Honoring Veterans Through Ronnie's Retreat and Hinderless 22 Initiatives

What drives a veteran to turn personal tragedy into a force for good? Join us as we uncover the inspiring journey of Joey McNutt, an Army veteran who founded Ronnie's Retreat, a non-profit dedicated to supporting homeless veterans. With insights from Carlene Parker and Nora Moreland of the American Legion Perry A Johns Post 6, we explore the pressing issues veterans face, including homelessness and the mental health challenges that can arise after military service. Carlene shares her vision to elevate Ronnie's Retreat through community engagement and prayer, setting the stage for transformative support for veterans and their families.

Dive deep into the emotional story behind Ronnie's Retreat, named in memory of Joey's brother, Ronnie McNutt, who battled mental health issues and sadly took his own life. Joey opens up about his military service and the stark realities many veterans face upon returning home, from the loss of purpose to the alarming rates of suicides. Through candid conversations, we highlight the urgent need for better mental health support systems and how Ronnie's Retreat seeks to offer a lifeline for veterans to find new purpose and community.

But that's not all; we also explore the innovative initiatives of Hinderless 22, including their tiny home community project and Pets for Vets program. These efforts not only provide shelter and job training but also foster self-sufficiency and emotional healing through animal companionship. As we navigate these impactful stories and initiatives, discover how community collaboration is playing a vital role in reshaping the lives of veterans, offering them hope and a path to recovery.

Transcript

American Legion Veterans Support Project

Jerry Allhands 0:00

This is the Veterans Sound Off Podcast. Hard work, work, let's get it going. Let's go, Hard work, work. I'm your host, Jerry Allhands, a veteran of the US Air Force and Army and a Mississippi Past Department Commander of the American Legion. Each week, we visit an American Legion post and visit with the Legion family there. As we travel the state, we'll visit with other groups and organizations that are serving America's veterans and their families. Today, if you enjoy this podcast series, I'm asking that you consider supporting us in whatever fashion you can, whether it's a monthly subscription here on our Buzzsprout page or by sponsoring an ad. For more information on how you can support this series, please call 662-902-6658 or send a text. Either way. We appreciate you and thank you for making this podcast possible. Today we are in Northeast Mississippi at the American Legion Perry A Johns Post no 6 in Corinth, where we sit down with Carlene Parker of the Unit 6 American Legion Auxiliary and Post 6 Commander Nora Moreland. They introduce us to Joey McNutt, founder of Ronnie's Retreat, a non-profit organization helping homeless veterans.

Nora Moreland 1:13

Hard work is what they say Hard work, hard work. I'm earning my pay.

Johnathan Michael Flemming 1:17

Hard work, work. Today I'm in Northeast Mississippi, in the great town of who.

Carlean Parker 1:23

Of what Corinth, corinth, corinth.

Jerry Allhands 1:26

One more. Somebody else got to say it Corinth, and the choir says Corinth, mississippi. It's a beautiful community over here. The Crossroads, I think I've heard it's referred to, so I may have to call y'all the Crossroads from now on. Just go with that. We say that because I cannot say the word without messing it up. It's kind of like saying Massachusetts. I never could say that either. 45 years in radio couldn't say it Not going to happen. Today I'm visiting with Post 6 of the American Legion and they have got an event coming up in the future that we felt like needed to be shared with the public, and Ms Carlene Parker, if I understand correctly, is the one who's leading up this event. Is that correct, carlene?

Carlean Parker 2:12

Yes, well, next year, 2025, 2026, as of right now, I'm an unopposed running for department president in Mississippi for the auxiliary, ronnie's retreat is going to be my special project. So everything that we do, the proceeds will go to Ronnie's retreat.

Jerry Allhands 2:37

Carleen again, if you would introduce yourself first name, last name and your current position with the auxiliary.

Carlean Parker 2:42

Carleen Parker. I am the Unit 6 vice president and I am the Department First Vice.

Jerry Allhands 2:50

Carleen, please open us with a word of prayer.

Carlean Parker 2:52

please, Heavenly Father, we approach your throne just as humbly as we know how. We ask you to give the blessings today on this podcast that we're about to do and the ones that we have already done today. We ask you to bless our veterans, bless our government and bless Joey and his family in this endeavor for Ronnie's retreat. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Joey McNutt 3:17

Amen.

Carlean Parker 3:18

Amen.

Jerry Allhands 3:20

And next to you is Joey McNutt.

Joey McNutt 3:23

Joey McNutt, that's correct.

Jerry Allhands 3:25

Joey, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Joey McNutt 3:28

Well, I am an Army veteran, medically retired 23 years, two deployments to Iraq and when I retired I was looking for somewhere to continue my service, as they say when we get out and I found Post 6 and took me in like family and I've been trying to come to every meeting I could when I'm out of work.

Jerry Allhands 3:53

And appreciate that very much, and he's a fellow beard holder, so I got to be real happy about that.

Joey McNutt 3:57

Well, it actually was a little bit longer until this past summer. I trimmed it on up a little bit.

Jerry Allhands 4:02

Mine was until about two days ago. Wife said Santa Claus is still in the house. We could do something about this. Right, I lost the weight. What do you want? Next to Joey is Nora Moreland.

Nora Moreland 4:14

I am Nora Moreland. I am currently the commander at Post 6 and I am the Northern District President for our auxiliary and, on top of that, district 1. Okay, and you're?

Jerry Allhands 4:26

the Northern District President for our auxiliary, and on top of that you're District 1. Okay, and you're obviously a Marine.

Nora Moreland 4:32

Yes, I am a Marine.

Jerry Allhands 4:34

I'll say it again Once a Marine, always a Marine, or is that ooh-rah?

Nora Moreland 4:38

Ooh-rah.

Jerry Allhands 4:40

See, there's a Marine in the house.

Nora Moreland 4:41

Yes, hide the crayon.

Jerry Allhands 4:44

We do that with much love.

Nora Moreland 4:46

I know that. That's why I tell you only the red one. On yellow paper On yellow paper. According to Mike.

Jerry Allhands 4:52

Yeah, we need to get cameras in here. Carly, tell us a little bit about the project that's going to be in the forefront for you as president, for the auxiliary you know what.

