Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Jason McCoy on Archery Therapy, Faith & Healing
What happens when a Special Operations veteran finds healing through archery? In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with Jason McCoy, Air Force Veteran, advocate and founder of ENDEX Archery, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping veterans heal through archery therapy and community support.
Jason opens up about his journey from the military to civilian life and the mental, emotional, and spiritual battles he faced along the way—including financial hardship, transition stress, and the weight of spiritual warfare. Through ENDEX Archery, he is creating a space where veterans can reconnect with their purpose, build resilience, and grow through holistic wellness.
This episode explores:
- How archery therapy promotes healing and mindfulness
- The role of faith and spirituality in post-military life
- Navigating mental health challenges as a veteran
- Building a nonprofit focused on community impact
- The importance of sharing authentic veteran stories
If you’re seeking an inspiring story of recovery, purpose, and leadership from a Green Beret who continues to serve his community, this episode is a must-listen.
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Chapters
00:00 The Power of Storytelling in the Veteran Community
03:03 Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life
05:50 The Therapeutic Benefits of Archery
09:10 Building a Wellness Center for Veterans
11:55 Breaking the Stigma Around Mental Health
14:58 The Journey of Growth and Resilience
17:57 Faith and Trust in the Process
21:21 Navigating Financial Stress and Faith
23:35 The Power of Faith in Overcoming Challenges
25:29 Cultivating Spiritual Resilience
26:45 Living Out Faith and Community Support
28:50 The Importance of Spiritual Warfare
34:07 Building the Future of Index Archery
39:12 Upcoming Events and Community Engagement
Instagram: @securityhalt
Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod
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LinkedIn: Jason McCoy
Instagram: endexarchery
https://www.instagram.com/endexarchery/
Facebook: ENDEX Archery
https://www.facebook.com/ENDEXarchery410
Website:endexarchery
Produced by Security Halt Media
Security Odd Podcast. Let's go the only podcast that's purpose-built from the ground up to support you Not just you, but the wider audience, everybody. Authentic, impactful and insightful conversations that serve a purpose to help you. And the quality has gone up. It's decent, it's hosted by me, Denny Caballero.
Speaker 2:Just trying to fucking put some positivity out in the veteran space. One interview at a time. Jason McCoy welcome back, dude. Part two previously on Security Halt yeah, good to be back. Absolutely, man. We didn't get a chance to tap into your journey as far as your transition leading up to the creation of your nonprofit. But before we go, before we begin, if you could just back off the mic a little bit, because I'm hearing you? You're breathing. Reverving back back off the mic a little bit because I'm hearing you, uh, you're breathing reverving back.
Speaker 3:You sound like an angry raptor. How's that? There we go. Nice, this is all new to me, man, this is only uh. You're like my third podcast and my wife for. Christmas got me this Yeti mic and I still figured stuff out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it's. Uh, dude, that's. I started out with the Yeti mic. Uh it's. It's a wonderful medium, man, because you can jump on and you can share with the world everything life journey Like it was before.
Speaker 2:Before the advent of the podcast, we were limited to who can be interviewed, you know, and the veteran circle has grown. I mean it just. You know, if we look back at our GWAT history, you know we didn't have at first there was only a handful of people. You know, we had Matt Best, we had the guys from Article 15. And it was a very small group of voices from the veteran community and now it's grown.
Speaker 2:Countless of individuals are out there and those stories matter and those journeys matter. And I'm always championing the idea that it's not just a soft guy from fucking some horrendous operation in the middle of fucking nowhere whose story matters. I want to hear every story because we can learn from each other. Our successes and our failures can help the next guy or gal going through their own transition mission. Failures can help the next guy or gal going through their own transition mission.
Speaker 2:So today, man, I want to hear about yours. You know we talked a lot last time about your military journey, and it was a remarkable fucking journey. I mean from you know, being just a frigging young guy going into the military, at first thinking you were going to go into the Marine Corps and then go in air force, going into security forces, and then finally making your way to, you know, one of the highest, most secretive units that we have, and uh, but then you know we all have to take that journey down the road and collect that DD-214 at some point. So today, jason uh, let's pick up on that part what was your transition like?
Speaker 3:Sounds good and I'll just start with something you said that really resonated, because it is about the journey and it is about telling these stories and, if I can avoid someone falling into the pitfall, that I did and that's, you know that, romanticizing warfare and we have the responsibility.
Speaker 3:You know all this technology, all these platforms exist, so we do have to look forward to, you know, our brothers and sisters that are going to come after us and if any of those hear that, if you're, you know, some high school kid or college kid and you're joining the military, I think it's important to listen to these stories to understand the reality of what service is, but then also to realize that what you go through after service is not unique to you.
