Rob Cordray & Team RWB

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign Warner to another edition of our veterans podcast. I'm Adam Cassie, a director of safety and an 18 year Air Force vet. Today in the studio, I've got Rob Cordray, a retired Army Reserve colonel, and we're going to walk through his military service and also what he's up to today. So, Rob, thanks for coming in today. [00:00:29] Speaker B: Yeah, glad to be here. Thank you for having me. [00:00:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. And just a quick shout out. We've been doing this podcast now for 3 to 4 ish years and you're the first person that has brought swag to us. So kudos on setting that record. That's going to be a new expectation for all future podcast episodes. Typically, we like to send our guests away with a hat and a water bottle or something along those lines to say thank you. So you've got yours waiting on you. This is awesome. I'm looking forward to wearing this shirt. I think my eldest child might try to steal it from me and my wife's definitely gonna try to steal the coffee cup. So much appreciated. [00:01:07] Speaker B: Great. Very welcome. [00:01:08] Speaker A: Absolutely. All right, so walk us through. Rob Cordray, 30 years ago, when did you join the military? [00:01:16] Speaker B: Yeah, 1994. [00:01:17] Speaker A: Okay. I won't tell you. I was eight. [00:01:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So. [00:01:22] Speaker A: You commissioned, right? So what did you get your degree in? Where did you go to school? What led you to join the military? [00:01:29] Speaker B: Yeah, great. Well, so I decided to join the military because I had a couple generations before me. My dad served in Korea, had a grandfather who served in World War II. And you know, before going into the college, as I was a junior senior in high school, trying to decide what did I want to do, where did I want to go. And eventually I decided that a life of service or giving back would be something that, that really spoke to my heart. So initially I applied actually to the academies and I certainly very blessed. I had a good, I was a athlete in high school, a swimmer. I had good grades and actually got dominations to three academies. [00:02:14] Speaker A: So did you apply to more? [00:02:16] Speaker B: Well, the rest of the story is that I became, I was medically disqualified. And this was because when I was a young kid, I had a motorcycle wreck about 11 years old, which I had a compound skull fracture. [00:02:28] Speaker A: One would ask why an 11 year old was driving a motorcycle. [00:02:30] Speaker B: Well, hey, this goes back to, I grew up on a farm, actually a ranch, let's say, in Oklahoma. And we had cow pastures and you know, my, my recreation was riding my little Honda ADCC motorcycle out in the pasture. And it was great. It was freedom for a young kid and. But But I had. I had a horrible accident one time and had that injury. Now, gratefully, throughout rest of my, you know, as a high school, middle school kid, it didn't impact me. [00:02:56] Speaker A: Right. [00:02:56] Speaker B: However, the academies, they're going to, you know, the government's going to spend high dollar on your education. They want to make sure you're fully physically fit and capable. And although I had never had seizures or any other problems, I was not deemed acceptable for an academy. So that became off the table. And then I said, well, what about rotc? And it was my medical, I guess, background was waived for rotc. So I grew up in Oklahoma, and I went to University of Oklahoma and got an ROTC scholarship there. And so after four years of that, it was time to commission. And the way it works, by the way, is you might get a reserve commission, you might get active duty commission. I wanted an active duty commission, and I did achieve that. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Okay. [00:03:40] Speaker B: So that sent me off onto that active duty career for the beginning of. [00:03:44] Speaker A: My right military time. Is there four service academies or is it three? Coast Guard has one. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Coast Guard, Yep. [00:03:50] Speaker A: Okay. Which we'll count that as a half. [00:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Air Force, Navy, West Point. [00:03:54] Speaker A: Okay. My brother's an Air Force Academy grad, but he never applied to anything else. It was. It's either the Air Force Academy or not. What led you to apply for all three? Were you really just looking to go to any one of them? [00:04:08] Speaker B: I think I was indecisive. I don't know. As a young kid at that time, you know, you applied to multiple colleges, and I just went through the nomination process, which you have to get congressional nominations, and did you have to get. [00:04:21] Speaker A: Different nominations for every application, or did they accept the nominations for all three? So one senator or one? [00:04:31] Speaker B: Honestly, it's hard to remember. [00:04:32] Speaker A: Okay. I just fascinated by this. [00:04:34] Speaker B: I think I may have some old documents somewhere, but you're the first person. [00:04:37] Speaker A: That I've met that has applied to more than one. Interesting. So you were just looking to serve back to your life of service? I'm happy where I'm planted. Okay, so ended up with active duty commission. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Correct. [00:04:51] Speaker A: What was your job? [00:04:53] Speaker B: Yep. I was commissioned armor officer. And in those days, they had something called branch detail. I'm not entirely sure if they still have that. Which basically meant that I would serve four years in combat arms and then transition to a combat service or combat service support branch, which for me was intelligence. So I did my first tour of service in Germany as an armor officer, did a deployment to Macedonia for United nations peacekeeping mission. At that Time and came back stateside, did what they call transition training from armor to mi and then the captain's career course, and then began then my intel career, which I took for the rest of my time. [00:05:30] Speaker A: What armor were you attached to? What tank? [00:05:36] Speaker B: An M1 tank unit. Okay. It was initially, golly, trying to remember way back, 3rd Infantry Division, then 1st Armored Division. [00:05:44] Speaker A: Okay. Peacekeeping in Macedonia. What was that like? [00:05:50] Speaker B: Well, I was at that time again, although as an armor officer at that time I was on the staff, so I was the adjutant or S1 where all dreams die. Well, you know, we try to do better than that, but. So I spent most of my time at our headquarters. But the peacekeeping mission, we had outposts along the Macedonian Albanian border going back. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Sorry, my brain today. You said your uncle was in Korea or dad was in Korea? [00:06:17] Speaker B: My dad. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Dad. What did he do in Korea? [00:06:20] Speaker B: Well, he was an mp and then he also says that he was an infantryman at another time. So apparently he was a bit of a hail raiser, so he says. [00:06:29] Speaker A: So he enjoyed his time in Korea? [00:06:31] Speaker B: I'm sure he did, but he's since passed, so I don't have any more war stories to ask him about or share. He didn't honestly talk a whole lot about it, but I do have a picture of him as a. As a youngster with an mp. [00:06:42] Speaker A: Patch. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Sleeve. Patch. And he was smiling. He was. He was in Japan at that moment, but that he served in Japan and Korea. [00:06:50] Speaker A: Okay. What about your grandpa in World War II in India? [00:06:52] Speaker B: What he did, My understanding is he was a meteorologist. [00:06:56] Speaker A: Okay. [00:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Which actually, I think thought that I wanted to be a meteorologist as well. So when I started University of Oklahoma, I started that program and can't exactly remember why I stopped, but it was more sciency than I thought. I think. I thought I might be a broadcast meteorologist and that would be more about broadcast and journalism. Right. But in Oklahoma with the weather that we have it, I mean, every meteorologist is a hardcore scientist so that they can get on the air and deal with a situation as it's unfolding and be, you know, credible and know what they're talking about. So, you know, as I went through that process, like, well, you know, maybe. Maybe this isn't quite for me. And I ended up going into business management. [00:07:37] Speaker A: Okay, interesting. All right, so back to your career. Peacekeeping, Macedonia and then staff tour ended, went to captain's course. [00:07:48] Speaker B: Yep. Came back stateside after that, Germany and tour and the Macedonia deployment and did the transition course at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. And Then, you know, they had some other training at Fort Leavenworth, our staff training that we do at Fort Leavenworth. And then I was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas. So there I was a Battalion S2, which is the intel officer still active at this time. Still active at that time, yep. Battalion S2 and A Company commander for a headquarters company armor brigade. [00:08:16] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:17] Speaker B: So again, I was still kind of affiliated with that armor unit, which was perfect. That's what my training was really designed to do. Coming from the initial armor background as a lieutenant was. Now I understand what the armor unit needs as an intel officer. And during that Fort Raleigh assignment time, we also deployed to Kuwait. And so this was whenever we were doing peacekeeping between the two Gulf wars, we had a forward presence in the deserts of Kuwait to keep Saddam Hussein at the time from doing any funny business down into Kuwait again. And I enjoyed that assignment. Learned a lot. [00:08:54] Speaker A: I spent a couple days in Kuwait exiting. I think I was exiting Iraq. And we got stopped in