00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome the season two of The Good Stuff. I'm Ashley Schick, and I'm joined by my husband and co host, Jacob Schick, a third generation combat marine and CEO of One Tribe Foundation.
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Speaker 2: Ashley also comes from a family rich in military history, and we've dedicated our lives to One Tribes, mission serving veterans, first responders, and their families. We're coming to you from Dallas, so welcome to Texas.
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Speaker 1: And joining us all season long from Los Angeles, California is our West Coast long haired friend and producer of The Good Stuff, Nick Cassolini.
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Speaker 3: What's up, guys, Welcome to the first episode of a two part series about Carry the Load, speaking simply, Carry the Load is a huge Memorial Day event that culminates here in Dallas, Texas, and, as you'll discover over the course of these episodes, its significance is truly monumental to the people who participate, from active duty military to veterans, to family members and spouses of those who lost their lives serving this country, to the random civilian just checking it out. Carry the Load is truly a one of a kind way to spend Memoria a day, weekend.
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Speaker 2: The care of the load evolution happens every May or Memorial May, as we call it, and so this episode is probably gonna drop who knows when, but probably nowhere near Memorial May. And we don't care that it's oh well, it's not May. We don't give We honor and remember the legacies of these men and women and their families every single day. It doesn't take a day that that our government designates, okay, today you need to honor.
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Speaker 4: Remember.
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Speaker 2: No, we don't give two dams. It is what it is, and it still means so much to us. Whether it drops in May or it drops in October, it has the absolute same meaning to us. We would encourage all of our listeners that listen to this in a time that is not Memorial May to just take it at face value and listen to it and then internalize it, because I promise you it'll make an impact if you really really dig into it. Don't let that get in the way of your intellectual mobility, please.
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Speaker 3: Jake, thank you very much for that. For our beautiful listeners out there. This is just a quick heads up. This show can explore some heavy subject matter, including talks of suicide, so listener discretion is advised.
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Speaker 1: We couldn't be happier.
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Speaker 2: You're here again. Welcome to the good stuff, Jake.
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Speaker 3: Mister Jacob Shick, I'd love to hear in your words from your heart, what Memorial Day is and what it's about.
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Speaker 2: Memorial Day is a day to honor and remember all the men and women that gave their lives in service to this country and for the sake of freedom. I think I can go as far to say, like, that's not just what I think, that's what Memorial Day is.
00:02:51
Speaker 1: And there's a big difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Veterans Day is in November. That's a happy day where we think veterans for their service. Memorial Day is an May. That's a day that we honor and remember our fallen.
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Speaker 2: And not necessarily it's not a happy day, I mean, but.
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Speaker 1: It's a day of remembrance. James Sex.
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Speaker 5: Here today.
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Speaker 6: Once again.
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Speaker 2: We want to welth have everyone to be carried the Load our Dallas Memorial of Artsy five.
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Speaker 7: I was so excited to have everybody.
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Speaker 3: Here today, Ashley. Will you tell me what carry the Load is.
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Speaker 1: Carry the Load is an incredible event that was founded fourteen years ago that really allows individuals, whether they're civilians or gold Star families or veterans, first responders, law enforcement officers and their families to come together and truly honor and celebrate and remember our fallen. It's what that day and that month was intended for. And it is a purpose filled, soul feeding event that brings like minded individuals together to honor and remember the sacrifice of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.
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Speaker 3: And what are some of the actual nuts and bolts of what people do at carry the load?
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Speaker 1: You know? The idea is that you come together to carry the load for them because they can no longer carry it for us. They've paid the ultimate price and it was expensive, but we walk to honor and remember them. Some people carry rocksacks, some people carry mementos in their backpack or on their backpack. Some people carry stones with you know, those that they've lost, names inside of them. You know. It is a great event culminating in Dallas at Reversham Park where they have the bounce houses and the food trucks and the field of flags for each of those that have lost their life, as well as the storyboards that line the trail on Katie trail in each each of those storyboards telling the story of a life of a family, of generations of people who were affected by their service and their sacrifice.
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Speaker 7: Without further ado, mister Clint Bruce.
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Speaker 4: Well, good afternoon, and I know we're chomping at the bit getting ready to go, but I just wanted to tell you. I was standing in the back and then Steven asked me to come up here. And I'm so proud every time I get a chance to do this because Steven and I and some of these early members can remember when the week before the very first Carry the Load, it was about forty eight people had signed up in thirty seven of them were related to Steven, and uh, he's got a big family. That would have been the whole family. But to see where it is now.
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Speaker 6: My name is Don Nunn, formerly staffs are in the United States Marine Corps. I am a founding member of One Tried Foundation formerly known as twenty two Kill. We have been involved with Terry the Load for over ten years now.
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Speaker 4: One of my favorite things about this, and maybe hard for you to tell it because you're out there, but about eighty percent of the men and women here great American citizens, maybe only twenty twenty five percent of people here are veterans, and one of the reasons the veterans get up says, we think people don't care that we lost our friends. But I promise you it is impossible for you to continue to think that if you simply look around.
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Speaker 1: So to the.
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Speaker 4: Seventy eighty per great American citizens that have come out here to let us know that you care that we missed our friends, and that you want us to know about the people you miss too. You have to know the healing that begins with you. So thank you.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 6: In the beginning, it just made sense. I'm a marine, I've got brothers that I've lost that I've served with it. It just made sense for me to go out here and remember them and honor them. After the first few years, I started losing my own friends and brothers to suicide, and that's when Memorial Day really really changed for me.
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Speaker 7: Please remove non religious head gear, had your heart allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.
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Speaker 3: Of America, intuity public for which it stands one issue under God, as Memorial Day just changed for you over the years.
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Speaker 2: Yes, In short, I'm for the most part I'm I'm less angry. There's still times there's been a couple of years where I do just I get I wouldn't even say angry. In the beginning, I was angry, But over the last few years, I find myself some some years where I'm just frustrated because I feel like our country just doesn't do enough to remember my dead brothers and sisters, and that can be inherently frustrating for me. Yeah, we can do better. We can do better on honoring those men and women and remembering them because they're not just numbers. They're human beings, and they have families, and they had very close friends, and their tentacles stretched far and wide. So I'm a lot better with it now, But that that was from a lot of work that's gone into it, because it's unfair of me to think or to expect the rest of the country to feel the way I feel when we have completely different life experiences on this one day. Now, that said, I do wholeheartedly believe that we can do better on that day a few years later.
