 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Okay, welcome to another edition of Hawaii in Uniform. I'm the host Calvin Griffin. And we've been off for a while, but we're back on now. But I want to put a call out there to the members of the veterans community. We're going to take a slightly different turn with the program here in the future. There's some things that I thought that the public wanted to talk about. I think that we hit on some high notes or some of the things that are of concern. But I'm putting that call for most of a lot of the people in the veterans community and independents that if you have an issue that you are concerned to you that you want more information on that you think hasn't adequately been addressed by any organization or group that you're maybe associated with or in general with some of the things that's happening with the VA or other entities and such. I'd like you to give us a call or let us know what's going on. So I want to go ahead and start programming more things so we can get a response from you of things that you want to talk about. And that's basically that's about it right now. There's a lot of things going on in the community. And right now we have a gentleman, Mr. Matt Mccarville, who's been very vocal or very instrumental in a lot of different programs that's been happening with the vets. And Matt, if I call you Matt. Right. Okay, Matt, tell us a little bit about yourself. Is your military background and how you came here to Hawaii? Sure. Okay. Well, Cal, first thanks for having me on. My pleasure. And thanks to all that you've been doing to give a voice to the veteran here in Hawaii. Thanks. Yeah, I'm a West Point grad, class 81. Oh. Spent 23 years in the Army as an infantryman. Combat time was in Special Operations Command, Sockcent during the Gulf War. The first Gulf War. And yeah, retired after 23 years. And came out here to Hawaii about six years ago. Yeah. Were you ever stationed over here active duty? We were. Right. 92 to 96, I was in the 25th Infantry Division. Okay, good. I know that when a sense of community, with a lot of vets and military personnel have, you know, getting involved with the community. We're going to talk about some of the things that you've been involved in, you've got to, and a few other programs also. But what made you decide to get involved once you go, a lot of people retire. It's just like, okay, I'm going to do my thing. I've served my time. And that's it, you know. But what made you decide to jump into the fray or try to do more to support your fellow veterans and military personnel? Well, my last job in the Army, I ran the Army ROTC program for Princeton University and the College of New Jersey. And a lot of the young men and women that were commissioned went right to war from there, whereas I was just about to retire. And well, in 2009, I was invited to a soldier ride with a wounded warrior project down in Florida for three days. And I really got to meet up close some of our wounded and got to know them pretty well. And it was a very inspirational three days in Florida. It changed my life. I've sort of dedicated the rest of my life to working on behalf of wounded and their families, and the families of our fallen. Okay. A lot of people are familiar with wounded warriors, but maybe there may be a few that may not be familiar with it anyhow. Could you give us a brief description of what wounded warriors is about and what other organizations are tied in in a peripheral way? Well, first know that I'm not affiliated with the wounded warrior project. I'm not an employee. The wounded warrior project is a national nonprofit out of Jacksonville, Florida. They have employees here in Hawaii. Their mission is to support and empower this generation of warriors. And they are really the gorilla in the room that has the financial wherewithal to change the way we deliver mental health care for our wounded. Now, yeah, so in coming out here to Hawaii, I got involved with the Association of the United States Army in order to make use of that nonprofit to serve as a checking account to support wounded warrior programs. And then very shortly thereafter, one of those programs became the NACOA Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta. But in that regard, so AUSA is doing quite a bit of work on behalf of our wounded. But here in Hawaii, we have several other organizations that do phenomenal work. National Nonprofit, Warriors at Ease, teaches yoga for free to our veterans and veteran community. We have Access Surf Hawaii. It has a wounded warrior day at the beach program. The mission continues. It's doing all sorts of work all over the island volunteering, veterans volunteering their time. And I'm probably a team red, white, and blue. It just goes on and on. There are a lot of veteran service organizations helping out. Okay. We'll talk a little bit more about some of the other things that's going on. But right now, I know you wanted to bring up about the regatta. What's the formal name of it? And how long has it been in existence? And again, your participation in that. Yeah. So the NACOA Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta, we're about to have our 10th anniversary this coming August. In 2009, some visionary folks, including Judge Kubo, who's still a co-chair, and Gervin Miyamoto out of the US Marshal's Office and others got together with the Honolulu Pearl Canoe Club, the Outer Air Canoe Club, and they started this regatta mainly to bring awareness to the fact that we have wounded warriors here. And if you think about 2009, one of the greatest concerns was employment back then following the financial crisis. So that has evolved over the years. It's now bigger than it has ever been before. We've added a warrior in wellness, health and wellness, I'm sorry, warrior and family health and wellness symposium up at Schofield. And that day at Schofield is the 14th of August. And then on the 15th, we're going to have a reception at the Royal Hawaiian Resort. And then the 17th will be the