Troy Landry is an American hunter, fisherman and TV personality, born on 9 June 1961, in Pierre Part, Louisiana USA. He’s known for being the star of the reality TV series “Swamp People”.

Early Life

Troy was born Duffy and Mrytle Landry’s first of four sons. Although there’s no information about Troy’s childhood, it’s known he studied in Pierre Part Primary School and Middle School.Along his brothers Guy and Bubba, he started fishing and hunting at an early age following their family’s tradition.

Of French descent, his parents faced many problems growing up as they didn’t speak English well, and were economically underprivileged, Troy declared: ‘My parents didn’t have electricity or power. They grew up with nothing’.

Career

Fishing Business

Troy Landry is a skilled fisherman, dedicating from eight to nine months a year in harvesting and marketing crawfish. Earnings from commercial fishing allowed Landry to establish his own seafood restaurant in 1992.

In addition, Troy has helped his father to set-up his own bait shop named Duffy’s Shell, which also serves as one of their hometown’s few gas stations. Baits sold at the store are caught by Troy himself, as buying it is more expensive: ‘It comes from the East Coast. We used to get bait from Florida to Maine for crawfishing, but now we compete with everybody for bait. We even compete with people at Sea World for bait. We used to pay 10-12 cents per pound.

Now, because they eliminated commercial fishing in a lot of states, we have to pay up to 40 cents per pound.’

Not only is fishing Landry’s main occupation and principal source of income, he considers it a hobby as well, catching turtles, frogs and catfishes in his spare time.

Gator Hunting

Troy Landry has been skillfully hunting gators for decades, job for which he’s known as “King of the Swamp” in his natal Louisiana.

American gators are legally hunted in various south-eastern states of US in a tradition dating back to 1700’s, seasons usually lasting four weeks in each designated zone. Troy regularly takes part in this dangerous practice two times a year, starting 25 August in East Zone, its end giving him a free week until the start of September, when another season starts in West Zone.

Alligator skin is well sold as a luxury item internationally, though in recent years its price has lowered from $40 to $12 for 1ft (0.3m) for hide, which has almost made Landry stop this hunting: ‘It’s almost not worth killing a big gator. It’s almost not worth it. You have to wait so long for them to get that big.’

Despite this, demand for gator meat has been increasing steadily, which has helped to sustain Troy’s business. Moreover, gator trapping is a profession Troy has dedicated many years of his life to, therefore finding success at it: ‘We usually catch alligators when nobody else is catching any. I don’t think it’s because we are better hunters, I think it’s just because we have a little more experience and a few little tricks up our sleeves, that others may not always think of.

We manage to catch five or six really big ones every year. Most hunters only catch one every 10 years. Paying attention to the little things makes a difference’.

Swamp People – TV Debut

Troy was cast to appear in the reality TV series “Swamp People”, which premiered on 22 August 2010 on History Channel. The show focuses not only on Landry, but also on other Louisiana-based hunters, who risk their lives catching gators in Atchafalaya River Basin’s swamps.

Landry usually appears in the show alongside his son Jacob Landry, and others hunters such as his friend Clint Landry and his own brothers Guy and Bubba.

His popularity in the show resulted in him starring in its 2018 spin-off “Swamp Mysteries with Troy Landry”, which has been significant to Landry’s life, unexpectedly changing it: ‘They’re pulling me in all directions. I’m enjoying it though. I like to make other people happy. I put other people before me. I never expected this to happen. I figured fishermen would enjoy the show, but not so many people from so many different walks of life.’

Despite the good reception the show has gathered, Troy was initially worried about show’s representation of gator hunting and what it entails: ‘It’s real nasty in the boat; at the end of the day, it gets ugly. I was really worried they were going to make it a blood battle on TV. I find History Channel did an awesome job. They show us harvesting the gator but didn’t focus a whole lot on the killing part.’

He’s also content about producers including his family and other’s hunters in the show, positively portraying their simple lifestyle.

“Swamp People” has changed other aspects of people’s lives as well, as not only tourism during gator hunting season has increased in Pierre Part thanks to the show, but also demand and consumption of alligator meat.

Personal Life

Troy married Bernita on 26 September 1981. Although there’s no information about the couple’s history and first meeting, it is known Bernita was previously married to Randy Hotard, with whom she had a son named Brandon in 1976.

Troy developed a strong relationship with his stepson, who has appeared in “Swamp People” accompanying his step-dad in his gator hunting journeys.

To show his gratitude, Brandon posted a photo on his official Facebook page commemorating 2013’s father’s day: ‘Some may consider it unfortunate that I’ve had to endure divorced parents. But I consider myself blessed to have two great dads who have raised me and guided me through my life.’

Bernita welcomed two sons with Landry, named Jacob and Chase; both are recurrent stars in “Swamp People” and hunt full time with their father.

