https://www.listennotes.com/e/8011f16c8c8d4c4fbe71ae39d750d350

Get ready to find your recipe for a successful real estate lifestyle from America's top experts here at Greenlight REI with your host, Lance Edwards.

Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to this edition of Greenlight rei. I got a super, super special edition this week about not so much about real estate, but about those members of our citizens and citizenry which make it possible for us to do everything that we do. And my special guest is Mr. Dave Winters, who's president of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Intrepid is one of the premier nonprofits that helps serve our active military, particularly those have been injured, which we talking about that. So we're speaking to today here about all the great work that Intrepid does. I will tell you personally, this is my favorite cause. We've done a lot of work in supporting Intrepid, and by the time we finish here, I hope that you'll see fit to help support them as well. So, Mr. Dave Winters, welcome. Welcome to the podcast.

Thanks so much for having me back. It's a. It's an honor and it's great to see you. And thank you for all you've done. You've done a great deal for us. I really, really, really do appreciate that.

Well, thank you. Thank you, Dave. It's our pleasure. So let's start off. We have peak. Some people may be familiar with interrupt. But some people may not be familiar with Intrepid yet.

But.

So let's start here. Dave, can you explain what is the mission of Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund?

Sure. Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. We're a national nonprofit organization. Our grand mission is supporting the men and women of the armed forces and their families. Our specific project right now is we're building a series of treatment centers for service members suffering from traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress. As probably a lot of your listeners will know, thousands, hundreds of thousands of service members have suffered these injuries. Obviously, these men and women who serve our nation, so they deserve the best care possible. We, in cooperation with Department of Defense, have created this program to build specially designed centers, especially designed specifically for treating traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress. That's what we're doing.

Intrepid, you build the centers, but you don't operate the centers. Can you explain that? Perhaps?

Correct. We're not doctors, we're not caregivers, you know, and this does have a real estate tie in because we have a lot of screen. We know how to build. So we build these centers at military hospitals, you know, where patients are already being treated. But as a nonprofit organization, we raise the funds to build the centers, and we can do it quickly, and we can do it efficiently. And yes, as you said, once we build the centers, once they're complete and they're fully equipped and ready to go, we then turn them over to the Department of Defense for operation. They become essentially part of the hospital on the base where they're built. And then DOD provides the doctors, the clinicians, the nurses, all the care providers who provide the care in these centers.

I know there's got an interesting history. How did Intrepid get focused on traumatic brain injury, ptsd? How did that come about? Maybe kind of weave in a little bit of a history that led up to that, Dave.

Okay. Yeah. And please, you know, feel free to. I can. I can go on and on about this, so if I start going too long, just give me the hook. It's okay. But we began operations way back in 2000, and we continued the work of a great American whose name was Zachary Fisher. He's since deceased, but he initiated a whole bunch of efforts to support the men and women in the Air Force. He loved the men and women in the armed forces. He became successful in life in real estate here in New York. Actually, Fisher Brothers is a big real estate company here in New York. He was one of the founder. He and his brothers founded that company. But he dedicated his life and a lot of his fortune to supporting those who served and sacrificed for our nation. When he passed away in 1999, some of his family and some others who knew him and were friends said we should try to continue some of those efforts. One of the really wonderful efforts he had created, spearheaded was providing immediate grants to families of service members who were lost in performance of their duty. Now, this was back in the 1980s and 1990s. We weren't involved. This was before 9, 11. Our nation hadn't been involved in the conflicts that they have been involved that we've been involved in in the last 20 years. But we still lose service members. You lose service members in training, you lose service members in small, limited engagement. I remember some Coast Guardsmen were lost during a rescue at sea. So that's, you know, that, you know, those men and women are serving our nation, and they're lost just like anybody who might have been lost in combat. And he would provide immediate contributions of $25,000 to each of those families without question and without any application, without any form. And the sole purpose was you've just lost somebody, you know, a father, a mother, a brother, sister, a son or daughter, maybe. That person was the breadwinner. And I don't want money to be one of your worries right now. You got plenty of other things to worry about. So he would just send his check. It was a really, really wonderful program. So when he passed away in 2000, you know, in 1999, again, some. Some of his family and friends sort of continued that program, and we eventually turned that into the Intrepid Farm Heroes Fund.

