50 Mile March | Team Werner

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to VeT Voices, a podcast produced by Warner Enterprises where average is for other people. Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard. Let your voice be heard on Warner's veteran podcast. [00:00:20] Speaker B: Now buckle up and get ready for. [00:00:23] Speaker A: The host of BET Voices, Greg, Johnny, and Adam. [00:00:29] Speaker C: Hey, Warner. Adam here. Thanks for joining us today. We are back in the studio today to talk as really a follow up from last episode. We have the team that will be walking with us in this year's 50 miles march. There are seven total associates that have gone through the qualification process and the fundraising process for this year's march. In August. We will depart Lincoln, Nebraska, on August 24 and walk 50 miles straight through to Omaha through the night. We'll kick off about 03:00 in the afternoon and land sometime between noon and two the following Sunday. So in the studio again, we've got all seven walkers with us. We've got Greg Ham, Jamie Hamm, Brian Howard, Alec Misner, Bill Kiel, and Brian Lechtenberg. And today is really just about telling some of the story of why we Warner support this cause I and why we're excited for the upcoming march in a couple of weeks. So let's just kick it over to Jamie. Jamie, what do you do here at Werner? [00:01:39] Speaker D: Yeah, so my role as vice president of safety and compliance. So my role would be working with the safety team. Where can we improve our safety program, whether it's researching new technology, researching new training, working with our operational divisions to enhance our safety program, as well as the fun loving compliance with federal regulations, which I know is the entire team's favorite. [00:02:05] Speaker C: Said nobody. [00:02:06] Speaker D: Said nobody. Said nobody ever, other than some very few Brook nerds within the department. And they know who they are. [00:02:13] Speaker A: So, Jamie, tell us why you're walking in the 50 miles march this year. [00:02:16] Speaker D: Yeah, so my grandfather served in World War Two. My father served in the seventies. And so I also have a spouse, obviously, who was a veteran. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Talk more about that guy. [00:02:30] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:02:31] Speaker C: Revolutionary war. [00:02:33] Speaker D: Everyone ever again. Yeah. And I guess going back to my grandfather, he didn't talk much about the time he served. We know he saw action. He was from Norway and a great guy. And I can remember as a child, he would wake up in the middle of the night and scream, have nightmares in Norwegian. We never knew what he was saying, but we knew it was World War Two related, based on what my grandmother would tell us. So I know it affected him. I know there was some pTsd there. So when you think about what the 50 miles march is supposed to do in terms of resources and helping people get back on their feet and dealing with some of that mental illness that came from, you know, PTSD. I just want to be a part of that and see how we can help people and continue to serve them because they did so much to serve us. [00:03:31] Speaker C: That's awesome. How has training gone so far this year? [00:03:34] Speaker D: Training's been interesting. We just did a walk, and both of my heels are nice and scraped up doing my part, direct my feet so it doesn't happen during the march. [00:03:44] Speaker C: Better now. [00:03:45] Speaker A: Better now on 50 miles. [00:03:46] Speaker C: Yep. [00:03:46] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. [00:03:47] Speaker A: Better to build up some calluses now versus have them be a bloody hamburger during the march. [00:03:52] Speaker D: Yeah. Nice. Nice visual. That's disgusting. [00:03:56] Speaker C: Jamie, first year walking. But, Greg, this is your second year walking. If there was any piece of advice that you could give about any of it. [00:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, for me, you know, I know all the walkers that are involved in this year's walk, uh, from team Warner, um, and they all possess the mental fortitude to. That will get them through the walk. They will walk, um, and they will continue to walk no matter what kind of pain they're in or what kind of shape their feet are in. But the biggest thing that I took away from last year's event was that, you know, preparation to your feet relative to you've got to beat up your feet. You got to, you know, get your feet a little bit calloused. Um, so if you can walk, you know, 5 miles three times a week, that's enough damage done to your feet every week to get them kind of built up enough where you should be able to walk the 50 miles. As long as you have a good mental, positive attitude and you're not standing next to Adam Cassidy, letting him lament about all the woes mes of his life. If you can stay away from Adam and you can walk next to somebody positive like myself or like Brian, then you'll be just fine. [00:05:03] Speaker C: This will come back to you later in the interview, just so you know. So, the other thought, walking 5 miles three times a week and not on a treadmill. The treadmill does not beat your feet up, in a way, in my humble opinion. [00:05:17] Speaker D: Yeah. We've been sticking to country roads and gravel and hills and thinking worst case scenario, and then hopefully a more flatter road between Lincoln and Omaha, but we'll see. [00:05:29] Speaker C: Absolutely. Okay. Jamie, anything else to add? [00:05:32] Speaker D: No, just looking forward to being a part of the entire experience and working with all of this community. It seems like it's grown in number from last year. I remember being there, and so I think that's pretty exciting stuff. [00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah. We want to say thank you again, Jamie, for your participation this year, not only for me personally, but from Warner Enterprise, we want to thank you for representing our industry and representing the Omaha community and representing just the people that want to help support this community and this operation. So thank you for that. [00:06:05] Speaker D: Yeah, happy to be involved. Thanks. [00:06:07] Speaker C: Thanks. [00:06:08] Speaker A: All right, next up we have Mister Brian Howard. Brian, tell us about your time during your service. I know you're a Navy veteran, so tell us about what you did in the Navy and then talk to us a little bit about why you're supporting the walk this year. [00:06:20] Speaker B: Okay, well, thank you. Thanks for having me. I served in the Navy from 1990 to 96. I