1
00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:15,740
How the military or special operations
views the importance of an optic is not

2
00:00:15,740 --> 00:00:17,980
in the category of sport.

3
00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:21,300
It's in the category of life or death.

4
00:00:22,780 --> 00:00:24,240
It makes the difference.

5
00:00:24,940 --> 00:00:31,840
Shaving a second off of a target
acquisition over your adversary means

6
00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:32,840
win. He doesn't.

7
00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,080
You go home. He doesn't.

8
00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:38,860
And that's extremely critical because on
the other end is a family.

9
00:00:39,470 --> 00:00:44,390
a team that relies on you, a country
that has dispatched you to represent

10
00:00:44,390 --> 00:00:46,230
abroad and defend their freedoms.

11
00:00:46,970 --> 00:00:49,370
And so it's not just an object to us.

12
00:00:51,130 --> 00:00:52,130
It's our lives.

13
00:01:44,490 --> 00:01:48,970
My father came from South Africa when he
was 18 or 19 years old to go to school

14
00:01:48,970 --> 00:01:55,950
here. Proving that he could come here
and build a company with all these

15
00:01:55,950 --> 00:02:01,130
employees and make a product that's
accepted and now accepted around the

16
00:02:01,290 --> 00:02:03,870
I think that's the essence of the
American dream.

17
00:02:04,970 --> 00:02:08,949
For the first 22, 23 years, he was still
working at Ford Motor.

18
00:02:09,169 --> 00:02:12,170
My dad said he used his brain there for
a week a year.

19
00:02:12,620 --> 00:02:16,080
He got awards there for different things
he suggested, but he still said he

20
00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:18,580
didn't feel like he was using his
potential.

21
00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:28,840
He's had quite a resume. He was working
for Ford at that time, and he had worked

22
00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:30,880
for a company that built things for
NASA.

23
00:02:31,300 --> 00:02:33,760
Everything that Trujillo makes, he
designed it at night.

24
00:02:34,180 --> 00:02:38,900
He was the designer, I was the
machinist, and then Stephen would

25
00:02:38,900 --> 00:02:39,900
parts.

26
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:48,780
He developed a rifle scope and iron
sights, but it wasn't really different

27
00:02:48,780 --> 00:02:51,300
or his until he developed the ACOG.

28
00:02:51,860 --> 00:02:57,680
He realized the prism in a binocular, if
you put a reticle behind that, that

29
00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:04,300
then you could adjust that prism itself
and make a very compact and very strong

30
00:03:04,300 --> 00:03:06,600
scope, which became the ACOG.

31
00:03:07,460 --> 00:03:09,520
So that's when something became...

32
00:03:10,310 --> 00:03:15,350
more distinctly ours, and it didn't do
very well. Sales were very low. The

33
00:03:15,350 --> 00:03:17,270
company was carried by Ironsight sales.

34
00:03:17,630 --> 00:03:23,970
Until 2004, we sold 100 ,000 of these.
It was 18 years.

35
00:03:24,290 --> 00:03:28,810
In the next 18 months, we sold the
second 100 ,000 to the Marine Corps, and

36
00:03:28,810 --> 00:03:33,390
had to go from a couple hundred a month
to eventually get to 13 ,000 a month of

37
00:03:33,390 --> 00:03:34,390
the four -power aircraft.

38
00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:40,140
So there's a lot of history in this
room.

39
00:03:41,220 --> 00:03:46,780
We've got a lot of our products, birth
times, a lot of my dad's patents, and

40
00:03:46,780 --> 00:03:47,820
original drawing of the ACOG.

41
00:03:48,340 --> 00:03:54,120
I find it incredible that my father was
able to see a prism right here and a

42
00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:59,040
pair of binoculars, then run it all the
way through to a product. And in a

43
00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:02,020
matter of a couple months, he went from
the idea to here.

44
00:04:08,190 --> 00:04:09,190
The U .K.

45
00:04:09,870 --> 00:04:13,290
military were spending money on a very
similar design.

46
00:04:13,750 --> 00:04:18,910
The difference was that prism in the
middle and moving that prism versus

47
00:04:18,910 --> 00:04:19,930
the entire scope.

