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True Racing Heroes: Andy Petree & Matt McSwain On Flying Helicopter Relief Missions To Western North Carolina
00:45:49
One of the best Kenny Conversations yet. Two former NASCAR Crew Chiefs share how they helped bring the community together to help western North Carolina after it was ravaged by Hurricane Helene. Andy Petree & Matt McSwain used military precision to operate a helicopter relief effort that saved lives and helped folks rebuild. Their stories will break your heart and also give you hope.
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- [00:00]
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- [00:30]
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- [01:00]
Matt McSwain
There's a picture that is now a famous picture of this older couple sitting in front of a building and an old storefront in this old country town. And they evacuated the whole town because it was not sustainable and this couple would not leave. They're probably in their late 80s, early 90s and they were sitting in two rocking chairs and Brad went up to tell them, hey, you really, you need to go. Like, there is no sustainability. You got to leave. And they would not leave because their 8 year old great grandson was dead in the rafters of the building.
- [01:35]
Kenny Wallace
Oh, my God. It's the Kenny Wallace Conversation, brought to you by jegs. Hello everyone and welcome back to Kenny Conversation, brought to you by jegs, the leader in high performance aftermarket car parts. Remember to go to JEGS.com for anything you need to fix your vehicle up or your everyday hot rod. All right? You are looking at two heroes. They might not think so. They might not think so, but I certainly do. Andy Petri is known as a great NASCAR cup crew chief. He's known as a TD superstar and a great race car driver. And Matt McSwain. Matt, we're gonna get to know a lot about you. You look like a soldier, buddy. You got a great haircut. But Andy, let's. Let's start with you first. Well, first of all, how are you guys doing?
- [02:31]
Andy Petri
Great, man. It's good to see you. Kenny, I don't get to see you except through social media anymore. There's plenty of that to go around, so I get to see you quite often.
- [02:40]
Kenny Wallace
Man, how about you, man?
- [02:42]
Matt McSwain
I'm doing great. Just glad to be here. Thanks for having us on today.
- [02:45]
Kenny Wallace
Matt, tell me a little bit about you. We know all about Andy. Tell me about you. What do you do for a living and where'd you come from?
- [02:54]
Matt McSwain
Yeah, so born and raised in Shelby, North Carolina. Just a. This old redneck went in the Marine Corps, got out of the Marine Corps, went into NASCAR and spent some time in nascar and thanks to Buddy Parrot and, and he got me, got me roped in and spent some time with him over at Roush and then finished my career up over at Penske, Was Ryan Newman's car chief for many years and spent a lot of time running around with Buddy Baker and Don Miller and all those guys and got out of that world and took kind of the NASCAR technology and brought into the aircraft industry. So currently own a company called Acme Arrow. We design, developed suspension for airplanes. Certified, experimental, military, you name it. We design, develop and manufacture suspension for airplanes.
- [03:53]
Kenny Wallace
Aeronautical and, you know, being involved with Penske and all these race teams, everybody's technical nowadays and so that. That makes sense. Andy, let's go over to you. I remember years ago you shown up in a helicopter and I'm like, damn, what in the world? And Andy, you've always been engineering minded. When I drove for you, you, you were one of the first, you know, teams with an engineer. Tell me, let's start with your helicopter experience and then we're going to get to the topic at hand. When did this love for helicopters come, Andy?
- [04:30]
Andy Petri
Yeah, I've always kind of had this in the back of my mind that I wanted to fly helicopters and it would come in every so often. But as you know, Kenny, back when we were racing, it was just, you were 24 7, you had no time to think about anything else. And to jump into something like that, you need to dedicate a lot of time to it. So after I basically retired from full time NASCAR team ownership, crew chief kind of thing, I was actually working for ESPN the first year and I had a lot of time, like during the week. The TV deal is really a pretty good gig. You know, you don't have to spend a lot of time during the week. So I had that time on my hands and I was running on treadmill one more and I thought, you know, if I'm gonna do this or ever fly a helicopter, kind of went through my mind. I looked at my watches, I better get started, right? I'm not gonna. And so I went and found a guy in Asheville to basically teach me how to fly a helicopter. And then I went and bought one. I bought Greg Biffles Jet Ranger. The one he had is one of his helicopters. I bought it from him. I had a guy named Tim Bradley teach me how to fly it. And then, I mean, I dove in with both feet. I flew that thing the first year. I think I flew it 400 hours, flew it all over the place and did all kind of, you know, deals with, like, Garmin Avionics. They. They helped me with some of that. And I. I donated my aircraft time to them. And so we did a bunch of things with that Jet Ranger over the. Over the years. And then, you know, I sold it and bought an airplane and an R44 so I could have a helicopter and an airplane and still have both of those. I don't have the same ones, but I still have the same airplane. I don't. I've had probably a good half a dozen or more helicopters through my. My career since 2008 is when I first got my helicopter rating.