Net Worth

Reportedly, Landry’s family earned an estimated of $25,000 per “Swamp People” episode. Beside this, Troy’s commercial fishing and hunting activities has been providing for his family for decades, so his estimated net worth is over $2 million, as of mid-2020.

Physical Appearance

Troy Landry is a man of white ethnicity, who is 5ft 8ins (1.77m) tall and weighs around 195lbs (88kgs). Despite his TV star status, Troy remains humble, and usually wears simple clothes and caps.

Interesting Facts

Troy Landry’s appearances on TV have affected his family in a positive way, he told Louisiana Travel: ‘My momma went to the doctor last week in Baton Rouge, and when she told somebody she was from Pierre Part, they asked, ‘Do you know the Swamp People?’ She said, ‘Yeah, one of them is my son.’ My momma told me she had to take pictures with these people and sign autographs for them. It’s unbelievable, yeah, it’s unbelievable.’

Troy has a signature Ralph Lauren shirt, which he wears for good luck.

Besides turtles, Troy’s favorite food is grilled alligator, he told Louisiana Travel: ‘We pan fry it, and we make a sauce piquante, a stew, that’s very good. The white meat, we like to grill it or fry it up or put it on the fire pit.’

Although Troy has managed to live off the land (or water) his entire life, there have been hunting and fishing seasons in which he has hit a bad luck streak. Seeing himself in need of money during those times, Troy worked as helper in a friend’s construction company.

Off-gator season, Troy still goes deer hunting.

Early life, family, educational background

American military expert and historian, Dr. Lynette Nusbacher, was born as Aryeh Judah Schoen Nusbacher into a Jewish family on 17 December 1966 in New York City USA, with male physical features. According to sources, Lynette has a brother, but not much is publicly known about him. Some online sources say that Jonas Maines is Lynette’s twin brother, but this isn’t true. Jonas is the sibling of Nicole Maines, a transgender activist.

Lynette is trilingual, speaking Hebrew, German and French. She attended the University of Toronto in Canada, and graduated with a BA (Honors) in History and Economics in 1988.

In 1994, she graduated with a Master of Arts degree in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada, and then attended the University of Oxford to study for a PhD (Doctorate of Philosophy) in Modern British history, and graduated in 2001. In 2010, she attended short programs in Organizational Leadership at the Cranfield University – Cranfield School of Management and the National School of Government.

Career

According to Lynette’s Linkedin, she has high qualifications in strategy research and war studies.

From 1988 to 1994, she was an administrator at the University of Toronto. She worked in the Canadian Armed Forces as a Logistics Officer from 1992 to 2000. While there, she controlled audit and financial planning for an infantry battalion. She was a division staff officer in 2000.

From 1999 to 2013 at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, UK, she was the military expert and senior lecturer on war strategies. She joined the LMC consultant in 2006 as a senior consultant and principal, and through 2012 she was a guest lecturer at the University of Reading in Berkshire, UK.

She was appointed to the position of Senior Intelligence Advisor in the UK’s cabinet office in London in 2007, and was promoted to the Head of Strategic Horizons in 2008. She fought for a clean system for national-level security assessment.

Lynette began being recognized as a ‘popular’ historian in 2011, so she started a blog, “Nusbacher Associates,” on which she encourages people to explore new opportunities in cyber tech and technology.

She leads the “Devil’s Advocacy,” which is a group focused on exploring the sceptical views and sound advice on historical facts and theories. Their main goal is to gain access to cognitive bias and develop clear visions of the future, including military equipment, alternative strategies and war strategies.

She has written several books including “War and Conflict,” “The Battle of Bannockburn 1314,” “1314: Bannockburn” – going into detail of what happened in the war, and how the battle is still significant today – and “London’s Civil War 1642-46.” She also speaks about the military campaigns, equipment, weapons and political views during wars in the middle ages. In 2003, her book “War and Conflict” was published. At the time, Lynette had not yet undergone gender reassignment surgery, and was still living as a man (physically). This book was meant to be part of a self-help book for teenagers. She even goes through real-life case studies.

Lynette has also published work online through “The Times of Israel.”

A section of her blog is dedicated to her work about UNRWA, Acts of War, the Aleppo refugees, and so many more well-written articles tackling essential topics. Some of her articles were published in the “Huffington Post,” a famous online news outlet.

For the English Historical Review, she wrote an article entitled “Civil War: Supply of Victuals to the New Model Army on the Naseby Campaign, 1-14 June 1645.”

She appeared on the History Channel several times as Dr. Aryeh Nusbacher, before her transition, as a military expert to provide trustworthy information, opinions and explanations regarding military operations and defence strategies. Her first television appearance was in 2003 in the series, “Time Commanders”, and proved herself as an excellent expert in military history, later appearing in many more episodes of the series from 2003 to 2005.

