Religious Accommodations
Religious accommodations in the military allow service members to request accommodations for their religious practices and beliefs. For A1C Connor Crawn, the path to obtaining his approval was a long and challenging process. As a member of the Mohawk tribe Connor has felt strong connections to his roots as an indigenous person. In Mohawk culture men derive quite a bit of their sense of being and power from having long hair. After his attempts to get his RA before shipping off to basic training failed Connor was forced to get his hair cut. He and his father ceremoniously cut each others hair off before he shipped out. Thanks to the support of a willing Chaplain, Connor was able to the the allies and support he needed at his first base to purse this accommodation again. Finally after a long wait he has been approved to grow out his hair in accordance with his cultural and religious beliefs. Connor discusses his journey and the hopes of being able to help other indigenous service members file for and obtain their religious accommodations as well.
In This Episode We Cover:
Connor's Story
What is a Religious Accommodation
What kinds of support he got from leadership, chaplains and peers
How he felt when he received word on his approval going through
How he aims to help others through the process
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
Transcript from Episode 87 with Connor Crawn:
Keith McKeever 0:02
Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Hey, welcome back to another episode today, I've got a great story that that I came across on Facebook I believe was got a fellow airmen, a fellow security forces defender, you know, can't wait to talk to this guy about religious accommodations and what it means to him. But what that process was like, I know there's a lot of people that are probably looking at that for whatever your religion is, whatever your faith is, whatever kind of accommodation. So if that is you, or you know, somebody who might be that, you know, find his valuable that share this with them so that they can get a little bit of insight as to what it took Connor to get his religious accommodation and get through that process. You know, I'm sure there's a lot of red tape involved. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Connor.
Conner Crawn 0:48
Thank you. Good to be here.
Keith McKeever 0:50
Yeah, I'm glad to have you on here. I was I was just blown away when I saw the article, I think it was the Air Force Times article, somebody shared at some Facebook group somewhere, I don't know. I was like, Man, I gotta reach out. Like, this is a good story. Because I know, everybody. Everybody has a different religion. You know, whether that's, you know, indigenous, or Christian, or Muslim or Jewish or whatever. I mean, there's a ton of different ways, sub sects of each one of those and all kinds of different religious accommodations. So I've seen a lot more movement since I got out, Gosh, 11 years ago, and people get notice. Yeah, I saw an article not too long ago, maybe a year or two ago about the first first seek person that was allowed to wear their head, you know, their head gear, whatever that's called, I'm like, Man, that's awesome. For sure, it was great. Back in the day, you didn't see hardly anything like that. So it's awesome for people be able to surf and, and have those things that are, you know, really powerful to them. So, without further ado, shares a little bit of a backstory of who you are, where you from, what made you join Air Force, those kind of things.
Conner Crawn 1:56
Okay, yeah, so I was born in Northern New York, about a mile away from Ontario, and grew up in a little small community, right along the Canadian border of Ontario, Quebec provinces in New York State. You know, initially, I didn't think about joining the Air Force, I was gonna go to college, you know, that type of thing. For then COVID hit my senior year, perfect, wipe out my web down my senior year. And from there, I was, like, you know, what, I've always want to be a police officer. I mean, that's always gonna go to college for and I figured that I can get an early start with that, you know, and in, in the Air Force, I can get hands on involvement. You know, I can, you know, leave that little small community and start a new, you know, so yeah, I joined the Air Force, and I was 18. And went from there. And you
Keith McKeever 2:43
ended up in the middle of nowhere, Montana,
Conner Crawn 2:45
I ended up going nowhere, Montana, you know,
Keith McKeever 2:49
as you never know, what the military is gonna send you, right? That's traveled to see the world. And then you can just see the Great Plains. So absolutely. You know, I was I was, I'm a lot like you, man, I was, I got an associate's degree, but I was kind of like, in a board state, I wanted to be a cop. But I felt like, I was like, you know, if I join the military, like, I can get some practical experience, and I get paid to do it. And, you know, and you could do a lot of other stuff and meet a lot of people and travel the world at the same time. Or I could just go become a cop in my local town and never been like, so you know, there's, there's good, good and bad, so for sure, but so you've got a religious accommodation. And that's what the article is about. I'll have it in the show notes. But give us a little bit of backstory about what the religious combination is, and why it was important to you.