Carlean Parker 5:06

I'm going to turn that over to Joey and let him explain exactly what this project is that they are trying to do, but I will say that it is a very worthwhile project because it deals with homeless veterans. It deals with homeless veterans and we have found out just recently that there's a lot of controversy about our homeless veterans and the things that they're trying to take away from them, and they already have nothing. So I'm going to let him explain what they're doing.

Jerry Allhands 5:40

Joey, your plate's about to get a whole lot bigger.

Joey McNutt 5:43

Hey, I'm looking forward to it. That's what I set out to do.

Jerry Allhands 5:46

Before we get started on that, you said that you were an Army vet. Tell me a little bit about yourself. What did you do in the Army?

Honoring Veterans Through Ronnie's Retreat

Joey McNutt 5:52

Well, I did a lot of things. I started out as an M1 tanker, so I was an armor crewman, tank operator. I moved on from there, became a chemical NCO. I went to chemical warfare school in Fort Dix, new Jersey, so I was a chemical warfare NCO. I also went to MOSQ and became a 12th Bravo combat engineer. So I moved around quite a bit and gained a lot of, quite a lot of skills. Then, of course, you got all your extra additional duties. You know I worked in operations assistant operations NCO. I've been human resources supervisors, I've been physical security inspector and supervisor. So I've done a lot of things in my military career. I loved every bit of it and wish I was still there. But they cut my five-year plan three years short.

Jerry Allhands 6:41

Got. It Can relate to that. I I'm looking over, I'm counting fingers to make sure they're still all 10 there, you know all still, there all still there. No, no splotches. No, you know, I know about the chemical part been there done that so 82nd airborne? Yeah, whatever they wanted, it's what you did that's it. Uh, you said iraq, iraq twice, yes, twice where at. We went Iraq twice, yes, twice. Where at?

Joey McNutt 7:03

We went to. I went to Andajoff the first time in 2005. Stayed a year there, Came home, went back in 2008, and I was in Baghdad at Biop and worked there as mine clearing operations, where we ran out and just rode around and looked for IEDs and cleared roadways and tried to make it safe for everybody in the country.

Jerry Allhands 7:24

And folks, I'm assuming there's still 10 toes and I see 10 fingers. So obviously he did his job and did it well.

Joey McNutt 7:29

So far.

Jerry Allhands 7:31

God bless you. Thank you so much for that too. Appreciate you going over there and doing that for us. Thank you, thank you, nor you got somebody besides you. I think we need to get a phone number, because I'm hearing all these girls already ringing up my phone here. He's married, I hear all these lawyers calling me.

Joey McNutt 7:46

Yeah, actually yesterday was my 25th wedding anniversary. I don't know how my marriage lasted throughout my career that way, but I think it's because for half of my marriage we didn't even live together, so we really didn't have to deal with each other.

Jerry Allhands 8:00

25 years, congratulations Wow.

Nora Moreland 8:03

They still smile at each other too.

Jerry Allhands 8:05

They still like each other.

Joey McNutt 8:06

Yeah, 25 years yeah we kind of do that's beautiful man. Yeah, she's been with me this whole time. It's like I say she's been great.

Jerry Allhands 8:14

What's her name?

Joey McNutt 8:15

Her name is Susan.

Jerry Allhands 8:16

Susan McNutt. Is she a veteran too?

Joey McNutt 8:18

She is not, she is a veteran wife veteran. There you go, she's dealt with a lot of the stuff and kept the home front running when I was doing all my traveling and being deployed. Thank you, Any children. We have one daughter. She is married, have a son-in-law. She is 37. I have a 13-year-old granddaughter and a 5-year-old grandson.

Jerry Allhands 8:40

I don't know what you're drinking and eating, but I want some Dang. All right, joey, tell us about this project. Tell us about the Ronnie's Retreat.

Joey McNutt 8:51

All right. Well, to tell you about the retreat, I have to give you a little background information on it and why and how it came to be. My little brother's name is Ronnie McNutt and he was also an Army veteran, did four years in the Army, floyd Dirac, and we both struggled with our mental health. His, ultimately, was a big issue that he couldn't overcome and he ended up taking his own life over it. Now my brother was always in service to others, even when he got out of the military, really involved in the church, always volunteering to do community service. So we thought you know, what better way could we honor him than to start a nonprofit in his name and do community service and service to veterans? So we focused on the veteran side of mental health. That's where we really started at. We really started at and uh, because we think that that is the biggest lead to veterans unaliving their self. Uh, I'll try to be politically correct.

Jerry Allhands 9:54

No, don't worry about being politically correct. On this show that we are.

Joey McNutt 9:57

We are veterans and and we are not politically correct hey, that sounds good to me, all right, but uh, we have more veterans committing suicide every year the 22, a lot of people. They relate to the number 22 because back in 2014, 2015, that was the study that came out that 22 veterans a day were taking their own lives. Well, now that number has continued to increase. We're up to 44-plus veterans a day. There's another 40-plus veterans a day that also overdose on prescription pharmaceuticals, and they've lost count of the homeless veterans. Homeless veterans seem to get pushed to the side because, as long as the issue doesn't have to be addressed, it's not a problem according to state law and officials that we have elected, and that's one of the big issues we're dealing with right now. But anyway, so we started this nonprofit and we were helping veterans. We started with helping veterans with basic needs because we think mental health starts at home as well.

Joey McNutt 10:55

Once people get out of the military, they kind of lose their purpose, they kind of lose their worth. They leave all their friends that have become their brothers, their sisters, and you know, when you serve in the military, your buddies and battle buddies. They become your mothers, your fathers, your brothers, your therapist. You know You're everything to each other. You take care of each other. Once people are discharged from the military, retire, get medically retired, they go home and they start losing connections with those people. Yeah, so they're out of place. So we wanted to step in and fill that void, Because what happens a lot of times? They go into that depression. They sit at home, they don't want to go out in public Because we're not comfortable in public anymore. Civilian world to us is it's the craziest thing. So you have a lot that sit there. They go into their depressions and if nobody's there to help them or reach out, then a lot of times that mental health struggle causes them to take their life and I firmly believe that's one of the biggest reasons we're losing so many veterans. They feel out of place and don't know where to turn. So we try to fix that and we know if a veteran can't provide then that just makes his mental health worse. If we can step in and give them a hand up and we can lead them in a direction of a better life and give them the tools they need, then they start becoming self-sustaining again. They can go from just living and surviving to having a life again.

