The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 56 - Creating Sanctuary: The Journey of Iraq War Veteran Lucas Lewis And The Founding Of Project Gallantly Forward

• Scott McLean • Episode 56

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Lucas Lewis transforms his family farm into a free mountain retreat for veterans, giving them space to rest, relax, and reconnect through Project Gallantly Forward. The nonprofit offers cabins, RV hookups, and a peaceful natural setting where veterans can decompress without financial burden.

• Founded by Iraq War veteran Lucas Lewis after witnessing veterans struggle with civilian transition
• Named to honor the 10th Mountain Division's 171st Cavalry and their motto "Forward"
• Provides completely free 3-5 day stays in cabins that sleep families of six
• Features a disc golf course, interaction with farm animals, and access to hiking trails
• Run by Lucas and his wife Christine, who manages grant writing while working full-time
• Future plans include transitional housing for homeless veterans and those recently released from incarceration
• Building a 50x30 conference center to accommodate veteran groups and events
• Partners with local organizations to offer classes in farming, gardening, and other skills
• Annual fundraiser held in December features an "ugly sweater party"

If you're a veteran interested in staying at the retreat, visit ProjectGallantlyForward.org to check availability and book your stay. Veterans interested in volunteering or those who wish to donate can also find information on the website.


Scott McLean:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McLean, coming to you from the One man, one Mic Foundation studio located in Boca Raton, florida. One man, one Mic Foundation. We work with veterans and teach them how to podcast from concept to publishing, for free, and we also have a storytelling course because, well, a veteran's story is their biggest strength. And now we have our own studio, things are good and we're out there. We're ready to help you.

Scott McLean:

So if anybody any veterans listening to this and you want to learn how to podcast, get in touch with us at OneManOneMikeFoundation at gmailcom and we will get you up and running. It's kind of an intimidating thing for people to start a podcast. I learned it firsthand, so I help you along and it's all free. And with that said, my guest today is Lucas Lewis. Lucas was introduced to me through a friend of mine, chris O'Brien, who I was stationed with in the Philippines back from 87 to 89. And we've been friends ever since and he lives in Chattanooga, tennessee, now and he reached out to me the other day and he said hey, I got somebody that I think you'd like to meet. Lucas is the founder and president of Project Gallantly Forward. How are you doing, lucas?

Lucas Lewis:

I'm doing well, sir. Thank you for taking time to talk to me today.

Scott McLean:

My pleasure. So tell us a little about yourself. You're a veteran right? Yes, sir and how did all that start? How did all of that start?

Lucas Lewis:

um. So, to be honest, I went in the army to pay off student loans. Uh, back in 2004, um, I finished my college degree. I got my bachelor's degree in exercise and health science. I piled up a bunch of student loans and the Army said, hey, we'll pay them off. So I decided why not go be a forward observer for the Army and get out of debt?

Scott McLean:

There you go. How long did you serve for?

Lucas Lewis:

I got out in December of, well, January of 2008.

Scott McLean:

Okay, did you do any tours?

Lucas Lewis:

I went to iraq twice, so I spent uh about 12 months in baghdad on a qrf team and qrf uh, quick reaction force. So if, if things went bad, we we went and uh went and helped. So we we got to see quite a bit of interesting things during that time. And then my second tour. I was the rto, which is the radio operator and the ford observer for our sniper team, for my unit up in the up in northern iraq northern iraq.

Scott McLean:

Okay, how long were you there for on that tour?

Lucas Lewis:

um, I was there from september to uh beginning of january when, when I got the hardship discharge and uh got out of the military got out okay, okay, uh.

Scott McLean:

Did you bring anything back with you, if you know what I mean from uh any of these tours?

Lucas Lewis:

yeah, I mean I didn't even, I didn't even realize it till years later, but I mean it took time. But yeah, I mean anger issues, anxiety, all of the above.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah. And so you did your time. You got out. How was the transition when you got out? So you said it was a hardship, so I can't think that it was an easy transition at that point.