Kuwait to wait for a bird to take us home. And all I remember are the stupid. The horse flies in the heat. And it was the first place I've ever slept in the top of a third bunk bed. I'd never seen a third bunk bed before, but they had these giant tents with more bunk beds than I can remember. And I was the young staff sergeant. I was in the Guardian at the time, before I commissioned. And my memory of Kuwait is trying to kill horseflies while laying in a third bunk bed up top, trying not to kill myself by rolling off. [00:09:40] Speaker B: Right. Oof. [00:09:41] Speaker A: So that's my Kuwait memory. Surely your. However long you were there were better than my 72 hours there. [00:09:47] Speaker B: Well, I know it better or not, but we were four deployed. We had temper tents at the time, which was new to me, but I was glad we had them. [00:09:53] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:53] Speaker B: So they were actually an Air Force product. [00:09:55] Speaker A: I was in the Air Force, though I was in a tent and thoroughly not happy about it. That's not what I was promised when I joined the Air Force. That's funny. Funny. [00:10:04] Speaker B: But I think one of my biggest reflections of Kuwait was why? More humidity than you would think. Certainly near the Gulf, but yeah, yeah. [00:10:13] Speaker A: So peacekeeping mission again in Kuwait. [00:10:18] Speaker B: We call that peace enforcement. Peace enforcement, yeah. We were heavy. So we did have the M1s. We had MLRs we had, which is multiple launch rocket system, you know, all the combat arms stuff, ready to respond or deter any Iraqi aggression at that time. [00:10:33] Speaker A: What year was that? [00:10:34] Speaker B: It was 99. [00:10:37] Speaker A: Okay. When did Desert Storm one end? Was it 93. [00:10:40] Speaker B: End of 93, about then. So, yeah, I remember in 99 because USS Cole bombing occurred while we were there. And that's memorable because the chaplain was actually planning to take us during a short MWR period actually to Israel to see the Holy Land, since we were closer. But that was. Put the kibosh on that after the cold bomb. [00:11:01] Speaker A: That's unfortunate. I've. I've wanted to get to Israel just as a tourist and go walk all those. [00:11:06] Speaker B: A lot of history, obviously. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Yeah, lots of history. [00:11:08] Speaker B: Ancient history. [00:11:09] Speaker A: It's awesome. Okay, so that gets us to 99. Kuwait's done with. What'd you come back? [00:11:15] Speaker B: Yep. Came back stateside, actually. I came back stateside to take my HHC Brigade command. [00:11:19] Speaker A: Okay. [00:11:20] Speaker B: So I took that command, and it was during that tour that 911 happened. So fast forward to 2001. What's hhc headquarters and headquarters Company. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Okay, so brigade. Remind me, how many people are in a brigade traditionally? [00:11:34] Speaker B: Oh, gosh. Well, I think a brigade is closer to an Air Force squadron or maybe a wing. [00:11:38] Speaker A: Okay. So 100, 200, maybe? [00:11:41] Speaker B: No, an armored brigade is going to have more like a thousand. [00:11:45] Speaker A: Okay. All right, So a wing equivalent for the Air Force. Okay. I would assume the headquarter brigade is a little bit smaller than that. [00:11:53] Speaker B: Yeah, HHC was a few hundred people. [00:11:55] Speaker A: Okay. [00:11:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Okay. [00:11:56] Speaker B: So we were beans and bullets and the dining facility. [00:11:59] Speaker A: Figuring out how to make stuff happen. The logistics piece of it. [00:12:01] Speaker B: Okay. [00:12:02] Speaker A: Which is a very important piece of it. Okay. So how long were you in command? [00:12:07] Speaker B: I did a tour. I can't remember the exact length. Forgive me, it's been a while, but about 18 months. [00:12:13] Speaker A: Okay. Command is the most fun and the most work I've ever done. [00:12:19] Speaker B: I had a cot. I had a COD at the office. Yes. [00:12:22] Speaker A: Yep. And I don't think it's. You could. I don't think you can understand it until you try to do it. I messed up so much and have so many good memories of my few different commands that I had. And it was. It's just a phenomenal experience. It was during the time, but even more so now that I'm on the other side of. [00:12:42] Speaker B: It was a lot of joy because you also get to do a lot of mentoring. You yourself certainly do a lot of growing and learning, but I really enjoyed it. For sure. [00:12:53] Speaker A: Yep. Okay, so command, where next? [00:12:56] Speaker B: Well, after command, I got a request for forces assignment to actually, CENTCOM headquarters briefly, because at that point in time, we found ourselves knee deep in Enduring Freedom. Operation Enduring Freedom. And so I augmented the Centcom J2 staff for about a six month tour. And that was again, we were knee deep in going after Al Qaeda and those kinds of folks in Afghanistan. [00:13:26] Speaker A: J2 is joint intel. [00:13:28] Speaker B: Joint intel, correct. Yeah. [00:13:29] Speaker A: It's an interesting time to be in joint intel for sure. [00:13:32] Speaker B: For sure. Well, and that took, I mean, I thought I knew my stuff a little bit from the army tactical level. By no means did I have any idea what happens at the strategic level. [00:13:41] Speaker A: Certainly Joy is just so different than how all the services. It takes a master's degree to make everything work well together. [00:13:50] Speaker B: Well, after what had been going on for so long in the Middle east and the global war on terror, I mean, all the resources were there. So we had all the three letter agencies, all the support we could muster, all the resource, like I said, resources. And so my eyes were open to some great capabilities that we had and we executed great operations and I learned a lot through that experience. [00:14:11] Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah, I can only imagine that there was tons and tons and tons and tons of work, but at the same time, it's meaningful work because that's what you're doing so. [00:14:20] Speaker B: Well, we knew that we, we had dossiers on the bad guys. Right. And so we thought we understood, you know, why we were looking, looking to target for these targeting efforts. So yeah, it was, the mission was clear and we want to protect our allies, our American soldiers and what have you. Our family's back home even, sir. [00:14:40] Speaker A: Absolutely. Okay, so how long have you been in at this point? [00:14:47] Speaker B: No, not even. I was only about nine years in at that time because it was when I came back from that tour, I found myself on the division staff at Fort Riley, Kansas. It was 24th ID staff at the time. And I was at an inflection point in my life. I had one young child and me and my spouse at the time trying to decide, well, what does the future look like? We either need to make a decision to stay in for the 20 or make some other decision for our family or long term goals. And so in the end, we decided to exit active duty and I transitioned to the reserve. I moved to Colorado Springs where I found myself as a DOD contractor. [00:15:24] Speaker A: It's a bad spot to live. [00:15:25] Speaker B: It's awesome. Well, having come from centcom, I had working counterterrorism at the time norad US Northern Command was also working domestic counterterrorism because we still had significant threat concerns in the US after 9 11. So my skills kind of translated to that and I worked there for about five years as my full time Vocation, My reserve unit, I was assigned to Space and Missile Defense Command, Army Strategic Command, known as smdc. Rstrat. Did a little bit of counterintelligence work there and also found my way actually over to Defense Intelligence Agency, where I worked some of their missions and became affiliated with them and stayed affiliated with them for many years. [00:16:11] Speaker A: Okay, interesting. All the while still reserving, still going on reserve duty, all that good stuff. So it's. It's the unique life of a guardsman and reservist of having one hat on Monday through Friday, having another hat on Saturday and Sunday. For me, when I was doing that, it was. I would walk in and out of transportation Monday through Friday. Right. Working here. Spent eight years at Warner while still in the Guard, and I would have to completely open a different compartment in my brain to then go do maintenance officer stuff on the A10 or maintenance officer stuff on the KC135. How related were your two jobs? Obviously, you're not doing the same actual work, but is it Intel? Is Intel? [00:16:59] Speaker B: Well, intel covers a wide swath of things, and so they were both intel functions, but I would say very different. You know, the norad, northcom, of course, we had a very unique domestic focus, Right. Protecting the Homeland at that time, and that was in the early days of DHS as well. But we certainly would have had that Homeland mission that was somewhat unique to us. And then, you know, outside of that, with smdc, I was supporting their mission on the counterintelligence side, which is more of a security type of function. And then when I moved to. To DIA later, that was more of a kind of a collection function. [00:17:38] Speaker A: Okay, okay, so fast forward. How long were you. How long were you in that role in the Reserve? Where'd you wind up at in the Reserve? Yeah. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Yeah, great. Yeah, I spent about five years in Colorado Springs and the roles that I just mentioned, and then it was time to make a change again. And so began looking to the Midwest, actually, oddly, on purpose, and move from the beauty of the mountains of Colorado Springs to, you know, Bellevue, Papillion area, and started working at Offutt Air Force Base. And the reason that was, was the contract company I was working for in Colorado Springs had an opening here. I had voiced an interest in coming this direction to be closer to my spouse's family. And so when that job opened up, it was like, hey, this is an opportunity that I want to move this direction. And I didn't even. Honestly, wasn't all that familiar at the time with Strategic Command's missions. But moving from NORAD Northcom to Stratcom was not all that big of a stretch. And it was good, a good transition for me. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Okay, awesome. So brought here, civilian company, family stuff going on. Going back to. You wanted to move here. I still wonder how this area of the Midwest was settled. The only reasonable explanation is somebody was crossing the US in a covered wagon. Right. And the dad was out front and the kids were complaining, asking if they were there yet. And he finally said yes, we're in California. This is California. We're done, we're settling here. It's the only way I can explain anybody wanting to move. [00:19:17] Speaker B: No, I think it's the OMA Dome. I think the Oma Dome pre existed what we formerly call it now. It's like, well, we have better weather here sometimes. [00:19:24] Speaker A: True story. But then there's still occasionally that random Wednesday blizzard after a 76 degree day or the negative 20. So you're. I don't know. I've had a couple people tell me that they wanted to move here. My wife dragged me here. I'm very happy she did. Don't regret moving here. But I did not have the greatest attitude about it. [00:19:45] Speaker B: Right, right. So I mean to kind of continue the story as well. So I came here with my civilian company. It wasn't long though that I got picked up by the government and civil service. So that then took care of my full time vocation. And also gratefully on the reserve side there were reserve units here at Strategic Command. And so I was able to work in the same building and do a similar but different job elsewhere in the building and have, you know, both functions being right here locally. That was nice. I continued forward on, on the reserve side I needed to get a. Some other command and so I. There is actually a small army reserve element down in Lincoln and I commanded there a small detachment and after that came back to Strategic Command and finished out 30 years of service last summer. But the last 15 or so was here locally for the most part with a couple of short detours. [00:20:48] Speaker A: 30 years of service, that's nothing to be ashamed of. That's a lifetime. [00:20:54] Speaker B: Well, you know, grateful for the opportunity and actually I served as long as they would let me because I got kind of that high tenure and it was time to go. But that's good. I mean I need to let other people move in, move up and take those roles, but certainly grateful for all those experiences. And I skipped over a big experience that just came to mind. One of the biggest was deployment to Iraq. And this was while the combat was going on and this was while, you know, I was still living in Colorado Springs, actually. [00:21:19] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:20] Speaker B: So that was a six month detour into the desert and back, but grateful to come back. Grateful. All those that I was there with came back. But it was, you know, it was certainly the most high intensity situation during my career. In. In most of, most of the high intensity was mortars, you know, IEDs. And it wasn't hardly a day went by that our, our compartmentalized housing unit known as a chew. Our chew didn't shake due to some sort of explosion nearby. And I remember I would call home sometimes and we would hear this would happen and the building would shake and the person on the phone was like, what happened? Are you okay? I was like, no, this happens all the time. You kind of become unfortunately desensitized to it. But you just know you got to keep going. [00:22:05] Speaker A: Yes, I had a phone call home while I was in Afghanistan. And they let you. When they're firing outgoing rounds, they announce outgoing and then the rounds start. So that, you know, at very least if you're the dining facility, it's us shooting them versus them shooting us. Right. So just trying to make sure that everybody's aware. So they announced it. And I was talking to my wife and she's like, what, what's going on? I'm like, this is normal. Yeah, it's normal. It's normal. Sort of. [00:22:36] Speaker B: It's what we deal with. [00:22:37] Speaker A: Yes, correct. Uh, and again, just like command, it's one of those things that you can talk about it to other people. Uh, you don't understand it until you get there and then you live through your first one and then the second one and then the third one. And then it's just, it's normalized behavior over time. [00:22:54] Speaker B: So, yeah. [00:22:57] Speaker A: Talk to me about red, White and blue. How did you get connected with Team Red, White and Blue? [00:23:00] Speaker B: Great. That's kind of one of the reasons we're here today. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:02] Speaker B: So when I was commanding down in Lincoln, going about my daily business and a few people in these red shirts showed up and said, hey, you know, we, we represent this, this local veterans nonprofit group, you know, trying to take with promoting wellness and fitness. And I'm like, well, I like wellness and fitness. Yeah, let's talk about it. So they did a little lunch and learn for us one day, and I was easily attracted to it. And I personally joined and again, this was around 2017, plus or minus a little bit, and joined up and attended a few of the local events included, like some Rock climbing and some things like that. And I thought that was really fun. It was neat to do something different and to have it focused around the veteran families. So that's how I became acquainted with it. And then time passed. And here locally, during the COVID period, RWB and lots of RWB units around the country didn't have as much going on. They had to kind of adapt from this in person format to something remote or virtual. And they did over time. And once Covid kind of waned, I was beginning to culminate kind of my military career. And concurrent with that, we had and had previously experienced a couple of suicides in the unit where I was assigned. And my heart just dropped because some of these folks I knew really well and felt close to and felt like, wow, I just saw you a week ago. And I'm heartbroken for them and their family left behind. And oh, by the way, as I go back through the 30 years of time that I spent in the military, I've lost scores of friends. And I remember each time I hear about it, I'm like, oh my goodness, why? And my heart breaks. It's hard for me to understand the depth of hopelessness and despair that they must have been in, in that moment. But anyway, this has weighed on my heart and I have to relate. One of the experiences that weighed most heavily was I mentioned my Kuwait deployment. Well, during that deployment in 99, we had a great chaplain. And whenever you're out there in the desert for long hours and the chaplain has services and counseling time, you know, we became good friends and went to a lot of his services. And so we got close and he even baptized me. I had a believer's baptism in the desert in a water blitz, as it's called, which is, I don't know, a big rubber pool. But, you know, so you can see, you can see how he was very important, impactful in my life. And later on I got to see him later in his career a little bit. He was the chief of chaplain's office at the Pentagon and got to see him and his family as they were stationed in Virginia. And a short time later, I don't remember the year, I heard that he had taken his own life. And that was a life shaker because of so much. He was faith warming for me and certainly I put him on a pedestal, certainly a strength of character and strength of faith. And so, you know, that just really told me that anybody from any walk can be impacted in such a way as they find themselves again at the depths of despair in making a permanent decision. Right. So anyway, that it's a forming experience. Exactly. I carried that sadness in that, that concern with me throughout my, my military career and certainly throughout, throughout all of all of the, my walks of life, all the hats that I wear and you know, I made, I made resilience and suicide awareness and you know, ask escort, you know, the various things that we, we are work through in the military context to try to combat this epidemic that we continue to face. And as I was again about to leave my full time career in the government, I said, well, what can I do? And I said, what can I do that can have a broader impact? And I remembered RWB and there was an opportunity locally to kind of take over a leadership role, to kind of reinvigorate the level and amount of activities that we were having. And I said, I want to do that. So bottom line is I volunteered for a leadership role. And then I just have been working hard ever since to generate interest, bring in volunteers, broaden awareness. And we've had a great deal of success with that. [00:27:48] Speaker A: So how big is the chapter? I'm assuming it's a state thing or a city thing. How is it organized? [00:27:54] Speaker B: Yeah, and so big picture, RWB was formed in about around 2010. It was formed for the purpose that we almost have already talked about a lot of veterans coming out of service or coming out of, you know, deployment scenarios and needing something to hold onto in particular after they leave the service and leave the relationships and the rigor and the routine that they had. So anyway, that's how it was founded and it has risen to about over 200,000 members nationwide, chapters all around the country. In most large cities and here in Nebraska, we have, I think just short of around 2,000 registered members and in the Omaha chapter, around 1,000. And on any given day, for any given event, participation varies from just a handful to a dozen. To. For larger events like the Lincoln Marathon that we'll be having, that we'll be attending later on in May, we'll have nearly 50 or 50 to 100 almost folks. [00:28:52] Speaker A: Awesome. So everybody shows up in red shirts and runs the marathon or helps out. [00:28:56] Speaker B: Red. Yeah, we have red, we have white, we have blue shirts, but