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Speaker 6: You know, I've got a fifteen year old daughter that's sitting right over there, and she was eight at the time. You know, she was eight at the time, and you know, she would she wanted to come out and see what Daddy did on Memorial Day, you know, every single year, because he would disappear for a couple of days. And you know, because I'm out here with with my tribe, and she wanted to be a part of it. And I brought her out, and she wanted to stay the night with us, you know, and she wanted to walk with us. And you know, there was this moment where I would I would take her, you know, when everything's kind of died down throughout the night, because but what I would do with her, you know, I waited till till nightfall, you know, when when a lot of people went home for the night. I took her out at night and I would walk the trail with her, and we would walk and we'd look at all the memorials that Carrie the Load puts up on the trail and we read them. And you know, and my daughter was eight at the time. You know, I didn't really know if or knew is she really understood what Memorial Day was about. But we got home the next day after everything wrapped up, and she she just out of the blue. Drew me this picture and I still have it, you know, of this cross and and a flag and and and and us it was us walking on the trail and and uh it in her eight year old mind, you know that she was able to express to me what she she felt, what what Memorial did was about it, and that another way, in another way change what care the load was about. For me, you know, it reminded me that it's my job, my duty to instill upon the future, you know, of of our nation, that to remind them that what what this day is actually about, you know. And so so now you know, I've got my whole family out here, and we walk and we remember and we honor you, you know, and and and I have no doubt that my kids, you know, from my fifteen year old daughter now to my my ten year old boy now, that that that they they know what Memorial Day is about.
00:10:56
Speaker 3: It took a.
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Speaker 4: Stage retired general whole fun not.
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Speaker 7: Me, ladies and gentlemen. I just want to explain this hap a Troop, first Squadron, ninth the Cavalry. I'm wearing it for all my guys from that unit from Vietnam days. If we got any Vietnam vets out there, all right.
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Speaker 4: Good good. I'll just tell you, for.
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Speaker 7: Those vets, give them a special hug, a little pat on the back, because they didn't get anything like this when they came home.
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Speaker 4: I promise you that it was not a good thing.
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Speaker 7: The second thing I'd say is there are a lot of young people here, including the folks running this effort, and and that young group of Scouts have came here and presented the colors, and I see more young people here, and.
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Speaker 2: I think we're not in any trouble.
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Speaker 4: We got great young people in this country. And I really believe that.
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Speaker 2: I mean, you.
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Speaker 7: Guys are the country.
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Speaker 3: So when you do it, actually, do you carry someone specific? Do you carry the weight of many? Do you carry the idea?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean all of the above. Each year for me, because I've done it thirteen years now, this will be my thirteenth.
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Speaker 2: You know.
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Speaker 1: Each year for me, I've actually decided to pick a different person to kind of honor, just because I know it would mean a lot to their family members. So I've carried my grandfather though the past few years. My grandfather was twenty four years old when he was killed in a training incident in Fairbanks, Alaska and my mom was two at the time. Her father was Lieutenant Larry Dwayne Voss. He was a pilot and he was co piloting a T thirty three jet and Fairbanks and they crashed. Unfortunately, he was buried shortly thereafter at Presidio in San Francisco. And I'm blessed to have a mother that, even though she's a gold Star daughter, and back in the nineteen fifties when you know, there really wasn't a lot of support or resources for gold Star families. Blessed to have a mother that raised us to be patriotic and to really be hyper aware of what this weekend and what Memorial Day is all about. And so I've been carrying Larry and you know, it's it. Jake alluded to it. But for each and every individual that loses their life, whether it be in action in the line of duty, in training, or by their own hand, for each and every one of them, you know, it affects generations of people, myself included. And my mom being so young when her father was killed, I was always really interested in him and his story, and I found out some amazing things about him. I think one of the greatest compliments I ever received in my life. Was my great uncle Bunner one time told me that I reminded him of my grandfather. And here's this man that I never knew, you know, two generations removed that my mom never really knew because she was so young when he perished. But you know, to me, it's an honor, and to me it's a privilege to be able to carry him and to speak his name and about all the accomplishments that he did.
00:14:02
Speaker 6: You know, when every time every year I come out here and you ask me who I'm carrying, you know, I will always tell you that I am carrying my friend Ben Adams, that I'm carrying my friend Stephen Jackal, that I'm carrying one of my friend's friends that I've never met, you know, but actually has a place in my heart. And you'll see his postport as soon as you walk out those gates. And his name is Sergeant Andrew Davis. You know that's I know of him through a friend that I met the first time. First year I was out here doing care of the load. I met this girl, this woman named Katie, and she introduced me to who Sergeant Andrew Davis is and who he he was and how he died, you know, and uh, you know, it's one of those moments that I always remember that that it was kind of a reality check that that reminded me exactly what and why we're out here. And you know, all those names, unfortunately that I named the sergeant Andrew Davis, Ben Adams, Stephen Jackal, you know, they all died by suicide. And those are names that that are very very personal to me. And and and I yes, when you ask me who I'm caring those are? Will we always been the first names out of my mouth.
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Speaker 3: We need to take a quick commercial break, but we've got a lot more with Jake and Ashley and a lot more from the heart of the event itself. Stick around, welcome back. Before we introduce you to a few new people here, I am with Jake and Ashley. Jake, over the years, specifically, how important has carried the load been to you?
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Speaker 2: I would say that, you know, over the years, carry those has been paramount to my healing process and it's it's really helped me heal through my own growth. But the countless other people that I've met who have sustained tremendous loss through their growth. It's been a beautiful thing to be able to hel together with a bunch of people because of the same reason, you know, because loss is loss is loss, just like pain is pain is pain. It's all relative. It doesn't really matter what leads up to it or how it happens. I mean, the end result is what makes it all relative, and that to me over the years has been invaluable, and not only my healing process, but just my life process. I mean, it's that I could say with certainty that it has been. It's had a tremendous impact on making me a more effective husband, father, leader. It's helped in every aspect and especially when done correctly, meaning you know, devoid of predominantly alcohol and drugs like it, you know, because that was a suppression mechanism that I utilized for the first number of years that I did it. But it's yeah, it's been. It's been an invaluable part of my healing process every year since I've done it, even when I was not sober. I mean, it does have a huge impact and some of the coolest parts of it that I've been able to bear witness to or even the people that, yeah, I know, I never served. I don't really know anybody that's served. I just heard about this and figured i'd come check it out to see how much it impacts those people and how they leave a completely different person than they showed up. Is that to me? Is I mean that you can't put a price point on that, you know, because they they show up not really understanding, and then after a mere number of hours, they leave completely getting it.
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Speaker 4: Now, please welcome the first Cavalry Division band who will lead us in the national level.
