Operation Choas: David Manery

🎙️ Shaping Success with David Manery | Operation Chaos | Supporting Veterans in the Treasure Valley

In this episode of Shaping Success, we sit down with David Manery, founder of Operation Chaos, to discuss his mission of bringing veterans together, building community, and creating support networks throughout the Treasure Valley.

From veteran meetups to helping former service members reconnect and thrive, David is making a real difference one connection at a time.

📲 Follow David and Operation Chaos on TikTok: @chaos.corner19

If you’d like to support veteran meetups and community events in the Treasure Valley, donations can be sent to:

Operation Chaos
Attn: David Manery 383
200 N Highbrook Way Suite 106
Star, ID 83669

🇺🇸 Thank you to all who have served and continue to support our veteran community.

👇 Let us know in the comments:
What does community mean to you, and how can we better support our veterans?

👍 Like, Subscribe, and Share to help us continue highlighting amazing people making a difference in Idaho and beyond.

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#ShapingSuccess #OperationChaos #Veterans #VeteranSupport #TreasureValley #BoiseIdaho #IdahoVeterans #CommunityMatters #MilitaryCommunity #SupportVeterans #Podcast #DavidManery #Idaho #VeteranMeetup #ChaosCorner19

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

And now, here's your host, Shaping Success.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

What is up everyone? Welcome to Shaping Six S. We are back again with David Manry. It's my buddy David. He came in here. I've got Chaos's card right there. I don't know if you saw that or not. We also got this awesome new hat that he just brought me. I'm displaying it. I'm not going to wear it right now, but I will wear it, but I want everyone to see it because this is kind of the display, the display spot. If you guys want to help uh support the show, go to Shapey or I'm sorry, Patreon.com slash West Anchorsley. You can help support the show for as little as $3 a month. Helps get the word out. Help us keep this thing going. We are live on TikTok right now. You're staring at the side of our faces. But we thought this would be an awesome way to do it. And uh, you know, go for it. So David, what's happening, man?

SPEAKER_04 0:59

Oh, I started as a nonprofit. That's uh back in, I mean, I did my what is it, articles of incorporation through the state. I did that in February. Uh-huh. And then I started getting cold feet, and I was like, oh, I'm kind of scared. And then I did the yeah, I got my EIN and I just got my secretary letter from the state saying I'm good to go. Nice. It's pretty nerve-wracking though.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Well, it's funny, I saw you, I don't know, maybe two weeks ago, I think. Yeah. At the at the Jackson's here in Middletown, which, you know, we talk back and forth on TikTok all the time because we live in the same town, but I don't I you know, I we had coffee one time and I and I saw you, and I'm like, oh man, you look like you got the weight of the world on your shoulders. And I'm like, I looked at you and I'm like, well, you kind of asked for this, right? But then when I walked away when I got done, I'm like, man, that's gotta be stressful to say something like that to someone.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

No, but you were right, because like I did. I reached out, and this is what I asked for, and now it's just I gotta deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yeah, I got it. But it's good though, right? Because I mean you're growing, you're getting a lot more people following you. There's a lot of things going on. I mean, you're not only are you doing the stuff with chaos still, like I just saw you were out with little kids and stuff like that, and um hanging out with them and letting them get a little love from him. How's he doing?

SPEAKER_04 2:12

He's good, he's all healthy. We had a few got a little scared a little bit, took him to the groomer last month, and she found a lump on his hip. And I panicked, I thought it was cancer again, so I took him right to the vet. It's not, he's good, so yeah, we're still working. We were just at the juvenile center yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Yep. And he had so he had cancer a couple months ago. We you were kind of trying to figure out what was going on with him, and he was earlier. Yep. He's good now. That's awesome, man. You know, I was thinking about a lot of things since the last time we talked, and it was funny. I saw you at Costco one day with him, too, and I just kind of reached down and started petting him, and I'm like, man, is that what you're supposed to do? Is that is there like any protocol with him? Because he's trained to do something. Right.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

So Chaos is both my service dog and a therapy dog. So he started out first as my service dog, and then like it got to the point to where my wife was like, hey, he needs to do more than just be your dog and just be with you all the time. So she found Go Team Therapy Dogs of Idaho, and we tried out for the team and we made it. So Chaos has two different vests. He has his green one and it says service dog on it, and then he has his red one, which is his therapy dog vest. He knows the difference. So, like, if he has his red vest on, love on him all you want, or no vest, love on him. But when he has the green one on, he knows like he's got to stay close to me.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Yeah, yeah, and I you know it's kind of funny not knowing that, you know, because there's people I feel like that abuse the service dog thing, right?