- [06:18]
Kenny Wallace
Wow, that is amazing. Okay, so we. We've talked about both of your background. You guys love aviation. You both have helicopters. You both fly. All right, Tropical Storm Helene. Everybody knows about it, but whoever doesn't, we've got complete devastation, tragedy, families displaced. We had hurricane winds. We had 23 inches of rain. We wiped out towns, complete towns gone. Chimney Rock, gone. The pictures are so sad. You know, Rutherford County, Asheville, Boone, that area. And. And there's more. So, Andy, let's start with you first. How many hours right now do you have invested making mission flights, leaving, you know, picking up whatever it is, material, water is the easiest thing to say. How many hours do you have invested right now trying to help save that community?
- [07:23]
Andy Petri
Okay, that's a pretty easy one because I just got my helicopter out of overhaul. It has to be overhauled every 2200 hours. And I just got it back, and it had 10 hours on it when this happened. And when we finished, it had 73.
- [07:36]
Kenny Wallace
Oh, my Lord.
- [07:38]
Andy Petri
That's how many hours that I. And I think I changed the oil twice during that time. During the time we were doing all these things, you know, and we say that we pretty much have concluded a lot of the missions up there, but we still, from time to time, do run a helicopter mission up there. And so I don't consider it, like, done. If somebody needs something, you know, I've given my number to a handful of people. Matt can call me anytime. Hey, we need this, we need that. And I'll be right ready right here.
- [08:06]
Kenny Wallace
Ready to do it, Matt. When this whole deal went down, you know, the whole racing industry got involved. Greg Biffle became very popular. When did you and Andy get together, Matt? When did you say, h. I gotta help these people?
- [08:22]
Matt McSwain
Yeah, it was kind of a man. It just. All the bright pieces fell into place. A friend of mine, Doug Jackson out of Texas, owns a. Not owns. Started a nonprofit in 2017 called Operation Airdrop and he has a fixed wing nonprofit and they provide logistical supply support for hurricane disaster relief. He called me and he's like, hey, man, it's. It's pretty bad. I didn't have power. Me and my wife went to a hotel in Charlotte that night because we lost power. And I, I really wasn't paying attention, wasn't on my radar. He called me and he's like, hey, man, it's pretty bad up there. I want to bring our nonprofit and, and do some work. I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, you know, he's like, man, you need to do some research. So the next morning I went and took a flight up into the mountains and it was just complete, utter devastation. It was just unreal. I called him back. He was in route and with his team to Concord and they were going to set up shop at Concord. And I said, hey, look, there's only several airports in western North Carolina and those airports are devastated. Like, there's no. You can't fly fixed wing missions in there. This is going to have to be a helicopter operation. He said, well, unfortunately, I'm not a, you know, I don't have that kind of support. Me and Andy and other friends biffle a lot of people. We, we are in that world. I said, well, let's. Let's stand up a helicopter operation. So again, I had always been on the. The support side of a nonprofit, never running a nonprofit. Well, we went to the Hickory airport and asked for a small room to run logistical command stuff out of. And I said, look, I will. I put it out on social media and all my friends, I said, I will pay for your fuel if you will show up and help us run helicopter missions. I thought, hey, we're going to have five, six helicopters. The next day we had 33.
- [10:14]
Kenny Wallace
My Lord.
- [10:15]
Matt McSwain
So I called Andy and I said, andy, hey man, where you at? Let's go. And he says, I'm physically walking onto a cruise ship.
- [10:24]
Andy Petri
I had one foot on the dock.
- [10:27]
Matt McSwain
And I said, no, you're not. And so he agreed and said, hey, man, there's no way I can go on this cruise knowing that it's in my backyard. So he showed up and man, it just started. Garrett Mitchell, Everybody knows Cletus McFarland, everybody, you know, Biffle. We just all come together at the Hickory airport and said, hey, if we're going to do this, let's do it in a safe manner. And at the end of the day, we ran a little bit over foot. 4,000 helicopter missions. We rescued right at 450 people. We had an on site triage center. When I say we took over the entire airport at Hickory, the entire airport was taken over. We took over an old terminal building, turned it into a hospital. The restaurant we rented out for a week made it our pharmacy. When we were rescuing people, it was from every gamut. We gave birth and we had a person die. So it was from every, every gamut was in our hospital. And the FAA showed up and they were there to support us and man, it just started rocking and rolling. But Kenny, here's what I'll tell you. I've said this many times and I'm not gonna steal Andy's thunder, but Andy can tell you the reason this mission was so successful was for two reasons. One, it was on home court. We had home field advantage. There wasn't one phone call that we fielded throughout the NASCAR community, in our community in general. It did not happen. If you ever want to see prayers happen immediately it happened, buddy. It was insane. And, and you know, the, the other thing that, that really helped us and, and I'll let Andy explain this to you. Robinson helicopters. If it wasn't for Robinson helicopters, this mission wouldn't have been as successful nowhere near as it was, you know, and I'll get, I'll let him talk and then I'll get back into the military side. But he can explain to you about the Robinson helicopters and the fit for the mission. I'll let him tell you about that.
