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00:00Welcome to Operation Healing Heroes. Join us in beautiful Kunta Gorda, Florida at the Sun
00:07Seeker Resort as we honor Shea Williams, US Army veteran and United States Coast Guard veteran.
00:13They served for us. They sacrificed for us. Their stories deserve to be told.
00:30Every military veteran has a story to tell. Join our host, Jay Garstecki, as we honor the stories of our true American heroes, one soldier at a time.
00:44The mission today is Operation Healing Heroes. Brought to you by Great Clips.
00:58Good afternoon and welcome to Sun Seeker Resort Charlotte Harbor. We are honored and excited to host Operation Healing Heroes.
01:05Sun Seeker Resort Charlotte Harbor sits on 22 acres of pristine waterfront land equidistant from Fort Myers to Sarasota.
01:13We are so happy to have been located in this community where we have one of the largest aggregations of veterans that have served for our country and our military.
01:22We have 785 rooms encompassing 189 suites and 585 regular king and queen rooms.
01:31We have 18 food and beverage concepts to tickle your culinary delight, two pools, an extremely luxurious spa and a waterfront fitness center.
01:39In addition to those on-site amenities, we have our 18-hole championship golf course, a short 15-minute drive from the resort and 60,000 square feet of dynamic meeting space.
01:49Nice shot.
01:54Thanks.
01:55Maybe a little to the left.
01:57Good advice.
01:59Have you spent much time on a golf course?
02:01I haven't.
02:02I haven't spent much time at all on a golf course.
02:04I have landed in a golf course before in a helicopter.
02:07Really?
02:08I did, once.
02:09So not a lot of time with golf clubs?
02:10Nope, no golf clubs.
02:12Look at that.
02:13Are you Bruce and Shelly?
02:14Yes, we are.
02:15Hi, I'm Jay and Shea.
02:16Hi, Jay.
02:17Nice to meet you.
02:18Pleasure.
02:19Hi, good morning.
02:20Shea Williams.
02:21Shea.
02:22Pleasure.
02:23My wife Shelly.
02:24Hi Shelly.
02:25Nice to meet you.
02:26Nice to meet you.
02:27I understand we're going to be golfing with you guys today.
02:29That's what I hear.
02:30Looking forward to it.
02:31I'm not much of a golfer, but I'll drive the golf cart all day and be a good caddy for you.
02:35Always need a good caddy.
02:36Let's go have some fun.
02:37After nearly 30 years of sacrifice and service to our country, Shea's body is paying the
02:43price.
02:44The military got pretty good years out of me.
02:46Yeah.
02:47They got from, you know, 24 to 54.
02:50So jumping out of airplanes, flying helicopters.
02:56Yeah.
02:57Charts you up pretty good, doesn't it?
02:59Stuff happens.
03:00Yeah.
03:01How has that affected your life as a civilian now?
03:04I mean, obviously you can't play golf.
03:06You can't do a lot of things you used to be able to do.
03:09I mean, it kind of robbed you of some of your freedoms, no?
03:13I had a fantastic career.
03:16I would not change anything.
03:18That's good to hear.
03:19That's good to hear, man.
03:21I'm incredibly fortunate to have gone and done the things that I did.
03:26I was assigned at eight different duty stations over my 29.9 years of military service.
03:34Oh, so you got to see a lot of the country?
03:36I did.
03:37I saw inside and outside of the country.
03:41So I feel very fortunate.
03:45So you chalk it up as that's a sacrifice you pay for getting to do those things, huh?
03:50Yeah.
03:51God bless you.
03:52I wouldn't say that I'm unique in any way.
03:53I would say that the vast majority of our veterans go out there and get beat up.
04:00Yeah.
04:01You know?
04:04Very nice.
04:05Thank you, sir.
04:06You're welcome.
04:07This is beautiful, huh?
04:08It's gorgeous.
04:09A little bit of water in front of us.
04:11Nothing to be intimidated by, but a lot of water.
04:14Amazing place.
04:15Absolutely gorgeous.