SPEAKER_04 3:29

Oh, definitely, Karen with her chihuahua in the Walmart shopping car, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Exactly. It's like, hey, I just want to take my dog with me, so I found an excuse. I listen to Adam Garolla talk about it all the time on the emotional support animal, right? Like, that's there's people who really need these dogs to get through the day. Um, and you know, we talked last time a little bit about it, but kind of tell people why you have chaos and what he does for you, and then we'll talk a little bit more about what he does for everyone.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

So I got I got pretty bad PTSD from Afghanistan. It kind of messed me up a little bit, and I got out and I tried battling it alone, and for the longest time I kept telling my wife, I want a pit bull. Like, I want to get a pit bull, I want to get a pit bull. And that was because I wanted a dog that looked aggressive, so people would just leave me alone and not just just leave me alone. I just want to be left alone. And we needed to get a golden retriever. I was gonna say you ended up getting a little bit of a bigger one. So we got a golden retriever instead, and chaos helps me with my PTSD. If I start having an anxiety attack or something, he kind of he'll push into me, like tell me, like, okay, sit down, or he'll even sometimes try and pull me out of a building. Like, uh there's been times where he's been like, no, we're leaving, and tries to leave, and we'll leave, but then we'll go back in. If I didn't have chaos, I don't think I'd be where I am today. Yeah, it was I was at a low point before I got him. I got chaos three days before I had open heart surgery. So he's been with me from before I went to the hospital to when I came home and he hears the clicking now. Yeah, how how old was he when you got him? He was eight weeks old. Eight weeks. So he was a puppy. Oh yeah. So it was that's how we got his name, Chaos, because it was just a chaotic time of getting him. My wife was like, should we be doing this? And I'm like, no, we have to, like, I need a dog. Yeah. And it's been the best thing ever.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yeah, it's uh tell us a little bit about the the heart thing, because I got diagnosed with something something a couple months ago, and I'm just kind of trying to figure out if it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

So I was they say I was born with uh bicuspus aortic valve.

unknown 5:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:20

So the way your valve is supposed to open is in three sections, uh-huh, but mine was only opening in two.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

And then it started closing up. So my aortic valve and what do they call it? I have aortic stenosis to where the artery coming off is actually narrowing.

unknown 5:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

And that's just gonna continue to happen. Eventually they'll go in and they'll open it up more, but until it gets to a certain point, they just say, deal with it. But deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah, so mine was the opposite. I got an I have an aortic aneurysm, so which is like a it bubbles out, right? Which is not bad, but it was funny because I had surgery uh over a year ago for something else, and then they come back like two months ago and say, Hey dude, you need to go check this out. We found this when we were looking at that, and I'm like, son of a bitches. Right. Why couldn't you find it? Couldn't have done it then, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I did it. So it's fine, it's not that big of a deal. I just now have to go have a CT every year and an echocardiogram every year to make sure that it's not getting any better. Yeah, that's the annoying part, is always going in and getting checked. Yeah, and stupidly I went at the beginning of the year, so it's gonna cost me every year because once a year, yeah. You gotta go in in the beginning before the deductible is met. So at least I have insurance, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Yeah. So you started doing when we when we first met, you were looking for veterans, right? Right.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

I was at a very low point in life, I guess you would say. I got out and I battled fighting depression and anxiety alone, and I thought like I was the only one that had it the way I did because I saw all my buddies on the outside, like on I'd see them on Facebook or whatever, and they're posting like they're all doing good, and it looked like everybody was happy. And I'm like, I'm miserable, but I'm not gonna reach out and bring you guys down to my level. And I would vent to my wife all the time about just how miserable and depressed I was, and it got to the point to where she told me, You need to reach out to somebody, I can't be your only support system, right? So I said, Okay, and I went to TikTok and I said, Hey, I'm gonna do a veterans meetup, let's meet up for coffee, just thinking maybe one or two people would show up. Well, the first time nobody showed up, yeah. So then I was like, I came home just mad as hell. I told my wife, I'm not doing it again, I'm done, like I don't want to do it. And she said, Maybe they didn't show up because they were as scared as you were.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

So I was like, All right, you got a point. Like, I'll do another one. And I did, and 15, 20 vets showed up.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

And it's it's crazy to me because there are like as a man, you know, and I don't know if you have any female coming there, but like I know as a man, like you don't want to ask for help.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Right. It's no, I'm not so if I can't figure it out, then I it doesn't need to be done.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Right. And so that had to be a tough part, tough part. And I don't know who it was. Someone, you know, you can tag me or whatever if you want, who introduced me to you, but said, like, I was talking about shaping success Treasure Valley, um, which is this that's what this is, right? Right. And so I'm talking to people in the Treasure Valley about what they're doing, entrepreneurs, things like that. And you were just getting started. And when you came and you sat down across from me, I was like, oh hell yeah, I'm gonna have them because I'm not a veteran, but I I have a place in my heart for them because I know that they fight so hard for me. And we were talking before, it's like this is the armed forces hat. I get one every year because I just I just feel like you know, I want to support and the money for this probably didn't go anywhere, it just looks cool. So but it is it's it's something that I think a lot of people take for granted, especially now when everyone's like, oh, the military this, the military that, it's all about money, it's all about this, it's all about that. And to me, it's like they still went, they still bought, they still took the time to go do something to help us so that we can wear this flag or not wear this flag or do whatever we want.