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Speaker 3: So Muriel, my wife, and I are included in that lucky group of first timers showing up to carry the load. Twenty twenty five, we flew down to Dallas to stay with you guys and to experience it. Jake, unfortunately you are not joining this year, and I am wondering if you're comfortable talking a little bit about what's keeping you home this year.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. So, you know, I've been dealing with some health stuff and astal and I went to the doctor and they think that I have a blood clot and my residual limb or my stomp, and so I can't wear my prosthetic. So I'm basically wheelchair bound for the next number of weeks trying to get that to dissolve on its own, and not only that, it's just I've been very low on energy and kind of lethargic, and so actually when I came to the conclusion that it's probably just best for my physical, mental emotional health to sit this one out and cheer on everybody from home, which is tough. You know, it's the first one I've missed in fourteen years, and so it is what it is. It's just one of those things that you know, it sucks, but I've got to make sure I take care of me in order to take care of others, and so it's a bummer, but it is what it is.
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Speaker 3: Jake. For people that aren't familiar with you and your story, would you describe the injuries you sustained while you were in Iraq?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I got blown up on a react mission. Our hum V got hit and blew me out of the hum V. I ended up having an amputation below the knee of my right leg, multiple compound fractures and my left left leg, compound fractures in my left arm, lost five inches of my ulna bone in my left arm, part of my left hand, essentially my fourth and fifth digit metacarpals, my fifth digit completely, meaning Pinky broke my ribs, a shrapnel throughout my body and my neck, chin and face, some burns, and a traumatic brain injury because I landed on my head.
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Speaker 3: Given that, Carrie, the lotus played such a vital part in your healing over the years, and you were denied that this year, how did you deal with that? What did did you do? Something in solitude?
00:21:30
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:21:31
Speaker 2: What I did was I just focused on being grateful that I was had the ability to still be here and feel like shit, There's a lot of men and women that don't have that ability, and I focused on the gratitude of that fact that, hey, at least I'm here. I still get to hug and kiss my wife and hug and kiss my boys. Yeah, so that's what I focused on, is at least I'm alive to fill discomfort because they can't even fill that.
00:22:09
Speaker 8: My name is Beth Burgess, and Hi, I'm Terry Burgess. Carry the load to me means that Brian is not forgotten, that people remember that, especially the farther we get from the war. It's easy to think that people have forgotten, but then you come to event like this, and you know that there's still a lot of people and we have a lot of love and support.
00:22:30
Speaker 2: Terry and Elizabeth are the epitome of what it means to be patriotic Americans. And they lost her son, Brian, who died conducting combat operations in the army in Afghanistan. And it has been an absolute honor for me. And I know I can speak for Ashley when I say this. Getting to meet and know the Burgesses has been an absolute highlight of my life.
00:23:00
Speaker 5: To me, Carry the Load is uh, it's it's people. I just saw Doug Peterson walking past, really good friend of ours. You look up, there's the posters of the fallen soldiers, and it is it's it's more than just Memorial Day. It is a it is a memorial and it it helps us understand. Like Bess said, you know, we don't carry that weight alone. When we lost Brian, our son, we thought it was just going to kill us. We thought we were all alone in this. Nobody cared, nobody wanted to hear the stories, nobody wanted to listen. And then we find organizations like Carry the Load. They encourage you to tell your stories, they encourage you to share your sons, your daughter's stories, your own personal journey, and you understand that pain in your heart while it's still hurts, these people share that pain. You can you can share your story with them without them giving you that weird glazed look in their eyes, you know, like I don't want to hear this, I don't want to listen to this, but they will listen with tears in their eyes and then you get a big old hug. We just got a big hug from Clint Bruce.
00:24:18
Speaker 2: You know.
00:24:19
Speaker 5: It was a freaking amazing every time we come out here. So that's that's what carry the load is to us. It is it's family, it's friends, it's sharing, its understanding, and it's healing.
00:24:34
Speaker 2: How I memorialize the dead has definitely changed also over the years, because before it would be you know, I'd go to the bar and I get hammered in honor of someone. Well, that's completely counterintuitive to the greater good. And how I memorialize the dead is by trying to live well every single day, not just on Memorial Day, but every day. And that means right things, right reasons, you know, and God will take care of the rest like that. I definitely try. I'm actively trying to be a better human being every day in honor of those who can't, which in turn helps me. Doesn't mean I don't have bad days, of course I do. Everybody does. But I feel like that's the only way to truly memorialize them is to live well every single day. And then you have these special occasions like Memorial Day or the day this man or woman was lost in service to the nation, that you can do something special on that day to honor the way they live, not the way they died. And I think that those things are vital to keeping legacies alive for those that will come after us. So that's ultimately what I do is I try live wall every single day.
00:26:02
Speaker 5: So our son, Staff Sergeant Brian Burgess, he really was the all American boy he had. He enjoyed sports. He played soccer from a very young age, and he played football, baseball, and he was really good at it, and he had a charisma about him. He was a natural leader, you could tell from an early age. We went on a train trip to Arkansas to visit my parents and took the kids with us, Brian and Brandy, his sister, was with us. On the train, well, Brian got up and he went, you know, to explore the train. Five minutes later he comes back past. There's a herd of kids following him, like, what are you collecting? Children? What are you doing? But they just naturally followed him around. And we saw that in his sports, We saw that with his leadership in the army. We talked to his captain and he said, we had our eye on Sergeant Burge just because he had that special balance. He had that love for his family, and then he had that love for his men, and his men felt that and they literally followed him into Hell on that March twenty ninth, twenty eleven. But we learned a lot of stories about Brian from his men. Stories we wouldn't that, you know, Brian probably wouldn't have told us. But he was an extraordinary soldier. He was an extraordinary son, a brother, husband, father, the father he was. He was a treasure to us. And when that treasure's taken away, you feel like a part of you is taken away and you don't think you can ever get it back. But yes, and through his men and his men's love for Brian, that that pain has decreased so much. It's turned into honor. It's turned into respect and honor for my son. And I've told several people that I say, Okay, it's kind of weird when your son becomes inspiration to the parent, but he did.
00:28:22
Speaker 3: We're going to pause here for the last commercial break of the episode and we'll be right back. All right, everyone, we're back now, let's check in with Jake. Is Memorial Day itself a taxing day emotionally for you?