- [12:28]
Kenny Wallace
Well, Andy, I want to, you know, when I drove for you, you know, everybody knows the legendary Interstate 40 and 26. It veers off down to your shop, you know, Matt, you're talking about home court. Andy, I'm thinking about you. When I drove for you, I mean, your shop was right there.
- [12:46]
Andy Petri
Yeah, we, we were, you know, at Flat Rock is where the shop was located, out right there in Hendersonville. And that's not a stone's throw really from Chimney Rock, which was one of the worst visuals that you'll ever see. When this town, you know, experienced that flood, it just disappeared. And that was. That's really close to our old shop.
- [13:06]
Kenny Wallace
And that is my question. Okay, we both agree that that is your. That is your home court. Kind of as Matt said, when you first heard of this going on and you know, you knew it was bad and then you. What was the first picture? What was the first thing that say said, oh my God, this is my home area. This is unbelievable. What was the moment that you knew this was a bad deal?
- [13:28]
Andy Petri
Yeah, Patty and I had driven down to Daytona. We've got a little condo down there, Spruce Creek. And we were going to stay overnight, then get on a cruise the next day on Sunday. And this had happened on Friday, I guess the flood, which we experienced some of that here, you know, like Matt said he was, he was without power. We didn't have much problem here at my house, Lake Norman. But you know, we're riding down in the car. Patty's driving most of the way and I'm sleeping. Then I wake up and look at social media and I thought, oh man, the first thing I saw was that Chimney Rock. I said, man, that thing was really bad. You know, that's tragic. And so thinking that's just an isolated part of this thing. And so we get down there and Patty went to see our nieces that live in Daytona. And I was just by myself at the concert condo and. And I start, you know, seeing more.
- [14:11]
Matt McSwain
And more and more.
- [14:12]
Andy Petri
That's wow. This is not just one spot. This is the almost the entire western mountains of North Carolina that this hit. I mean you go from Chimney Rock up to Swannano, Black Mountain, Burnsville, all the way up through there. Every one of these places was just like Chimney Rock that's happened. This was unreal.
- [14:29]
Kenny Wallace
And Chimney Rock's got the big creek, right?
- [14:32]
Andy Petri
It's got a bigger river and like a kind of a canyon thing that comes down into Lake Lure and it just washed the whole town down into that lake. It was all the debris and everything was just the houses and little shops and everything was down in the lake. So once I see that, I told Patty, she came back from seeing her nieces. I said, hey, we can't go on this cruise. I said, I've got a resource here that can be used up there. I just talked to Matt some. I talked to another friend of mine, David Clark, who was from Huntsville, Alabama. He had a big. He's got a big twin engine helicopter and that he brought up and with a crew. And they stayed at my house. And I drove, me and Patty drove right back. Just turned back around and drove back home. And Monday morning we were at it. We started running up through. The first missions I ran were in Chimney Rock. One was trying to evacuate a special needs child that was up in this. I mean, you can't even see some of these places we land. You can't even see the houses or the roads. And you're trying to just find some opening in the canopies, the trees that you can get down there. I've got these addresses and the GPS coordinates of where these places are. And, you know, you're so focused on completing that mission, you know, you just don't take no for an answer. And I ended up landing over there not far from Chinny Rock and couldn't locate the family for that child. But then all of a sudden there's two more people that needed to be evacuated. The lady had a broken sternum and their house was partially destroyed. It was, you know, they, they had to get out of there, so I had to evacuate. It was such a tight place. I had to do it one at a time and take them over to the Justice Academy there in Hendersonville, not far from our old shop. I took one and come back and get another. That's what this whole thing kind of turned into until it was almost, what, 10, 12, 14 days later, a blur. This was going on. I mean, we're running these missions, you know, non stop for every daylight hour and then some into the night. I ran some night missions, not into these tight places, but like Mission Hospital. I took a bunch of starlings up there one night where you can land on the hospital helipad and take them to the Asheville Police Department. So there's just a. There were so many of those things that happen, and that Chimney Rock was the first visual I had. But the rest of that whole community was just that bad. It was just unbelievable how destroyed.
- [16:46]
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- [16:48]
Andy Petri
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- [16:51]
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- [16:52]
Andy Petri
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- [17:03]
US Cellular Representative
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- [17:33]
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- [18:04]
Kenny Wallace
Matt, you know, I'm looking at you, you're chiseled out and you know, Andy was my friend, but my crew chief, you both, it seems to me, you know, you both are like minded, you know, you both are leaders and you said you set up camp there at Hickory and I'm gonna ask a question that normal people would ask, but you guys are so chiseled out, it's probably nothing to you. How did you keep from wrecking each other with that many? I mean, I understand it all, you know, but still, I flew with Rusty a lot. You know, Bill was a great pilot. I mean, you know, helicopters can do a lot more than airplanes.
- [18:47]
Andy Petri
Yeah.
- [18:47]
Kenny Wallace
Was there this one?
- [18:49]
Andy Petri
Let me.
- [18:49]
Kenny Wallace
Okay.
