 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Welcome to Voice of the Veteran on Think Tech Live Streaming Network Series, broadcasting from our downtown studio at Pioneer Plaza at the core of downtown Honolulu. I'm your host, Helen Dora Hayden, Veteran Advocate. Today we have retired Lieutenant Colonel Matt McCarvel, U.S. Army Vice President of the Hawaii Chapter, Association of the U.S. Army, and Co-Chair, Makoa Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta. Remember that our talk shows are streamed live on the Internet from 12 noon to 5 p.m. every weekday, and earlier shows are streamed all night long. All our shows are streamed on livestream.com. If you want the links to our live streams or previous broadcasts which are available on youtube.com or if you want to subscribe to our programs or get on our mailing list and get our program advisories, go to thinktechhawaii.com. If you'd like to pose a question or comment during one of our shows, please tweet us as thinktechhi. We'll try to get to some questions by the end of the show. From one fellow Army Veteran to another, welcome to the show, Matt. Glad to have you. Thanks Helen, great to be here. Great. So tell me a little bit about your association of the U.S. Army AUSA, what does that stand for and what's the main purpose? Okay, sure. So the Association of the United States Army, it's been around since 1950 as a national non-profit. It's an educational and professional development organization that serves the total Army. There's our soldiers, our Army civilians, our industry partners, our families. Wonderful. Just a little bit of background about you, can you tell us a little bit about your military service? Well, as you said, I'm a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, I served 23 years, West Point Graduate Class 81 and a Gulf War Veteran. Well thank you for your service. Thank you for yours. My pleasure. So I'd love to talk to you about how many chapters they are nationally in the ASUA. Well, we have one chapter here in Hawaii, but there are 121 chapters nationally and worldwide. Perfect. And you serve as the Vice President of the Hawaii chapter? Right, I'm the Vice President for Wounded Warrior and Family Programs. Excellent. Let's talk about that a little bit. There's some exciting things coming down the pike. Yeah, we're kind of crunch time for next week. We've got a year's worth of preparation going into four events for next week. We've got on Wednesday we're doing a Warrior and Family Health and Wellness Symposium at Schofield. On Thursday we have the Nakoa Wounded Warrior Reception at the Royal Hawaiian Resort. On Friday we have the Hawaiian Warrior Job Fair and on Saturday the culminating event the Nakoa Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta. Okay, let's go back to the Wednesday event that you spoke of. Tell us a little bit more in depth about that event. So it's good. So our Hawaii chapter of AUSA is the host for these events, but thankfully we have a lot of help. So we have some partnerships that make that happen. The health clinic at Schofield Barracks under the direction of Colonel Tayhan has really taken charge of this and made it into a first class presentation. We're going to have three panels, there'll be wounded warriors, there'll be representatives from some of our non-profits that are serving our veterans, and then there'll be healthcare professionals on each panel. And then after each panel there'll be plenty of time for the audience to ask questions and interact with our panelists. If people wanted to get more information about the events, is there a website they can visit or a Facebook site? Yes, the website is nakoharagatta.org. Perfect. And also, can you tell us now about the Thursday event coming up? Okay, so Thursday is fun. Thursday is the reception. And this is a reception that started out as a VIP reception, grew to include a lot of our wounded warriors and Gold Star families, and we had to move to a new location this year to accommodate. And we still have room if people want to sign up at nakoharagatta.org. But we're going to have the hui ha'an koa, let me say that again, the tropic lightning hui ha'an koa is going to perform a haka for us at the beginning. And then we have a world-renowned tenor, Michael Amante, who's going to sing some songs, including Bring Him Home from Les Mis. Great. I don't know this tenor at all. I'm looking forward to it. I plan on attending the event. Oh, super. How are you? Absolutely. I learned about this event at the Wahoo Veterans Council meeting the first time that we both have attended. And we're going to talk about that program at a different show, but it's the third Saturday of every month at 9 a.m. at the Wahoo Veterans Center. Yes. Okay, so Thursday is taken care of. No, no. No more about Thursday. Excellent. The reception, yes. So the reception, we're going to host 60 wounded warriors and probably about 45 of their spouses, however many come. And when the wounded warriors arrive, we're going to give them a gift bag. So I brought with me one of the bags. These bags were produced by Hanell Cary. Okay, so check that out. They're beautiful. She's got different fabrics and different patterns for each of them. But each of our warriors will walk away with that. The reason for the lady's handbag is sort of to respect that we have a lot of women warriors who are wounded and also that when a male warrior is wounded, that the family works their way through that process too. So there are mothers and wives and caregivers and daughters. And so I know that each of our warriors will have somebody who will appreciate the handbag. That's beautiful. Inside the handbag, and you can check this out, we have a coa wood pen with a purple heartwood band that represents that this is a Hawaiian event and that the personal sacrifice from each of the warriors. That's gorgeous. And then we'll have some gift certificates from local vendors who've been kind enough to participate and honor our wounded. That's amazing. I can't wait to go to that event and get to meet some of the wounded warriors. I just want to talk to you a little bit briefly. There's a