was with called a fleet Marine Force corpsman. So basically my job was to be with the Marines and go out into the field. I did that for the first year, and then from there I went over and I actually was. I served with the Navy SEAL team five. I did that for four years. And with that, basically I would go out and all the training missions, there's 13 different missions that they go on, and I'd go out in the field and I provide medical support. And then I actually ran the medical department there for a celtium five for three and a half years of my four years of being in there. [00:07:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:01] Speaker C: What do you do here at Warner? [00:07:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:03] Speaker B: Thank you. That was kind of on the script there. I didn't know if you want to do that first or not. [00:07:07] Speaker C: I try to stick to the script. [00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I was trying to as well. Greg threw me off a little bit, so. So think, um, I've been a Warner for 23 years, and of that time I started out as a pricing analyst, and then from there I evolved into seals or, excuse me, sales. And primarily with sales, I worked with team Warner expedited, helped start that division. It actually started in 2000, and then it's grown to where it is today. And usually with Team Warner expedite, it's all the just in time freight that has to go to a manufacturing or go to a cross dock or somewhere where it's hot and it's just in time getting ready to order and get to products, to shelves, either on the retail site as well here. Recently I've transitioned over and now I do dedicated sales. So basically what dedicated sales is that their assets under contract or what the customer has that they run exclusively for that customer. And that's some good freight. That is a desirable freight within the enterprise because it's routine freight, and then it's good for drivers and quality of life, and it gives you good utility and production within our trucks. [00:08:14] Speaker C: Good deal. So why the 50 miles march? [00:08:18] Speaker B: Several reasons. I was actually thinking about that on my way down here. And then when I saw the question this morning is that I spent the first 26 years of my life in the military. My dad was in the Air Force for 20 years, so I grew up on Air Force bases. So I lived in that community of Air Force brats or air force type. [00:08:34] Speaker C: People, trying to figure out how you got 26 from 1990 to 1996. And I was like, man, that is some Greg ham Army math, wasn't he? [00:08:42] Speaker A: No, that's all your fingers and toes, Adam. [00:08:45] Speaker B: And then my grandfather served in the korean war in the army. And he actually went. He was a high school dropout and actually served in the army. And he never really talked about a service there. But it was pretty rough for him, coming back and transitioning over. And then he was a coal miner. And then my father, he actually, in order to. I shouldn't say he avoided the draft, but he decided to go ahead and join the air force right out of high school in 1971 when I was born. [00:09:12] Speaker C: Sounds like a smart dude. [00:09:13] Speaker A: Yep. [00:09:13] Speaker B: And then basically did 20 years. And we lived in San Antonio, we moved to England, we lived in Indiana. We moved around quite a bit. [00:09:20] Speaker A: So Brian was the. Was the first 1st person that I met at Warner Enterprises when I joined the company 13 years ago. Brian is my longest, I'll proudly say Brian is my longest friend, longest serving friend at Warner Enterprises in the tenure at Warner Enterprises. Back in those days, we had what we called the Awfuls. They were the cross between an office and a cubicle. And they put me in an awful right across from this. You know, at the time, what I thought was this high speed, low drag, rocking the crew cut guy. And I was like, oh, I can get along great with this guy. And then Brian said the three words that kind of ended it for me. Said, I was in the Navy. [00:10:03] Speaker C: Three words I was in maybe. [00:10:08] Speaker A: Okay, the four math. [00:10:10] Speaker B: The four. [00:10:11] Speaker A: The five words that ended it for me. Yeah, I served in the Navy. It gets longer each time I say it. Brian and I have shared a lot of time here at Warner, a lot of highs and lows working in sales together. So, Brian, we're proud, proud to have you on the team this year. You know, we thank you for joining the team and supporting the 50 miles march community. Can you kind of talk to us a little bit about, you know, when you first heard about, you know, what 50 miles march was. And then you decided, hey, I'm all in. You know, give us some of the backstory about, you know, what were the, you know, what were the. [00:10:47] Speaker B: Certainly, yeah. [00:10:48] Speaker A: The things about 50 miles marks that said, hey, this is something I really want to support. [00:10:52] Speaker B: So, as you guys mentioned earlier in the intro, there was a originally, last year with Warner, there was only three walkers, and, you know, I was a little hesitant. I went to the intro meetings and all that, and then I had to sit that one out just because of just some health things I had going on, and actually went to the finish line and was saw you guys, and I looked at that and I saw the crowd, and I saw just the rush of the adrenaline and all the excitement and the energy of the folks that were participating and helping, and it just kind of took me back to when I was in the military, and I thought, I'm doing that. I'm going to do that next year. [00:11:27] Speaker C: I knew you were hooked. As soon as you pulled on your. Pulled up alongside us on your motorcycle and followed us for the last couple of miles and then met us at the finishing line, I knew you were hooked. I knew you'd be in. It was apparent that it's a connection. That's what it is for me. It's what it is for Greg, too. It's a connection back to service, and that means a lot for a lot of us. [00:11:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I used to love those 15 miles. [00:11:50] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:11:50] Speaker A: I mean, the camaraderie in this. I tell everybody this, what is it about the 50 miles march? And I tell everybody that shared suffering and that shared pain that we all had, and we all have that connection. As veterans. They're all, you know, we all had opportunities for, you know, uncomfortableness, suffering, and just general malaise, but we all got through it together, and we all learned that how, as a team, you know, we could accomplish