Dr. Jessica Peck prescribing Hope for Healthy Families on American Family Radio
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Hello, and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. Here on American Family Radio.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner, and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck. Well, hey there, friends, and welcome to my favorite part of the afternoon, getting to spend time with you, prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. It is the start of a new week. We are in the spring. I hope you're joining along in our 52 Habits for Healthy Families journey. I'm going to be talking about those habits on Friday. And today we are talking. We're talking our habit this week is, is really important and close to my heart. We're talking about modeling your faith, and we're talking about how do you let your family around you, see your faith in the good times and the hard times. And our prescription for hope today is creating memories to cherish for a lifetime. And many of those memories revolve around activities, faith, praying together, going to church together, or it might be going on a fishing trip, an epic fishing adventure with your son. We are going to talk to a dad today who has written a book as a tribute to his son. We're talking with Tom Logan. Now, Tom is a former Houston policeman. He and his wife Debbie, are both veterans. His family has a long history of military service. He has three children, all three of whom served in the military. And he's going to talk to us about his son, son Joey, who tragically died in a helicopter crash during the course of his military service. He has written a book called Fishing with Joey, a memoir of my marine son. Tom, welcome to the show. We are so glad to have you here and so grateful for the opportunity to honor Joey's life and his legacy.
>> Tom Logan: Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Tom says Joey was a handful from birth till he passed
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Tom, let's just start by telling us about your son. Tell us about him as a son, as a brother, as a person. He is a handsome, strapping lad who looks like he had such a love for life. Just tell us what you want us to know about Joey.
>> Tom Logan: He was a handful from birth till he passed. Actually, we almost didn't have him because, Debbie was having a little different pregnancy with him. And, the doctors did the amniocentesis too early and, check his progression. And the doctor said, you need to, abort him. And I'm like, no, that doesn't happen in our family. No.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Wow.
>> Tom Logan: So, Debbie said, I know exactly when I got pregnant. So she had the time to date the second. I guess that women know, you know how that works. And I do, you know. Yes. And, we went back three weeks later, and he was perfect in the womb. And, you know, that's another. That's the first miracle, him being born. We had wonderful 22 years with him, and nobody knows their date, their time, the second they're gonna go. And it's all up to God. And, we. We take it for granted, but most people don't even understand that part of it. But, yeah, he was, He was a. That a personality from birth. He came out with a full head of hair and a big nose. I'm like, the doctor said, look at this kid. He's full grown. And, he progressed that way. He was, You don't realize how your kids, emulate and mimic you all through their lives. They're watching their parents all the time, and if you set a good example, they follow suit with that. And we didn't realize that until, three of our children joined the military because they saw us, you know, we're, in. We're in the military during the Vietnam era. Then Debbie and I both went to HPD for, God, I went 28 years and w. 21 years. And, our family history goes back to probably World War I, even farther back than that, when my grandfather on the Italian side immigrated from Italy and World War I broke out, and he went and joined the American, Army to get his citizenship and fought the battles in France and World War I. And it goes through every. Every conflict our country has, you know, you know, World War I, World War II, Korea, you know, Vietnam era, and the. We had three kids involved in the golf ward. And then when Joey passed, three of them were deployed at that time, so we didn't know who got hurt, who got killed. It was a. It was. It was something else.
Tom and Debbie had three children who all went into the military service
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Tom, what is it like having three kids all go into the military service? What did you and Debbie think about that? Was it something, you know, you were accustomed to? You had experience. It was just expected. You knew what they were going to face, which can be a blessing and also a burden because you know full well the challenges that they'll face. What kind of fears and thoughts did you have as you had three children, all three enter the military service?
>> Tom Logan: Yeah. And especially the time they're all in because the Gulf wars were going full, full tilt. There was no. There was no peace time, you know, for these three kids. And Joey went to Afghanistan on two deployments. And Tommy, the oldest son, he's still in the Navy. he's breaking a retire in a few years, and he was over in the Persian Gulf and, you know, with his battleship, and, Andy was in Marine intel, and I think she was flying drones. So they got. They got their hands full, those three. Yeah.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: But what made Joey decide to be. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, Tom.
>> Tom Logan: Well, Joey, I tried to talk Joey and going to the Air Force because I was in the Air Force. Oh, no. He says, I don't like their uniforms. They look like bus drivers, you know, and all. And aces I saw about the army. No, no, no. I want to be a Marine. And I'm like, well, the Marines got a rough, rough road, buddy, because, you're going to get hurt or killed. And I was just telling him that, and he didn't care. He said, I want to go. I want to. I want to do something. And, that's what he ended up doing. And, he loved it. He called me one day from Afghanistan. He said, dad, I've got the best job in the world. I said, what's that? I get to fly around helicopters all day and all night and shoot machine guns and, you know, get paid for it. I'm like, joe, just come home. You had enough of the war, you know?
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, that's.
