The BEST Way to Support Fallen Heroes Today

God put me on an airplane and said, "Sit next to this guy for a little bit. Open your heart, listen, and just kind of do what you're supposed to do." This attention to detail, how you do anything is how you do everything. We're going to love on you and we're going to take care of you and we're going to be here for you. You're a career lifelong airman. At what point during the journey you're like, "Yep, this is what I'm doing."

From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Mark your calendar. We're headed down to Brown County on July 26th for Hard Truth Bourbon and Barbecue Festival. Get ready for a smoky, savory, and spirited weekend at Hard Truth in Brown County. Join me at Hard Truth Distilling Co.

the weekend of July 25th and 26th for an unforgettable celebration of bourbon, barbecue, and good times. We've got live music rocking from 9 until noon with four different acts, bourbon and barbecue tastings and pairings, bourbon blending and cocktail crafting classes, as well as a VIP bourbon and cigar lab. They also have interactive competitions and outdoor activities, bourbon barrel roll races, barbecue toss and cornhole tournaments, $10 entry for a $300 prize. If you're a good cornhole player, hit me up. Let's join up. And they have axe throwing as well.

Me and my team are going to be down there and I will be releasing a full weekend itinerary for Nashville/ Brown County. That is guaranteed to be a great time. Tickets for the Hart Truth Bourbon and Barbecue Fest start at $10 for general admission that gets you entered in the festival, the live music, and pay as you go food and drink. For $35, you can get the barbecue sampler pass, tastings from all the barbecue competitors. Or for $75, you can get the VIP ticket where you get VIP lounge access, premium bourbon tastings, and a guided distillery tour by master distiller Brian Smith, previous guest of the show. I will see y'all in Brown County the weekend of July 25th and 26th.

Now, let's get into the episode. Today, I'm joined by Mike Daget, the president of Folds of Honor Indiana. Now, Folds of Honor is a nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of US military service members and first responders who have fallen or been disabled while serving our country and communities. Mike is a US Air Force veteran. He retired in 2019 after 27 total years of service. Today we're going to be talking about Mike's journey through the military and the impact it had on his life, the history of the Folds of Honor program, and the impact they are making across the Hoosier State and beyond.

Mike, welcome to Get In, man. It is so cool to be here. Nice to meet you, finally. It is a pleasure to meet you, too. And for you have to start off. Thank you for your service.

27 years, man, that is uh I can only imagine the stories you can tell. And we're going to get into a few of those today and I'm I'm pretty excited about it. It was a fun 27 years. I'll leave it at that for now. For now. Right.

Well, I mean, when you think about service, a lot of times that's distilled in families where it comes down through a lineage of my grandfather served, my great-grandfather served, my father served. Like, was that how it was for your family? Absolutely. Yep. I remember I was born on a Navy base, Charleston Naval Weapons Station. And so, my first core memory was seeing Navy ships.

Uh, my dad was 23 years in the Navy. And for the most part, my two brothers and I were raised by my mom and cuz he was out to see eight, nine months at a time. and we'd go to the docks and see the ship come in and I mean that that's the earliest memories I have is waving that American flag watching the Navy ships come home and I kind of said you know this is probably where I'm going to end end up you know wow from the yeah what was that first memory if you think back to it it's like I I just remember I mean obviously photos back then you remember old the old some of us who were older we have these photo albums that moms and dads kind of pieced together and I just remember seeing pictures of you know we're on the dock and there's this big Navy ship behind us and and we're all holding an American flag and and dad's coming back after being eight or nine months gone. And I don't really recall the time where he was gone, but I recall the little things that he did while he was gone.

Like he he would read bedtime stories on cassette tape and we would play them before we go to bed most nights. And you know, there was no no iPhone, no texting, no no FaceTime. Uh but I just remember that and just growing up on a Navy base, it was just it was just part of who we were. And and I I very distinctly remember in ' 83 when he retired being at his retirement ceremony and going, "Wow, this is my dad's the coolest person in the world, you know." Well, that's I I feel like Yeah, that I mean he did 23 years in the Navy. Uh but I mean as you were growing up uh were was it always fanfare and like dad is so cool?

Was it ever like oh man like Jimmy's dad is coaching T-ball or whatever, my dad's out on the ship? You know, I I kind of always thought my dad was a hero in that sense. And um you know, I I don't I don't ever really recall missing him. Like I remember always being proud of what he was doing, but not really understanding it at that age. But as we look back at it now, you're like, man, what a sacrifice he made for our family. Uh when I think about like movies or anything, when you see those videos on Instagram of like soldiers coming home and it's like that'll just like pull right at your heart.

It has to be a very hard conversation to have with a child of like oh I have to go away for you know nine months at a time and how long would he be back in between you know I don't remember that it seemed like I mean kind of he was home more than he wasn't for me looking back on it but but I know for you know multiple times three or four times he was gone for eight or nine months and as a young kid that's that's a core part of your life and and so for you as you were growing up was it was it automatically then you know you graduate high school and it's like this is what I'm doing I'm enlisting and I'm going to go do pretty much, you know, it wasn't um I I kind of thought the I'm going to go to college route, you know, and uh and so I was toying between am I going to go to college and make something of myself or am I just going to join the military and and for some people, you know, I did 27 years so I'm very proud of it.

But for some people it's a fallback. It's a I have no other options and so I'm going to do this and and I didn't look at it that way but I also was kind of thinking like man do I want to go my you know dad never went to college. Do I want to be improve myself and go to college? And I learned quickly that college and I are not friends. Uh well, did you do did you go try it? Oh.

Oh, I did. Yeah. Oh, it was a blast. Let me tell you, it's probably the best year and a half of my life. Um it was That's good. A year and a half.

I think you were going to say it was the best six weeks of my life. No, I did a year and a half. You know, um did I even I don't know about maybe a year. Academic suspension, academic probation, you know, deans list. Not that one, the other one. and uh where the dean says, "Hey, we appreciate you paying your bill, but there's way more to this experience than just paying."

And so, yeah. So, the school said goodbye. Were you still down in South Carolina? I was up in Maine at the time. Oh, in Maine. Yeah.

So, dad retired, went to work for a government contractor, and we kind of moved all up and down the East Coast for a little bit, but yeah. So, the University of Southern Maine, shout out to you guys up there, Huskys. I did okay. Best 18 months of his life, man. We we had some fun. Um, but what was interesting is I tried to go in the military early on and I was disqualified.

They said, you know, you could never ever serve. I have a high frequency hearing loss. It it impacts me a little bit. I sometimes I have a hard time hearing, but it's not limiting, right? And so the Air Force said, "No, you you cannot join the military." I'm like, "Well, that's kind of odd."

So then, you know, okay, well, I guess I'll try this college thing. And that didn't work either. So then I'm like, now what? an Air National Guard recruiter found my paperwork and said, "Hey, I can do a waiver on this. If you want to join, I can hook you up." And I'm like, "I'm all in."

And uh and at that point it was like, "You mean you're 18 months into college? Is it clear like you know, yeah, I'm not going to get like it's not a four years not my not my forte?" No, not at all. It was I mean, again, I had a great time, good friends. But it was that, you know, I grew up in a, you know, a small town family and that first taste of freedom, it was just too much for me. You know, there's no rules.

You know, I remember my professor, one of my early professors said, "Hey, I don't care if you come to class or not." And I took that as a you don't have to be here. Very difficult to get the material, especially back then, if you don't show up to class. So, didn't do so well. What you needed is a little structure. I needed some structure.

So then obviously getting into the military is the like they're your guard rails, right? Right. And so I thrived in that environment, right? Is it's someone I needed someone to say, "Hey, do this, do this, do this, do this." And um it sounds kind of crazy at first, but and it it worked out well. Well, and and when people think about it like, "Oh, join the military."

I feel like instantly you go to like war or boot camp. There's no in between. You're either killing people or getting killed. It's your choice. Yeah. Or it's like you're getting like just screamed at by whoever it is.

Obviously, you know, to do it for 27 years, there has there are different phases and, you know, process through it. Take us through your journey, right? So, you Air National Guard. Is that what you said? That's where you kind of start at. Yep.

Okay. So, you joined there in 8 weeks, six weeks somewhere over the summer. Six weeks in boot camp. Yep. Six weeks down in San Antonio, Texas for the Air Force. And uh you know, you know, I remember getting there first thing in the morning, you know, leaving Maine, flying Maine.

What time of year is this? October. So, it's like it's kind of chilly in Maine in October. Yeah. And it's not chilly in San Antonio in October. And uh so that was a little bit of shock.

So I get down to San Antonio, we fly down and I remember, you know, they I got there a little bit off of the schedule. Like the you know, like a lot of people arrive at the same time and then there's some stragglers that come in and then also the next morning it's it's showtime. And I kind of get there a little bit out of schedule. I don't know if they didn't know what to do with me or whatever, but all next thing I know they said, "Go stand on the corner, put your nose against the number on your on your locker and wait for further instruction." I think I stood there for like a year. It was like the longest time in my life.

I'm just standing there like afraid to move, afraid to breathe, and next thing you know, they come in, start yelling, screaming, and it's just like, uh, what year is this? 92. 92. And you're sitting there just twiddling your not even twiddling your thumbs. You're like, you're not moving straight as a board. And And what's the thought process behind that?

Right. I mean, you did this for 27 years. Uh, is the thought process to come in hot, heavy, like let people set them straight a little bit. Is it like that consistently for the rest of your time or is it kind of like early on you're the rookie? Yeah. So, they kind of they want to break you down first, right?