SPEAKER_04 8:47

So yeah. What tell me again what branch you were in? I was in the army. So I I was in the infantry. I I enlisted in 2011 and I got out at the end of 2015 under a medical discharge. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

So your veteran meetups aren't just for people from the army though, right?

SPEAKER_04 9:04

No, no, no. I'd open it up to all veterans. Like we had, so we've done, I do a meetup every month. I've done it since October 18th was our first one that everybody showed up to. That was the first coffee one where everybody showed up. So I do one every month, and we've gone bowling, we've gone to a Boise Brewing Putt, uh Nampa mini golf, and we've gone to we've used the American Legion twice. We've gone, and I've had a couple sponsors for it, like Dude in the Jeep uh sponsored our bowling one, and then Jeff. Jeff, if you're on here, dude, thanks a lot. I really appreciate that. He sponsored our last uh not our one at the Boise Brewing Putt. And he paid for all the veterans.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

Because before I had like people helping me with it, I was paying for it all by myself. Like running my credit card, like, because I don't want I don't want a veteran not to show up because they feel like they can't afford it or anything. So all my meetups I do, I either I'll either cover the cost or I make sure it's a free or low-cost event for veterans to show up.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah, it's tough because I don't there's a lot of you think like, you know, obviously we're not I'm older than you, but we're not that old. And there's a lot of people like the Vietnam vets and the Korean vets and those types of people who may not have anything. Right. You know, because they're they're the ones that you typically see. Not not always, but like those are the ones you think of when you think of someone who can't, you know, they're they're living on the streets, they're trying to get whatever. They were pushed out, you know, they they didn't do anything but go fight for our country, and now everyone doesn't like them because they did that or whatever it is. But it's yeah, that I that is just awesome to be able to make it so that people can be there.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

Yeah, I mean, we use the American Legion because they'll they'll open it up for free for us, and then everybody just buys their cheap beers because I won't pay for alcohol. I'm not gonna pay for their alcohol. Yeah, but we had uh an old Vietnam vet show up there and just hang out with us. It was the coolest thing. Like we have guys our age and younger. We have, I think Caleb's 24, he hangs out with us. It's just any veteran is welcome to just come hang out. That's what we need. Veterans need veterans.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

So you mentioned you don't pay for alcohol. You don't drink, right? No, I don't drink. You drink Red Bull. I drink a lot or sugar-free Red Bull. If you guys want any Red Bull, you guys got any extra Red Bull, David will take them. I'll take them. Yeah. Um it's it's cool though that you know people understand that you know you're gonna you've met at the brew pub. Like these are places that you can go to go have a beer with people, you can drink your Red Bull, you can do whatever you want. It's no one's discriminated against. Right, nobody, anybody.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

We're just all veterans because again, we need each other.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yeah. And that's the thing. I don't think I there's a lot of things that people who are what would you call us, just everyday people, non-military people, right? We're the uh we're the normal people, not normal. Civilian. Civilian, there we go. That's the word I'm looking for. Civilians just don't sometimes understand what you went through or where you went. And everyone comes from different areas, right? Like you were in Afghanistan. Yep. Um, last time I was last time we talked, we talked about this. You were trying to explain to me how the PTSD works, and it's it's crazy that little things could set you off, but you were talking about how you could be driving down the road and like a tire blows out.

SPEAKER_04 12:07

Yep. And I'm always every time I'm driving, I'm looking at bridges of where somebody could be hiding. I know no one's gonna be jumping out to shoot me, but it's the fact that I was trained to look for a threat non-stop, that's just all I do now, and it's it's exhausting.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah. What since the last time we talked, it's almost been a year.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

How where are you at now with that? Has it gotten better now that you're able to talk to some people about it, or is it similar or it's still the same.

SPEAKER_04 12:33

I mean, but now I I'm more open about it because I feel like uh my other veterans deal with the same thing. But it's tough though.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

I just deal with it. Can you find when when you go and you have these meetups, do you kind of get the same feeling from everyone too? Like, is there people who are just like I'm not I like they're obviously there, so they took the first yeah, right?

SPEAKER_04 12:54

Some of them may not want to talk about it. Right, and we we do. We have some that just sit in the back and just don't say anything. We've had, I'm gonna use Will for an example. Will showed up and Will didn't talk really for the first two visits, and now he just hangs out with us all the time. Yeah, but it's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

What was the hardest part about? I mean, obviously you've been out for a while, and so this is you just started working on it for a while. What was what was the hardest part about figuring that out? Obviously, I think the only social media on is TikTok, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Was that I mean, what did you tell me a little bit how that branched out and ended up being like kind of what it is now?