04:17Jay, am I in a safe spot here?
04:19Am I going to be all right here?
04:21You should be okay.
04:23Questionable.
04:24Absolutely not.
04:29Beautiful.
04:30I think he might have hit an alligator.
04:33I'll rustle him for it.
04:35Great shot, dude.
04:38Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Allegiant Air, and by Sun Seeker Resort.
04:54Operation Healing Heroes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our U.S. military
04:59veterans.
05:00In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic stress.
05:06Your donation will help heal our heroes.
05:19Nice.
05:20Nice shot.
05:21Well done.
05:22The only one to hit the fairway.
05:24What was life like growing up for Shea?
05:27So I grew up reading books about Vietnam.
05:30I grew up listening to the stories of helicopter pilots in Vietnam.
05:35I knew that I wanted to be a military pilot.
05:39My dad was a pilot.
05:41I worked at the officers club as a janitor.
05:45And I got to hang out and see how pilots lived and worked and what they did and how they talked.
05:52And I was just part of that culture very early and I knew that's what I wanted to do.
05:57So you come from a multi-generational military family of people who flew.
06:02Yeah.
06:03So my grandfather was in the Airborne, 82nd Airborne during World War II.
06:10And then my father was a pilot, but he also went to Airborne School.
06:15He did.
06:16So the Air Force.
06:17They go to Airborne School too.
06:19And then amazingly enough, in 1998, I was in the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg and I went to Airborne School as well.
06:30So that was three generations that had jumped out of airplanes.
06:34Wow.
06:35Graduation from flight school was amazing.
06:38To get those wings that you fought so hard for.
06:41Then after you graduate basic flight school, then you get to figure out what advanced aircraft you're going to fly.
06:48So I got Blackhawks and I felt very fortunate to fly Blackhawks.
06:54You learn how to fly precise at night under goggles, low over the trees with real lives in the back.
07:03In the Army, I flew some pretty amazing soldiers that were very well trained, pretty badass.
07:12There's a lot of badassery in flying aircraft.
07:17If aviation is your passion and military aviation is your passion, you know that what comes with that is dangerous.
07:26Sure.
07:27As one of only nine pilots selected, Shea was deployed to Bosnia for five months.
07:32When I came back from Bosnia, they finally released us and we came home, got on a plane.
07:37And again, my best friend, Brad Ronan, picked me up from the airport.
07:43And so he and I ended up in the same unit, even in the 82nd Airborne.
07:48So we went through flight school together and then ended up in the 82nd Airborne together.
07:54So when he picked me up, you know, a week later, I have a morning flight.
08:00And as I'm coming out, I see Brad in the parking lot and he's got an afternoon flight.
08:07And that afternoon, you know, we got word that they had crashed in the 60 with eight other people.
08:18And they had all died there.
08:21I think anybody that does a career in military aviation has experienced this.
08:28This profoundly impacted my 30 years of flying afterwards.
08:37It makes you take things very seriously.
08:41You don't have an opportunity to be as lighthearted maybe as you as you once were.
08:49You know.
08:50Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Lumberjack Lodge, and by Recon Boats.
09:10That guy has a son in himself.
09:13Yeah.
09:14Can I go over there and pet him?
09:16Yes.
09:17Yes, you can.
09:18Yeah, that's allowed.
09:20Whoa.
09:21It's almost like I know what the heck I'm doing.
09:23This is crazy.
09:25If you'd like to see more behind the scenes footage, follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
09:31If you're a U.S. military veteran in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, or beautiful sunny Florida, log on to our website.
09:40Take a Vet Fishing dot org to find an event near you.
09:48Welcome to Aileron Golf Club.
09:50We're still glad to host Operation Healing Heroes today at our par 72 championship style golf course designed by Kip Schultes.
09:57We opened in conjunction with Sunseeker Resort on December 15th, almost a year ago.
10:02And again, we're so glad that we could host Operation Healing Heroes.
10:06After his service in the 82nd Airborne, Shea would find his way to Hawaii flying medevac missions.