And. Okay, so, and so, and then how did the focus on traumatic brain injury as opposed to, you know, any kind of, you know, loss or injury, how did, how did that focus come about?

Right. Well, again, I said we started that program in 20. Of course, 9, 11, 2001 came about, and then in 2003, we got involved in Iraq. So unfortunately, that efforts for supporting fallen service members, that need became much greater. Very fortunately, we were able to meet that need just through the donations of many thousands of Americans. In those early years, we were able to raise funds and give grants to. It's been a long time. I don't remember the numbers now, but we probably gave about $20 million in grants to families of service members who are lost. But in 2005, Congress substantially increased the government's. They call it the death gratuity, but the funds that the government would give to a family when they lost somebody in combat. And they also increased the service members group life insurance, which is essentially the military life insurance program. So both those programs were increased substantially, so those families were now being much better taken care of. So our organization sat back and said, okay, that needs now really being met. It wasn't being met before, so we were filling a need, but now that need seems to be much, much, you know, it seems to be filled now. So what can we do? Well, we were. A lot of service members were being. Were being injured. And you remember back, you know, in the mid, you know, in Iraq and Afghanistan, you heard about the roadside bombs, the IEDs, the improvised explosive devices that were blowing up vehicles and injured service members. American military medicine is fantastic. It's great. And a lot more of these men and women were surviving those injuries in combat, but they were surviving with terrible wounds, with amputations, with damaged limbs, with all sorts of injuries. So we said, we need to help those men and women. Now, of course, these men and women were being served by military facilities, but we said, there are a whole lot of amputation injuries coming from this war. So we got together with DoD leadership and said, we, you know, we're nonprofit. We can raise funds and we can build because we had a lot of builders, you know, on our. On our board. Let's build a facility specifically for these. These men and women suffering specifically amputation injuries and severe burn injuries and limb salvage injuries. Limb salvage is essentially, you have a limb that's so damaged, you might be better off with amputating and using a prosthetic, because that might actually give you more mobility than retaining this damaged limb. But it's better to try to save the limb and get the mobility back. That's limb salvage. That's saving a limb. We raised $55 million and built a facility called the center for the Intrepid. This is down at Brooke Army Medical center in San Antonio, Texas. That facility opened in 2007 and still growing strong and is providing amazing care for these service members suffering severe burn, amputation, or limb salvage injuries. Say we finished that center and we were back where we were before. Now what do we do by that time, around 2008? And again, Lance, you'll recall, and I'm sure a lot of your listeners will recall, traumatic brain injury really started becoming a big issue then. It was becoming much more. The injury has always been there. It was becoming much more publicly known. And these are injuries which are much, much more complicated to treat than limb injuries or soft tissue injuries of the type that are being treated in the center for the Intrepid in San Antonio. It takes a lot of expertise. Of course, there was care being provided for these service members, but there weren't any facilities specifically designed for providing that care. Again, we got together with DoD leadership, Department of Defense leadership, and said, we can help in this area. So together we developed this plan. Let's build. We started out with one. Let's build one facility designed for research and diagnosis and treatment of specifically a traumatic brain injury. So again, we raised the funds. That one totaled about $60 million. It's called the National Intrepid center of Excellence, and we built it on the grounds of Walter Reed National Military Medical center right outside Washington, D.C. in Bethesda. That facility opened in 2010, and it, too was still going strong, leading in research and treatment, again, specifically for traumatic brain injury. We then said, again together with Department of Defense leadership, well, we have this center now, but there's again, hundreds of thousands of service members all over the country suffering these injuries. Let's expand this care to more places. We then struck on the, on the, on the program. It's called the Intrepid Spirit center program. We build Intrepid Spirit centers. These are centers just like that. That first facility in Bethesda that are specifically designed for treating traumatic brain injury. So we're building a series of 10 of these centers and military bases all across the country. We've already opened nine. So, you know, this, this project is, you know, and we've got one more to go. So it's been, it's been going successfully. You know, the first of these Centers opened in 2013. We've opened, you know, roughly one a year since then. And, and, and they're providing these centers again. Same, same, same program. We raise the funds, we build the center, and we turn it over to the Department of defense for operation. And their expert, you know, care providers go in and they start providing care. And, and it's been a, it's an amazing program and very, very successful program.