Lucas Lewis:

So my transition was a little wild. I was in the mountains of northern Iraq getting ready to go on a mission on December the 26th mountains of northern iraq, getting ready to go on a mission on december the 26th and I was out of the military on january the 10th. Wow, so I was. I was literally in country, uh and and out of the military in like 15 days wow, that is quite a transition well I, I had no transition at all.

Scott McLean:

None.

Lucas Lewis:

When I got back to Fort Drum I walked in and all of my stuff was done. They said sign, go get your duty to 14. You're out of the military. So I got my. My dad had lost his eyesight and um and I I got out to go take care of my dad.

Scott McLean:

So you went right from Iraq into this world of now. You're a caretaker.

Lucas Lewis:

Correct, taking care of my dad and trying to figure out civilian life.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah, that is a very unique transition, my friend.

Lucas Lewis:

Oh, it was definitely interesting yeah.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, what were some of the things while you were in the middle, like that's such a like a snap of the finger, literally boom. How, how did you feel about? Like, what were some of the things you were trying to deal with? I know you probably missed your all your, your friends and your team and, like that, just all of a sudden it's gone team and like that, just all of a sudden it's gone.

Lucas Lewis:

Yeah, I mean, I went from. I went from living in a living in a tent with seven or eight other guys to being back home with my wife and I mean, just just overnight I mean I I'd wake up all the time looking for my service weapon, like where's that it should be beside me, and it wasn't there. So it it was definitely a transition. It wasn't easy. Um, I, I did some. I worked for my father-in-law and did some tree tree service work with him for a while and then I started doing some random security jobs and then I ended up at the tennessee valley authority uh, working nuclear, nuclear security for them. And I did that for seven years before I joined what they call the composite adversary force, that is, a group of guys who travel the country testing all of the physical security of the nuclear plants. And so I did that for almost two years and then after that I got out of the nuclear industry.

Scott McLean:

Wow, so backtracking a little when you got out. I'm sure the other side of the coin was your wife was kind of happy you were home.

Lucas Lewis:

Oh, she was ecstatic.

Scott McLean:

Alive. I don't mean to be blunt, but you're not necessarily, you weren't in necessarily the job that had. You know, like he's a cook which is nothing wrong, being a cook in the army yeah, I'm not disparaging any of it, but as a spouse, yeah, she knew.

Lucas Lewis:

She knew there was a high possibility of of me not coming home, so that was definitely a relief when when I was no longer, when I was no longer active duty kids uh, we didn't have a kid until 2014.

Scott McLean:

Okay.

Lucas Lewis:

So no kids. He's 11 now, but yeah, we didn't have any kids until 2014.

Scott McLean:

So that always adds another aspect to the whole situation too.

Lucas Lewis:

Yeah, I can't imagine having kids and being on active duty. That's just crazy.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah. So you went through the Tennessee Valley Authority, you get into the nuclear security thing, and so when did you start Project Gallantly Forward?

Lucas Lewis:

Well, first of all, let's talk about the name forward is the motto of my unit at 10th mountain division, 171 calf. Um, it was actually decommissioned back in july, so it it no longer exists again. Um, they decommissioned it because a lot of the from what I understand, all of the calf scouts are no longer, that's no longer an mos, and so there's no reason to have calf units anymore. So they decommissioned. Wow, that's that's my understanding. I could be could be wrong. I mean, I've been out a long time, but that was my understanding of of why it got decommissioned did you uh keep in touch with anybody from your unit?

Lucas Lewis:

uh, I have a whole host of guys for my unit that I mean I've got. I've got guys that I talk to hourly, not daily hourly.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, just like me and Chris right, we've been in touch for I don't know. We met each other in 87, 88. We got out, we kind of did our little thing separate, but then we got a reunion together and for the last 30 years he hears from me, whether he likes it or not.

Lucas Lewis:

That's right.

Scott McLean:

That's how it should be to hear each other, hear from each other, no matter what yeah, and that camaraderie, uh, amongst my friends that I was stationed with in the philippines, is like no other. It's a different camaraderie when you're overseas with people than you are stateside it is, it's a.