Joey McNutt 12:26

So we were a nonprofit for about three years doing a lot of different things, and we were trying to figure out what was the best way that we could reach a lot of these veterans. Veterans are they're proud people, they're stubborn people. A lot of them are not going to reach out to you. So we thought if we could create something that would allow us to reach out to you. So we thought if we could create something that would allow us to reach out to them, then we could make things a little better. We could put them in the right direction.

Joey McNutt 12:53

So the homeless veterans that's where we wanted to start to focus, because we started noticing more homeless people and more homeless people on the sides of the roads holding up signs homeless veteran, homeless veteran. And I got to thinking well, you know, they were promised this care when they served, when they got out, they were promised to be taken care of. But the homeless veteran programs are not all. They're cracked up to be. Basically, they're a blanket and a pillow. Come back next week and we'll give you a sandwich, and I've seen that with my own eyes sitting in the parking lot.

Joey McNutt 13:24

So we decided we wanted to build something, but we didn't know what all we wanted to build. So we decided we're going to call it ronnie's retreat. We're going to build tiny homes. We're going to get homeless veterans, take them off the streets, put them in these tiny homes. We're going to fine-tune programs for their specific needs to get them off the street and back on their feet, and that will include different things.

Joey McNutt 13:49

We also train service dogs for free for veterans. So we'll have our dog facility out there on the same property as well. So they'll always have access to ESAs for animal healing, which is very special to me because I know how great that can be very special to me because I know how great that can be. I've traveled a little bit since I retired to a couple of wolf dog rescue places that have veterans programs and it was just amazing to me.

Joey McNutt 14:14

So we're always going to have those pets for vets is what I like to say. But we'll bring them in. They'll have access to therapy, they'll have access to medical care. We'll make sure they get any benefits that they work for, because a lot of people don't realize this. You know the benefits they work for through the Veterans Services. It's not an entitlement. They work for that. They work for it. It's not something that the government just gives them. So we'll make sure they get that, we'll make sure they have everything they need work on their self, and what I like to say is we're going to give them the tools to regain their self-worth, give them another purpose and let them know that they still mean something to somebody.

Helping Veterans With Hinderness 22

Jerry Allhands 14:54

Let's circle back to your brother. If you don't mind, this is going to be a little sensitive, and if you don't want to talk about it, I understand. But for our listeners we have the opportunity to reach a minimum of 10 000 people with this podcast just in the department of mississippi alone. So you add another two to four people in each household. We're looking at about 40 000 people all right and hopefully we'll get further than that. Tell me about your brother. Tell me, I know that he was a vet. What happened?

Joey McNutt 15:28

well. He came home. Uh, of course, like I said, struggle with mental health. I started going to the va. Of course he got medication and, as a lot of us do, as we go and we think we're getting better, we start pushing the medication aside because we don't like feeling the way that we feel on the medication.

Joey McNutt 15:46

But he stayed very active in the community. He was always a big jokester. He always talked a bunch of junk. To me that's a brother. We always had a great time when we all got together.

Joey McNutt 15:58

Uh, and with his job he had moved off for a little while, uh, to smyrna, tennessee, so we wouldn't. We weren't around a lot for about a year after I retired, but then he transferred back working in New Albany. So we were getting together every two or three weekends and grilling at a mom's. You know, that's just kind of what we did, but he was always trying to help somebody. He was a guy that would sit there if he thought you felt bad and he would sit there until you started smiling again. Really, didn't matter to him how long it took. Uh, he knew people from all over the country, in the world. He was a big gamer, online gamer, big social media guy always on social media, so he had connections all over the place and I still have people send me messages and different things going. Hey, man, your brother was a great guy. You know, we used to game with your brother. I'd be like, oh cool, where y'all from? Well, we're from, we're from michigan I'm like I didn't even know.

Joey McNutt 16:48

He knew anybody in michigan, you know. Yeah, so he uh he knew a lot of people because he was always, always trying to reach out to other people before he took care of himself. But about a week or two before he took his life he had actually made another VA appointment. And that's another thing that we really believe strongly in is wait times cause veterans to take their lives because it was going to be another two months before he could get into the VA, and that's why we want to try to be that first contact. They need help at that moment. They don't need to have to wait two much to get in to see mental health. But he just started spiraling. There was really no signs that weekend. He had been on a rafting trip in Chattanooga, tennessee, came home, had a great time, called and made sure we knew he had a great time. That's just the way my brother was. Then later that evening, uh, I got a phone call, said hey, you might want to get on.

Joey McNutt 17:51

Get on facebook you know, something's going on with your brother, so I get on and we're trying to talk to him and a lot of people out there probably remember this, because my brother, ronnie, was the veteran that took his own life on Facebook live. He's the one that TikTok had to send out warnings about, facebook had to send out warnings about um, and so a lot of people know my brother and know of my brother before they ever met us or talked to us, because it was so it went so viral. Yeah, because it was screen recorded from facebook and uploaded to other sites and other social media platforms. But that is, uh, that's kind of the quick rundown. Uh, like I said, you would have never knew that he was struggling.

Joey McNutt 18:40

Everything was going great for him, had a great job, he had, uh, for my niece's birthday a couple months before he'd got the whole family tickets to go to disney world I mean just loving life and something just happened that evening and it changed his whole, his whole train of thought and just disconnected his brain from real life so no, no, outward signs nothing to be no, not worried about none at all, yeah, so you know we were discussing this in another podcast recently about how um easy it is for that dark cloud to move over you.

Jerry Allhands 19:20

You know you can be smiling one moment and the next something trigger. I've been through that myself right and uh you know you're aware of the, the 988 number, that the is now out there nationally. Um, not sure how soon that was in your brother's situation, if it was available or not, but I I'm making a point to always tell people about that phone number right, you know right, you call that that number to at least talk to somebody.

Joey McNutt 19:46

Right, yeah, the 988,. It was actually established and put into effect about a year after my brother's death. Several months after my brother's death is when we started a nonprofit and the first T-shirts that we made actually had the suicide hotline number across the back.

Jerry Allhands 20:01

Okay. You have any more of those shirts.

