EP 562. Seeing Duck Hunting–and Life–for What They Really Are

“Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, where today I have got a great story. I want to introduce you all to my friend, Joel Tavera. Joel, how the heck are you?”

Ramsey Russell: Welcome back to MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast, where today I have got a great story. I want to introduce you all to my friend, Joel Tavera. Joel, how the heck are you?

Joel Tavera: I’m doing just fine, sir. How you doing?

Ramsey Russell: I’m doing great. Man, I am so excited to be on the phone with you. And man, you know what, I met you at convention, I was there, I was minding my own business in my booth, and up walks Joel Tavara and a couple of buddies and we start talking duck hunting and a month later, here we are on the phone. Joel, where do you live?

Joel Tavera: I live in Florida.

Ramsey Russell: Where in Florida?

Joel Tavera: In the Tampa area.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. And where did you grow up? Did you grow up in Florida?

Joel Tavera: Oh, no, sir. No offense to the folks down here with a thin blood, I grew up in the great state of North Carolina.

Ramsey Russell: Really? What was growing up like for you? Like, tell me what your childhood was like. What did the young Joel Tavera do? What did you do as a child? What did you do growing up? What’d you do in North Carolina as a kid?

Joel Tavera: Other than being scared of my mother because I am a Hispanic, Joel Tavera. As a kid growing up, it was playing outside, great imagination. I stayed barefoot most the time.

Ramsey Russell: Just a barefoot little boy?

Joel Tavera: A little bit. Yeah. Even through high school, I stayed as barefoot and flip flops as often as possible or sandals. What else? I was not far from the beach, so surfed, skateboarded, snowboarded in the western part of the state. I did a lot of community service voluntarily.

Ramsey Russell: Like what kind of community service did you do growing up? Boy Scouts?

Joel Tavera: Oh, no. I couldn’t do the Boy Scout thing as a kid. My father got me involved with the Young Marines program out of North Carolina. We did a lot of things. I did a lot of work with Habitat for Humanity, then a little bit of things for Salvation Army. Ringing the bells, helping out with that, it’s not too bad. And actually I just did that recently, this last December up in Alaska for a few hours. So it’s quite nice.

Ramsey Russell: What did your dad do? What did he do? Was he in the military?

“My father was military, yes. My father totaled 24 and a half years in the military, spread between the Marine Corps and the North Carolina National Guard.”

Joel Tavera: My father was military, yes. My father totaled 24 and a half years in the military, spread between the Marine Corps and the North Carolina National Guard. So we both retired Army.

Ramsey Russell: Was he also Hispanic?

Joel Tavera: Yes. Mom and dad are both Dominican. They’re both naturalized citizens, but we’re both Dominican by birth. And because I’m born of them both, I am Dominican as well, but I’m very American without an accent.

Ramsey Russell: Well, no doubt. Now look, only because you went there am I going to bring this up, but you said you grew up scared of your mama, she was a Hispanic woman from the Dominican Republic. What is it like growing up with a Hispanic mama?

Joel Tavera: Well, I don’t know. I had a fear in her before I had a fear in God, so I will tell you that much. And most people laugh about that because you know how it is growing up as a kid. you never cross your mama, never do and I never did. But she had a look and I got that look, I just need to put my head down, just not stare, I felt really guilty for doing nothing. But she kept me and I give her credit, I have a lot of discipline, I grew up with a lot of discipline. I didn’t do anything too majorly messed up as a kid.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Joel Tavera: So never got locked up. Maybe got detention once or twice, as things just-

Ramsey Russell: Do you think that your mom and your dad become a naturalized citizen from the Dominican Republic and your dad became a naturalized citizen but then joined the military. Do you think that they brought to or did you gain a sense that them coming from the Dominican Republic to the United States of America, the land of opportunity? How did they feel about that and how did that translate into your childhood or your upbringings?

Joel Tavera: It was slightly different because my father came out, he came out not naturally. He came and not even being a citizen, he joined the United States Marine corps.

Ramsey Russell: I didn’t know you could do that.

Joel Tavera: You could join the army, you could join any service as an immigrant, and that is a pathway to your green card.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, is that why he joined the military? Because it was a pathway to becoming a citizen?

Joel Tavera: No, not at all. No, sir. Because my dad was after he had joined, he only had another 1 or 2 more years left to finish off his 5 years with his green card to apply for citizenship. And it turns out while he was on ship with the navy, Marines are off ship with the navy and he missed his call to go to the courthouse to go swear in to become a US Citizen. Then when he got back off ship, they had orders for every day, they gave the names everybody, they come and this and such, like you have to report to the courthouse and such and such there in Jacksonville, North Carolina. And they went there, they answered their questions and they swore in, became US Citizens. Not because of their military service, because every one of those, some of those guys may have been done there a few years in the military. My father already had his 5 years in the states, so he did it the right way. So no, he didn’t use the military for it. It was kind of nice just to know that like, oh, so you already, he’s like, yeah, I did have that already, I didn’t use that. My mother became a citizen medicine, I believe, 15 years ago. I called the green card plan, a lot of Hispanics in America do that. They just renew their green card every 10 years. I asked her to, and she went through the process and she’s a very proud American.

Ramsey Russell: Did either one of them ever share stories with you? I mean, you grew up surfing, you grew up in America, born and raised in America, just like nearly everybody listening. But did they ever around the supper table or maybe just to inspire you to cut the grass harder or work harder or stay out of trouble. Did they ever share with you stories about growing up in the Dominican Republic themselves and how their childhood would have contrast with the childhood in America?

Joel Tavera: Yes, we are very privileged here in America. I was very privileged as a child to have both parents available, but just they came from bigger families. I’m an only child, mother had a lot of miscarriages, and father, both mom and dad came from families of 5 and 6, so I have lots of cousins. And yeah, it comes down to that. I have lots of cousins and yeah, it’s interesting.

Ramsey Russell: Did they ever talk about the economic prosperity or the opportunities available for work, for building homes, for a lifestyle in Dominican Republic versus America? For example, I can remember my granddaddy and my daddy, we’ve all heard the stories about how harder their lives were than mine. I mean, oh, I used to have to walk to school or I used to have to walk to school and it was uphill both ways in the snow. Did they ever, how tough it was versus how the opportunities I had as a young American? Did they ever share stories about how good you had it relative to them?

Joel Tavera: Yeah, they did. Because it’s completely different situation. They did their best to make sure I got a good education and they had the basic necessities and that’s one thing being an only child, I had every necessity I needed. But like, there’s times where, they did not have what they needed. But some people were more on either side. I guess you could say one was more blessed than the other. But this is how life was. When you have bigger families, you take care, they were taken care of. It’s just they learned to deal with each other, the brothers and sisters, be respectful to mom and dad and yeah, they just kind of didn’t have as much. And even with not having as much, they were much had they were happy not having as much. Hearing stories from my dad saying, yeah, I used to pay a penny, like, this is how I learned how to ride a bike. Because I had a bike since I was like 6 or 7 and my dad would pay a penny when he was a kid just to be able to ride a bike down the street and back.

Ramsey Russell: He didn’t have a bicycle, so he would do whatever he had to do to make a little money. And he would pay a penny to the kid that did so just so he could ride a bicycle.

Joel Tavera: Yes, he would. And that’s how he learned how to ride a bike. And he told me that story, I’m like, that gave me a perspective as a kid, I would have never understood it. As an adult, as I got older, I’m like, wow. Like, I got my bike was replaced every 2 years because I was growing and I was beating the hell out of it. I mean, that’s what you do. I mean, let’s be real here.

Ramsey Russell: I had a Huffy bicycle, man. I had a Huffy bicycle. I proud of it.

Joel Tavera: I did, too. But I beat the hell out of those bikes. I did, I beat the hell out of them. I took them as often as possible, all the different places I shouldn’t have been taking them, getting stuck in places, popping tires, and just little things. So, I’ve had multiple, they’ve repurchased on the yearly until I got out of that phase of wanting to have a bike, because as I got older, it was much nicer to do the car thing.

Ramsey Russell: Well, as a little boy, I had a Huffy bike, a lot of my friends had Schwinn’s and some of these fancy bikes, I just had old Huffy, and I was proud to have it, be honest with you. But back in my childhood, we would stack up bricks and stack up stuff and put a ramp over, because back when I grew up in 70s, Evil Knievel, this guy named Evil Knievel that would jump over cars on a Harley Davidson was a big deal, and we all went and jumped stuff. And you know what I learned is God bless my little Huffy bike. But them wheels weren’t meant for that kind of pounding. So I always had to spend a lot of time on wobbly wheels versus some of them better bike. Did you all ever jump and ramp over stuff?

Joel Tavera: Yeah, we actually did that. And we often hurt ourselves doing stuff like that. It was good. Me and my best friend, we did a lot of that. Then running through the woods, finding new trails, catching crawdads, and then talking about, hey, man, you know those ditches we used to walk through? Like, those big ones underneath the road? We had no clue there were water moccasins down there. We had no clue. Like, as children, we could have been messed up. We could have been seriously hurt, but we had no fear.

Ramsey Russell: Your childhood sounds a lot like mine, Joel. A whole lot like mine. Your dad was active military, did your mom also work, or did she just raise you?

Joel Tavera: My mom worked, my mom also worked. She did work. There was a joint effort between them both, I’m very blessed to have them both. Great father, he loves me dearly, he’s always done a lot with me. At a young age, he taught me how to shoot. He waited, I think I was what, 13 start shooting me and teaching me about breathing. So I had friends that are like, age 10 getting their first shotguns, I was not that kid. I got a BB gun that was enough for my dad. I was like, okay, whatever. And dad’s never been an outdoorsman, but just wanted to make sure to see where I was at. So he taught me about breathing, eyesight, just tempo, exhales, squeeze the trigger, little things.