>> Tom Logan: That's how. Yeah, that.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: That's so hard, Tom, because I think that's every parent's fear, you know, as they send their child off into the military. That's their fear. Fear for their safety. You know, I don't have that personal experience, but I do have a really good friend whose son served in the Air Force. No, no offense to the Air Force uniforms right out there. but, But he served in the Air Force, and he did a tour of deployment overseas and saw some really, really hard, things. And she talked about how much it improved her prayer life, how much she prayed and prayed and prayed, and. And, And it's. It's really hard. how did you feel when you send them? How do you deal with those fears that you have? And then ultimately, your worst fear became a reality with Joey.
>> Tom Logan: Well, you know, our family was fairly close. I mean, we had five kids. So you imagine there was, like, a lot of infighting with the kids. Typical. But we tried to raise them to love, God, their family and their country, and we instilled that in them. And, you know, that's. That was the beginning of it. They all wanted to serve, they all wanted to help. They wanted to do something, you know, make. Make a better world for everybody. But, yeah, and. And Joey. Joey loved the fight. Even in high school, he was the protector. He's the guy to go to if somebody was picking on you. And he, even, I guess took care of a couple of my daughter's boyfriend's horse, I guess, you know. But, that's a whole nother story. We won't go there.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah, well, right before. Yeah, go ahead, Go ahead, Tom.
>> Tom Logan: No, go ahead. Go ahead with your next question.
When Joey was a senior in high school, he had a serious accident
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Oh, no, I was just gonna say that, you know, when. When Joey was a senior in high school and he knew that he wanted to go into the Marines, he had a serious accident. And honestly, for me, Tom, reading this account is like, you know, I think about this. These are the things that people will make fun of me as a pediatric nurse, because I'm always saying somebody could get hurt and that. But he was just horsing around, really wrestling with one of his friends, and he fell on a broken glass from a table that got knocked over when he slipped. Just boys being boys, it sounded like. And he called you in a panic, and he said, hey, this is pretty bad. He had hurt his hand, and he actually severed the artery in his wrist. And that. Really?
>> Tom Logan: Yeah, it was a m. Tendons, nerves, artery. And it was just, you know, when you cut an artery, you know what happens? It just squirts blood until you bleed out or put a tourniquet on it. And that's what I told him. I said, get a belt, put a tourniquet on there, and get your friends, rush you to the emergency room, because we're not going to get there in time.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I can't imagine that. I can't imagine that kind of conversation. And then the doctors told you it was really serious. He needed to go to the trauma center in Houston. And then you start thinking, okay, here's a young, strong boy who dreams of going in the Marines. And the main artery, the tendons, the nerves connecting his wrist to his hand and fingers, they've been severed. And you had a fear. You had a thought, he's never going to use this hand again. What was that like?
>> Tom Logan: Well, you know, I. I saw that. I saw the wound when we went to the first hospital, I went, oh, my, this is not good. Because, you know, it was. It was. It was nothing you want to look at ever again. But, once they transferred them to, you know, Ben Toppin Trauma center there, you know, they took. They took it and went from there, and, over eight hours of surgery, and this is, I think, one of the first miracles that happened with him. We, don't even know to this day who the surgeon or group of surgeons were that put his hand back together. We checked all records. We wanted to thank him. We had to send him a gift and there's no record. So I'm thinking an angel put his hand back together. That's all I could figure, you know. And, he had to go through a lot of physical therapy. And he had just this wonderful nurse. And he had a crush on her. Really bad too. She was real, real pretty girl. And she says, no, Mr. Tom, we had to talk. She says, I'm 28 and he's 18. No, it ain't gonna happen. We used to laughing, do wink, wink at each other, and Joey come out all Google eyed and glassy looking. But, you know, he got his hand working. But, that was, that was the start of his rehab. He did that for several months. And it got to the point it was working but not, not right. Something like that's never going to be right, but it was working, you know.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, you're just describing his personality so well, I'm seeing like a lot of swagger. You know. This guy had some courage, he had a big personality. But to have this kind of injury, it really.
Tom Logan went fishing with his son after leaving the police force
One of the things that really interested me about the most is that it led to kind of a twist of fate for you to have this opportunity to make incredible memories with your son that may not have happened if this accident hadn't happened. And so you and your wisdom and experience that you had and, and tough approach, you, you had always loved fishing and. And you, asked him if he wanted to go fishing. And he kind of was not very sure about that because how does he fish when his hand doesn't work? So what happened then?
>> Tom Logan: M. Well, he had no choice because I told my wife Debbie, that, I'm going fishing for the first year after I retire. I just retired in 2008 because I went into work. I had 28 years with Houston. I'm like, I'm done. I've had enough, you know, playing cops and robbers. After a while you can't do it anymore. It's just too intense and you got too many bad memories. So she says, well, you're taking him with you. I'm like, yeah, I know, dear.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I love it. Good job, mom.