Get you are no longer Mike. You are now airman, right? And you are part of a team. And so, whatever you did in your life, whoever you thought you were, all of that is gone. You are now part of this amazing team that's working together. And and so they kind of build you down, but even through basic training is like, you know, of course, they shave your head and they, you know, you get a uniform and your uniform at first doesn't even have your name on it.

So you're really just a you're a number. That Yeah, that's one of my favorite lines. There's like a Trace Atkins song where it's like you want to keep your hair and someone says yes, hold out your hand cuz here it comes. It's like it's such a great on the outside some people will listen to that and be like, "Oh my gosh, that sounds terrible." But when you think about building a culture, it's like no one's ego, no one's hairline, no one's mullet is more important than anyone else, right? And you it's uniform teamwork, right?

Uh I love it. I think that I don't know. I always get just like charged up hearing reading books, hearing the stories. Um, so you go through there and you don't even have you're no longer Mike, right? You're just airmen. You're just airman.

And uh, you know, do you have is a specific color t-shirt? Like don't you start? We're wearing our our camouflage, you know, the callus at the time, battle dress uniform, and just wearing that and then somewhere in the middle they give you a name tag. So now you have an identity. Uh, and then slowly you get your rank and then, you know, you kind of graduate and you're your own person. But um you know kind of the purpose of basic training and you think about it is you know everyone laughs you have to take a t-shirt and fold it into a 6-in square and the seams have to be perfect and we literally were using tweezers to make sure the seams on your t-shirt were perfect.

And it's not about can you fold a t-shirt into a 6in square right because most people given that task can figure it out. The thing is under stress under pressure can you do this consistently so that when I go to you and say hey this jet needs a quarter turn on the wrench they mean a quarter turn. They don't mean a half turn. They don't mean threequarter turn. It's like, can you follow directions under extreme pressure and stress? If you could do that by folding a t-shirt, we'll let you touch a jet, right?

And so that's kind of the mindset. And they grow you through it. And man, it was the best thing I ever did. And it, you know, 27 years later, it's like, wow, that was that was pretty cool. So at first, was it like, what the heck did I get myself into? No, I never got that part really.

So you were just like hooked from the beginning. How much of like your your family's lineage there, your dad played into that? you know, my at the time my brother was also in the Air Force, so he went in just be prior to me. So, I had a little bit of understanding of kind of what I was getting into. Um, and then of course dad's service and it was just for me it was just I mean I had this sense of patriotism where it was like I had the opportunity to do this and it was just like I'm not going to squander it. That is an interesting mindset that I love.

Your earlier point of some people look at it as oh it's my only option, right? It's like it's like your fallback. If one, two, three don't work out then I'll just join the military. like the best s I mean 27 years later you saw this as an opportunity. I mean insane like in the best way possible. I say insane.

It's an opportunity. It's a calling, right? It's this is this is where I was destined to be. And and so you just you just take advantage of it and you just say, you know, I'm going to make the most of it and and do well and you know they call it salute smartly, right? Just do what you're asked and and you know with within reason obviously, you know, and do what you're supposed to do and and you'll get through it. Yeah.

And you talk about like oh like why is the t-shirt? It's like this attention to detail and like the the age-old saying of how you do anything is how you do everything, right? So when you're under extreme duress in the heat of whatever it is, like you need to be able to operate I mean as efficient and effective as possible. Wow. Okay. So you go through that six weeks you're kind of going on and at what point did you like would you say you're a lifer like you're a career lifelong career airman.

At what point during the journey you're like yep this is what I'm doing? When I joined, I kind of always thought I would do 20 years, right? That was kind of the because that's the like retirement age. Yeah. That's what you do to retire. And so my thought was this is what I'm going to do.

And but you know, you but you sign a your first contract was a six-year contract. So at the end of six years, I could say, yeah, that's not what I thought, right? But at so six years into it, I'm like, of course, I'm doing another six, you know? And then now you're at 12. And you're like, well, I'm halfway there. More than you're over it.

You're on the back. You're the bad. So I could do I could do six more. And then um and then you get to 18, you're like, "Yeah, I'm not leaving now." Is there is there a two-year deal or like like there's there's four years and six years, but um for me it was always, you know, do six, do I'm not going anywhere. This is this is fun.

So speaking of that, I mean, you got to go see the world. Yep. Legitimately, right? Like where did where did all did you end up getting stationed at? A lot of stuff I did was stateside, but I I went over to Hungary, Turkey, uh just outside of Bosnia for a little while. been to Germany, been to France.

Hungary was the was the eye openener for me. And so, you know, I I love all my brothers and sisters who served in the military and I'll make fun of them just for a little bit. And they and they they will appreciate this knowing it's come from good humor, but um so I I my first deployment was to Hungary and and they said, you know, hey, you're going over to Tazar Air Base in Hungary and it's classified. You can't tell anybody all this good stuff. And I'm like, okay, this is secret mission, you know. And um I come home from from work that day and and can't say a word.

I can't tell my wife what's going on. I really am just kind of sworn to secrecy. We're watching television and the news all of a sudden tells her where I'm going. And I'm like, I don't know how they know, but you're not supposed to know that, but you need to watch that, you know. And then uh so anyway, so we go over to Hungary and we end up be I was in the air traffic control at the time and we ended up working with Hungarian air traffic controllers, which are in Hungary an officer. It's a pretty it's a little more elite than it is here.

there there's a huge definition or separation between the enlisted and the officer corps in the in the in the Hungarian air force. And uh so air traffic controllers in Hungary were officers very elite, very rich, very well off to do for their country. And I remember just before I deployed, so it's go I'm going back a little bit. This was 97 and I just bought a new computer and I it didn't have the right video card. So, I bought a new video card for it and I and the video card had a TV tuner on it so I could plug my television into my computer and watch TV on my computer. Something that, you know, generations A has no idea, no concept of.

And at the moment, you're like, am I is this Star Trek the next generation? I'm high tech, right? But but I'm having trouble getting the right driver. I couldn't get it to work. And next thing I know, I'm deployed. And so when I left, that computer was still was not able to watch television the way I wanted to.

Anyway, long story short, I get there and I'm talking to a Hungarian air traffic controller about this and he doesn't have a television. He doesn't have a computer, let alone interfacing the two. So, for me, that was kind of that first eye openener of in 97. In 97. Yeah. As an officer, as an elite member of the military, no computer, no television.

It's just how they lived. It was a whole different where we were in Hungary was an interesting interesting spot. But that was my first eye opening of America's pretty special. Yeah. Oh my. Yeah.

That was that was that that was to me that was eye opener. That's 28 years ago. Yeah. 97. 28 years. Like that's cra like I just feel like I was I was born in 97.

So you have 28 years. Yeah. I'm in Hungary and you're being born, you know, and it's like but then and the people in Hungary like the officers there, they don't have that guy didn't have a We met we met a guy we met a farmer and he lived about a mile from the air base and so we ended up talking to him and this guy I forget you know probably 90 years old or something. He's, you know, very old. But we talked to him through a translator. This guy has never been more than a mile away from this property his entire life, 90ome years.

Never been more than a mile away from this house. It's a whole different world. That's I could like go on an afternoon walk and accidentally get a mile away. And he's happy as can be. He I mean, he doesn't know any better, right? Of course, there's no internet, all that stuff.

He's just farming the field, living his life. And and so again, that was again my first eye opener of like America's special and different. And you had I mean you said you kind of moved around right from South Carolina up to Maine kind of along the east coast there. Then you were in San Anton. So you had seen a decent chunk of the US at that point. Was that your first time abroad?

It was. And so you touched down like I mean going in there what were you expecting? The joke that I was getting to earlier is is the Air Force is kind of the the primados of the military, right? So so when when we deployed everyone's like, "Oh, you're in the Air Force. You're going to be staying in a five-star hotel. You're going to have it all made."

and and we landed on a C1 we flew into Germany uh hopped on a C130 and we sat you know shoulder toshoulder knee to knee fling into in through Bosnia and then into Hungary when we landed it's just a barren base right there's not a lot going on but you just see for you know for hundreds of yards all these tents and they call it tent city Hungary was a staging base for the operation that was down in Bosnia so the army soldiers would come in and out of Hungary to kind of relax get away from the stress of the of the fighting and the whatever ever they were doing. Um, so we were a staging base outside there and there were I don't even remember now, but thousands, it feels like thousands of tents, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, right down the road, just tent tent tent tent tent. I remember, you know, they I walked in, they said, here's your blanket, here's your cot, you know, and they said, you're in tent number D4 or whatever.

And my first reaction was, I'm in the Air Force. Like I'm like like, yeah, where's my hotel? I'm not sleeping in a tent, uh, sir. you know, and um and so we all a sudden we we opened the flap to the tent and it's a it's a regular old it's called a GP medium, but it's just a green tent. People who had been before us, they'd had some plywood and so they kind of built it out. And so when you walk in, there was a little bit of a hallway, plywood hallway, and there was like four or five bedrooms and there was like a little living room in the middle of this tent with a television, a microwave, and a heater.

And so there was four or five of us in this GP medium. And again, I'm totally upset with this. This is not what I signed up for. This was not the standard I was I was expecting. It didn't take long for me to walk across the road and pull the flap back on an army tent. And I looked in, same exact tent, 10 CS on this side, 10 CS on that side, and that's where they say 20 to a 10.

And we're four to a 10. I'm like, okay, I'm not do this. We can do this. Yeah. What makes it that way? Like why is it why is it like four of you guys, five of you guys, 20 of them?

You know, I I think for a lot of time, we were there a little longer. uh or we were in that tent longer. They were deployed longer. Uh but they were again they're in the middle of the you know the mess and we're kind of we're a staging base. Everything comes in here supplies come in here and then they truck them down into Bosnia. So I think in that sense it was we were just there on that particular post a little longer.