really amazing things. And so when you see a group of people that are committed to raising, you know, you know, $2,500 a walker, I've committed to do that. I'm committed to walking 50 miles. I'm gonna walk from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Omaha, Nebraska, on a highway, and I'm gonna do it in the middle of the night, and I'm gonna do it in 22 hours. I'm not gonna do it as a relay. I'm not gonna be part of a team that does it. I'm gonna individually do that and put forth that effort and make that happen. And it just brings you back to all those challenging, hard, personal things that you did while you were in the service, and then you had somebody right there on your left and your right who was as motivated and was as willing to share the pain, take some of the load if you needed help. Just that willingness to be by your side as you are executing the mission, leading to completion of the mission. And so for me and to have Brian walking this year with me and Adam and the rest of the team is just quite remarkable. [00:13:20] Speaker B: Fraternity. Sum it up. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Well said. [00:13:23] Speaker B: Yep. [00:13:23] Speaker A: Yep. [00:13:24] Speaker C: Awesome. Brian, thanks for the time today. [00:13:26] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:13:27] Speaker A: Thanks, Brian. All right, next in the seat, we've got Brian Lechtenberg. Brian, tell us about what you do here at Warner Enterprises. [00:13:36] Speaker D: Hello. [00:13:36] Speaker F: I am a corporate safety manager as well as the Omaha terminal manager here at Warner. What I do is I'm in charge of the safety and training staff at the training building here in Omaha, where we usher in new drivers through the Warner welcome experience orientation, and take care of driver safety needs as needed, as well as man the disposition line and give dispositions for different incidents, accidents, et cetera. [00:14:04] Speaker A: So, Brian, does this mean that you work for Adam Cassidy? [00:14:07] Speaker F: I do, in fact, work for Adam Cassidy. [00:14:09] Speaker A: Lucky. I'm so sorry that you have to put up with Adam. [00:14:12] Speaker C: This isn't fair. He hasn't had his performance review yet this year. We haven't had that conversation. [00:14:17] Speaker A: You're going to do great. [00:14:20] Speaker C: Too funny. Brian, talk to us about your time in the air force. What did you do in the air force? [00:14:25] Speaker F: I served from 2005 to 2014 in security forces, as Adam can relate to as well. I did a myriad of things. [00:14:33] Speaker A: Such as, what was that like? Hotel guard? Is that what that means? Adam told me he was the hotel guard. [00:14:39] Speaker C: He's just frustrated that your service wasn't in the 19 hundreds, like his washing. [00:14:45] Speaker F: And by the way, it was only the finest hotels that we guarded. I did a myriad of different things involving air based defense, nuclear security. I was at Stratcom for a period of time. An elite guard. [00:15:01] Speaker C: So many jokes. Yes. You also got Belgium as an assignment. Weren't you at NATO? NATO headquarters? [00:15:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:11] Speaker C: Or am I crazy? [00:15:12] Speaker F: It was a. It was part of shape. NATO. It was a belgian air force base that I was assigned to. We were a custodian force, essentially, handling the weapons that we had there, and the Belgians did all the day to day security and everything for us. [00:15:27] Speaker A: Nice. [00:15:28] Speaker C: How long were you there? [00:15:29] Speaker F: Just a year. [00:15:29] Speaker C: Okay. [00:15:31] Speaker A: So, Brian, how did you hear? About 50 miles. March. [00:15:34] Speaker F: I was graciously volunteered by Adam Cassie to partake in the. [00:15:39] Speaker A: Is that, like, voluntold we've both done it, Greg. [00:15:42] Speaker C: We'll hear from Alec later. He has a similar story. [00:15:47] Speaker F: But Adam did tell me about the group, the organization, and I'd been searching for a cause myself to get behind it can't get any easier of a cause to get behind than this one, right? What really hooked me was when Jay was talking, the first time I heard him speak, he mentioned empowering, not helping. That goes a long ways. [00:16:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It's really something when you can think about, you know, I've said this multiple times, but when you can, you know, there's so many veteran causes that, you know are worthy and there's never enough money to go around, but when you find one and then you bring in a tangible asset, you say, hey, I'm gonna build a homeless community, or a community that's going to allow for re education, retraining, job skills, all these things to help people that are going through that. That homelessness period. You know, I just. And you can actually put your hands on it. You know, that is really powerful. That's something that I can see where exactly where my money's going. I can touch it, I can feel it. And so for me, you know, like, like what you just said, that was the hook, you know, that said, hey, this is really something that you gotta get behind. And so I'm glad that you're on the team. Can you, as you've been training, you know, to do the march and August, you know, talk to us a little bit, how the training's going, what you're doing for your training portion, I'm doing. [00:17:11] Speaker F: Around the neighborhood, parks, lakes, etcetera, getting some calluses built up. [00:17:17] Speaker A: Sure. [00:17:17] Speaker F: It hurts. [00:17:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Darn right. [00:17:19] Speaker F: Like we all said, rather now than later. [00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah, do it now. [00:17:22] Speaker F: Learning all the hotspots on the feet. So I know what to prepare for. [00:17:25] Speaker C: Let's. Let's talk pace real quick. So one of the questions I always get about the 50 miles is what, what pace is it at? So, Greg alluded earlier about how it's all 50 miles. It's not a relay. You don't get to come with a team, and each of you do 10 miles. Right. There's other events that are that, but this is very much so. A team centered event as far as a holistic. We start with the same group of people and we finish with the same group of people. [00:17:50] Speaker A: Everybody does at the same time. [00:17:51] Speaker C: Everybody does at the same time. We're not in a strict military formation, but we are certainly in. It'll be a large group and then four smaller groups and we're in a loose gaggle, if you will. Right. We're certainly not marching in the same time