you'll see different colors, but you'll see the logo out there and, and some will be running, some will be rucking. But one of the things about us is, you know, a RWV event, the hallmark of it is bringing is inclusion. Right. Ability groups, because it's not always about running fast or doing something difficult. Yeah. We want someone to maybe challenge themselves or break a sweat. But most importantly is the relationship that's built by going for a walk, run, jog, whatever we're going to do together. [00:29:26] Speaker A: It's the community, not a race. [00:29:27] Speaker B: Absolutely. And a lot of our veterans have disabilities, injuries, maybe they've even lost a limb. So we want them to come along as well. Right. [00:29:38] Speaker A: Awesome. So you're in a leadership role. How do events get organized? Is it word of mouth? Is it I, as a member, step up and say, hey, I want to do this at this park on this day. What types of things are you said? Lincoln marathon, jiu jitsu, boxing, all that good stuff. [00:29:59] Speaker B: Right, right. I mean, we don't have. There's hardly anything that's excluded that's off the table. It's on the table if it is safe. Right, right. But if there's a. If we have a volunteer who is willing to lead it, willing to make sure that it includes people of different abilities, and we can get it on the calendar. But, you know, when I, when I took over leadership, took over the leadership role, the first thing I did was like, look for volunteers to serve in different types of roles. We kind of have a veteran affairs outreach, local community outreach. We have athletic directors and things like that. So people have different specialties. But over the past year or so, it's included everything from. You mentioned walking, rucking, jogging, boxing, scuba, beginner's jiu jitsu, or even women's self defense. For example, rock climbing. And I'm sure I'm forgetting some. That's awesome. Yoga for sure. I mean, so it's a variety of events, and I love the idea of having volunteers who come on board and maybe they have a certain passion. Like, I like cycling or whatever it might be. I'm like, brilliant. Be my cycling ambassador. Schedule an event once a quarter. The only thing we're doing is trying to get people off the couch. [00:31:13] Speaker A: And together, their routine and fitness play such a big part of mental health. It really can't be understated. And just getting people out in community helps as well. [00:31:27] Speaker B: Totally. And I think, again, challenging themselves, getting together in community go so far. For example, we had our first scuba event not too long ago. I remember I had to encourage a few people, like, I don't want to get under the water too deep. And that's scary for a few. [00:31:46] Speaker A: It's a weird thing. [00:31:47] Speaker B: Right. And so it got people out of their comfort zone. And also there were some veterans who attended who had been kind of Isolated for a little while. So actually being in a group was a little bit out of their comfort zone. But after it was all over with, I heard, wow, I slept better than I've slept in years. That's awesome. That tells me that it was therapeutic, right? The event, you know, doing something challenging and overcoming that fear. And so I, you know, every time I hear something like that, I know if we're impacting one life at any time, we're making a difference. It's totally worth the effort put in. But we are totally volunteer organized here locally. Everybody who sets up events and holds events are volunteers. We have a small chapter budget that helps offset certain costs, maybe provide some refreshments and things like that, but that's how we operate. [00:32:40] Speaker A: That's awesome. Oh, shoot. [00:32:44] Speaker B: I had, it was a brilliant question. [00:32:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So scuba. Going back to scuba. My dad took a scuba diving. I was probably 13 or 14 and I from. It's been 25 years since I've probably been certified. It's a really weird mind thing of. Even though I know and I'm breathing, I'm underwater and I consume oxygen like three times faster. Like, I, I, I don't know the size of the tank I had. Um, but I remember somebody saying, hey, it's going to be two or three hours worth of air. You guys are going down for half an hour. [00:33:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:23] Speaker A: So like by minute 29, I was like, guys, I'm, I'm out of air. I'm, I, there's a shark right there. I've been breathing hard the entire time. It's time to go up. Well, it's only been 30 minutes. It was comical, but that's awesome. I didn't know that you guys did scuba diving. [00:33:41] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and this speaks to another thing that's really important to us, which is partnerships. You know, you and I became acquainted through the 50 Mile March Foundation. And you know, Team RWB here locally certainly loves the partnership that we have. You know, we support one another and we appreciate that. But the scuba, it was Diventures Omaha. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Oh, awesome. [00:33:59] Speaker B: Right. And so we also partner with a few local gyms. The boxing gym is another nonprofit. It's Victory Boxing Club. And you know the story. There was a year and a half ago on Veterans Day and the KTV did a special on Team rwb again helping promote awareness. And the boxing club proprietor, his son is a world class army boxer and he himself has a huge heart for boxing as a way to help youth. And he's like, well, hey, I want to help the Veterans. And so he reached out to me and said, let me help you. And so this is Servando Peralez and his club helps us and he serves us for no cost on a monthly basis. And we get in there and get to hit the mitts and he'll let us go as far as we want to go in the training. But the bottom line is getting together, doing something different, something challenging, and people are thriving and having a good time together. [00:34:50] Speaker A: Nothing says I love veterans like hitting each other in the face with boxing gloves, right? [00:34:55] Speaker B: Well, yeah, again, we haven't been doing that. We've been hitting the mitts, hitting the bags. Right. Funn funny workouts. But he probably would let us if we were ready for it. Okay, that's awesome with the mask. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so if people want to get connected, how do they get connected to team Red, White and Blue? [00:35:10] Speaker B: Great. Well, so Team RWB has a website and if you go to teamrwb.org on the web, you'll see everything about us and you just click join up. There is no cost, no obligation. Basically how it works. Veterans and military members get the free T shirt when they sign up and unfortunately family members don't. But we have a merch store that has the things that we have here and many other things. And when you sign up, you get access to our app, which you can look at on the web or on your phone. And it has the schedule of events we have coming up. And you get a monthly email or correction, a weekly email that says what's coming up in the next two weeks. So that's what happens when you sign up. You know, that's how it works. To find out what's going on in the area. [00:35:57] Speaker A: I'm always just amazed by the number of different veteran serving organizations in just our city, in just Omaha are how many there are. There's 50 mile march, team Red, White and Blue. There's at least 100 different organizations that are part of the veterans alliance here in town. And it's from horse therapy to what you guys do to a dozen other ones. There's awesome resources in this town and in this state for veterans, which is just encouraging. [00:36:31] Speaker B: I feel like our community here locally is certainly very blessed by all of the servant hearts that are out there to serve the veterans. And I love that there is a broad swath of organizations and I love how the veterans alliance that you were a part of bringing together. Thank you. Has been so instrumental in cross pollinating and being a resource provider to veterans because nobody knew who was who in the zoo before this began. And I think it's a model that ought to be happening across the country. [00:37:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's awesome. And it really ties into what we do here at Warner as well. We're a company that's proud of the fact that we're nearly 20% of our workforce. As veterans, we have a very proud heritage of serving our community, but at the same time, also serving the veteran population. We do that day in and day out across the nation, which is a really cool thing to get to be a part of in my. In my role here. [00:37:29] Speaker B: Well, and that they give you resources to do something like this and to share what's going on is brilliant. So thank you to Werner and to you. [00:37:36] Speaker A: Heck, yeah. Absolutely. All right, Rob, what else? [00:37:39] Speaker B: What did I forget? Well, I really want to put the call out, you know, if you. Anybody listening? Anybody watching has a heart for veterans. Again, there's no cost or obligation to join Team rwb. If you're a veteran or military member. You'll get the free T shirt. And, hey, just come out when you can. The events vary from the fitness types of things that we talked about. And we also have social events like a monthly coffee. We have a game night. And if again, someone listening or someone watching just wants to maybe make their passion a part of our repertoire of events, come on, join up and reach out to me and we'll make you a volunteer leader and give you the opportunity to share your talents and your passion with the RWB community locally and you can be blessing others. [00:38:25] Speaker A: Awesome. Good deal. Rob, thanks for coming out today. [00:38:28] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. [00:38:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. Thanks for the swag. [00:38:31] Speaker B: Of course. And enjoy your RW coffee cup. [00:38:33] Speaker A: Heck, yes. Yep. Team Warner. Thanks for dialing in today. Stay safe. Buckle up, drive safe. Thanks for being here.