Lucas Lewis:

It's a totally different element.

Scott McLean:

It is an absolute bond. I mean through good times, bad times, through even the people that you might not have liked so much. You find later on in life you're like that's my boy, that's my girl, right there, you know what I mean. We were there.

Lucas Lewis:

They're not too bad now.

Scott McLean:

They're not too bad now. Exactly, I think any veteran listening to that understands exactly what you just said they're not too bad now.

Lucas Lewis:

So we chose the name because we wanted to honor the unit, we wanted to honor the soldiers that were lost in combat, but ultimately I want to honor and I want to remember the guys who didn't make it once they got home, the transition to civilian life and being out of the military. They couldn't handle it, they couldn't deal with it and they're no longer with us. That's who I really think about when I think about the project and what we're here and what we want to do is we want to take care of veterans and take care of those guys who are struggling and those girls that are struggling and help them get back on their feet, give them that community and and give them a safe, a safe area and a safe group of people that they know that, hey, if I need something, I can call these people, and it doesn't matter if it's 2 AM, they're going to answer the phone.

Scott McLean:

So give me the beginnings of this. Where was the seed planted? When did you say you know what? Because starting a nonprofit it isn't easy. You really have to. If you're going to do it right, you have to know your purpose, but that purpose has to come to you somehow. So when did it come to you? You're like you know what? This is what I want to do and this is how we're going to do it.

Lucas Lewis:

It's been in the back of my head since probably 2010. Just seeing veterans struggle and seeing the hard paths that they take Instead of taking the easy path that's there in front of them. For some reason, it's like, hey, that looks really hard, I'm going to go do that instead. I kept seeing that with friends and with other veterans that I met, that instead of doing the easy thing, it's like, hey, I'm going to do the most difficult thing I can do to get through life, I'm going to make this as hard as I can. And I just kept seeing that repeat over and over and over and over again. And so 2010 is probably when I first had the thought of starting a nonprofit, and I mean I hate the fact that it took me almost 13 years to actually to get it up and going and get to a point where, financially and family wise and just me being able to actually start it and and make it happen. I hate that it took 13 years, but I'm one of the.

Lucas Lewis:

I'm a firm believer that, um, you, you know, chris. So I'm I'm rather a religious guy. I believe in god and I believe that when, when he is ready for you to do things, things are going to fall into place and it's going to happen, and that's that's what happened with a nonprofit in 2023. The land came for sale that we needed to be able to do the nonprofit, which is attached to my family farm. We were able to have the funding to be able to get the lawyer to set up everything correctly so that there's no questions about it not being legitimate. We had a very good lawyer that set up everything. She did all the non-profit stuff. We didn't try to do it ourselves and so everything's still in the place like it was supposed to, just like it was it was meant to be so, with all that said, I know the listeners are probably like but what is it?

Scott McLean:

what do do? But I wanted to purposely lead up to that because it's actually all the nonprofits that I interview are pretty cool and unique, and yours is no different. That's a little different than most. So tell the listeners, viewers, what Project Gallantly Forward does listeners, viewers, what what project gallantly forward does.

Lucas Lewis:

So something we just currently did was because project gallantly forward doesn't tell you a lot like when you hear that you're like, cool, you're a veteran non-profit, what do you do? So we just added um, a project gallantly forward veterans retreat to all of our stuff. We're actually going to change all of our social media over to that so that when you see it you know hey, this is a veteran's retreat. This is a cool place for veterans to go to get away for free, to rest and relax, recuperate and just get back on my feet. Give me a few days off. It doesn't cost me any money, except for getting there and my food. My accommodations are taken care of.

Lucas Lewis:

So that's that's what we do, and we have set aside about 10 acres of it. We currently have two cabins that will sleep a family of six very easily apiece. We have three RV spots that have water and electric hookups, and then we're actually breaking ground on our 50 by 30 conference center next week. That will allow us to bring in conferences and more people and give more space for groups to come in and be able to work and be able to, to be able to utilize the facility and it's up in the mountains right correct, it's up in the mountains, it's.