So um you know when you're coming in for three days you don't have time to build walls. Yeah, that makes sense. And and then it's just the sheer volume of there was thousands of them and probably 50 or 60 of us, right? So we had an Air Force tent city and then an army tent city. knows how the two combined. Yeah.

Right. Okay. So, and what's the the conflict that's going on? They call it operation joint guard and joint forge uh down in Bosnia. And you know, it's been a while since I kind of got into the details of it. And I kind of stay away from the why are we here and more of the what do you need me to do while I'm here and uh because I think sometimes even today we get so wrapped up in and you know the why is and it's good to question, don't get me wrong, but but I think the military really relies on I'm trusting my leadership.

my leadership sent me here and so therefore I'm going to do what they've asked me to do while I'm here and and so our job was really just to make sure the planes come in and out safely and that's kind of what I focused on and stay Yeah, that is an interesting piece because if you you know you spend too much time online or whatever you could convince you're like and then all of a sudden it's like descent and you're you're there for how long? Nine months, eight months. Yeah, we were there six months. Six months. So it's like you got to be here for six months. And it's like you're reading whatever, doing whatever, and like convincing yourself of like you start asking questions up the chain and whatnot, and it's like, hey, I mean, you're at the time early 20s.

Yeah. You know, mid20s maybe. And it's like, all right, boss. Like, let's pump the brakes a little bit and like let the I whoever's the ones that have been doing this for a long time, right? You know, you you got to follow orders, but you know, and I want to it sounds kind of silly to say it so blindly, especially in today's day and age, but but the reality is is you just have to trust your leadership. And so when you get to the point where you can't trust your leadership, it's time to get out, you know, but but don't fight the machine, right?

So either either be part of the machine or get out of the machine. The military really relies on we're here to do this, you just kind of got to get it done. And I think most members of the military, that's how we operate. It's like what do you need me to do? I'll go do it. And then I think sometimes we learn years later, h shoot, you know, that probably wasn't a good idea.

Yeah. And it's like in the moment. Yeah. That that's really hard. Yeah, it's really difficult because on the other side, if you had an organization where everyone got to have a say in an idea, you it would not get anything done, right? Like literally nothing would ever happen and would be Switzerland or whatever it is, you know, like that's really hard.

It's almost you like shorten up the site where it's like, hey, it's not this bigger mission. It is this mission of getting planes in and out safely. And from like I mean when I think of air traffic controller, I think of like isn't that like the most stressful job on earth? So I for like a commercial Yeah. Yeah. I I was on the maintenance side, so I was my job was just to make sure the equipment worked.

Oh, okay. And so that was easy and no stress there, but uh many good friends of mine are air traffic controllers and and watching them plug in. And when you get to the point where um you know, planes are coming and going, you can't just pause, right? You're like, "Hey, I'm going to take a break for just a minute, you know, that'll be there when I get back." Like planes are coming and going. So there's always that constant pressure and you know, and there's not a lot of doovers.

No, I mean like especially it's 2025 like all the stuff that we've seen lately and that's obviously doesn't go back to like you know the fault not air traffic but it's like you see stuff coming on it's like you're telling people something and and bad things happen and you're like that's stressful. Yeah. And it's like you get like for eight hours or however long their shift is especially like JFK like that job. No thank you. Yeah. Three or four runways at the time like no I'm chilling on that.

They work in teams, they work in shifts, and it's it's all pretty pretty structured. But uh but yeah, no, it was um you know, one of the funny my kind of neat stories of being in Hungary is there was an aircraft called an RC12, which was like a little C12 aircraft, but it had a lot of radio and reconnaissance information on it. And I remember one morning it was I mean, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, kind of foggy. And and all a sudden, you know, so my job was to make sure the radar was working and the radar system was tuned and everything was accurate. I was in the room listening to a controller talking to an aircraft and they have what's called a precision approach where where literally the pilot can fly with his eyes closed just by listening to the controller. You're too high, you're too low, too far left, too far right, turn, pull up, pull down.

And so literally, you know, on course, on glide path, on course, left to course. And so the controller is like every x amount of seconds has to issue a command and the pilot is literally just responding to what he's hearing. No instruments, no nothing. It's it's possible to land that that easily. So, so this plane's coming in and the the controller is saying, "You're on course. You're on glide path.

On course, on glide path, and there's a certain point 250 ft off the ground where the controller says, "You're at decision height." Meaning, it's your decision. Do you want to land or not? And I'm telling you, you're 250 ft above the runway, right where you're supposed to be. Do you want to land or not? So, on course, on glide path, going back and forth, and the controller says, "At decision height," the pilot goes, "Runway not in sight.

going around. So 200 ft off the runway, he can't see the runway. So he takes off and he goes around, comes back around, does the same exact thing. Controller goes at decision height and the pilot goes, I can't see it going around like, "Oh my goodness, now what are we going to do?" So maybe we have to send him to another airport or something. And so he comes in the third time and and just before they start that process, he says, you know, obviously when you're coming down the 250 ft, that process of pulling up, you go under 250 and then you pull up above it.

And so the controller said or so the pilot said when I made the decision to go around, I still, you know, I eventually saw that you were correct, but but at that point, I've already committed to going back in the air. So on the third TRA, he's like, I'm just going to trust you. And you know, plane comes in at decision height. pilot probably closed his eyes, you know, and landed perfectly, you know, and so that was to me that was kind of like, wow, this is kind of cool. Like the precision of being able to put an aircraft on the ground. Uh, and this is back in 97, right?

I'm sure we got much better technology now. Trust you have to have in this guy that you may have never actually met in person. And he and he probably Hungar he could be Hungarian, right? He could have been I this time it wasn't, but very easily we were there kind of working with Hungarian Air Force. a Hungarian guy speaking English going, "Oh, turn left, turn, you know, whatever." That's not not the Hungarian accent.

Yeah, that's right. No, right. Spot on. Spot on right there, man. That's Yeah, that's wild. Just the trust.

But then it goes back to I mean, specifically around like the US armed forces, like the shaved heads, right? It's like I trust these people. I'm willing to sacrifice whatever it might be. You can fold a t-shirt into a 6in square. You can probably put an airplane on the ground. Yeah, there's a little bit of there maybe a few steps of math in there, but the concept is the same.

Okay. So then I mean that was like back in 97. You end up going for you know another 20 years or so. Uh if you had like a few just pinnacle moments throughout your career uh within the Air Force. What would those be? Yeah.

So I went back and forth to Hungary quite a few times and um I go for six months at a time then went for three months and then uh went for a shorter time again and and again every time I went it was kind of one of the things that really kind of was interesting for me was every time I deployed I took my friends with me right and so for us a deployment in the military is kind of like a Super Bowl right it's kind of like the hey I've been in the military for x amount of years I've been training I've been training and training I want to go do what I'm supposed to be doing so so Most of us when we deploy it's fun because you're actually doing what you've been trained to do and then we bring all of our buddies with us you know and so what's interesting is I didn't think about it much at the time but as I get older I start looking back is the family doesn't go the you just leave a hole in this family's life for me it's a it's a party it's a not a party it's a vacation it's a it's something new but I'm with I have some familiarity the family just is like okay dad's not here uh you know and so that void just kind of it gets missing.

And then for me, you know, this is again before FaceTime, before text messaging, we had one computer in one tent down the down the ramp. We'd wait in line to send an email. You know, there would be five or six people in line and and you'd get to hop on the computer and type in your little email and send it off to your family and maybe tomorrow I'll come get back in line and see if they anyone replied. Understanding what the family goes through kind of makes you go it just you you appreciate a little bit differently. And um many heroes have worn the uniform, but man, every single one of them had a family member back home that's equally impressive. And yeah, and so that's kind of the cool part.

You that is interesting because like obviously like leaving is is hard, but there's new excitement, there's challenge, there's a mission, right? Like that's what you're called to like 27 years. You're called to like go accomplish missions, right? But then at home the mission is like sit around and wait, survive, right? And I remember one of my deployments, um, it rained all night and we had to be at the airport like 3:00 or 4 in the morning or something crazy like that. And, uh, I remember we were renting a townhouse at the time and and I was getting ready and it was stressful cuz, you know, you're you're leaving for 6 months and, you know, it's just it's just stressful to a relationship and and I remember going, you know, and and all a sudden we walked down the stairs to the garage and there's 4 inches of water in the basement and I looked at my wife and said, "Call a plumber."

Like, I I can't I can't fix this. I have to leave. You know, there's nothing I can do. Like, we both discovered it at the exact same time as we're walking out the door. You know, in in a normal relationship, you would be like, "All right, I I'll be here to help you with this." And no, and and so now I'm going across the world with no communication.

Uh, good luck getting the getting the the water out. Good luck, dear. Uh, yeah, that's that's tough looks. I mean, what I've loved as we we're about to get into when we're talking about uh Folds of Honor, it's not just a sacrifice made by the men and women who serve. Like, yes, that is a I mean, the largest contribution to it, but just as much as their families, you know, like I don't know enough, but from the sample size, I think you might be the anomaly that like dad super awesome, you know, like this is amazing versus how many families are like, I wish my dad was just here. Yeah.

You know, yeah. So, I'm very fortunate, right? So, 27 years. So after after those handful of deployments then Hungry Turkey all that stuff for me it was I think I missed five or six anniversaries in a row being overseas and and so that was starting to take a toll and and you know in the grand scheme of things I was nobody in the military I I nothing heroic nothing I was always in a safe place and always you know pretty well guarded it wasn't wasn't stressful in that regard so there are some amazing stories of military members doing heroic things that that I always kind of look up to and but for me after six or seven years of doing that, it was like it's time to start a family. I I can't keep being gone every summer uh and trying to raise a family. So, I went into recruiting at that point.