And the thing that struck me, I know we spoke to you, I spoke to you last time, Dave, is that, of course, intentionally you put these center next to bases, as I recall. Correct.

They're on the bases right next to the hospitals.

Yes, but these, these are active. They're still active military personnel. And sometimes they're having these injuries. They don't necessarily know they have the injury because this is playing out in terms of, I don't know, mood swings or ptsd, if I'm correct there. Can you talk about that? And that's where I have it, close to the base.

Yeah, you're right. You're absolutely correct. Two things. One is, yes, we want to serve active duty military personnel because if these injuries go untreated, they can, they can, you know, they can, they can get worse and worse and ultimately, you know, prevent somebody from serving the armed forces. And these men and women, they want to continue. They want to continue service. That's what they're. They live for. That's, that's what they train for. But more important, we want them to have a, you know, we want them to have a productive. A productive life and a happy life. Traumatic brain injury can manifest in all sorts of different ways, as you said, mood swings and memory problems, headaches, you can forget where you are, you can lose concentration. Again, all these things. You can imagine how that might affect your ability to serve in the armed forces or even your ability to just have a normal life. The challenge with traumatic brain neuro is not like, again, the physical injuries being treated in that center for the intrepid in San Antonio. You can see a limb injury, you can see a bullet wound or a shrapnel wound or, or amped it. That's obvious. That's the wound. This is what we have to do to treat it. And you treat it. A brain injury, a traumatic brain injury, it's not visible. You can't just look at a patient and say, all right, I know what your problem is, because it's inside the brain. There's a physical aspect to it, there's a psychological aspect to it. But I actually focus. There really is a physical aspect to it because you can get a concussion. You're in a vehicle that rolls over due to an accident or an explosion, a roadside bomb. You're too close to an explosion, you get a blast wave through you. You're not injured by shrapnel from the expl, but you get rattled, essentially. And this causes a physical injury inside the brain and hard to diagnose. And if you can't diagnose it correctly, you can't treat it correctly. And if you can't treat it correctly, all those problems we're talking about before, the memory loss, the loss of concentration, the mood swings, that getting angry at friends or family, all these sorts of things, they can get worse. And again, it can even get worse from not being able to serve in the armed forces. There are. You can lose the ability to live a normal life. You can lose your job, you can lose your home, you can lose your family. That's tragic now. That is absolutely tragic. These men and women serve our nation. They volunteer to serve, and they serve courageously. And we can't have that happen to them because of an injury. It's not that they've changed their mind or they've changed their attitude. Now I'm just going to go be a rotten person or be a person who can't concentrate or can't focus. It's an injury. Just like being shot in the arm or leg or having shrapnel or any other type of physical injury. These centers are really special. The second part is that there's a very specific model of care that is practiced in these centers. As a matter of fact, the centers are designed around this model of care. It's called the patient centered interdisciplinary model of care, which simply means that all the disciplines involved in treating traumatic brain injury, there's neurology, there's psychology, there's different types of physical therapies. There's speech therapy, There is, you know, nurse practitioners, there's spiritual care. All sorts of. All sorts of. All sorts of different disciplines are involved. Well, no single doctor or care provider know, you know, has all the knowledge of all the disciplines. It takes a bunch of different care providers, but they all Work together in the center together, that's, that's the key. They're not assigned here and there. And the patient goes, he goes to this doctor, the doctor refers to another doctor. That's where they work. They all work together in the center. So when the patient comes in, they can all, all the caregivers can meet the patient, understand what's happening with the patient, provide a diagnosis for the patient, and then provide an executed treatment plan, all right there in that one center. That's what makes this program special. And it's extremely effective. I think since the last time you and I talked, there was an eight year study was conducted by patients being treated at that first center, the National Entrapment center of Excellence, the one at Walter Reed. It showed that this type of care significantly reduced symptoms in seven specific areas of complaint. Things like headaches, things like concentration, things like remember, I don't remember all seven off the top of my head, but seven real measures of how these seven symptoms can affect my life. This treatment showed real scientifically proven reduction in all of those symptoms. So it's a really, really effective means of care. And also over 90% of patients treated in these centers are able to continue their service in the armed forces. And that's the goal, that's what they want. And even more importantly, it can keep their family, it can save their families. If your husband or wife comes back from combat and is changed because of a traumatic brain injury, and if the patient doesn't understand he has his injury, so he doesn't. This happens a lot. A patient will have a traumatic brain injury, but you don't realize you have an injury. Your personality might start changing, but you don't, you don't realize it. The people around you realize it. Your wife or your husband realizes that your parents, your kids may be certainly your colleagues, your colleagues in the armed forces where you work. But if you don't realize, if you don't realize, you yourself, the patient don't realize you have this issue, then you're not going to go get treatment. Having family, having colleagues help refer these patients to our facilities, which are now again at 9. In addition to the one at Bethesda, at Walter Reed, there are now nine of these centers all around the country. This allows them to get that help.