Speaker 3:So many people feel this and so kind of the campaign I'm on right now is Heal Loudly. You know we've heard a lot of times. You know you see the post all over social media and it's like I hope you win those battles. You tell no one about um, but at the same time it's like, hey, tell people about those battles because your story may inspire someone else to get help or um, it just shows people you know that there is another side and that our service doesn't need to be, you know, the highlight of our career and the highlight of our identity. That's the things you do after service that matter.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, man, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so for my transition, when I left active duty in 2019, I rolled the next day right into the reserves, joined the FBI, but that's really when that transformation for me and my mental health began. And you know the story of index begins there, you know. So, like I said on the other podcast, quick recap started just me mentoring dudes. I got a lot of benefit from Archery. My co-founder, ray, he was finding the same thing, so we just kind of were chatting about it and we're like, hey, let's start this program. I think Index is a catchy name and it captures our mission and we're just going to find as many veterans, first responders, people suffering from PTSD, and we're going to show them what archery did for us. And uh, like I said about the third person that I got involved and walked into a bow shop, you know bows are very expensive and especially for people in our community. You know whether it's from from. You know special operations, all the way down to that security forces guy. Right, we love gear, we and it's. And it's not just that we love gear, but it's like you understand the value of good gear, especially if you've had to rely on equipment, you know, in some tough situations you understand the value. So, yeah, often the question I get is like what's the best boat that I can buy, excuse me. And so you wind up spending anywhere between $1,800 and you know, upwards of $3,000 for a complete setup for everything you need to shoot. And that made me feel like garbage watching dudes spend their hard-earned money on something that I'm convinced is going to help. And at that time you know it helped me. I wasn't bought in that it was going to help everyone, but it could. So 2022, we went through the process to start a nonprofit and now everyone who's come into our program we've provided 100 percent of the equipment that they need to get started and whether that's brand new bows.
Speaker 3:You know, one of our highlights from last year was it was very quick the way it came down. But it was a guy from first group and he hit me up at first and his story was like, hey, I just bought bows for all of my kids so I can't afford one for myself. But just kind of talking to him, I knew he was an E7 in group. I was like, oh, this guy's got money. But the more I learned about his story, the more I wanted to help him, because it wasn't about a dude trying to get something for free. He was like a perfect candidate for our program. So I found an ambassador really quick and I raised enough money to buy that dude everything brand new from a bow shop, and the bow shop even kind of worked with us and helped us out there. But that's just one highlight of what we do.
Speaker 3:But since the beginning it's been evolving from. You know, I call it. We're not another give a bro a bow nonprofit. There's plenty of those out there and I love them for it. Right, because there's not enough to go around.
Speaker 3:But when we really dive into the therapeutic aspects of archery, there's so much that can go there. And I'll say, with the bow itself, right, if you give a guy a bow, you convince him to start shooting. All he's doing is maybe he shoots three days a week in his backyard for an hour. That's an hour-long therapy session, you know, because it's like a meditative experience. There's this mind-body connection that has to occur when you're behind a bow to shoot accurately, and it's allowing your subconscious to take a break and start unpacking some of that trauma and putting it in the right boxes, because that's what's happening.
Speaker 3:Right, when we experience trauma. There's a blockage there at the front of our brain and we're just not processing that experience and so I call it trauma goggles. When you're walking around and you know you may be wearing a mask that says, hey, I'm fine, I'm here, I'm present, but really you're seeing through those trauma goggles and that experience, that trauma, is really what's at the forefront of your mind. So it's like working out right, you do bench press and you can't just bench press forever. Your body's going to give out. So you set the bar down, you give your muscles a break and then you can get some more reps. In Same thing with trauma and the way that our brain processes trauma. So we find a moment, right when you're at full draw, you're dialed in on the target and you're ready to release that arrow. There's a moment of of clarity there that happens. You know you're at, you're not happy, but you're not sad, you're just kind of at peace and you're living in that moment. So that's really what we try to to capture and that's where a lot of our discussions happen behind the bow. And then that evolution has now taken us to okay.
Speaker 3:Well, what else can we pack in? Because our ultimate goal is to build a wellness center here in Virginia and I want that to be a five-day experience, post-critical incident seminar that I went through with the FBI. You know it was. It was four days of everything that I could imagine and some experiences that I never thought I'd saw myself doing, like Reiki. I think I'm saying that right, but it's. It's kind of like a yeah, reiki. You know that that was my first introduction to, to that modality and so I look at it as okay, let's, let's build something that's archery centric, but you give somebody a bow for the first time and after two hours they need to take a break. So then what do we roll into? And maybe it is a group session, maybe it's a Reiki session, maybe it's yoga. Um, as long as they have an open mind, we can give them so many tools, uh, to support you know that that mental wellness, absolutely yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:You reel them in with the the bow aspect of getting getting out there and learning a cool manly thing, and then individuals will drop their guard. Maybe they're willing to try yoga, because the reality is it's not. It's not about one modality, it's not about one thing. It's about having tools, having resources. That's something that you know previous generations of men didn't have. That's right. The guys that we looked up to I mean your own fathers, grandfathers these were men that were given tools for mental health. No, they went through some hard shit and they just ate it, they just fucking buried it down. And you're thinking at home you're like, yeah, fuck, yeah, that's what man do. But yeah, some, some can make it and they can still be good fathers and they can still be. Some can't.
