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00:00Welcome to Operation Healing Heroes. Join us in beautiful Monaco, Wisconsin as we
00:09feature retired Army Sergeant Andy Hedrickson. They served for us. They
00:18sacrificed for us. Their stories deserve to be told. Every military veteran has a
00:31story to tell. Join our host, Jay Garstecki, as we honor the stories of our true
00:37American heroes, one soldier at a time. The mission today is Operation Healing
00:46Heroes. Brought to you by Great Clips. The turning of the seasons in Park Falls,
00:58Wisconsin, brings a picturesque landscape that rivals scenic destinations across the
01:04world. Paired with world-class fishing, Park Falls has become a go-to for families
01:11and companies alike. It's here that St. Croix Rods calls home. Welcome to Park
01:17Falls, Wisconsin. As you can see here, we are Made in America right here, Park
01:22Falls, Wisconsin. All the rods are handcrafted. The amount of care and time
01:27that is taken on every single rod is evident in the 32 sets of hands of the
01:33people that touch these rods from the very beginning to the very end when they
01:37end up in your hands as an angler. Made in America is a badge of quality and
01:42integrity. A badge that St. Croix Rods brandishes proudly. American-made goods are
01:48synonymous with craftsmanship and durability. Add family to the mix and you
01:54get the cornerstone of what St. Croix Rods was built on. Through partnerships like
01:59these, Operation Healing Heroes can reach U.S. military veterans and their
02:04families with a hope of making tomorrow better than today. That's why we host
02:09Operation Healing Heroes every single year here at St. Croix, taking the tour,
02:15showing the vets what we do and really thanking them for what they've done for
02:19us. So when Jay came to us and started talking to us about a segment for
02:24Operation Healing Heroes, the very first person I thought of was Andy Hendrickson.
02:29Andy Hendrickson has been a staffer of ours for as long as I've been here. In fact,
02:34before I was here. And he's been really super engaged and always so helpful. I mean, I think it ties
02:41into the aspect of his service, right? Tying into who he is as a staffer for us. Because anytime we've
02:49needed anything, Andy has been absolutely on the spot, helping us out. So I thought maybe we'd go
02:56on to like Fence Lake or something and do some fishing today. Oh, that sounds good. Yeah, let's do that.
03:01Yeah, it looks like we're gonna have a beautiful day for fishing. Absolutely gorgeous day out here.
03:05Beautiful. Excited to film this episode with you. It's not often I get to
03:09film with another St. Croix pro, so it's fun to be able to honor those companies that support our veterans
03:15like St. Croix, you know, I know a little bit about Andy's story. He's been a little bit guarded about
03:20it, which I expect. But the fact is, we know that he went through some terrible things in the service
03:26of our country. And he came back and got himself together, which isn't really easy sometimes for
03:32these vets. And he's done a phenomenal job. He's the prototypical person on our staff for the way that
03:41he gives and he bleeds the brand, but also his history of service, like I said before,
03:46not only to our country, but to us here at St. Croix.
03:51So tell me about life growing up. I grew up down in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and did a lot of hunting and
03:56fishing as a kid with my dad and grandpa and that. And I'd go ice fishing, go out in the boat as
04:04far back as I can remember. Ice fishing up in Wisconsin is a way of life. It's
04:10what we do in the wintertime. And now what led you into the military? What point did you decide you
04:16want to go? God, I've always been a very patriotic person. I know my dad always talked about being in
04:21the National Guard, but he, all of his stuff that he did was in Wisconsin and things like that. Grandpa
04:28was also in, he got a medical discharge in the Korea era. Okay. I guess it wasn't, you know, joining
04:37wasn't really on, on my radar, so to speak until the recruiter called one day and
04:45the rest is history.
04:50Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Cliffs, Power Pole, and by St. Croix Rods.
05:00Operation Healing Heroes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the
05:10lives of our U.S. military veterans. In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for
05:16post-traumatic stress. Your donation will help heal our heroes.
05:28So let's go out and see if we can find some of those fish we marked on the way in. It looked like
05:34they were in about 30 something feet of water and they were stacked up pretty good.