Ramsey Russell: What gun were you shooting with your dad? I mean, was it a BB gun or was he taking you out to shoot a real gun?

Joel Tavera: First was a BB gun, then after that, he took me from 13 to 16, 13 was a BB gun, then pellet gun, then a 22, a Ruger 1022.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah.

Joel Tavera: That was a squirrel, that was awesome. Then after that, when I turned 16, went out to the handgun range, tell me to shoot a 9mm. I want to make sure –

Ramsey Russell: I asked you yesterday, Joel, did you grow up hunting? And you said, a little bit, but not really. I mean, you really didn’t grow up like your dad being from the Dominican Republic, they probably didn’t hunt a lot, he didn’t have a background of hunting in Dominican Republican, neither your mother. But you grew up in America and you had a BB gun, maybe you had a 22, you described a squirrel gun, but you might have gone out and hunted a little bit of small game when you were young.

Joel Tavera: Friends, those of our friends, there’s always those friends. So it was fun to go hang out and we still do sleepovers, like, through middle school, and it’s like, okay, break out the BDUs, take some camo. Because friends like, hey, dude, we go hunting in the morning, you come with us? Like, why not bring a jacket, oh, never mind, we’ll get you a jacket, you don’t have any camo, just wear something. So all I could do is grab Dad’s old BDUs, put those on, and go.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Joel Tavera: And, yeah, enjoy the time just hanging out. Whether if it’s for turkey or those really fall turkey there, that’s mostly spring, but it’s for turkey or was for deer. And then deer had to be quiet, which wasn’t too bad, I was often just on my phone just texting people. But then, I got a chance to eat of the bounty, which was quite nice. Like, wow, this is nice.

Ramsey Russell: So you’re in high school, you’re hunting with friends, maybe some squirrels, turkeys, deer, were you successful? Did you kill a deer? Did you kill a turkey?

Joel Tavera: Killed a deer, I killed a doe that was about it. I never got on a nice buck. It was just a doe. That was pretty much it. I haven’t actually shot a buck in North Carolina. I’ve shot buck in Georgia, I shot buck up in Wyoming, and I’ve shot in Texas, I think.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah.

Joel Tavera: No, Alabama. But it wasn’t even a buck, that was a doe. So I’ve shot deer only a few different states and then Florida, so it’s not too bad. Little basket racks down here in Florida.

Ramsey Russell: How old were you when you joined the military?

Joel Tavera: I was 19 years old, sir. I graduated high school when I was 18, I didn’t have much of a direction in life. Now what are you going to do after high school, whenever dad used to ask me, like, dad, I’m going to go to college, I went to community college for a year to realize that college is not for everybody.

Ramsey Russell: No.

Joel Tavera: I tell people it’s okay for it to not be for you, but do something and stay connected. Because if you just fall away from it and you get lazy and you have no motivation and not a nuisance to your family, but you become a liability and also a paperweight.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, like a paperweight. That’s right.

Joel Tavera: Yeah, like a paper. Yeah, it would be proper and concise, a paperweight. So it’s good.

Ramsey Russell: What branch of military did you join?

Joel Tavera: Well, first started when I went in to go, let’s go talk to the Air Force. So dad was like, hey, you’re going to join the military, join the Air Force. The fly boys didn’t need me. Then I crossed over, went and talked to the Navy, and then I really made sense to myself. Like, what am I doing? Like, I don’t really want to be on a ship, nor do I want to be in a boat. So I went across the way to talk to the Marine Corps, which was more serious about at a younger age, and went to MEPS to get checked out. They disqualified me. The Navy would take me, but the Marine Corps wouldn’t take me.

Ramsey Russell: What is MEPs?

Joel Tavera: Medical interest it’s where you go to get all your medical stuff done.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Joel Tavera: Before processing medical evaluation processing location. There’s always one in each state, and that’s the center where you go back to after you sign your contract. And then you get on a bus, either go to the airport to fly out, or you get on the bus and head to basic training.

Ramsey Russell: So you did join the Marine Corps or no?

Joel Tavera: No, I did not join the Marine Corps. They would not allow me to join.

Ramsey Russell: So you went where? Back to the – then what?

Joel Tavera: No, I went next door over to the Army.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Joel Tavera: Oh, yeah. Well, you have to shop around because I’m not going to hold against the Coast Guard. I called the Coast Guard to get a hold of them and like, you Hispanic? Yes, sir, I am. Well, we are not looking for Hispanic men right now. We’re looking for Hispanic women, we’ll be looking for Hispanic men to enter in the next 2 years. I’m like, 2 years? Like, that’s not. No, I’m not going to wait 2 years to join anything. I wrote them off and it’s okay. I mean, I thought it was a good idea because I knew I swam pretty well, and I was like, that might be a good idea, Good option. Stateside Homeland Security, amongst a few other things, it would be pretty interesting to start that route that wasn’t my pathway. But I did go to the Army, they were my last choice. And talked to the recruiter. I mean, they’re mostly all liars. But I will say he didn’t really necessarily mislead me. I came in with a mindset there was a few jobs I wanted, he’s like, with your scores, we can guarantee any job but helicopter pilot and officer. I’m like, that’s it? Like, yeah, pretty much. What do you want? Like, it’s a big list of careers to look at. I chose communications.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Joel Tavera: I was like, how can I be a part of comms, where I can learn a trait that if I do my 4 years and decide not to stay in, I can go off and find a good job. And I didn’t have to ask them. I talked to some other people that told me, do go intel, go comms or go another job, MOS Military Occupational Specialty. Tell me a few different ones to go, I’m like, oh, like, I’ll go law enforcement. I’m like, why would I want to do that? Like no offense to law community. But like, no, it’s not for me.

Ramsey Russell: All right. So what did your dad think about you joining the Army?

Joel Tavera: I came back home, was talking to him like, hey, dad, yeah? He was like, you joined the Marine Corps like, dad they disqualify, I was thinking about the Army, to join the army, you go in the Middle east, you know that, right? You’re going into war, like, yes, sir. Well, whatever they decide to send me, my mom overheard my conversation, but my dad’s like, well, you’re not joining the military, I forbid you from joining the military. Like, what do you mean, mom? I went back to my room and I grabbed my contract like, mom, I’m leaving May 30^th. Well, that was an interesting way of, sometimes I’d rather just be pull the bandage off, it’s so much easier instead of like pulling it little by little, I’m one that just pulls it off completely. I’m a shock and all type of guy.

Ramsey Russell: Joel, you went and joined the army. Your mom said, no, I forbid you to join the military. Was there anything going on? I mean, at the time was this Desert Storm era. When would this have been and what military engagements were ongoing that she was worried about you joining the military?

Joel Tavera: 2006, we were at a height because 2003 was going into to Baghdad. 2003, Marines went north in Nazareth. This is 3 years later, a year after college. I was actually in my last – my first year of college, I was in the second semester, I was going nowhere with it. I wasn’t motivated, I just knew that if I don’t get out and do something, I’m going to be stuck here, I’m not going to do anything ever. So I took it upon myself. I was like, I didn’t know that that first contract I signed wasn’t binding, it was just me saying that I was planning on joining, I could have got out of it, but I didn’t.

Ramsey Russell: You didn’t want to?

Joel Tavera: No, I didn’t want to. Did not do the buddy program, did it solo. Made some okay friends and acquaintances that would be with from MEPs, through basic training, through advanced individual training, communication school, and then off to get orders to go other places.

Ramsey Russell: All right, so from the time you had that conversation with your mom until the time you were deployed, how much time are we talking about here? A year or two?

Joel Tavera: Two years.

Ramsey Russell: Two years. And then you were deployed and where did you go? Where did you leave and where did you arrive and what did you do?

Joel Tavera: Actually, a year and a half, to be honest. I had that conversation with my mom in March of 2006, I left for basic training, May 30^th of 2006, I graduated in August of 2006. And then I left and went to school in Georgia for 4 months and graduated in December of 2006, and then reported to my duty station 2 months later in Virginia. Yeah, it was interesting. But then that year of 2007, we got orders to leave in May, I went on my last little bit of leave to visit my family members, say bye to grandma, tell everybody I love them, hopefully I’ll see them when I get back. And then I come back. On the way back, they tell me, hey, Tavara, well, we got pushed back. We’re not leaving until October. So I was left there without any leave because I burned it all off already. And we spent most of the summer training in APL right there in Virginia. So it wasn’t up too bad. I had a lot more liberty because when we were in training, I got a lot more half days and days off to go do more fun stuff. And it was cool. It wasn’t nothing too crazy.

Ramsey Russell: So you go through this training, it gets pushed back. Did you get deployed? Where were you deployed to? Where did your unit go and what did you do?

Joel Tavera: My unit was split, actually. We got into country. They sent one of our units to Camp Delta. The other one stayed in Talil. So one was off the Tiger and one was off the Euphrates River.

Ramsey Russell: Now, wait, so you went to Baghdad?

Joel Tavera: No, I did not go to Baghdad, no. Oh, thank God.

Ramsey Russell: Where did you go?

Joel Tavera: South Iraq. Yeah, South Iraq, Nazareth.

Ramsey Russell: Within 2 years of your mom forbidding you to join the military, you joined the military, you went through all your training, and now you’re in Iraq.

Joel Tavera: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: What was that like, Joel?

