Tom Equels
Episode 324
14 APR 2025
He has an amazing story of surviving a life-threatening accident a few years ago. He was on the track team in high school and surfed regularly too. For decades he has been an avid motorcyclist, both dirt and touring. He has also been active in martial arts and was a regular participant in sailboat racing. Although he also swims and plays tennis and pickle ball, he perhaps excelled the most as an equestrian competitor as a rider for decades, having won numerous local, regional, state, national, and international championships. He authored a book that came out last year, called, “The Horseman’s Tale.” His service to our country is seen in him being a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran and the recipient of two Distinguished Flying Crosses for heroism in aerial combat, along with the Purple Heart. On the faith side, he was knighted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 for his humanitarian service.
Notable guest quotes:
“My father was – and (to) some extent still is, and the people who can still remember – a pretty famous athlete in Western Pennsylvania, track and field and football.”
“I took to track as a sport in junior high and high school, ran the high hurdles, low hurdles. There’s a 120 and high hurdles, 120 yards, it’s slightly same distance basically, but in meters now. And was on a number of different sprint related relay teams.”
“It was more than just that I wanted to fly. I always had a very strong belief that was instilled by my mother and the idea that as citizens, we have a duty to our country, to our constitution, to the preservation of liberty and freedom in our country and in the world generally. And she taught me about the generations before me who had served out of our family. And so, it seemed like the right thing to do as well.”
“The incident where I got my purple heart was related to bullets coming in through the canopy of the cobra gunship I was flying. And some of those bullet fragments were in my arm and my hand… I did have more serious injuries. And as a result of some accidents over there in the aircraft, where I crushed and had a lot of scarring in my sinus areas from an impact to my face.”
“I decided to go to law school and also make social justice related legal work a part of my life. And it was through that social justice work that I began a number of projects helping Haitian refugees in the Miami area and met a priest who is in charge of the Haitian Catholic Center, and we’ve become lifelong friends.”
“This is a church that rolls its sleeves up and goes out and does what Jesus taught us to do, which is not just love each other, but care for each other.”
“Jesus is alive today because we are his eyes. We are his hands. And that’s how we keep the world changing by his word.”
“I had a very serious, what’s called an open book, pelvic fracture and some arteries were cut so I was bleeding out. And my face got pretty badly smashed. My nose was broken in three places. All my upper front teeth were fractured. I had a concussion, was knocked out for a period of time.”
“We don’t come to the table perfect, we come and we strive just like in sports, spiritually, day by day to get better.”
“I took my parents to France and Normandy, and we went to Lisieux, which is where the Basilica for St. Thérèse is.”
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