Conner Crawn 3:36
Yeah, absolutely. So essentially, this religious accommodation grants me to wear unshorn hair and uniform in accordance with female hair standards. So as a Native American, as I'm wearing with person, half Native American, my father's Mohawk, and growing up Mohawk, you know, you've learned that your hair is essentially your strength, you know, so, the longer my hair is, the closer it is to the ground, the more connected I am to the earth, as well as that connection with the earth grants me spiritual strength and resilience, you know, so the longer my hair is, you know, the, the more connected I am to the earth to the Creator. And then I'm, you know, I'm protected certain hairstyles, you know, braid, stuff like that, you know, that just strengthens that. So, as soon as I really was old enough to understand who I am probably about 13. And my background, I was like, you know, I'm growing my hair. My dad had long hair right before I was born, you know, so I used to see that pictures and whatnot. And we started we're gonna grow hair together. So about 13 I started growing my hair, you know, I went through that. So grew my hair, five years. You know, really, really immersing myself in my culture, my religion, and what time retirement came to join the Air Force, you know, and go to Basic. I was trying to have a religious combination through my I recruiter, and that process was just a layup my ship out day, you know, I kept getting pushed back push backs that can even answer. Water, right? Oh, absolutely. I mean, I knew it's gonna be a process. And I think it's gonna be that much of a process, you know, of course, learning the military's game with paperwork and time. So you know, that it really worked out initially. So I was in a stage where, like, you know, I need to get out, you know, so I said, I would, you know, cut my hair and go for an earlier date to leave. So I got that date, I left January 2021, for basic and shift from there, you know, I, I miss my hair every day, when I cut my hair, you know, I felt like a part of me died, you know, it really means that much to us and indigenous communities. So I cut my dad's braid, become my brain. And, you know, he's been the biggest support I've ever had. And I, you know, I didn't wait, as soon as I got to my duty station, I was even on flight, nothing like that. I got to my duty station, I went right to my chaplain. And I was like, I'm gonna start this over again, because I know, it's, I knew it was gonna be a while. So I went, I spoke to my chaplain. And, you know, we went from there.
Keith McKeever 6:15
Awesome. So I was kind of curious about a couple of different figures in this process for you, and how supportive they were, how impactful they were, but I want to start with your dad, how was he throughout that process of trying to cut through the red tape in the beginning?
Keith McKeever 6:32
You've only seen the beginning, you've just barely gotten into the Air Force. There's a lot of red tape and a lot of hurdles in front of you. But I mean, how instrumental was he? Did he say anything to you about this process about? Like, hey, keep your head up? Yes, whatnot, but you know, you'll get it eventually, kind of thing. He
Conner Crawn 6:48
was a biggest support, you know, from the beginning, you know, growing up learning to be a native person, you know, growing up, and then just having that connection that we had, we had a really good connection with bond. And he was just there supportive the whole time, you know, he was never down about it. He's like, Oh, you know, sucks. It's taking so long, but you know, just keep waiting. It'll be alright, you know, we'll get through it. And anytime I was doubtful about or getting upset about the process, how long it was taking, you know, I go talk to my dad about it, you know, we're good, you know, like, we're good. And he would just be that backbone, you know, he would great support, great support.
Keith McKeever 7:27
Yeah, kinda kind of figured. So, how about your recruiter? And I guess more specifically, in your recruiter? Did they say anything? Or you know,
Keith McKeever 7:37
anything about the religious accommodations? I mean, I would imagine it's something that they see every now in it, but not as many, you know, as other waivers and other processes that they have to go through in their job?
Conner Crawn 7:49
Absolutely. Tim, and my Chaplain said the same thing, you know, they've had never worked with a situation quite like this. So very supportive. My recruiter was great. He's very patient with me, you know, he took the time to understand why I was requesting the accommodation request. And, you know, he kept me updated as much as he could, you know, he filled me in about everything he was, he was great. He was a great help.
Keith McKeever 8:12
That's awesome. Same thing with the chaplain.
Conner Crawn 8:15
Yes, absolutely. You know, he was phenomenal ally. You know, you've never seen anything quite like it. So we went to the nitty and the gritty of the rules with requesting a religious accommodation. And we got requests. We got help from another chaplain. So I had two chaplains helping me out at once. So as we're writing up this memorandum and very supportive, you know, like, it's incredible.