Speaker 3:And some turn to alcohol, some turn into violence, some turn to drugs and some random from the family, isolation dogs and some random from isolation, exactly, yeah, they're running around on their wife, you know, and? But you know so. So something you just said there. I try to flip the script on that and break down that stigma because, like, oh yeah, men, men, just bury it down. I disagree, man, and I use the the analogy of your house, right? So let's, let's talk about men real quick.
Speaker 3:Um, your wife calls you while you're at work and says, hey, the sink's broken. You, your wife, calls you while you're at work and says, hey, the sink's broken. You know, the garbage disposal isn't training. What does a man do? Man comes home and he fixes that shit, right, whether he already knows the skills or he jumps on YouTube and he figures it out. But you know I'm not going to call it plumber. I'm the man of this house. You know I'm going to fix it, anything that's going on. You know what I mean Like Anything that's going on. You know what I mean Like, people look at that and they're like oh, you can work on your own car, you can fix your own house, you can do all this stuff for yourself. That's, that's admirable. You know's incredible. Um, dude, same. Hey, look at this guy he was. He was a wreck, he was in the bottle and he picked himself up and he straightened his head out, and now he's doing all these incredible things because he fixed. He fixed the problem. To me, that's manly absolutely, absolutely, absolutely the.
Speaker 2:we can't afford to continue propagating this myth that you can't talk about this mental health crisis and suicide from a point of strength, from a point of being a man. There's nothing more manly than facing down your fucking demons and slaying them, overcoming your addiction, overcoming that need to drink Like and there's so many things that are are attacking our men today, and the least of which is our fucking media trying to tell us that we all need to be soy boy, fucking beta males. Fuck that, no. And you also don't have to put on that cloak of being weak when you're going through your crisis, when you're going through your downward spiral. No, you can reach out for help. You can say I'm not where I need to be today, but I'm going to be there someday. I'm just, I just need help, just need the right resources, and that's, that's the way we got to look at it.
Speaker 2:Look at it from a point of strength, like if you're at the gym and you can't bench press 225, you didn't just go off to the corner and cry and say, oh fuck, I'll never do it. No, you look at those, the guys are doing it and you ask for help, like, hey, what's a good training plan. Then you fucking start hitting it hard, you get better and you can lift that weight. Same fucking thing. It's not about being weak or or not wanting to talk about it, because it's not a manly thing. No, dude, if you get shot, you're gonna go to your doc. Your doc, you're going to go to your medic. Same fucking thing, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not about being weak at all, you know, I think that's that's another. That's a terrible stigma that we put on ourselves. It's about being normal. It's about being human. I don't want to meet the person who can see their buddies die, or to see something happen to a child or you know to, to be involved in domestic abuse. We can go on and on about traumatizing events, but if you can watch your buddies die and that does not affect you, you're a sociopath, you're a psychopath. You know what I mean. That stuff is supposed to affect us. That means that you're a human with emotions who's creating bonds. That's a good point.
Speaker 2:That's an absolutely great point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this whole narrative that like, oh, this is your job and you're supposed to be tough and it shouldn't bother you no, it should bother you if you're a human, if you're a regular damn person, Um yeah, is to build this wellness center pack in these modalities. So the way it would work, right, let's say, I've got an ambassador out in Colorado right now, a guy named Max. Let's say, max identifies a hero that he thinks is right for our program. He'd call me up, I'd pay for a plane ticket for that guy to come down for five days, put him through the four-day, basically critical incident seminar and on the fifth day we have an open to the public archery shoot, a 3D archery competition, and that leads into I do a lot of things in threes.
Speaker 3:You know, and I heard very early on that you know, like the strongest structure in nature is the Delta, right, a triangle, and so I try to equate a lot of things to that. And so for me, a triangle. And so I I try to equate a lot of things to that, and so for me, it's about your individual mental and spiritual wellness. Um, it is about your physical wellness and that's part of what we do by getting guys outside, getting them on these courses, and then the last aspect of that is going to be your social wellness, and that's what makes the archery community great, because it is a true community. Um, so we take these guys who are maybe they're experiencing some isolation and put them behind a bow that becomes a safe space. You know, their bow is their therapist. But then you introduce them to another veteran or just a regular damn dude who shoots a bow themselves in that community and they find that support network. Because I could probably walk into any archery range and be like, hey guys, my truck broke down a mile down the road and every single person would sit down their boat and be like what do you need? I just think when you can combine those three aspects of it your mental, physical and social wellness that's the truest path to healing that I've ever found.