Jerry Allhands 20:06

I have a ton of shirts.

Jerry Allhands 20:08

We'll we'll make that available on this podcast as well, how they can reach out on that.

Jerry Allhands 20:13

For those who aren't aware, who are hearing this podcast for the first time, 988 is a national phone number that's been set up, uh, not only for veterans but for anybody who's having a moment of, let's say, need, because it's not always the person who's thinking about hurting themselves or having a desire to hurt themselves.

Jerry Allhands 20:33

You could be having a really bad moment and just need to talk to somebody, and maybe you don't want to talk to a relative who's going to rush over and give you what you feel like. It's a hard time because you know they love you, they want to be there for you, but 988 is a stranger who will listen without judgment and they will get your information and simply to be able to reach out to you after they hang up the phone. And I've got a personal friend who's been through that, had a family member commit suicide and you know I'm not saying it's the be-all, the end-all, but it's a step and many of us I'm older than you, thank you with that nice, perfect beard over there you know we still have organizations, groups that get together for PTS and things like that, and sometimes you don't want to go and sit in that room and tell that story.

Jerry Allhands 21:25

I still don't like that room right, but it's a place to go and I would encourage anybody listening to today's podcast to Ronnie's Retreat to please, as Joey says you know he was happy.

Joey McNutt 21:41

Happy guy.

Jerry Allhands 21:42

I was happy and I would rather hear you on a phone call than go through what you went through, joey, and I appreciate your brother's service and what you're doing.

Call 988 21:51

When a person calls 988, they're connected to a crisis counselor. Crisis is completely self-defined. If you're wondering if you should call, you should probably call. A caller can expect to talk about coping skills, talk about resources and ways to move forward beyond the call. They can call us, they can chat, they can text and when they come out on the other side, they're feeling better.

Call 988 22:17

Call or text 988 or chat 988lifelineorg.

Jerry Allhands 22:20

Tell us some more. How can somebody reach out to you and support you in this?

Hinderless 22 Veterans Program Expansion

Joey McNutt 22:25

Well, the actual name of our whole nonprofit is Hinderness 22, the Ronnie McNutt Foundation. We go by Hinderness 22 22 and just because the whole name is a mouthful to say. But we felt like we needed my brother's name in it because that's why we do what we do. But just a just a little funny thing is we were thinking about what we were going to call it and it came out as what we'll call it the Ronnie Magnet Foundation. I said, said hey, you know that's a lot to say, it's going to take up a lot of space on a shirt. A lot of people are not going to remember the whole name. They're not going to know how to look us up on the internet. So I said why don't we call it Hinderless 22? So some of my guys I've been talking to about the nonprofit said what is a Hinderless? I said well, my brother's screen name. He actually came up with an alter ego when he was younger and they were doing podcasts with a group called Just Us Geeks and he called himself Hinderless, which meant to keep going, never give up, keep pushing everybody. So I said you know what better way to honor his name than just use his social media name too. That's how it came with hinderless 22, so everybody knows us as hinderless 22. Uh, it's real easy to get in touch with us and contact us. Uh, we're on all social media sites. Uh, facebook, we're hinderless 22.

Joey McNutt 23:49

Ronnie magnet foundation tiktok is hinderless22rmf, instagram, hinderless22rmf, and our website is hinderless22.org, and you can go through the website. It's got all of our contact stuff in it as well. You can message us through the website and it comes straight to our organization's email. So there's always easy ways to get in touch with us. You can also go to our merchandise page on there. Look at all the merchandise we have and every sale. The money goes straight into the non-profit.

Joey McNutt 24:22

We are 501c3. And so we sell all of our merchandise to raise money to do the things that we do. That's how we started and now we've gained a lot of support. Of course, the American Legion, post 6, has been a big supporter the Auxiliary, the Riders and we're getting the word out more nowadays because we're in the community so much and we're at all these festivals and different things. But, like I say, that's the easiest way to get in contact with us handlelist22.org. You can click on send us a Message, get in contact with any time. You can also go there and read our story. You can read about Ronnie's story and why we started. You can see some of the things that we've done since we started A lot of those things we still do and you can read more on Ronnie's retreat and all the things that we plan to do with that Hard work. Read more on.

Jerry Allhands 25:16

Ronnie's retreat and all the things that we plan to do with that let's pause for a moment to hear from some of the people who have helped to make this episode possible with their financial support.

Be The One 25:24

Hey, this is Kenny McMahon. I'm the commander at Post 1990 in Nesbitt, mississippi. I just want to give a shout out to my son, matt McMahon, who's serving in the United States Navy recently deployed. He's aboard the USS Carl Vinson CVN-74. You see these other Navy personnel and some Marines right, so I also want to recognize my daughter.

Jerry Allhands 25:53

If you're active duty, you know how stressful it is being a spouse of a serving member and especially when they're deployed, a very special thank you to Dean and Judy Graves of Mount Vernon, missouri, for their support in making this program possible, and a very special thank you to Laura Allhands, whose constant encouragement has made this program possible.

Joey McNutt 26:22

Be willing to show up for a veteran. Be willing to stick your nose where it doesn't belong. Be willing to push and prod if things don't add up. Be willing to trust your gut, follow your heart and take a risk.

Nora Moreland 26:35

Be willing to sit without saying a word, without checking the time, without trying to solve.

Be The One 26:41

Sometimes suicide wants to rip a person from this world. Be willing to grab with both hands and hold on to a friend, a spouse, a daughter a son, be the one who's willing to ask to guess wrong to even offend another to keep them safe to remind them that they are valuable. If you know a veteran, be the one to reach out and make them a part of your life. You won't believe what I say.

Johnathan Michael Flemming 27:16

In the army. You won't believe what I say In the army. Ten boots, acus, talabans, hats and Motorhomes hit the ground. I I say in the army.

Jerry Allhands 27:58

You won't believe what I say in the army. So tell me more about the housing, the small housing. How big are we talking about?

Joey McNutt 28:13

We're doing 12 by 20s, and so they're going to be just a basic tiny home setup. I know a lot of people watch these shows about tiny homes and they see these fancy things with all this cool stuff in them. Well, this is not that.

Jerry Allhands 28:27

Okay.