00:28:46
Speaker 2: It can be, Yeah, it definitely can be, because you know, we have a routine. We have a routine that we do every year and which consists of going to a couple of different semits and paying respects to multiple people. And usually with the month of May, it's emotionally taxing for me. And it's more so because it's you know, I'm so deep in it every single day. But at the same time too, like I'm trying to pour myself into other lots of other people to even not even get on the same plane I'm on, but like just to even get in somewhat to the same universe. And it takes a lot because everybody's busy with life, their jobs, their families, their kids' extracurricular activities and just trying to do the best they can to get by with what they've got right now, and so it's it is emotionally taxing, but I wouldn't change it. I wouldn't change it. I'm definitely not complaining about it, because it's like I said, I I'm reminded every day, not just in May or Memorial Day that, regardless of how are what I'm feeling, every one of those men or women I'm sure would give anything to feel that way one more time. I mean, of course it's emotionally taxing, but you're exercising emotion, but it's not. It's not soul draining by any means. To me a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite. I feel like it's those souls that I feel like my souls fed and I feel like that's their spirit giving back to recharge and uplift me in return of honoring them.
00:30:38
Speaker 5: After he was killed, I sank into a dark depression. It was scary. Beth was afraid to go to work and leave me home because she thought when she came home I would not be there in the worst sense.
00:30:53
Speaker 8: So I started looking trying to find some way to help us. I knew we had to be away that we could connect with other parents. So I started looking and then I could find the great organizations for spouses and for children, almost nothing for dads. There's a lot for moms, there's very little for dads, and almost nothing for the parents together. So I think in twenty sixteen twenty fifteen, a friend of us said, hey, let's just see if this works. Let's hold it a three day weekend, put the word out, let's see if anybody shows up. And we had forty sets of parents come from across the state and they were like, well, okay, and they all said, we've been looking for this, we can't find any way to connect with other parents. So we did it for a couple more years, and then everybody wanted to come back, and we realized, Okay, if we're going to do this, we need to be a five oh one C three. So we became a five o' one C three and twenty seventeen and we've been doing it ever since. And then three years ago partnered with American Airlines. They donate miles Airline miles, so now we're able to fly parents in from across the country just to come just four days of just connecting and healing and talking about your son and your daughter and just talking to other people who have an idea of your loss, because we said from the very beginning it wasn't just going to be killed in action, it was going to be any loss. If you lost your child who was serving, please come. And those parents struggle even harder than we did, because you get they get the folded flag. We're very sorry for your loss, and that's it. And so we've had a lot of them with similar circumstances come and connect with each other and then that connection lasts, hopefully for the rest of their lives.
00:32:45
Speaker 3: It sounds like you're describing a pretty significant connection with those that are no longer with us on this earthly plane. Do you feel a connection to other members of your community that are also memorializing them.
00:33:01
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, because it is it's a process of connection, you know, And so I feel like it's something that, like I said, I think it's a it's a great opportunity to bring people together because it's one very simple, common purpose for that one thing, and it's not difficult to do. Like it's not you're not you're not trying to resolve the theory of relativity, right, it's not extremely taxing when it comes to brain power, it's fairly simple. So yeah, there's a lot of connection throughout that evolution, which which is great and I think that attributes to the soul food of the whole process.
00:33:51
Speaker 3: Will you talk for a minute about why you choose to use word evolution.
00:33:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, because for me, that's that's what that's what it is, right, It's a there's a beginning, middle, and an end and and then it repeats. But it's not the same every single time. And so for me, you know, that's indicative of an evolution is you're evolving through the process and it's different every single year. You know, I learned things every single year, and not just about individuals or new people or meet family members of the fallen, which I do every single year, but it's it is definitely evolving. Like from the beginning of the first time I experienced Memorial Day at the age where I was mentally mature enough to understand what it was to now has been a different evolution every single year up to this point. And so that's why I use that word is because it's a it's a learning curve every single time. And I think it's impot gospel to not learn while you evolved.
00:35:09
Speaker 1: One tribe is proud to have founded the Silent Midnight March, where we come together as a tribe and kick off Memorial Day actually at midnight by walking around six miles in silence. The only thing you'll hear is the clinging of the dog tags on Terry Burgess's backpack.
00:35:30
Speaker 3: Last final thing, would you tell me about what you're literally carrying?
00:35:34
Speaker 8: Sure?
00:35:34
Speaker 7: The backpack and everything.
00:35:36
Speaker 5: So every year at carry the Load, I have a backpack and it has the six names, has my son's name, Brian, and the five names of the soldiers that were killed with Brian that same morning. So the backpack has the names of the of the sixth fallen on it. And then it also has I don't know dozens of dog tags and metals from various events that Beth and I have attended where we can talk about Brian and his brothers, And it has some of the challenge coins that we've clicked over the years. And on top of the pack, I have a pair of shoes. My daughter in law said she found a pair of Brian's old sneakers. He loved to run. He loved to walk, he loved to hike. So she said, you want his shoes? I said sure, But the thing was he had tiny feet. My feet are a little bit bigger than his. So I strapped him onto the top of my backpack and I just been a little sign on said my son's shoes, and I'm carrying my son's shoes. And we've had it here several years at Carry the Load. We've taken it to the Baton Memorial Death March at White Sands and walked the honor fourteen miles with it there. We've had it at Fort Campbell and it's always emotional to me to have somebody stop me and they say can I touch the shoes? Absolutely? Yeah. So it's kind of a backpack memorial.
00:37:19
Speaker 3: Like Carry the Load itself. This two part series is an evolution, and next week we conclude our story in a much different place than where it started. I want to thank Don Nowin and the Burgesses for hopping on the mic with me and joining the show.
00:37:40
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the Good Stuff.
00:37:43
Speaker 1: If you appreciate this show, please subscribe, like, and review The Good Stuff podcast, and connect with us on social media.
00:37:49
Speaker 2: We love hearing from you, so please reach out for our website. Our links and contact information is in the show notes of this episode.
00:37:56
Speaker 3: And it would mean the world to us if you shared this episode with the people in your life who might also enjoy it. We'll be back next week, but in the meantime, if you're looking for a companion piece of this episode, please check out our episode A Yellow Rose Never Dies with Judy Littlefield from season one.
00:38:11
Speaker 2: Put on your badass capes and go be great today and remember you can't do epic things without epic people.
00:38:17
Speaker 1: Again, thank you for listening to the good Stuff.
00:38:26
Speaker 3: The Good Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Shick, Jacob Shick and Leah Pictures, Hosted by Ashley Shick, Jacob Shick, and Nick Cassolini. Produced by Nick Cassolini, Engineering, editing and post production supervision by Nick Cassolini. Music by Will Tendy.
Speaker 1: Welcome the season two of The Good Stuff. I'm Ashley Schick, and I'm joined by my husband and co host, Jacob Schick, a third generation combat marine and CEO of One Tribe Foundation.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: Ashley also comes from a family rich in military history, and we've dedicated our lives to One Tribes, mission serving veterans, first responders, and their families. We're coming to you from Dallas, so welcome to Texas.
