

Yep.

Okay. Who is the young man? Is that your son?

That's my grandson.

That's Your grandson, what's his name?

His name is Landon.

Landon.

He lives here in Garrison, goes to school. He's a senior this year, but he has come out the last four or five years and hunts.

We're fortunate that the weekend of the pheasant hunt is also where he has a break. He gets a couple days off so he doesn't have school, so he gets to come out and hunt. Hunt the days with us and, and really enjoys it.

And it's been really fun to watch him interact with, with the heroes because he'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 gallon there is my wife and she, She's. 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 looks like your daughter. I'm. I have to tell her that I said that, but that she doesn't look old enough to be your. Your wife.

And the other thing I was gonna say is whatever that, that, that, that WWI gear she's got in that camouflage shirt right there.

Yep.

See that?

Yep.

That is so cool. I never knew that environment existed.

That's another thing that Krauses do.

They buy, they buy a hoodie like that every year for, for the warriors, and then usually they'll buy a few extra ones that get passed around to the people that are, that are helping with, with the event. But that's another thing that crows these. Provides so cool for the heroes.

That's a good looking piece of kit right there. It always warms my heart when I see, when I see, you know, the foundation's logo on a piece of kit that I, that I personally admire.

Yep.

It doesn't matter if I admire it or not. I just makes.

It just warms my heart to see, you know, y' all taking leadership roles and the initiative and doing great things like that, you know, supporting the heroes and the brand and of course, the, the mission. It's really, it's really great. Well, Bruce, as we close up here, as I like to do, I'll give you the, the, the last word.

Is there anybody you'd like to single out or, or, or, you know, that we've forgotten to acknowledge or, or say thank you to, or if you just have, you know, give you the, the, the last word here.

Yeah, you know, there's, there's so many people that I'm not going to name names, but you know, we have a couple gals in town that do quilts for the heroes every year. We've got a bunch of firemen that, that will usually help put on the Friday night meal and then put on the banquet for the Saturday night meal.

Fire department lets us use the fire hall to do that in so we don't have to, don't have to rent a spot for it or anything. And you know, there's, like I said, there's eight guides or so that have got dogs that just look forward to the event every year. And so many people.

The American Legion does flag ceremony for the banquet and stuff and there's a local called West River Transit that will go up with us to the airport and pick up the heroes and bring them back at no charge. And you know, there's just, it's a, it's a well rounded community event that there's so many fingers in the pot that 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 I mean that in a good way because if you give good people a mission, you know, spirit and intent, you know, task and purpose, you know, they're going to do, they're going to knock it out of the park and they're gives them maximum degrees of, of, you know, a freedom of action and taking the initiative and just stand back and watch, watch the magic happen.

It's so like, what I always, what I always thought about philanthropy is that, you know, it is exactly that people giving of their time, their talents and their energy, you know, to make something happen, something good happen. And it's really impressive.

And I can't wait to get up there and shake your paw and you know, get to know your family a little bit and see your countryside and enjoy that part of America because 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 on the lake and you can catch. But again, it's just, you know, everybody that we ask to help, I don't even get it out of your, my mouth.

And they're saying, absolutely, you know, from the, from the neighbors out on the, on the farm, yeah, we have enough land that we could hunt and, and probably have a successful hunt, but not nearly as successful as we do, if we didn't have the neighbors that, that allow us to hunt their land as well.

And, and you ask the, the people with the dogs and, you know, they, I have some that will, will text me in the middle of summer and say, okay, what are the dates again? They want to get another calendar because they're coming.

You know, you're doing a good job. When people start talking about next year when the event's not even over.

Yeah, you know, absolutely.

And that's, that's so. It's so true. 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, you know, I wish you the absolute best this winter. I hope that it's mild for you and that maybe you need some snow for the fields.

I don't know, whatever, some snow. But my wife and I are actually leaving next Thursday.

We go down to Alabama, right on the Alabama Florida line, and we spend two and a half months or so down there.

Good for you. Good for you. Where? Whereabouts?

We go to Orange Beach.

Okay, cool. Well, very good. Well, then you're snowbirds a little bit. Thank you. I know you've earned it. Yeah.

Well, hopefully this summer or this winter down here will be mild for you and enjoyable. And again, I look forward to meeting you. Thanks for all you guys do out there. It's amazing.

And you did a great job on the podcast, and I'm sure folks are just going to love hearing about your story and the great work you're doing. Bruce, thank you very much and thank you.

Wounded warriors in Action foundation is definitely made a huge impact on my life with what you do, and it's very easy to put on this event knowing that you're going to have five heroes that are going to come and you can, you can show what North Dakota is all about and what pheasant hunting 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, you know, a lot of wonderful people stepping up to the plate and really enriching this space. Because that's, that's what it's all about is that, you know, that, that, that whole culture that is, in your case, you know, North Dakota.

I can't replicate that in Florida. I can't replicate that in, in, you know, New York City.

It.

It is what it is, and that's what makes it so great.

Plus, obviously, the resource, you know, so we're very fortunate to have you on the team and wish you the best of luck in year nine as it comes around, and, and wish you a Merry Christmas, you know, happy Holidays, and the best in the New Year.

You as well.

All right, Bruce, thanks for your time. We're out.

Okay, thank you.

Bye.

Thank you for listening to the WWIA Podcast.

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