Lucas Lewis:

It's on the farm that I've lived on since I was five. Um, I'm a little biased, but it is. It's extremely gorgeous. It's very gorgeous. It's very peaceful. Honestly, I couldn't see myself living anywhere else.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, every good podcast interviewer should do their homework. And I went and looked and I was like that's why I say it's pretty cool, that's beautiful up there. I saw some pictures.

Lucas Lewis:

Yeah, it's an amazing piece of property. The pictures, they don't do it justice.

Scott McLean:

No, I wouldn't think so.

Lucas Lewis:

There's some cool pictures and we've caught some cool shots and stuff. But until you're there and you can sit outside in the rocking chair and see nothing but stars and listen to crickets, it's a different experience.

Scott McLean:

It's just, it's a different experience. And is it so? It's nationwide, so any veteran from around the country that hears this or find you online can just get in touch with you and say, hey, do you have a space available?

Lucas Lewis:

So we actually have a booking tool online so you can actually just you can go in and you can just book your dates online. Really, what's the website there Is? Is it on your? It's on our website.

Scott McLean:

it's a link on our website and it's project gallantly forwardorg and go in there and see what's available.

Lucas Lewis:

It's kind of like a uh veterans airbnb correct, except for I don't charge you for it exactly.

Scott McLean:

You mean wait, wait, there's, no, there's no.

Lucas Lewis:

Uh 50 cleanup charge so the only thing there is is there is we, we're gonna, we're gonna put a 50 old on your credit card, yeah, so if you get wild and you break something, then I've got your credit card information so I can, I can make you, make you help me, uh, pay to fix those things. But as long as, as long as you leave it like you found it, you get your 50 bucks back and it's, it's a totally free stay so what are the uh, what are the most popular times that people take advantage?

Scott McLean:

veterans and their families take advantage of?

Lucas Lewis:

well, honestly, we just finished the cabins, so we have our. We have our first veterans that are coming to stay in the cabins on labor day weekend, unless somebody decides they're going to come before them.

Scott McLean:

Wow, beautiful. So what is the time frame that they can stay up to Three?

Lucas Lewis:

to five days.

Scott McLean:

Three to five days, correct, yeah, which makes sense.

Lucas Lewis:

Yeah, I don't need any freeloaders coming in and being like, hey, I'm just going to live in this cabin for the next six years.

Scott McLean:

Hey, can I extend this another two weeks? Hey, which would probably. That's not that far-fetched, I don't even know. It's not that far-fetched.

Lucas Lewis:

We've got some cool stuff on the farm. I've got one more hole left to finish for a nine hole disc golf course. Um, that's a permanent nine hole disc golf course for the retreat and then um you said a disc golf course, ah cool.

Lucas Lewis:

So we've got that um. I think she put some pictures on facebook of we. We kind of played the eight holes that I've got done. We played it the other day just to see how it went and the kids enjoyed it. So it was, it was a lot of fun. And then we've got cattle. Because it's a it's a californ um, so there's cattle walking around on the farm at all times. On that um, we're working on partnering with some different people on the mountain. We already got one partnership with another farm, but we're wanting to partner with some other people so that they can come out and just do classes and stuff for veterans, like farming classes, gardening classes, stuff like that, so that veterans can learn a little bit. And then we're also looking at getting a couple of miniature animals a couple of miniature cows, a couple of miniature donkeys and stuff, so that when veterans are there they can actually interact with those animals and feed them and help take care of them.

Scott McLean:

That's. That's a big thing. Interacting with, with animals is a big. I don't know anyone that's ever walked away from that saying it was okay.

Lucas Lewis:

Right, especially with some little cute miniature cow that runs up and wants to play with you mean it's?

Scott McLean:

yeah miniature cow we have um, so I do my equine therapy and regular listeners of the podcast know that I I do my equine uh assisted uh program through the herd foundation in delray beach and they have too many uh mini horses which are very, very cool horses and they're right in there with the bigger horses and you know they don't know any difference, but they're just really they're very cool to interact with for sure. What's the veteran community like uh around chattanooga in the surrounding area?