or anything along those lines. And we all have space that we can spread out a little bit. But the pace is somewhere between 3.2 to 3.5 miles an hour at times, especially when we leave Lincoln, you're probably going a little slower than that, which for the normal guy between, you know, 18 and 45. So not Greg. It feels incredibly slow to the point where you want to speed up. I remember last year, the only times I ever got frustrated with the pace was because of how slow we were going, not how fast we were going. And don't get me wrong, I did not have any gas left in my tank by the end of the 50 miles. You're wiped at the end of 50 miles. But what's your, what's your training pace? What do you try to keep it at when you're, when you're going between. [00:18:55] Speaker F: Three and a half and four? [00:18:56] Speaker C: Yeah, that's, that's about where I'm at typically as well. [00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I noticed the same thing. Even though I am in the older, you know, I'm in the older than 50 crowd. Adam, you know, I did notice that the times where I would get frustrated during the middle of the night or whenever would be the times when we would kind of get to that crawl pace and you'd be like, come on, let's just keep going. I got to just keep going. I can't stop. I got to keep going. But I did notice that after you go through it one time, and this will be our second time walking, I know that that's coming. I can plan for it in my mind and I can be a little bit better prepared for that change of pace into slow. [00:19:36] Speaker C: It's going to happen, especially as we leave Lincoln and then it happens again in the middle of the night, or at least it did last year, it's going to happen. It just is a course of walking with. Last year we had 87 walkers with us. This year we have double that number. So it's hopefully doesn't happen twice as much or twice as bad, but with that large of a group, it's undoubtedly going to happen. [00:19:57] Speaker A: So, Brian, tell us, give us another, some personal motivation to want to do this. I know Adam forced you into doing this and maybe we talk about that on your PRP, but maybe that's an HR claim even might be. But tell us, give us some what in your background made you want to serve not only the nation, but also in conjunction with serving for this cause. [00:20:23] Speaker F: Serving for the nation. My grandfather served, my father served. Both my grandfathers actually served, been around. [00:20:32] Speaker A: It a long time, both in the air force. [00:20:35] Speaker F: One. Navy, air force, army. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:20:39] Speaker F: Spread out. One. My mother's father was in both the navy and the air force, and he's the one who swayed me to the air force. [00:20:48] Speaker C: So he went from Navy to Air Force, not the other way around. [00:20:50] Speaker F: Correct. [00:20:52] Speaker C: You never find somebody that leaves the air force. [00:20:55] Speaker A: Why is that? [00:20:56] Speaker C: Why is that? [00:20:57] Speaker A: I mean, the hotel is pretty nice. I get it. Yeah. Looking back. Yeah. Looking back on it, I made the wrong choice. I get it. [00:21:05] Speaker F: Ed, to serve, to your point about Adam coaxing me into participating on a kind of a deeper level, I served with a few people who I'd call friends who ended up taking their lives eventually. And that's one of the main causes for this organization. And that it hits home. [00:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [00:21:29] Speaker C: After Iraq and Afghanistan, there's a lot of those stories. Right. We talk a lot about such a small percentage of our society being able to serve in today's military. But that's. I just, if you look at our friend group, my friend group, tons of my friends have risen, raised their hands and said, yeah, I'll do that. I'll serve. And then, so we all have some little story, mini stories, multiple stories, a big story about somebody that took their life, somebody that struggled with mental illness, somebody that came home to a divorce after another divorce after another divorce. That's a lot of my reasoning as well. I've seen it not work so many times. [00:22:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think we all have heard the horror stories about maybe the VA hasn't been as good as it is now, and so maybe there's still lots of room for improvement there. But we've all heard the horror stories about people that have tried to reach out, tried to get connection either through that organization or others, and just still were unfulfilled and then did something drastic or that changed not only their life, but maybe their family's lives in a big way, and obviously friends lives and all that, having the facility here in Omaha, having all of our ability to interact with and hopefully impact in a positive way that facility and those people that, that choose to go there, it's just one of the things that I'm really excited about and really passionate about what that impact can look like in the future. [00:23:03] Speaker F: Absolutely. [00:23:05] Speaker C: Ryan, thanks for the time today. [00:23:07] Speaker A: Ryan, thanks for walking with us. We appreciate it. Even though you were voluntold, I'm glad to have you on the team, and I'm glad you're doing it with us. [00:23:12] Speaker F: You bet. Appreciate it. [00:23:13] Speaker C: He's just happy not to have to talk to me on the march. [00:23:16] Speaker A: Nobody wants to talk to you on the march. I mean, let's be honest. [00:23:19] Speaker C: Get out of here. [00:23:20] Speaker A: Thanks. [00:23:21] Speaker F: Fair enough. [00:23:22] Speaker C: Greg, finally we have another army vet. [00:23:25] Speaker A: God, finally we have another smart person on the panel. [00:23:28] Speaker G: But debate again. I did jump out of airplanes. [00:23:30] Speaker A: I know, and I love you for it. [00:23:32] Speaker C: Perfectly good airplanes. Bill, tell us about what do you do here at Warner? [00:23:39] Speaker G: Bill Kiel in the lean continuous improvement department and that. [00:23:43] Speaker A: See, Adam, another smart guy, and that's. [00:23:46] Speaker G: Under the it umbrella. And I work on improving processes throughout the entire company. I conduct classes, monthly classes, weekly classes on lean continuous improvement methodologies and tools. Some of the things that I really do a lot of is process mapping, because we are doing a lot of transition from older system it systems to newer systems. And we need to understand exactly what's going on and how people do their jobs, whether it's in safety, whether it's in, in the maintenance shops, or