48
00:04:20,269 --> 00:04:23,670
To make something strong enough for the
military, if you're going to adjust the

49
00:04:23,670 --> 00:04:27,810
entire scope, the whole mechanism has to
be huge and very, very heavy, at least

50
00:04:27,810 --> 00:04:30,850
double if not triple the weight. The U
.K. government and the Canadian

51
00:04:30,850 --> 00:04:34,250
government both spent 20 years and
millions of dollars to develop something

52
00:04:34,250 --> 00:04:37,190
similar, but that couldn't really keep
up.

53
00:04:42,219 --> 00:04:46,820
Hi, my name is Josh Varner. I've worked
here at Trijicon for 22 years now. I'm

54
00:04:46,820 --> 00:04:47,820
the machining manager.

55
00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,360
We're here in the machining building,
and I'm about to take on a quick little

56
00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:52,740
tour, and we'll start with the admin
building.

57
00:04:53,840 --> 00:04:55,480
So here we have the admin room.

58
00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:57,900
We like to say this is where all the
magic happens.

59
00:04:58,220 --> 00:05:01,840
When the engineers finish designing a
product in the computer, they send us

60
00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:04,960
the model, and our programmers work
on...

61
00:05:05,310 --> 00:05:09,190
creating the program for the CNC
machines and our engineer works on

62
00:05:09,230 --> 00:05:10,630
design tools, all that jazz.

63
00:05:10,850 --> 00:05:16,930
The fun part is watching the animation
of the machine in action once it's

64
00:05:16,930 --> 00:05:17,930
actually programmed.

65
00:05:18,730 --> 00:05:24,490
Mathematically everything is identical
to the machine and this helps protect us

66
00:05:24,490 --> 00:05:29,750
from machine collisions and also gives
us a lot of information about our final

67
00:05:29,750 --> 00:05:30,750
result on the part.

68
00:05:31,260 --> 00:05:35,760
So we use this to find mistakes before
we make them in the real world.

69
00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:45,980
Right now we have 19 CNC machines on our
floor, 10 mils and 9 lathes. They each

70
00:05:45,980 --> 00:05:49,380
machine parts differently and we have to
use them all in conjunction to make a

71
00:05:49,380 --> 00:05:50,239
complete part.

72
00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:52,520
So this is a good example of why we use
aluminum.

73
00:05:52,940 --> 00:05:57,780
You can see it's pretty lightweight,
very easy, but it's very strong.

74
00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:03,800
If this same piece of material was
steel, it'd probably weigh 15 to 20

75
00:06:03,980 --> 00:06:05,040
This only weighs one.

76
00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:10,500
Your average soldier has to carry 75
pounds of equipment on his person at all

77
00:06:10,500 --> 00:06:15,860
times. So every ounce we can shave off
an optic is every ounce a soldier has to

78
00:06:15,860 --> 00:06:17,340
carry less when he's on the field.

79
00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:20,320
A part's done in here.

80
00:06:20,860 --> 00:06:22,140
We want to take a look.

81
00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:25,580
So you can see this is the vertical
axis.

82
00:06:26,270 --> 00:06:30,410
And this is the tool inside the tool
holder that comes down and does its

83
00:06:30,490 --> 00:06:34,650
When it's done, the machine stops. Then
this whole table will rotate so that

84
00:06:34,650 --> 00:06:37,450
this feature is up, and it will do the
same thing.

85
00:06:40,030 --> 00:06:43,710
We make a lot of parts, and the way we
identify them is with a serial number.

86
00:06:44,110 --> 00:06:47,870
And the way that we put a serial number
on a forging is with a laser etcher. We

87
00:06:47,870 --> 00:06:52,450
actually burn the number into every one
of our housings that we make with our

88
00:06:52,450 --> 00:06:53,449
laser etcher.

89
00:06:53,450 --> 00:06:54,450
So this...

90
00:06:54,670 --> 00:06:58,290
You can see, laser etched housing, this
has been through the first operation.

91
00:06:58,630 --> 00:07:02,450
And one machine on the other side of the
floor is a lathe that holds it and

92
00:07:02,450 --> 00:07:05,330
spins it while tools come in there to
remove all of this material.

93
00:07:05,690 --> 00:07:10,650
You can see the light breakers to reduce
reflection, all the high -pitched

94
00:07:10,650 --> 00:07:14,030
threads that we use for all the lens
retainers, and the back through hole on

95
00:07:14,030 --> 00:07:18,950
that. Then it gets pictured up onto this
machine over here, where it does all

96
00:07:18,950 --> 00:07:20,470
the rest of the main housing features.

