“You need to occasionally untether from the world and just experience yourself. And not just yourself, but like experience yourself in a place where you’re insignificant, which is the important part. And that only happens in the outdoors. Like one time said that on Twitter. I was talking about this with somebody and I just said that through all these sort of materialist minded people. I’ve never seen mountains scattered across a pile of bones, you know, but I’ve seen the inverse a million times. And you know, it might sound silly and overly, like, maybe even too flowery, but I really think it’s important to to spend time in a place that God made. And it’s not just because it humbles you. It does that, but also because it reveals what creation really is and what your role in that is.” — Veteran, author and storyteller Braxton McCoy
In Episode 264 of District of Conservation, Gabriella discusses how listeners can attend the upcoming Stop 30-by-30 summit in Lincoln, Nebraska, and her interview with author and storyteller, Braxton McCoy.
Here’s his biography:
Braxton McCoy is a husband, a father of three, a horse trainer and a grateful American. While deployed in the service of this great nation he was awarded several medals including an Army Commendation Medal for exceptionally valorous achievement in combat and a Purple Heart.
In 2006, Sgt. Braxton McCoy (Ret.) was severely wounded by a suicide bomber in Ramadi, Iraq, and later told he may never walk again. After nearly a decade of physical therapy and rehabilitation, Sgt. McCoy has not only regained the majority of his strength, but has also found creative ways to circumvent his permanent injuries.While in long term recovery in his home state of Utah, Sgt. McCoy twice served as National Advocate for the Army Wounded Warrior Program, and twice as Veterans’ Advocate for the Coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans in the District of Columbia. His four years as an advocate were focused on getting veterans back to work, as a meaningful way to outflank Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
In 2013, Sgt. McCoy started Warrior Employment Project, a non-profit designed to connect veteran families-in-need with CEO’s and CIO’s leading to the veterans’ employment, as well as working with these families to solve immediate financial problems impeding their progress.
He has since ceased running that non-profit initiative and now spends his time training horses and writing and speaking about what it takes to overcome the challenges that life inevitably sends our way. When he is not working, you can find Sgt. McCoy climbing mountains to reach the best hunting and fishing in America’s backcountry, leading and teaching others to hunt and fish, or competing in endurance races.
If you want to know more about his incredible journey, his book The Glass Factory is available for purchase here: The Glass Factory
Listen on Apple Podcasts
SHOW NOTES
About Braxton McCoy + The Bunkhouse
A Veteran’s Heart for Hunting: Gunner Kennels
Blood Origins Episode #41 – Braxton McCoy ” Borrowed Time”
Follow Braxton on Instagram and Twitter.
Photo: Braxton McCoy