And so, my career transitioned to recruiting and I did 17 years in the recruiting service. So, so the early part of my career did a little bit and then for 17 of the 27 years I was stateside in recruiting and but I it was interesting. Um I went into recruiting in June of 2001. Um, my wife ended up uh we she we got pregnant and my daughter was due September 11th, 2001. That was her due date. The thought was I would I would transition out of the the busy side of the Air Force for what I was doing and just more more stability to to start a family.

September 6th, my daughter ended up being born instead of September 11th. And then 5 days later, the world completely changed, right? So September 11th hit. And so I have a 5-year-old baby, a five-month old bday old baby. What was really hard for me was um the units that I had always deployed with, they went over to Afghanistan. I didn't go because I stayed in recruiting.

And so, so because of my career change, they all, you know, they all take off. All these guys, I mean, great friends of mine that I've deployed many times with, they take off and I don't go. So, I always kind of had that I wouldn't say survivors guilt, but you know, that kind of sense of I should be going, right? But the way but the what but that's not what I do now. My job is to make sure the military is staffed and equipped. And so goes back to our earlier conversation is I just need to focus on what does the mission need of me?

The mission needs me to find more people. And so but for the longest time uh and I think that kind of ties into what we're going to talk about in a little bit is like is I always kind of felt like man I should have done more. You know 27 years in the military I should have done more. I should have done more and I should have done more. And so it kind of gets me to the point where I just want to continue doing. That is an interesting piece that I think separates the people who were called to do this.

I think that some people hear that like, oh wow, you switched to recruiting. How lucky are you? Right. Right. Like how you don't have to go to Afghanistan. Wow, you really caught a break there.

But then those that are called to serve are like, how lucky. Like those are my buddies. That's my that's my team. I felt like I abandoned them. Honestly, I really did. I I felt I I felt this huge sense of they all left and and they all left.

They did their thing. They all came back. So in that sense, very fortunate, right? But but I didn't go. And so now I have a whole group of friends that have a whole different set of stories that I'm not a part of. And and I wanted to be there.

That was the whole reason I joined was for that. Right. I mean there there is no more patriotic opportunity to serve your country than the week or two after 911. Yeah. And here I am sitting in a recruiting office going but is it like I mean the phones ringing off the hook? Yeah.

So this is a funny story. So the phones are ringing off the hook. We ended up moving our office was off base at the time. So they end up moving us on base for more security. I worked out of the dining facility out of the Chow. Where are you at in the world at this point?

New Hampshire. New Hampshire. Okay. At some point we're going to get into how you ended up in New York. I know, right? How'd you get to Isn't this the Get In podcast, right?

Yeah. Uh not the Get podcast. Yeah. But uh so anyway, so we're we're in the I'm in the dining facility literally in a makeshift office because we're trying to, you know, be more secure. And and I get a phone message and it says, "Hi, my name is Kahim Abdul Raheem." Uh he's like, "Hi, my name is Kahim Abdul Raheem.

I'm in the Boston air traffic control tower. I want to talk to you. This is three days after 911. I'm not answering that. It's a voicemail, right? I'm like, I'm not calling you back.

Couple days later, hey, it's Kahim Abdul Raheem. I'm the air traffic control Boston center. Call me. So, I called the the security police. I'm like, uh, you know, come to find out, Kahim Abdul Raheem was serving United States Army. He was an air traffic controller with the FAA.

he wanted to switch over to the Air Force. It was it was that simple. That would be really hard. Yeah. For him, too. You know, where it's like right in the five day the two weeks after and it's like he's he wants to step up and serve and the air traffic control the air traffic control um job in the army is different than the Air Force.

And so a lot of guys in the army, air traffic control is your is your specialty, but you're soldier first. And so they don't do a lot of talking to airplanes in the army uh as much as the Air Force certainly does. So, so he because he worked for the FAA, he wanted to get more involved in the air traffic control operations. So, switching to the Air Force to him made sense. Uh, but yeah, just, you know, for me it was one of those I'm I'm not returning this call. You're going to have to talk to the cops, sir.

Yeah, that one goes a little bit of uh run up the chain of command there. So, I mean, in the in the days, you mean being in recruiting the days after 911, you know, think about call volume before you left on to for your your daughter to be born. Call volume there. Like how many how many people are calling in saying like I can't wait to join. Yeah. Then it was you're calling people trying to find them, right?

And then the phones they're literally they rang off the hook for patriotism. People just wanted to get involved and and I think a lot of people, you know, most people don't fully understand. It was like kind of like I want to I want to join like, okay, well, if you join today, it's two years before you're qualified to do anything, you know, for the most part. And so it's not like you raise your right hand and all of a sudden they hand you a rifle and off you go. There's some training and you got basic training. You have your tech training.

Like what was the shortest amount of time if you had to guess? Like a year. So 12 months. Someone was like a banker on Wall Street or whatever. I mean I don't know if they Yeah, I'm sure there's some bankers on Wall Street that Right. You're you're a host of the Get In podcast and then 12 months later you are in Afghanistan.

Yeah. Because we're we not going to send you. Now this is strictly for the Air Force. Maybe the Army has some different rules, Marine Corps has some different rules, but but for us it's is you're highly specialized in what we need you to do. So, you're a if if I'm bringing you in to be a, you know, a jet mechanic, uh, I can't really send you to be a jet mechanic until you know how to fix jets, right? So, I even I've worked on big rigs all my life, it's like, hey, we got a little bit of training there.

This might be a little different. So, so yeah, so for the most part, it was if you joined today, uh, you know, it's going to take me three or four weeks to find you a basic training spot to get you in. You're going to go six to eight weeks of basic training. Then you're going to go through 8 to n 8 to 52 weeks of tech training. Then you come back and you're you just got school knowledge. You know, think about a four-year college degree.

Like all you have is books smarts. You have no real world experience. So then we have to bring you back train you. So it's a couple good two three years normally from the time someone joins before they're really eligible to deploy by themselves. So I'm like looking up how much did enlistment go up, you know, right immediately after 911. I mean, I just have to assume just, you know, patriotism a ton and and it's like cool.

Like, I don't if it's two years or whatever, uh, just get me involved right now. I want to be in I want to be part of it. There just before 911 around August time frame, um, I had a guy come to he was in the actual air active duty air force and he separated because same thing, it was too busy. And so, he did his four, I think, four years and got out. Um, and then around August time frame, he's like, "Yeah, you know, my life is settled down. I'm older now.

I want to finish my career, so I want to join the guard. And so he called me and said, you know, I want to join the guard. Again, this is August. No idea September 11th is coming. And he's like, one of the reasons I got out of the military is I just I deployed too much. And so he goes, I just I'm not able to do that to the same level I was.

And I remember looking at him and going, well, if you join here, you're probably not going anywhere because our cops aren't that busy. There's not a lot going on in the world. and I convinced him to join based on the fact that he's like he I mean he was very upfront with me. uh deployment is not something I'm looking for. And okay, no, no worries. Sign here, sir.

And so he did. He enlisted like a week or two before September 11th and September 12th he's gone, you know? So So that damn recruiter lied to me, you know? That's tough. It's like I didn't know. Yeah.

Well, and it's like oh my god. Like who's the I mean how wonder how many people joined September 10th, right? Thinking like yeah, this is what I want to do, you And it's like the next day you're like, "Shit." Yeah, things are real now. just got real. I want to take a minute to tell you about my friends at JC Hart and the opportunity that they are giving to get in listeners.

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And they also wanted me to let you know that they are always looking for awesome people to join their team. They just made the list of best places to work in Indiana for the 13th time. Check out their open positions at homejart. com. Now, let's get back into the episode. Obviously career goes on, you know, ends up 27 years and you end up retiring back in 2019, six years ago, but like your call to service, you know, you said you still had that.

So, how did you get involved with the Folds of Honor program? Somewhere in the middle of my career, my recruiting career, I ended up working at the Pentagon. Uh, living in living in living in San Antonio, working for the Pentagon. Very close commute. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Not too far. and uh just a time zone or two, right? You know, taxi, an airplane, and a subway. But yeah, other than that, you get to work real quick. There you go.

Living in San Antonio, working out of the Pentagon up in DC. I I got involved with marketing because I was in recruiting. So that my job was kind of, you know, help with the marketing team and and we were looking for different ways to kind of promote the Air Guard as a as a call to as a way to serve. And especially in recruiting, our job's always looking for more people. And you know, if you think back, the Marine Corps has the toys to tots program, right? And so though that's that's sanctioned by the Marine Corps.

And when you think of Toys for Tots, you think of the United States Marine Corps, right? And there's that there's that cool side of the Marines that, you know, wearing the uniform and the, you know, the they're some of our elite, right? And and so being a Marine is pretty dang cool, but you kind of have to kind of show the soft side to get people to be interested. And so the Toys for Tots program, something like that, we were looking for in the Air Force. We had found, you know, a country singer or some people to write songs for, do some little stuff, but it just wasn't getting any traction. And so, wait, who was a country singer?

Laura Brina. Laura, if you Google Laura Brina, she ended up writing a song for us. And um, sweet lady. She's still out doing her thing. But, um, yeah, we did a we did a little a stint with her for a little while. That's kind of sick.

Yeah. It never got the traction we It's No Toys for Tots, right? But Laura's Laura's a great great great gal. So, we were kind of looking for something we could do to just kind of promote the military. And because I was living in San Antonio and I visited many of the Air Guard bases around the country. So, most of them I'd been to at least once or twice.