>> Tom Logan: She's my mama hand. She's going to take care of, her little ones, you know. And, and, yeah, I told him, I said, we're going fishing and this is where we're going. To Arkansas. And that's where we started. And that was one of the neatest memories, the first place we fished. But it was amazing and I could tell that story in a little bit. But, we loaded up the truck and we took off. And I already planned it out. I wanted to trout fish all over the United States, pretty much west of the Mississippi. And we end up fishing. Let's see, look. Of nine states and two, almost three Canadian provinces. And we took almost four months and I actually drove 16, 000 miles. So you talk about could have went around the world once probably, I don't know. But we went places that just to spectacular scenery and, and beautiful vistas and places that you'll never ever see again, you know. And it was, it was amazing the stuff we did, it was just too blow you away. But yeah, we end up fishing first in Arkansas, naturally in Missouri, Oregon, Washington State, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. All in a big round trip. You know, it was, it was, it was a dream. It was like you're just floating. I mean, had, no, didn't, didn't have to be any place, anytime, anywhere. Like, okay, we're gonna fish here today. We're going to camp here today. It was just it was a man. How many chances do you have to do that with anybody? You know, not, not to mention your son, your kid? You know.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: It'S amazing, Tom, because you just, you share in the book that you just made a snap decision to leave the police force. Just say I'm done. Took you a day and a half to do your paperwork and then you took Joey to get his passport. You packed your fishing gear. You had been looking at fishing magazines and it says looking back. I'm reading from your book, Tom. You said looking back for some. I kept all the magazines and maps highlighting each article, the places that we were to visit on our fishing trip together. I didn't expect this to be our final fishing trip, but it turned out to be the ultimate one. And then you go on to say, we said goodbye to Debbie, pulled out of the driveway and headed north. We were going on a trip that would shape a young man's life and miraculously heal a damaged hand. Fishing with Joey will be a full length book telling huge fish tales and the bond of love and friendship between a father and son. And Tom, we're up. We're coming up on our first break here, but when we come back, I really want to talk about some of those memories that you have some of your fondest memories from the fishing trip and the divine coincidences that are throughout the book. We'll talk about those miracles that have happened and how you maintain your faith in the face of such tragedy and just the senseless loss of your son and how you saw the kindness of your community come out. And we'll also talk about the Red Lions project and how our listeners can contribute to that and how the book proceeds are going to help fund that project. We'll talk about that and so much more when we come back. And to talk about Fishing with Joey, A Memoir of My Marine Son by Thomas Logan. Get the book and come back after the break.
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>> Honestly, We Just Need Jesus by Terrian: I take a step back, I can see it. All the pain, all the fear we've been feeling, losing sight of the thing that we're needing. That we're needing. honestly I think we just need Jesus. Honestly, I think we just need Jesus. Have we all gone Mad have we lost our minds? What used to be wrong? We say that is right. Honestly, I think we just need Jesus.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is we just need Jesus by Terrian and we're talking today about with a dad who has written a tribute to his son.
Tom Logan retired from Houston police to go fishing with his son Joey
We're talking with Thomas Logan, a veteran Houston policeman. He and his wife Debbie are both veterans. His family has a long history of military service. He has three children who signed up to serve our country. And his son Joey passed away in a helicopter crash. And he has written a book called Fishing with Joey. A memoir of my marine sequence son. It is such a touching story, a really beautiful tribute from a father to a son for a life well lived that was so sacrificial and in the literal sense of the word. And so to catch you up, we've been talking with Tom about his son being born. Just being a handful spitfire from the, from even before he was born. And moms can attest to that. We know our babies personalities in the womb. I can tell you who's stubborn, I can tell you who's chill. That is. I, I definitely attest to that. And he decided to join the marines but as a senior in high school, had a very serious hand injury where he severed the artery in his wrist, severed the tendons. Very significant injury. Tom, you decided to retire from the Houston police, department and to go on this epic, epic fishing journey. 16,000 miles you drove, is that what you said? 16,000 miles?