97
00:07:21,010 --> 00:07:23,270
This feature right here we call the
racetrack.

98
00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:27,040
This is an external feature. It sticks
out, you can see, just slightly right

99
00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:29,320
there. This is the mating eyepiece.

100
00:07:29,540 --> 00:07:33,740
It has the same racetrack feature on it,
but it's an internal feature cut into

101
00:07:33,740 --> 00:07:34,439
the part.

102
00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:38,960
When you match up the mating housing and
the mating eyepiece and squeeze them

103
00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,380
together, we machine it with such
precision that it sticks together by

104
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:48,940
Certain features are harder to machine
than others, and we like to check on

105
00:07:48,940 --> 00:07:49,940
those from time to time.

106
00:07:50,100 --> 00:07:52,940
And a lot of times what I'm checking for
is little tiny birds.

107
00:07:53,580 --> 00:07:58,580
Because if you have a little tiny burr
on something that's threaded, when you

108
00:07:58,580 --> 00:08:02,500
to screw it in an assembly, it catches
and it makes their life very difficult.

109
00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:04,520
So we need to get rid of the sharp
edges.

110
00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:06,940
So that all happens in this room.

111
00:08:09,300 --> 00:08:15,780
What happens is that heart and tiny
ceramic stones get dumped into this bowl

112
00:08:15,780 --> 00:08:16,759
the same time.

113
00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:21,860
When the machine starts, the side of the
bowl stays static. It doesn't move.

114
00:08:22,330 --> 00:08:25,390
But the bottom of the bowl spins very
fast.

115
00:08:25,650 --> 00:08:29,830
And what that does is it creates a
vortex of rocks and parts.

116
00:08:30,090 --> 00:08:34,409
And these ceramic rocks rub off all of
those sharp edges.

117
00:08:34,630 --> 00:08:37,809
So when the parts come out, they're soft
to the touch.

118
00:08:38,090 --> 00:08:39,830
So here's a part that hasn't been
tumbled.

119
00:08:40,429 --> 00:08:44,150
And you can see there's, see that sharp
edge down there?

120
00:08:44,370 --> 00:08:47,390
If I was to run my finger hard and fast
across that, it would cut my finger.

121
00:08:47,690 --> 00:08:51,090
We can't have that. Any place that's
been cut is a sharp corner.

122
00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:56,400
could have a burr sticking out that
could cut the operator when they're

123
00:08:56,400 --> 00:09:00,080
assembling it, that could disable the
function of the optic, it could

124
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,780
with assembly, and make it a non
-working optic.

125
00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:05,540
This is the part after it's been
tumbled.

126
00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:09,200
See, I can run my finger all up and down
there hard, and it's not cut.

127
00:09:09,500 --> 00:09:14,560
All the sharp corners are now smooth,
and this part is good to go, safe to

128
00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:15,560
assemble.

129
00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:17,240
You can see the finish on it.

130
00:09:17,610 --> 00:09:21,170
We sandblast every housing that we send
out before it goes to anodize.

131
00:09:21,770 --> 00:09:24,250
Anodize is the black coating that's on
all of our optics.

132
00:09:24,810 --> 00:09:29,310
And when you sandblast it, it makes for
a nice, even, matte black finish after

133
00:09:29,310 --> 00:09:30,310
anodizing.

134
00:09:33,630 --> 00:09:37,670
So to recap, most all of our main
housings come in through forging. A

135
00:09:37,670 --> 00:09:40,650
piece of aluminum that comes in like
this. It goes through all our machine

136
00:09:40,650 --> 00:09:44,550
operations, our deburring operations,
and in the end, it's sandblasted and

137
00:09:44,550 --> 00:09:45,550
to go out for anodizing.

138
00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:56,820
First time I saw this optic, I checked
in my first field team. Keep in mind,

139
00:09:56,820 --> 00:09:58,980
internet didn't exist at the time. This
was 1996.

140
00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:04,860
What was the SOPMOD kit, which was a kit
designed by Special Operations Command

141
00:10:04,860 --> 00:10:08,380
to outfit an M4 platform, this rifle.