And so, I was flying all over the country, you know, meeting different recruiters, understanding what their job was and and kind of helping build a program around uh enlisting people and then some marketing. Uh this is where my life completely changed and and and things just got really really different. I'm coming up on very selfish. Uh it's just the way, you know, I always want to take care of me first. That was how I kind of was good, bad, or indifferent. That's who I was right back in the day.

And so all of a sudden, I I was I was flying everywhere. And then I started collecting air miles and like, holy cow, I'm getting a lot of air miles. And oh, there's some perk. And then next thing you know, I became uh platinum status on American Airlines. Woohoo. And then I start looking.

I'm like, well, executive platinum is even better. So I want to be executive platinum on American. So, I start looking at my flight schedule and I'm like, man, if I fly eight more times this year, I'll be executive platinum on American. For those who don't know, executive platinum on American means you buy a a $200 ticket and it's first class as soon as you pay send, right? It just auto you automatically get upgraded to first class like 99% of the time, right? If American Airlines is listening, it's not 100%.

I get it. But if you're executive platinum, they take good care of you. And so, the perk of being it's like diamond level of for Delta or whatever the scenarios are. And so I'm like I'm only eight flights short this year. If I fly eight more times I get this status. So living in San Antonio and I'm like how do I get eight flights?

Yeah. I had some tools that I use as a frequent flyer and I'm like, if I leave here at 6:00 a. m. and I fly from San Antonio to Dallas and then go from Dallas to Oklahoma City and then back to Dallas and then up to Tulsa and then back to Dallas and then over to Austin and then back to Dallas and then back to San Antonio the same day. That's eight flights. I can get this done.

So, I booked the flight. It cost me 600 bucks. I pay for it out of my pocket and I wait 600 bucks to get all those eight flights. Yeah, this is na This is 2005. Okay. I I'm very intrigued of where this story is going.

Okay, so you booked these six flights. Yep. Eight flights. Eight flights. Eight flights. So So San Antonio, Dallas, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Dallas, Tulsa, Tulsa, Dallas, Dallas, Austin, Austin, Dallas, back home to San Antonio at 9:00 at night.

So, so an entire left at 6:00 a. m. , got home at 9:00 p. m. and went to San Antonio. Right.

So, it was a crazy day of flying, but I got my executive platinum status. It was worth it in that in that sense. What? Yeah. There's a thing for frequent flyers. There's a thing called mileage run.

And so, you literally you buy flights just to get the miles because the perks that come with it. So, so after this for me, all next year everything I flew was first class. Didn't matter where I bought the ticket, how I bought the ticket. Uh, how do you keep the status? By flying. Classic, of course.

Yeah, exactly. Dude, you're hooked. I mean, enough to spend an entire not only 600 bucks, but an entire day. Yeah. All right. So, so I'm doing all that just minding my own business, right?

And so on the flight from uh from Dallas up to Tulsa. And what I started noticing is of course American Airlines, Dallas is their hub, one of their hubs, right? And so so the you know the plane that That's your fourth time going through it for a day. Yeah. Yeah, it might be a hub. Yeah, here's an idea.

But the the plane that went from from Dallas to Oklahoma City, same crew, same plane, went right back to Dallas. Right? So the plane just went out, did picked up people, and came right back. Up there, picked up people, came right back. And so I started recognizing that. And so when we flew up to Tulsa, uh, at the time I didn't have any status, so I was still in the back of the airplane.

At the time I didn't have any status. Yeah, I was nobody, you know, and anyway, so we fly up to Tulsa and I've been flying all day at this point. And so no reason for me to get off the plane if I don't have to. So I asked I'm like, "Hey, I'm going right back with you. Any chance I could just stay on the plane? I don't need to get off."

And the flight attendant said, "Yeah, you know, I guess for whatever reason they let me stay on the plane." And so I stayed on the plane. And then she actually said, she goes, "As a matter of fact, um, this flight coming back from Tulsa to Dallas is a little empty, so there's a seat up in first class. I can move you up into first class." Did you tell them about your excursion? Oh, yeah.

They knew. Yeah, she knew. She and she she recognized there was what they call mileage run, and she's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I got it." And I guess I had I had I was platinum at the time. I wasn't fully no status, you know, but um anyway, so so they recognized it and so they put me up in first class. And so from from the rest of the day or for the rest of that flight, I was in first class from Tulsa back to Dallas.

And so I'm sitting on the plane, I'm by myself, basically the cleaning crews coming around cleaning up, whatever. And um a gentleman, you know, they start to board and a gentleman walks down the the ramp and he's on his cell phone sitting and talking. And um he ends up sitting right next to me. He was in first class as well. So, you know, there's only two seats and so he's sitting right next to me and he's just talking away and I'm not really paying attention because I don't care, right? I'm it's all about me, you know, I'm Mr.

Getting Executive Platinum today, you know, but he's talking on his cell phone and, you know, it's impossible not to hear the person sitting next to you, excuse me, talking on their cell phone. And so, I pick up what he's saying and he basically is trying to schedule a physical and then he's trying to schedule it on a on a Saturday. I'm like, "Well, not a lot of doctor's offices open on a Saturday." Right? And so I start listening a little more and I figure, "Oh, he's a pilot. Oh, he's in the Air Guard.

Oh, I'm in the Air Guard. Dude, I've been flying all day. I'm bored." Right? So So I'm trying to find a way to say, "Hey, I'm in the military, too." You know, hey, what's up, dude?

Hey, what's up, dude? So, he hangs up his phone and and I somehow kind of I don't remember exactly how, but I I think I was wearing a a t-shirt with the logo on him, kind of doing one of these, kind of leaning over, hoping he sees it. And so we start talking and it's a 40-minute flight. What do you do? I'm in the Air Guard. What do you do?

I'm in the Air Guard. Oh, great. I'm a pilot. Oh, great. I'm in recruiting. Oh, yeah.

Somehow he mentioned charity, not really fully paying attention kind of. And And so he uh I I said, "Yeah, you know, we do some charity work. My wife is a school teacher and there's an organization called uh Donors Choose where teachers go and make wish lists and then uh people, you know, donate or whatever." So, we had done a little bit of work with them, just maybe small contributions here and there, but I was kind of proud of that. was like, "Hey, I'm doing some I'm doing charity work, too, mister." And he's like, "Well, Mike, let me let me tell you about what I'm doing."

He tells me the story that changed my life. And and so he said he was he's an F-16 pilot in the Air Force, Air Guard. Uh he's seen the other side of war, obviously, and he's been been doing that. His family owns a golf course up in Grand Haven, Michigan. And so he was, you know, flying and one one afternoon, um, he was coming home and they landed in Chicago on his way over to Grand Haven, Michigan. And when they landed, um, you know, wasn't really paying attention originally, but he noticed that in first class of that particular flight was a corporal in dress greens.

And again, thought nothing of it because it happens all the time. And but they landed in Chicago. It's pouring down rain and and um the pilot comes over the PA and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, uh would you remain on board for just a moment? We have an American hero on board." And Dan's like this, his name's Dan. And Dan looks at he's like, "Wow, that's you know, they're honoring that corporal."

And by letting him off first or whatever. And the pilot goes um he continues on and says, "We're carrying the remains of Corporal Brock Buckland. his identical twin brother Brad has escorted him 7,000 miles home from Iraq. So Dan starts figuring out like, "Oh, the guy in first class is the brother. He's brought his brother home from Iraq." So he's sitting over the cargo hold.

He he looks out the window and he sees the flag drake casket come out. He notices the family on the tarmac. Um and he sees four-year-old Jacob Buckan, you know, recognizing and greeting his dad for the last time. in essence and and Dan goes, "Man," you know, and all the times I've been doing what I do for the Air Force, I never saw this side of it, right? We just we're we're mission first. What's the mission ask us to do?

And the mission doesn't say take care of your family. The mission says take care of the country, right? And so, uh not in a bad way, but and so anyway, so he he witnesses that and um he's he then says, "Well, I'm going to the golf course. Let's have a let's have a little golf outing. let's raise some money for that four-year-old boy that I just witnessed. And so they host a golf event.

They raised $8,513. They call it a success. And uh you know, and and that was kind of the how the the Faults of Honor was born. But he tells me that story. So I'm sitting on an airplane. I've been flying all day and all of a sudden he tells me the story and I'm like, "How does the Air Guard help you do this?"

And he's like, "What do you mean?" I'm like, "I've been looking for someone like you. We've been trying to do some sort of toys for tots. Let's see if we can get behind this and put some money. What do you need?" And he's like, "Well, I'm on my way down to Florida right now to talk to the PJ of America to talk to them, the PJ, and tell them this story and see if I can get the PJ involved because he's a he's also a professional golfer.

F16 pilot and a P and a PJ pro like and a philanthropist." Yeah, this guy, who is this guy? Dan Rooney. Dan Rooney is Yeah, he's our founder. So, he's an amazing amazing man. So, anyway, so yeah, so he tells me the story and I'm like, I'm all in.

I don't know what this means, but I'm all in. And so he hands me his card and we get off the plane and I fly to Dallas and then I go to Austin. Then I go back to Dallas and I go back at night, you know, and he can't wait to get home. I have to go to three more cities from this. So he gave me his card and I just said, "There's got to be a way to to make this our mission, you know, and whatnot." So I come back and I'm in San Antonio and and my boss is obviously up in DC.

And so I tell him about this encounter, you know, hey, I found our I found our toys for tots. I found our thing. Um, at the time it wasn't even called Folds of Honor. It was called Fallen Heroes Foundation. And I said, you know, we need to get behind this Fallen Heroes Foundation thing and and we can we can sponsor them and they can be our our phil philanthropic event that the Air Guard does. So, you know, we kind of the buzz kind of starts picking up and people are getting excited and meanwhile Dan's off doing his own thing and I made no promises, right?