05:42I joined in June of 2000. What branch of the service did? I was active duty army. Boot camp
05:47was down at Fort Knox where the gold is and I don't know if there's any gold in that building or not.
05:55Basic training was okay. It was, it was basic training. Did well on the physical aspect of things.
06:00Um, I was no ace at everything, but did well with the running and the push-ups and sit-ups and things
06:06like that. So being a hunter and being a pretty good marksman really helped me in basic training too. You
06:15just fly right through getting your qualification for the M16. Andy sailed through boot camp and he would
06:23make a stop at Aberdeen Proving Grounds for his advanced individual training, ultimately landing him at
06:29his duty station in Korea. And after about eight, nine months there, 9-11 happened.
06:35Yeah, it stopped all departures. Yeah, it went in the Pentagon. Looks like it went in the Pentagon.
06:44I was over there through January of 2002, so a few months, about four months after 9-11. Um, and then I
06:53went right, right to, uh, Fort Lewis. But we were still, we knew something was gonna play out of this
07:00whole thing at some point. And we were gonna end up going back to war.
07:04And in Iraq, we were at OIF-1, Operation Iraqi Freedom-1. We were first on the ground, so we had
07:19no idea what to expect. And I remember that feeling of chambering around and one of my soldiers kind of
07:25looked at me and looked, looked a little bit... Uneasy? Yeah, just looked like, holy crap, here we are.
07:32Yeah, this is real now, isn't it? This is real. I'm 23 years old. I'm in charge of a bunch of soldiers.
07:37I'm a squad leader. I'm a shop foreman. And it's, uh, it's, it's insane. Once we hit ground, we were
07:46the start of things because we were the machinists. We had to make the stuff that we needed on ground
07:51because there was nothing there. We were the first people on ground. We had to make toilets. And we had to
07:58make showers out of plywood and things like that and use a five-gallon pail to shower with. As we got
08:05going, we'd up-armor a lot of vehicles. We'd put steel plates on the floors, expanded metal over the
08:12windshields, plates on the doors. So you were there to make their lives better and easier? Yes. To try to,
08:20try to protect people. It takes time for word to get out to these, to the enemy, to the insurgents
08:26about what's going on. But they would launch tubes out of Abu Ghraib, the city of Abu Ghraib, and they'd
08:32be in areas that we couldn't fire back. So we were, we were soldiers in a barrel getting shot at.
08:40We were on the front lines for indirect fire. We had a lot of mortars, RPGs, rockets being launched at us.
08:47Our camp, log-based sites adopted the name Mortaritaville. We got it for going through hell.
08:55It was mainly indirect fire coming from, coming from the city. And they were firing from places
09:02we could not fire back. Then we learned they're shooting from civilian population, civilian areas.
09:09The three that I remember were parking lot of a mosque, parking lot of a milk factory,
09:15between the parking lot of a preschool or kindergarten type of facility. Depending on which way the wind
09:20was coming from and how much noise you were around, you could sometimes hear the tubes launch.
09:25And there was a certain amount of time where those things would lob in. And once they made contact
09:30with something, they'd blow up. And there was days when it was two, three times a day, middle of the day,
09:37middle of the night, you never knew when they were going to come in. We were working six to seven days
09:42a week. And the only time we had some, another company come in or some other people come in,
09:49is when we lost somebody. And we had a couple of days just to mourn and grieve, to mourn and do.
09:56And you know, there's, I've heard a lot of people say that they've been to sad funerals. There's nothing
10:02worse than being at a funeral in a war zone for one of your fellow soldiers that you just lost. There's,
10:12there's nothing worse than that. I still remember that day we had a sergeant major come in and play the bagpipes.
10:19I, uh, pull.
10:29Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Thor Industries, and by St. Croix Rods.
10:43You guys ever hear the one about the guy that drank the polyurethane?
10:52It was a bad ending, but a beautiful finish.
10:57Good dad joke, man. I like that.
10:59If you'd like to see more behind the scenes footage, follow us on social media and subscribe to our
11:03YouTube channel. If you're a U.S. military veteran in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota,
11:10or beautiful sunny Florida, log on to our website, TakeAVetFishing.org, to find an event near you.