00:00:22
Speaker 1: And joining us all season long from Los Angeles, California is our West Coast long haired friend and producer of The Good Stuff, Nick Cassolini.
00:00:30
Speaker 3: What's up, guys, Welcome to the first episode of a two part series about Carry the Load, speaking simply, Carry the Load is a huge Memorial Day event that culminates here in Dallas, Texas, and, as you'll discover over the course of these episodes, its significance is truly monumental to the people who participate, from active duty military to veterans, to family members and spouses of those who lost their lives serving this country, to the random civilian just checking it out. Carry the Load is truly a one of a kind way to spend Memoria a day, weekend.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: The care of the load evolution happens every May or Memorial May, as we call it, and so this episode is probably gonna drop who knows when, but probably nowhere near Memorial May. And we don't care that it's oh well, it's not May. We don't give We honor and remember the legacies of these men and women and their families every single day. It doesn't take a day that that our government designates, okay, today you need to honor.
00:01:29
Speaker 4: Remember.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: No, we don't give two dams. It is what it is, and it still means so much to us. Whether it drops in May or it drops in October, it has the absolute same meaning to us. We would encourage all of our listeners that listen to this in a time that is not Memorial May to just take it at face value and listen to it and then internalize it, because I promise you it'll make an impact if you really really dig into it. Don't let that get in the way of your intellectual mobility, please.
00:02:04
Speaker 3: Jake, thank you very much for that. For our beautiful listeners out there. This is just a quick heads up. This show can explore some heavy subject matter, including talks of suicide, so listener discretion is advised.
00:02:16
Speaker 1: We couldn't be happier.
00:02:17
Speaker 2: You're here again. Welcome to the good stuff, Jake.
00:02:25
Speaker 3: Mister Jacob Shick, I'd love to hear in your words from your heart, what Memorial Day is and what it's about.
00:02:33
Speaker 2: Memorial Day is a day to honor and remember all the men and women that gave their lives in service to this country and for the sake of freedom. I think I can go as far to say, like, that's not just what I think, that's what Memorial Day is.
00:02:51
Speaker 1: And there's a big difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Veterans Day is in November. That's a happy day where we think veterans for their service. Memorial Day is an May. That's a day that we honor and remember our fallen.
00:03:03
Speaker 2: And not necessarily it's not a happy day, I mean, but.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: It's a day of remembrance. James Sex.
00:03:13
Speaker 5: Here today.
00:03:19
Speaker 6: Once again.
00:03:19
Speaker 2: We want to welth have everyone to be carried the Load our Dallas Memorial of Artsy five.
00:03:30
Speaker 7: I was so excited to have everybody.
00:03:32
Speaker 3: Here today, Ashley. Will you tell me what carry the Load is.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: Carry the Load is an incredible event that was founded fourteen years ago that really allows individuals, whether they're civilians or gold Star families or veterans, first responders, law enforcement officers and their families to come together and truly honor and celebrate and remember our fallen. It's what that day and that month was intended for. And it is a purpose filled, soul feeding event that brings like minded individuals together to honor and remember the sacrifice of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.
00:04:11
Speaker 3: And what are some of the actual nuts and bolts of what people do at carry the load?
00:04:16
Speaker 1: You know? The idea is that you come together to carry the load for them because they can no longer carry it for us. They've paid the ultimate price and it was expensive, but we walk to honor and remember them. Some people carry rocksacks, some people carry mementos in their backpack or on their backpack. Some people carry stones with you know, those that they've lost, names inside of them. You know. It is a great event culminating in Dallas at Reversham Park where they have the bounce houses and the food trucks and the field of flags for each of those that have lost their life, as well as the storyboards that line the trail on Katie trail in each each of those storyboards telling the story of a life of a family, of generations of people who were affected by their service and their sacrifice.
00:05:08
Speaker 7: Without further ado, mister Clint Bruce.
00:05:14
Speaker 4: Well, good afternoon, and I know we're chomping at the bit getting ready to go, but I just wanted to tell you. I was standing in the back and then Steven asked me to come up here. And I'm so proud every time I get a chance to do this because Steven and I and some of these early members can remember when the week before the very first Carry the Load, it was about forty eight people had signed up in thirty seven of them were related to Steven, and uh, he's got a big family. That would have been the whole family. But to see where it is now.
00:05:40
Speaker 6: My name is Don Nunn, formerly staffs are in the United States Marine Corps. I am a founding member of One Tried Foundation formerly known as twenty two Kill. We have been involved with Terry the Load for over ten years now.
00:05:57
Speaker 4: One of my favorite things about this, and maybe hard for you to tell it because you're out there, but about eighty percent of the men and women here great American citizens, maybe only twenty twenty five percent of people here are veterans, and one of the reasons the veterans get up says, we think people don't care that we lost our friends. But I promise you it is impossible for you to continue to think that if you simply look around.
00:06:18
Speaker 1: So to the.
00:06:19
Speaker 4: Seventy eighty per great American citizens that have come out here to let us know that you care that we missed our friends, and that you want us to know about the people you miss too. You have to know the healing that begins with you. So thank you.
00:06:34
Speaker 2: Now.
00:06:34
Speaker 6: In the beginning, it just made sense. I'm a marine, I've got brothers that I've lost that I've served with it. It just made sense for me to go out here and remember them and honor them. After the first few years, I started losing my own friends and brothers to suicide, and that's when Memorial Day really really changed for me.
00:06:59
Speaker 7: Please remove non religious head gear, had your heart allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States.
00:07:08
Speaker 3: Of America, intuity public for which it stands one issue under God, as Memorial Day just changed for you over the years.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: Yes, In short, I'm for the most part I'm I'm less angry. There's still times there's been a couple of years where I do just I get I wouldn't even say angry. In the beginning, I was angry, But over the last few years, I find myself some some years where I'm just frustrated because I feel like our country just doesn't do enough to remember my dead brothers and sisters, and that can be inherently frustrating for me. Yeah, we can do better. We can do better on honoring those men and women and remembering them because they're not just numbers. They're human beings, and they have families, and they had very close friends, and their tentacles stretched far and wide. So I'm a lot better with it now, But that that was from a lot of work that's gone into it, because it's unfair of me to think or to expect the rest of the country to feel the way I feel when we have completely different life experiences on this one day. Now, that said, I do wholeheartedly believe that we can do better on that day a few years later.