- [18:50]
Andy Petri
And I'll tell you why. Because I'm, I'm the same way, Kenny. I, I was totally just blown away by how successful and safe this mission was. And I got to go back. I've told people, this is not the first time I've said it. God had his hand on this mission from when we started that we should not have been able to do the things that we did. There were so many of these pilots. Like I said, we had 60, some helicopters one day. We had 30, 33 or 35 the first day. But there was, it was like, you know, you have these procedures of in and out of the airport where you're really close and even down in these canyons or gorges where you're trying to land, there's another helicopter sometimes right above you. I'm telling you, God bless this whole thing and kept everyone safe.
- [19:34]
Kenny Wallace
So. So Matt, you know, we raced down there at Miami Homestead and you know, we're all leaving the racetrack and we got the four helicopter pads and one crashed and we killed people. This is what people think of, you know, when we think. And I'm thinking 60 helicopters. So you said you really helped set that deal up. I mean, what, what was the process?
- [19:58]
Matt McSwain
I Mean, yeah. So, you know, first of all, we've, We've said this, this is our phrase aces into places. The, the volunteer network that showed up to help us. Kenny, I can't describe, like the, the guy that was our airborne, that is our air boss, is a, a naval top gun fighter pilot. He's our air boss. He lives five miles from me and Andy. I mean, just, I mean, and that's an example. Harry, I mean, Harry showed up is like, hey man, I'm here to help Our, our comms guy, I mean, has lived his whole life doing, I mean, so aces. And of every person that we put in place, I love that for our organization. Just took the ball and ran with it. I mean, it was when, when these military people started showing up. We, We've got. I, I'll give you a, a quick example. We, we had this guy show up. His name's Tommy Daniels, and he is on our executive leadership team now for our nonprofit. This guy showed up, he's a major in the army, had just got out of the armies and army reserves. He had been working with a geogrid mapping system for the military that the military hadn't signed off on. And he come to us is like, hey man, we can instill this geogrid mapping system into our operation. And I can get them to over a million dollar software. And he says, I can get them to do it if you'll just pay a little bit of a maintenance fee. I'm like, okay, what is the maintenance fee? And it was pennies on the dollar. We had a, a live satellite data tracking system for all the helicopters. And like day six or seven, the military showed up, FEMA showed up, the government showed up and said, hey, we don't have any of this. Can we use your system? That was an example of every single thing. It was the volunteers that showed up. That is. It just. You can't describe it, man. It's unreal.
- [22:01]
Kenny Wallace
But, but like in racing, I feel like, I feel like our sport of NASCAR and that mindset, especially now that we're in the digital world. And like I said, I think, Andy, I feel like you were one of the first teams to start that, you know, after Leo, even more Leo Jackson. When the military got there, I guess they had to understand, like you said you were in the Marines, right?
- [22:27]
Matt McSwain
Yes, sir.
- [22:28]
Kenny Wallace
So, I mean, you guys, you guys knew what to do because you served. And then everybody said, we know what to do. I. The brain. The brains were already there. The military's catching up with you guys.
- [22:41]
Andy Petri
Well, I'll tell you this, I don't think, you know, and Matt's not going to talk about it himself. The leadership that Matt provided to this is what made it all happen. He took that thing and I'm telling you, he did. He took control of this from day one. Everybody, when he said it, people snapped in line. He, he ran it like a leader.
- [23:00]
Matt McSwain
I mean, look at him, Andre.
- [23:02]
Kenny Wallace
I'm scared of him right now.
- [23:05]
Andy Petri
But he, he just, he just provided this tremendous team to everyone and this in the structure around it. You know, I've never been in the military. I don't know what it's like. I feel like after this ordeal that I have a little taste of what it would be like running all these things with a military type mindset and with a lot of incredible military, ex military people. It was incredible experience. But I can't give Matt enough credit for it because he did all this out of nothing. Like he created this out of nothing in one day, basically. And it just kept growing every day. When you have more and more people and more and more capability, he was able to control it and lead everyone.
- [23:44]
Kenny Wallace
Well, let me say this, everybody that's listening. When I drove for Andy, I feel like this is the way I feel because I kind of, I knew what was going on around the NASCAR community in the garages. You know, Andy started working out. That man right there, Andy Petrie, he started working out with weights before the NASCAR community did. So Andy, you're a leader and I can see you two being like minded now. Everybody works out now. Everybody's got the workout. But Andy, I remember you putting in the workout station in the race shop. Okay, Matt, I want to give you a moment. I want to get down to things that, that you know, we see visually in a minute. But I want to give you this moment right now. Talking about things like maintenance, let's just go a little behind the scenes as far as the helicopters go for a little bit oil changes, you know, checking everything out. You started to mention that you wanted to talk about somebody and thank them. What type of companies did, did companies donate any of their services, Matt, to make sure your helicopters were ready to roll.
- [24:52]
Matt McSwain
So I'll first give a huge shout out to Samaritan's Purse. Franklin Graham called me day one and can you imagine? Hello. So they were the first big non profit donor to call and say, what do you need? How can I help you? We want to support you. So huge thank you to Samaritan's Purse. They did made it so much easier with those guys. But I kind of wanted Andy to talk about this a little bit, so I'll say a little bit. And I really want him to talk about this because he had more flight hours than I did. But the right tool for the right job. And this is why the Robinson helicopter was the right tool for the right job. And a lot of people won't understand that. So I want Andy to kind of get into nuts and bolts about that and kind of explain to people why. Andy, if you would, why was that the right tool for the right job?