Joey McNutt 28:27

Okay, these are going to be basic housing units. They'll have their bed, they'll have a sitting somewhere to sit. They'll have their bathrooms, showers, it a sitting somewhere to sit. They'll have their bathrooms, showers. It'll be basic living and the plan behind it is, for most of them this will be transitional.

Joey McNutt 28:43

Now there will be some permanent residents stay in these houses, because we do have a lot of vets, especially from vietnam and korea. They're older vets and of course they they have a little harder time and we would love to have some of those guys stay on our property and help with the property management part. So some of these veterans on the property would actually have jobs on the property as well. That gives them another purpose and another reason to wake up every morning. But a lot of it will be the transitional housing and what we'll do is we'll offer job training skills to the younger veterans that can still work. We'll offer different programs with therapy and different things, and what the end goal is is to guide them through the steps to get back on their feet, to gain more permanent housing and be more self-sustaining.

Jerry Allhands 29:36

So is this a community? Is this going to be like 10 acres of small houses?

Joey McNutt 29:41

yes small city, if you will yes, we've actually started out on five acres now. We have three tiny homes under construction at the moment. Spring's coming, so the work will begin to get completed quicker now. But yeah, we're hoping to expand this over the next year or two.

Joey McNutt 30:00

It's been small steps so far because as a non-profit you can only work with what you got right but we we have enough land that we can expand up to 20 acres, but I also want to put out there too, because so there's no misunderstanding this is this is not a homeless shelter, right, this is a whole program in itself and as we grow we hope to expand it from just veterans to others that need a little hand up, such as domestic violence victims, sexual assault victims, recovery recovery, drug recovery.

Joey McNutt 30:38

We have drug recovery assets ready to go, and that's another big issue with the homeless veterans is they start self-medicating. So they get addicted to a lot of the drugs and alcohol, and I can see how I did it myself. When I was medically retired, I lost all worth, all purpose, I turned alcohol and I probably drank more than this town could hold. I've been doing some things, working on myself as well, because it's not only other veterans that need a hand up, we also have to hold ourselves accountable. So I've been clean and sober, no alcohol, no anything, for about a year and two months now, so that was one of my biggest crutches which I drank alcohol pretty much all my life.

Joey McNutt 31:28

But once I was medically retired and I lost all faith and hope in life and that was what's so bad. And that's what's so bad with these veterans, especially these homeless veterans. They don't drink because they're having a few drinks with their buddies and having a good time. They're drinking because they're hating life. Yeah, they're hating the society they're living in, because they feel they don't fit. So if we can help them get out of that as well and get back on healthy coping mechanisms, it helps a lot. Get back on healthy coping mechanisms, it helps a lot.

Jerry Allhands 31:54

Get that sense of pride back.

Joey McNutt 31:55

Right.

Jerry Allhands 31:56

Yeah Right, 12 by 20, right? Yes, sir, that's about the size of a good-sized barracks dorm room.

Joey McNutt 32:03

Yeah.

Jerry Allhands 32:03

Yeah.

Joey McNutt 32:04

Pretty much.

Jerry Allhands 32:04

Right now we're looking at single individuals.

Joey McNutt 32:07

Single individuals and you know we're hoping that down the line we may try to do some a little bigger for homeless veterans that may have a spouse that's homeless with them or something like that, right.

Jerry Allhands 32:20

All right, Fully insulated, air-conditioned heat.

Joey McNutt 32:24

Fully insulated, air-conditioned heat. Eventually, we'll have internet as well, because a lot of things are online.

Be The One 32:31

The.

Joey McNutt 32:31

VA system is online now. A lot of things that you do is online, so that will help them drastically as well what is your primary need right now?

Jerry Allhands 32:40

what? What can we do to help?

Joey McNutt 32:41

right now we're working on getting the electrical power ran to it. Um, we're, we've got to cut our right away. We've got a plan on that, but getting the power ran is the biggest thing right now. Everything else we can pretty much handle and take care of, but we're not certified to run power and electricity. Yay.

Jerry Allhands 33:04

So I guess that's where Carlene and Nora come into play with this, and the Legion riders as well. So, carlene, tell me some of what the plan is here.

Carlean Parker 33:12

Well, like I said, next year, if I do become department president, um, that is going to be my special project and we're going to be doing several fundraisers. We've already started on the grant, the auxiliary foundation grant. Uh, we have to come up with 20 of ten thousand dollars to apply for that grant. We've already got got $1,300 to that since Thursday night. Wait since this past Thursday night Since our meeting this past Thursday night, a day and a half ago, as we're recording this Right.

Carlean Parker 33:47

Okay, it's going to be something that's going to be well worth every dime and every effort that goes in to this project, because we're going to be helping somebody and that's our mission is to help our veterans and this, this money that was raised this past thursday night. That's a combination of the, of the entire combination of our family, okay, our legion family the auxiliary, the riders, the sons, the post correct this is not reaching out to the community yet.

Jerry Allhands 34:17

This is not yet but we're going there and not yet

Nora Moreland 34:20

nor tell me about what's going to be done in the community one of the first things that I'm going to do is I'm going to reach out to the other legions in my district and in past, the word education key that's one of the things we learned in boot camp was knowledge is power, and I'm fixing to gain some more knowledge on this grant she's talking about and I'm fixing to share, share, share. Something I shared this past Thursday night at our meeting is sharing, is caring, share. I don't care if it's verbally, by mouth in town, if it's on your facebook. Share, and I know the legion riders on the poppies and pancakes contest that we're going to be having. That's what the money, the funds that are raised from that will be going to this.

Jerry Allhands 35:15

Okay, and what is that?

Nora Moreland 35:18

The Poppies and Pancakes contest. We will be having that here at Corinth Post 6, 19 April.

Jerry Allhands 35:26

Well, that's April 19th, what time 0-900-11. That's 9 am. 9 am for greens. Hey, you gotta be difficult.

Nora Moreland 35:43

Nine to eleven am some things are just hard to change. Yes, nine to eleven you know, I do that, I do know you do this and I want to say something about the poppy funds.

Carlean Parker 35:51

The poppy funds a lot of people have a misconception on that. They think that they can just raise funds and give out poppies and things like that and it can be used for whatever. But it cannot be. It can only be used for veterans and that's it. Whatever veterans need and things like that. It can't be used for anything else other than veterans If they need socks, if they need food, whatever because we've given food here to veterans and we've given clothes and things like that with our poppy funds.