Lucas Lewis:

um, it's growing. Before the last probably five years, it was very disorganized. You had a bunch of different veteran organizations all doing different things and no one talking and no one communicating and no one helping. They were all just. They were all on their own little paths. Recently, the Veteran Coalition in Chattanooga has started bringing all of that together and there's a core group that work really hard at making sure that veterans know the different things that are available in the Chattanooga area and the different things that are available to them to help them to succeed, not only just in their personal life but their professional life. So it's it's really cool to see watching all these different groups start to come together and work together and have a common goal, instead of seeing 50 organizations working parallel not getting anything done collaboration is important correct whether it's a for-profit or nonprofit with veterans, collaboration is important.

Scott McLean:

Give the veteran as many options on the same plate as possible, right.

Lucas Lewis:

Yep.

Scott McLean:

So is it a large veteran community? Is it like the people that come in? I'm just curious about the demographic of the veteran that comes to Chattanooga. Are they from Chattanooga or are they just?

Lucas Lewis:

I've been there and Chattanooga is a beautiful place, so there's a lot of veterans in Chattanooga, like a lot of veterans If you, if you pay attention and you drive through Chattanooga and you look at the license plates, I would say there's probably 25% of those license plates have something veteran on them. I mean I was driving up 27 yesterday and I saw four disabled veteran license plates just driving through downtown in a 10-minute period.

Scott McLean:

Wow Okay.

Lucas Lewis:

It's a big population and Chattanooga and the surrounding area is just exploding. People are moving here from all over the country, and so it's.

Lucas Lewis:

It just keeps growing so, but it's a good community. I think veterans work really hard to try to take care of each other in the community, like we're. I had a veteran reach out that there used to be a fishing tournament that was in Chattanooga for veterans. Well, they stopped doing it. Well, he was like hey, do a fishing tournament for me. And I said no, I was like you, do a fishing tournament. I was like I'll help. I was like you can use the nonprofit, we can use, we can use all of our stuff. And I said you're in charge, since you're a fishing tournament.

Lucas Lewis:

I was like I'm sorry, buddy, I was like I would love to do it for you but I don't have time. Okay, but I'll help you be successful. And he has grabbed that that. He has grabbed that fishing tournament by the horns and he has so many things that are donated and he has so many veterans that are interested. And, um, right now we're we're just working on getting more boats so that we can have that your head boats for the veterans to get on and go fish. So it's really cool watching the community grow and watching those things happen.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, and that does bring community together, even non-veterans that love to get involved just out of respect or just to help out, and that's a great way to do it, saying hey, you can do this and I like that. You said I can help you be successful with this. It wasn't a just do it, I don't have time, just go do this, I don't have time.

Lucas Lewis:

The fact that you handed it off and you gave him the tools and the support to let him do it, that's, that's amazing oh, I'll be honest right now that man is reaching more veterans daily than our nonprofit is reaching, because when you put on Facebook, hey, I'll take you fishing for free If you're a veteran. That man is fishing with veterans every other day and as soon as he retires, he will be fishing with veterans every day.

Scott McLean:

Did he start his own nonprofit through that, or does he just do it on his time, on his own time?

Lucas Lewis:

Right now he's just doing it on his own time. Wow, good for him. We're we're working on on making an umbrella under our non-profit so that he has he has his own umbrella and he can do his own thing that's great, man, that's great, uh.

Scott McLean:

So so running a nonprofit isn't isn't easy, right, it can be if you don't want it to be successful. It's just my opinion, uh. And the thing that makes a nonprofit run is money. Right, funding donations Uh, if somebody wants to donate to project, gallantly forward because there's always people out there that might love what you're doing. Or if you're in the tennessee area, chattanooga area, how would somebody go about donating to your?

Lucas Lewis:

so there's also a donate page on the website. So, and the website again is project gallantly forward dot org yep don Yep.

Scott McLean:

There you go. Do you do a fundraisers Like do you have a big event once a year or anything like that?

Lucas Lewis:

So we're actually planning our end of the year. We do an ugly sweater party because we got our official, our official letter stating that we had been accepted as a nonprofit.