- [25:54]
Andy Petri
Yeah, for a few reasons. One of them, just the. Just the size of that machine. It was able to get into places. And I even took the. Took my R44 into place. I didn't really wasn't sure it would go. Anything bigger than that was not going to be able to go in there. The other thing about Robinson helicopters is there's so many of them. That's why we had so many helicopters. There were people that kept showing up that had these R44s, and they will carry, you know, a fair amount of weight. They do. They're incredible machines, man. I'm telling you, they are. There's just nothing they won't do. And they can go anywhere. There was a. There was one mission after the military got there. The National Guard was trying to get a Chinook twin rotor down to make a drop in one of these gorges.
- [26:40]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah.
- [26:40]
Andy Petri
And I was below him. So we're talking to each other and. And I told. He asked me where I was trying to go. And I told him that I was trying to find this one spot to bring some supplies to a family that I had made contact with a day or two earlier. And he says, I think this is a little pocket community that we're trying to drop some. Some stuff into it. And he couldn't see any land. There's really no open area. And I said, let me get in here and look to see if I can find it. I would remember it from the day before. So I get down in there and I find it, and I'm hovering. He said. I said, I'm hovering over this spot right now. He said, we want a long line. They're going to drop a long line with bunch of supplies in there. So I. I moved off of the site. He moves in with the. With the Chinook, drops it down in there. And he says, hey, man, that was some really good teamwork. And that's, you know, R44 that's trying to help, you know, the military helicopter there's just so many things that we were able to do with, you know, with that machine that. That made it the perfect one. One of the first ones we landed is down by a river where a road completely washed out. Railroads gone. Everything around them is gone. Brought him some supplies, and there were some people that needed to get out. There was an older gentleman that they said needed to get out, so they went to get him on a little four wheeler. They bring him back over there with just a little bag in his hand. His house had washed off of the foundation and was almost in the river.
- [27:58]
Matt McSwain
So he was never gonna be able.
- [27:58]
Andy Petri
To live there again. And he's got one little bag he's taken, and that's it. That's basically everything he's got. And he's stepping into the helicopter, and he looks back at me and he goes.
- [28:11]
eBay Representative
Who did that?
- [28:12]
Andy Petri
And I said, yes, sir. I said, I'm getting ready to take.
- [28:14]
Matt McSwain
You out of here.
- [28:15]
Andy Petri
And he says, well, he said, I'm kind of a racing guy. Said, I recognize you. He said. He said, but I'm. I'm a Ford man myself.
- [28:23]
Kenny Wallace
Your house is gone.
- [28:24]
Andy Petri
This one's not going. Bring another one. I. Just kidding. But I took him out, took him to Hickory and. And got him some. So he needed some medical attention, too.
- [28:34]
Kenny Wallace
That gives me goosebumps. Matt and Andy racing just for a moment. Just. I know how serious this situation is, but Dale Earnhardt, the man in black, you know, you were his crew chief. You did so good for the sport, Matt. You two, both of you were there. Were there more? Do you think that racing, I mean, obviously it brought people together. Do you think that racing. Because that's racing area right there. I mean, we know that. Did that bring this mission together in any way?
- [29:11]
Andy Petri
We had. We had. Pinsky's helicopter was there. Gibbs had a helicopter there. Hendrick had at least one helicopter there. And they helped us a lot, too. I mean, it was a. It was a big effort. And I kept seeing those guys up. Up in the area, so they did a lot of work.
- [29:25]
Matt McSwain
So Ralph Fenway, they gave us Keselowski, they gave us a tractor trailer to move some supplies. Two tractor trailers move supplies. Kevin Harvick gave us some golf carts for, you know, he owns that golf cart company. He brought that up to run logistics. Like, every single person that we called again, I mean, there was never a pause. There was never a question. It was, yes, and that's. The racing community reached out to us. What can we do? How can we help? Yeah, we can kill Those races, damage.
- [30:00]
Andy Petri
RCR is donating a wrap for our command center that we've acquired for future disaster relief, and they're going to provide a wrap to wrap it for us. So everybody's stepping up, man. Everybody in racing has stepped up on this.
- [30:13]
Kenny Wallace
I want to debull something, and we're going to. We're going to talk to Andy down the road about this. But that's the man that taught me right there, Andy Petrie. He's the one that taught me by God, will debut this. Is it a fair statement, and I mean this wholeheartedly, with respect to anybody that's watching. Is it a fair statement that without the NASCAR community, they would have been in trouble up there?