SPEAKER_04 13:31

Well, I just kept doing these these meetups, and uh Travis and Caitlin, they're like, hey, we should like turn this into a nonprofit. And at first I was like, no, I'm not gonna do that. Like, I just want to do this and have fun, but it gets expensive.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

And why not? You know what I mean? Why not turn it into a nonprofit to where we can expand and help more veterans because my pockets are only so deep, you know what I mean? And if we get donors that'll help us help these veterans, help all of us, it it's amazing. Yeah, it just takes one.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Well, and you and I have talked about this a couple times, and I I feel like I, you know, I've been I've got a lot of stuff going on in my stupid life. We all just do crazy stuff, but I want to do something, and we're gonna we'll talk about it a little bit more and try and figure something out. But like I can help you with this platform however I can. But I think that it's great that you're able to do what you're doing, and I feel like we should start something, you know, like start something that like maybe it's a car show, maybe it's a yeah, like a uh park party or something.

SPEAKER_04 14:25

We've talked about that. Travis brought up doing a car show. We've talked about doing a park party, it's just yeah, we definitely need to do something big.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah, well, and what you gotta what you do with that is you create a place where people or civilian people can come as well as the veterans. Sometimes there's veterans who have a little bit more and they can help out, yeah, but get them to donate to the cause so that it can actually help. And that's what's cool about it being a non-profit, is now you can create this thing that you can put the money into and then go out and have the meetups and give those people the resources they need to be around people that they want to hang out with.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

That's the goal. It's just keep growing and yeah, help. If we can help one veteran a day, that's our goal, which is bring one veteran, one new veteran to our meetup. We it's a success. Yeah. We've done something.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

So you so you do the meetups, you take chaos around. Yeah, what do you do for fun, man? I mean, what do you what do you consider? I I see a lot of TikTok videos and I see you kind of just kind of working through your brain. Like I do the same thing that I do.

SPEAKER_04 15:23

I really I don't do a lot, really. I mean, I do my go team stuff, I do the veteran stuff. My son's still in school, so he doesn't get out till June 19th, and he goes to school and boise, he's still in school. Yeah. So I drive him to school like three days a week. My wife drives me two days a week. So we're still doing that. But during the summer, we're gonna do a lot out in the water. I like to get out in the water.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, what are you what do you have like a kayak or something? Oh, we've got a paddleboard. Paddleboard, yeah. Yeah, so it's gonna be fun. So do you do you have two of them or just one? Just one. We just got one. We're just throwing the kid on the back. Yeah. Oh man. It's fun. He tries to throw me off all the time. Yeah, I bet. He's wild. That's crazy. And he's how old is he? He's 12. Yep, same age as my daughter. Yeah. So is he fifth grader or sixth grader? Sixth. Sixth. Okay. And he has a little dog too, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:11

He has a little terrorist. He has a he has a pug, and it just Doug the Pug. Doug the Pug. He's a terrorist. And sometimes though, he's hanging out with you on your wrist. Yeah, he's growing on me. Yeah, he'll hang out with me because my wife's not home. So then he wants to hang out with me. But once my wife gets home, he goes right to her. Oh, that's sick. He just abandons me.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah. It's funny though, because Chaos, you posted some videos where you've got him on his on your lap. Obviously, Chaos can't be on your laptop.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

But yeah, it's the dogs are interesting. They're always fun. We we have a little uh seven-pound Morky. He's just a tiny little guy. Um, I had to let you in because he would have been barking crazy if you're gonna knock on the door. I'm like, nah, that's not gonna happen. I don't want to have to deal with this. So, yeah. So what what else is going on, man? What are you so you're working on the nonprofit?

SPEAKER_04 17:02

Yeah, we just got a bank account, so now we can take donations and stuff. But my biggest thing with like taking donations is I don't want to take donations from veterans. Like, that's my biggest thing, is because I is that's what I'm trying to help. That's my whole goal is to help veterans, and I don't want to take from veterans. I just want it's hard. I don't want a veteran to donate and then donate the last that they had, you know what I mean? Because they want to help, but I'd rather market it more towards like having businesses help us out.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Yeah. Have you talked to any like businesses? What's kind of the plan?

SPEAKER_04 17:33

Well, right now we're in the process of writing up like a donation letter to kind of send out, and with our mission statement and everything that we're doing, we've got to write all that up. But we just really just want to expand to where we have more places that are willing to bring all of us veterans in to host us for things, like yeah, maybe we could go paintballing sometime, that'd be cool. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Would it would it yeah, would it bring up a little of the BTSD?