regatta. This year, we're going to have 100 teams in the regatta. They'll be mixed between a wounded warrior and family division, which will be about a half. The combat veteran division and the veteran division. I know with the participation in the regatta and some of the other activities after anyhow. There's a lot of wounded warriors who, again, unfortunately have suffered a loss of a limb or two or even more. And are participating to help support, I guess, their fellow, the wounded warriors also. What are some of the people that in the past, how involved or how much participation do you get from those actual wounded warriors in this regatta? Yeah, as I said, we have the wounded warrior and family division, which was first focused on the warrior transition units up at Schofield and Kaneohe. But that's evolved to include a lot more veterans now that the war has gone on and on for years. And so we've also involved their families. So we have several severely wounded warriors in different categories of wounds. Most of our Hawaii wounded warriors suffer from post-traumatic stress or suffer from traumatic brain injury. And with that, their families suffer from that as well. And so we try to bring their families into this healing journey as well. We do have several amputees here in Hawaii. And we also bring in, sponsored by other nonprofits, there are wounded warriors that come from the mainland as well as Australia and the UK for the regatta. You mentioned dependence. A lot of people aren't aware, to the extent that us in the military or veterans community, that the effect it has on dependence also, the stress that they go under. And it's always support systems that possibly may be out there for them also. What are some of the things that you envision that you see happening with the regatta and the future? And how can the public really help as far as supporting? I mean, besides financially, is there any way that someone who's not been affiliated with the military can support the effort? Sure. A couple of different directions to go there. First, our health and wellness symposium this year up at Schofield is going to be focused on the caregiver. So those who have a wounded warrior at home may want to attend that if they're carrying the burden for the family. We also include the spouses in the reception that we have. We invite 100 wounded warriors and spouses to come to the reception that we host. And of course, families are involved in the regatta as well. A wounded warrior, his or her spouse and three children could be a team. So we have a lot of children. We have a youth honor heat during the regatta for the children of our fallen, the children of our wounded. I should say too that we not only have families of our wounded, we also have families of our fallen. And our mission for the regatta is to honor and support our wounded and their families and the families of our fallen. So we do include about 50 Gold Star family members at the reception. And we're working on trying to provide a substantial amount in scholarships for Gold Star family children going to school next year. Well, a little bit more about that program. How does that work for the children of the Gold Star families? Yeah, so just today is the window has opened for applications for the Gold Star scholarship. It's named after one of our soldiers from Hawaii here who was killed in war. It's the title of the scholarship is the private first class JR Salvesion Memorial Scholarship. We are hopeful this year in the 10th anniversary to step up the amount that we will be able to dedicate to that. We have Ed and Julia Jessen out of Alexandria, Virginia have offered to match whatever monies we raise towards that cause. And so we're hopeful to put $30,000 out this year in scholarships. We think we'll have between eight to 10 applicants. Well, with regard to certain other activities going on, this is something that across the country is like a reciprocal thing where you may have another event going on in other parts of the country. Where you may have people from Hawaii that go there to help support that and vice versa. Is that accurate or? Well, they're not exactly affiliated, but of course there are. I mean the spirit, they're good. I have to give a shout out to Gary Sinise and the Gary Sinise Foundation. He and of course Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors run by Bonnie Carroll. They invite our wounded, I'm sorry, our Gold Star families to participate in all kinds of events on the mainland and they pay for everything. Yeah, so there are other things going on. And candidly, I hope that what we're doing here in Hawaii is to honor and support our wounded and their families, families of our fallen. But I hope too that it sends the message to our active duty and National Guard that should something happen to them that a community somewhere will be there, will not forget them. Yeah, I think that's very important because when you're serving your country, you'd like to know that if God forbid anything does happen that there is going to be support for your survivors or for yourself if you need rehabilitation. I know that a lot of activities are going on here on Oahu. Throughout the state, are there any similar things that's going on? I feel like sometimes because of financial restrictions or whatever, you know, the participants or the organization is not able to have them come here to Oahu. Is there anything else that's going on in any part of the state or that is similar, but maybe of a smaller venue? I'm not particularly aware. I do try to follow, but I do know we've had the warrior games here and the trials for the warrior games up at Schofield and elsewhere. Those are more government sponsored events, but our warriors can get involved in them. The wounded warrior project has activities going on all the time. Team Red, White and Blue has hikes and all kinds of other adventures. So if a warrior wants to get involved, there are plenty of opportunities here in Hawaii to get involved. Okay, we'll follow up on that, but what we're going to do is take a short break. And Hawaii Uniform, please stay tuned. Hey Aloha and welcome to the Think Tech Hawaii studios. I'm Andrew Lang, the host of Security Matters Hawaii. I'm airing here every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Hawaii time, and I'm trying to bring this community information, security information specifically, that will help you live a safer life, help keep our communities safer and help keep our businesses safer. So join me because Security Matters. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Wendy Lo and I'm coming to you every other Tuesday at 2 o'clock live from Think Tech Hawaii. And on our show, we talk about taking your health back. And what does that mean? It means mind, body and soul. Anything you can do that makes your body healthier and happier is what we're going to be talking about, whether it's spiritual health, mental health, fascia health, beautiful smile health, whatever it means. Let's take healthy back. Aloha. Okay, we're back with Hawaii Uniform and again my host. My name is Calvin Griffin and I got Mr. Matthew McCarville, and we'll continue our conversation about what's happening here in Hawaii with the Regatta. And what other things did you want to touch on that the public should be aware of? Yeah, I guess first I should start from the beginning that our Hawaii chapter of the Association of the United States Army is the host for the NACOA events. The Regatta itself is a kickoff event to Duke's Ocean Fest. And, you know, the surfing competitions and other water sport competitions. And we are the kickoff event for that. If you are covered by Ocean Paddler, so there's an episode every year that Ocean Paddler does regarding the Regatta. Although AUSA is the host, it is part of the greatest pride we have in putting this on as AUSA is that it's just a huge collaboration of the veteran service organizations. And this is unique to the country. We have only veteran service organizations that come together to make this happen. Particularly Wounded Warrior Project, they are not only our presenting sponsor, they also arrange for travel and lodging for our wounded warriors to come from the outer islands to participate with their spouses. We have Access Surf Hawaii, provides all the equipment and expertise to set up the special seating and to get our wounded warriors into the canoes as needed and out and do that respectfully. We have the Honolulu Pearl Canoe Club and the Outreer Canoe Club, who are just amazing in making it all happen. Warrior's at Ease is there. The West Oahu Veterans Center, Schofield Barracks Army Health Clinic, TMC, Team Red, White and Blue, and I'm probably missing, oh, an Operation Award 57 from the mainland. So it's a collaborative effort. We have 200 volunteers involved in pulling this thing off. I like to think it's probably the premier sporting event for wounded warriors and families in Hawaii. We mentioned 200 volunteers on most of these individuals affiliated with the military because I think it's important that a lot of people who may not be, I mean, hearing Hawaii gives military all around and with the history here, but I think it's important that the public really get to know these people up close and personal to really get an idea of the sacrifices that were made. So as far as if there's somebody out there that for whatever reason is not familiar with the military community but they're spirited to what they want to get involved, is there a way for who can they contact somebody to get involved, either financially or again being boots on ground, as we say, at the event to help support it? So our website is nakoaragata.org. Right now the team registrations are not live, so people can't register yet to paddle. That'll happen on one May. But if anyone would want to reserve tickets for the reception, they can do that. And the reception provides, and part of its purpose, is to put our civilian community face to face with our wounded and our Gold Star families. So they can not only have a sticker on their car, but they can actually get to know the people that came from their community and are now back in their community. So the reception would be the number one way to do that. And secondly, I have to laugh a little bit. My wife, Karen, is the volunteer coordinator and I try not to step on her plan for volunteers. 80 of our 200 come from the canoe clubs that support what's going on in the water. We have some specialty requirements for medical professionals. And then we really have on an invitation-only basis the other volunteers to fill the other spaces for the volunteers. But I think it's important that we have civilian folks to get to know our military through this process. One little question that's out there on left field a little bit. I know that with the operation and during freedom and a few other military operations, we've had allies from other countries that have participated. Is there anything similar, the question that they have going in their countries, but is there anything like an international or a coalition type of recognition that brings wounded warriors from different parts of the world together at any point? I know that the Wounded Warrior Project has some cooperative events with the UK. Our involvement of the UK warriors and New Zealand, thinking maybe New Zealand, but UK and Australian warriors wasn't really so much to make this an international regatta. Its purpose though and the reason we welcomed it is that these are allies that fought shoulder to shoulder with us on the battlefield. And to invite them to share side by side in this healing process just seemed like a very appropriate thing to do. So we're trying to expand and have a team from New Zealand this year as well, we'll see. But no, we're very proud to have our allies. And along that I have to tell you none of this happens without the folks that donate to make this happen. I mentioned Wounded Warrior Project as our presenting sponsor. OBX Tech out of Alexandria, Virginia is a major sponsor as is American General