- [30:44]
Andy Petri
I think without the response that was provided, and not just by the NASCAR community, it was everyone else. That's why I'm very hesitant to try give too much credit anywhere, because so many of these people showed up from all over the country. But I'll say, without that response, those people would have been in huge trouble. I'm telling you, it was bad. I mean, the day. The first days that we were up there, there was no. There was no government response. There was no. There was nobody coming. We were the only ones. And we were bringing in. I mean, we have a guy standing, hey, if you got any water on there, he was thirsty. He wanted some water. They couldn't drink any of the water around there. These people were, I mean, literally gonna die if they don't get some help. And so this group of people were the ones that came in, and I likened it to a fire, right? There was a raging fire, and we put that fire out, most of that fire out in the first few days, and got people where they could at least go to, you know, put one foot in front of the other to try to recover Without. Without that response, I don't think that would happen.
- [31:43]
Matt McSwain
Hey, Andy, who was the. The team owner that had the private Blackhawk that showed up? Do you remember what his name was?
- [31:50]
Andy Petri
No, I don't. Somebody had a black caulkill, a privately owned private, and he was a.
- [31:54]
Matt McSwain
He owned a race team, or used to back in the day. And we showed up.
- [31:58]
Kenny Wallace
We're like, probably a coal miner. I don't.
- [32:02]
Matt McSwain
Yeah, it was crazy. There were people, a couple private Blackhawks at Amica Insurance.
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Andy Petri
That welcome you home.
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Matt McSwain
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- [33:37]
Matt McSwain
Yeah.
- [33:37]
Kenny Wallace
Okay, so we're coming towards the end here, and I want to get. I want to get down to some things that made this tragedy so heartwarming. In other words, it's like, what's going on there? So, Matt, I want to go with you first. What one thing did you see? And Andy, I'm going to ask you the same question. So think about this, Matt. What, what one thing did you see during this mission that made you go, oh my God. Whether, whether it was. You said you, you had people dying, you had people giving birth, you saw homes wiped off their foundation. As I'm asking you this question right now, and we're wrapping up here a little bit there. I know there's many things and maybe give me two. What made you go, oh, my gosh.
- [34:28]
Matt McSwain
So if you want to pull the aside and know what really was, you know. So a friend of mine, Brad Womble, and Andy's friend, Brad Womble, they, they went to do a mission up in a little town. And there's a picture that is now a famous picture of this older couple sitting in front of a building and an old storefront in this old country town. And they evacuated the whole town because it was not sustainable. And these two couple, this couple would not leave. They're probably in their late 80s, early 90s. And they were sitting in two rocking chairs and Brad went up to tell them, hey, you really, you need to Go. Like, there is no sustainability. You got, you got to leave. And they would not leave because their 8 year old great grandson was dead in the rafters of the building.
- [35:22]
Kenny Wallace
Oh, my God.
- [35:23]
Matt McSwain
And that was like day two. And that was when, like, okay, we, we've got. This is what we're here for. We're here to help these people and we're here to do a job. It's. We got to do it. So that was, that was very impactful for me. And I knew at that point that, you know, this wasn't just an ordinary thing. We were here to do something sent by God, and, and we were here to do it.
- [35:46]
Kenny Wallace
Andy. God, now that I hear that, I don't want to keep going on, but I want, I want everybody to understand what you all, you know, why you got involved. What was, what was that one thing that you saw or, you know, that made you go? My gosh.
- [36:01]
Andy Petri
Yeah, we've, we've had it. We've talked about this a few times with a different, few different platforms. But, you know, one of them was just Miss Martha. She was a lady that was in a, in a part of this little community that was absolutely devastated. I mean, it was. I'd been making, I mean, trip after trip up there. And you'll, you'll get a kick out of this, Kenny, because you know, my wife Patty and you know, MRO and you know, you know, Monty and Melanie self. Right. Okay. So. So I'm up there with Chris Maroch as a guy that works in Hendrix engine shop. And he was up there just to help. He didn't. He's not a helicopter pilot, but he wanted to help. And we, we would always take one person, we call him a crew chief on the helicopters that would help load, unload the helicopters and do, do the things that, you know, needed to be done that the pilot couldn't handle. And so he was flying with me that day. We had delivered some Starlinks to the National Guard up there in Burnsville, and we're taking some more over to another location to the customs and border patrol that were at another location. And so as we're going over there, my wife's texting me. I keep my mom, you know, I got my Apple watch and I keep seeing. She's texting me and I'm flying and he's, you know, you're in really challenging terrain. And she says, acknowledge text. You know, I can't text and fly in these mountains.
- [37:17]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah, the yolks are moving by a quarter inch.