Speaker 3:You know, and I had a guy ask me once. This guy again, he was a police officer and he spent his career working crimes against children, so staring evil right in the face, and we all know what happens. Right, you dance with the devil. Too long he starts to dance back. And so this guy asked me. He said has anyone ever gone through your program and returned to the person they were before, before the trauma, and I said, no, and that's not the point of the program either. The point is taking that post-traumatic stress and turning that into post-traumatic growth and letting that build you into the best version of yourself. You can never go back, you can never unsee or unexperience those things. No-transcript that's.
Speaker 2:That's the, the thing that I hear a lot. Like I just want to go back to that person that I was. I just want to go back before the injury, before the the crisis moment. Like, dude, it's it's not about returning to a former version of yourself. It's about growth, it's about overcoming, because that past version of you didn't have all these wonderful things and, yeah, they're wonderful experiences because they're going to make you who you are today. Like you have to understand that. Like you got to be able to understand that you can't affect the past. You can take all those lessons and make yourself into a better, more resilient, fucking individual filled with grit.
Speaker 2:And here's the sad part you can't do any of this stuff without going through these challenges, without going through this journey. And that's the truth. Like we, you know what's a, what's a knight in shining armor. It's fucking worthless, wasn't tested, he's never been to battle. Like you have all these wounds, all this scar tissue. You have to work through it. But then you're going to be able to look at yourself and say, fuck man, like went through this journey, went through this horrible things, and like the beautiful history of my life and everything that I endured, all the good and bad made me who I am today. And I had yeah, I had to work through all that stuff to get to where I'm at today, but I'm better for it. It's not about wanting to go back, it's having you just build yourself back up. That's a that's a reality.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's exactly it you know, and that that there's a great um speech out there on the on the socials. I can't tell you who the guy is who gives it, but it's it goes back to faith as well.
Speaker 2:And yeah, let's talk about that, because it doesn't get enough talking Um, we don't. I even I didn't want to go into it at first because I knew that there was a stigma talking about faith. I knew that there was a stigma talking about going to church. I'm a proud Catholic. Um, I, I, I. I know intimately, because I saw it, the men in my profession, in my previous profession, um, because I saw it, the men in my profession, in my previous profession, that fared a lot better, did a lot. They had the same experiences, and I would even argue that some had even worse, but they didn't go through the downward spiral because they had rock-solid faith, they had rock-solid family, they were men who understood their pillars. And we have to be able to talk about faith. We can talk about fucking people trying to pretend they're a different gender. We can talk about faith.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:I'm here, for it and I'm very unapologetic about my Catholic faith, my Christian faith, but you know so I use a lot of analogy when I speak, right? And for me, you know, life is all about the rearview mirror. And, like I told you in episode one of this, everything happens for a reason and I firmly believe that when I look back in the rearview mirror of my life and I see how things played out and where I am today, it couldn't have happened any other way. I couldn't have planned it, I couldn't have designed this life. But this passion and this vision that I have for Index and the people that we're going to help, that's the vision said, hey, you're going to build this wellness center and you're going to have this plan, you're going to help all these people out.
Speaker 3:I'd be like, hey, I'm here for it. He's like, but first you're going to watch six of your friends die. I'd be like, heck, no man, I don't want to go through that. So he doesn't give us the journey right, he shows us the destination. The journey prepares us for that, and I think you can draw that parallel to just about anything in life. And if you look back and you say, man, what am I doing today? Where am I at? You can see the steps that you had to take and the way that that path was laid for you. It's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2:It's absolutely true. You have to trust in this plan. It's not easy, it's not going to come with its own challenges. But I will tell you anxiety lives in the future, depression lives in the past and we get so wrapped up in this idea that we have to control everything. But reality is you just have to surrender, absolutely have to surrender, and understand that his vision, his way for you, his path for you, is better. It means closing doors get closed, even when opportunities go away. Understanding that, okay, it wasn't meant for me is better, even when there. It means closing doors get closed, even when opportunities go away. Understanding that, like, okay, it wasn't meant for me right now, maybe in the future, but right now it's a no.