whether it's in logistics. I spent a lot of time mapping out processes and figuring out how they do the work today and to where it will transition into the new world of a new it system. [00:24:33] Speaker A: So if you didn't know that Bill was an army vet, Bill has a very distinct and unique giveaway that says, hey, I was in the army. Can you tell me what it is, Adam? It is the deployment of the knife hand. He says, I did this, I did that. This is what I do. This is the knife hand. Adam. This is what we used in the army. Not only was it deadly, but you could instruct a class on how to operate this belt fed machine gun. Anyway. [00:25:02] Speaker C: So, Bill, moving on from Greg, quickly, what did you do in the army? [00:25:07] Speaker G: So I was in the army. I was an airborne paratrooper. Between 1993 and 1996, I spent two years over in Vicenza, Italy, and then two years at Fort Bragg. During that timeframe, I jumped out of airplanes and ran around in the wood lines. [00:25:26] Speaker A: She was a general badass. I mean, just say I was a general badass. I kicked indoors. I jumped out of airplanes. I mean, this is what real men did. This is what real men did. [00:25:38] Speaker G: And, Greg, part of that was I did a lot of road marching because somewhere else. [00:25:42] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:25:43] Speaker G: When you're light infantry or airborne infantry, you do a lot of road marching. And so in my days, I did a lot of road marching, but that. [00:25:52] Speaker A: Was with perfect segue into Bill, when we said hey, we're doing the 50 miles march this year. What was your first thought? [00:26:00] Speaker G: I said, you know what? I can do it. I knew that from years ago I could do 1220 4 miles easily. And I said, you know, 28 years later, could I do 50 miles? And when Adam asked, hey, would you like to do the 50 miles march? And I knew you guys walked last year, and it was right when you got done that, Adam asked me, hey, you're going to do this 50 miles road march. And I looked at him, and just with a can do attitude, I said, yes, count me in. [00:26:30] Speaker C: Out of the seven of us walking, that's. You signed up the quickest for this year's march. The five that we added onto the team all had to go home and check in with their significant others, et cetera. All had to go home and talk to their doctor. You know, the normal litany of excuses. You were the first to say, yeah, I can do it. Greg did it. He's twice as old as I am. [00:26:53] Speaker G: But no, and that's really. That's exactly where it was at. When I saw you guys did that last year. I said, you know, I can do this. And just with the way I do things in life, I think this is a worthy cause. I mean, it's certainly. We've talked earlier about some of the people, you know, why they're doing it. Veterans transitioning from active duty, coming home to civilian life. There is a big difference in what happens in a person's life, and there's a lot of tragic stories about it. And I think what the 50 miles road march is doing is a really solid cause. And I think this is something that I want to be behind. And not to mention the fact that I can say I walked from Lincoln to Omaha. I'm doing it with camaraderie, with the guys and gals that I work with. I think this is a very worthy attempt for raising money and accomplishing something, especially now that I'm over 50 years old. This is something I can do because I did this when I was younger. [00:27:58] Speaker C: So part of the process, you apply to walk, which is a simple online form. It's not much of an application. Add that application then generates an invitation to qualify to do all 50 miles, you have to qualify with the organization. Talk to us about your experience with the qualifier. [00:28:16] Speaker G: So it was. I think it was what, early April 13, we did qualify around Chilco Hills Lake. We did twice around there. I will tell you that I had been. Most of my training has been four mile or six mile marches prior to that, that was, I think did 14 miles. And I know that about 10 miles I had to really dig down, you know, that whole, the whole intestinal fortitude. I got pretty slow there for a. [00:28:45] Speaker C: While, but it stops becoming physical at a point and it is a mental game through and through. [00:28:51] Speaker G: It is. And I kept looking ahead and looking next to my group and I said, I'm not going to quit. And so we did the 14 miles. And I know afterwards it was, you know, it's obviously an ask of your body, an ask of your mental fitness. But I felt good. I got done with that. I said, you know, I can do this. And so now since then I've done multiple ten mile. I did a just under 12 miles here. I think it was two weeks ago. And so my feet, my legs, I'm getting conditioned. I think physically I think I'm ready to do this. [00:29:25] Speaker A: So at the time that we're filming this, we've got about 50 days ish and until the march. And so we've got 50 days to continue to train. What are you doing for your, what's your training? Maybe explain your training regimen a little bit to the group. [00:29:36] Speaker G: So most of what I'm doing is I've allotted. Mondays seem to be my longest walks. I'll get home from work and then I'll do either, anywhere from two to 4 hours of walking. And that's either twice around Portal lake, twice around prairie Queen, but I've done that multiple times. And then usually Thursdays and Fridays I'll do just 2 miles around my portal just to keep my legs and feet going. But I'm trying to get those Mondays in to where I'm really going out doing the long distance and really fatiguing myself. [00:30:12] Speaker C: So you're an afternoon type of guy for training. Craig, when do you and Jamie train? [00:30:17] Speaker A: Yeah, so we've been kind of. We've been with our schedules, we've been kind of all over the board. I like to train early in the morning. I like to get up at four and then I'll walk 7 miles. Take me just a little over 2 hours. And so that's been kind of my routine. And then we've sprinkled in some afternoon stuff on the weekends and just trying to get it in wherever you can. I mean, you know how complicated. I mean, I know both of you have younger children than I do and so I know how complex those schedules tend to get. And so we're just trying to, we're trying to sprinkle it in with all the other commitments that you have with life. But we're trying to do the same thing. We're trying to get in some, you know, some longer, some longer walks, some shorter walks, some speed walks, just trying to get the feet beat up pretty good and just kind of getting prepared for, you know, the one thing I'll say about the