>> Tom Logan: Yeah, because I kept track of gasoline and mileage and my wife kept putting money on my ATM card so we weren't broke. And to this day she will not tell me how much we spent just in fuel and food and m not lodging that that often because we actually end up sleeping in the truck most of the time. Or we pitch a tent and then if we're driving along in the truck and I'm like, who smells worse, you or me? I said we need to get a motel and shower up buddy, because we can't handle his truck that much longer. But I mean it was, the camping was just awesome. And just the places we went. I mean I've got, I've got the rivers and all the streams we fished. And some of the fishermen, if they're listening, they can attest to some of these people. Some of these places are just off the chart. I mean the waters are just gin clear, gorgeous. You know, like the White river in Arkansas is just beautiful and anybody can catch a trout there. They're just really dumb fish there. But and, you know, Columbia river and the Rogue river in Oregon, Washington, the Columbia and the Snake. I mean, in Montana. I mean, there's so many places. The Missouri, the Yellowstone, Beaverhead, Big Hole, Bighorn, Bitterroot, Blackfoot Mountain, Clark Fork, Flathead, Idaho, the Salmon Snake, the Clearwater and Lochshaw River. Joey and I fish that river. It's right. It starts at the headwaters in the Bitterroot on the Montana side and goes all the way to the Snake. And we fish that one river over 100 miles in the Kootenay River. yeah, the Kootenay River's up there in Montana. goes in into the United States, back to Canada, and out to wherever it goes. And, you know, well, some of them, like Colorado, you know, we fished the Gunnison, Wyoming, the Green River, Tongue river, and most beautiful place we found was, in Alberta, the Old Man River. That place was just gorgeous. And the fish were just what they bited. Anything you can leave with a finger and everyone would hit your finger and, and no people up there. We, we fish. Places were so remote. We start on a highway, then we start to a county road. Then we'd go to, a dirt road and the two track and get out of the truck. And we found the rivers and streams and lakes up there all over the place. It was just a. I mean, it's like a fantasy. It's something that you, you read about or dream about or you see somebody else going fishing like that. But we actually did it. And I'm so grateful because that'll never happen again in my lifetime.
Tom and Debbie spent a week camping with their son Joey before retiring
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, what are things that you learned about Joey when you learned about each other? How did your relationship change over the course of that? Thinking about it was such a, big juncture in time with you retiring. You know, he's about to deploy. He's graduating from high school, which is already a big transition time. But he also has this injury that he's not sure is going to impact his ability to even be a Marine. How did your relationship change over the course of that trip?
>> Tom Logan: Well, he had no choice. He was with dad, so I love it. Yes, he could, because he had two older brothers and they were, they were always doing something dumb too. And, you know, you get three of them together and it's really chaos. So, that's what Debbie says. You're taking them with you because you're not going fishing for several months and leaving him home with me. So, he. He and I got along really good. We laughed at each other. We made fun of each other and, you know, and then we had some serious moments, but most of it, we had a blast. I mean, I mean, just the outdoors you get so you get so tired all, you know, fishing and running around mountains all day, that, man, by the time bedtime came, you're done. I mean, we cooked, we camped out. Every once in a while we find a real restaurant and, you know, but, it was, it was, it was just something that you'll. You'll never understand unless you do it with one of your children. And that's, that's why I tell a lot of families and parents, I just spend as much time with your kids as you can possibly spend because you never know what's going to happen to them or you. And then you're going to have regrets if you don't. And, the regrets are the bad things you remember. I should have, would have, could have, did it, but didn't, you know, and that's, that's what I encourage every family to do, you know.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: M. Yeah. Nobody ever says on their tombstone, I wish I had worked more. I wish I had accomplished more. It's always, it's always though. And you know, for me as a nurse, having been with a lot of people at the end of their lives, seeing all of those regrets, they're all about relationships and usually about their kids. That is the thing that I see the most, regrets. And you just are a great example, Tom, of living a life with no regrets.
Logan Nunes joined the Marine Corps after a fishing trip
And I want you to take us to that moment. You transition from the fishing trip and you send him off to war, essentially, is what you did. Tell us about how that transition went and his service, before the fateful day of that helicopter crash.
>> Tom Logan: Well, you know, anytime you send your kid anywhere, I mean, it would have been great if I could send him off to college and he could just, you know, get educated. But that's another story. But, he had something about him that he just wanted to serve, he wanted to help, he wanted to do the right thing all the time. And seeing him go to basic training, we followed him around for all his graduations. He, graduated, basic training. We drove out to San Diego, all the way across and we picked him up there and he had Transformed to this 19 year old punk into a grown man. I'm like, I didn't recognize him. I says, holy cow, what do they do to you, kid? And, you know, then he came home, you know, with us there, and then back to his schools, and it was. I got a couple funny stories about him when he was in the Marine Corps. And Hm, yeah, one of them was his drill instructor. And they got to write the letters home for the first time. And Joey was writing his letter and addressing it. And the drill instructor looked at his address and he put our home address on Midway Drive on his letter. And the drill instructor just got all over him. He said, you're such a stupid dude to do. To do. we're on Midway Drive here at the Marine Basic Training, I says. He says, no sir, I live on Midway's Drive in Willis, Texas. And the drone instructor sort of wandered off and went, oh, thought he had a dumb recruit there. And Joey went. And then during basic he was, ah, he always helped. I mean this kid always helped at the same drill instructor had like four drill instructors for the for the, for the group, their unit. And he says, Recruit Logan, you're a Texan and Nunes is a Mexican and you're going to teach this Mexican how to read and write English and graduate Marine Corps Basic Training. And Nunes was actually a legal immigrant with a green card. And he wanted to be American citizen so bad, he joined the Marine Corps. That says a lot for this kid. And so Joey tutored him because, Nunu's had a top bunk and Joey had the bottom bunk. And he tutored them all through basic training. And of all things, they go to the A school in Florida. And guess who graduates number one the class? Joey.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Joey.