Speaker 3:It's incredible, you know, it's just the way these conversations come to be, because I didn't know we were going to talk about this. But even this week, so the last Sunday of every month, I do a team meeting and a board meeting with all the members of Index. So we do get on Microsoft Teams and do that. So I close out that meeting and I'm talking about our budget, I'm talking about the stuff that we have planned, the events we want to go to, I'm talking about bills and I'm stressed, I've got a lot of anxiety because at this point, you know, we're still a small nonprofit. We've got big plans but we're not bringing in a lot of money and I'm like, how am I going to pay just the bills for the next three months to get us where we need to be? And I'm worried about it. And I had to stop myself and I said index was never supposed to be something that I'm stressed about. You know, like I'm doing this for passion, love and fun. It's. It's not for me to stress about Like I have. I have a day job and it's way less stressful than what I did before, you know. But still, you know, I want to perform and continue receiving a paycheck so I can live. But I'm sitting in bed it's like 1130 at night, I'm still worried about bills and I said, no, stop, it's not for me. Got to give it to God, you know. And I said a prayer and I rolled over with a smile on my face and I'm like he's going to take care of me. He's taking index, is his thing, he's going to take care of it, right? I wake up the next morning and I've got um PayPal giving funds. So one of our fundraisers we had out there uh, deposited $650 in our account, which allowed me to pay a bill. So I'm like, you know, praise the Lord, he, he answered that prayer and then.
Speaker 3:But the other thing about it is, you know, we try to do things our way. Sometimes, even when we're following God's plan, we're trying to steer the boat and I just, I guess as a way of him, saying, hey, like all right, you give it to me. It's not working your way, look what I can do. So I get a phone call from at this point in time I still have to keep the actual foundation kind of quiet just as we work through some stuff but I get a phone call from a board member of a foundation who says, hey, I've been spending the last couple of years supporting a different foundation. They're at a point where they don't need my help anymore. They're really good at fundraising now. So I'd like to, um, you know, throw some money your way and and have he had me write up a proposal so he could take it to the rest of his board members.
Speaker 3:But it's just like the you know the number we're talking about. I'm, I think, in the terms right now of like, how can I get a couple hundred bucks in? How can I get a thousand dollars in? And this guy's like, how, how about a couple of thousands of dollars in? Uh, to get you started? And it's just like where did this come from? Um, yeah, it definitely wasn't me, it's nothing that I did and it's it's definitely the Lord's hand, you know, moving and teaching me something. So if anyone out there, if they doubt, if they don't have faith, if they're not introduced to the Lord or, you know, christ, our Savior man, just give it a try. You know my body and spirit man.
Speaker 2:You have to cultivate all three, all three. And I will tell you, you can still stay in a fight when one's compromised break a leg, break an arm, have a back injury, push through. But when something happens and it takes away two of those and it's always the spirit realm, the pillar of spirit, that's always underdeveloped for a lot of us you lose two things Cognitively, something happens, your body's not working Downward spiral, man, You're going to crash. You're going to fucking have that downfall. And when you start building yourself back up, you're going to get to the point where you're walking, you're going through rehab, you're feeling better. Maybe you're able to. You know, you're not as stressed out. Now your mind's working a little better and you're going to be about 65 to 70%. And what's that last bit? And that's that, that faith, the spirit pillar. Build it back, be willing to have a relationship.
Speaker 2:Look, right now you just start off being the counterculture. Just think of yourself as a punk rocker. Go against the grain. Everything you hear today in the media will tell you that God doesn't exist, that faith isn't important. Put value in everything material and everything else. Be a punk rock. Go against the grain right now and lean into faith. You know, now more than ever.
Speaker 2:It's so accessible. Download an app, listen to the Bible in a year, like dude. I listen to. I do my rosary with Mark Wahlberg through the Halo app, like dude. You can download any one of these apps and just learn about the Bible. Or maybe it's not Christianity, maybe it's something else, but I'm telling you, try it. If you've never grown up in it, if you walked away from it from your entire life, just give it a chance, make it your way. Maybe you didn't like the way the religion was practicing your home, well, now it's your shot. You can develop and you can sit down and read what you want to read about the book. But I'm telling you I wouldn't devote so much time into this, I wouldn't be speaking about it so openly and passionately if it hadn't made a significant impact in my life and I'm not the only one.
Speaker 3:And you know we are not set up as a ministry and I did that on purpose because I absolutely, you know I was raised Catholic. I was baptized as a child and I've been very spiritual since I was a child. But not everybody was raised like that. Not everybody has what I have, and I absolutely understand moral injury as well. I think it's very rational for someone to experience something, even if they had faith, and lose that faith. So I don't want that to be a barrier for entry in our program.
Speaker 3:I will prophesize, because here's my take on it. Right, if I see you standing in the street and I know a bus is about to hit you and you're not paying attention, I could yell at you like hey, man, hey, the bus is coming. But if you don't hear me, how far do I let that bus go before I just dive and tackle you out of the way? Right, and that's the way I look at salvation. Right, if I know that this life is going to end and there's something better on the other side, I'm going to tell you about it. But if you say, hey, man, like I'm good, I'll respect that, because here's my hopes and here's my challenge to my fellow Christians out there.