Joel Tavera: It was interesting. I’m not sure how much liberty do I have to be, I got in the country like, I got to Ollie Osaline in Kuwait. The humidity at 120%, 130%. The degree is just smacks you in the face you get there. It’s ridiculous. And the jokes all start amongst all the young soldiers that never deployed. And they made reference that, hey, here one sergeant making fun of me, hey, you know what, Tavera? He’s suffering from MPA, I’m like, what’s that, sergeant? Think about it, soldier. MPH? I’m not going to, the acronym only the most military guys who are listening to this will understand what MPH stands for.

Ramsey Russell: NCH

Joel Tavera: MPH.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. MPH, mile per hour. I don’t know what that stands for.

Joel Tavera: Let’s just say my private hurts.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah. Because all the heat, humidity.

Joel Tavera: Oh, no. The female part. My female part hurts.

Ramsey Russell: I got you. Oh, yes.

Joel Tavera: Yeah, MPH.

Ramsey Russell: Suck it up, buttercup.

Joel Tavera: Pretty much it came down to that. So like I learned some things. Then we did our final, we did a few rock marches, prepared some things, took some classes, enjoyed a little bit of liberty. Then we went, zeroed our weapons out, then we packed up and then we went into Iraq, flew in and then we got situated, got off, then went to tent city before they assigned us our locations and our living areas. Then we had to hike all our stuff out, got it done, got settled, they broke us apart. And then we just had specific living areas that practically our unit was in and we had other people in other units around us. It was kind of neat. It was cool.

Ramsey Russell: How long were you in Iraq and how long were you then in Iraq and what specifically did your job entail? Tell me what your day to day was like in Iraq.

Joel Tavera: It depends. When I first got in the country, I was tasked out to a small course, I was there with two of my sergeants. I was in charge of teaching this particular thing called the Dagger. It was attached to a Blue Force tracker. And as my NCOs would teach people coming to the base, they get a course and you learn about all the technology that be inside your vehicle. Your Blue Force tracker, your MTs, your Singars and I was given one specific duty was to teach one portion to the classroom. So they put me in a teaching spot as a senior private E3, private first class. Then I did that for about a month and a half, about a month or so. And I got promoted to E4 far before my due date so below the zone. It’s automatic after a 2 years, not a year, year and a half. But I got my E4 within a year and a half versus the automatic for two years. So it’s nice. Then picked up more responsibilities, went to day shift and I just did what I was told, worked out in the motor pool, did a few other different things, stay pretty busy, get great lunches, got a chance to work out a lot and then did what I was told to do. I got tasked out to go do multiple different things to another

Ramsey Russell: Like what?

Joel Tavera: Like pack up my stuff, go to another base, go do some communication stuff, so have hopped around a little bit and then come back eventually. So it wasn’t bad.

Ramsey Russell: So you’ve been over there for a while a year and a half, it’s hotter than blue blazes, MPA, suck it up, buttercup.

Joel Tavera: Yeah, very much.

Ramsey Russell: And other than the fact it was miserable with the heat, because I’m going to tell you what right now I would be miserable in that kind of heat. And even somebody born and raised in Mississippi, I would be miserable in that kind of heat. But well, I quit other than that it sounds like it’s just a job that, I mean, was there a lot of bombs going off with a lot of shit going down around where you were? So there’s always bullets. I mean, it sounded like maybe all that was going on beyond the wall. What’s going on? What’s it like living on the base?

Joel Tavera: Not bullets. Occasionally, like every Wednesday night we had a rockets or something would hit the camp.

Ramsey Russell: Why on Tuesday night? Why not Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Joel Tavera: It was Wednesday night, actually. Wednesday night was American Idol night. So that’d be the night that you always expected something to hit the base.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, because you all are kind of like watching American Idol or something and that’d be a great time to knock off a bunch of folks.

Joel Tavera: Well, I mean, I’m not sure if that was the case, but it was always Wednesday night the alarms would go off, you go grab your helmet, go to the closest bunker, wait for it to go off, and then afterwards they do a check to make sure everybody’s alive and well accounted for.

Ramsey Russell: So was it just one rocket going off or was it like a bunch of them?

Joel Tavera: A few. Usually one or two. It was a few.

Ramsey Russell: It’s like you’re in a bunker with all your buddies, you’re helmet it up, you’re suited up and the bad guys are lobbing rockets. I mean, walk me through that because I’m trying to understand.

Joel Tavera: You’re not really suited up on the base. You’re not always suited up. I was a part of the Pope situation, the non-combat arms guys. And once we’re done with work, we’re down with work, you’d be in PTs and chilled out and relax because it’s your time off, you do whatever you want within reason. A lot of us go work out after work. So it was like a normal thing, just had normal job things to do, communications kept things going. Then I only did that for a few months and then I stayed there for only about a month. Then I was tasked out to go to another base and I went to the other base which was very primitive and there I was running wires, playing with switches and routers, it’s more of my job communication side of the house. I learned a lot and I was mentored and I was guided in a good direction to understand what I really wanted to do. In the process, I was applying to go back to college and do some other things. But yeah, a few explosions here and there, a few near falls. I don’t know. It’s been interesting and going back to that –

Ramsey Russell: So most of your career over in Iraq, most of your work duty over there, you weren’t going out on patrol, you weren’t in equipment beyond the walls, you were like running communication –

Joel Tavera: I was outside the walls.

Ramsey Russell: Okay, walk me through all this. That’s what I’m trying to understand.

Joel Tavera: The thing is, that was combat support. There’s always a combat support. So like, we did things outside the walls, not all the time, but not everyone within that realm. So it was quite interesting. I can’t really say much because it is what it is. I volunteered, anything that came down the pipeline, I volunteered to do.

Ramsey Russell: Really?

Joel Tavera: So it gave me every opportunity. Yeah, I think that was my vice. If I didn’t volunteer, I would probably never would have been hurt then I probably wouldn’t have been hurt later.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Joel Tavera: Or I may never have been hurt. So we wouldn’t be here today speaking.

Ramsey Russell: Every opportunity to volunteer, you did. I mean, I guess because volunteering and staying busy is the way to make time pass, I get that. What were some of the volunteer assignments you took?

Joel Tavera: We got to go watch and guard for the Internationals doing some work, got it. Hey, I’ve got this duty going on, we need someone who could take this duty, okay, I’ll take it. Or hey, Tavera, we need someone that would be willing to go to such and such base pack your stuff up, keep you ready in the next 2 days, yeah, no problem, sir. How long will I be there? Like you’ll get there, get settled, get it done, and then we’ll get you back. No problems. So it was one of those ordeals where like I got the influence, got the experience of going different places and seeing different things and experiencing different people, different militaries there and just about the different experiences, it was kind of nice, some scary, some little somewhere, some kind of led you near death, unfortunately, this is how it worked.

Ramsey Russell: So what were some of the scary things you saw leading up to the event?

Joel Tavera: You mean like when I was inside the vehicle?

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I mean like when you’re doing these volunteer assignments and you’re out there and I mean, there’s a war going on and you said some of it was scary. I mean, what were some of the things, situations you got into that you luckily escaped?

Joel Tavera: I’ll tell you, the one would be the day that I was injured that was probably one of the worst before that had explosion not far from me. I go off and I could have swear that my manhood disappeared because it was like that much where I felt it in my chest, like, holy crap. Like that would have sucked if that was underneath me. But thank God it wasn’t.

Ramsey Russell: IED went off? What?

Joel Tavera: Yeah, it was a bomb that went off and it was close enough where it rocked my body and I felt it in every morsel of my body, it was weird and it shook my body. I was like, it could have been a mild traumatic brain injury. But I felt it and it left a weird tingly feeling on my vein and my mind and my body, it was awkward. If it was close, if it was like within like 25 yards or even like closer, it definitely could have killed me, I’m pretty sure of it or rocked it because we have guys get blown up and then like, it’s that bad of an explosion that they can’t even think straight.

Ramsey Russell: I guess not.

Joel Tavera: Loss your brain, scrambles your brain.

Ramsey Russell: So you had a close call and then later the day you actually had a life changing experience, you actually did get hit.

Joel Tavera: It was weeks later.

Ramsey Russell: Weeks later. Okay, weeks later. So tell me, let’s fast forward to the event. What happened? What were you doing and what specifically happened the day that you got hit?

Joel Tavera: Okay. They needed someone to do a duty, I volunteered to take the duty, woke up that morning two days before coming back home to the States.

Ramsey Russell: Two days before coming back home.

Joel Tavera: So therefore I shouldn’t have been on that duty. It was a mistake on behalf of the non-commissioned officer in charge and the soldier that was trying to get out of doing the duty he was supposed to be doing, like, hey, Tavara, do it. Well, hey, it was brought up to me like I should have said no, but I never really turned down a duty, hey, this is what I came here to do, you could pay me to be here, I’m going to do everything possible to get the most experience. And I was like, what could it hurt? Packed up my stuff, good to go, got ready that morning.

Ramsey Russell: What was the assignment? What were you packing up to do? What was the assignment?

Joel Tavera: The assignment was grab my weapon, make sure I had my payload with me, we were going to watch internationals go work on the base.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Joel Tavera: We had to watch them closely to make sure they weren’t scheming on anything kind of local Haji guard, which I was told not to call them Haji because most of them had no gone to Mecca, so you cannot call them Hajis. They hated that. So I didn’t call that, who am I kidding, I did call them that. I mean, let’s be real here. We all did. But I’m not in fear of being canceled, to be honest. I’m just putting that out there now that you are either. So I was like, okay, whatever. Got in the vehicle, situated, we rolled out to the back gate, to head out the gate, we’re going to head out of the base to head somewhere there was five of us in the truck. Started rolling slowly on the base, I felt the truck shake, didn’t know that a rocket had hit the base, didn’t know where.

Ramsey Russell: How many people were in the truck with you?