That is, first of all, congratulations on the study where 90%. That's just amazing. That'd be obviously very gratifying too to everyone that supports Intrepid. And I think you guys are like the, I guess you're on the leading edge, basically. Of this treat sounds like with the treatment, in terms of not only the treatment of the interdisciplinary approach of it, but the proximity of putting it right next to their. Basically where they're at the base. So it's a minimal disruption for them to go get treatment and get back to, you know, being active, which they want to be.

Exactly.

So. So I just. Now I got a question. Have other. Now you've done this study. You've seen the. Validated the whole approach. Has this approach been used in other countries? Has it spread out beyond the United States, to your knowledge?

Not to my knowledge, no. We'd also like to spread it in the United States to veterans care, to civilian care. I mean, there's lots of civilians. You can have a car accident and suffer traumatic brain injury. We want that person to get better, too. It's a little bit challenging because even though there's this study that provides. We had anecdotal. We had anecdotal proof of the effectiveness of treatment for many years, but a study really brings it to the next level. This is scientifically rigorous program, but still adapting. This was really revolutionary, this type of care, but adapting that to a larger context is very complicated. Perhaps, perhaps the va. And again, I don't want to speculate or speak for it, but this might be applicable to VA care where, where Veterans Administration doctors are providing care to veterans. It might be harder in the wider civilian world because civilian medical care insurance isn't really designed for providing comprehensive care in one integrative setting like this. That might take some adaptations. Our main focus is keeping these centers up and running and keep military personnel moving through them and getting the care. So. So that we at least are helping that. That core, you know, our key population.

So let me make sure I got it right. So the study showed scientifically, you know, driven by data, 90% reduction rate or 90% improvement rate. What was exactly. What was the 90% factor?

Well, the 90. The 90% factor that comes from data for data from the centers that we've gotten for years, they just, you know, judge their patients and, you know, most patients are able to. To continue their service. I'll note, by the way, that roughly 10% of patients who aren't able to continue their service in the armed forces, not all of that is due to their traumatic brain injury. A number of the patients have other physical injuries also that accompany their traumatic brain injuries. Those other brain. Those other injuries might be what's preventing them from serving. So that 90%, you know, it's. The treatment of brain injury is Actually higher than that, 90%. You know, these, these centers aren't designed to, you know, there's certainly soldiers if they have other injuries that are being helped at the hospital or elsewhere with those other injuries. But that study focused on seven specific areas of. I don't want to say discomfort, because more than that, but seven specific areas of traumatic brain injury impact on a patient. Things like headache or sleep. Sleep disorder was one. There were seven things, and again, forgive me, I just don't remember all seven of them off the top of my head. But the study showed a significant reduction in the impact of all seven of those areas after treatment at our centers. So you might have a high level of sleep disorder. You finish treatment, your sleep disorder is much lower. You're able to get a good night's sleep. That's really important. If you don't get a good night's sleep, that can impact your life in a whole lot of ways. That's just one example. Headache. Imagine going through life with a constant headache or frequent headaches. Reducing that greatly increases the quality of life for the patient. So that's what that, that's what that, that's what that study showed, and that's why it was so, so important. You know, on a, on a scientific level.

