A few iPhone pics of painting this week in Shreveport with John Mayer, Veteran / homeowner Cliff Malone, the Mayer team, contest winners, Volunteers of America, and Shreveport contingent. In one photo, Robin, Jenn and Chelsea take a break while John and Cliff Malone (background) continue to work. JM painted a ton - other than the occasional interview, no star treatment.

The contest winners and guests were the talk of lunch with JM and his team. Pick three JM fans at random - no screening, they just happened to win - ask them to bring one guest to a house painting project in Shreveport, and they are all business all day - worked so hard, totally mature and interesting and good spirited and diligent and skilled and chill all day long. We’ve been through this a million times about Sue, Kristy, Brenda, Drew, Jocelyn, etc - Who else has fans like this? It is not normal. Would love to see a similar contest with … i dont know, Van Halen fans or something. The vibe was totally comfortable (eg. “John, hand me that grey paint if you’re not using it, ok?”) Contest winners were really just winners in any context. 

Awesome day. THANKS Jenn, Jim, Cliff, John, Fuller House team, and everyone!

gerard

I wanted to wait until our own Brain At War conference was finished before trying to write about Got Your Six - the new awareness and activism campaign that launched in May - because I think it deserves something other than a link, a plug, or a shout out. Shannon McCaslin and I went to the launch in Los Angeles in May and left with a lot of strong feelings and thoughts. It really deserves a long post, which it will get now.

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Chris Marvin, director of the campaign, graciously invited NCIRE to be a part of the effort. We are honored, and consider this campaign to be a major and important endeavor. We strongly recommend that anyone interested in veterans’ health check out their site - http://www.gotyour6.org. The aim - “Bridging the American Civilian - Military Divide” - is ambitious. Accordingly, the launch was impressive. 



The Got Your Six campaign is supremely well crafted, and its goals are substantive and instrumental to the future of our work. The campaign aims to connect PR and nonprofit work in a way that should benefit both, as well as veterans’ health efforts.                                 

Updating and deepening the public’s perception of military service members (“changing the conversation in America about veterans…”), while simultaneously turbocharging efforts of existing nonprofit groups, will take a tremendous amount of coordination and cooperation. On this scale, it is the most public collaboration to date between world-class experts in housing, health, education, leadership, family and jobs for vets. 



If it works, it will create an ongoing partnership greater than the sum of its parts - measurable goals (e.g. housing for 15,000 homeless vets…) in each category, and a truly innovative collaboration between groups that do not typically work with one another.



Amongst celebrities and luminaries, the best part of the launch was a brief story by Chris himself - he told a little bit about his experience as service member and as a helicopter pilot. His account of being injured during his time in service was very relevant, and his in-theater presentation was sublime and relatable, even for those who had no experience with combat, deployment or the Middle East. 



I know Chris a little, but this story in particular really moved me - and everyone - at the launch. It was ‘his’, but it felt like ‘ours.’ It articulated the strength, vulnerability and possibilities of our veteran population, and it felt infectiously brave - there was the audible ‘sound’ of people listening silently. When he was done, the woman next to me whispered - “that was perfect.”



Indeed.



Packaging something as complex as the relationship between veterans and their country into a message the public can understand is no easy task. It requires a slightly longer attention span - and more nuanced set of emotions - than we usually see on TV. There is no pity. No charity. It feels like a national opportunity - for strength and for progress. For a path to something better, not just for vets, but for all of us.



So, I guess the story is just beginning a new chapter. Can the United States engage in an authentic national conversation about veterans, service, sacrifice, resilience, camaraderie, excellence, trauma, healing, the future, peace, and war? 

Can we understand what is exceptional about our military service-members without being melodramatic or deifying those who have served?

Can we harvest something deep and meaningful for the 99% of us who have not served in the Armed Forces from the experience of military service members?

That Got Your Six launch made me feel like we could. And will. Stay tuned.

 —gerard

Next week, NCIRE is hosting the fifth annual The Brain at War conference in San Francisco, California.  The Brain at War is a yearly meeting of the minds.  It brings together researchers, physicians, service men and women, veterans and community members with the intention of collaborating on the subject of veterans’ health and research.

About The Brain at War

Who: NCIRE, SFVAMC researchers and physicians, UCSF professors and researchers, active service members, veterans, and community leaders

What: The fifth annual The Brain at War conference, the nation’s leading conference on the neurocognitive consequences of combat

When: Thursday, June 21, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Where: The Marines Memorial Club and Hotel, San Francisco, California

Why: The scientific understanding of how combat affects service members and Veterans - and how they will age as a result - is critical to the future of Veterans health

Check out NCIRE’s Facebook http://www.facebook.com/NCIREveterans and Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/NCIREveterans or more information and updates in the coming days.  For more information on this year’s or last year’s The Brain at War conference, visit our website: http://ncire.org/brain_at_war/

 Thank you everyone for your continued support!

Maya Rahkonen