march last year that I wasn't prepared for is I wasn't prepared. Even though we walk in August, I knew it was going to be hot. But, you know, when you leave out at 03:00 that hour is between three and six. It's a, it's warm, but it's not as bad as the hours between, you know, nine and ten that next morning, for whatever reason, it just seemed a lot warmer. I think that it's because you go through that period of time between, you know, midnight and early hours of the morning where it's, it gets. It was cold. I mean, we, when we stopped at Lenoma Beach, I remember I threw on a sweatshirt for our, you know, half hour break. And so just to kind of keep myself warm, I remember, remember it being cold, especially right there by the water. And so that next morning, that period between, you know, ten and noon, I noticed that it, and it was really hot, and I really was perspiring a lot at a much higher rate than I was during the evening hours of the night before. And so just trying to get myself some, you know, acclimated some humidity, getting out in the different times of the day, trying to not just be in the early hour, you know, early hours of the morning. [00:32:10] Speaker C: So it was the stretch from that, the new hy vee. It's no longer new. Cause it was new last year to 88 tech and on up that road. And I agree. I was expecting it to be hot at four when we showed up in the afternoon to start. Right. I was not expecting it to be uncomfortable at 09:00 in the morning. I think what did me in was we were staring straight into the sun for two or 3 hours as it rose. And it was just, maybe temperature wise wasn't necessarily as hot as the afternoon prior, but the staring straight into the sun, you can't get your ball cap low enough, you can't get the sunglasses in the right spot. You're taking both off constantly to wipe down your forehead because you're sweating your butt off. It was just, I remember struggling temperature wise at the same time. Yes. Last March. [00:32:54] Speaker A: So, Bill, when you think back to, you know, you think back to your time. So, Bill, didn't mention. But Bill was in the 82nd airborne. You know, when you think back into that time of your life and you think about all the things that you did, you know, predominantly, you served in the same period of time, and I did, and it was predominantly, you know, peacetime mostly training for war. And at that time, you know, we did a lot of the physical training standards were significantly different than where they are, you know, right now. Not better or worse. I'm just mentioning it. But talk a little bit about some of the stuff that we used to do back then relative to the force. March, ruck, march, speed marches, all that stuff. Can you remember maybe an instance that you'll hearken back to? You'll remember being in a formation doing something, and do you have a story you can quickly share with us? [00:33:45] Speaker G: So I've got several, but road marching was a very. I mean, that was, as an infantryman, it was 12 miles in 3 hours, and that was the standard. And one of the road marches I remember is for getting the EIB badge, expert infantry badge, which was a. I think it was like 60 tasks that you had to do well in the. [00:34:08] Speaker C: EIB is no joke. If you don't get it as an infantryman, that's frowned upon. Very largely correct. [00:34:15] Speaker A: Well, especially as you became a leader. [00:34:17] Speaker G: Very much so. Yeah, I got it when I was in e four, but there were some e sixes and some first lieutenants and even captains that hadn't got their EIB, because if you make more than three mistakes out of all these 60 tasks, you're done. You're out, you're a no go. And so I remember that they start out with the road march, and I did twelve. I did the 12 miles, and I think it was under three or it was under 2 hours and 40 minutes. So I hustled it and how much weight, and that was with the standard pack load of 40 pounds, and. [00:34:52] Speaker C: But that was hoofing it. That was 12 miles. [00:34:54] Speaker G: That was 40 pounds with your rucksack and then your additional rifle, lce canteens, rifle Kevlar, the whole night. I mean, it was full combat load. And when you get to. When you got to the finish line, as soon as you crossed, you had 1 minute to where you had to field strip your m 16 and do a functions check on it. And I remember my team leader, my squad leader were there right at the finish line. They stopped me right before I crossed. Okay, stop. Take some water. You got plenty of time. [00:35:23] Speaker C: You got plenty of time. [00:35:23] Speaker G: Now pull your head together, do your function, check in front of me right now. And so I heard him did a function check and make sure it was going to work, because, I mean, you literally. I had literally been walking nonstop for the last three and a half running. Yeah, two and a half hours. Highly fatigued, sweating, not thinking about anything other than laying down and, like, melting. Did the function check, passed it, and went on to. Spent the day to do all these other tasks. But that was something that we did. A lot of it was nothing to do. Hey, PT, tomorrow's gonna be a six mile road march. Hey, tomorrow's gonna be a ten mile road march. And that was, what, 90 era combat boots. And now we look at the boots today. They're air cushioned. They're much easier on your feet. So I. So I say in one way I can do this because that's the kind of training that we did. It was expected to go as light infantry. You didn't have tanks, you didn't have Bradley, you didn't have humvees. You had your feet, and that's how you got places. [00:36:26] Speaker C: Awesome. [00:36:28] Speaker G: So, yeah. [00:36:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Bill, thanks again for, you know, again, thanks for. For volunteering. Thanks for. Thank you for your service. Of course. Thank you for volunteering to do the walk with Adam and I and the Werner team. We're happy to have you on the group, and, you know, we know that when we get into it late at night, you know, I know that you're going to be right there with us, and I'm just happy to have you on the group. Yeah. [00:36:49] Speaker G: Thank you. I'm excited. [00:36:51] Speaker C: I'm looking forward to it, so I'm also looking forward to having this year's done. [00:36:55] Speaker G: Yes. [00:36:55] Speaker C: But I'm looking forward to the actual march. So, Bill, thanks for the time. [00:37:00] Speaker G: Thank you, Adam. Thank you, Greg. [00:37:01] Speaker A: All right, next up we have Alec Misner. Alec, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do here at Warner Enterprises. [00:37:08] Speaker C: Is it Meisner or Misner? [00:37:10] Speaker E: Meissner. [00:37:11] Speaker C: Eight years of doing it wrong, so. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Way to pay attention. [00:37:15] Speaker E: Yeah, there's always something. Now, my name is Alec Mizner. I'm the manager of military recruiting here at Werner. So part of what I do is try to talk to veterans and service members around the country and explain the awesome opportunities that we have in the transportation industry. [00:37:32] Speaker A: So tell the group, Alec, who is your boss, and how do you feel about working for that person? [00:37:37] Speaker E: Greg Hamm is my boss, and I can't just stress enough the support that I feel, the love that I feel. I mean, I could not think of a better, more inspirational person. I aspire to be like Greg in everything I do. The gray is coming in, so I'm doing my best to pull. Pull that off. But now Greg's my boss, and I love him. [00:38:01] Speaker C: So you were in the marine Corps? [00:38:04] Speaker A: Do we have any crayons in the room? He's not comfortable unless we have a crayon in the room. [00:38:08] Speaker C: I always think, I mean, musical instruments. Weren't you in the band, flight? Didn't you play the flute? [00:38:12] Speaker E: Did not play the flute, unfortunately. [00:38:14] Speaker C: Saxophone. [00:38:16] Speaker E: I did play a saxophone back in the day, so. But no, I was on the salon drill platoon, so we performed after the band played, but it was a ceremonial platoon, so I did that for four years, from 2009 to 2013, and we traveled around the country and around the world performing a precise, unique ceremonial drill exhibition in front of visiting dignitaries, heads of state, NFL football teams. So it was pretty unique, pretty fun. [00:38:45] Speaker A: And you were stationed in DC, correct? [00:38:47] Speaker E: Stationed at the barracks in Washington, DC, yeah. [00:38:48] Speaker C: Is there only one silent drill platoon? Is it only the one in DC? [00:38:51] Speaker E: There is only one. [00:38:52] Speaker C: Okay. [00:38:53] Speaker E: All the other branches have one. [00:38:58] Speaker A: I will give props to the marines silent drill team. Without a doubt, it is the best. I mean, we have the old guard in the army, and I remember, I have a funny story. I do remember when I was in basic training, we had a guy who. So the old guard, and I'm sure the Marine silent drill unit has a height standard and a fitness standard. And we had a guy in our group, actually, we had a couple of them, and they said, hey, you know, you meet the height and kind of the looks criteria of. We'd like you to consider diverting out of your mos today and going to this one or being selected for the old guard. And I'm sure it was the same way at the Marine Corps, but those guys have to look good in their class A uniform. They have to be in tip top shape. [00:39:54] Speaker C: So that was not offered to you, right? [00:39:58] Speaker A: Alec had signed some kind of waiver. I'm sure, to get, to get asked. [00:40:02] Speaker C: But I've heard that this is completely off topic. But the old guard, the badge that they have, their service identifier, is actually more rare than the Medal of Honor. Just the number of people that are able to volunteer get through their training. Cause their training pipeline is even more intense. Cause it is an image. [00:40:23] Speaker A: Yeah, same, you know, same with solid Joe platoon. Yeah, same with the marines group there in DC. Only in DC as I don't know that much about them. Obviously, I was not part of that group. But again, I know it is extremely rare and limited in terms of number of slots. [00:40:41] Speaker C: Just to be clear, Alec, I've made the you were in the band flight joke so many times, I actually forgot you were in the dribble tune at all. [00:40:51] Speaker E: I didn't play musical instrument. [00:40:52] Speaker C: Correct. So you're welcome. [00:40:55] Speaker E: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. [00:40:57] Speaker A: So, Alec, tell us how you heard about the 50 miles march. [00:41:00] Speaker E: Actually, it was my boss last year. Still, Greg Hamm sounds like a jerk. Well, he put it on my performance review. You know what? He put it on my performance review. He said, hey, a couple of us are going to do this thing. I signed you up. And now that I think about it, Greg, we just had our performance review this year and it's not on there. [00:41:17] Speaker A: So you've accomplished that mission. The check mark has been granted. Growth has happened. [00:41:25] Speaker C: Funny, funny. [00:41:27] Speaker E: No, in all seriousness though, it was Greg that told me about it and said, hey, you know, a couple of us are thinking about walking 50 miles overnight. I thought it sounded like a terrible idea, but it sounded like something a marine would do, so why not? [00:41:39] Speaker C: Yeah. So this is the original crew from last year. It was us three. The three of us that signed up, made it through the fundraising objectives, made it through the qualifier, and completed it successfully last year. So we, out of everybody that we just heard from, we are the three that know exactly what we're getting back into for next year. And not only did we all three sign up again almost immediately, we brought friends with us and our team. Werner started off this year, actually, with. It was eleven or twelve total. And through normal attrition, family lives, some health concerns for a few associates, we're down to seven, but I'm pretty confident in the seven that we have. That's our final number. We're about 50 days out at the time of this recording, and we'll see all seven at the start and finish line. So more than double of what we had last year, which I think is. [00:42:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's outstanding. I mean, I think about last year and the three of us walking and, you know, all joking aside, you know, the last. The experience that we all went through last year. You know, for me, again, you know, I've talked a lot about kind of why. Why I believe in this. But, you know, I think back to my favorite moment of the march. And it was my most painful moment of the march, was in that last, you know, half a mile. When we're at the base of the. The last half mile you walk is up a hill of course, 108th street. In a typical, typical event planning, let's, let's end it on a significant uphill but let's walk uphill. So there we are and the three of us are together at the end and we're walking up the hill and it's a, you know, it's a, it's a, an experience. It was a emotional moment as we're kind of, you know, reminiscing over the last 21 hours and