You know, I'm thinking off the cuff here, and I. That may be, you know, talking about back to real estate. This may be the most impactful application of real estate or certainly one of the top ones. The fact that kind of impact, I mean, it's a. Putting it next to these bases and have a. That type of impact on people's lives, that's really phenomenal. That's just awesome.

Well, I'll just note it's a wonderful cooperative project between the Department of Defense and the intrepid Fallen Harris Fund as a nonprofit organization, because we're building on military bases, and that's has all sorts of complications. So Department of Defense essentially seeds this plot of land to us, then we can build so we don't have to go through government procurement, procurement process for the building materials and the contractors and all that. We can, you know, we have a very rigorous process of our own, you know, to make sure that these are quality structures and you know, every, every nail, you know, is quality. So, so it's not, it's not normally how a building is built on a military base, but for this program, you know, this is the way we worked it out. And, and again, we worked it out cooperatively with, with, with the, with the Department of Defense. And it's A partnership. They provide the land, they provide the utilities. You know, the base has electricity, water, sewer. The base, usually the Army Corps of Engineers, you know, provide. Extends those. Those. Those facilities to our, you know, our. Our site, and then we take it from there, you know, and dig and build and build and build the structure. So it's a really. It's a really, really wonderful, wonderful partnership. I'll also note that. And again, you know, you know a lot more about real estate than I do. But the contractors we work with, and we work generally with different contractors in each base, they love this project because everybody knows somebody who has served. Maybe they have family members who serve. And when they, you know, they bid, you know, when they. We bid the projects out. But when, you know, when they. When they learn about what's. What it's really about, they do. They kind of go the extra mile for us. We've had some of our contractors. We were. Turner Construction, you know, I'll drop in. Turner Construction has been the construction manager for a number of our projects on Colorado. The newest center at Fort Carson, we just opened earlier this year. Well, Turner Construction had their annual. Their Colorado area had their annual fundraising golf tournament, and they gave the proceeds to the Intrepid fallen Harris Fund. $50,000, which they don't have to do. They can support other charities. But by working on a project, they became so close to it. They wanted to do more, which I thought was really, really wonderful. And we've seen that everywhere. We've seen that at all the locations that we build. So it's not. It's not. You're not. You're not fighting your contract and arguing with them. They love the project, they want to help, and they'll give extra to it. So that's really. That's just. We weren't expecting that, but it was wonderful to see, and we've seen it all over. So that's just kind of a nice little extra as we are talking about real estate.

Yeah, I know it's very. I mean, especially if everybody wants to help. So my next question is. And you kind of mentioned the anecdotal. I know there's. I know there's a number of stories on the Intrepid website about our active military who have benefited. I don't put you on the spot, but is there a story that comes to mind of, you know, a person that was benefited, you know, kind of the before and after, what that meant to them? And if not, I, you know.

