Dave with The Fallen Outdoors interview with Amanda Smith and Baron Robison - March 2nd, 2026

Good morning, you guys. It is Amanda with the ABCs of KSL and radio and joining me is Dave from the Fallen Outdoors. Good morning, Dave. Good morning, Amanda.

So I actually interviewed you a few weeks ago at the Willamette Sportsman Show and I was so intrigued that I invited you to come back so that we had more time to elaborate on who you guys are.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Well, thank you. Okay, so let's get started. What inspired the founding of the Fallen Outdoors and how did it grow into a national nonprofit?

Well, the Fallen Outdoors actually was founded by three soldiers during their deployment in Afghanistan. The Fallen Outdoors works with service members of every generation from all branches of the military and creating a meaningful connection and injuring them to lifelong outdoors pursuit.

Okay, I love that. In your own words, what is your core mission of the organization?

Simply to get active duty members, veterans and gold star family members outdoors out of the house, out of those four walls, get them outside, communicate and kind of help them reset, re-communicate, reestablish with community.

Okay, I love that. And that kind of ties into my next question is who exactly do you serve?

Just those folks that we're talking about. And sometimes it also fiddles down to their spouses and family members as well.

Okay, I love that. And then what kind of outdoor activities do you guys organize and why focus on hunting, fishing and similar experiences?

It's outdoors. Once you go outdoors, you kind of get that breath of fresh air, you kind of reset. You not think about what's happening inside the house.

So we've taken folks outside and everything from hunting and fishing, of course, is civic Northwest in Oregon, but goal panning, white wire rafting, jet boating, mushroom picking blackberry picking.

You name it as some outdoors for them to do and communicate with other like-minded individuals. We do it.

Fishing's just a really big part of the Pacific Northwest.

Yeah, I love that. Probably being out and doing those types of outdoor activities. It is out of their normal day-to-day life is probably really rewarding for them.

And I love how you guys said sometimes the spouse can tag along or a family member. It just gets them out of a different head.

It gets them into a different head space than what they would normally be like to sit inside their walls at their home.

So I love that. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be back in about 30 minutes. Stay tuned guys.

It's Amanda and we are back again with Dave from the Fallen Outdoors. So Dave, why is spending time outdoors so impactful for veterans mentally and emotionally?

Well, every day our nation faces a silent battle leading to an alarming rate of suicide.

The reasons are diverse, lack of purpose, suicide, connection, disabilities, constipation, PTSD, stress, anxiety, depression, divorce, addiction, homelessness, much more.

Empowering veterans who nature and a veteran kind of helps create hope, connection and healing. We try and offer those veterans and active duty member personnel and goals for family members the chance and experience transformation power of nature and adventure in a great outdoors.

This is the best part of it. These trips that we try and take them on so that I can't help change our lives, hopefully for the better.

And, you know, encourage them to get outdoors and do things without any financial barrier to the individual.

Okay. I love that. And then I would imagine that friendships naturally develop during these types of trips, especially when they're going on them with other veterans that hold similar stories.

There's lots of behind-the-scenes stories of friendships that have been formed and special bonds between staffers and folks that have come along.

I've met lots and lots of people and lots of outside individuals, not veterans that have helped the community with such things as well.

So there is a fast network of communication between both active duty veterans and goals for family members and ourselves and the community that actually forms communications and networking and those friendships.

Yes. Okay. I love that. Do you see outdoors acting as a form of therapy or healing for these veterans?

It kind of works for everybody in a way. When you walk out of the house, you're not really thinking of what's going on at the house unless you let the stove on, basically, but when you go to work or you go just outside, go down and walk on the beach, you're not thinking about what's going on at home.

You don't think about what's happening on in that location. You're not fishing. You're thinking about fishing. When you're out looking for mushrooms, you're looking about the next step, the next weed, the next what's under the tree, the same with the hunting.

You're scouting for that elusive animal that you may be after or whatever might be out there or you could just be out looking at the sunrise or sunset.

Yeah. Well, then healing too is probably with other veterans that participate is not feeling alone. Also, having someone there that's probably going to very similar things like, okay, I'm not alone. I'm not crazy, you know.

Well, the reason we focus on those three groups active duty veterans and those family members because they have that common out of common aliology. Yeah.

That work. But they work together. They are like-minded individuals. They've all gone through the same things in one aspect or another.

And through that, they can communicate and get better and different. They have common ground.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, we're going to take the break and we'll be right back in time.