142
00:10:08,780 --> 00:10:11,860
And that included fore grip,

143
00:10:12,620 --> 00:10:14,440
hand grip, a laser.

144
00:10:14,700 --> 00:10:17,760
But the thing that grabbed me most was
this space -age looking.

145
00:10:18,270 --> 00:10:22,450
optic. I'd never seen it before. I grew
up hunting, so I was used to magnified

146
00:10:22,450 --> 00:10:26,990
optics on hunting rifles, but nothing
like this, especially something that was

147
00:10:26,990 --> 00:10:28,230
illuminated through a little noodle.

148
00:10:28,850 --> 00:10:34,390
What this is is a fiber optic sort of
light gathering, we call it a noodle,

149
00:10:34,390 --> 00:10:39,010
rests on top. Now this transmits the
light that's received from outside of

150
00:10:39,010 --> 00:10:42,070
scope into an illuminated reticle inside
of the scope.

151
00:10:43,030 --> 00:10:45,910
The good thing about that is that
there's no batteries required.

152
00:10:47,660 --> 00:10:52,520
Any natural light creates enough light
for this fiber optic strand to

153
00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:53,520
the reticulant side.

154
00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:58,300
Now, that's extremely important when
you're in the field for a long period of

155
00:10:58,300 --> 00:11:02,960
time, particularly in a maritime,
littoral sort of environment where

156
00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:05,940
going to be wet and most times your
batteries are going to get wet, and

157
00:11:05,940 --> 00:11:09,540
you're jumping from 25 ,000 feet into
the ocean.

158
00:11:10,260 --> 00:11:14,120
going under the ocean, coming out of the
ocean, going across land, coming back

159
00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:16,100
across land, and going back out to sea
again.

160
00:11:16,460 --> 00:11:17,840
That optic has to perform.

161
00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:21,760
And the testing, the stringent testing
that goes on here at TrichCon and at

162
00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:25,220
Crane, ensure that the end user has
something dependable.

163
00:11:33,180 --> 00:11:34,860
Our products are used in...

164
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:36,160
Very different environment.

165
00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:40,500
And if we're from, like, the desert,
Iraq, Afghanistan, to very cold

166
00:11:40,620 --> 00:11:43,040
and a lot of times they're dropped out
of airplanes, right?

167
00:11:43,660 --> 00:11:47,600
They're on the weapon or in cargo boxes.
So if it's coming out of an airplane,

168
00:11:47,820 --> 00:11:52,300
very cold, very low pressure, maybe
dropped into a very humid environment,

169
00:11:52,300 --> 00:11:53,620
product needs to work when it gets wet.

170
00:11:54,420 --> 00:12:00,100
So this is one of our high - and low
-temp chambers. We have in here a couple

171
00:12:00,100 --> 00:12:01,260
our four -power ACOGs.

172
00:12:02,180 --> 00:12:03,660
That's negative 51 degrees.

173
00:12:04,620 --> 00:12:10,340
Can do temperature shock from negative
59 Fahrenheit all the way up to about

174
00:12:10,340 --> 00:12:16,520
159 Fahrenheit, and that's by
transferring from one chamber to the

175
00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:21,400
And that will stress our glue bonds,
glass inside it, and all fiber.

176
00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:25,040
Make sure that it stays together. It
doesn't come apart, come loose.

177
00:12:28,220 --> 00:12:33,540
A lot of military solicitations in
particular require a 66 -foot or a 20

178
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:35,000
immersion depth.

179
00:12:35,180 --> 00:12:39,140
That's so that the really high -end
operators like Navy SEALs can actually

180
00:12:39,140 --> 00:12:40,260
to that depth with their kit.

181
00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:45,920
So we'll put an optic inside a bucket in
here and then submerge it underwater

182
00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:48,040
and we'll hook it up to our shop air.

183
00:12:48,340 --> 00:12:52,120
We've done testing before with ACOG's
down to 100 meters I believe.

184
00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:57,380
So this is where we do our drop testing
at our night garage.

185
00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:02,700
We've done a lot of it as shown on our
wonderful floor here.

186
00:13:03,290 --> 00:13:07,350
So a lot of times we get a military
contract solicitation and requirements

187
00:13:07,350 --> 00:13:08,350
built into that for drop.