>> Tom Logan: Yes. Number one in the class. And guess who graduated number two in a class. Yeah. So Joey tutored him that much to get him that, that competent to actually, you know, carry on and do what he needed to do in the court. And that was, to me, that was just, oh, boy, that, that showed me what he was really made of, you know, to help. And even I don't know if you know about the Marine Corps crucible. When you have to this 48 hour, stay awake and you know, run all over the mountains. And you know, Joey was pretty tough. He was pretty, pretty hard. And the crucible, they run up this huge mountain up there and Joey was one of the first few up the top of the mountain. And the drill instructors would say, Logan, what are you doing? Oh, sir, I'm here. He said, oh, no you're not. Go back down and help another Marine. They can't make it up the mountain. So they sent him down three times to pull up three marines that weren't making it up the mountain. So, I mean, that's Teamwork, you know, you work together, you work. You're there for each other, you know, not the cause, not the country, wherever you're going. And, that really made me laugh. I said, well, you should be number one all the time, buddy. You know, so. Yeah, but that's how he was. Yeah.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: And the day that he died, you had talked to him, you continued to have a close relationship with him, and it was just so sudden and so unexpected. And there's really nothing else to say except that the helicopter crashed and killed him.
>> Tom Logan: Hm.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: And all six of the Marines that were on board. And, you know, I think looking at that tomorrow, it would be very easy for people to say that you would be justified in being angry. You would be justified in doubting your faith and. But yet, throughout the book, you talk about many divine coincidences or miracles, and you talk a lot about the numbers 2 and 6 and how you feel like God used those to show you things. But you. You talk about three.
You talk about the yellow rose bush that you planted when Joey was born
I want to talk about three specific moments that you talk about in the book. And you talk about the yellow rose bush and something that you planted when Joey was born. Tell us about that.
>> Tom Logan: That was. That was awesome. Somehow or other, at the house we live in now, we planted a rose bush for each of our kids. And, naturally, Joey had the yellow rose of Texas. And the other ones were pink and red and, you know, other colors. And, this was right one month after he passed. And my daughter was up. My wife was up in Oklahoma visiting my daughter Tricia, because her husband was in the oil field up there. And I was home, and I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, and I look out the window and I see two yellow rose buds blooming. And I'm like, normally none of our rose bushes bloom that time of year. All the other ones didn't even have leaves on them. But this one here was blooming in a middle winter up here. So I, you know, looked at, watch some bloom the next few days. And, all of a sudden, I get up one morning and the petals fell off one of the roses. I'm like, okay, well, I'm gonna pick them up. I had this. I got to. And I started counting, and I got the 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 petals fell. Okay. And Joey was 22 when he passed away. So, I mean, that's a little wink, wink, nod, nod from somebody up above, as far as I'm concerned. And, a few more days went by, and the second rose dropped his petals. And guess how many petals it dropped 26. 22.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: 22. Okay, 22. I know he said 2 and 6. 22 again on the second day.
>> Tom Logan: Yep. Boom. boom. Back to back. Yeah. And I've got the petals still. I mean, I collect stuff. I'm a collector of all these things because they're huge memories. And I'm working on book number two because I couldn't put everything that happened in his first book. I mean, it's just, even lately, I mean, people are coming out of the woodwork. A wonderful old man, 90 years old, called us last month. This. I'm painting Joy's portrait, and I'll have it done in four days. And oh, my goodness, that guy is amazing. And he painted a beautiful portrait of, Joey. It's, join his dress blues, you know, it's got the American flag and eagle, and it's got him fishing in the bottom, Fly fishing in the bottom of the picture. And. Awesome guy.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You have 281 pages of memories, and you couldn't even write them all. I mean, Tom, that. That's actually amazing. And what a. What a legacy. And then looking at that yellow rose bush that you had in your. In your garden in your backyard. You also had an encounter at the Memorial Rose Garden park in Montana. And another image that came to you tell us about that time.
>> Tom Logan: Yeah, that. That was riveting to me because a friend of mine had told me about the Memorial park in, It's pretty much near the university campus down there. University of Montana. And, I was told to go look at it. And, it sort of had statues of every. Every, you know, theater that we were involved in. And there was just a beautiful huge, full size, bigger and bigger. Bigger and full size bronze statue of, an angel picking up and carrying a soldier to heaven. And man, I, I lost it after I saw that because it reminded me of how many souls, how many soldiers, how many heroes have died for this country and gone to heaven, just like Arlington. There's over 400,000 graves in Arlington right now. And that doesn't count all the national cemeteries all over the United States and everyplace else. And I think that's why I wrote the book, to give a lot of people hope. And, you know, we're. We're here on this earth for a short period of time, and our reward is going to be a million times better than what we have right here. And if you could look at it that way, I think you're better off. I mean, just. And, the stuff. Stuff. I'VE you know, seen and heard. I mean, a lot of the people have told me different things have happened with them. So I said, cherish those moments and don't think it's, you're crazy because it's a little sign, a little signal that there's somebody waiting for you. There's. There's another life after this one.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I think that's so encouraging. TOM and then what happened was you keep seeing all of these things that some people might say is coincidence, but you choose to see them as divine messages from God, love notes that he's sending you messages of hope. You say that he's winking, you know, that he's just telling you, I'm here. I see it. And, and Joey had a lot of friends, but two of his best friends that he introduced, they ended up dating, fell in love, got married, and they were going to have a baby. And who do they name that baby after?