SPEAKER_04 17:58

Oh my boat. Shoot some of those kids, it'll be fun. Yeah, just hit kids' face mask.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Oh man, I've been paintballing. So when I was when I was nine, uh 18, so I went down to visit my grandma in California, and my I visited my cousin, and she had a friend that had him, so there's like four of us, and he had enough paintball guns for everyone, and we go and we get all dressed up in the camo and everything, and we go out in this uh like an orchard and go out and just see what we're doing. And um, one of the kids climbed up a tree and he shot me. And I had this like army uh jacket on and I had I had it rolled up, you know, trying to be gun, you know, he sends out guns out, and he shot me, but I didn't even like I felt it, but I didn't think anything of it. So we get back in the car and I got an unexploded paintball underneath that. Oh it was nuts. Yeah, and then I had a bruise like that thing on there for a while. But paintball's fun, man.

SPEAKER_04 18:48

It would be fun, and we just want to do like I mean, on June, on June 27th, we're going out to is our next meetup from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. We're teaming up with uh 208 cleanup and we're going to clean up public land out there, like where they're at the shooting ranges where they dump all the trash and stuff. We're going out there to clean it all up.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

That's you know, it's interesting how that happens because you just like you said, I've seen I follow 208 cleanup on on TikTok as well. I must have got connected through you. Somehow. Yeah, I'm I'm watching them, yeah, somehow, because that's the way it works, right? Like this is how somehow, somehow, we end up in the same room.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Um, but like I've been watching him. Well, I went up and I shot my pistols a couple weekends ago in New Meadows with my dad, and we go out to this place where they're shooting, and it's just like garbage everywhere. They're just like, Oh, we're gonna bring out this couch, we're gonna shoot it up, but we're just gonna leave it here. Yeah, someone else wants to shoot it up.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

It's disgusting. Yeah, it's pretty rough. There's a lot out there. Like he's been posting videos on it, it's bad. There's like washer and dryers and tires. So if you're coming out, bring your gloves, shovels, rakes, whatever you got.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Trailers, trucks, yeah, get ready to go to the dump. It's gonna be fun. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So it's not even just like, hey, we're not getting we're not getting together to go, you know, putt golf balls or go bowling.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

We gotta get back.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Yeah, now you're going to get back.

SPEAKER_04 20:01

That's what we do. Yeah. We all signed that contract of selfless service, and we still gotta serve our community and get back somehow.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Yeah, and that's the thing that I think about that people don't so when I was teaching, I I taught um one year I taught the senior project, right? Part of their thing was to go do some civic duty, which was go to a meeting or like a city council meeting, or go do some community service, or go do this, or go do that. Well, being in the military is kind of a civic duty as well. And so maybe when you got out you felt like you still gotta do more, right?

SPEAKER_04 20:32

Yeah, we always we always feel like there's more we can do. It never ends.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:36

So we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yeah, well, it's it it's gonna be great to see how this goes about because I think it's awesome that you have that. I I'm gonna say something about you know, you kind of gotta think about though, I know that you don't want veterans to give back, but I think I also feel like there may be some that can't. Right. You know, like I think you can't you can't just I don't think you could just turn it off to that, but I do understand where you're coming from. Like a lot of times it's the last thing that they can do, but they're able to meet with someone and get have some interaction that they need to do. Right.

unknown 21:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Do you find it hard? I mean, obviously you and I, no problem talking to each other, but do you find it hard to relate to other people to civilians?

SPEAKER_04 21:17

Uh some on some aspects. I mean, I I'm always on guard wherever I'm at, so I'm always looking around, and I think that makes people nervous that I'm looking around like something may pop off, but it's not. I'm looking around to make sure that everybody's around me is safe.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

And sometimes civilians looking like, yo, what is this guy doing? I'm just making sure everything's good because I'm nervous.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

But not really. Like, I got all my aunties on GoTeam, and they have embraced me with open arms.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

And yeah. I think it's I think it's interesting because I feel like I don't necessarily know. I I understand that you're on high alert, but like I'm kind of the same way. Like, I'm always kind of like, what's going on around here?

unknown 21:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

And I feel like there are some people who are oblivious to. It I think that you know the phone that you look at all day, every day is one of those things that can make you feel a little oblivious. Yes. Um, and I don't know, I it's it's funny being an observer because you see a lot of things that other people don't see, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:15

Yeah, you see everything, right? It's exhausting though. Yeah, but my wife has the worst situational awareness ever, so she wouldn't even see if anything was happening. And I'd have to tell her, like, hey, look, we are getting shot at right now. Buzzing by your ear. Did you see that? But I mean, I'm doing my best I can to try and not freak out. But every time I have one of these vet meetups, I have an anxiety attack right before we get there because my biggest fear is it's gonna flop and everybody's gonna be disappointed, and I let everybody down. And I don't want to let anybody down. I want everybody to have a good time and be happy. So there's when we went to putt-putt golf in Boise. Oh, I was in the car with Travis just having a panic attack. Like, yo, this is gonna be bad. I don't know what we're doing, let's just let's just cancel. Let's just let's just all go home.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:59

And he goes, dude, we gotta go. Like, we gotta go in there now. And we did it, and it was a success. But I freak out every time. Does it get easier? No. It doesn't. No, it doesn't because it's it's always that fear of am I gonna let anybody down or is this gonna be good? Is everyone gonna be happy?