She is a member of the Surrey Police Independent Advisory Group. Lynette currently works at a cabinet office in London, and lecturing postgraduate Strategic Studies at the University of Reading.

Television Series Documentary

In 2003, she appeared in “National Geographic: Beyond the Movie – The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.”

From 2004 to 2005, she appeared in “Battlefield Detectives,” in “Weaponology” in 2007 and in “Conspiracy” in 2015.

Her most recent appearance in a television documentary series was in 2019’s “Mysteries of the Abandoned.”

Personal life

Lynette met Melanie Bright in 1997, while she was still studying for her PhD in History. They dated just short of one year before marrying on 7 June 1998, and lived in Surrey, England for several years.

Melanie was born in Canada; she has a Master in War Studies, a BA Honors in Political Studies, and a Diploma in Public Relations. She has been working as the Head of Communications at Winchester City Council since 2018.

In 2007, Lynette underwent gender reassignment surgery. Melanie was incredibly supportive of Lynette, and protected her wife against any potentially hateful remarks, ‘She does not wish to talk to you about a private matter,’ she would tell anyone who asked questions about Lynette’s transition.

Lynette and Melanie have two children together. The family lives near Guildford, Surrey.

Hobbies, favorite things and interesting facts

According to reliable sources, Lynette taught Prince William and Prince Harry at Sandhurst.

Sources also state that she was staying in Sandhurst when she underwent her surgery from male to female so that her physical appearance would match how she felt on the inside. Apparently, the top order demanded that everybody treat her with the utmost respect, and refer to her as ‘Ma’am’ from there onwards. The Major General of Sandhurst, Peter Pearson, warned that any rude or snide comments about Lynette would be ‘treated with severe punishment.’

From 2011 to 2013 in the PINK Lists, Lynette has been ranked at number 53, 68 and 77. The Pink List ranks the most influential LGBTQ+ community members; before 2014, it was called the Rainbow List.

The British national newspaper, “The Independent on Sunday,” annually publishes the list which began in 2000 as a way to honor and thank all openly LGBTQ+ people. Lynette is active in the Jewish community, doing her best to promote traditional Jewish traditions and keep the history alive; because she is a Jew herself, so she understands the importance of culture and tradition.

She is nicknamed ‘Mrs Gunfire.’

Appearance

She has brown hair and grey eyes. She is 5ft 7in (1.7m) tall, weighs 165lbs (75kg), and her vital statistics are 34-28-35.

Net worth and salary

As of early 2020, her net worth is estimated at $1.3 million.

Alex Debogorski is an American trucker and reality TV star, born on 4 August 1953, in Berwyn, Alberta Canada. He’s known for being one of the stars of “Ice Road Truckers”.

Early Life

Alex was born the first of five children of Irene and Stanley Debogorski. Although both his parents were born in Poland, they met in England post- World War II. His mother studied music and math at Cambridge University, while his father served in the Free Polish Brigade as a paratrooper. After their wedding in London, the couple moved to a farm in Canada, were Alex was born.

There’s no information about Alex’s younger siblings, though it’s known he had to take care of them after his mother’s death when he was 12 years old.

His father worked two jobs at the same time, leaving his children alone for too periods: ‘Dad worked on the Railroad and he farmed so he really had no time for watching kids because he had to watch cows and pigs and make sure the Railroad kept working. So, I was in charge. He worked hard at finding a woman, but I don’t know how many women would want to come live in a shack out in the bush with no running water’.

Alex attended the University of Alberta, though he left it after a year and never graduated.

Career

Various Jobs

Trying to provide for himself, Alex Debogorski worked as a club bouncer, taxi driver and other part time jobs the first couple years after leaving college.

His journey wasn’t easy though, as he was inexperienced in every field: ‘People say it’s hard to get a job now and that it was so easy to get a job then. Well, it was never easy for a kid that doesn’t know anything to get a job.’

Truck Driving

Alex was working in a tire shop when someone looking for drivers entered the store. Although Alex had no experience at driving trucks, he offered himself for the job. He was contracted immediately, and worked as a coal mine driver for four years. In 1976 Alex moved to Yellowknife in Northwestern Canada, working as a driver until he was able to purchase his own truck in 1980.

Debogorski has talked about the importance of knowing mechanics for truck drivers, even though companies don’t necessarily require drivers to know these topics as they normally provide experts to fix trucks: ‘When I’m in remote areas, being able to fix stuff has come in handy for myself, as well as for others who I’m able to help out. Of course, the electronification of our equipment has made it difficult for even real mechanics to fix some things on our newer trucks. But the more one knows about his or her job, the better the job can be understood.’

