 I like David or am I a newbie and I'm very nervous. I have a medical condition which causes me to faint if I'm very nervous, so I'm going to sit down. Because we're all friends, right? Yep. Okay. All right. So, I'd like to ask you a question to start out with. How many of these movies have you seen? American Sniper, I'll tell you in private, Ryan, Pearl Harbor and Dunkirk. Please raise your hands. Have you seen these movies? Excellent. All right. Put your hands down. Now, how many of you know a veteran personally who is under 50 years of age and not your relative? Thank you. Put your hands down. I did that to show that it's more likely today that veterans live in our imagination rather than our reality. In modern societies, we have decided collectively to hire people to provide security. So, military forces to protect our nation, police forces to protect our cities, security guards to protect our stores and businesses. In the United States, in 1973, we stopped using the compulsory draft and went to a volunteer all professional force. Unfortunately, that policy change has had an unintended effect. It has caused a disconnection between the people who provide security and the people who enjoy it. This disconnection can be seen in the numbers. In the United States, only 7% of the population has had any military experience. And at any given time, only one half of 1% of the population is actively serving. Which means when a veteran comes back from deployment, they're entering a society where 93% of us have no idea what their experience is. I mean, it's no wonder we're not likely to personally know a veteran. There's a whole lot of us and very few of them. Unfortunately, the chasm between the military and the general population has been filled by a dramatized version of military service that often portrays a veteran as a dangerous creature with a shattered psyche. The truth is, in reality, only 10% of U.S. post-911 veterans have seen or participated in any hospital action. And among those vets, 70% will not have PTSD. And I don't mean in any way to lessen the seriousness of PTSD, but I do mean to challenge the myth that all veterans are damaged in some way. While not all veterans will have PTSD, in surveys in 2014 and 2016, 68% said they suffered adjustment difficulties. So 70% don't have PTSD, but almost 70% are having trouble getting back into the civilian world with things like these. What if the factor that determines whether a veteran is successful returning to society is not what he or she went through, but society's ability to embrace them? What if they are missing their close-knit military family and entering a society that doesn't know how to support them? Last year, I got the opportunity to start an improv program with the Armed Services Arts Partnership. Armed Services Arts Partnership, or ASAP, is an organization that helps military veterans transition back into the civilian life. In fact, it also helps service members and military spouses. They do this through free classes in creative writing, storytelling, stand-up comedy, and now improv. I'd say this correctly. ASAP recently commissioned an IRB approved study by Thomas Ford of Western Carolina University and Dr. Janelle Junkin of Unhock Ingenuity LLC. And we've had some really great results. The vets told us that improv was a stress reliever. Well, this is not a revelation. We know this. But when you consider that among U.S. vets, the suicide rate is 20% higher than the general population, stress relief can be a lifesaver. And in fact, we have already seen some suicide prevention. The other thing they told us was that they have increased belief in self and purpose. And they're taking that belief in self because they're gaining their narrative back. And they're taking it out into the world with beginning to advocate for other vets. Thirdly, they said ASAP programs allowed them to make connections. Now, at first I thought they meant social connections. But actually what they said was they're changing their narrative from one of isolation to connection to their own story. How's this done? We are teaching improv technique and skill sets. So when the vets came into my class, they didn't want to just hang out, have a laugh. They wanted to learn. They were determined to learn. And in fact, learning was the key to engagement. The other way that we're doing this is through ditching stereotypes. Veterans may wear uniforms. The veterans are not uniform. They are so diverse. In fact, the first class I had in ASAP was the most diverse class I have ever had. All ages, male, female, all races, all abilities, disabilities, sexual orientations, you name it. And each veteran's experience is unique even if they served in the same branch of the military. And thirdly, we're using program structures. So ASAP has at the end of their classes a graduation show. This helps fight veteran isolation and create community connection because the veteran is able to stand up on stage in their own community and tell their story. And then secondly, the other thing we're doing is we're partnering with improv theaters in the local community so that after these classes are over, the veterans can mainstream into a civilian class and no longer be isolated. Transitioning out of the military can be abrupt, but improv is a good tool for veterans to help build social support, to develop skills and promote well-being. I do want to say something that happened on Thursday or came out of something that happened on Thursday. You may have opinions about the military. I have opinions about the military and about politics. But what I'm talking about is helping people, human beings, that have had an experience good, bad and different and now are returning to a community that they're not quite familiar with and so we're trying to help them. Helping veterans, now that's a movie I'd like to see.