Like, hey, I'll see what I can do. And kind of loosely kept in touch and and then so we we get to the point where I said I called Dan. I'm like, Dan, uh, my boss is interested in hearing your story. So, would you fly up to DC and, you know, tell him your story, tell him what you told me and we'll see if we can do some sort of sponsorship. So, he says, "Sure." So, he uh, we arranged in coincidentally enough, you know, I used my air miles and I got him a flight to there and I I used my hotel points to put him up in a hotel in DC.

There it is. Come on. And um, so so we I get him hooked up. He comes to DC and uh we had I can't remember exactly but we have a room full of generals and colonels and there's probably eight or nine military leaders in the room and Dan comes up and tells them the story that I just did you know hey I was on an airline flight I saw the you know casket come out and we I want to give scholarship to families who who've paid the ultimate sacrifice and so he tells that story and you know if you've ever heard Dan tell the story it is just um it's captivating when he when he tells it because he witnessed it firsthand And and so he tells the story and the room is silent and and I'm thinking, "Yep, this is it, right? Home run." He leaves.

Uh the generals talk about it, colonels talk about it, and it doesn't really go anywhere. And I didn't understand that. And I still don't really understand that. And so my particular boss, uh Colonel Johnson at the time, Randy Johnson, not the baseball player. And coincidentally, I'm going to have lunch with him tomorrow. He doesn't live in town.

He's in town just coincidentally. Anyway, so so Randy Johnson and I um I told him the story and he again he was kind of impressed but we couldn't get any traction and then so fast forward a little bit. Many months have gone by and um we had a recruiting conference in Hawaii. Had to go there, right? That's just how you're executive platinum. You have to go everywhere.

Yeah. Everywhere, right? So So we we have a conference in Hawaii. Um because I'm executive platinum, I brought my wife and daughter with me. We all flew first class to Hawaii and back anyway. So, so on our way I'm in, again, keep in mind I'm in San Antonio.

My boss is in DC. No coordination, no, we're just all we know is Monday morning we have to be in in Hawaii and it's over the weekend and uh taking my family and we land in LAX and we go to the Admiral's Club and we're we're big pimping, you know, and hanging out. And I'm like, let me just check in with the boss and see where he's at. So, I called Colonel Johnson and I said, "Hey, sir, just checking in, you know, see you Monday morning, but uh you know, how's things?" And he goes, "Where you at?" I said, "Lax."

He's like, "Where are you? Where?" I'm like, "Gate 8." He goes, "Mike, Mike." He's at gate 10. I'm like, "Interesting."

Okay. Well, do you have a minute? I want to chitchat with you. Him and I, I told my wife and daughter, I said, "Go to the club, hang out. They'll take good care of you, and him and I are going to go to a different place and just kind of catch up." So, we walk in there and we're sitting at a um at a bar in in LAX and there's a television about where that television is, right in front of us.

We're just kind of having a drink, catching up. And and preceding this, every time I saw him, I always asked, "Hey, what are we going to do with Dan Rooney?" Like, "Hey, boss, what's the status of project this? What's the status of this project? Hey, I need your signature here. Hey, any movement with the colonels and generals with Dan Rooney and and I could never get anywhere."

And so now we're sitting at LAX and I have him cornered. And I'm like, I'm going to put this thing to bed. And so I'm asking about project ABC and signatures here. And then I said, you know, I'm going to ask, you know, you you know, sir, I'm going to ask you this. So, what are we doing with Dan Rooney? And he goes, Mike, it's a neat story.

It's a great effort, but I just don't think the television is right in front of us. I told you, Dan, when he was flying, he was flying down to the PJ. They they recorded part of his thing and the PJ made a PSA, public service announcement that was playing on television. So, my boss says, "Mike, I just don't think the TV in front of us comes on. It's the commercial with Dan Rooney talking about the Folds of Honor and and at the end he says, "Please support the Fallen Heroes Foundation." And my boss looks at me like, "Did you script this?"

I'm like, "No, sir. I had nothing to do with it." And he looks at me, he's like, "Let's go ahead and cut the check." And so I called Dan from LAX and Dan, I I just got you $400,000 sponsorship. I don't know what it means yet. Uh, but we are going to allow you to to be part of the Air Guard story and tell members of the of the community that the Air National Guard is sponsoring the Folds of Honor and and you'll wear your your Folds of Honor, your your Air Guard stuff everywhere and we'll get some good PR out of it.

So, I call Dan from LAX and I tell him, "Hey, I got you a sponsorship. You know, we have 400,000 bucks. Uh, let's meet next week and we'll figure out what it looks like." I did not know this at the time. I didn't learn this till years later, but um Dan was working out of his garage still at this point. No staff, you know, oneman show, doing everything he can, grinding, grinding, grinding, and he was to the point where he's like, "Probably can't do this anymore.

It's time. It's probably time to close shop, right?" Had a good run, did all the right things. Um and then so when I called him from LAX and said, "Hey, you know, we have 400,000 bucks." And he's like, "Okay." So he hired his first employee and then he built what we now are doing$25 to $50 million a year giving away scholarships.

So that's how I got involved. Uh God put me on an airplane and said sit next to this guy for a little bit. Open your heart, listen and just kind of do what you're supposed to do. That is uh And what year was that? 2005. 2005.

Oh wow. You're still early in your career at that point. Like I mean middle middle of the road, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I retired in 19.

So yeah. So I so then I just kind of stayed involved with Fold and then when we moved to Indiana, the military finally transferred me to Indiana. I ended up managing recruiting for the state of Indiana when I retired from here. So when they moved us here, I said, "When did you make it to Indiana?" 2010. 2010.

Okay. When they sent me here, I told Dan like, "Hey, the Folds of Honor was starting to get some traction and and I said, "Can we form a chapter in Indiana?" And it took us a couple years. So I think 2013 is when we finally officially became a chapter. Uh but I said, "I I want to keep raising money for this organization." And so, you know, the premise was they raised $8,500, gave it to, you know, to Jacob Buckland as a scholarship, but but it doesn't really do a lot, right?

$8,500 bucks is great. There's nothing disrespectful about that, but it's not life-changing in that sense. And it doesn't uh it didn't go beyond that. And so, the mission was to make sure that let's take care of the educational needs of all of the men and women's children and their spouses. And so, you know, we need more than 8,500 bucks to do that. So, I said, "Yeah, you know, I came to Indiana.

I said, I want to help with this fundraising effort. I want to continue doing that. And so, uh, can we form a chapter here in Indiana? And then 2013, the the Folds of Honor Indiana chapter kind of finally planted their flag at at, uh, the Legends Golf Course down in Franklin, Indiana originally. And then, uh, now we're kind of settled up here in the Caramel Fissards area. So, as you retired, have you been able like to start putting more time and it's like folds of honor?

Like like what is the the commitment and what are you like owning on that? It's an all volunteer team, right? So, we have a board of five now. um president, vice president, secretary, treasurer. And um predominantly what we're doing is we're looking for community partners who are who are trying to raise money or or you know I want to do some charity work. I want to sponsor um making a lot of phone calls just really asking for donations and saying you know if you want to sponsor a golf outing or sponsor a gayla or if you want to host your own fishing tournament, you know, host it and then give the proceeds back to Folds of Honor.

We'll make sure that 91 cents of every single dollar goes directly to a scholarship. And the the impact you guys have had across the country is incredible. So 62,000 over 62,000 scholarships have been awarded. Yeah. Approximately $290 million in educational impact from the guy on the plane that you happen to just run into. And like uh how long did the air stay involved?

A couple years. A year and a half. It kind of um we just did that one sponsorship and then it just was hard to get the traction out of it. But we got the the seed work done. So yeah, we stayed involved for about a year. There you go.

Well, because it's like it's a long process and like I have had a decent amount of like nonprofit whether they're like executive directors or founders. It's it's a hard it is. It's hard. But you know, but it's passion driven, right? And so um I always usually I'll end kind of a segment with this is that you know there's a lot of different ways in the world to give back and and this may be your passion, but if it's not, you need to go find your passion. Like if your passion is saving the whales, go be the best whale saver there is.

Seriously, there's no disrespect in doing that and no disrespect in not doing something else. But but you need to find where your passion is aligned and then go do it. And so for me, this is where my passion is aligned. So for me, it's a natural transition, a natural fit where I said, "Yeah, I'm driven to do this." And so, so when I wake up every single day thinking of the families that, you know, their loved one, I mean, I deployed many times and never once did I think what happens if I don't come home, right? uh many of our service members, they end up writing letters from the battlefield, right?

Saying, "Dear family, if you're reading this, you know, and and most of them, thank God, bring them back with them, but a handful of them don't, right?" And so, but even having to go through the exercise of like what you would write in that letter. It's almost like writing your own obituary a little bit where it's like, and then there's a whole thing of like you're there in the moment and you're like, "Damn, I hope I make it back because if so, like there's I wish I had more to do here. I wish I had learned so much." Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So, so I never had to write that because everywhere I went was safe, right? Whatever the term safe means. But I I never was in that that danger of like I knew I was coming home for lack of a better term, right? We never know what tomorrow's promise. But but I knew generally speaking I was going to be in a pretty Yeah.

As safe as it could be. As safe as it could be. I mean I I didn't even carry a gun when I was over there. Like there was an army. If I needed one, I could get one, I guess. But but it was like that's how safe.

Put that Put that in perspective. All right. Yeah. Yeah. So So I wasn't worried. I was more worried about was Burger King at the child gonna have nuggets or not, you know, versus am I coming home?