Keith McKeever 8:35
That doesn't surprise me that sounds like chaplains just about every interaction I ever had with them. And you know, maybe it's just kind of who they are as people but you know, what do you need what do you need help with you know, we've done comfort I had you know, my deployments I have the chaplains come out and bring us hot chocolate from time to time was felt like there was an agenda there. But yeah, we always took the hot chocolate small with a smile. So you know, it is what it is. Hopefully, they bring in hot chocolate to you out there when it's free on the frozen tundra. Can you make some phone calls make it happen? So the the application process then, like, what was what was that? Like, you know, was there? Was it just like a simple form? Or like a ton of paperwork and it process?
Conner Crawn 9:25
Terrible paperwork process? So the Chapman was written in the details, who said, Oh, yeah, they have to respond within 60 days with an approval or denial. Okay. That sounds too good to be true. Yeah, I was like, okay, cool. I'm with it.
Keith McKeever 9:39
Skeptical at least, right? Like, yeah, 60 days.
Conner Crawn 9:42
Yeah, great. But we'll see. We'll see. And so initially, I had to go to an interview for sincerity with him. So he basically asked me who I am, where I'm from, what my religion is, you know, what's the meaning of hair to my people, my culture, my religion, everything like that. arm went through that sincerity request, he typed up a memorandum. And from there, you know, I went up. So I went up to my initially my squadron commander, you know, he called me one day to talk to me about same thing, you know, to ask me everything. And from him, you know, it went up from there. So I knew it was gonna be a process. But I got kicked back a few times to the chaplain for little grammatical issues. And then at that time, they switched from AFI to de AFI because Space Force became a department the Air Force, so we had to change that. It was a process.
Keith McKeever 10:35
That doesn't surprise me. Actually, I wouldn't have thought about that. I mean, now that process would be kind of ironed out for people, but I'm sure there's still a lot of things with the Space Force integration. It causes a lot of problems.
Conner Crawn 10:51
But yeah, little things that you think would have caused an issue, but it caused an issue the whole papers.
Keith McKeever 10:56
When you said grammar and stuff like that, I'm like, Oh, my is like, yes, actually, most military thing possible. Oh, yeah. Sorry, we can't accept this. There's, there's, there's a period in the wrong spot. I didn't capitalize this, this plural noun here. Ah, no, we can't do that. Absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So how long did the whole process take then for you
Conner Crawn 11:21
took a year and a half after I reapplied. So for my squadron commander had to go up to the wing, I got approval from the wing. I then went to my match calm air force, Global Strike command, they got approval there, and then went up to the 20th Air Force headquarters, got approval there. And then from there, I had to go to the Pentagon, because it was, you know, a unique situation and a unique quest. So after about a year and a half to reapply, and it was finally you know, notified of my approval.
Keith McKeever 11:51
That's a long time to wait. Yes.
Conner Crawn 11:54
Yes, it is. Wow. If people started to tell me like, I'll be the only contract before you hear anything. You know, I totally get you to religion and stuff like that, you know, jokes and comments here and there. But yeah, make
Keith McKeever 12:05
that part of your bonus for reenlistment. Right. Yeah. I mean, I guess it would have been the end of the world. Yeah, it was it was approved, right. But surprisingly, it will take take a year and a half. I mean, it's a lot of steps. It is, it seems like there will be more of a streamlined process. Gosh, it just sounds weird to say but, you know, be in the military. But like, let's see. There's other accommodations, I think that would have more of an impact. You know, like facial hair. Yeah. Now, if you need to wear gas masks, we all you know, know about the ceiling and stuff like that, and whatever. But, you know, something like that would would seem to be like, something that might take a little while, like, Okay, what is your job? What, what kind of impact but it's talking long hair, you can still wear your Bray, you can still wear your helmet. I mean, Where's where's the problem? It's not like it's another piece of headgear or something like that that will be affected, you'd have to take that off, you know, whatever. But I guess each situation, each religion is going to have its own unique hurdles when it comes to that. So
Conner Crawn 13:16
absolutely. I requested see my hair standards, specifically, because it's already been proven that they can complete their job without any issues, you know, so they can wear their hair certain way, under their conditions. Why? Why would I be for my job? The same? You know? And you know that I didn't really leave room for argument. I didn't want to have no like pushback, nothing like that. So I made sure to include that in there.
Keith McKeever 13:38
That's actually a good point I didn't think about because, as far as I know, just the well, I'm assuming the Space Force, that's you, but the Air Force in the army, have changed their standards for female hair, where they can have their hair down in a ponytail, I think in any uniform, as far as I know. When did that come about? You know?
Conner Crawn 13:58
Yeah. And he left it was, I was actually in the middle of basic. So it was either January or February 2021. Because I remember seeing all like the female trainees been to the next day like, Oh, if standards change, and then they all wear a ponytail. So specifically, basically, I remember that so somewhat recent.