Jerry Allhands 36:28

And again, that is April 19th, 9 to 11 am. Yes, sir, here at the American Legion Hut. That address, the physical address again, is 511 South Tate Street, Corinth, Mississippi, 38834. So we were looking at raising a minimum of $2,000 to get the grant, if I'm correct on this.

Nora Moreland 36:49

The first one.

Jerry Allhands 36:50

The first one.

Nora Moreland 36:50

The first one we're not stopping at one, so this could be done multiple times Okay.

Jerry Allhands 36:55

Once the $10,000 is, I guess you get the $2,000,. You apply for the grant. What's the turnaround time on getting the actual funds back? Does anyone know? And everybody looks over to Ms Tina Hurst, she's our grant applier.

Carlean Parker 37:11

Oh, so the grant committee meets four times a year. Depending on when we get the grant in, we'll determine when we get the funds back.

Jerry Allhands 37:21

It takes 30, 60 days, 90 days, you think.

Carlean Parker 37:25

I think it took two weeks for me to get approval back last time because I timed it right.

Jerry Allhands 37:29

Okay, all right. So we're looking at long-term most, maybe maybe 90 days, a little bit longer. To get this back, did I understand you? You already have three houses out there at the site we have three out there that are under construction under construction. Yeah, we're finished currently finishing the insides of them, so would ten thousand dollars that they're talking about, this grant? Would that enable you to do what you need to do as far as getting electricity into the area?

Joey McNutt 37:58

Yes, sir, definitely would.

Jerry Allhands 38:01

What kind of cooperation are you getting? Is this a city or county?

Joey McNutt 38:04

We're in the county. Okay, we're actually. The land we're on was actually part of a different county at the time, because Ronnie's Retreat is in Tishomingo County and part of the land was actually considered P a different county at the time, because Ronnie's Retreat is in Tishomingo County and part of the land was actually considered Prentice County at one time. And it's real comical when the police get called anywhere out there because either county, they can't decide who's supposed to respond. But yeah, we're out in the county, so we don't have a lot of the restrictions that you would have in the city limits. And one of the better things about that is is a serene location, so the veterans that are being housed there don't have to deal with the hustle and bustle of city, all the traffic, all the things going on, all the things that may trigger them. They can have a serene, peaceful place for their healing process and going through these programs to get back on their feet.

Jerry Allhands 38:55

You read my mind. Serenity is a beautiful thing when you're trying to get back there.

Carlean Parker 39:01

And the work they've done thus far has been powered by generators.

Jerry Allhands 39:09

I was saying what kind of cooperation are you getting from the county on this? Is it Mississippi Energy? What do you need?

Joey McNutt 39:16

we have tishmingle county power electric association. Uh, they've agreed to try to work with us some uh, they give us some quotes. I could probably go buy a nice used car for those quotes. But uh, they're offering to some of their workers, are actually offering some free labor. So that helps Any little bit. Helps Our supervisor for our county, the one that takes care of all the road maintenance and all that.

Joey McNutt 39:43

He's been real good in that district for us. They came out, they put us some culverts in. We had a citizen of the town that's closest to us, which is Burnsville. We had a guy there that does logging and he also had bulldozers. He said, hey, I'd love to come out there if you need some dose of work done. He came out and he dozed off our road, got it ready for the gravel and uh, you know, every little bit has helped because when we started this pull up on the side of the road spot of woods, I took out my chainsaw and just started cutting trees. That's how I cut my whole road into this property. Um, and I was wondering how I was going to get get the rest of the road built because we needed dozer work. But we've had a few of the citizens have mostly stepped up more than, say, the the county has. But the county is always supportive, of course, and offer to help any way they can.

Jerry Allhands 40:41

This whole project started again when.

Joey McNutt 40:46

At first we had a different idea. We were actually working with a nonprofit before we started Ronnie's Retreat and it was going to be something a little bit different. Nonprofit before we started Ronnie's Retreat and it was going to be something a little bit different. But, as we know, life changes so things change sometimes. No hard feelings for anybody that was involved. But we decided to go a different direction and we decided to build it our way In a way that we felt may be more helpful. So I began last spring, spring of 24. That's when I began to work on the property. I think it was 24, late 23, early 24.

Be The One 41:28

Okay.

Joey McNutt 41:29

That's when I burned out my first chainsaw and had to go get another one.

Jerry Allhands 41:34

I seen a lot right there. I see a lot right there. That's saying a lot, All right, so we're basically a year into it more or less Right. Right, Tell me a little bit about the Pets for Vets portion of this. In my mind's eye I'm seeing a small community of veterans. This is the old soldier in me. I'm seeing the flagpole in the center. I'm too old to do push-ups and sit-ups, but I'm seeing the yard in the front. You know what I'm saying. Right right, the white painted rocks you remember those.

Jerry Allhands 42:09

I may be too young for that, but you know I'm seeing this and I'm loving the Pets for Vets. Is that going to be out there, a part of it?

Joey McNutt 42:18

Yes, yes, our dog kennels and everything will be right on the property and, as a matter of fact, the vet stand there, will be responsible for animal health with these animals. That gets them connected to that animal, the animal healing portion. And what's so great about that and having the dogs directly on that property? Because, like I said, we already trained service dogs for free for veterans as well, and we've trained several since we began. But having the animals right there on location, if a veteran does require service animal, then they're going to be directly involved in training that service animal theirself. Plus, some of the other veterans will be involved in helping train some of these animals if they feel that they want to and that's part of the path to bettering their own life. Then that also gives them another skill to help them regain their worth and another skill to offer the world, and that's kind of what we we miss is the service to our countries uh, getting out of the service.

Jerry Allhands 43:22

you know that first year is hard enough as it is, as you acclimate to being a civilian, no longer a soldier sailoror, airman, marine, space cadet, what they call space guardian. It's going to be a while to figure that one out, but yeah, it's that year. For me at least it was the minimum. It's probably longer trying to adapt to the fact that there wasn't a mission, right. And whether we realize it or or not, even as civilians we have a day-to-day mission. We just may have to make that mission.