>> Tom Logan: TOM well, there's three of them now. That was the first one. That was Logan, Craig. Logan Craig Frazier. And Joey played Cupid with, Luke and Amanda because Luke was shy and Bash was. And Amanda was, she was really cute. And Luke said, well, she's too fine for me.
Thomas Logan says he met Amanda through his friend Luke
You know, I'll never be able to talk to her. So Amanda was over our house visiting because he knew her two daughters, and he calls up, hey, Luke, come over here. I got to tell you something. So Luke comes over and boom, face to face, there they are. I'm like, you can imagine, but, oh, the Joel and whatnot. And, you know, they start talking, start dating, you know, and then, you know, two, five years later.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Oh, I'm going to hold that thought. Hold that thought. TOM About a year later. Don't go away. You won't want to hear the end of this story because it continues on through. We're going back to the yellow rose bush. Amazing. We're going to have more with Thomas Logan when we come back.
American Family Association stands against enemies of God, the enemies of your family
>> Buddy Smith Jeff Chamblee: We live in a day when America's families are under attack like never before. Buddy Smith, senior vice president of the American Family Association. The war against biblical principles rages on numerous fronts. The Internet, Hollywood, Washington, D.C. america's corporate boardrooms, and the list goes on. At American Family association, we're committed to standing against the enemies of God, the enemies of your family. And we recognize it's an impossible task without God's favor and partnership. Thank you for being faithful, to pray for this ministry, to give financially, and to respond to our calls for activism. what you do on the home front is crucial to what we do on the battlefront. We praise God for your faithfulness and may he give us many victories in the battles ahead as we work together to restore our nation's biblical foundations.
>> Nobody by Casting Crowns with Matthew West: Why you ever chose me? There's always been a mystery all my life I've been told I belong at the end of, the night with all the other not quite we'll all never get it right? But it turns out they're the ones you were looking for all this time. Cause I'm just a nobody? Trying to tell everybody all about somebody who saved my soul Ever since you rescued me? You gave my heart a song to sing I'm living for the world to see nobody but Jesus I'm living for the world Cause to see nobody but Jesus.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That song is Nobody by casting Crowns and Matthew West. And I'm talking to somebody today who is sharing the story of his son. We're talking to Thomas Logan, who wrote a book as a tribute to his son who was a marine who was killed in a helicopter crash while he was deployed. His book is called Fishing with Joey, A Memoir of my Marine son. And Tom, I shared with you even during the break that I was so inspired and encouraged, encouraged by reading your book because this was such a tragedy, losing your son, you know, having him go sign up for the Marines, having a really severe hand injury, you retiring, that leading to you to have an epic 16,000 mile fishing trip to build memories together. He goes off and is deployed and is killed in a helicopter crash. And it would be so easy for you to be so bitter, but you choose to see the, that Joey's life is eternal, that our hope is, is sure that we have a firm foundation, that God knows, he sees, he cares, and that he's given you all of these coincidences, which are not coincidences. He's given you all of these messages, just continue to show you that he made Joey, he knows Joey, he loves Joey. And we're right in the middle of a story about a baby being named after Joey, so I'm going to let you pick it up where we left it off.
Little Logan was born three weeks early one year to the day Joey died
>> Tom Logan: All right, well, little Logan was born three weeks early one year to the date on January 18, the day that Joey died. That's when he was born. I mean, how can, how can you predict that date? One passes and one's born, you know, that's, that's unbelievable. The timing, especially three weeks early, you know, was, wasn't induced. She says, here he comes, here's that little guy coming. And, they wanted to bring them over right after the birth. I said, just. Just wait a month. Just let them. Because it was wintertime here in Texas. It gets cool, but not bad. And I said, just bring them over a month from now. And they brought him over. And everybody's holding the baby and we're just. Just all giggly about it. And I look out the window and one single yellow rose is blooming on the rose bush as we're holding the baby.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: February. In February.
>> Tom Logan: Yep, February. One month after he was born, baby was born, little Logan was born. So naturally I got to equip that rose and give it to them. And they kept it. They have it to this day. They pressed it. They got it in a little, display. And, I mean, to me, that it still gives. It gives me goosebumps how this hope it doesn't turn out like Joey, because they're gonna have their hands full. And it seems like he is because he. Right now, he's, 11 years old. He's playing sports, he's taking karate. He's that a personality, too. I'm like, oh, boy, throttle that kid back or just let him. Let him run. Let him do what he's going to do. And great family.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You said God had his mighty hand on this new life. This child took away the grief and pain we had gone through that year before. And we believe Joey is his guardian angel and will watch over him.