10:13Flying medevac is awesome.
10:15You know, there's someone in need.
10:17They need your help.
10:18We were the medevac unit for the military there on the island in 16th Med.
10:22For three years, I did flu car accidents, gunshots, pregnant ladies.
10:29Enjoyed it.
10:30But there was an emotional toll to it.
10:35You can't fly people daily in their worst of time and not take some of that with you.
10:44Yeah, there are a lot of sacrifices that our military members make and their impacts both physical and mental that comes with being in the military and performing as a first responder.
11:02So how did you get into the Coast Guard from the Army?
11:06So after flying medevac, the Army at this time, we had been training.
11:11We had been training for 10 years.
11:13That's what the Army did was train.
11:15And I was ready to do real world stuff.
11:17I loved flying medevac.
11:20There's an adrenaline rush in flying medevac.
11:24And I wanted to fly.
11:27That's what I wanted to do.
11:28I was hooked.
11:29So I called the Coast Guard.
11:32I said, hey, I've been released from the Army.
11:34And they said, congratulations.
11:35Where do you want to go?
11:37I said, man, I'd really like to stay here in Savannah.
11:39It's a nice place.
11:40They said, we need you to go to New Orleans.
11:43That's when I learned about the Coast Guard.
11:46My first tour, New Orleans is very busy.
11:50Doing the same thing that I was doing pretty much, which was rescuing people.
11:55Fantastic orders, you know.
11:58United States Coast Guard is the most amazing organization you could ever work for.
12:03The Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans is a very busy air station.
12:07There are about 10,000 oil rigs offshore.
12:09There's the Mississippi River right there that goes through the city.
12:14And there's shrimpers and fishermen.
12:17And there's every kind of maritime vessel you could think operating in the New Orleans area.
12:25So we were very busy.
12:26And daily, daily people are rescuing people.
12:30So I think I've been there for like a month.
12:33Standing duty.
12:34The junior co-pilot.
12:36And me and another pilot launch out on a case at night.
12:40Helped somebody off an oil rig.
12:41Somebody hurt on an oil rig.
12:42We get the guy and it's dark.
12:45It's dark out there.
12:47And we nearly hit the oil rig.
12:50Dropped the guy off at the hospital.
12:52Made it back.
12:53Nobody really said anything to us.
12:55They're like, nice job.
12:56No awards.
12:57No anything.
12:58But that's just what's expected from military pilots pulling duty.
13:05So were you in New Orleans when Katrina hit?
13:09Yes, I was.
13:11The radios were nonstop.
13:14Channel 16 is a maritime rescue channel.
13:20And so as we come back in the city, we see there's devastation all around.
13:27And then you hear one call for help over Channel 16.
13:32And then another.
13:33And then another.
13:34And then another.
13:35And then another.
13:36And then we just realized, you know, this is going to be a big thing.
13:40The devastation that she witnessed was unimaginable.
13:44The Coast Guard hoisted 6,800 people in about two weeks.
13:50And I think, you know, everybody in the Coast Guard at that time had some sort of impact on that operation.
13:59Whether they were at headquarters or in a ship, people responded.
14:04I think about 1,400 people died.
14:07About 500 drowned.
14:09That leaves a lot of people that died in other ways.
14:13The city was basically without law enforcement.
14:18And it was the Wild West.
14:20And it was pretty brutal.
14:22And so we didn't leave the air station for five weeks.
14:28But when we were finally allowed to leave, go see our homes, it was ravaged.
14:35There were dead people everywhere.
14:37There were dead people floating in the water.
14:40There were dead people on the street.
14:42It was hard to believe that this could happen in America.
14:47The Fisher House Foundation builds comfort homes where military and veteran families can stay free of charge while a loved one is in the hospital.
15:05The Fisher House Foundation.
15:06The Fisher House Foundation.
15:07The Fisher House Foundation.
15:08The Fisher House Foundation.
15:09If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, operationhealingheroes.org.