Hey guys, it's Amanda and we are back again with Dave from the Fallen Outdoors. So Dave, what kind of feedback do you get from veterans or can you share stories from them participating?

The impact for me is little as a smile on a face or as impactful as saving somebody's life in a way.

One of the veterans who he just had this past weekend, I guess you could say, is he shared with me a couple of trips that he was on.

He was ready to actually take his own life and by going on these trips, kind of sit him back in place and now he's pretty much thriving again.

So it renewed his hope. He was bigger and he's out working in society trying to make an impact and helping other veterans like mine and individuals as well.

Oh, wow. Okay. Well, that was my next question is how do these trips help veterans reconnect with purpose and community and it sounds like

that's exactly what it did. So this is not for every, not every veteran has the same experience, but we like to know that it helps every veteran or one way or another.

If it puts a smile on their face just by getting them out, that's what we're after. We're looking at just one veteran and makes it worth it though.

Absolutely. Okay. And then how broad is your guys' reach? How many states do you reach and how many trips do you guys take a year?

Well, for the West Coast and I'm going to cover up the West Coast, we cover pretty much all 50 states, but for the West Coast we cover from the eastern edge of Montana down to the Texas Panhandle through Alaska and all the way to Hawaii.

Wow. So we have a pretty broad reach in the West Coast. We take out a lot of veterans of that area and organ alone. Last year we took out over 370 veterans well over that.

Wow. That's the recorded. And we know we took out more than that.

And thousands of hours in time spent working with these guys. That's awesome. Okay. And then have you observed outcomes or long-term impacts that have been very helpful for them? I know you'd spoken on that one guy.

Yes. Another veteran I can just off the top of my head think of right away is got him out on his first year hunting trip in over 10 years because of his disabilities got him out.

We thought we got out harvested an animal, came back and he goes, you know, this is so great. I want to keep doing it. He actually became a staffer here not long ago, so he can take it out.

That was awesome. I should have quick break in with you.

Guys, it's Amanda and we are back again with Dave from the fallen outdoors. And I've really enjoyed you sharing with us about what you guys do.

It's pretty awesome what you guys do for veterans and just getting them reconnected outdoors and just finding themselves again. I think that's really awesome.

How are you guys funded and how can listeners support you guys?

Well, we have a national donation site that we can go to on the fallen outdoors or donate to that or we have the local area here in Oregon.

You can get in contact with any of our staffers to help that. We put on some banquets here and there.

But mainly if you see us at a show or just give us a call, we're looking for donations of all type.

I mean, it could be monetary or it could be through land. It could be through water, whatever, you know, somebody wants to do time and energy.

Okay. So you guys completely ran on donations and volunteers.

Absolutely.

So super important and crucial.

Yeah. So we are a hundred percent run owned and operated by veterans from the president on down to the volunteers.

There's nobody paid an organization.

Okay.

We are one of those five one three C's that the only person gets paid is the lawyer to look at everything and the CPA to make sure the books are correct.

Okay. Fair enough. Okay. How many volunteers do you guys have? Do you think I don't know a lot?

I don't know. It takes takes a village as I always say. Amen. Yes, it does.

What would you say your guys biggest needs are right now?

Always looking for for both captains, charters that I get to take veterans out whenever they can.

Looking for landowners to get out and we try and help the land owners much as possible.

So if they have anything coyotes to blackberries to interest of animals on there.

We'd like to come out and help take care of those because this gets a veteran out doing something.

Yeah.

But you know, we'd like to work together with everybody we can and that's not to say we want everything for free either.

Right. Right. Okay. Awesome. That's awesome.

And then do you guys have any upcoming events? I know you mentioned that you guys do bankwits in fundraising.

Yeah. So in the southern organ area, I know they have a bunch of full willing coming on up here, but down south in the Roseburg area.

We have a four by four event coming up at Diamond Lake. We have a fishing. They come up a June tent.

We have a banquet in July in the Roseburg area. So there's if you go to the fallen outdoors West Coast page.

If you're a veteran, a gold star family member, an active duty member, you can find out everything that's kind of going on there.

Okay. Awesome. And then if you guys have a hard time finding that website or where that information is, don't hesitate to email me Amanda at KSLM.News.

And I will help you guys navigate or give you contact information. And then Dave, what is your guys' long term vision for the organization?

You know, that's about my pay grade. That's fair. That's fair.

What I want to do is just help the next veteran. I love that. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking time.

And then one more time, what's your guys' website?

You can follow on outdoors.org, but thank you so much for getting on Facebook. And follow on at KSLM.News.

Okay. I'll see you guys in the next one.