Joey McNutt 43:57

It sounds like you've got a great one ahead of you there right and and that's what it's about, we, we, we have to find our mission. Uh, once we get out, we lose that mission, as you said. So we have, we have to focus on finding a mission we can do here in the civilian world. That doesn't necessarily have to be with civilians. It can be something just as we in the American Legion do is a mission for our veterans. But I agree with you that first year is almost self-devastation because you don't fit in with anyone, even the people you know from your hometowns. They've been working in other things. You've been in this structured, you know the structured life. Everything's laid out. You know what you're doing, you've got a purpose, you've got a mission Every day and you know it. Where all your friends back home really don't have that, they get up, they go to a job.

Jerry Allhands 44:58

If they don't feel like doing it.

Supporting Veterans With Service Animals

Joey McNutt 44:58

They call in, they go home. You know I mean, you have nothing in common anymore. I did try that one time.

Nora Moreland 45:01

I try sometimes uh, are you in the military or afterwards?

Joey McNutt 45:04

in the military in the military. Try that one time the greatest thing to me in the military when I was working there is when we got the, the laptops, the government laptops to work on. Uh, because it was real easy to call and say, hey, I'm working from home today I'm not feeling well, and uh, it was great. Just check my email that morning. I go fishing all day, come back in, check my email, send a few and they think I've really been working. We missed out on that, didn't we?

Nora Moreland 45:30

yes, we did. He said laptop.

Jerry Allhands 45:32

I'm thinking what's a computer? We didn't we? Yes, we did. He said laptop.

Nora Moreland 45:34

I'm thinking what's a computer? We didn't have cell phones yet when I was in Cell phone.

Jerry Allhands 45:38

Wow man the Mars cars.

Joey McNutt 45:42

I remember feeling, like you know, having that feeling that we really made it in the military, though, when we went from the typewriter to the word processor Back in the early 90s.

Jerry Allhands 45:51

Yeah, I remember a word processor.

Joey McNutt 45:54

We were stepping up in the world.

Jerry Allhands 45:58

See, I love these talks.

Carlean Parker 46:00

We can do this all day long.

Jerry Allhands 46:01

The, the pets for vets is. That's an ongoing thing that you've been doing for a while.

Joey McNutt 46:08

Yeah, we've been doing that since we began our nonprofit because we we feel like service dogs and ESAs. They're veterans, lifeline. That's another thing that gives them a purpose to get up every morning. They care for this animal and this animal cares for them. It gives them their life back. It helps them feel more comfortable getting out of the house, going to different events and going just going to the supermarket, because a lot of our anxieties when we're out in public is the crowds, the people getting too close, we can't see everybody, we don't know what, everything, what's going on. And these, these animals, they, just they give you that comfort the where you can go to the grocery store and shop for your groceries. You're not just trying to run in and run out. Uh, they, they, they let you get back to going to watch your grandkids and their sporting events at schools. You know they help you get your life back.

Jerry Allhands 46:56

I heard you say the word or phrase ESA, esa. What is that?

Joey McNutt 47:00

That is emotional support animal. Okay, and the difference is between the ESA and the service dog and a lot of people don't realize this is. The service dog is trained with a task to help someone who needs it. Most of our service dogs are mental health service dogs. They're trained to start noticing the different actions in a person. When they start having anxiety, ptsd, they start sensing these things and they bring them out of that zoned-out state. The ESA emotional support animal. Basically, to be an ESA, all you have to do is make sure your dog's house-trained. I mean, I got four dogs at my house. They could all be considered ESAs but they're not considered service dogs, so they're not allowed in a lot of the same businesses and places that a service dog is so you have certification on these animals that that uh are.

Jerry Allhands 48:01

Are the animals, are they donated to a veteran or does the veteran purchase them?

Joey McNutt 48:05

both. Uh, there's been some veterans where we have found the animal for the veteran and there's some veterans that call and say, hey, you know, I've already got this, this dog, and I really my doctor has said I could really be of service with a service dog and I was wondering if you could train them. So we train dogs that they already have, we we source out and look for dogs that will make good service dog candidates to train, and not every dog that we train turns into a service dog, because some dogs just they, they just don't make the service dog. Uh, it's something that's very specific. They've got to have a certain demeanor, of course, um, and some of them just don't, and that's no big deal. I mean, that's just the way it is. They're still good dogs all dogs matter.

Joey McNutt 48:52

All dogs matter as a matter of fact that's how I ended up with two of the ones that I have certification of paperwork.

Jerry Allhands 48:58

How is that done?

Joey McNutt 48:59

there is actually no certification that you are required to have, there's no national registry, um, and now you can go online and buy a little identification card says they're a service dog all day long. They sell them on Amazon for $20, you know. But a lot of the business owners and a lot of, say, landlords and housing communities, they don't realize that they want some kind of paperwork, and so we recommend that you have a statement from your doctor saying that they recommended for you to have this service dog. Now do you say service dog? And that usually is great. The ADA says that you don't have to make your service dog perform to satisfy anyone's questions about your service dog, but businesses, owners and different places are allowed to ask you a couple of questions and all that's on the ADA website for specifics.

Jerry Allhands 49:55

I think the minister did that when I got married.

Joey McNutt 49:58

Yeah, yeah. And my wife said I do so she was stuck with me as her service animal.

Jerry Allhands 50:06

She spoke up too soon. I'll tell you I am definitely her working dog. Pets for Vets. Can that be found on the same site, thehinderless22.org, or is there a different site for that?

Joey McNutt 50:20

No, it's all on the same site. We don't actually call it Pets for Vets. It's just something that we've done since we began and it talks about the things that we've done training the service dogs and different things. On one page it talks about a lot of the things that we do and that we've done training the service dogs and different things. On one page it talks about a lot of the things that we do and that we've done, and then we have a separate page that talks about Ronnie's retreat and another page that talks about the story of how we started and my brother's story. So you can see all that. We have a donation button as well on our page.

Joey McNutt 50:50

I always like to throw out. We have the donation button as well on our page, Very important. But I also tell a lot of people that donation is not always money. Time is a great donation, Scrap building materials great donation, so it doesn't always have to be about money. There's a lot of ways that you can volunteer and donate and contribute without it being money, and at the cost of materials today, that could be very worthwhile.