And so, so for many of our members of the military, you know, when when they write that letter, you know, of course, or when the family gets it, it's impactful. And so, as we said earlier, you know, the family is the one that carries a lot of that burden when when you know, especially when you deploy, but if you don't make it home, it's a whole different void that just never gets filled. And and so my mission was to, you know, looking back, you know, at the time that I didn't get to deploy right after 9 911, I'm like, this is my opportunity to continue serving in that capacity is to take care of them. And so, so I do it completely as a volunteer. My full-time job, I'm in cyber security, not even related to the military, right? And so it's just something we do, you know, like even today, I take the day off to come do this, right?

I I take off my regular job to come volunteer uh to talk about this. And it's just something that you can't train it, you can't teach it. You just kind of you just kind of have a passion for it. I I think it all ties back in. Everyone shaves their head. Y everyone takes care of each other.

We're a team. Yep. And this is a because this is across branches of the military, right? Like it could be Marine, Army, Air Force. Yep. Navy, Coast Guard.

Navy, Coast Guard. Absolutely. Space Force. Spa camp. People always forget about the Space Force, but but it's through that it's like, hey, we all took this oath to serve our country, right? And some individuals end up paying the ultimate price, right?

And then yeah, you talk about like you think about your family as you left and deployed every summer and like all those stuff. Uh but you came back and it's like not only that that that gap is forever. Yeah. Yeah. So this is my way to just kind of continue to continue to serve in a way that I you know I feel like you know going into recruiting for 17 years I feel like there's a good part of the military that I missed right in that sense. And so, so this is my opportunity to say, you know, for for my brothers and sisters who served um who either didn't come home or came back a different person, right?

A lot of people, you know, yes, just because you come home doesn't mean everything's great. It's my opportunity to to take care of those families and to honor honor their service, honor their sacrifice by continuing out by educating their legacy. And for Folds of Honor Indiana, are you raising money from Hoosiers to benefit the families of Hoosiers? That's exactly it. Yep. So, so we're looking for sponsors and donors in the state of Indiana.

The way it's structured is the actual um organization has a headquarters in Tulsa. And so Tulsa does all of the uh the logistics and the scholarship applications, but the money that we raise in Indiana, we send down to Tulsa, earmarked for Indiana families. So as as scholarship recipients apply, um you know, they know where they're coming from and where they're going to school. And so they look at the money that we've raised in the state and say, you know, match up and they match it up. How many current children are eligible for a folds of honor scholarship? So the eligibility, you can go to the website to read about the eligibility.

Um but the eligibility is you either have to be, you know, killed in action or killed being being while you're served, um or disabled. And so the disability rating is 70% or higher. The the qualifications change every year based on the available funding, but it's quite a bit. You know, you think you look at 62,000 scholarships that we've awarded uh since 2005. How many hooers have served whether it's first responder or in the military and have lo have like lost their life or been disabled? Yeah, that's I don't know that.

That might be a number. I need to like maybe look that one up. It's too many. I'll tell you that. Yeah. where it's like, okay, you know, if we could do the back back of the napkin math where it's, okay, there's 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, whatever that number is, and then you multiply that by their families and you get like, and then we need 40 grand per kid, whatever that, you know, and you you get to the math where it's like, okay, so the ultimate goal is that if every hooer who pays this sacrifice for our country and our state has their family taken care of, I don't know, that's that's really fascinating to me.

Um, and it's I mean, really, really meaningful work. It is. And you know, we have um we start developing relationships with some of these families. I told you earlier about, you know, I never had the chance or never never had the need to write that letter, but we have one of our scholarship recipients, Taylor Downing. She was 9 years old when her father was killed. And she has the letter that her dad wrote.

And you know, and at nine, right? It's not something a nine-year-old needs to process. And um sometimes when she speaks for us, she'll read that letter. And yeah, it's it's one of those things that and you just can't you hear it once and and it sticks with you forever. But I mean, she's one of 62,000 that we know of. Uh and and every year there are people that don't even know that they're eligible.

I talked to a guy yesterday who doesn't know he's eligible for a scholarship for his children. And you know, you know, he and he retired from the Air Force as well, but he, you know, he's 100% disabled, so he's eligible. And I'm like, he didn't even know about it. So, so that's kind of why why we appreciate having this opportunity is that, you know, if you were in the military and you have a disability rating or or you're if your spouse is in the military and and you know, pay the ultimate sacrifice, go to the website and just see if you're eligible and and and let us help you. And and so that gift of a scholarship um certainly, you know, it does help the financial burden, but I think one of the things it does that we don't really advertise a lot of is it connects you to a family of people who understand you, right? who can relate and and so that opportunity for healing happens by meeting people who have a very similar story to you that then when you sit in a room and talk you know a lot of times when we hear this oh I'm so sorry for your loss and but there they don't understand it because they didn't go through it the same way definitely respectful definitely appreciate the sacrifice but but when you can talk to someone who lived it just like you lived it I'm sure people like avoid that convers like your friends or your you know your peers at school like don't know how to approach it because they don't know you're like, you know, national anthem comes on before a ball game.

It's like is how does that affect how does that affect someone who who's gone through that and like they're you know their family has paid the ultimate price, right? That's like you talk about uh you said what Taylor is that her name? Yep. Taylor. You talk about Taylor like reading that letter at a gayla or whatever. Yeah.

Oh, not a dry eye in the room when she's an amazing young woman and take all the money. You could have you could have it all. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. So, uh, her story, you know, her story is actually very tragic, uh, in in a sense that she's a, you know, dear dear friend and she ended up getting to the point where, you know, now she's she's, I don't know, mid20s now, a couple years ago, she met a guy and they, you know, things were getting serious and he wanted to propose and so over Memorial Day weekend, he goes down to he brings her to go visit her dad's grave site.

And so, so there they are, you know, him, her, and dad and he proposes, right? And so dad becomes now part of the proposal. You know, they started charting this amazing life. One of our great sponsors, Annheiser Bush, brought the Clydes deals to Indie and they got to ride on the Clydes deals in the in the Memorial Day or the May parade for Ind. So they ride the Clydesills and the 500 festival parade and he's a firefighter and Yeah. So things are going well and then tragically he loses his life and so and and they have kids and so now so she becomes she becomes a mom.

Stop. Yeah. It's it's it's a the woman is beyond strong and beyond brave. Um the the courage she has, you know, to live through not only did she go through it as a nine-year-old girl, but now she's going through it as as a spouse and and a mom. Um, so again, so when we come in and say we can help, I I don't know the word help really is the right word, but we're going to love on you and we're going to take care of you and we're going to be here for you and u so that's where the that's where the money goes. You know, it's like talk about that.

That's why I wake up to do this is that, you know, if I if I can do something to honor his sacrifice, honor her dad's sacrifice by just educating their legacy and giving them a better future and and loving on them. That's that's kind of what uh Yeah. kind of what it's all about. It's important work. That's Yeah. Wow.

That one and and so again, that's one of 62,000 stories. The 62,000 is the number that you guys have helped thus far, right? It's like what's the number if there was unlimited budget, unlimited money, I don't wonder what that number would get up to. Absolutely. Probably triple. Yeah.

Right. Easily. And it's like that's that's heavy. Yep. Um it's a it's a very honorable cause. Very noble.

How can people get plugged in? What what are like are there big events throughout the year that you guys host? We do. So we have um you know a lot of we do a lot things around golf because our founder is a PJ golf professional, right? So, so we kind of started in the golf community, but but again, we recognized not everyone's a golfer. And so there were opportunities for for other people that said, "Hey, you know, I don't like golf.

I like fishing." Okay. Well, then host a fishing tournament. So, what we look for is corporations to say, "Hey, maybe our our company outing this year. We're going to raise money and we're going to give it to a nonprofit. Folds of Honor would would love to come in and and be a part of that experience with you."

And so if you're a business owner out there listening to the pod, you feel called, you know, to be a Hoosier that supports the families of of fallen Hoosiers, right? And disabled Hoosiers that are that were willing to volunteer and put their life on the line. Like you got to talk to Mike. That's it. Like boom, there it is, you know? And we run a we we run very lean.

I I I mentioned earlier 91 cents of every dollar we collect goes directly to scholarships. And so our board being an allv volunteer board, it's, you know, it's we we we we want to make sure that if you entrust us with a dollar or $10 or a $1,000 or whatever the scenario is, if you trust us with that, we're going to make sure we put it to exactly where you thought it went. And that's scholarships. And you know, we try and make sure that we're we honor that. Uh, you know, it's kind of in our Dan, our founder, make sure that's you know, 91 cents to him isn't enough. It should be higher in his eyes.

And but at some point there is some some cost of doing business. Yeah. So, are there ways like are there events you host every year? Any annual golf outings like ways that like just individuals can get involved? Yep. So, I mean we do Cars and Coffee, Indianapolis Cars and Coffee Group.

Uh they do a car show once a month and so that supports us. So, getting involved in that. We do a a golf event up in um uh sorry over at Maple Creek on the east side of Indianapolis. Our website, which we're getting ready to update, sorry, the dates uh hopefully by the time you get this release, we'll have our our event calendar more accurate, but indian. folddonor. org has our event calendar, Facebook, social media, we list all of our events there, but we do an annual gayla every year.

Uh we're pushing ours to a year from now. So, we're going to try and do it in the spring to kind of kick off the season, but looking for gayla sponsors and and really that's an opportunity where we we bring in a family, the family tells their story. Uh we usually have some sort of country artist singing and All right, I'm in. I'll buy tickets. I love it. So, first table, we I'll I'll put the hand up.

First table, we got it. Excellent. I love it. Sign me up. I love it. Uh man, Mike, thank you so much for coming on and uh telling your story, telling the story of Folds of Honor.