11:25I'll try a minnow for a bit.
11:26East winds bring high barometric pressure and cooler temperatures, and apparently fish don't like that.
11:33It's just stacked with fish down here, but they won't hit.
11:35At least that's what pro anglers Andy and Jay are going with.
11:40I can see my jig on the bottom, and I mean, we're right on top of the crib.
11:46I can see it in my side imaging.
11:49Well, we can obviously see them down on the bottom, but there's just certain days if they don't want to eat,
11:54they don't want to eat.
11:54East wind, and yeah, it's pretty cold out here, man.
11:58It's got to be 30-something degrees, and wind blowing out of the east.
12:03It's not in our favor, but no, it's not. Strong east wind.
12:07January 7th, 2004 is the day that my whole life changed.
12:14Hanging out in our sleep warehouse, there was 200 and some odd people, I think, in there,
12:17and I could hear the thumps from the tubes launching.
12:20So I got up, and I told my soldiers, hey, get on the floor,
12:24because you didn't know where these things were going to hit.
12:26You never know when those tubes are, or where they're going to land.
12:29So I don't remember if I grabbed my stuff or I just tried to get down,
12:34and I was somewhere around being on all fours heading to the ground when they started hitting.
12:44The only thing I can really remember is I smelled the powder, the explosive powder, gunpowder,
12:50whatever it was in there.
12:51That's all I really remember, and just sharp, hot pains in my neck and in my back.
12:58You know, we had some combat lifesavers that would come over and help people,
13:02and it was, and I don't remember any of it, but it was total chaos.
13:05He came over, and I said, how bad is it?
13:07He said, you're okay, Sergeant.
13:09It's okay.
13:09It's okay, Sergeant.
13:10It's not that bad.
13:12And obviously, I know these people, and it's like, I could be the worst thing in the world,
13:15and they're not going to tell me it's bad.
13:17The Jesse, the one that we lost, he got a piece of shrapnel in his heart.
13:22There was another girl who had one of the fins off the mortar sticking out of her leg.
13:27It wasn't the scariest day of my life, but it's the day that everything changed.
13:36They had called the Blackhawks to take us into downtown Baghdad to go to the combat hospital.
13:42Injuries were, I got shrapnel in my neck and in my back, and I've got some shrapnel pretty close to my spinal cord.
13:50If my head would have been tilted just a little bit more one direction, I'd be paralyzed.
13:55Wow.
13:56And you know, my injuries were bad, but they weren't life-threatening, so I had no feeling in the left
14:04side of my head at the time from where that shrapnel went in my neck.
14:08I did stay in country. Some people wanted me gone because I looked like hell being like that.
14:13And the main reason I wanted to do it was for my soldiers.
14:17Just to, it might sound stupid, but you know, you're in charge of soldiers and you've got to lead by example.
14:24And I say, you know what, I'm going to stay. I'm going to stay in country. And it sucked.
14:29I got down in the conics yard, which is a bunch of empty, empty containers. Like they have a shipping yard
14:35and stuff like that. I remember mortar start coming and I was all by myself and I hit the deck and I
14:40could hear them whistling over my head and blowing up around me. And that, that was the most scared I've
14:45ever been was after the fact, like, holy crap, this is happening again. And luckily I didn't get hit.
14:51I had mortars not blow up, not 15, 20 feet from me.
15:00Wounded Warriors in Action provides world-class outdoor activities to Purple Heart recipients
15:06to assist in their recovery efforts, all at no cost to them. Visit www.iaf.org for more information.
15:15If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes or nominate a
15:20veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, operationhealingheroes.org.
15:27Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by PowerPole, Wiley X, and by Recon Boats.
15:37There's one.
15:44You got one?
15:45Yep, there's one.
15:46I ain't normally coming at it for you.
15:48Yep.
15:48Oh yeah, nice large mouth.
15:51Let me get him back this way.
15:52Oh yeah.
15:55Nice!
15:55Awesome job.
15:56Well, it took a while, but at least we got one.
15:59That's right.
16:01Weather conditions aside, Andy was at long last able to land a nice fish.
16:08There she goes.
16:09Nice.
16:10Awesome.