You describe going through the dignified transfer of Joey's remains
And Tom, you know, when after Joey died, you. You describe in pretty great detail all of the things that you went through doing the dignified transfer at Dover Airport, which actually there were two of those, and going through the military funeral and all of those things, you know, procedural things that were required. And it would be so easy to look at that and to think, how in the world did you do that? But you chose, Tom, to see the kindness of people. You chose to see the goodness in the situation. All through that. Tell me about that. How did you do that and how did you see it?
>> Tom Logan: There are. There are so many wonderful people in the world. I mean, they, they just. It's hard, hard to understand it. We. The news you watch and all the stuff going on worldwide now, but we were helped by so many people. I mean, Dover, you know, the dignified transfer was. Was riveting. It was. The weather was terrible. It was sleet, snow, rain, four o' clock in the morning, here comes the jet from Germany, and 19 service members come off that night, you know, and, you'll never experience anything that in your life. It's it's like they rip your soul and heart when you see it. It's, it's amazing to go through all that. And the chaplain up there, Chuck Raleigh, he was awesome. He's retired now, but at the time Joey's crew came back and it was 19 service members, he had already done 750 dignified transfers. And he was, he was, he was the head chaplain there. Look at the burden on his soul and the people he had to console and listen to along with his chaplain crew up there. Unbelievable. Just, just the grief he's, he's absorbed. It was just, unreal and great people. And he. Matter of fact, we asked for a military, chaplain to do Joey's memorial service here when his remains came home. And all of a sudden Chuck Wriley shows up and I'm like, what are you doing here? well, you requested me. I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm okay with it. And he said that is the first and only time out of all the dignified transfers that he did that somebody requested to do a service for a return home. And I'm like, wow. And that just blew me away. And he wrote a whole big, article about it. And I put it in a book also about what he, what he observed coming home from Intercontinental Airport. It was a, it was a, it was a motorcade and procession fit for a king. They shut down, the beltway From Intercontinental Airport I 45 outbound and all the way to our house for 58 miles. There wasn't a single car going outbound. And the motorcade I think stretched for almost two or three miles. And there was over 400 motorcycles in his motorcade. And you talk about outreach of people and the most touching one I saw because you're just, it's a blur as you're going down the highway. There was a young mother and it looked like she had about a four year old child. And he was, they had. Even the inbound traffic will stop watching. And she put that little guy up there on the concrete barricade and he was saluting that little flag. Oh my goodness, that was pooh. That was amazing to see that at that age. I love to find that kid now. He probably won't remember it, but the mom too, but there was so many visions and stuff that blur by through these things and it was it was something else. But, yeah, that's just part of, part of it.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Yeah, it's just been amazing.
You've continued to honor your son through the Red Lions Project
And in the book you tell about how your journey continues and how you have been to some amazing places to, place Joey's ashes and to honor him. And you've continued to learn more about your son. You've continued to be able to honor him. You've continued to see, just to feel close to him. And I think through all of that has come the Red Lions Project. So tell me about that and how the book proceeds are helping to fund your work.
>> Tom Logan: Yeah. Two more babies first. Real quick.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Okay. I. I'm always good for babies. You can always count on me to make space for babies.
>> Tom Logan: Just show me this shows me the heart these people have. the second little baby was Lily and Joe Stoeckel. That was, the mom was Katie and Ethan. And the night that Joey flew, he swapped places with Ethan. So Ethan was supposed to fly that night. So, you know, you call it Survivors Guild or whatever you want to call it. He, you know, he decided to name his little girl middle name Joe. And I've been in contact with him several times, and matter of fact, when, President Trump was in his first, term, Ethan was flying Marine One with Trump. So, I mean, that. That he's still in the Marine Corps. He's got through the ranks. He's, a warrant officer now, doing really good. And then, the last little baby was a little girl. And they named a little girl, Logan Genevieve Flagle. And Travis Flagle was the dad. And he had come up to Montana last year and with seven other Marines out of Joey's unit, to Red Lions Project. And of all things, the baby was born January 22, 2025, another 22, you know. So, Travis called me, and he blew me away by, yeah, we're gonna name the little baby girl Logan. I'm like, okay. And then Genevieve, the girl name. So, yeah, three of them already. So that's the kind of impact Joy made on people, you know? And one of his Marine Corps friends, Ricky Combs, said, you're either laughing at him or laughing with him. He was. He always has an uplifted spirit. He was even during war, on some of their worst days, he was in there joking around, bringing everybody, back together and stuff like that. Then I got several letters from the Marines, but that evolved into Red Lines Project because that was Joey's last phone call home. He called us the morning he died from Afghanistan, and he says, dad, I'm not coming back to Texas. when I get out of the Marine Corps, I supply born and raised here. I said, I want to buy land in Montana build cabins. My marine Corps buds to come back to a use and relax and decompress and get out of war, get out of their head and go to school, find a job, find a good woman, raise a family and live a simple life. And that was our last phone call with him. And that's, that's from a 22 year old. He already had a vision the rest of his life. What do you want to do? And not too many kids at that age do that. I was, I was shocked and amazed. And he said that, when I get home, I'm going to leave. And yeah, we're going to go fishing for a few days, but I want to take your truck and go visit every living relative I have. I said, joe, you can't. They're all over the country. So I'm going to do it. And would you believe every living relative that we had, from babies to grandparents, came to Joey's children from all over the country. They just.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I do believe it.