Joel Tavera: There were five of us in the truck.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

Joel Tavera: Okay, Now, rolled on down the road we took, not a shortcut, we took a one of the shortest ways to get to that back gate. Rolling on that way like, I heard something whistling and we hear the whistling –

Ramsey Russell: I mean, it’s just like on TV.

Joel Tavera: Yes. If you can hear it, it’s too close for comfort and that’s true. I had this weird intuition, and I heard a faint voice I’ve heard in the past that’s got me out of a lot of stuff.

Ramsey Russell: What’d that voice say to you, Joel?

Joel Tavera: Open the door. It’s tell me to open the door.

Ramsey Russell: Wow.

Joel Tavera: I did. And we’re rolling at, like 25 miles an hour, so slow. I opened the door, and then the guy beside me was like, hey, dude, what are you doing? Like, he didn’t even know me, he wasn’t in my unit, no one in that vehicle was in my unit, we were all tasked out to go do this because they usually cast out a few soldiers from each company to go get together and go do, a muster together and go take care of tasks at hand necessary that the brigade or the battalion had to take care of, and I volunteered. If I didn’t volunteer, I probably would not have been injured. But I opened that door, and I didn’t fully close it, I just kind of kept it half open because the person saw me was kind of like, what the hell you doing, dude? I took off my seat belt, and actually, I didn’t have my seat belt on, my guns in between, my legs pointed downwards with my helmet. And then moments later that listening, I opened the door again, irritated that soldier and I just had a bad feeling. As I was coming back to close the door again, the vehicle was struck.

Ramsey Russell: All right, now let me catch up, you all shortly left and you felt the truck rumble because the base had been hit.

Joel Tavera: No, the base had been hit, but it was not close enough to me to realize, but I felt the truck move.

Ramsey Russell: Because the ground underneath it shook. So you’re rolling, and then you hear a whistle, which means somebody had shot at you and you get this voice, talk to you, you open the door a little bit, hey, what’s going on? I don’t know. You open the door a little bit and then you hear another whistle and then the truck is hit.

Joel Tavera: Oh, yeah, that was actually literally like a minute or two later, to be honest, because these rockets we just now find out they were made in Iran, 122 millimeter rockets. And they were on a time lapse on a sled so that the people who set them off weren’t even there, they just had it in the direction of the base. It was a lucky shot. That day three men died that day.

Ramsey Russell: Three men in your truck died?

Joel Tavera: Three men in my truck died, yes.

Ramsey Russell: What was it? I mean, what did opening your door do? What was it like, bam, when that missile hits? I mean, I can’t imagine. I can’t believe you remember it.

Joel Tavera: Was a heat wave like no other. I turned in saying something to the guy, but then I didn’t realize if I didn’t do that, I may not have lost my vision. If I turned away, I probably would just lost all the hair on my head, on my body. But I was turning in, I didn’t have glasses or nothing on, so the heat took one of my eyes, shrapnel hit the other, and one fried like an egg and the other one was severed. But I got shrapnel everywhere, I got shrapnel in my brain. So it’s fun to go to the dentist when they do the X rays around the whole head because they see shrapnel behind the eyes, shrapnel in the pharma temple and it’s pretty interesting. But it’s hard to fix something that ain’t broken, I guess. I’m a little broken, but I’m not that broken. You remove those pieces, it can make cause more harm than, it could cause a lot more harm. So keep it on.

Ramsey Russell: There were five troops in your truck and you’re saying how many people died?

Joel Tavera: Three. Three of those men died.

Ramsey Russell: And two of you all did not. How long after something like that happens before there’s medical on the scene? Do you remember all that?

Joel Tavera: Immediately, the security forces near the base ran in that direction. The rounds on the truck were popping off. The vehicle was on fire, I think the other three men burned to death. There’s nothing but ashes left. I got out, the other guy got out, but his story checks out because he said he had to climb over the area where the fire was happening, so he caught some shrapnel too. But I got the bond of things, I lost my foot, my foot was severed, got shrapnel, mother arch, shrapnel all over my body, lost my vision, was burned over 65% of my body and I was flung and I hit the ground hard, that all sucked. I was kind of awake, but I was kind of, it felt like getting blindsided by a defensive lineman. Yeah, I felt like being blindsided by defensive linemen, like running past the outside of the pocket and then one of them just nailing into me, knocking me on my ass.

Ramsey Russell: My goodness.

Joel Tavera: It was playing football. Because I was wounded, the wind was knocked out of me, then there was an officer that saw the smoke from the truck and came in that direction and then he took charge of the situation, he was talking to me, trying to ask me questions, I was telling him about my family, mom and dad, I’m going home soon. I was asking my mom and dad, I told him about blah, blah. And then I remember kind of partially seeing the sky and then seeing his face and his nose, because that’s only facial features I remember. And then he found a place to put an IV in me, in my arm, where I have a tattoo stating Hebrews 4:12. The whole body was burned around my body. And turns out that that’s the part that wasn’t burned. That tattoo remains there in its entirety from 2005 when I got the tattoo, and it stayed the same. But you can tell where everything around it was burned. The double edged sword cross and as Heb4:12, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. I learned that verse when I was in seventh grade. It has stuck with me. Kind of like John 3:16 and Romans 5:8.

Ramsey Russell: Say that one more time, Joel.

Joel Tavera: Which one?

Ramsey Russell: The verse that you learned in seventh grade.

Joel Tavera: Okay. Hebrews 4:12. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. And so that of all, I learned that whole chapter, and of that whole chapter of Hebrews 4, that was the verse that stood out to me the most. And I was like, if I’m ever going to mark my body, I want to mean something, so I went with a whole bunch of friends, I mustered the thing to go get the tattoos and I went with the girls, like, hey, whatever, they got their tattoos, little butterflies and stuff, what are you getting? Getting crosses. Look for cross, I’m getting them. So, like, small cross with inscription of a verse below it. So I got it done. And yeah, it wasn’t bad. It was cool.

Ramsey Russell: What were you doing in 7^th grade that you all had to learn Hebrews?

Joel Tavera: I went to a private school at that point. I was private school until 2^nd grade. 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th were in public again. 6^th grade through 10th grade were private, and then 11th and 12th were public again.

Ramsey Russell: Okay.

“But when I was in private school, that particular thing was my teacher is like, Joel, you’ll memorize Hebrews chapter 4 to recite in front of, as a thing, for you, you graduating from 7th grade, going to 8th grade. I’m like, wow, that’s a lot of information.”

Joel Tavera: But when I was in private school, that particular thing was my teacher is like, Joel, you’ll memorize Hebrews chapter 4 to recite in front of, as a thing, for you, you graduating from 7^th grade, going to 8^th grade. I’m like, wow, that’s a lot of information. So I hunker bunker down and learned that whole chapter from the King James version of the Bible. As we know that’s a little outdated English, but I was like, yeah, it is what it is. I learned it. It took me a month and a half to two months to learn it, it felt impossible. But then I got it down, and it wasn’t too fast, I wasn’t blabbering, and I said it very concise and clearly, and I had it down. No issues, no foul. It was good. No harm, no foul. And I even going back through it, I’m like, wow, I learned that. I learned a whole chapter, a long chapter in the Bible. I’m like, but do I want to learn more? Like, no, I want to learn, but I don’t want to memorize it, that hurt my brain that I couldn’t do it, it’s just I did. And it was those tests, passing tests or deals. So I had a Bible class that I had to learn that for anyway, so the teacher thought it’d be a good idea to share that with that particular presentation on a Sunday evening at that church I was going to, where the private school was. So it’s cool, nothing too crazy. That’s what brought me into that. I am a Christian. I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ in my heart when I was 8 years old. It’s been a long road, and it’s not been sunshine and hunky dory the whole time. It’s been hell at times, but good thing is the Lord is my life as that seems like the tunnel. Like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, thank God it’s not always a freight train. It’s felt like that a handful of times, but it’s not going to always be the case.

Ramsey Russell: Life is kind of like that. Life is not, unicorns and rainbows, life is tough. You got hit by a missile, 3 troops in your truck died, one managed to get out. I’m assuming that you’re having opened the door because that voice told you to. And I’ll leave it to anybody listening to wonder who that voice was that told you to open that door. It didn’t help you at all? Opening that door didn’t help.

Joel Tavera: It did help because by opening that door, I was flung out of the vehicle. When it hit, the vehicle spun and I got out. I was laying on the ground partially on fire because the fire engulfed my uniform. Because at that point their army uniforms were not no mix lined, they decided to do that after my injury. So they became warmer and there were useless uniforms to begin with. So like, whatever life happens. The cards I was dealt, that was not necessarily my day, the person that took his duty was probably his day. But either way, I took the duty and therefore this is what happened.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about the hospitalization and some of the rehab you went through.

Joel Tavera: I woke up 81 days later, I went into a coma naturally. I woke up 81 days later in San Antonio, Texas. It was amazing. I was hurt on the morning of a Tuesday on March 12^th of 2008. And then by the morning of March 15^th, I was in San Antonio in a bubble because I was a burn patient, I was in a bubble and I was stabilized in the States. So it was amazing. From that base to Baghdad, Baghdad to Longstool, Longstool to Brooke Army Medical center to the Burn center. I woke up, I didn’t wake up immediately, it was 81 days later, I woke up while speaking Spanish, my mom was confused by that because normally that wasn’t my first language, my first language was English. So I was doing me. I was in pain. I was highly drugged. Dilaudid, morphine, the whole works, IVs. Everybody was doing everything for me. I still had lots of skin, I was a 3^rd and 4^th degree burns, amputations, removal of certain things, it was quite interesting.