00:08:44
Speaker 6: You know, I've got a fifteen year old daughter that's sitting right over there, and she was eight at the time. You know, she was eight at the time, and you know, she would she wanted to come out and see what Daddy did on Memorial Day, you know, every single year, because he would disappear for a couple of days. And you know, because I'm out here with with my tribe, and she wanted to be a part of it. And I brought her out, and she wanted to stay the night with us, you know, and she wanted to walk with us. And you know, there was this moment where I would I would take her, you know, when everything's kind of died down throughout the night, because but what I would do with her, you know, I waited till till nightfall, you know, when when a lot of people went home for the night. I took her out at night and I would walk the trail with her, and we would walk and we'd look at all the memorials that Carrie the Load puts up on the trail and we read them. And you know, and my daughter was eight at the time. You know, I didn't really know if or knew is she really understood what Memorial Day was about. But we got home the next day after everything wrapped up, and she she just out of the blue. Drew me this picture and I still have it, you know, of this cross and and a flag and and and and us it was us walking on the trail and and uh it in her eight year old mind, you know that she was able to express to me what she she felt, what what Memorial did was about it, and that another way, in another way change what care the load was about. For me, you know, it reminded me that it's my job, my duty to instill upon the future, you know, of of our nation, that to remind them that what what this day is actually about, you know. And so so now you know, I've got my whole family out here, and we walk and we remember and we honor you, you know, and and and I have no doubt that my kids, you know, from my fifteen year old daughter now to my my ten year old boy now, that that that they they know what Memorial Day is about.
00:10:56
Speaker 3: It took a.
00:10:57
Speaker 4: Stage retired general whole fun not.
00:11:03
Speaker 7: Me, ladies and gentlemen. I just want to explain this hap a Troop, first Squadron, ninth the Cavalry. I'm wearing it for all my guys from that unit from Vietnam days. If we got any Vietnam vets out there, all right.
00:11:17
Speaker 4: Good good. I'll just tell you, for.
00:11:22
Speaker 7: Those vets, give them a special hug, a little pat on the back, because they didn't get anything like this when they came home.
00:11:29
Speaker 4: I promise you that it was not a good thing.
00:11:32
Speaker 7: The second thing I'd say is there are a lot of young people here, including the folks running this effort, and and that young group of Scouts have came here and presented the colors, and I see more young people here, and.
00:11:45
Speaker 2: I think we're not in any trouble.
00:11:48
Speaker 4: We got great young people in this country. And I really believe that.
00:11:52
Speaker 2: I mean, you.
00:11:53
Speaker 7: Guys are the country.
00:11:56
Speaker 3: So when you do it, actually, do you carry someone specific? Do you carry the weight of many? Do you carry the idea?
00:12:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean all of the above. Each year for me, because I've done it thirteen years now, this will be my thirteenth.
00:12:12
Speaker 2: You know.
00:12:12
Speaker 1: Each year for me, I've actually decided to pick a different person to kind of honor, just because I know it would mean a lot to their family members. So I've carried my grandfather though the past few years. My grandfather was twenty four years old when he was killed in a training incident in Fairbanks, Alaska and my mom was two at the time. Her father was Lieutenant Larry Dwayne Voss. He was a pilot and he was co piloting a T thirty three jet and Fairbanks and they crashed. Unfortunately, he was buried shortly thereafter at Presidio in San Francisco. And I'm blessed to have a mother that, even though she's a gold Star daughter, and back in the nineteen fifties when you know, there really wasn't a lot of support or resources for gold Star families. Blessed to have a mother that raised us to be patriotic and to really be hyper aware of what this weekend and what Memorial Day is all about. And so I've been carrying Larry and you know, it's it. Jake alluded to it. But for each and every individual that loses their life, whether it be in action in the line of duty, in training, or by their own hand, for each and every one of them, you know, it affects generations of people, myself included. And my mom being so young when her father was killed, I was always really interested in him and his story, and I found out some amazing things about him. I think one of the greatest compliments I ever received in my life. Was my great uncle Bunner one time told me that I reminded him of my grandfather. And here's this man that I never knew, you know, two generations removed that my mom never really knew because she was so young when he perished. But you know, to me, it's an honor, and to me it's a privilege to be able to carry him and to speak his name and about all the accomplishments that he did.
00:14:02
Speaker 6: You know, when every time every year I come out here and you ask me who I'm carrying, you know, I will always tell you that I am carrying my friend Ben Adams, that I'm carrying my friend Stephen Jackal, that I'm carrying one of my friend's friends that I've never met, you know, but actually has a place in my heart. And you'll see his postport as soon as you walk out those gates. And his name is Sergeant Andrew Davis. You know that's I know of him through a friend that I met the first time. First year I was out here doing care of the load. I met this girl, this woman named Katie, and she introduced me to who Sergeant Andrew Davis is and who he he was and how he died, you know, and uh, you know, it's one of those moments that I always remember that that it was kind of a reality check that that reminded me exactly what and why we're out here. And you know, all those names, unfortunately that I named the sergeant Andrew Davis, Ben Adams, Stephen Jackal, you know, they all died by suicide. And those are names that that are very very personal to me. And and and I yes, when you ask me who I'm caring those are? Will we always been the first names out of my mouth.
00:15:41
Speaker 3: We need to take a quick commercial break, but we've got a lot more with Jake and Ashley and a lot more from the heart of the event itself. Stick around, welcome back. Before we introduce you to a few new people here, I am with Jake and Ashley. Jake, over the years, specifically, how important has carried the load been to you?
00:16:16
Speaker 2: I would say that, you know, over the years, carry those has been paramount to my healing process and it's it's really helped me heal through my own growth. But the countless other people that I've met who have sustained tremendous loss through their growth. It's been a beautiful thing to be able to hel together with a bunch of people because of the same reason, you know, because loss is loss is loss, just like pain is pain is pain. It's all relative. It doesn't really matter what leads up to it or how it happens. I mean, the end result is what makes it all relative, and that to me over the years has been invaluable, and not only my healing process, but just my life process. I mean, it's that I could say with certainty that it has been. It's had a tremendous impact on making me a more effective husband, father, leader. It's helped in every aspect and especially when done correctly, meaning you know, devoid of predominantly alcohol and drugs like it, you know, because that was a suppression mechanism that I utilized for the first number of years that I did it. But it's yeah, it's been. It's been an invaluable part of my healing process every year since I've done it, even when I was not sober. I mean, it does have a huge impact and some of the coolest parts of it that I've been able to bear witness to or even the people that, yeah, I know, I never served. I don't really know anybody that's served. I just heard about this and figured i'd come check it out to see how much it impacts those people and how they leave a completely different person than they showed up. Is that to me? Is I mean that you can't put a price point on that, you know, because they they show up not really understanding, and then after a mere number of hours, they leave completely getting it.