Besides knowing how to fix their cars, Alex says a truck driver should have many skills, such as managing situations of stress and pressure, map reading, first aid, human relations and even accounting.

His four decades of experience have not only brought him knowledge in all of these fields, but also at some point it led him to leave normal roads for ice covered ones, which are deemed as very dangerous and require a level of expertise difficult to obtain for normal drivers, especially rookies.

Ice Road Truckers

Premiered on 17 June 2007, “Ice Road Truckers” is History Channel’s documentary reality series focused on various truck drivers, who risk their lives travelling over ice-covered ‘roads’ to bring food and other essential supplies to insolated areas of Canada and Alaska.

Alex Debogorski was initially contacted to participate in the show by a film crew, which had heard about his work ethic and charismatic personality through locals of the Canadian Northwestern Area.

Alex accepted, and is one of the only members of the cast who appeared in all of its seasons.

“Ice Road Truckers” had on average three million viewers per episode, becoming the network’s most watched show in a short time. It also received good reviews from critics, such as The New York Times’ Virginia Heffernan, who said: ‘Watching these guys … make their runs, it’s hard not to share in their cold, fatigue and horrible highway hypnosis, that existential recognition behind the wheel late at night that the pull of sleep and the pull of death are one and the same’.

Despite the show being reality TV, some of the scenes were edited to appear more dramatic and engaging to viewers.

Debogorski has declared that some scenes depict situations that didn’t exactly happen as shown: ‘Sometimes, I feel like they’ve shown me as a real ass. But that is reality! What can I say? I try not to worry about it. I’m not running for president or anything else. It’ll all come to an end one day and I’ll vanish into the dust of time’.

Alex also appeared in the series “Deadliest Roads”, showcasing the same cast of “Ice Road Truckers”, though centered on virtually impossible roads in countries of various continents such as Africa and South America.

Where is Ice Road Truckers Alex Debogorski today? Died?

Despite the huge popularity of “Ice Road Truckers”, the show was canceled in 2017 after 11 successful seasons. For his part, Alex Debogorski is alive and still works as an ice road trucker.

After the end of the series, he has keep himself active in social media especially on Facebook, on which he keeps his fans informed of his activities and work.

Most recently, in July 2020 he posted about his return to trucking: ‘I’m on the road again. On my way to Berwyn with my car carrier. I have an old 1929 tractor, a Canadian Ford (Mercury) pick up and one other. I’ll drop that trailer and hook up to my drop deck and carry on to Edmonton to pick up the siding for my shop. Back to Yellowknife unload and start putting my shop back together. The two weeks quarantine is not a problem, as I have so much work to do at both my yards I would not see anyone for weeks.’

Personal Life

Marriage

In 1972 and while still attending college, Alex married Louise. The couple have welcomed 11 children in total, and are apparently still happily wed after five decades of marriage.

To date Alex and Louise are grandparents of 13 kids, though their goal is to have 90 grandchildren, as Alex revealed in an interview: ‘we have 13 grandchildren already and everybody [keeps busy working on more] so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get there. The bottom line is, life is short. So, I wonder, what are we doing this all for? I figure it’s children. Even though I don’t particularly like children because they’re the reason I’m broke!’

Son’s Death

Alex’s son Andrew Deborgoski died in 2019, when he got caught in a fire that broke-out in his Yellowknife house. In 2017 Andrew had been diagnosed with ASL (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), a condition that made him unable to walk or sleep.

Despite his condition, Andrew could ‘speak’ through a machine connected as a cursor to his head. In the midst of the devastating event, Andrew warned his wife to save their kids first. Once outside of the house and with their children safe, his wife Myriam informed authorities Andrew was still inside the building. However, it was too late for him to be saved, and he was declared dead after being transported to Stanton Territorial Hospital.

The community raised funds to help Andrew’s family, collecting $26,000 in total and a huge amount of physical donations. Alex Debogorski shows himself very touched by the support received: ‘We’re in this together and a lot of people understand better than I do, they’ve suffered this numerous times’.

Net Worth

Alex Debogorski has a estimated net worth of close to $700,000, as a result of his work as a truck driver along with his earnings for appearing in “Ice Road Truckers”, and from an autobiographical book entitled “King of The Road: True Tales from a Legendary Ice Road Trucker”. published in 2010.

Physical Appearance

Alex is a man of white ethnicity, though there’s no information about his current weight and height.

Interesting Facts

Alex Debogorski is a devoted Catholic, and considers himself as a family-oriented man.

Although there’s no information about his current health, he has adopted a healthy lifestyle in recent years.

Despite his fame, Alex has shown a dignified attitude regarding his career: ‘You see trucks jack-knifed in the snow, and accidents that were probably unpreventable. There are plenty of better drivers out there than me, but I know enough to respect the weather and listen to the ice.’