Ramsey Russell: I can relate to that. I can relate to a lot of that.

Joel Tavera: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: How long were you in the burn unit?

Joel Tavera: March 15^th to October of that same year in 2008.

Ramsey Russell: Wow, that’s a long time, Joel.

Joel Tavera: That was the first time.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s a long time. And what was it like as you began to rehab towards the end of that, I’m sure you were in some rehab, you were coming adjusting to your new self.

Joel Tavera: Oh, no, not at all. No, this is a long journey, sir. This is what it was, I apparently had woken up, they were giving me because I went from 217 pounds down to 139 pounds, they’re giving me Ensure boost, give me lots of high fats, lots of junk food, just to get me to gain some muscle. But I didn’t get no muscle, I just got fat over time, it took me a while. I was skin and bones. We left in October and went to the polytrauma in Florida. There they started the process. Occupational therapy, two hours a day, PT an hour, almost two hours a day spread out. Speech therapy, one hour to two hours a day. So I was busy. And I was there from October of 2008 to March of 2010. I was in the hospital for 17 months. I lived in the hospital for 17 months where I moved from one place to the next. They taught me to speak, again. I want to thank my speech pathologist, she’s awesome. Occasionally catch her from time to time. She’s working for the VA for a while. She was amazing. She worked with me a lot of patience. I wasn’t most honorable person, I wasn’t easiest person to work with. But I apologize to a lot of people for being a nimwit or being just difficult. Physical therapists put me in my spot. I was told I wouldn’t be walking for a while. Then I was taking little steps here and there and started taking stairs and started doing longer distances, then I got the idea, like, you know what? I went back to Texas in 2010. So that March of 2010, I went back to Texas and I stayed there till October as well. I was there for a whole summer and some late spring to early summer and then October I came back. No, it’s October now, I got back September, October, yeah, October I came back and yeah, by that time I was kind of quasi out of the wheelchair, I was just getting my strength back. I was working out a lot. I had gained a lot of my weight back. I got too much weight and I lost weight and got back into standards of the army. And then I was starting to realize things, I took more control of myself and other things. Still needing help, I wasn’t independent, but I knew I had goals and I always been goal oriented. And taking that into account, I accomplished a lot more than I thought I would. I walked my first 5k February 2011, the following year, that was a goal I worked on consistently. Between elliptical, lots of walks, a lot of pull therapy, long distance thought walking, cycling, and then leg press, I was working on everything. My job when I was in the hospital was recovery. The goal was I had a plan, I was going to stick to it and I did. I was motivating other soldiers, I had no idea, me grunting, we working out other people were watching me. And I hear now, like, dude, remember when you came through, you were sick, you looked horrible, but you were in there just killing it. Like, I was hurting, actually. But that was so inspirational that you wanted to get better. And like, why not? Like, I don’t like being in the hospital. Who does? Like, I want to live my life like this was, I didn’t ask this to happen to me. But this is the deck of cards, this is the hand of cards I’ve been handed. So I’m going to play as strategically as possible. As long as I’m on this earth, I can at least do some good. So I did.

Ramsey Russell: Joel?

Joel Tavera: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: One of the most interesting things about this conversation so far, one of the interesting things is you said you’d gone to a private school, you had memorized a lot of Bible passages, that you had gotten a tattoo, Hebrews 4:12 and that despite being in this explosion and suffering a lot of burns, that tattoo, it’s like the burns went around that tattoo, and that tattoo was still on your body. And so I’ll ask this question. How did your faith, you obviously had a faith, how did your faith help you through this, this long, grueling ordeal of rehab and just the will to live?

Joel Tavera: I had a peace in the hospital because my parents weren’t always in the hospital room, I preferred it that way. I had my times where I was alone, I could either get the TV turned on or just had my time alone, my time to be with God, I would just pray. Whether it was out loud, it was to myself, I had nothing else to do. And I started finding some peace with the fact that this is not going to be forever. This is only temporary, whether I die here or die later or maybe I’ll be doing better in the next year or so.

“But as you describe what you went through and you’re being an inspiration to some of the other people going through, because you’re pressing and driving yourself and lifting those weights and going through this stuff, I mean, you were having to dig deep within side you.”

Ramsey Russell: See, I looked up that verse, Hebrews 4:12, and you’ve repeated it. But the explanation of that verse, it compared the word of God to a double edged sword which can cut through excuses and sins. And it emphasizes the power of God’s word to reach the deepest parts of a person’s being. And having been through something similar, I’m not comparing what I’ve been through to what you’ve been through, I’m just saying having been through a struggle myself, and I believe that everybody listening has been through some form or will be through some form of struggle because life is not easy. But as you describe what you went through and you’re being an inspiration to some of the other people going through, because you’re pressing and driving yourself and lifting those weights and going through this stuff, I mean, you were having to dig deep within side you. I mean it, and so that that explanation of the verse that’s inscribed in that tattoo really makes sense. And what you were going through, I mean, the power of God’s word to reach the deepest parts of a person’s being is, you were digging deep within side you to persevere and to get the heck out of that burn center, man. To get out of that rehab and to move on with your life.

Joel Tavera: Well, it wasn’t the burn center. The burn center was an in and out the first time, the second time I went back was for surgeries because we couldn’t get rid of the MRSA on my head and we did that the second time around. I got CO2 laser done to my body to break apart the scar tissue so I could start sweating. And at one point I couldn’t sweat in Florida. I came back, I could sweat profusely. So the scar tissue didn’t hold on, the pores are not sealed completely and it worked out nicely. So I got a lot of good things done over there. I guess, got a shout out to the dermatologist in the army, the military dermatologist that worked on me there in San Antonio and the one here in Tampa too. They’ve done a lot of good work with me because it’s just like my skin, it’s dry, pretty dry on a regular. But I do put lotion on from time to time, try to keep it as hydrated as possible. This is how it is.

Ramsey Russell: When did you get into hunting after all this? I mean, because now you’re an avid duck hunter, the Joel Tavera I know that I talked to at Dallas Safari Club, you’re a duck hunter, not just a duck hunter, you’re an avid duck hunter. You want to shoot all the 41 and you’re well on your way. How did that come to be after all this stuff is behind you with the rehab and now you’re out, you’ve gotten all your rehab, you’ve gotten all your surgeries, you’re finally out in life. How did hunting come to be?

Joel Tavera: Let’s circle back, sir. I told you in 2011, I did my first 5K. That year I did 3, 5Ks. The following year I did 3 more and I’ve done a total of 11, 5Ks.

Ramsey Russell: 11 what now?

Joel Tavera: 5Ks. 3.1 mile.

Ramsey Russell: Right.

Joel Tavera: Walk around. And here’s the thing that from 2011 to 2012 in 2012, an organization based out of Tampa, Florida, Black Dagger Military Hunting Club they got me linked, they got me linked in, not with duck hunting, just with hog hunting. I shot a hog, it was fun. Like, the shoulders tasted amazing, I mean, it was a female, so nothing too crazy. Sal did that. Then following year, did another hunt with them as well. Then the year after that, did a deer hunt with them. And 2013, I did one with Red Hills. Red Hills out of Southern Georgia. Out of Bambridge, Georgia. Shot myself a 7 pointer, a new regular deer. Scored a 130. Scored a 130 and it weighed more than I did. He was a big buck. And I was like, oh, I ate him for quite some time, it was quite nice. Made some friends, stay connected with some folks. One of the gentlemen I met in that hunt, we link up later in life and I’ll get back to him. I’m not going to mention his name quite yet, but yeah. Dad came up with me, it was quite cold. It was cool. He just really wasn’t into that, he just thought it was a little too cold for his likings. And I don’t blame him. Just not everybody doesn’t endure the elements as well. Thin blood comes from an island that’s really warm down there. So we’ve been in America for a long time, but if you have a preference over heat, over cold, I’ll take cold any day. You can only take so many layers of clothing off, but you could put a hell of more layers on and a puffer on top of that. So I’m okay with that. Then 2013, 2014 did more Whitetail with Black Dagger Military Hunting Club. 2015, an organization, Hunting with Heroes based out of Castro, Wyoming. They invited me out for antelope hunt, got my pronghorn. It’s quite nice. So in a weekend, I got a buck, and I got myself a doe. Then in 2016, I went back, I went back to Wyoming, got myself a mule deer, I got myself a mule. He was a 4×5. Oh, nice. It tasted great, it tasted amazing. Don’t know what he was eating, but whatever he was eating was, it was exquisite. 2017, I was offered a bison. I took that bison. It was nice. It was another area – I was hunts, hunt. 2017, 2018, keep in mind, I was in college from 2015 to 2018. Then something came up in 2018, me being asked, Joel, would you do a commercial for Best the West? You know what? Like, we’ll get you an elk tag, like, will it be a bull? Yes. Like, oh, okay. Hell yeah. Give me the dates. So it was the following year, In October of 2019, I went and took myself a bull elk, and it was a commercial for Best of the West via Tony Foster is the outfitter. I believe it was a Ridgeline Creek. I’m so proud of that, we’re not remembering it, but Tony Foster, based out of Castro, Wyoming, he guided me on that hunt, it was quite remarkable. I was successful. Got my elk the first day, first one I shot off of a boulder, I missed. But I continued on because we knew blizzard is coming through. And blizzard came through shortly after I left. But I got my elk the first day, it’s quite nice. I was pretty impressed, I was happy with a nice 6×6, it scored about 300. So that was good enough for me, that’s all I wanted.

Ramsey Russell: Heck, yeah.

Joel Tavera: Yes, sir, it was good eating. That was very good eating. I am impressed of the situation.

Ramsey Russell: Do you cook this stuff yourself? Are you a cook?