Speaker 3:If you have a hard time saying, you know, like I haven't figured out how to approach people or how to witness to somebody, live it. You know, I want people to see the blessings that I've had in my life and the way that I live my life, and I want them to question dude, why are you so happy? Why are you the way that you are? Why are you helping all these people? And it's because, even though I will never measure up and I'm, you know, it's the ultimate form of stolen valor, but to say, hey, I'm trying my best to live like Jesus. And he told us to do two things he told us to love the Lord above all things and to love your neighbor.
Speaker 3:And so, whatever your beliefs, whatever you're into, even if I don't agree with it, right, even if I don't agree with you, know, with how you choose to identify, how you live your life, it doesn't matter. It's not for me to judge you, it's for me to love you. So anyone who needs help. But I do hope that I just put it out there, because if you don't believe and you come through our program, I want you to know that you can ask me the questions whenever you're ready.
Speaker 3:Hey, man, tell me about this Jesus guy and I'm here for it. You know, there's no judgment, because that's another thing is people who start to kind of find faith. They feel ashamed because it's you know, maybe you're 40 years old and you've never known Jesus and suddenly you're like well, you know, I want to know him, but now I'm scared to ask because then I'm going to look like you know, a bad person for not believing all these years, and it's like no, that's not the point. So, if anything, you know you can hit me up and we can have a talk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not about. It's never too late.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:And there's so many great stories about people that found their faith late in life. It's up to you. You make that choice, but Jason and I are both here for you sliding the DMs and we'll talk about it, and then I'll send you a free rosary because I'm trying to recruit more Catholics.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, yeah, so I actually I started making rosaries here at home, just little pocket rosaries.
Speaker 2:No way Nice.
Speaker 3:You're going to have to kick me your details and, man, I mean they're very, very rough, but they're made here in my bow shop by hand. I use the same strings and materials that we would use to tie in different equipment on bows.
Speaker 3:so yeah, so, like all the little knots, that's cool made with it's called serving material or serving string, um, but I use that. I make a version with seven beads for evangelicals and I make a version with 10 beads uh, a decade, you know. So it's a little pocket decade. But there's some cool, some cool companies out there too, like rugged rosaries and all that, and that's kind of where I got the idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I prefer my wood one, my. My mother-in-law got me really awesome one, really just, I find the simplicity being like the the thing, and it feels, the texture just feels great for me and it just goes everywhere and that's a. That's a weapon I carry with me at all times, absolutely, yeah, but I also like the 550 ones. It's, you know, it's if, if you know, if you ever get lost, it's also a great pace counter, so it backs up. It's more than one thing, it's a multi. You know. Tell yourself that, start carrying a rosary today and tell yourself it's not only a weapon but a land nav tool. It's with you at all times.
Speaker 2:But it's great to lean into those things and I know a lot of people have walked away. But just hey, you know, find, you know, and I have to shout out to my friend Mike he's also very strong in his faith and it's somebody that you know. You have your friends you can talk to about that. That's the other beautiful thing is it helps you build another community, it helps you stay in touch with other people that are strong, and it's about engaging with your brothers on a day-to-day basis. Wins and losses. What can I do? What are you struggling with today. Can I pray for you? That stuff matters Every single day, having that prayer list of your friends. If you're feeling yourself like you aren't doing well, pray for your friends, pray for those around you.
Speaker 3:Spiritual warfare is very real and it even baffles me. Some Christians Right, because Christians will believe in the Bible, they'll believe in the creation and this all powerful God, but they won't crisis. Or you know the staggering amount of child exploitation that happens all around the world, just all these very evil things. You're like. What is this place? You know, because here's the thing is everything in the world right now. Everything we're relying on, we made up. Humans made it up, whether it's money, technology, processes, bureaucracy. We made it up and it all sucks. There's a better option out there, so why haven't we achieved that better option?
Speaker 3:I boil everything that's going on in the world. I boil it all down to the battle between good and evil, and the Bible tells us how that's going to end. We know that good is going to overcome evil in the end, but right now again, the journey has prepared us for the destination. So if you look at the world through that lens, it starts to make a lot of sense. Why is there so much corruption in government? Now, because there's evil present in this world right now. You know why are people struggling with their identities? Why are, you know, 40 veterans a day committing suicide? Because there's evil present in the world. So spiritual warfare is real Prayer and those rosaries absolutely a weapon, man, it's just yeah.
Speaker 3:It's awesome stuff.