Keith McKeever 14:14
That's interesting. I bet that had a positive impact on getting a pass through. Oh, I mean, it might have been one of those things that five years ago. Decision makers might have been like now, but, you know, there might have been like, well, you know, I mean, we did just make these changes for female here, like year and a half ago. So yeah, you know, what's the difference? So Exactly. Yeah. Gotta kind of work in your favor for sure. So, so, where were you then when you when you receive word?
Conner Crawn 14:43
I just gotten back from a field for us with squadrons and I was just getting home, you know, and I was getting a call from my, my Lt. As she Okay, so I asked the farmer Hey, what's up, sir? He's like, Hey, are you right now. Oh no, sir, because you might want to take a seat. Now, say I'm sitting down right now. And I heard my Master Sergeant with him as well. He goes, Hey, we got master here as well. Just wanted to let you know that your you know your accommodation was approved, you know, it's effective immediately you can you can start growing your hair right now if you want. Oh my god, are you serious? Like, are you serious? I was just I was shocked, you know, like, yeah, yeah. It was part of the day, everything like that, you know, like it was it was incredible.
Keith McKeever 15:34
Yeah, it would be sad. It was shocking. Did you at any point, leading up to that, since it took a year and a half? Did you kind of lose hope at all? Like, this might not ever happen. Like,
Conner Crawn 15:45
it was started waver a little bit here and there, you know, I was trying to like, stay strong. All right, it'd be alright. You know, the last time I had heard anything, was April, you know, my, my shirt gave me an update was hey, you know, just got approved by 20th Air Force up to the Pentagon now. And then I didn't hear any from from April till October 22. You know, so that period of time was Oh, my God. But
Keith McKeever 16:07
that's a long period to wait and sit there. And, you know, gosh, man, Pentagon is a big place. And we had awesome desks, could that be sitting on in one file just moving from this person to this person to this person? And? Yeah, I think most I think most people would probably start having those thoughts in the back of their head. Just a little bit of doubt. Anyway, like,
Conner Crawn 16:27
I was starting to worry. Yeah, yeah, sure.
Keith McKeever 16:30
So, you know, obviously, it seems like you're in the tenure of your master sergeant, your commander, everybody was on board, how about, you know, the fellow airmen in your unit?
Conner Crawn 16:37
Yeah, they're supportive. So I found out the day that I was switching, you know, unit. So I end up switching over to CRF. That same like week, so I never really got to interact with my fellow flight mates that I had known for a year and a half. But going over to my new Squadron, and my new flight, you know, they were told kind of immediately by leadership, you know, like, you know, don't say anything about it, you know, it's already been approved, you don't want his hair starts getting longer. And they're, you know, they're awesome about it, like, Oh, that's awesome, man, you know, like, how do you do that? You know, and they start asking me about it, which is good, you know, it's good to have conversation about, you know, indigenous religions and stuff like that, because it's not something that's often talked about. But, uh, it's been super supportive. I've had a lot of, you know, a lot of support.
Keith McKeever 17:22
I'm glad you said that. You know, people ask about your religion. That's you, you're definitely right. I mean, it's not like we walk around with a sign on your forehead that says, I am exact such Right. Like, you don't know, I mean, you know, you can be, you know, any kind of religion. I mean, gosh, there's probably 1000s of them out there, you know, different, different beliefs. So, I think it's important for people to sit down and have those conversations and just be more open and acceptable with people and, you know, and learn about it. I know, I would have been one of those people. I'd have been like, dude, like, tell me all about your religion? Because I'm a, I'm an extremely curious person. I'd be like, tell me everything about it. Because I just want to know,
Conner Crawn 18:04
you know, absolutely. Like, I'll be out on a mission. You know, my partner next year. Hey, Daniel, tell me a little bit about this. I mean, you start asking me all these questions, like, did it escalate my reservation? Or they asked about, you know, historical points for my tribe or you know, religious background. So like that, like, it's good to do that communication topic.
Keith McKeever 18:21
Yeah, absolutely. So what was speaking of that, then what what kind of what is some of the history and backstory of your tribe? Then? You said it was Mohawk. Right?