Joel Tavera: Oh, no, sir. I’m not a cook. But mother’s a cook.

Ramsey Russell: Oh, yeah, I bet she is.

Joel Tavera: Yes, she is. So people do ground beef for, like, empanadas, I have my mother making elk empanadas with proper seasoning onions, proper seasoning, and habaneros. For every ten pounds of elk, there’s ten habaneros. But you keep the seeds in it when you mix it in, just for the spice. So it’s tasty and spicy. Not too hot for, like, I do spices, I can eat Cajun, sir. But, like, not everybody eats that way, especially in the Spanish culture that I know of, because like, dude, this is hot. Like, what are you talking about? I need a little hot sauce, need a little extra. Are you crazy? I’m like, nope, these are mine. You want them, you can eat them, if you don’t want them, that’s fine the more for me. So it’s one of those things.

Ramsey Russell: I might want to get that recipe because every 10 pounds of elk, you put a habanero, if I understood it right, I mean, I’m thinking, okay, I need this recipe.

Joel Tavera: No, 10 is 10. 10 habaneros.

Ramsey Russell: 10 habaneros per pound?

Joel Tavera: No, 10 habaneros. One habanero per pound.

Ramsey Russell: Okay. One habanero per pound.

Joel Tavera: Yeah. So it definitely makes it spicy, but you keep the seeds in. A lot of people cook the habanero and take the seeds out. But the seeds is all the fun because the seeds is where the heat is.

Ramsey Russell: Would your mama share that recipe with me?

Joel Tavera: We will talk offline. I’ll definitely ask her about that, what she does, because she’ll be making me another batch here pretty soon.

Ramsey Russell: I’m going to elk hunt next fall. And I really want to shoot an elk, I’m going to shoot an elk next fall. And I would like that recipe, but go ahead.

Joel Tavera: I would tell you, sir. I went to New Mexico last year and I took myself a cow elk, but I got myself a calf. It was a year and a half, almost two, it was about a two year old. And I tell you, it didn’t have as much meat as a mom, it tasted like innocence. It was delicious. Still eating it. So I got a lot more steaks made than ground beef and the ground meat. She’s going to turn to that for me at the end of this month, and she’s going to make me up a lot of empanadas for the season, so that’ll hold me over throughout the summer. And it’s funny because in the Dominican when my mom and dad are they called patelitos, the same as empanadas, but there’s different names for them because I’m not Mexican, I’m Spanish, Dominican or Spanish descent and African descent. So like, cool. So as I found out more about my ancestry, I’ve got African on both sides, I’ve got Spaniard on both sides. So it’s kind of neat. Unique. The island is very unique and diverse. It’s a beautiful thing sometimes not too bad. It’s nice to know where you come from sometimes.

Ramsey Russell: Sure.

Joel Tavera: Because all I know is like I come from America, I was born here, I was raised here, I know where my parents are from and I have no idea where their grandparents are from, but that’s it. I don’t have a long lineage in America. So square roots, mom and dad, me, when I finally found myself, God brings the right woman in my life and to start my family then starts the lineage.

Ramsey Russell: All right, you’ve teamed up and now you’re really growing and doing a lot of deer and elk and mule deer and all these different hunt, buffalo. When did the duck hunting come along?

Joel Tavera: Oh, yes, let’s go back to that hunt I mentioned those in Georgia. I met a gentleman there because I was waiting on a buck, I never got the buck. No. The second time around 2013 another time I went back and I met a gentleman there, he’s former military had taken a lot of animals, a lot of does and other things. He hunted Virginia, North Carolina and a failure locations in Georgia. I didn’t get the buck, I got myself one nice doe. But I didn’t pass up on a buck, a buck never came through I was worthy of taking. So like, okay, cool. He gave me a shoulder, he gave me a doe shoulder again. I got plenty of these in the freezer back at home, we connected by Facebook and by phone number. It wasn’t until 5 years later that we reconnected again and we hunted for turkey. We went up to Virginia, hunted for turkey. We started hanging out and realized we had a lot in common. Good old boy from Virginia, Southern Virginia and grew up, dad was a farmer, grandpa was a farmer, the grandfather died. Granddad was the military, he was a hard ass, good man, I’ve met him, so great family. We’ve become best of friends and he’s up in the Carolinas currently, I’ll be visiting him next week. Okay, Tony Waldrop, I’m just giving you a shout out, Tony. Yeah, I’m going to go visit him and his lovely wife and the rest of the family is up that way. Go chill out for a few days. No hunting. And me and him were after shooting a few different things, but turkey, got myself a massive eastern with him, a few quite a few years back. And then I also got myself a nice Foxborough and I got someone, I got my first ducks with him though. The thing is, we got most of the things you can get in the Carolinas and say, and a doe like, okay, cool, but not a buck. There’s nothing really worth it to shoot, to be honest. Let them go, let them get a little bigger and then, take them next season, the girl to be bigger. And he’s like, dude, started asking, dude, bro, what? You ever duck hunted? Like, nah, man, isn’t it cold? The cold sport, like, you start googling, you saw that there was a blind guy in Texas that did shoot a duck. Like, oh, dude, what the hell? Like, it’s a challenge, let’s work on it. So we started working on that challenge. Like, how are we going to do this? Well, maybe I can do with a laser, but you can’t, I can. What about a hologram, like a Eotech or something? So we started working on ideas for red dot sites that someone with me could see. I’m the one pressing the trigger, and I was using a little green laser at one point. I don’t use it as much anymore. I can use it in some states, but I can’t use it in every states, I got permissions in some places, but because I’m not sighted, that’s the only way I can hunt. I’m in the front of the boat, buddy’s in the back of the boat, decoys are out, and they hit the decoys and start puddling around, he tells, turn on your laser, I’ll put up in the air that’ll bring it down. Once he sees the laser, he’s like, Joel, down. Left, back, left, right. As soon as he says fire, squeeze the trigger, and it’s either the duck, his belly up like a rubber ducky, or I miss and then it pops up and goes. And then he grabs his shotgun, he pops off the next few shots, and there’s his duck. But good part of my buddies is they wait for the decoy because, let’s be honest, it’s easier to swat them on the water than is to shoot them while they’re flying, because sometimes they’ll hang up.

Ramsey Russell: All things equal, it’s a lot easier to hit a duck, you don’t have to lead them as much when they’re sitting on the water, but go ahead.

Joel Tavera: Exactly. Because all my buddies, like, they’ll go and shoot ducks, and they’ll pop off three shots and they have to reload. I’m like, why’d you shoot three shots for? But you missed. Nothing’s on the ground. The dogs are, like, confused, like, all scrambling, whining because it wants to go retrieve a duck and there’s no duck in the water, all these guys blew, like, three rounds a piece. I’m like, really? Like, come on now. Like, this is why ammo gets wasted, I see now. I’m very strategic what I shoot at, because I am shooting it on the water. Like, if the duck is dumb enough to land and decoy in and just in curiosity, it has reserved the right to die. So I’m okay with that.

Ramsey Russell: Joel, we hadn’t talked about this a lot when we were talking about your rehabilitation and your surgery and things of that nature and we’ve alluded to it, you talked about the red dot scope, but let’s just point out the fact that when the missile hit, you not only suffered a lot of burns and lost some digits and mobility, you also became blind.

Joel Tavera: Yes, sir, I did become blind. Yes.

Ramsey Russell: Just circle back just a minute to rehab, because I’m sitting here thinking, the physical part, the mobility part, the strength and loss of digits and things of that nature is one thing, but what was it like beginning to come back into the world at the tender young age of, you’re in your 20s, you spent half your life. You spent half your life with eyesight now you’ve got the remainder of your life without eyesight. As you became cognizant, as you began to work through all this rehabilitation, what was it like to adapt to blindness?

Joel Tavera: Honestly, it sucked. I had to work on things, on constant learning how to organize myself, how to become – I was organized to begin with, but I’m just don’t organize the way I used to try not to be so cluttered in everything I do.

Ramsey Russell: It had to have been scary.

Joel Tavera: Yeah, it was a little scary, to be honest, it was. And I was like, this is what my life is going to be now. And I’m thinking, who’s going to want to deal with this the rest of their lives like I do, but then I don’t. So, like, I got to improve. So the process was to get good enough to go to blind school, where I went to Chicago for 8 or 12 weeks or 9 weeks. I went up there for many weeks for the blind school program, this 12 week program. And that’s what they taught me to do, to shower myself, to dress myself, the things – I was learning to dress myself. But then the shower myself, I was still getting help from my mother and nurses to do that. I got back from blind school, I was doing it for myself, and I’ve been doing it for myself ever since. And then handling my business, how do I do this, this and this? Getting new technology, learning a little bit more, exploring, getting the confidence to learn how to take public transportation, because it was in 2013, I learned how to take Uber by myself. And I’ve been taking Uber and Lyft by myself for quite some time now. And it’s been pretty good. Not always successful, but pretty good.

Ramsey Russell: And all of the hunting you’ve done. I mean, you’ve gone from that, I just can’t imagine what you must have gone through.

Joel Tavera: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: And once you’ve emerged, you’ve gone from deer and buffalo and mule deer and elk and all these trophy hunts now, waterfowl, blind.

Joel Tavera: Well, here’s the thing, before I started that, a while I started that, I was chasing after my world slam. I wanted to get my grand slam for turkeys, I got my grand slam. Turned out I got my Golds first. No, I didn’t. I take that back. I got my Osceola here in Florida first, after that, I got myself a Miriam’s turkey. And after that, Miriam’s, I got myself the Eastern. Then I got my Goulds as well. Oh, I take that back. Okay. First was the Osceola. Second was the Goulds. Osceola was first, Miriams was second, Goulds was third, Eastern was fourth and then I had another one. I can’t remember which one it was my oscillated.