Speaker 2:We also got to focus on the good too. Man, like you have to focus on the greatness that will come into your life when you're able to start your day off with something that's simple. And there's a power in establishing that morning prayer and having that habit. And you're human, so you're going to fall out of it. You're going to forget to do your daily prayer, you're going to forget to do your rosary, but when you establish that pattern and you have it as a daily thing, you're going to go into your day feeling better.
Speaker 3:I know it, it's so freaking true. It's those first fruits, right, and even if it's just an acknowledgement, you know and I try to do this every day the second I open my eyes. I just try to acknowledge God and set my day up that way, because sometimes you might wake up and you don't know what to pray for. But God knows what you need. Right Through the Holy Spirit, god lives with us. So when you're sitting there praying and you're repenting and you're saying God, I'm screwed up, he's like, yeah, I know. And when you say God, this incredible thing happened, he's like, yeah, I know, because he's with you, he's you know, and those experiences.
Speaker 3:As far as what you need, again, I don't pray for a lot of things with index. I try not to, because his plans are so much better than mine. If I'm over here praying for $1,000, or maybe I miss out on $100,000, he's got planned because he's answered my prayers. So I just tell him like, hey, god, you're present, you know what I'm trying to do, you know what we're trying to do. Give me clarity, give me strength, give me wisdom and let's see this thing through, because he knows.
Speaker 2:Well, man, like, what is the next step? What is the next thing for index? You want to build your actual brick and mortar program.
Speaker 3:Proving Grounds? Yeah, Proving Grounds.
Speaker 2:And how much longer before that's up and running? So?
Speaker 3:my clock starting this year we're on a five-year clock is my goal. I'd love to have index archery Proving Grounds and, because we're military, we're going to call it Epic. So we're going to build it EPIC. So we're going to build EPIC in five years or sooner. Right now, and from our start, it's been one-on-one mentorship, counseling, all that stuff between the ambassadors and the heroes.
Speaker 3:She started her career, she did her residency at a VA hospital, so her introduction to clinical psychology was veterans. And she's gone on to work with a federal law enforcement agency, so she's got a lot of really great experience and she gets what we're doing. So bring her on to help us build out some of those processes and we're going to start conducting research in order to one inform the medical community of. You know there's already a lot of data on alternative therapies, but this is one more data set for them to pull from. And as we build this, you know it's my hopes that I'm setting the standard for what archery therapy looks like going forward, and you know. So, yeah, that's our plan, man, it's all leading up to the Proving Grounds, but for the meantime it's doing the research, it's doing our one-on-one sessions with heroes and it's getting the word out there. We've got a lot of events that we want to attend and a lot of people to reach.
Speaker 2:What are some upcoming events you guys are going to be going at?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's a great company out there. They make both sites. They're called HHA, so they I have become friends with their VP of operations and he runs his own nonprofit called HHA USA. So those are 3D Archer events for veterans and first responders. So we'll be out in Wisconsin in April attending one of those events and then in May we have two total archery challenges.
Speaker 3:So if you haven't heard of this, they typically do them at ski resorts in the spring and summer. So you imagine riding a ski lift up to the top of the mountain and then you shoot an archery course on the way down. So you're on like a six mile hike and it's incredible because it's you're shooting realistic, lifelike targets. They're foam, right, but you have a foam moose and he might be at 112 yards downhill. Or you might have a jaguar, but you've got to shoot through maybe you know a two by two foot window of branches and rocks and all kinds of stuff. There was one shot two years ago at an event we did in Pennsylvania with Total Archery Challenge, and you're in an open field with like Chenhai grass. It was 110 yards, shot at a bedded antelope target, but 10 yards before the target they had bush hogs, so there was no grass there. When you're at full draw and you're aiming, you can see the tips of the antelopes horns and that's all you got. So you have to imagine where those vitals are and you're just aiming at grass and when you shoot, if you were looking at it from the side, your arrow sat about this high above this grass and it flew over and then dropped in at the last 10 yards and would hit the vitals, you know. So it's just like very challenging but a lot of fun, and with those events you know again that community.
Speaker 3:So the first couple of years that we attended them, we were there as competitors, as shooters, because there's no prizes, you don't turn in a scorecard, it's really for fun. But so, yeah, hike the total. The first year me and Ray did it, I think we'd hiked a total of 32 miles over three days, shot these courses and we just had a blast. I'm like this is the best thing that I do all year. This is so much fun.
Speaker 3:Well then, last year we set up a booth and we were there as a vendor doing raffles, giveaways, meeting people, spreading awareness, and I brought a couple people with me and the plan was like each day, one of us would get to go and shoot a course and then come work the booth and by day three my guys are saying, like Jay, it's your turn, go shoot. I'm like, no, I don't want to. Like, I want to be here at the booth because it's just as much fun being around the community, because it's the community and it's the environment and the atmosphere that you're there. It's just like this is a very special, incredible place and if you're hearing this, if you're a veteran out there, you can look up total archery challenge because it's every weekend.