Oh, sure, there. There are a couple. I'll try to Be brief, but one is. I'm thinking about one guy. His name was Pete. This is a number of years ago, but he was a Navy seal. Okay, so definitely not a slacker. The guy was just multiple deployments in both Afghanistan and Iraq, but he cycled back home. He's still on active duty, but he's not deployed. So he's working and he's in Virginia. And he starts kind of acting funny. His wife sees him acting funny one day, it's a Sunday, he goes out to buy milk or something. He finds himself in the parking lot of work, you know, far away, sitting in his car on a Sunday. And sitting in his car, what am I doing here? He's thinking to himself. So he started having these, you know, memory issues. These, you know, what. You know, or doing strange things, and started being kind of nasty to his wife. And he was never like that before. And fortunately, he had a colleague who was familiar with our services and been through one of our centers, and he referred Pete to there. And this is again, Pete. This is. This is from, you know, four or five years ago. But he, you know, he received that. He received that care and was able to continue to serve for several more years. Now he's retired. I understand he's playing country music. He's got a happy, you know, still happily married, but who knows what trajectory his life would have taken. You know, if you're. You know, if you're. If you're doing things like driving your car to work on a Sunday and sit in the parking lot, and sitting in an empty parking lot, wondering why you're there, you're not going to be effective, certainly not in combat. You're not going to be effective even administratively, doing work. And what might that do to his family? There's another, even more stark example. A friend of mine named Steve, Marine Corps major, he's retired now, but he was on active duty at the time. And he came back again, multiple deployments. And his wife noticed changing, and he started losing his temper quickly and forgetting things and getting frustrated and then taking that frustration out of his own way, which, again, was not. That was not him. That was not what he was like before. And you might remember this. I tell the story lots. You might even remember this one. But. But he. One day, he found himself screaming at his wife, screaming over a pizza topping. And then he saw his little son, I think three years old at the time, cowering in the corner, covering his ears because Daddy was yelling so violently at Mommy. And suddenly that made something. Fortunately, I made something click. And Steve, that's, oh, something's wrong here because that's not me. And he was able to get help. The challenge is a lot of these service members don't have that, you know, that, that light bulb moment where, oh, something's going on, I need help. So they need their colleagues, they need their families and their friends to say, hey, Joe, you know, you've come back from combat, you're acting differently. Maybe, maybe. Let's go, let's go get checked. And that's what, that's what our centers are for.

I want to ask you this question because before I do that, before I ask you another question, I've got a few more questions, but let everybody know right now. So where does Intrepid need help right now? I know, of course, obviously financial support. So if somebody wants to support Intrepid, where, where do they go to do that?

Thanks for asking. Our website is fallingheroesfund.org and we're also on, and we're also on social media. And yes, as you said, we're a nonprofit. We're not part of the government, we're not part of the military. We're a nonprofit. Every dime to build and equip these centers comes from donations from the American public. Each of these centers costs $12 million to build. Again, we've got one more to go. We want to start construction on our tent center down in Fort Bliss, Texas. We want to start soon and we've raised some of the money for it, but we need to raise the rest. We need a few million dollars more. So if your listeners want to help, please, I urge you to, to go, go to fallenheroesfund.org Take a look, look at our website. You know, if you want to learn more about us, I'm not asking, just go give money blindly, but take a look, you know, to, take a look at our, take a look at. Our financial statements are on there, our audits are on there. We're, we're, you know, we're, we're. Charity Watch rates us as a, or A plus all the time. We're a good steward of our donors money. We don't want to waste money. We don't spend, you know, 40 cents of every dollar on administrative costs or anything like that. Our expenses are under 10, are under 10 cents to the dollar. So what you're giving is going to go to building these centers. And you won't be helping us. You'll be helping these men and women who've served our nation and who deserve this care. I will say a nice thing is that we have been able to. We've raised over $100 million for this program in the last 10 years, and we've been able to build our first nine centers. And Lance, when you think about it, we first went to war right after September 11, 2001. That's 22 years ago. That's a whole generation. But Americans, even after that long amount of time, Americans are still willing to reach into their pockets and give to support those who serve. I think that says something really. Everyone talks about how divided our nation is right now and all that, but that says something really nice about all Americans, that we're a nation that will, even after so long, we'll still give extra. We won't say, oh, it's the government's responsibility to get out of these guys. You could say that. But it's really our responsibility. We're all fellow citizens. We're all part of this great country. And that people will, after that long amount of time, people are still willing to give. I think that just says something really, really nice about America.

That is an excellent point because it wasn't always that way, was it? In our lifetime, was it, Dave?

Yeah, not necessarily, no.