Ramsey Russell: But you’ve killed all four of them?

Joel Tavera: All six.

Ramsey Russell: All six of them. Okay, so you have killed the Slam.

Joel Tavera: Well, I’ve got my grand slam, my royal flush, and then my world slam, so I got confused. So that the last time was three years ago, I got myself that oscillated turkey in Mexico, deep in the Yucatan. The problem with that was we were held captive and for a day while they robbed us of everything.

Ramsey Russell: My goodness.

Joel Tavera: But it’s okay, because my animals made it back to the States, and it’s a blessing, it is. I made it alive, and it’s helpful Espanol. So, I mean, I spoke to them, and they’re like, hey, hold on a second, why are you here? Like, I’m hunting. Why? Like, why not? So those bandits, those pair of military people, they were just confused. They expecting that, it’s usually full of European and Canadians, it was full of Americans, they were not happy about that. So they got their fix and what they needed, stole a vehicle, some weapons, some money, some expensive cameras, all their weapons and left my phone separated because my phone talks to them because of the blindness. And I told them, like, hey, like, turn that off. Like, I can’t, it’s made for blind people. So they left my phone, they left us with one generator. At least they left us that and some groceries, but I took the rest of the groceries. They got us out of there the next day, it was a really good situation that the outfitter reached out locally, got us out the next day. Then we flew out a day later than supposed to and that’s okay. I’m unblessed. I mean, I survived. But you won’t find me going back to the jungle of Mexico anymore.

Ramsey Russell: We quit doing that hunt. We quit doing that hunt for the very same reason you described. I’m just going to take an aside right here because we still go to Mexico to duck hunt, but here’s the deal. People say, well, how safe is Mexico? Well, in most Mexico you got a lot of eyeballs around, okay? In the jungle, you don’t. And that’s why we quit going to the jungle. But I just shared with some people today, and I’m sharing with you that the per capita violent crime in Mexico homicides is 23, 23.5 murders per 100,000 citizens in Mexico. By comparison, the violent crime, the homicide rate in Memphis, Tennessee is 25,072, let that sink in. 23 versus 2500, let that sink in. But the distinction being out in eastern Mexico, off in them jungles, you’re by yourself. I mean, you’re isolated and that ain’t no way to be. Most of Mexico, out where we’re duck hunting, you’re just around folks and criminals, whether they’re breaking in your house or doing anything else, they don’t like eyeballs.

Joel Tavera: But it’s okay, I don’t have to go back to Mexico to hunt any ducks.

Ramsey Russell: That’s right. That’s why we don’t go to eastern Mexico for them oscillated turkeys anymore just because it’s too remote and fear of that kind of crime. Not violent crime like getting murdered, but just getting robbed. Nobody wants to go through that.

Joel Tavera: No, nobody has to go through that. And I’m okay with that. I will go back to Mexico, but I plan on going to Rio Sonora when I finally conjure up enough money or draw a desert and get a desert bighorn tag donated or win one in a drawing or raffle. So that’s something I’ve been trying to get into because I’m goal oriented. Got my world slam, I’ve got the turkeys. I went to Africa, I got my tiny 10. I have my tiny 10. I have all photos of me in my tiny 10. I did a Johan Pence’s safaris out of East London, South Africa. Yeah, it worked out. One thing or the next, it is what it is. I got that idea, went between South Africa, all areas of South Africa, I also went to Namibia, then I went to Mozambique. In between all those areas, I was able to get all 10 of my tiny 10. 2 are currently stateside, the other 8 are in a crate right now waiting to come back stateside to be worked on. So I can’t wait to have my pedestals finished, that was very pricey. But that was my gift to myself and I don’t get to take money to the grave with me. So do the things I want to do and enjoy my life little by little till I settle down and hoping that comes sooner than later because I’ll sacrifice some things, I’ve done the things I wanted to do. And I might be the first blind man to have the grand slam or the royal flush or the world Slam, but the Wild Turkey Association, the foundation, they don’t track that for disabilities, they don’t.

Ramsey Russell: Well, I mean, how many duck species have you killed of the 41?

Joel Tavera: Well, they’re not all ducks because they’re between swans and geese.

Ramsey Russell: Right, the waterfowl. The ducks, geese and swans. The waterfowl species in North America.

Joel Tavera: 19 out of 41.

Ramsey Russell: Okay, so you’re on your way, but you want to shoot all 41.

“I do want to shoot all 41. The ones going to be the most difficult right now is the emperor goose, that’ll be the hard one.”

Joel Tavera: I do want to shoot all 41. The ones going to be the most difficult right now is the emperor goose, that’ll be the hard one.

“Well, it’s going to be impossible now, Joel, because it’s been taken off the list. The leadership in Alaska has removed it from, you can’t even draw for it anymore unless you…”

Ramsey Russell: Well, it’s going to be impossible now, Joel, because it’s been taken off the list. The leadership in Alaska has removed it from, you can’t even draw for it anymore unless you’re an Alaska resident or you’re an Alaska resident, I don’t even know if Alaska residents shoot it because they were given 25 tags to non-residents, and I kept applying and didn’t get drawn either. But they’ve now removed it. You can remove that from your list.

Joel Tavera: Yeah, well, there’s a possibility of it might still because I’ve looked at moving to Alaska. I’ve looked at it just because there’s some things I’d like to get done, I might move up there for like a few years, I don’t mind moving my residency to Alaska. I’ve been out there, it’s a beautiful state. Got friends there, I bought many hunting licenses there. I fished there a handful of times, I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s just very desolate and very secluded. So, like, you know what, it’s okay. Got one thing or the next. I’ve contemplated moving up there for a few years, just go take care of some things. Because, like I said, I’m not married, I don’t have a wife, I don’t have children, we’ll see.

Ramsey Russell: Joel, I want to ask you a question.

Joel Tavera: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: You’ve described the word beautiful throughout this podcast.

Joel Tavera: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: You’ve described the word beautiful. What is beautiful to a blind person?

Joel Tavera: It depends, let’s see. Difference is, I wasn’t born blind. Ask a real blind person, I don’t know what they would say. Me, I’d say beautiful is like something that’s aesthetic and always has to do with vision. As when I spoke to you, I was staring at you when we spoke, and I shook your hand like a man, I address people, I’ll speak to you, normally a lot of my friends forget that I’m blind because –

Ramsey Russell: I didn’t know you were blind until you told me.

Joel Tavera: You see, that’s what I’m saying. So I gone back to my norm and I think, like, yes, I’m blind, but the thing is, I’m still a human being and I had my vision. I know there’s certain mannerisms that I know just to follow a person or talk to them. So now watch them and at least look at their direction as close as possible so they understand I’m engaged in the conversation. That’s why I’m going to shake your hand, I’m going to stare at you when I shake your hand.

Ramsey Russell: Absolutely.

Joel Tavera: I don’t know if I’m looking at your shoulder, if I’m looking at your left or right shoulder, I’m looking at your forehead, I don’t know. I’m just assuming I’m looking at a silhouette because I see nothing. Or you could be like super tall and I’m looking at your chest for all I know.

Ramsey Russell: But you’ve retained that’s my point is that, having met you, haven’t talked to you, having us visited right here is that in the absence of eyesight, you still recognize beauty. And that to me is the takeaway. You still have a sense of what is beautiful and what is not because you’ve got all your other senses, you’ve got your memory. And to me, that is what’s so beautiful about someone like yourself. You did not let the card life dealt you limit you. In fact, you’ve gone far and beyond what many of us have done. You have continued and continued to keep rolling. The Tiny 10 in Africa, I know grown men that have spent decades of their life chasing those animals, you’ve done it. Going out shooting these mule deer and these 300 inch elk. You’ve killed 19 of 41 of the 41 North American waterfowl and you’re steadily going. And to me, I wasn’t trying to be cruel or ask an awful question, but I’m just trying to point out the fact that despite some of the setbacks and limitations that life may have given you, you still see beauty. You still find beauty in this wonderful life of ours.