Speaker 3:It's in a different part of the country. They kind of move from east coast to west coast. Um, but if you have one close to you, even if it's three hour drive, and you're curious about archery and you just want to see something awesome, just go out there for the day, spend the day walking around the vendor village. I mean, there's probably going to be. Most of these events have somewhere around 100 vendors and it's everything from, like, sig Optics to Kafaru International.
Speaker 2:All the sweet swag you could ever want. Yeah, tons of sweet swag.
Speaker 3:So I mean it's an archery event. There's archery vendors, but there's vendors out there from outside of the community as well Yeti Coolers, black Rifle Coffee. You know, it's just, it's a lot of fun, it's a party, but it's also wholesome. You know, sure, it's a lot of fun, it's a party, but it's also wholesome. You know, um sure there's alcohol and stuff there, but I haven't seen any fights, I haven't seen anyone being drunk, obligerant, stupid. You know, it's like, it's a good time, it's a good place to be.
Speaker 2:People aren't going out there showing their ass, just having a good time shooting bows. I need to make my way out to one.
Speaker 3:So we've got those events and then we've got some stuff around here Virginia we want to. We want to host our first 3D Archer events solely for us. We've got a fundraiser coming up with a group called CrossFit Untaken and so, yeah, that end out the kind of year. Before fall hits. It's some stuff here at Local to Virginia and then we roll into hunting season.
Speaker 2:Heck, yeah, yeah, dude. Well, keep us in touch, man, I'd love to collaborate with you on social media and run a fundraising for you guys. It blows my mind. I did one for the Reason Outdoors and I just did not foresee the amount of support we would get just by doing a fundraiser during our meme halls. Just frigging, tagging a fundraiser and just it's amazing.
Speaker 3:People with reach and you know I'll say this selfishly for my nonprofit, because I've I've slowly gotten better man. When I started, I hated asking people for money. I just feel like a sleazeball. And, uh, one of my buddies sat me down. He's like no dude, you're not asking for money for you, you're asking for money for these heroes, and they need you busting your ass to get that money so you can help them. So get out there and do it. Get over whatever you've got going on.
Speaker 3:So what I tell people, though, is, whether you want to support Index or any nonprofit, because there's tons of dudes out there doing good stuff. If you have platform, if you have a reach, you may think, hey, I'm just Security Halt podcast, I can't do much, right, who's going to listen to me? Do it anyway, because if you think you can't make an impact, it only takes one person to see that fundraiser, see a post, see a story, and be like oh well, I have means and I can help and you can change a nonprofit. You can change somebody's life with the click of a button. It's very easy. So I appreciate you doing that for the reason I think they have a great mission and, like I mentioned before, they're a partner of ours. Anything you want to do for Index, you know? Yeah, dude, I'm all about it.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, man, We'll make it happen. I am passionate about helping organizations that are taking care of our veterans. So if you're listening, you've got a nonprofit, come on the show, slide into our DMs or hit us up on setcappodcastgmailcom. I will get back to you, and I can't tell you, jason, how much I appreciate you coming back and being vulnerable enough to share your story. It truly helps everybody else out that's going through their own journey or just thinking about getting out and want to help and join a nonprofit.
Speaker 2:I think more veterans need to get out there and understand that they have a powerful voice and they have a powerful set of skills that can be of service in the nonprofit world. So if you're a veteran, you're thinking of transitioning and getting out and you're coming up on that ETS, think about joining a nonprofit. Tons of them are on the SkillBridge program and if you don't know where to start, hit me up, find me on LinkedIn. I will help you, point you to some cool ones like Index and you can go shoot some free archery with some cool dudes. Jason, thank you so much for being here again, brother, one more time, where can people find you on your socials?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so socials is Index Archery, that's E-N-D-E-X Archery. Or you can look us up on the website indexarcheryorg.
Speaker 2:Awesome. There you have it, folks. Go ahead and dive on into the episode description. You'll find all the links there. And thank you all for tuning in. And one more thing before I let you go Head on over to Apple Podcasts and Spotify Give us a five-star review. Let's see, I'm doing this at the very end because I'm gracious, I'm kind. I'm hoping that you made it all the way here to the end. Give us a review on Apple. Give us a review on Spotify. We greatly appreciate it. It helps us grow and allows me to continue doing this for you, because I care about you. Thank you all for tuning in. We'll see you all next time. Until then, take care.
Speaker 1:Thank you all for tuning in. We'll seecom for exclusive content resources and updates, and remember we get through this together.
Speaker 2:If you're still listening, the episode's over. Yeah, there's no more Tune in tomorrow or next week.