Yeah. And so that's. And also, I think very, very well, you know, just to the country and to, you know, our active military, that high quality of the people that are that volunteer, you know, to go serve the country. So. Fallenheroesfund.org fallenheroesfund.org and Dave won't say, but I'll say, just put some money in there. Just do it. It's going to a good cause. And it's the vast bulk of it, like 95 cents out of the dollar is going to serve an active service man or woman. So it's like you said, it's not 40 cents going to do all these other things. It's going to serve the intended cause. So it's. That's why, you know, I've been known about supporting my own small way all these years. But that's what attracted me, besides the A and A plus rating, is that the vast majority of the money goes to the cause. That's not always true for every nonprofit out there. So I want to. I got a few more questions. And now there was a time. Tell me about this, you know, that I've had family military for multiple generations, and not too long ago, there was kind of a stigma about, you know, PTSD and getting treated for some of this that some, sometimes they wouldn't. Some they wouldn't come forward. I think that's starting to change. But I imagine is the fact that there's a presence of these centers on the basis, is that contributing to it as well? Because it has, you know, there's this big presence here. Can you comment to that?

Yeah, it's been a big problem. You're absolutely right. And the stigma comes from, it can come from a lot of areas, but kind of a major idea, and this is what people in the military have told me, is that if you go for what is considered psychological care, you're afraid of kind of getting branded. And if you're branded, if you have some psychological issue that might affect your advancement in your military career and nobody, you know, nobody wants that. I certainly, I certainly understand that. But we're talking about injuries here. We're talking about. These are, these are. Traumatic brain injury is injury. It's a physical injury. You got a concussion or whatever happened. You have an injury in your head that has to be treated. And there's no shame in that because it's an injury. Just like, you know, if you broke your arm, that's injury. There's no shame in going to get your arm in a sling because you're broken. And a lot of the reduction of that stigma is coming essentially from peers and from colleagues. Again, I talked about Pete, that Navy seal. After his treatment, he went back and talked to the guys on his SEAL team and said the stuff that was bothering me, I see that in some of you guys. Go to the center, go get it taken care of. There's nothing wrong. I did it and I'm back. And so that's gone a long way. Of course Department of Defense has a justice and policies and, and encourage this sort of care. And our facilities, I'll add, it's probably not fair to say this, but don't look like they're not square, concrete, government looking buildings. These are beautiful structures and they're beautiful for a reason. We want them to be extremely comforting for patients because patients, again with these traumatic brain injuries and post traumatic stress, they react to their surroundings. So we want this to be so. They're beautiful, physically beautiful buildings and they're very, very comfortable on the inside. And that's, that's, we do that consciously to aid the healing process. You know, we want people to come to someplace that's, that's comfortable, they can, you know, they can sit down. It's in this nice chair, it's a nice paint, you know, this beautiful art. All designed to be, to be, to be comforting. So that, that helps. That helps. Also. We don't, you know, there's. There's a big size Intrepid spirit center. It's not, you know, it's not hidden in the back. It's, you know, right next to the hospital. You can't miss it. As you said before, these are, you know, they have, they have, they have a presence on the base. And it's not, you know, some back door you have to go in for this care, proudly walk in, you know, proudly walk in. I need this care because I want to. I want to continue surfing. I want to be a good husband, wife, father, mother or son or daughter. So, yeah, that's. I think that's a big part of it.

You know, I just kind of, if I listened, I didn't realize all the things between the, you know, you have an attractive building that's kind of draws people in. It's not like you say, it's not a bunker. It's not the back door. It's an attractive building to lure you in and very comfortable facility to come into. And then that combined with this interdisciplinary approach, once they're inside with the treatment, now you have more people hopefully stepping forward to get the treatment. Then they have this great treatment and you have 90, whatever, 90 practically what I'm hearing about like 95% effectiveness for the traumatic brain injury. You'll be very proud. That's just awesome that you're leading this, Davis. Congratulations.

Well, I appreciate that. I'm really just. I'm more proud of the people who give again, you know, $100 million. I didn't, you know, I couldn't write that check myself, but, you know, a lot of people give, you know, we appreciate people who give big donations. We appreciate people who give small donations because every, you know, every little bit adds up and helps. So that's. I appreciate you saying that to me, but I'm really proud of our donors and there are thousands of them who, you know, who believe in this and believe in the men and women who are serving and who gives.

Well, I got to put a plug in for you. So you have. I imagine it's still the case you have the coolest office on planet Earth if it's still the one that I met you in. Is that still the case?