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:14

Because that's what I want. I don't want anybody to leave miserable. I want them to leave with a smile and know that hey, they're not alone, there's more of us out there. Right. And that's it.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Yeah, it's kind of crazy because I think about like I think about social media, right? Like, and I I and I know you read the comments because you yeah, you comment back on my stuff all the time whenever I say something or whatever. And I always try to make sure I like it, and if I have something to add, I'm gonna add the conversation. But um, I was listening to a podcast this morning and Nikki Glazer was on there talking to talking to Dak Shepherd about how she just turned off all the comments because she doesn't need to hear them. And I think that it's I think that it's tough because you start to you'll get to a point where there'll be so many comments that it'll be chaos in your head, right? Yeah, because you're like, there's this one, and there's this one, and there's this one. And we tend to just go straight to the shitty ones. Yeah, we let that one own us. And you may have like a hundred good comments in there, but you got one bad one, and that's the one that you think about the most.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

Yeah, there's one that lives rent-free in my head, and I I should have done a video on it, but I didn't want to give this person any clout. I made a video of just I was going through a hard time with like everything that happened in Afghanistan, and somebody commented on there something along the lines of you should have died over there. Oh man. And I'm just like, you know what?

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Like, I didn't need that, but alright. Yeah, you know, and it's weird because that's kind of the way that society is right now, you know. We had we had a couple murders happen in the last year that one person says one thing about it, another person says another thing about it, and it's like you gotta be kidding me. Like, we're we're all people, right? Like no one deserves to die in that context. And I just I don't understand how people can't be understanding about that because you know, I I don't know if you I don't do therapy, but like it's gonna be the last thing that I do because I've I've attempted and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go do this or I'm gonna go do that. Like, I'm gonna go talk to someone and I'm like, ah, they don't know me, they don't know who I am, they don't know what I went through, which I think is the most difficult thing. Yeah, but I also feel like it could be helpful if you could find someone that you trust, you know. I think that's the hardest part, right?

SPEAKER_04 25:17

Yeah, it's just trust issues because what I'm about to tell them is deep, dark secrets that I don't even want to tell myself, right? And and the hardest thing with a VA is I may have a therapist for three months and I put everything out there, and then I go back to an appointment and I have a new one, and now I gotta start over. That's the worst. So that's why a lot of vets don't go, is because we don't want to have to start over.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

And I think that's gotta be the hardest part. You so you go you go to the VA, right? Like my doc that I have, um, he worked at St. Al's for a long time, and then he went to the VA, and I'm like, great, now I don't have a doctor anymore, right? So he went to the VA. Okay, well, he's gonna go help the vets, that's awesome. And three months later, guess where he's back? Yeah, right back at St. Al's. They always leave the VA. Yeah. What's so what's so hard about it? I mean, is it is it just a tough environment?

SPEAKER_04 26:07

Uh, I mean, I don't know. It just seems like any doctor at the VA just doesn't really care, that they're only there to fill time and waiting for a new opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

But do you have um sorry I'm looking at the camera to make sure everything's going good, and then I'm also like, this isn't even pointing at me. But it is pretty bright. Anyway, we got lights in here, guys. So um, do you are there a lot of vets that are doctors that are there, or are they mostly just civilian people?

SPEAKER_04 26:36

I think most of them are civilians. A couple of them are uh like veterans themselves that like do my blood work and stuff like that. But there's been times that I've gotten to it with the VA doctors and I've asked them, like, yo, are you a vet? And they're like, no, and I'm like, okay, now that makes sense of why you're treating me like this. Like that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Do they um but when you get a vet you feel a little bit more comfortable?

SPEAKER_04 26:59

Yeah, I feel like I can talk to them and everything like that, but it's that the trust because they have the same trust issues that I do, and we went through the same kind of thing, I guess. So I'm gonna trust you over.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Yeah, yeah. Is it it's tough too to get in there, right? Like I remember a couple months ago you had posted something about needing to just get some some pain relief for your back or something.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

Yeah, and it's like, here, take this. Yeah, I messed my back up, and I tried calling my primary care, and they're like, I can't get you in for like another 45 days, and I was like, Well, that's ridiculous. So then I ended up going to the ER three days later, and the first thing they want to do is prescribe me pain meds. Like, come on, that's the problem. We don't need that. We just I'm trying to get fixed or see what's wrong. Don't just give me a pain pill and say, figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Right.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

But I ended up getting an appointment with my primary care after I called and called and called, and they sent me to physical therapy and it didn't really work, but I haven't heard back from primary care.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Yeah, and it has it gotten better since then, or are you still working on it?