- [37:19]
Andy Petri
Yeah, yeah, I've got a Bluetooth headset on, so I just dial her up on my phone. I said, hey, what's up? And she's telling me that she'd been talking to Monty and Mel himself and that they had a mutual friend that needed to know about his mom that was up there, and she had. They hadn't heard from her in days and days. And I said, well, we have traced down a lot of, you know, black holes, things that really weren't, you know, that had been handled days before. And I wanted to make sure this one was still, you know, needed to be. This mission needed to be run. And she said, yeah, let me check on it. So she. She did her research. She said, this woman has not been contacted. She needs. Somebody needs to contact her. So I got the address. I got the coordinates. I dropped the starlinks over there at the other location, and Chris Maroc and I flew over there, and we were starting to try to find this house. And I'm like, there's no damage anywhere. This is a place that's unaffected by the flood. It's kind of a little valley that's a little sectioned off from some of the terrain, and it's not really affected. I'm like, okay. She's probably okay, but I will. Yeah, we'll land. So we're coming down into her yard, Just her little yard. And I said, now, this is these. These locations. You need to make sure that they want to see you. You know, helicopter landed in your front yard. You might not be so happy to see them, some people. And so I told Chris, I said, just keep an eye on it. Make sure nobody comes out with a gun or something. Right? And so he's looking. I'm trying to pay attention to the landing zone. And I said, are we okay? He said, there's a lady coming out on the porch. I said, glad to see us? She's got her hands on her heart, so I think we're good. So we land in her front yard, and we. And as I opened the door, I said, are you Miss. Are you Martha? And she starts bawling.
- [39:02]
Matt McSwain
Oh, yeah.
- [39:03]
Andy Petri
She hadn't heard from anybody. And I think it was seven or eight days.
- [39:06]
Kenny Wallace
Oh, my gosh.
- [39:07]
Andy Petri
Yeah. Well, she had been cut off from all, you know, power, water, communications, everything. Right? She couldn't get out. All the roads were completely blocked. She couldn't go anywhere. And she's like, I would. You know, she's elderly, living by herself.
- [39:21]
Kenny Wallace
Oh, my gosh.
- [39:22]
Andy Petri
And so I go up on that porch, me and Chris you know, we bring her some case of water. We get. And I said, hey, I'm coming back. I'm gonna bring some supplies. Give me a list. And so she gives me a list of things she needed, and I said, I'll be back up here. And so we, you know, we had a little moment, and I called. I FaceTimed Patty, when I finally did make contact with her and showed her Ms. Martha, because I had a Starlink in my helicopter, so anywhere we had connection and so I could actually FaceTime. And I showed her that, and everybody cried. And so she wanted to know, how in the world did you find me? And I said, honestly, at that point, I didn't know. I just did. I'm just doing what Patty told me to do, right? I'm gonna go over and find this lady. And so I said, I'll look into it when I. When I get back, I'll let you know more. And so I did find out how this all happened, and it was some of his private family matters. But Moni is the one that wanted us to find these, you know, find this lady and make sure that she was okay, because her son really wanted to know and hadn't heard. And so I went back and told her this whole story, how it came to be. And I said. The first thing I told her when I. I said, look, I said, God's the one sent me. I don't know who he used to send me. I'll find out. And so I told her when I came back, and she said. And I said that. That it was through Moni Self and some other people that we. And she starts crying again. I said, martha, we can't keep doing this. I can't keep trying over this. But that. That was the most special part. There were some other ones, too. You know, when you go to these little schools that don't have anything that lost everything, elementary schools, you take them starlink, they're like. They're in tears. Everybody's just glad to see oxygen tanks. You're taking to people and communities that can't get their elderly people, you know, oxygen. There's just so many of those kind of things, you know, that it's not one. It's just. It's just dozens of them.
- [41:10]
Kenny Wallace
I am. I am totally mesmerized.
- [41:13]
Andy Petri
The.
- [41:13]
Kenny Wallace
I mean, I really am. I mean, it's. For me, this is like watching a really good movie, but. Except it's true. There will most likely be a major motion picture come out about your. Your two heroism. Hey. As I'm talking right there and I, I got, I want to talk about the wildfires maybe pulling attention away from this, but has there been a brotherhood started? You know, you see some of these, you know, whether it's, whether it's racing, baseball, football. Have you guys made new friends? Are there people now that you're friends with that you never knew before?
- [41:49]
Andy Petri
Oh, yeah, I can speak to this. We, we've made so many friends through all this, man.
- [41:54]
Matt McSwain
We got new phone numbers. Yeah. So Kenny, we had people come from Oregon with their helicopters. Whoa. Yeah. So, so I can't begin to tell you all the states that was representative, but it was probably, if I had to throw a number, probably 60, 70% of the states, the United States had helicopters that came up. You know, our non profit operation helo.org that's the official non profit now, we're 501. We, we have got so many people that have wanted to donate and, and those helicopter pilots that went back home have advocated and stuff. Kenny. We, we have our nonprofit, with the help of everybody, the $5 checks, the $10 checks, we've supplied over 200 campers, brand new campers to the, to the victims for temporary housing. We gave them temporary campers, generators to have somewhere to live throughout the winter until we start the rebuilding process.
- [42:54]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah, we're going to make sure Charlie gets a link on this. How do, how do we spell that?
- [42:59]
Matt McSwain
Hilo.org H E L O. Operation Hilo.
- [43:03]
Kenny Wallace
I got it, I got it. Very cool.
- [43:05]
Matt McSwain
Yeah.