188
00:13:09,390 --> 00:13:13,970
The variables are usually height, which
are usually either one meter, meter and

189
00:13:13,970 --> 00:13:17,110
a half, or two meters. Then the other
variable is actually the test surface.

190
00:13:17,490 --> 00:13:21,830
So sometimes we'll put a piece of three
-quarter inch plywood down here and drop

191
00:13:21,830 --> 00:13:25,370
onto that if that's what the contract
solicitation calls for. And other times

192
00:13:25,370 --> 00:13:26,610
we'll drop directly onto concrete.

193
00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:35,340
So this bar is the same weight as a
fully loaded M16A2 of 8 .8

194
00:13:35,340 --> 00:13:41,080
pounds. So what this is replicating is
when we drop this upside down, it's

195
00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:44,880
basically replicating if you were a
Marine or soldier in the field with a

196
00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:48,960
loaded M16 rifle and you drop this
product on the ground and it hit in the

197
00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:53,120
case scenario of it being optic down,
the product is still going to live. One,

198
00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:54,160
two, three.

199
00:13:58,290 --> 00:14:01,070
It's really literally bulletproof. We've
seen these come back from the field

200
00:14:01,070 --> 00:14:04,230
with bullet holes through them that
still work. I can't really single out

201
00:14:04,230 --> 00:14:08,510
story that comes to mind, but there have
been many from the law enforcement and

202
00:14:08,510 --> 00:14:12,290
military community where people have
said, hey, I was in a gunfight.

203
00:14:13,830 --> 00:14:18,270
I got shot. The optic may have got shot.
My rifle got shot. And the one piece of

204
00:14:18,270 --> 00:14:21,430
kit that was still working was my
treasure gun optic, and it helped me get

205
00:14:21,430 --> 00:14:22,630
of a gunfight and live.

206
00:14:22,930 --> 00:14:25,550
And that's extraordinarily humbling when
you hear stories like that.

207
00:14:29,180 --> 00:14:34,520
Everything I do, I like to have quality,
because I know everything I do is for a

208
00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:39,040
reason. It's people behind my do's and
my don'ts. So if I mess up, that's

209
00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:40,660
on the line. I don't like to mess up.

210
00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:43,520
I want to bring people home, just like
my children.

211
00:14:44,180 --> 00:14:46,300
We have military fans, yes, we are.

212
00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:50,960
Marines, we got Marines, Navy men, we
got Army men. Don't ever call them the

213
00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:52,320
same thing. They don't like that.

214
00:14:52,860 --> 00:14:53,860
They're very competitive.

215
00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:58,700
I got four kids. My oldest two are in
the military.

216
00:15:00,300 --> 00:15:04,440
My oldest daughter, she did the military
for about four or five years.

217
00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:10,160
And now she's a police lady here in
South Carolina.

218
00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:15,720
I'm proud of them because they put their
life on the line for us.

219
00:15:15,980 --> 00:15:20,240
It takes a lot to go out there and have
courage and to do the things that they

220
00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:21,640
do to make sure everybody's safe.

221
00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:26,200
My daughter sent me a picture one time,
and she had one of our scopes on her

222
00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:28,280
rifle, and it just made me feel good.

223
00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,000
Why did it make you feel good? Because I
know I made it.

224
00:15:34,700 --> 00:15:38,880
So it made me feel good that, you know,
they're using something that we created

225
00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:39,980
to keep her safe.

226
00:15:40,580 --> 00:15:46,240
Every time when people come home,
anywhere from the Army, the Marines,

227
00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:49,640
when they come home to AFAB, I know I
did my job making what we make.

228
00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:09,140
What I see when I look at the American
flag and what I feel, an immense sense

229
00:16:09,140 --> 00:16:14,860
pride and also an immense sense of
worry,

230
00:16:15,020 --> 00:16:21,300
which I think comes from being a parent
and comes from being a

231
00:16:21,300 --> 00:16:28,060
soldier, a sailor, in that it's always
threatened,

232
00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:30,780
which means it has to be defended.

233
00:16:33,450 --> 00:16:37,210
And it unifies us under one thing.

234
00:16:40,290 --> 00:16:45,730
And it tells us as a nation, as
individuals within a nation, that you're

235
00:16:45,730 --> 00:16:47,450
covered, no matter what.