SPEAKER_04 27:56

I'm just not lifting anything.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

Yeah. Well, I mean, that's that's the hard part. Like, you have to make that decision on what you're gonna do. Yeah, and it and it's I think that that so you your wife is civilian, right? She's not military. No, she has insurance, but do they or does she have insurance?

SPEAKER_04 28:12

So I have insurance. So since I'm I'm 100% disabled vet, so I get uh it's called champ VA, is what they get. It's horrible garbage insurance, but it gets paid for. And she has uh dental envision for us through her work.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Okay. If she decided that she was gonna get the other insurance, like so say they offered health insurance, right? Would you be covered by that secondary? Like, could you go wherever you want, or just because you're VA, you gotta.

SPEAKER_04 28:38

Yeah, I could go anywhere I wanted. I would be technically double covered. And the way that would work is the VA would make sure that her insurance was billed first. Right. And then they would cover a little bit of whatever is left over. Yeah. So I just go with the VA. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

I mean, it is what it is. It's just it's kind of insurance is a joke anyway.

SPEAKER_04 28:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

I mean, it's it's crazy. Like, I I don't know, I I chiropractor, right? So like I've been trying to do 75 hard, which I'm I was I'm doing pretty good with the extra, you know, like I'm probably off the wagon already. You know, like I'm not drinking, I'm not drinking enough water, I'm not doing the reading, but I'm exercising every day for 45 minutes and I'm sticking to this diet where I'm like fasting all day until about noon, and then I eat it whatever. But I'm trying to stick to that stuff and trying to do that stuff. But to go to the chiropractor, like if I go to one that doesn't have and my wife is a nurse, right? So she works at St. Al's and she has that insurance and in, but you can't just go anywhere, right? You gotta go wherever you're gonna be. In your network or whatever, right? Yeah, so I gotta find someone in network, and I'm like, oh, I need to go to the chiropractor because my legs are hurting, my back is hurting, my hip is hurting, like just because I'm active and I haven't been for a while. And um, it was cool because I actually found a chiropractor here in Middleton that's he's been great. Oh, yeah, but I didn't, you know, like we had one in Meridian, they didn't take our insurance, so it would cost us 40 bucks every time we went in there because they would build part of it, but we'd have to pay a higher copay because that net worth, yeah. And um, I don't know, man. It's just like it's they're the good ones are hard to find and they're disappearing. We're gonna be screwed when we're old enough to have to need that care every single day because there's not gonna be any doctors, right? Nobody wants to do it anymore. We're gonna have robots fixing us, and that's gonna be bad. I had a robot put my knee in, so I mean it he obviously did an okay job. I mean, there was still someone pointing and clicking, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:22

How are you feeling with it?

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Good, man. You know, I've had I I it's funny, I fell this morning. Um, I've had the new knee for four years. My son is four years old, and I got two or three months before he was born. Um, and it's been great. But like this morning, I've been trying to walk. Like, so I I went on a bike ride this morning. I have a road bike, okay. The one with the skinny tires, you know. I don't wear the bike shorts and I don't do a lot of shit. But I do have I put my helmet on. You do, I want to record it. Yeah, that's right. That's I'm not riding by your house. Um but I'm like, and and and then so I did that for like 50 minutes this morning. I jumped on my bike and I rode like 14 miles, and then I came home, drank some more coffee, and then my son wants to go for a bike ride. So I go walk while he rides his bike because he can't keep up with me on my road bike. Yeah, and we're walking around, there's like this loop around our neighborhood, and I get part way down, and someone from work text messaged me, and I'm like answering, and I look down, and all of a sudden he's gone. He's gone. He he had booked it back home. I my legs like I've been two weeks nonstop, so at least close to like eight miles a day walking, at least, right? That's a lot, yeah. So it's like 45 minutes each time. The thing is 75 artists, 45, 45 or two 45-minute workouts, one has to be outside. Well, they're both outside because I'm not like lifting weights or anything like that, but my workouts are already ride my bike or I'll walk for 45 minutes, I'll walk for 45 more. And so um, anyway, my legs are just like toast. I didn't realize how toast they are until I start to try and run because I don't run, right? But I've been walking a lot, and he's gone, and I'm like, where the hell is he? So I go around this corner and I look over and I don't see him, but the the road kind of goes, the sidewalk kind of bends around, so you can't see through the hump, right? So there's the swall the swell or whatever in the the lawn, and it's like this deep, like this, and I take a step over and my leg just gives out and I freaking fall flat on my face and scrape my knee. And I still don't see him, so I'm freaking out. So I start running, and I'm like, oh my gosh, my legs feel like they've got you know concrete on them. And um he I couldn't find him, couldn't find him, like, get on my phone because I had him with me. I call my wife and I go, get in your car. And she just hangs up.