Conner Crawn 18:29
Yeah, yeah, Mohawk. So we're part of the hood Michonne, which means people of the longhouse and an English we're known as the Iroquois Confederacy, or the Iroquois. And we're initially a confederacy of five, and then six tribes from the northeast. So we're both Canadian and United States like natives. And yeah, like so we're from the Northeast now. We're huge confederacy of nations. We're still around today, we have we added to, you know, the democracy of the United States, you know, stuff like that. We had a lot of influence on America's early history during the 1617, early 1800s. And all my trash reservations are in Canada was part of in the United States. So it's kind of interesting as well, coming from a Canadian tribe. But yeah, you know, like, you're a quick Pharisee
Keith McKeever 19:24
I've definitely heard I'm, I'm a history buff, so I've definitely heard of it. I've heard of long huts and all that stuff, too. So so if you're, you know, mostly reservations in Canada, have you been up the to visit the reservation yourself?
Conner Crawn 19:35
Yeah, absolutely. So my family and I lived about an hour and a half away from Mohawk reservation where a lot of my family you know, relatives came from it's called luck was asked me and that's pretty equally split. So you got a part portion in Quebec, you got a portion in Ontario, then you got a portion in the United States, and has two different counties in the United States too. So it's a whole, like jurisdictional thing but uh, At one point, you can be driving down the street and you're in Quebec. You know, there's not Border Patrol, there's not customs Eric, it's part of the reservation. So it's a it's a unique dynamic. And then my tribe also has about another four reservations. All throughout Canada, mostly Ontario, Quebec. But yeah, I make sure to go and visit them, you know, we're gonna walk right outside of Montreal, Quebec. Yeah. All spread out to those two provinces.
Keith McKeever 20:26
I guess I'm very curious person. So no, absolutely. Obviously, being in Canada, Quebec. I know, French is a very commonly spoken language. I'm assuming most people in your tribe then speak English, native language and French probably somewhat common, maybe?
Conner Crawn 20:44
Yeah, it's somewhat common at first. A lot of people in my tribe don't like to speak French. We have a lot of issues to people of Quebec, because, you know, they're kind of racist against Mohawks. So, it's funny, as soon as you go on the reservation, in those Quebec provinces, there's no French spoken, they won't speak French. They only speak English and Mohawk, you know, at the stop signs, or Mohawk, for example, and stuff like that, like they refuse to speak French. Living in Quebec, you should know some French,
Keith McKeever 21:13
right, you know, functional use in town or wherever you might need it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'm like, I know, a lot of people speak French up there. Yeah. Absolutely. And let's be kind of interesting, then, you know, for a lot of people to grow up trying to learn three different languages. It is, yeah, sometimes I can sometimes I don't even know if I can master English. So
Keith McKeever 21:34
yes, my wife should tell you, I can't and written word so that, you know, I it is what it is so awesome. So what, what advice do you have for anybody else, you know, no matter what their religion is, that's going through this process, any any bits of information, words of wisdom for them?
Conner Crawn 21:52
Sure, you know, native, non native, whatever your religion is, if you're trying to go for a religious accommodation, you know, he's got to realize it's gonna take time, you know, you gotta have the patience there for the system, you know, like, the Air Force is big, big. And also, it's gonna take time to get through those steps, you know, but don't give up. You know, I don't mean to sound basic, but honestly, just just hold out, you know, have your hope, you know, hold on, you know, your religion is, you know, important enough for you to request the accommodation, just hold on to it, you know, like, and hopefully, you know, your your accommodation gets approved. But, uh, remember, it's gonna take, it's gonna take time.
Keith McKeever 22:27
And that will be some good advice. It sounds to me like, you know, another one for people would be to find your group to find your people. For sure. You probably just got lucky by just finding the right two chaplains at the right time. They were like, Yeah, let's go for it. You know, let's, you know, let's help this guy out. Because Absolutely, somebody could very easily add another base, another set of leadership, add more hurdles to their, to their accommodation requests. So I
Conner Crawn 22:56
spoke to like, a lot of other, you know, Native men asking me how I did it, you know, because they've been trying, and, you know, I tell them, Oh, you don't do this this, like, yeah, I've tried to talk to the chaplain, but you know, like, they're not, you know, helped me out, or they don't know exactly how to push forward to it. So it kind of has become stagnant, or their leadership isn't like pushing and advocating for them. You know, it really makes me think that Well, you know, I got lucky I had great leadership, you know, I great chaplains that, you know, we're they're willing to help me out as much as they did. So, there are those hurdles? Absolutely. Depending on where your bases are your leadership is that you know, you might have to overcome. I definitely, definitely got lucky with my
Keith McKeever 23:32
Well, it's awesome. Other people are reaching out to you about that. Oh, absolutely. So quite a few did after that news article came out? Yes. Yes,
Conner Crawn 23:39
they did. They tracked me down on Facebook, they're sending me messages. Hey, man, how'd you do this? I'm part of this drive, you know, like, can you help me out? So yeah, I'm trying to help as many people as I can, you know, I'm encouraging them to reach out to me, so I can, you know, help them you know, it's a process, you know, and the more that gets approved, you know, the better, you know, maybe it can change DoD wide for Native men, you know, because Canadian Armed Forces, for example, made it man can wear their hair in a braid, you know, and stuff like that. So, maybe that can, you know, become a DOD thing here. And that would be, that'd be phenomenal.