- [43:05]
Kenny Wallace
Okay, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Where are we at right now? Let me set this up. So we know that the wildfires are out there in California. The Weather Channel was panning with their camera. They accidentally showed a burnt up body. They didn't know they were doing it. So we got that going on out there and we got, you know, still people without homes, no electricity. Do the people in the mountains, you know, that whole area, is there any angst right now? Are they, I mean, because we're seeing it, it's like, hey, we got 750 now the president is over there going, whatever you need. Are they upset that the tension is being drawn off of them?
- [43:55]
Matt McSwain
I'll speak to this for just a second. Last night I, I was watching the news like 11:30 last night and I'm just confused. This didn't happen in North Carolina, but last night. Yesterday during a press conference, there was fema, there was emergency management, there was the federal government. There was all these people last night saying if you need this go here. If you need here, this go here. Do call this number. Go here. All everything, all information portal and hub was happening yesterday to get all this information to the people in California. And the president's, you know, obligation that he, you know, poured out. None of that happened to North Carolina. And I'm confused. I don't know why. We begged, we pleaded, we beat on doors, we. Senator Ted Budd was the only person. We got a bill on the president's desk with his help to help offset being able to put temporary housing on floodplain property. That took forever. But the president, two days after these wildfires, gave California everything. So, hey, look, we're grateful that our government is helping those people. No doubt they're going to need it, and we're grateful for it. We're just confused. Why, if it's good enough for California, why. Why was it not good enough for North Carolina?
- [45:20]
Kenny Wallace
Okay, so what can we do? Everybody that's watching this right now, what can the public do? I mean, I've heard a lot of things here. Hilo.org the great pilots, aces in places. What. What can people do right now? What can we do?
- [45:38]
Matt McSwain
To me telling people, I just re. Do your research. Try to find people that are helping in western North Carolina right now if that's what they want to do. There's a lot of organizations, not just operation helo.org but there's a lot of other good organizations that are helping, doing the rebuild and, and helping these people get out of the cold. Find somebody, do your research, do your homework, partner with them. If you've got a dollar or 50 cent or all you got is prayers, we'll take them. Anything to help, donate to help these people, man is graciously appreciated.
- [46:14]
Andy Petri
I'll say the same thing. You know, it's just, I would say to people that want to help, still help people in North Carolina, and I guess, you know, the wildfires in California have taken a little of the focus off of the dire need that is still in western North Carolina. But Operation Hilo has the heart for this. You know, we were flying missions with helicopters. We were actually even using airplanes with airdrop. We were delivering campers to people and propane. And I would say, if you want to help, make sure you donate to some organizations that really have a heart for this. And I can speak firsthand for Operation Hilo that they have the heart for this. And I'm so, actually proud to be a part of it. And, and hopefully we can continue to, you know, to bring relief to the People that need it up there. And when you were talking about this, all the. The response team that was out there in. In. In California, that. That response team was Operation Hilo in western North Carolina for many, many days. In the very critical part of this, we were the ones taking those calls. We were the ones that were simplifying the missions.
- [47:15]
Kenny Wallace
Hobby darn. And I want to listen. I'm not half the man you two are, but I do want to share a story for everybody that wants to know what to do. I have a great sponsor called Crow Equipment out of Jasonville, Indiana. They're godly people, and they're just good people. They called me up and they said, kenny, I know your brother Rusty has dealerships down there. We want to do something. Me and my wife want to load a trailer supply for. I said, well, let me call Chad at the Honda dealership. I called Chad and I got them hooked up. They drove their trailer, husband and wife, Scott and Peggy Crow. They drive down there, they get hooked up, they take the trailer, and they go to this church area. And the lady come out and they met. And this is per Scott. Scott said they opened up the back of their trailer door and something as simple as a lot of, like, thousands of paper plates. And the lady said, oh, my God, we're out of paper plates. This is great, because they had the food, but they was out of paper plates. So it's that simple, Everybody and Scott Crow, then they. They unloaded everything, and they. They drove right on back up to Indiana. So, gentlemen, listen. Thank you so much. Andy, we're coming back to you. I told Charlie, I said, andy's story is crazy. It's. It's so good. And, Matt, you too, buddy. Gentlemen, thank you both so much.
- [48:51]
Andy Petri
Yeah, thanks. Thank you, Kenny, for letting us get out here and spread the word on. On what Operation Hilo's doing and. And still that the people in western North Carolina could still use a lot of help.
- [49:01]
Kenny Wallace
Yeah. Listen up, everybody. Remember, Kenny conversations live in two places on YouTube and on Dale Earnhardt Jr's Dirty Mo media platform. This will be in podcast form, so remember, share it with your friends, our YouTube channel, Kenny Wallace, and, of course, Dirty Mo Media. You can just listen to it like radio. Until the next time, gentlemen, do you have anything else to say?
- [49:26]
Andy Petri
I'm good right now. I don't know about Matt.
- [49:28]
Matt McSwain
I think we've said it. We appreciate your time. We really do.
- [49:31]
Andy Petri
Thanks again.
- [49:32]
Kenny Wallace
All right, operation helo.org Goodbye, everybody.
- [49:37]
Matt McSwain
Thanks.
- [49:38]
Andy Petri
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