236
00:16:54,610 --> 00:16:57,750
And I'm not sure it's widely realized or
even thought about these days.

237
00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:02,460
But I don't think anybody's watching
military APCs on the intersections of

238
00:17:02,460 --> 00:17:03,980
roads like you would see in a foreign
country.

239
00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:07,020
Where your government's military is used
against you.

240
00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:11,180
Where it serves as a protective force.
You don't see that in America.

241
00:17:11,819 --> 00:17:12,960
And that's for good reason.

242
00:17:13,380 --> 00:17:14,940
And I don't ever want to see that in
America.

243
00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:17,280
I've seen it too much in foreign
countries.

244
00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:20,640
Where it gives them this sense of
security.

245
00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:22,440
But it's not for them.

246
00:17:22,780 --> 00:17:27,800
So when I see the American flag and what
it makes me feel like, pride and worry.

247
00:17:28,329 --> 00:17:33,210
But I think again, as a parent, you
worry. You worry about your kids at

248
00:17:33,310 --> 00:17:36,270
You worry about where they are, what
they're up to, what they're learning,

249
00:17:36,270 --> 00:17:37,009
they're doing.

250
00:17:37,010 --> 00:17:39,730
And I think if you're a responsible
citizen in this country, you should be

251
00:17:39,730 --> 00:17:41,050
thinking about the same thing for your
country.

252
00:17:41,610 --> 00:17:42,610
What are we doing?

253
00:17:42,830 --> 00:17:43,830
How are we doing it?

254
00:17:44,230 --> 00:17:45,370
How well are we doing it?

255
00:17:45,710 --> 00:17:46,710
Are we growing?

256
00:17:47,070 --> 00:17:48,210
Are we going in the right direction?

257
00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:01,980
If I could share anything with the
American public from my perspective, it

258
00:18:01,980 --> 00:18:06,180
be always, always, always focus on the
kids.

259
00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:13,700
Always. We had our opportunity to grow
up in a place that was safe and

260
00:18:13,700 --> 00:18:17,780
to just explore interests and learn and
grow.

261
00:18:18,120 --> 00:18:20,640
About 12 years ago...

262
00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:23,260
I started an organization called Word of
Honor Fund.

263
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:28,100
Word of Honor Fund focuses on
facilitating milestone events for these

264
00:18:28,100 --> 00:18:31,780
children, things that the father would
have done had he survived.

265
00:18:33,380 --> 00:18:38,460
But since he fell, his legacy is left to
those who knew him best.

266
00:18:39,420 --> 00:18:43,840
And so what we do at Word of Honor Fund
is we work with the mothers or the

267
00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:48,160
surviving parent to determine where
these children are in their

268
00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:52,620
and make sure it stays true to what the
father would have wanted.

269
00:18:52,980 --> 00:18:57,100
And we pair them with mentors, and these
mentors are those who knew the father

270
00:18:57,100 --> 00:19:02,780
well. So we facilitate the entire thing.
The cost of it and the coordination and

271
00:19:02,780 --> 00:19:08,620
the planning and help the mentor do the
thing with the children that the dad

272
00:19:08,620 --> 00:19:10,960
would have done, like fly fishing for
the first time.

273
00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:15,240
We have a recent story where a young
teenage boy,

274
00:19:18,889 --> 00:19:22,990
white -tailed deer hunting, and he shot
his first deer with a gun that his

275
00:19:22,990 --> 00:19:24,970
father was making for him with his best
friend.

276
00:19:25,810 --> 00:19:29,710
And so the child was able to kill his
first buck with his dad's rifle that he

277
00:19:29,710 --> 00:19:31,410
was making for him with the mentor.

278
00:19:31,970 --> 00:19:35,330
And there's nothing more powerful than a
kid hearing your dad would be proud of

279
00:19:35,330 --> 00:19:38,630
you right now from someone who knew the
father.

280
00:19:39,570 --> 00:19:40,690
It has a deeper meaning.

281
00:19:41,810 --> 00:19:45,350
That's very near and dear to me. We feel
that.

282
00:19:47,939 --> 00:19:52,240
as an example to the rest of the
American public on focusing on the kids

283
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:57,280
their growth and development to ensure
that they become good, productive adults

284
00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:59,580
as their fathers would have wanted.

285
00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:02,520
Word of Honor Fund aspired to do that.