lot of public misconception about what a wounded warrior is or looks like. I've met a lot of wounded warriors that have TBI that look physically fine, but the minute you start talking to them, you start noticing things a little bit. Myself being 100% disabled vet, you never guess unless I share that information with you. And so can you talk a little bit about that? Well we're going to have some warriors at all these events that everybody who sees them will know that they are wounded. So we'll have a triple amputee, a double above the knee amputee. We've got folks who are, we've got one, Sua is paralyzed from the shoulders down. But most of our wounded warriors in Hawaii have the unseen wounds of war. And it can be a very difficult struggle through post-traumatic stress, survivor's guilt, and it's all on a spectrum. So some of these guys are functioned fine in society, they're doing great in there. People you want to hire and have as your employees and your colleagues. And other folks are working through it and they're still struggling and working through it. So we're trying to be very respectful of the whole process and help them on the healing process. I'm so glad your organization is there to help these veterans. Well let me say it's not just the AUSA and we've got more to talk about with the other events, but none of this could happen without some partnerships. And the first partnerships for the regatta include that it's a regatta and it's run really by two of our supporting canoe clubs. The Outroer Canoe Club and the Honolulu Pearl Canoe Club. And they've been doing this, I've only, and this is my fourth year, they've been doing this for eight years now. So the real work is done in the water. And they provide the canoes and the paddles and they do all the work all day. And you were telling me before the show about access Hawaii, about how they're going to outfit some of the more challenged veterans. So we do have the challenge to get some of our wounded into the canoes and the like and access surf that provides adaptive surfing opportunities is making use of some of their equipment and expertise to help those warriors. Not just in the canoes but also just get across the beach and enjoy the day on the beach with all the other folks. It's going to be a great day. It's fantastic. And that partnership with access surf extends to they will be the beneficiary of our silent auction at the reception. So who should else write? I should talk about Wounded Warrior Project for a second. They are a financial sponsor of the regatta but they also provide partnership in that they arrange for all the wounded warriors to come to the regatta and they bring them in from outer islands. We've got six teams from outer islands and they provide their travel and their lodging and they take care of them while they're here and they help me get some things organized as well. So the Wounded Warrior Project is a fantastic part of this week long event. I noticed on your Facebook page about all these sponsors and people that have donated money, individuals, it just seems like a whole community wide supporting events for this regatta and the events that are tied in with the regatta. We'll talk about more of the events after we get back from break but we're going to take a short break now. I'm Helen Dora Hayden, veteran advocate. This is Voice of the Veteran on thinktechlive.com, streaming network series, retired Lieutenant Colonel Matt McCarville, U.S. Army Vice President of the Hawaii Chapter Association of the U.S. Army and Co-Chair of the NACOA Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta. We'll be back in a minute so stay tuned for more of the story. This is thinktech Hawaii, raising public awareness. My friend mother, what big eyes you have. She's sad. All the better to see you with my dear. What are you doing? Okay. Hello. I'm reading from birth accelerates the baby's brain development. And you're doing that now? Oh, yeah. This is the starting line. Push. This is over. You're dead. Read aloud 15 minutes, every child, every parent, every day. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. But I have a story and I don't know where to start. I feel alone in a crowd. I can't sleep. I feel overwhelmed. I don't even know who I am anymore. I still have nightmares. I can't live like this anymore. I'm really not so good. Are you ready to listen? We're back. We're live. I'm Helen Dora Haydn, veteran advocate and this is Voice of the Veteran on ThinkTech Live Streaming Network series. Today we're talking with retired Lieutenant Colonel Matt McArville, U.S. Army Vice President of the Hawaii Chapter Association of the U.S. Army and Co-Chair of the Nakoa Wounded Warrior Canoe Regatta. Wonderful having you again, Matt, and thank you for staying with me. Let's get back to what we were talking about before the break. A little bit about the community support that you've received for this event. Sure. So our mission is to honor and support our wounded and their families and the families of our fallen. And AUSA can't do that alone. So we have all these partners involved. We have partners and sponsors. I mentioned the Wounded Warrior Project. We brought in some of our sponsors and supporters are from the mainland. So OBX Tech is a fantastic financial sponsor. They're even helping us get an Australian team of wounded warriors here this year. We have a couple of local Native Hawaiian defense contractors and Native Hawaiian veterans and Dawson. Booze Allen Hamilton is a fantastic supporter. And I'm going to miss a lot of them. At Hard Rock Cafe, Veterans United Home Loans, and I'll come back to it. I'll find two or three more American general from the mainland, all these sponsors. But we also have some organizations involved that are nonprofits. We have, in addition to Wounded Warrior Project, Operation Award 57 from Washington State. Warriors at Ease is going to provide yoga classes at the Regatta. Nice. We've got volunteers. We've got 160 volunteers helping us through this thing. So, yeah, we get a lot of help. That's amazing. It's not a one-man show by no means. It takes a community, doesn't it? It does. It starts with