Lucas Lewis:

Congratulations of 2023. So we were like, okay, well, what kind of what can we do in the next two months for a big fundraiser? And I, we were like, hey, there's an ugly sweater pub crawl happening, so we'll just jump on their heels and we'll do an ugly sweater fundraiser the same night, earlier in the night, and so now that's kind of become our. Our thing is we, this will be our, we're going to do it on december the 5th, our big fundraiser, for just our big get together to to tell people what we're doing and give people updates and and just have a good time and that's at the end of the year.

Scott McLean:

And what? December? Yeah, it'll be december the 5th okay, do you guys have a veterans day, uh, anything, an event or get together?

Lucas Lewis:

so I've I've learned that if you try to do events on big holidays, you don't get a big turnout because everyone already has plans. Yeah, like everyone else already has stuff that they do on Veterans Day, everybody already has stuff they do on Memorial Day. So we, we have learned that we we try to avoid those major holidays and we just, we just like what our point is, we're just going to open a retreat.

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Lucas Lewis:

Somebody wants to come hang out. They want to get away. They're more than welcome to come, come hang out and get away. But we, we really avoid those big major holidays just because there's there's so much going on.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah. What is there to do in the winter time up there for veterans? That might be interested in that type of weather, not me.

Lucas Lewis:

Winter winter's a little winter's a little hit or miss. On the mountain where we live, I mean, we're always 10 degrees cooler than the chattanooga um we we do get snow on the mountain, so it's definitely hit or miss, but it's it's still that same. If you want to come sit and we've got a gorgeous fire pit that we've got built, so that would be, it'd be a great winter thing just to come and build a fire and sit around the fire, just chill and relax and drink coffee and hot chocolate. So that's, that would be my big winter thing. We also have, uh, the Cumberland Trail is right down the road from us, so there is a ton of hiking in our area. So anybody that likes to to go hiking or anything, that's, that's your round, you can hike that anytime how long is the cumberland trail for the listeners?

Scott McLean:

do you know?

Lucas Lewis:

I don't even know. It starts up in kentucky. It's yeah, I was gonna say it's pretty long. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it starts up in kentucky and it comes all the way down through and goes into a part of georgia, if I believe, if I'm correct yeah, kind of like tennessee kind of like that, the another version of the appalachian trail right yeah, it's like a. It's like a baby and yeah, like a baby appalachian trail yeah, there you go.

Scott McLean:

Well, is there anything else you want to uh talk about as far as the foundation goes, or anything you want to? Again, if you want to donate, go to their website. They have a donate button at projectgallantlyforwardorg. Yeah, is there anything else you want to talk?

Lucas Lewis:

I think the only thing that I have is if anybody else out there has any ideas of how to get more funding, for I've got a bunkhouse, that I've got a four bedroom house on the farm that we're wanting to use as transitional living for veterans, homeless veterans, veterans who just came out of jail for DUI, stuff like that. I mean I can't take felony guys or something like that.

Scott McLean:

Right right.

Lucas Lewis:

I got to take guys that I can trust because I mean, we are on a family farm but for those veterans that are just struggling a little bit, we have a four-bedroom house that we can use as a bunkhouse. But I am striking out, figuring out how to fund funding. Yeah, because I have to have a full-time, I have to have full-time employees to be able to run that bunkhouse. I have to have full-time employees to be able to run that bunkhouse. I have the nonprofit and I also run Saudi Daisy Speed Shop and Auto Repair. We're a full-time, full-service shop. We build cars too and we have the farm. I don't have time to run a bunkhouse and make sure that I've got four veterans that are behaving and doing what they're supposed to. I've got to figure out a way to hire somebody. I've just struck out left and right trying to figure that out. So if anybody has any ideas on that or has a good route to get funding for that, that'd be amazing.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah, that's a whole nother animal right there.

Lucas Lewis:

Oh I know, it is definitely a whole nother animal, but you know what it's, what's needed, man?