Joel Tavera: I do. And the beautiful part about these, because I have full mounts of my ducks in my bird room in my home now, what I find, humors, they’re like, what do you have these ducks? Because every bird right there on that wall has a story. And I was either with a veteran or a civilian organization, and it was running down to the wire and the ducks showed themselves or the sandhill crane showed itself, so they take your shotgun, put on your shoulder, lift it up, turn your laser on, Joel, fire. I hear something hit the ground. I’m like, Joel, you got a sandhill crane. Like, what? Wow. I got to look at it after, it’s actually dead. The dog is a little confused and it doesn’t want to touch it. And I have a full amount of that sandhill crane actually in my office right now. It’s crouching, it turned out he was an adolescent, he was pretty big, but he was an adolescent. It was like it was a lesser, not a greater. So I’m still due to get myself a greater, I’ll have to go back to Texas to do that one or New Mexico if I draw the tag, whichever one. So not too bad, they’re fun. But I would tell you, like all my ducks and every story, my most recent one, I will say North Carolina is very patriotic. The first and second Saturday of February are the last 2 days of the hunt for all youth and all veterans. So I hunted the Florida one at this location called T.M. Goodwin, wonderful marshy area on the east coast of Florida. And the ducks I was looking for were there, but I missed. I could have limited on ring necks, but I’ve shot many ring necks and I’m like, that’s not really my forte. I wanted to get a blue winged tail because I’ve shot many green, I shot many cinnamon. The blue wings are the difficult ones to find anywhere in the central and western flyway. But on the eastern flyaway, apparently there’s a lot of blue wing. So I went to North Carolina and go figure, this weekend, night before we get in with these farm boys, good old Carolina boys and oriental, wonderful people, and had a ball just talking trash, like duck camp or like hunting camp. So, Joel, this gentleman said, Joel, there’s a lot of banded ducks here, I hope you get one of those tomorrow because I find it interesting that hunted in a field, him being a farmer, it’s illegal to put corn in water, but it’s not illegal to flood a field after it’s been harvested. I was like, what? It makes no sense, but I’m like, okay, you know what, I’m going to trust the system, let’s go with this. We head out to the location, get up on the blind stand, ducks keep on coming in. Shoot a green wing, shoot another one, good to go. Then shot another one. Then the blue wings start coming in, I shot a hen. I had no idea as a hen, I got it, shot it on the water dog retrieved it. We’re all like high fiving, doing, like fist bumps, chest pumping, hitting each other, their chest like football, belly bumping, whatever. And then, like, I saw, and they put in my hand, and I’m over touching it, I took my glove off, I’m like, this is kind of small, is this a Drake? No, Joel it’s a hen. Like, guys, this don’t count immediately, the energy in that blind just went from 100, like, down to zero, like, negative. It was funny because, like, guys, like, I don’t care, I’m trying to get a drake, I want something mountable. So we got back on the sticks again. We put that in the box. That’s good to go. Then it was like 15, 20 minutes later, a blue wing came through, I was holding the shotgun, my guide from, it was Val and Honor Outdoors, they’re the ones that hosted me for that particular trip. It was a blessing to be chosen to go on that trip. It was wonderful. Val and Honor outdoors, they’re going to be following me as I go through this and they’ll be funding everything, they’re going to be getting me on as many ducks as they can. And they saw the importance of doing that with me because I’ll probably be the first blind person to take the 41. Now that Emperor goose, like I said, is a possibility in the next 5 years, I might get a chance to do that because for residents, it’s just an over the counter attack.

Ramsey Russell: I don’t know, if it is or it’s not, Joel. That’s what I’m trying to say.

Joel Tavera: And I was talking to a buddy of mine about that at the sheep show, he told me about it, I was like, oh.

Ramsey Russell: Maybe residents can, I don’t know. But I wish you the best. I got a question for you. We got to start wrapping this up, but how have your injuries changed or defined your life? Where are you now that you might not otherwise have been?

Joel Tavera: How’s my injury? Well, it has caused me to see things differently. I had to reach deep into myself and to lean on the Lord for assistance on gaining strength to do the things I do. Getting up every morning is a struggle, it was years ago, now it’s just habit. I mean, I pray before I get up, unless I have to get up real early and real quick and that’s usually I pray later, we’re in the vehicle going where we’re going to go, a short little prayer. The key to myself. I mean, nobody knows I’m really closing my eyes, I’m just kind of stationary about my head. Oh, yeah, life is interesting.

Ramsey Russell: And how has duck hunting and hunting in general changed your life?

Joel Tavera: Oh, it’s been a blessing and amazing because it’s got me, it’s been tight knit. I’ve connected with so many veterans, veterans that I didn’t know, veterans that I do know that are avid hunters. We got excuses to get away, go have weekend trips, goof off with each other, it just seems like being in the military all over again, camaraderie, but also just being still, breathing the fresh air from the outside, listening to the animals as I’ve learned, certain animals sound like certain ducks, some whistles, only certain ones quack. Some are faint, some are not so faint.

Ramsey Russell: It’s giving you a greater appreciation. I mean do you feel like had you come home from Iraq differently. Had you come home without your injuries do you feel like your life would have taken the same trajectory that it did?

Joel Tavera: I think it would have because before I deployed I got side like man I really am going to have more money when I get back, I’m going to buy myself a big game hunt because I was never able to do big game and like maybe I’ll go into duck hunting because I have lots of friends that are avid duck hunters they kill a lot of those mallards in the Carolinas and buffleheads, mallards and buffleheads and wigeon and a lot of teal.

Ramsey Russell: Joel, how can everybody connect with you? Are you on social media?

Joel Tavera: I am on social media. I am on Facebook Joel Tavera shows me Tampa, Florida and also got an email tavera87j@gmail.com. Don’t need to put my phone number out there because if someone wants to contact me they will shoot me an email, I’ll give you a number. Yeah, I also go way to get a hold of me is the way a few other people have gotten me out and about have like Val and Honor outdoors learned about me through Black Dagger Military hunting club. David Winter is the president of the organization, I put a video out of what I’m trying to do and I had 18 out of 19 now, 18 out of 41 now I have 19 out of 41. So, I will shoot teal from now on just to eat because they’re delicious, but yeah it’s what do you do. I’m available. I’m slowly plugging in my calendar for next year I will tell you still in sight for a lesser Canadian goose may get a chance to get that. I haven’t gotten the snow but I have gotten a lot Alaskan tundra swan I’ve gotten one of those fully mature is really nice the good tasting swan. Yeah, a few things here and there but ducks I got myself a barrow’s goldeneye in Alaska. I just need to get myself a common golden eye. I don’t know what flyaway they fly in but I’m sure I’ll come across the location how that set eventually so it’s like usually middle of December through that first weekend before Christmas and then the weekend after Christmas right before, not enough that we can have the weekend after New Year’s is a good weekend as well. And that’s right before Dallas Safari Club. And I think this next year I’ll probably be hunting of that week of Dallas Safari Club. So, I mean, unless I will be somewhere else –

Ramsey Russell: I will be too. I will be hunting that week also.

Joel Tavera: And I think I’ll be hunting as well. So we’ll see. I mean, they’ve been good to me. I’m sorry it was not so this is eventful for everybody else who showed up this last year. That snowstorm didn’t help any. Logistics weren’t the greatest, but it is what it is, I can’t help it. I didn’t really have much to lose. I actually gained a lot. I mean, I met you there, Ramsey. And I met a lot of wonderful other people. I’m just blessed that there’s organizations out there that are assisting wounded warriors like myself and getting out and about staying outdoors, like, that’s my therapy. I tell people I’d rather just be outdoors, just listening to nature and if I can, get into some hunting in the process, power to it is cool, it’s a bonus and if I’m not, I’m still good. I take the best naps on the blind. Except for duck hunting, because you have to be awake and alert practically the whole time, I feel.

Ramsey Russell: Joel, thank you very much for coming on here and sharing your story and for reminding myself and others. And I think I very much believe that, especially in the world of duck hunting, that we duck hunters need a reminder that beyond body count and migrations and stuff, that we can’t control that what we do, the opportunity to go out and to duck hunt and to experience duck hunting is in itself a beautiful thing. It’s finding beauty and on the worst duck hunt, on the worst duck hunt I’ve ever been, I would rather be there than doing a whole lot of other things in life that life entails. And to me, hearing your story and how you have found beauty without eyesight and with severe limitations that many duck hunters listening do not have. To me, it’s a reminder, that it reminds me to go out and find beauty in my approach to duck hunting or deer hunting or to just life in general. And to dig deep within myself if I need to, based on your scripture, to find and to see the beauty in this precious thing called life that we all have. Because there’s no guarantee that tomorrow our lives aren’t going to change also.

Joel Tavera: Yes, sir, there’s no guarantee. You’re right. But here’s one thing we didn’t mention. We touched on my blindness earlier, but, I lost some limbs. I’ve lost my right leg below the knee, remember?

Ramsey Russell: I remember that.

Joel Tavera: Yeah, my little peg leg. So it’s funny. Like, how do you like -? Don’t worry about it. I’ll get in waders like everybody else if I have to. I mean, life is one foot at a time, move forward one foot at a time.

Ramsey Russell: One step at a time.

Joel Tavera: Oh, yeah, you’re right. One step at a time, I’m sorry, thank you for correcting me on that and one step at a time. So I’ll go almost anywhere and do almost anything when given the opportunity. And I don’t want to say that I can’t do something without trying because I’d rather fail and know that I tried doing it versus give up and say, no, I can’t do. That’s one thing, I do not want to say, I can’t do that. And I hear a lot of people, oh, he can’t do that, like, well, can I? Remember the video we showed you? The video of me shooting the duck right? That was a red breasted merganser. That was outside of Sarasota, Florida. I was like, okay. And he walked me in. He’s like, hey, Joel, down.

Ramsey Russell: But Joel, what do you think about all the people. What do you think about all the people in the world that haven’t lost a limb or haven’t lost their eyesight or haven’t been through what you’ve been through, saying, oh, I can’t do that? But letting their situation limit them and there are no boundaries, there are no limits unless you put them on yourself. Would you agree with that?

Joel Tavera: I do 100% agree with that. Now obviously, there’s some boundaries I have to carry into. The thing is, when I’m in a controlled environment or even uncontrolled environment, I’ve got excellent trigger control, it’s like you let a blind guy control safety on and off and shoot ducks? Yes. Like, I’ve shot quail, I shot pheasant, I’ve shot grouse, I’ve shot ducks, I’ve shot geese, and it’s all controlled. But the thing is, I’m with somebody, and they’re my eyes. I’m firing, but they’re my eyes. And I’m holding, I’m steadying, and as I’m swinging what I’m supposed to swing, they’re with me. There’s a guy in the back of my shotgun, but they’re not squidding the trigger. They’re with me because they understand that they have to be my vision. They can see what I need to be on. I got to know when to send the rounds downrange. Saw it is or the BBs like, you could say.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. Joel, thank you very much. We’ve got to wrap up, but I thank you so much for coming on board and sharing your story. And folks, thank you all for listening to this episode of MOJO’s Duck Season Somewhere podcast. One step at a time, seeing beauty, the good hunts, the bad hunts. See you next time.

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