we're walking up the hill and you got, you know, you come to the top of the hill and then you finally see the finish line. And for me, you know, you saw I mean there were 3000 people there last year at the finish line and you know, to see all of those people there and overwhelmingly excited to see you coming up the hill making the finish line, you know. And we only lost a couple of people last year out of the original 87 that walked. I think we dropped two. [00:44:02] Speaker C: I think we went from 89 to 87 or 87 to 85. [00:44:05] Speaker A: Had a couple of you know, heat casualties and couple of, and one of them was a foot related you know, issue. So, but the majority of the group was there and as we're coming up the hill and I remember seeing the, you know, the 3000 people there and the faces of the crowd and then obviously, you know, your, your own, your friends and family, my friends and family, our work associates, our work leadership group was there to support us. And I just, you know, I felt that same sense of camaraderie and you know, just connection, you know, with you two knuckleheads, you know, that I can hearken back to and to remember and to think about you know, the old teammates that I had and the old battle buddies that I had and the old members of the teams that I had. And so if for me it was just an awesome experience to do that with u two last year, I'm happy that we're doing it again this year and I'm proud of our group. I'm proud of our group for, you know, not only doing it again and as you just mentioned almost immediately signing up but also bringing friends and family and others along with us to do it again. And so, you know, some, so we'll kick it back to this is supposed to be about Alex. So Alec tell us, you know, why, you know, maybe did your motivation for this year change from the motivation from last year a little bit? [00:45:23] Speaker E: You know, last year it was anytime you talk about walking 50 miles I mean that seems outlandish. So last year was a, you know, can you do this. I want to see if I can do this. I think I can do it. Sounds hard. I don't know. And so then you did it, and it's like, all right, I think to your point, though, I've done it, so I don't need to do it again. I've proved to myself I could do it to friends, to family, whoever. Like, I can walk 50 miles in a night. No big deal. But it's that comradery. It's that it's more than just, you know, the funds that we raise, the mission that we're serving, the veterans that we're looking to help and support. It's that camaraderie, being a part of something bigger than yourself. And that's, I think, a lot of us, it's part of why we joined the military in the first place. And so when you get out of the military, you know, you talk about culture, and the culture that we have at Warner, not every company has that. Not every group has that. So to be able to find something like this with other people that have served, it does bring back that sense of accomplishment, that sense of team. And so, yeah, this year, it was less of a, oh, man, do we have to do that again? As it was? Yeah, why wouldn't I do it? You know, it's just. It's just something you do. [00:46:30] Speaker C: So, yeah, certainly a fun thing, but an awesome thing to be part of. I think last year, between the three of us, I think we. Our fundraising efforts were just shy of ten or $12,000. Offhand, I don't have the actual number. Our group this year is north of $32,000. Um, so the. Not only the time commitment that it takes to walk 50 successfully. Um, but the fundraising aspect of this, too. This is something that our. Our team is fully bought into. Um, through and through, and then going back to the. The landing party. Greg, you mentioned the landing party. Uh, the landing site. So 3000. Call it 3000. 2000. 503,500. Somewhere in that area. 487 people. Right. 87 people is really not that large of a group, but the entire community turned out for it. And I think that this year, it's only natural that with double the walkers, that landing site is going to be. It was jam packed last year. [00:47:35] Speaker A: It's going to be insane. [00:47:37] Speaker C: Going to be insane. This year. We'll have shuttle buses for parking, for people to park off site, etcetera. This is the fifth year of the march, so there's some significant behind that as well. So I'm excited to see the community turn out. [00:47:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Not only that, also during the march, we had overwhelming support from local law enforcement, local first responders. They blocked off every intersection for us as we were walking along the highway, as we transitioned from leaving Lincoln onto the highway, and then from the highway back into more metro Omaha. They provided amazing support to make sure that all 87 of us got through. And imagine now it's going to be 100, 6170 people. So that length of the column will be longer and so just more having to disrupt the normal flow of a Sunday morning traffic pattern or whatever you want to call it. You know, people would stop and honk and wave and people had signs out encouraging us to complete the mission and to see those again. The local law enforcement guys were just out. Guys and gals were outstanding. I mean, they were motivating us, telling us great job and how much they appreciated what we were doing while we were doing it. And so just. I can't wait to get to. The training is grueling, but I can't wait to get back onto the march. I can't wait to see all the people. I can't wait to see, you know, the group executing the mission. I can't wait to feel, you know, that sense of pride of all of us doing it together. I'm just really excited. And Alec, I'm so glad that you not only completed last year, I was a little worried being a marine and all, but, you know, marine standards. Outstanding. The conversation. I want to say I'm just proud to have you on the team and so thankful that you're with us again this year. [00:49:35] Speaker C: Alec and I had a whole plan last year. [00:49:37] Speaker A: You're gonna murder me on the walk. [00:49:38] Speaker C: No, no. What to do with your body when you die in the middle of March. We came down to two plans, right? We can, one, help you, which is maybe where we landed, or two. Yeah, we don't know him, but we don't know him. [00:49:52] Speaker A: Nice. Nice guys. [00:49:56] Speaker C: Alec, thank you for joining us. Any last words of wisdom? [00:50:00] Speaker E: Not a lot of words wisdom, but just encouragement. I'm ready to get this thing started, ready to get it rolling. [00:50:05] Speaker C: So good deal. Thanks for coming in. [00:50:08] Speaker E: My pleasure. Bye.