Scott McLean:

I know it is definitely a whole other animal, but you know what? It's. What's needed, man? It's really what's needed for homeless veterans or veterans that are just trying to get back on their feet. You know, and well, if you're out there and that sounds like something that you want to get involved in, it's there and waiting, the structure is there, everything is there. Just, it's all dealing with funding and then getting people to to run that, and it's a great, great cause. It's a well-needed cause, that's for sure. But, uh, all right, lucas, well, I think we covered everything. Project gallantly forward. If you want to go up into the hills of tennessee and chattanooga and just kind of decompress and just be there. It's beautiful. Like I said, go to the website, project gallantly forward and you can see a few pictures there or do a little deep dive. It's a beautiful place, uh, it's there for you and it's free.

Scott McLean:

It's free like we're, we're also on instagram and facebook as well and it's project gallantly forward on facebook and project gallantly forward on instagram. Any underscores or anything like that, or they'll find it?

Lucas Lewis:

I don't think there is okay, okay.

Scott McLean:

So go check them out. If you're a veteran, doesn't matter where you are in the country, and this podcast reaches from South Florida up to Seattle Washington. There it is. That's an amazing opportunity. That's an amazing opportunity and all you have to do is to get there. Get there and get home, supply your own food, but I mean the rest is Project Gallantly Forward and Lucas taking care of everything else. I mean it's is is project gallantly forward and lose and Lucas taking care of everything else. I mean it's all there for you.

Lucas Lewis:

So well, we better give my wife a shout out because she does a whole lot of work. Let's talk about her.

Scott McLean:

She's the president, she's the. She's the executive director correct yeah. So let's, let's give her all the props that she deserves. Have at it, my friend.

Lucas Lewis:

So my wife's name is Christine. She has been doing. She got her degree in psychology at Bryan College. We both went to Bryan together and she just got her master's degree in coding and she she works at Blue Cross, Blue Shield shield and does does coding stuff and runs a bunch of different reports and stuff for blue cross blue shield for them to keep up with their stuff and while she's doing that she is also writing the grants and talking to the people about the non-profit stuff and talking to other directors and other non-profits to learn more. So she's she's kind of running two full-time jobs right now, so it's pretty impressive.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, that coding is not easy.

Lucas Lewis:

No, she's way smarter than I am.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, my wife's a nurse practitioner and the coding is not easy.

Lucas Lewis:

Yeah, we all seem to manage to marry up, don't we?

Scott McLean:

We certainly do, and I'll say this our friend chris, he married up also oh yes, I know chris's wife.

Scott McLean:

He definitely married up she's a good pretty, yeah, she's. She's solid. Um, well, all right, lucas, uh, again, thank you for such, for coming on at such short notice. Uh, we just got introduced two days ago and when Lucas said that he runs the garage, he wasn't lying. We were supposed to do this podcast yesterday, but he got kicked out of his office because people were working in there. He's like can I do this on my phone? I was like no, we can do this tomorrow. Yeah, you got a very busy place running over there, and good for you for that. Good for you for that, good for you for that. And thank you for everything that you do for veterans. You know, there was no time like the present right that you did it. You said, hey, you waited and everything happens for a reason, and the time you did it is when you did it. And here you are, and it's a beautiful thing, man, I appreciate what you do for us. Well, scott, thank you for taking time to talk to me today and I appreciate you having me on Absolutely. Um, so just stick around, I'm going to do my outro and then we'll kind of uh talk a little more. Well, we built another bridge today. This bridge goes from uh, it was from the mountains of Tennessee project, gallantly forward. Um, it's always good to see and talk to people that are doing really outside the box stuff for veterans, and this is a great cause.

Scott McLean:

Thanks for listening, thanks for watching. This podcast is going to go video Now. I got my hand got forced and I have to start doing that. So, and you know you, listen is the engine that runs this machine. So, thanks for listening and, as I always say, I will see you or you will hear me next week with a new episode. Oh, and stick around for the uh, the public service announcement. It's a really good one, trust me. It's only like 30 seconds long. Very informative Veterans, family members of veterans and just people in general. So give it a listen, all right.

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Scott McLean

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