Absolutely. We're, We're. This is where we got our name. We're based on the aircraft carrier Intrepid, which is the centerpiece of the Intrepid Sierra and Space Museum in New York. The Intrepid Museum was founded by the same that same gentleman, the late Zachary Fisherman who inspired our work, he founded this museum. So if you're in New York, you're going to visit New York. I'll throw out a plug out to the museum. Go to the. You have to go to the Intrepid Museum. It'll tell you what you know. You'll learn what life is like on a. On an aircraft carrier. Intrepid served in World War II, served in Vietnam, served in the space race, was a NASA recovery vessel and served in the Cold War. And we have a guided missile submarine and a British Airways Concorde at the museum. So lots and lots to see. And yet my office is on the gallery deck, which is one deck below the hangar deck, which. Excuse me, one deck below the flight deck, which is the top of the.

Oh, I just lost it. Let's see.

I think I accidentally muted myself. Anyway, okay, definitely, definitely visit the Intrepid Museum.

But you. Was it the captain's quarters where your office is in.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. My, My. My office is. It used to be a flight surgeon's office, but it also used to be something else. I don't remember what they actually combined two space spaces on, on, on. On ships, even huge aircraft carriers are tiny, so to have offices. And the museum has certainly exhibit spaces. Lots of modifications had to be made, but yeah, it's a little bit of interesting history there.

But besides being president of Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, you're also responsible. You run the museum too, correct?

Well, I'm the executive vice president of the museum as well, so oversee events and some other things at the museum. So again, you know, certain plug for the museum also. Definitely, definitely go visit.

Yeah. If you haven't seen. It's fabulous there. You know, there's. Besides the Concorde, there's a. There's a. I recall there's a shuttle in there. Space shuttle.

We have Space Shuttle Enterprise.

Yeah.

It's a prototype space shuttle, absolutely kind of aircraft.

It's. It's fascinating. Fascinating tour. Gotta go check it out. All right. So. So phenomenal work. What. What question have I not asked that I should have asked about Intrepid Fallen heroes, fun and all the great work you're doing. What. What point that I should. I have raised Dave.

No, I think you've been pretty thorough. Again, I'll just repeat that we have nine of these centers. You know, we. East coast, west coast, middle of the country. Again, the newest one we open is at Fort Carson in Colorado. So they're all over the place. So Every American has a stake in these because you got one either in your neighborhood or a state or two away. And they're, you know, they're helping, helping service members from, you know, from those regions where they're located. I will again extend a great, great word of thanks to the men and women who serve in these centers. These are really, really dedicated professionals and they're providing amazing care without them. I told you these are beautiful buildings. The equipment is great but without the care providers inside, they're just buildings. So really my hats are off to these men and women who really are dedicated to providing great, amazing patient care and are getting results. I've met a lot of them there without exception. Amazing people.

Are they all military or some of them civilian?

Some are civilian, some are military, some are army, Navy, US Public Health Service and some civilians. There's a healthy mix and it works.

All right, so everyone right now you're going to go to www.fallenheroesfund.org and support our active military. And the great work the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund is doing, it's just phenomenal. Again, follow fallenheroesfund.org and you read all about it and help out, make a contribution. Any size will do because they got another center they got to build and then they got more they got to do after that. So Dave, this has been fabulous. I want to thank you for the, you know, just congratulations, thank you for the great work you've been doing a long term of service to serving our military and everything you're doing. So thank you sir.

Well Lance, thank you. Two things. One, thank you for you put your money where your mouth is to you're a supporter and I appreciate that and thank you for having me on again. It's a pleasure to see you again and it's good talking to you and I appreciate you giving me some time here to talk to your listeners.

Alright everybody, till next time, go to the fallenheroesfund.org.

You'Ve been listening to Interview with the Experts with Lance Edwards. Let us now blatantly and shamelessly bribe you toward creating your own real estate lifestyle by offering you a whole bunch of free stuff. Go to greenlight reinvesting.com and get you some free stuff. And this session's show notes, that's greenlightreinvesting.com.