Nora Moreland 51:16

Yes, Is there a list of things that you need?

Joey McNutt 51:20

We don't currently have a list of things on the website that we need, but that is something that we can very well come up with and put out there for anyone who wants to look, because we're always needing something. It's like I tell people we're a nonprofit, we're always broken, we always need stuff. It's the hardest I've ever worked for no paycheck.

Jerry Allhands 51:41

This job right here, right now, Right right. So tell me, are there pictures of the little houses? Are they on the website as well, or will they?

Joey McNutt 51:49

I think there's some pictures on there already. I have an IT guy that handles all that. I just send him stuff and there will be some more stuff getting uploaded next week on the website as well, because what seems to happen is, especially through the winter, the website kind of gets overlooked a little bit. It's usually, honestly, the last thing on my mind is the website, so if it's not there yet, it's usually usually my fault, even though I don't update it. But uh, yeah, we usually try to update it every four, four to five months, depending. We do have also have an area that tells upcoming events of where we'll be, what will be going on with those events and different things of that nature as well on our website is there a contact phone number on there?

Joey McNutt 52:32

there is not a contact phone number on there and I will explain that that nature as well on our website. Is there a contact phone number on there? There is not a contact phone number on there and I will explain that to you as well. When we started, we had a contact phone number. Since my brother's suicide was on Facebook Live and it was so viral, people actually got a hold of our information.

Joey McNutt 52:50

We received a lot of harassment. We had to make a lot of our social media stuff private because of the comments and people would post the videos in the comments of my brother. And when we posted our phone number on our website for our contact phone number, the phone constantly blew up with people calling and saying my brother's last words and telling us it was you know. Oh, it's your fault, you should have saved him. Oh, you need to do it too. Different things of that nature. So we had to cut our phone and that gives that way. We can. We can prove everything that comes through the social media and through our email and if people want to volunteer or donate, that's yeah, they can go through there, um, but I mean, a lot of people have my phone number.

Joey McNutt 53:37

I don't mind that. We just we trust people, we give it to our trusted people. But you can reach out through the website. We'll respond. It may be in the evening, because I still also work a full-time job can relate yep, but we will get back to you uh.

Joey McNutt 53:55

Social media I talk to a lot of people through social media. They reach out to us through messenger on facebook, through tiktok inbox. That's where most of uh most of the people are reaching out to us from. But we get a lot, of, a lot of people messages in our email through the website and that website again is hinderless22.org.

Jerry Allhands 54:13

And for those of us who are auditorily disabled, spell Hinderless22.

Joey McNutt 54:19

H-I-N-D-E-R-L-E-S-S.

Jerry Allhands 54:23

And would you believe I wrote H-E-N, it's H-I-N.

Joey McNutt 54:27

Well, when we first began, even our bank spelled it H-E-N on our nonprofit bank account.

Nora Moreland 54:34

Thank you and.

Joey McNutt 54:34

I told them, told him I said and my brother, right well, lived here all his life and had an account here, so wow, so hinderless h-i-n-d-e-r-l-e-s-s the number two, two dot org yes, sir anything you'd like to add before we go today?

Joey McNutt 54:52

well, you know, I just I just like, though, out there, you know, especially to our veterans, don't be afraid to reach out. You still got family out here. You got people here that care. It's okay to show your emotions. Don't keep it bottled up. Get it all out. If you need a way to do that, you can contact us. We'll help you with that as well. There's lots of things out here that can help you get through from today to tomorrow. Nothing that happens to you today is important enough for you to take your life over. It's just a bad day. It's not a bad life.

Jerry Allhands 55:19

Yeah, Nora put those crayons down. Last words for us.

Nora Moreland 55:26

I just want to say that I'm really proud of the fact that I've met Joey. I hate the circumstances that we had to meet under. I've met Joey. I hate the circumstances that we had to meet under, but I am willing and ready to do whatever I can do as a Marine, as a person, as a human being, to help him complete his mission. I thank you.

Joey McNutt 55:49

I thank y'all.

Jerry Allhands 55:50

And I thank your wife for sharing you with us.

Joey McNutt 55:53

She definitely needs it.

Jerry Allhands 56:00

And Carlene.

Carlean Parker 56:00

If you would, I'm going to ask you to close us with prayer today. Heavenly Father, again we approach your throne as humbly as we know how, and we thank you for the opportunity for us to gather here today and be able to do the things that we've done in order to serve our veterans better. Bless us all as we go home. Watch over Jerry as he travels south. Keep the storms away. In Jesus' name, I pray Amen.

Jerry Allhands 56:25

Amen, thank you, thank you, thank you. And that was our visit with Joy McNutt, a US Army veteran, who is continuing to serve America and her veterans by honoring his late brother, ronnie, also a US Army veteran, with a nonprofit program called Ronnie's Retreat. He's helping homeless veterans with a home and much more. Be sure to join us next Monday morning as we travel to Olive Branch, mississippi, and visit with Post 2022 Commander Bob Bunton and the newest American Legion post in the Department of Mississippi, terry.

Carlean Parker 56:57

Terry Adams Commander, post 1, American Legion Department of Tennessee.

Veterans Sound Off Podcast Promotion

Jerry Allhands 57:01

Bob Bunyton, Commander of Post 2022. Olive Branch, also Vice Commander of the 2nd District.

Carlean Parker 57:08

I would hope that you'll all join us again for another podcast. Jerry does a great job and he spreads the good word for us, so please come back and join us again for another podcast. Jerry does a great job and he spreads the good word for us, so please come back and join us again, A very special thank you to Jonathan Michael Fleming for his musical talents.

Jerry Allhands 57:25

You can find his CDs and videos on Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube. We hope you've enjoyed this episode and look forward to your feedback and ask that you subscribe, too and share the Veterans Sound Off podcast with your friends and YouTube. We hope you've enjoyed this episode and look forward to your feedback and ask that you subscribe to and share the Veterans Sound Off podcast with your friends and family. If you have a comment, a suggestion or questions, or you would like to become a supporter of this podcast, please send an email to jdallhands at outlookcom that's J-D-A-L-L-H-A-N-D-S at Outlookcom, or by calling 662-902-6658, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. This has been a production of Allh ands Media LLC, with offices in Rena Lara, Mississippi. All Rights Reserved.