16:11Good job, bud.
16:12Awesome.
16:13You saved us.
16:13Thank you, sir.
16:15You know, once I got done with my five years, I got out and went back to civilian life, but I
16:19still had the emotional and physical scars of being injured and being in a war zone.
16:26I was able to accept my Purple Heart Award.
16:28I don't remember what day that was, but I was able to stand at attention and be very professional
16:32about it.
16:33I've kind of been in pain ever since.
16:37Anybody that's ever had a migraine, I get them probably four days a week, give or take.
16:43I got numbness in my right leg, chronic pain in my back, obviously.
16:48I still get occasional dreams at night.
16:51You still get them 20 years later.
16:54I suffer from a mild traumatic brain injury, too, from the close explosions we had to deal with.
17:00And it's something that's probably never going to go away.
17:03And as far as the PTSD goes, I just keep myself busy.
17:06Like I said, guiding.
17:07If I'd sit around in the house all day, I wouldn't know what to do with myself.
17:12I've got everything managed pretty well with that.
17:16My wife is really my rock.
17:17And we've got a little 28-month-old baby, Isabella.
17:21She's in her terrible twos.
17:23But part of that keeps me going, and I'm able to take other veterans out and do this.
17:29And that helps me heal as well, being able to take them out.
17:34One thing about veterans, people that have been injured in combat, that have earned our purple hearts,
17:43they want to blend in with society as much as possible.
17:47And we don't want to be put on a pedestal for what we've done.
17:55And in a lot of ways, it's hard for me to do this with you because I'm not trying to say, look at me,
18:04or I'm not looking for a pat on the back.
18:06Well, it's important for people to know, though, that you can help others by talking about your story.
18:16Because you might be able to help another soldier who felt very similar to the way you did.
18:21I mean, every veteran I always talk to is, there's someone that had it worse than I did.
18:25So they're more deserving than I did.
18:27But that's not really the case.
18:28The reality of it is that you all did this.
18:30And you all didn't know what your fate was.
18:33And you were able to, you're willing to go do what it took.
18:35Yes, we signed that line.
18:37And, you know, if I were to do it all over again, I would do it again.
18:40It would really suck going back, having all the memories from the past.
18:44But I'd do it again.
18:45And I think most of my brothers and sisters would say the same thing.
18:48It's a common sentiment among veterans.
18:51I'd do it again, even knowing the effects of war.
18:54U.S. military veterans would sign on that dotted line all over again.
19:00Loyalty runs deep across all branches of the military.
19:03That is why Operation Healing Heroes values its relationship with St. Croix Rods.
19:09They, too, honor the military, young and old.
19:12Partnering with St. Croix Rods allows us to hopefully make tomorrow better than today
19:18for all veterans in need.
19:19You hit on the point that it's okay to talk about it.
19:23It's okay to say, hey, you know what?
19:25Some days I'm going to struggle.
19:26Other days are going to be better.
19:27But when the days that I'm struggling, it's good to reach out.
19:30Like you said, whether it's a friend, whether you go to your local American Legion or VFW
19:34or someplace to talk to another veteran, just talk to somebody.
19:40I think it's important for us to make sure that we do recognize the men and women who provide
19:44this freedom for us.
19:45And if you're okay with it, I'd like to provide you with a little something here for
19:50your time with us.
19:52And on behalf of St. Croix Rods and also a Thorn Brothers custom rod, I have this custom
19:58muskie rod made for you with a St. Croix blank.
20:01And it says, Andy Hendrickson, an appreciation of your sacrifice and service, Thorn Brothers.
20:08And that's a custom muskie rod for you.
20:10Oh, thank you so much.
20:12And I definitely want to be able to give you this because I know you've earned it.
20:16But Andy Hendrickson on the front, Hendrickson on the back.
20:19Here's a jersey for you.
20:20Thank you so much. Thank you.
20:21I can't say thank you enough for your service.
20:22Thank you for sharing your story.
20:24Very unexpected.
20:24Very gingerly with your back.
20:26Yeah, yeah, yep.
20:31If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes
20:35or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website,
20:39OperationHealingHeroes.org and click on the nominate button.
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