>> Tom Logan: Yeah, it was, it was off, the chart. It was like, wow. But then, that started Red Lions project because all the fishing and stuff we did. He pretty much fell in love with Montana, you know, because I could tell we spent a lot of time in Montana fishing because there's so many places to fish. And after, after he passed, my Debbie said that we need to honor his dream and get that, find some property in Montana and build those cabins. We're building six cabins. We got one more to go. And that's for his Marine Corps Buzz and Army and Navy and anybody wants to come up there, you know, especially these guys out of these Gulf wars. I mean they're suffering mentally and physically. I deal with them all the time. I go to a PTSD meeting with them every week. And we, tell a lot of stories and we, we get a lot of grief out of our systems. And so that's, that's what started. And Debbie said, we're going to go and find this place in Montana. So we got in the car and we took a Toyota Corolla and headed to Montana. And we, we got one, we got, we got one realtor that was not that good. We wanted over 100 acres and so we could spread out and enjoy the wilderness. And you know, we decided, no, we're not gonna, we're not gonna go with her. And we went to a place called, Bowler Montana. And it was an old 1800s hotel that was being restored. And so we pulled in because there was hot Springs there and outside and inside and. You ever see the movie One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest with, Jack Nicholson?
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I never saw it. I know what it is, but I never saw it.
>> Tom Logan: Well, this hotel looked just like the institution.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Okay, okay, I think that's not good. That's my impression. I don't think that's a good thing.
>> Tom Logan: So we went there and there was nobody there at all. We were only Carter parking lot. I'm like, deb, this is not good. so we went inside and you ring that little bell, that ding, ding bell, and this lady comes out. Can I help you? I'm like, oh. And I said, we need a room for the night. We're tired. Okay, we'll put you up on the second floor. But there's a female ghost there. I'm like, okay, well, Joey's tagging along with us.
All proceeds from Tom's book will benefit Red Lion Project for combat veterans
His spirit is with us, so they'll have a great conversation tonight. And, so that's where we stopped that night. And I was so disgusted with looking for land because we're all over, all over the map in Texas. I mean, Montana. So I said, lady, can I have a phone book? So I closed my eyes, pointed my finger in a real estate thing and dropped on Mark Twight Realty in Missoula, Montana. And I called him up and, I said, we're looking for 100 acres plus. He says, I got three places that, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna buy one. I'm like, yeah, sure, I've heard this before. So we looked at the first two and they were just too remote. And the last one, it was like we saw heaven. We saw twinkles, we saw stars. When we pulled up on the property and it was 165 acres, four miles up on a mountain in a dirt road between behind two lock gates. So it's. And no other access to it is so secluded and so quiet. And if you can't get your head straight there, I don't know what's going to happen. You know, it's just amazing place. And, but once again, there were six roads on the place. We didn't realize there's six roads on the place. So six places for each cabin. And, we've been working on it for, you know, at least last 11 years. We bought the property one year and started banging nails after that. We're still working on it. Work in progress. You're keeping up six houses, so it's work, but. Yeah, but it's open to, any of the combat veterans, Marines, army, Navy, whoever they are. And, we invite them up there and they can stay, you know, free room and board and just get there. And that's. That's what we're doing with these guys. And we've had several people up there already. And I love it because the Clark Fork river is right down the bottom of the mountain. You can go fish. We got kayaks there and hiking and just outdoor breathe the air in. But you got to watch out for, grizzly bears and bigfoot. That's the only options up there.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: But at least there's no lady ghosts haunting the upstairs. But, Tom, you're. You're so story. Your tribute to your son is just truly beautiful. And I encourage people to get a copy of your book. All of the proceeds. The proceeds are going to help with the Red lion project. You can go to red lion project.org that's red lion project.org you can see the heroes of the Iron Tail 6 and learn more about Joey's story and his crew. The inspiration, the history and the project. How you can get connected, how, you can donate to it or connect someone you know that's there. Tom, we're so appreciative of you sharing your story of faith and encouraging us all to create memories to cherish, to last for a lifetime. And it sounds like you have done that. And I know that Joey is still with you and that you will see him one day again. Thank you so much for joining us. And to our listeners, I pray the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you no matter what. Thank you to all of our service men and women. Thank you so much to the brave people, the less than 1% of people who keep the rest of us safe. May we never take that sacrifice for granted. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