00:18:23
Speaker 4: Now, please welcome the first Cavalry Division band who will lead us in the national level.
00:18:45
Speaker 3: So Muriel, my wife, and I are included in that lucky group of first timers showing up to carry the load. Twenty twenty five, we flew down to Dallas to stay with you guys and to experience it. Jake, unfortunately you are not joining this year, and I am wondering if you're comfortable talking a little bit about what's keeping you home this year.
00:19:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, you know, I've been dealing with some health stuff and astal and I went to the doctor and they think that I have a blood clot and my residual limb or my stomp, and so I can't wear my prosthetic. So I'm basically wheelchair bound for the next number of weeks trying to get that to dissolve on its own, and not only that, it's just I've been very low on energy and kind of lethargic, and so actually when I came to the conclusion that it's probably just best for my physical, mental emotional health to sit this one out and cheer on everybody from home, which is tough. You know, it's the first one I've missed in fourteen years, and so it is what it is. It's just one of those things that you know, it sucks, but I've got to make sure I take care of me in order to take care of others, and so it's a bummer, but it is what it is.
00:20:18
Speaker 3: Jake. For people that aren't familiar with you and your story, would you describe the injuries you sustained while you were in Iraq?
00:20:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got blown up on a react mission. Our hum V got hit and blew me out of the hum V. I ended up having an amputation below the knee of my right leg, multiple compound fractures and my left left leg, compound fractures in my left arm, lost five inches of my ulna bone in my left arm, part of my left hand, essentially my fourth and fifth digit metacarpals, my fifth digit completely, meaning Pinky broke my ribs, a shrapnel throughout my body and my neck, chin and face, some burns, and a traumatic brain injury because I landed on my head.
00:21:19
Speaker 3: Given that, Carrie, the lotus played such a vital part in your healing over the years, and you were denied that this year, how did you deal with that? What did did you do? Something in solitude?
00:21:30
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:21:31
Speaker 2: What I did was I just focused on being grateful that I was had the ability to still be here and feel like shit, There's a lot of men and women that don't have that ability, and I focused on the gratitude of that fact that, hey, at least I'm here. I still get to hug and kiss my wife and hug and kiss my boys. Yeah, so that's what I focused on, is at least I'm alive to fill discomfort because they can't even fill that.
00:22:09
Speaker 8: My name is Beth Burgess, and Hi, I'm Terry Burgess. Carry the load to me means that Brian is not forgotten, that people remember that, especially the farther we get from the war. It's easy to think that people have forgotten, but then you come to event like this, and you know that there's still a lot of people and we have a lot of love and support.
00:22:30
Speaker 2: Terry and Elizabeth are the epitome of what it means to be patriotic Americans. And they lost her son, Brian, who died conducting combat operations in the army in Afghanistan. And it has been an absolute honor for me. And I know I can speak for Ashley when I say this. Getting to meet and know the Burgesses has been an absolute highlight of my life.
00:23:00
Speaker 5: To me, Carry the Load is uh, it's it's people. I just saw Doug Peterson walking past, really good friend of ours. You look up, there's the posters of the fallen soldiers, and it is it's it's more than just Memorial Day. It is a it is a memorial and it it helps us understand. Like Bess said, you know, we don't carry that weight alone. When we lost Brian, our son, we thought it was just going to kill us. We thought we were all alone in this. Nobody cared, nobody wanted to hear the stories, nobody wanted to listen. And then we find organizations like Carry the Load. They encourage you to tell your stories, they encourage you to share your sons, your daughter's stories, your own personal journey, and you understand that pain in your heart while it's still hurts, these people share that pain. You can you can share your story with them without them giving you that weird glazed look in their eyes, you know, like I don't want to hear this, I don't want to listen to this, but they will listen with tears in their eyes and then you get a big old hug. We just got a big hug from Clint Bruce.
00:24:18
Speaker 2: You know.
00:24:19
Speaker 5: It was a freaking amazing every time we come out here. So that's that's what carry the load is to us. It is it's family, it's friends, it's sharing, its understanding, and it's healing.
00:24:34
Speaker 2: How I memorialize the dead has definitely changed also over the years, because before it would be you know, I'd go to the bar and I get hammered in honor of someone. Well, that's completely counterintuitive to the greater good. And how I memorialize the dead is by trying to live well every single day, not just on Memorial Day, but every day. And that means right things, right reasons, you know, and God will take care of the rest like that. I definitely try. I'm actively trying to be a better human being every day in honor of those who can't, which in turn helps me. Doesn't mean I don't have bad days, of course I do. Everybody does. But I feel like that's the only way to truly memorialize them is to live well every single day. And then you have these special occasions like Memorial Day or the day this man or woman was lost in service to the nation, that you can do something special on that day to honor the way they live, not the way they died. And I think that those things are vital to keeping legacies alive for those that will come after us. So that's ultimately what I do is I try live wall every single day.
00:26:02
Speaker 5: So our son, Staff Sergeant Brian Burgess, he really was the all American boy he had. He enjoyed sports. He played soccer from a very young age, and he played football, baseball, and he was really good at it, and he had a charisma about him. He was a natural leader, you could tell from an early age. We went on a train trip to Arkansas to visit my parents and took the kids with us, Brian and Brandy, his sister, was with us. On the train, well, Brian got up and he went, you know, to explore the train. Five minutes later he comes back past. There's a herd of kids following him, like, what are you collecting? Children? What are you doing? But they just naturally followed him around. And we saw that in his sports, We saw that with his leadership in the army. We talked to his captain and he said, we had our eye on Sergeant Burge just because he had that special balance. He had that love for his family, and then he had that love for his men, and his men felt that and they literally followed him into Hell on that March twenty ninth, twenty eleven. But we learned a lot of stories about Brian from his men. Stories we wouldn't that, you know, Brian probably wouldn't have told us. But he was an extraordinary soldier. He was an extraordinary son, a brother, husband, father, the father he was. He was a treasure to us. And when that treasure's taken away, you feel like a part of you is taken away and you don't think you can ever get it back. But yes, and through his men and his men's love for Brian, that that pain has decreased so much. It's turned into honor. It's turned into respect and honor for my son. And I've told several people that I say, Okay, it's kind of weird when your son becomes inspiration to the parent, but he did.
00:28:22
Speaker 3: We're going to pause here for the last commercial break of the episode and we'll be right back. All right, everyone, we're back now, let's check in with Jake. Is Memorial Day itself a taxing day emotionally for you?