15:20Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Suzuki Marine, Wiley X sunglasses, and by Recon Boats.
15:36So Katrina changed my life forever.
15:38It did.
15:39We were impacted.
15:42People were hurting.
15:44And for some people, it happened immediately.
15:48For some people, it happened months later.
15:51For me, it came a year later.
15:53About a year after Katrina, while living in Miami, Shay had a breakdown.
15:58He drank too much, he ate too little, and he lost about 30 pounds.
16:03It was the first time in Shay's life that he had felt depression.
16:07Caught in a cycle that he couldn't seem to break, Shay credits his strong family network with getting him back on track.
16:14His wife, Pia, would listen to the same stories every night and nurture him back to life.
16:21I am very fortunate to have a family network, and currently my wife and my daughter.
16:29There's nothing you can't do if you believe you can.
16:32And so I've always had a very strong family network to help me through things like Katrina.
16:39Shay would humbly receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts during Hurricane Katrina.
16:46I will tell you that it's not a good thing to be called out as special in a room full of really special people.
16:58Honor, respect, devotion to duty.
17:01That's the Coast Guard motto.
17:03Standing duty is part of any military pilot's life, as any member in the military understands, but definitely in the Coast Guard.
17:12So right now we have air stations all around the United States and boat stations, and they're on duty right now.
17:2024-hour duty is typically what they do, standing to watch.
17:25And so you have pilots and boat crews ready to launch out and protect the citizens of the United States.
17:35Well, I definitely appreciate all the service that you gave to our country and the many years of service that you provided us and our freedoms.
17:44And if you don't mind, I'd like to give you a little bit something to recognize your time with us here today and in this last couple of days.
17:52And I got you your own Operation Healing Heroes shirt with your name on there and our logo.
17:58It doesn't replace that logo, nor should it.
18:00But I do hope that you'll wear this with honor, and I appreciate you.
18:04Thank you very much.
18:05Thank you very much.
18:06We talked about night vision goggles, and I'm not sure if you're familiar, but Wiley X happens to be one of our supporting sponsors,
18:12and they provide all of our veterans with Wiley X glasses.
18:15And it's not a night vision goggle, but it was born on the battlefield.
18:18So Wiley X sunglasses were, and they became a consumer brand.
18:21And I just want to make sure that you have a nice pair of Wiley X's to support with your new shirt.
18:27And last but not least, I want to give you something that one of our donors gave to us
18:34and asked that we make sure that we give to our veterans.
18:37And it's from the Montana Silver Company, and it's a dog tag there.
18:42But it's a little something special, and it's got a little card here that kind of tells you a little bit more about it.
18:47But I just wanted to say thank you for your service, and we appreciate you and all the things that you've done for our freedoms.
18:52I appreciate it.
18:54You're a true American hero, and you do deserve that cross, that flight cross.
18:59Yeah, you know, again, I don't think anybody thinks of themselves like that.
19:04And I certainly don't.
19:05I know you don't.
19:06And it's...
19:07But I can call you a hero, and I'm sure your daughter calls you a hero.
19:10She should.
19:11I'm...
19:12Yeah.
19:13There are people standing duty right now that are heroes.
19:14So...
19:15Yeah.
19:16And it...
19:17I certainly...
19:18I certainly never wanted any recognition, and the people that I work with don't want recognition.
19:38What makes you go is to help other people.
19:44Yes.
19:45And so I never...
19:48I just wanted to help other people.
19:51I wanted to do something extraordinary.
19:54I wanted to be able to do what they did in Vietnam, you know.
20:03I just wanted to be able to save people from above, you know, be above, to fly helicopters and to save lives.
20:17So that's all I wanted to do.
20:20So I didn't want recognition then, but I appreciate it.
20:24Thank you very much.
20:26If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes, or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org, and click on the Nominate button.
20:43I'll see you next time.
20:44I'll see you next time.
20:45Bye.
20:46Bye.
20:47Bye.
20:48Bye.
20:49Bye.
20:50Bye.
20:51Bye.
20:52Bye.
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