out of Michigan. And here in Hawaii and Honolulu we have dynamic planning and response. Those are our major sponsors, but then we have several other at lower level sponsorships and any individual can make any donation they'd like to help us do this. You mentioned Judge Kubo being a co-sponsor. The co-chair. Co-chair. Okay, yeah. A lot of people may not be aware fully like with Judge Kubo being involved in this is also he's spearheaded and really expanded the Veteran's Treatment Court here in Hawaii which a lot of people may not be aware of. It's about veterans who've had run-ins with the authorities or whatever and they're given a second chance or not given a pass or nothing like that. It's a very stringent program they have to go through. But Judge Kubo has been very, he's community spirited. He's one of the top people. I mean, it's all the dedication to the veterans and the community. He seems to be one of the individuals that really go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure the programs that he's supporting or involved in are something that's really outstanding. And I think that when you talk with what you're doing also, it shows the caliber of people we have in the community who really care. Well, it's very humbling to be a co-chair alongside Judge Kubo. His work with the Veteran's Treatment Court and with veterans in general, very humbling. And were it not for him and a handful of others, there wouldn't be a not-co-own-did warrior. Can you regatta? I tell you, I try to remind the public every once in a while that we do have a lot of unsung heroes. People were not looking for accolades or anything like that. We quietly do what they need to do to make sure that the obligation that we have to our military and our veterans is fulfilled. Sometimes there's some shortcomings systemically, but I think that those who really care, they pick up the slack when there are those issues that come up that need to be addressed anyhow to support our people anyhow. Any other issues, major issues that you want to discuss or get out there to the public? Well, again, if anybody would like to make a donation towards the regatta, towards the scholarships for Gold Star families, they can do so at nakoragatta.org. And we'll be posting more information. There are plenty of photos from previous years on our Facebook page, nakoragatta. Good. So what is your future involvement? Are you going to stay on for another 50 years like co-chair or what? I think we'll take it one year at a time. I don't have plans on going anywhere, but you never know what tomorrow will bring. Okay. Again, there's so many different things going on in spite of webs throughout the community with the different organizations, but is there any other organizations you want to mention that are doing anything that are just really outstanding that don't want to toot their own horn that, you know? Well, I think the one that comes to mind, I'm on the board of AccessSurf Hawaii. Okay. And they are wounded for your day at the beach program as well as their regular program for people with disabilities. It's just absolutely phenomenal. Just to go to a day at the beach with AccessSurf could be life changing. It's absolutely amazing. So a day at the surf, what is that location? Is it just any particular beach or location? Most of the time the day at the beach is out at White Plains. Okay. You might have known it as Barber's Point from the old days. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, they've got a nice beach out there also. Yeah. Okay. All right. So some of the things you want to, high points you want to touch on, some of the things we may have missed or anything that, again, that we didn't uncover? Well, I will tell you, if you're a paddler, you'll probably be frustrated with the Nakoa Wounded Warrior canoe regatta because I don't know if too many canoe regattas will we stop the race in the middle? Oh, yeah. Okay. And what we do for the Nakoa Regatta is at 11 o'clock the race is stopped and we do a presentation of Gold Star medallions to our Gold Star families paddling in the race. And each of the medallions are engraved with the names of the fallen, of their fallen, on the back of it. Okay. One thing, again, that a lot of people may not be aware of what Gold Star families are or what that symbolizes anyhow or represents. If you can give us a brief explanation of that. As you might imagine, I get asked that question a lot and it's my great privilege to explain to folks who don't know that our Gold Star families, a tradition started in World War I for those who were killed in combat and now we've expanded that to include those who died on active service. Okay. Their family is considered a Gold Star family. Yeah. It started with Gold Star Mothers and now each of the services have recognized that spouses and children and brothers and sisters are also part of that loss and share that enduring burden. Okay. I don't want to get towards the end on the down note, but one thing I do have to ask anyhow. I know what we're talking about there is unfortunately an issue with suicides in the military, things of that nature anyhow. Those individuals, even though they serve down and really and everything else, they also recognize as part of the program or if you don't want to comment on it, I understand. No, it is an issue we need to address. I think our military services need to confront it more openly. Right. If we have veterans, combat veterans who commit suicide with clear records of post-traumatic stress, sometimes those are recorded as service-related deaths. Okay. We even awarded one of the scholarships to our Gold Star children last year was the son of a soldier who had taken his own life. Okay. Yes. Interest, yes. We're down to the wire anyhow. I didn't want to end on the down note, but I think it's still positive that we're out there anyhow. But I want to thank you for your service, what you do. We'll do a follow-up. Welcome back anytime. And like I say, thank you for tuning into the program. God bless and until that time.