00:28:46
Speaker 2: It can be, Yeah, it definitely can be, because you know, we have a routine. We have a routine that we do every year and which consists of going to a couple of different semits and paying respects to multiple people. And usually with the month of May, it's emotionally taxing for me. And it's more so because it's you know, I'm so deep in it every single day. But at the same time too, like I'm trying to pour myself into other lots of other people to even not even get on the same plane I'm on, but like just to even get in somewhat to the same universe. And it takes a lot because everybody's busy with life, their jobs, their families, their kids' extracurricular activities and just trying to do the best they can to get by with what they've got right now, and so it's it is emotionally taxing, but I wouldn't change it. I wouldn't change it. I'm definitely not complaining about it, because it's like I said, I I'm reminded every day, not just in May or Memorial Day that, regardless of how are what I'm feeling, every one of those men or women I'm sure would give anything to feel that way one more time. I mean, of course it's emotionally taxing, but you're exercising emotion, but it's not. It's not soul draining by any means. To me a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite. I feel like it's those souls that I feel like my souls fed and I feel like that's their spirit giving back to recharge and uplift me in return of honoring them.
00:30:38
Speaker 5: After he was killed, I sank into a dark depression. It was scary. Beth was afraid to go to work and leave me home because she thought when she came home I would not be there in the worst sense.
00:30:53
Speaker 8: So I started looking trying to find some way to help us. I knew we had to be away that we could connect with other parents. So I started looking and then I could find the great organizations for spouses and for children, almost nothing for dads. There's a lot for moms, there's very little for dads, and almost nothing for the parents together. So I think in twenty sixteen twenty fifteen, a friend of us said, hey, let's just see if this works. Let's hold it a three day weekend, put the word out, let's see if anybody shows up. And we had forty sets of parents come from across the state and they were like, well, okay, and they all said, we've been looking for this, we can't find any way to connect with other parents. So we did it for a couple more years, and then everybody wanted to come back, and we realized, Okay, if we're going to do this, we need to be a five oh one C three. So we became a five o' one C three and twenty seventeen and we've been doing it ever since. And then three years ago partnered with American Airlines. They donate miles Airline miles, so now we're able to fly parents in from across the country just to come just four days of just connecting and healing and talking about your son and your daughter and just talking to other people who have an idea of your loss, because we said from the very beginning it wasn't just going to be killed in action, it was going to be any loss. If you lost your child who was serving, please come. And those parents struggle even harder than we did, because you get they get the folded flag. We're very sorry for your loss, and that's it. And so we've had a lot of them with similar circumstances come and connect with each other and then that connection lasts, hopefully for the rest of their lives.
00:32:45
Speaker 3: It sounds like you're describing a pretty significant connection with those that are no longer with us on this earthly plane. Do you feel a connection to other members of your community that are also memorializing them.
00:33:01
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, because it is it's a process of connection, you know, And so I feel like it's something that, like I said, I think it's a it's a great opportunity to bring people together because it's one very simple, common purpose for that one thing, and it's not difficult to do. Like it's not you're not you're not trying to resolve the theory of relativity, right, it's not extremely taxing when it comes to brain power, it's fairly simple. So yeah, there's a lot of connection throughout that evolution, which which is great and I think that attributes to the soul food of the whole process.
00:33:51
Speaker 3: Will you talk for a minute about why you choose to use word evolution.
00:33:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, because for me, that's that's what that's what it is, right, It's a there's a beginning, middle, and an end and and then it repeats. But it's not the same every single time. And so for me, you know, that's indicative of an evolution is you're evolving through the process and it's different every single year. You know, I learned things every single year, and not just about individuals or new people or meet family members of the fallen, which I do every single year, but it's it is definitely evolving. Like from the beginning of the first time I experienced Memorial Day at the age where I was mentally mature enough to understand what it was to now has been a different evolution every single year up to this point. And so that's why I use that word is because it's a it's a learning curve every single time. And I think it's impot gospel to not learn while you evolved.
00:35:09
Speaker 1: One tribe is proud to have founded the Silent Midnight March, where we come together as a tribe and kick off Memorial Day actually at midnight by walking around six miles in silence. The only thing you'll hear is the clinging of the dog tags on Terry Burgess's backpack.
00:35:30
Speaker 3: Last final thing, would you tell me about what you're literally carrying?
00:35:34
Speaker 8: Sure?
00:35:34
Speaker 7: The backpack and everything.
00:35:36
Speaker 5: So every year at carry the Load, I have a backpack and it has the six names, has my son's name, Brian, and the five names of the soldiers that were killed with Brian that same morning. So the backpack has the names of the of the sixth fallen on it. And then it also has I don't know dozens of dog tags and metals from various events that Beth and I have attended where we can talk about Brian and his brothers, And it has some of the challenge coins that we've clicked over the years. And on top of the pack, I have a pair of shoes. My daughter in law said she found a pair of Brian's old sneakers. He loved to run. He loved to walk, he loved to hike. So she said, you want his shoes? I said sure, But the thing was he had tiny feet. My feet are a little bit bigger than his. So I strapped him onto the top of my backpack and I just been a little sign on said my son's shoes, and I'm carrying my son's shoes. And we've had it here several years at Carry the Load. We've taken it to the Baton Memorial Death March at White Sands and walked the honor fourteen miles with it there. We've had it at Fort Campbell and it's always emotional to me to have somebody stop me and they say can I touch the shoes? Absolutely? Yeah. So it's kind of a backpack memorial.
00:37:19
Speaker 3: Like Carry the Load itself. This two part series is an evolution, and next week we conclude our story in a much different place than where it started. I want to thank Don Nowin and the Burgesses for hopping on the mic with me and joining the show.
00:37:40
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the Good Stuff.
00:37:43
Speaker 1: If you appreciate this show, please subscribe, like, and review The Good Stuff podcast, and connect with us on social media.
00:37:49
Speaker 2: We love hearing from you, so please reach out for our website. Our links and contact information is in the show notes of this episode.
00:37:56
Speaker 3: And it would mean the world to us if you shared this episode with the people in your life who might also enjoy it. We'll be back next week, but in the meantime, if you're looking for a companion piece of this episode, please check out our episode A Yellow Rose Never Dies with Judy Littlefield from season one.
00:38:11
Speaker 2: Put on your badass capes and go be great today and remember you can't do epic things without epic people.
00:38:17
Speaker 1: Again, thank you for listening to the good Stuff.
00:38:26
Speaker 3: The Good Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Shick, Jacob Shick and Leah Pictures, Hosted by Ashley Shick, Jacob Shick, and Nick Cassolini. Produced by Nick Cassolini, Engineering, editing and post production supervision by Nick Cassolini. Music by Will Tendy.