Keith McKeever 24:10
That would be I mean, you know, let people come in and be able to do their thing. And not have to, I can't imagine, I mean, I have no hair. That's why we had a hat last night when I was about 25. So yeah. You know, to go through that process, like, you know, for me, I always kept my hair short. So I remember going through basic training you, you line right up, boom, there goes the hair. I didn't care I don't know that they really even cut much off my head. You know, I mean, I didn't come in with like a buzz but I always had short hair. So you know, no big deal to me. Now I don't have any hair so but I can't imagine being so tied to something that you know, religion identity, you know, blood culture, all that stuff like this so tightly, tightly woven into Who you are as a person? I cannot imagine the pain of having to cut that off.
Conner Crawn 25:04
Oh, yeah, it was, I appreciate that, you know, and it was, it was really awful. You know, I, we started out, you know, I cut my dad's braid first and oh my god that just broke me, you know, I cried. And I cried, even though was my hair, you know, it's something that my father and I did together. And it's something that's so important to indigenous identity and culture, and religion, that, you know, just, I felt awful just cut his braid. And then when the time came for him to cut my brain, not that long after, it was, like I said, I really felt like a separate integral part of who I am, you know, I really feel like a part of me died. You know, I really feel like I've not been completely whole, you know, I don't want to sound like dramatic, nothing, but it really does, you know, mean that much to us. So now that my hairs, I'm not a rags now, like, that's great. And that's awesome. You know, I'm getting back there. You know, I'm starting to feel more whole as time goes on. I'm getting my hair back.
Keith McKeever 25:54
Awesome. And, you know, I guess another great thing is you get an opportunity to show some other people the path. I know, it's not what you probably set out and intended to do. You wanted it for yourself. And here, you have an opportunity to help other people and blaze the trail. So how's that make you feel that? You know, you're the first person to do that apparent, you know, that I'm that I'm aware of?
Conner Crawn 26:17
It's great. You know, I think one of the first thoughts I had after I got my waiver was, you know, I want to put this out. So others know, it's possible, you know, so I made like a tick tock video, and it absolutely blew up from there, and a lot of people reach out to me. And through there, I found out, you know, this indigenous nations equality team, they're in the DOD, you know, they're like, a native organization, someone, you know, they reached out to me, and they're like, hey, you know, somebody else just got theirs approved, as well, you know, and communicated with him how he went about his process, you know, he's a totally different nation, totally different tribe. It turns out, you know, there's, there's a few others, too, that all got theirs approved around the same time as myself. So, huge step, you know, huge stride there. I'm sure they're doing everything they can do as people reach out to them. And, you know, I think it's a great thing, you know, to try and, you know, spread that awareness. And, you know, it's awesome that people are reaching out to now, you know, I feel great. You know, I want to help out, you know, it's an important thing.
Keith McKeever 27:18
Awesome. Well, if you guys ever put your heads together, and you come up with like a blueprint of like, this is the way to do it. This is not the way to do you, let me know, and I will, I will definitely host it as a download or shareable or, or put it on the website and see if it helps anybody else to get the word out. But absolutely. That's awesome. Yeah. So I appreciate you coming on here and sharing with us and you know about your journey and what it means to you. And, you know, it's quite an honor to talk to somebody who's out there blazing the trail and moving things forward.
Conner Crawn 27:50
I appreciate that. Thank you, man.
Keith McKeever 27:51
No problem. You take it easy.
Conner Crawn 27:53
You as well. Thank you.
Keith McKeever 28:00
Come on in the show. There we go. All right. There you go. Remember, on the website battle buddy podcast I did if there's a resource that's not on there, they should be. Let me know and I'll work on getting it on there. And if you're struggling with anything, remember the national suicide hotline number is now 988. Press one
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