I mean, and talk about the plan. Who would have thought, and this is blunt, but it is. Who would have thought that maybe one of the most selfish kind of like doing a rewards mile run would commit you to a life of service. Yeah. Yeah. I think about that all the time.

And I think that's when, you know, when my life shifted in that sense, I realized that that it isn't about me, right? And so, you know, this is kind of kind of silly as, you know, we go on kind of a little tangent. I apologize, but we go down to the Indie Fuel game. You know, we've been big fans of Indie Fuel. And so at every game they say, "If you're a member of the military, please stand up." And I'm like, and my wife goes, "How come you never stand?"

I'm like, "Cuz I don't need the recognition." Right? Like I know what I've done. I know what I'm capable of. And you know, and so it's one of those like even in this work like a lot of times like I don't want to be the face of the organization. I just want to help, right?

It's like this isn't about me. So I went from being there was a time when brother let me tell you, I would be the first in line. Yeah. Wait. like everywhere you go, they just have the discount. Exactly.

Exactly. So, so but but I but I once I realized that one is like there's some people out there that have gone through some amazing hard challenging stuff and a lot of them do it alone and and so knowing that I'm still very blessed and so I don't need or I don't want um I want to make sure any energy I have get gets pushed in their direction because they're the true heroes and they're the ones that have made the sacrifice. And isn't it funny how like when you're doing impactful work and you find your calling, your quality of life, you know, like it's like, you know, you could receive praise, accolades, free hot dogs, whatever it might be, and it's like that's going to be all right, but when you get to impact the lives of families and others and hooers and Yeah. Yeah. The saying is when you reach out to help someone else, you're actually the one that benefits. Yeah.

you know, and and that's what and again that's why, you know, I always end it with something along the lines of like this may not be your passion, and that's fine, right? There there is no harm if you're like, "Yep, great story, Mike. Cool. Good luck to you." Uh, but I'm passionate about whatever. And and so what I say is in in that whatever community that you're passionate about, there are equally people who need some support.

And so, so if you're passionate about saving the whales, man, they need to be saved. go do that and do it to the best of your ability and be the best you can at it because they will benefit. And so if that's not it, then we're welcome to Jo, you know, join our mission and we'll we'll bring you along. I love it, man. Uh we have four questions left to wrap out the episode. Uh the first one's our younger year segment.

It's brought to you by our friends at our fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state. Mike, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? Open your ears. uh there are all all kinds of opportunities to do things and and you know I say this all the time is is there are a lot of successful people a lot of very talented rich people that probably aren't any smarter than you or I right but they have a grind and they have a listen and so I think a lot of times that self-doubt in your own head makes you say you know what I can't do this and so Henry Ford says whether you think you can or whether you think you can't you're right and so listen for the opportunities and be willing to explore of them and then go grind, get it done. Great advice.

The work ethic and the listening. I think my like you talk about when your life changed when you like, you know, had your eyes open to like going out and serving others. It's funny that now I host a podcast and I do a bunch of talking for a living. Like that's, you know, thetick. But like so much of this and so much of my life changed when I started listening and you talk about listening to hear and to to get other people's stories. Like the less I spend talking about me and my antidotes and whatever whatever and the more people get to hear from you, the more they like the show, the more people that listen to the show, right?

It's funny how that works out. These are the same three questions we ask everyone that sits in the chair. First one, what is something the world needs to know about Indiana? When you ask me how I ended up in Indiana, and I wasn't supposed to be in Indiana. I again, I was living in San Antonio, working in the in DC. My goal was to move to DC.

So the plan was to go work at the Pentagon. That was my that was my career. When when it came time to do that, I was one assignment kind of missing and I needed a kind of a state assignment as a superintendent to kind of fill a void. So they said, "Why don't you go to Indiana for a year, get that bullet checked off, get that thing, yep, you've done that, and then we'll bring you up to the Pentagon." So, okay, great. So, I moved to Indiana.

They put me in charge of recruiting for the state of Indiana. It's a great job. And, you know, a lot of great recruiters that work for me and not from here. Don't know anybody in Indiana. you know, I didn't even really like corn, so I wasn't really sure why I was coming here in the first place. And um this is 2010.

This is 2010. My wife is a school teacher. And so she says, well, I said, she goes, where are we going to live? I'm like, we can live pretty much anywhere we want in the state. So, you find out where you want to live. And so, she kind of settled on Hamilton County.

And she's like, I want to teach in in Carmel, Fischer's Noblesville area. And so, uh so she says, "Let's live in Caramel." We rented a house in Caramel because we're not staying here. So, we rented a house for a year. as we're renting this house, the job that I wanted at the Pentagon opened up. And so I applied for the job and the the plan was to go to the Pentagon, you know, be here for a year and gone.

In that year, she fell in love with Indiana. I fell in love with Indiana, but that wasn't the plan. So, we kind of put those feelings aside. As the job came open, um, she started looking at houses in DC, and I'm excited about the jobs. And so, she's excited about looking at houses. I'm excited about the job.

and we we start looking at um you know the the transition and and we said okay we're going to make this work. All of a sudden I go I don't really want to go to DC like I like Indiana. It's a really cool state. It's a really cool the people here are amazing. So but now here's the challenge is is my wife's interested in buying a house in DC. So I now need to tell her, "Hey honey, we're not going to DC."

But I didn't want to hurt her feelings. So I just kind of kept that aside like you know what? She wants to go to DC. She's excited about it. We'll go to DC. At the exact same time, she's like, "I don't want to leave Indiana.

I don't want to move to Washington DC. Uh, but how do I tell my husband that I don't want to go?" And because he's excited about this new job. So, we're both at this point where neither one of us wanted to tell each other how we were truly feeling. And so, we almost went to DC and neither one of us wanted to go. And I don't remember exactly how we figured it out, but through a little bit of love and communication, we both kind of figured out like Indiana is a really cool city, uh, state, Indianapolis, really cool city, and everything.

When we lived in San Antonio, there was basketball, baseball, all of that is here at the right scale. It's not overwhelming. And so the people are friendly. You have so much to do. I wish we maybe a little less rain, right? That's just that's that's recency bias right now because it's April, you know, like but no, so so we fell in love with it here and that was 2010 and we're like, okay.

So then um months later we bought a house and uh and here we are. Here we are. I love that. I always love the it's someone called it this on a podcast I was listening to. Uh sticky. Yeah, Indiana's sticky.

You get in if you really put some roots down and get some surface area out there, it's going to just pull you in. Yeah. Uh okay, last two questions. Uh, you get to share I mean you've been here for 15 years now. You get to share some part of Indiana that you found that you've loved that more people need to know about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?

Turkey Run Park. Yeah, we went down there probably during CO, right? It was one of those I think CO in a sense helped us kind of get out. um we were just kind of cabin fevered and they're like let's go down to Turkey Run Park and being one with nature sometimes you know the cliche it's um we really had a lot of fun there and I think uh even Fort Ben Park the I think our park system is pretty cool and pretty amazing and um you know today today we're we spend so much time on our phones and we spend so much time and there's a lot of stuff we do that doesn't really matter um and I think if you can take a moment to just reconnect back with our roots and our nature and um just listen to the birds chirp and and watching the grass grow and smelling that that dewy mist, you know, it's uh Amen. So, the park system, I think that's the hidden gem. And, you know, very easily for a family to just go reconnect and spend the day and make it a no phone day, right?

Oh, no phone day. Leave the phone in the car and just get out and and just uh Oh, hi. Who are you? You're my son. Oh, nice to meet you. You know, this is so bad because I am that guy.

I am likely online. I need to maybe build that in like once a month a no phone day. Yeah. Yeah. Go to go to a park, even a local park. I mean, even even in like, you know, Caramel Fischers area, there's a lot of little parks that are just great.

Final final piece here. You get to share the love and this is where we find a lot of our new guests. Who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Are you familiar with the Taste of Indiana 62nd in Benford? Yeah, that's a really cool operation.

And I don't know their name and you know, I'm a customer. That's all I am. But I tell you, so it's a little shop. They find everything that's made in Indiana and sell it. So Albanese gummy bears, you know, gummy bears are made in Indiana, right? I didn't know that until I started buying them from them.

Oh, yeah. Albanese. Sorry. Yeah. So wow, these are sick. We should Yeah.

So you absolutely need to get a taste of Indiana on here. So So everything they sell is made in Indiana. Every single thing they sell. And so they make really cool gift baskets. And so if you want to send a gift basket to a friend that everything in there is sourced from Indiana, that's the place to go. So what I think is cool about them is they're spreading the love of Indiana by saying, you know, every time I go to a conference with my current job, um I always bring stuff from Indiana and say, "Hey, this was made this everything in this basket was made in Indiana."

So that's who is um doing amazing things. If a taste from Indiana sees sees this, hears this, we should talk. This is sick. Right at 62nd in Benford, you know, just it's what, four miles from here. So, just drive down one day, pop in and say, "Hey, I want you on my podcast." And I'll I'll mention it to them next time I'm in there as well.

These are so so cool. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Supporting Indiana companies since 1984. Custom gifts. Everything they make is from is made in Indiana.

And so, I think what I think what's really cool about what they do is I mean, they have maple syrup that's made in Indiana, which you know, sure, but I never really thought of it before. you know, they have candy and chocolate and, you know, gummy bears and all kinds of things. So, it's just I haven't had that one before. That's a good hidden gem. Mike, thank you so much for coming on today. Thanks for sharing your story, this the story of Folds of Honor uh and all the amazing work you guys are doing to support families of um servicemen and first responders.

Uh I appreciate it and keep us in the loop on on the gala next year and any events throughout the the summer that we can attend and show up at. Excellent. Thank you for having us on and for all you do for the state of Indiana. Love it. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you liked what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

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