unknown 32:36

I'm like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_00 32:37

And then she calls me right back, and I said, I go, he is gone, I don't know where he is. And I'm like, I'm afraid that he because he's he's crazy, he's a crazy little four-year-old, thinking he jumped his bike into the canal or something, and I can't find him, but I don't see the bike, right? I don't see him, and I don't know where he's at. Like the bike in him could be in the canal, like that's the first thing that goes through your mind because you can't find him. Exactly. And um, she's like, he just pulled up in the driveway, so he just freaking booked it home. Like in like two minutes, he made it home from where we were, and it probably took us 10-15 minutes to walk over there, so oh, but he was here. That's terrifying though. Yeah, but then I was mad. Oh, yes, I fell down and I scratched my knee, and I was just like, dude, you don't do you know, I just you're uh don't you do that ever again? You don't just leave, you don't just do it. Like, but I know how to get home. I'm a big boy.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

You're four.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Not a big boy yet, but not a big boy yet. Man, I bet you were so nervous. Oh, dude, I was freaking out. Oh, I bet. I didn't like I'm like, I can't keep this running thing going. I can't find him. Where the hell is he? I didn't even well, I was an athlete in college in high school, you know. I played football, played baseball, played basketball, and I was in good shape. But 45 years old, trying to run, and I don't ever run. I think I'd let the bear eat me, you know, if it was if he was chasing me. So well, man, it's been awesome having you back in here. Uh, you know, I I appreciate you taking the time to come down here. Um, we're gonna talk some more, you and I, about what we can do together to make this happen because we got a lot of cool stuff happening. Um, are you you got these awesome hats, which uh like I love the camo color, right? Like, I think it's awesome. Are you selling them or anything or what's uh not right now?

SPEAKER_04 34:19

We're gonna have to get some more and then we'll we'll see from there. We're still trying to figure everything out. Okay. None of us know what we're doing, we're just figuring it out.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Well, yeah, I know a guy who might be able to help you, so we'll see if we can figure that out because I think that it would be awesome to get a website, get that stuff on there, let people know that the donations are going towards what they're going towards, so that it can help you to keep expanding these things. What's the biggest one you've had so far?

SPEAKER_04 34:44

I think our biggest one would have to be we did at Nampa Bowling Alley. We had like 18 or no, we had like 21 vets there. 21 vets.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah. Okay, so the next one's gonna be 40 because we're talking to so many people. Oh, I hope so. That'd be dope. I hope we get them out there. Yeah, like I said in in the beginning, make sure that you are following David. You can follow me, you can help him get the word out there, and I'm I'm a proponent for this. We'll be posting these clips over on all the platforms so you can see them. If someone wants to make a donation or help you, where is the best place to do that?

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Right now, it would just be uh contact me on TikTok and send me a message, and I will send you our P.O. box address and send in the check would be don't weigh right now.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Okay. Well, I'm gonna get the P.O. box address as well from you. Do you remember it off the top of your head? Do you want to tell people what?

SPEAKER_04 35:37

I don't. Travis, if you're in here, drop the P.O. box um address. Me and Travis have a P.O. box guy.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

All right, perfect. We'll put it, we'll also put it on the notes in the podcast so people can see it. I just got my podcast, Apple just did a thing where the video is going on there as well, so people can listen to it and see the video as well. Also, I have a YouTube channel, so I mean they can look at it right there as well. But uh I said as well like 13 times just now. There's lots of places to find it. But if you want to help David and his cause and the vets and help them go do some stuff that, you know, so he doesn't have to pay out of his pocket, and these guys can get the help that they need and have some camaraderie. Um, hit me up, I'll get it over to him, and we'll get that PO box address and you can make your donations there, man.

SPEAKER_04 36:19

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

It's been awesome. I'm I'm excited to see it happen. So it's gonna be a wild ride, but I'm not stopping. Yeah, it's and and that's the thing. Like I said, when I when I said what I said to you the other day when I saw you, I was like, this is what you asked for, yep, and you're doing a great job. It's gonna be overwhelming, but it's gonna be rewarding. It's gonna be helpful. You know, it's helping you, and you're helping a lot of people. Oh, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Yep, it's fun.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Yeah. All right, man. Awesome. All right, thanks everyone for hanging out for another edition of Shaping Success Treasure Valley. And uh sit my nose on the mic.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Watch it everywhere you can. Make sure you subscribe, like, share. We'll get these clips out. This will be dropping. The episode is live right now on YouTube, but it'll be dropping for audio well and video on Apple uh on next Thursday. So all right, until next time, I challenge you to find the shape of your successes and let's see if I can turn this off.