my family. My wife is actually the volunteer coordinator. Full-time job. My name, our race director, is Mark Hain. And our assistant race director is Natasha Hain, his daughter. And then Penny Kalua from the Honolulu Proc the New Club. Those three are champions. Awesome. Yeah. So, we talked about the Regatta. And so, Friday, we have a job fair. Sure. Another partner, Employer Support of the Garden Reserve, the SGR, has the lead for the job fair on Friday. That's at the Hollykoa from 8 o'clock in the morning till 2 in the afternoon. Most folks should come prepared with resumes, but if they aren't yet ready, there'll be classes to help them prepare resumes and get ready for interviews. But we have 50 employers there. The criteria for the employers to be there is that they're all hiring now. Oh, excellent. Yeah. So, potentially a veteran could walk in and walk out with a job that afternoon. There will be people who get offered jobs that day. That's wonderful. That's wonderful because a lot of times, I've gone to job fairs in the mainland. You show up, you don't get a job. And it's like, what just happened? So the best time to look for a job is when you already have one. So Helen, we'll see you there. I have a resume. I'll definitely be there. So wonderful. And tell me a little bit about the, so it's open to any veteran, active duty? So duty, guard, reserve, veteran, spouses. Okay. And what time is that event? Eight o'clock, till two o'clock in the afternoon. Okay. Perfect. And then Friday we wrap things up. That's Friday. That's Friday. Saturday we wrap things up. Saturday is the big one. Yes. Okay. We're going to start the opening ceremony for the regatta is eight o'clock. And we have a couple of very interesting events. We have support from the Marine Corps Band at the opening ceremony. The governor will be there. And we're actually going to have the governor in the VIP exhibition heat again this year. He and his wife. Nice. We get the support throughout the week of, and it's kind of, you were asking about the mission earlier and the like and the community support. But part of the healing process for our wounded is that they see that the community remembers them and supports them in this process. So to have our government leadership, our military leadership, our business leadership, our community leadership there, I think sends a message that we have not forgotten and we still care. That's wonderful. So all those folks, leaders from all of those, will be involved in the VIP exhibition heat if people want to come out and watch that. I think we even have Ray Holloway, the UFC champion, is going to be part of the Hawaiian UFC champion, is going to be in our VIP exhibition heat. That's wonderful. It's going to be very good. Is there anything you want to share with the audience about your organization, about the events we talked about? I know that one thing I want to share with the audience is this. After the event is over, I hope to host a few of the participants, the wounded warriors that actually got to participate in the regatta and the job fair and just talk. So if you are interested, please contact me at helendoraheiden at gmail.com and I'll definitely get you on this show in September so we can talk about kind of wrap up what your experiences were like because nothing better than to hear from a personal story point of view from a veteran that participated. That would be great. That would be awesome. Just two things I would add to what we might want to share today. One is that I mentioned the mission to honor and support our wounded and their families and their families are a fallen. We're going to have 35 Gold Star family members at the reception and we have nine teams of Gold Star families participating in the regatta this year. We also do a Gold Star medallion presentation to each of them during the day at 11 o'clock where the governor will present medallions that are engraved with the names of their fallen. So we have not forgotten. A lot of people don't know what Gold Star is. I've been to events where people clap during and I've always been taught not to clap as a symbol of honor so I don't know how it will be at this reception but can you touch a little bit about the Gold Star organization? So our Gold Star families if you are the mother of someone who was killed in combat you are a Gold Star mother and so we have Gold Star mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters and most of them are Gold Star wives. And we try to remember their fallen. We engrave their names. We say their names to remember them. Perfect. Well it has been an honor and pleasure having you Matt. Thank you again. Before I let you go. No. One more. Okay. Anybody who would like to make a donation please go to nakoragata.org and whether you'd like to come to the reception you can sign up there or if you'd like to just make a donation you can do that at that website too. I'm looking forward to these events. I plan on being there. This is, we're out of time unfortunately but we will have a definite follow up show. It's time to wrap it up. My name is Helen Dora Haydn, veteran advocate, voice of the veteran on think tech live streaming network series. We've been talking with retired Lieutenant Colonel Matt Mccarville, U.S. Army vice president of the Hawaii chapter association of the U.S. Army and co-chair of the Nacoa wounded warrior canoe regatta. Please go out and to make sure to visit the fun filled events coming up and especially support the Nacoa wounded warrior canoe regatta. Thanks to all of you for being here and thanks to our broadcast engineer Ray, our floor manager Cindy and to Jay Fidel, our executive producer who puts it all together. And thanks to you our listeners for listening. If you want to get our email and social media program advisories, click the link on thinktechhawaii.com. If you'd like to be a guest or underwriter or volunteer or if you want to join us in our downtown studio and pioneer plaza, contact Jay at thinktechhawaii.com. If you want the links to our live streams or our previous broadcasts on Ustream.tv or youtube.com, just go to thinktechhawaii.com. Go there and to our Facebook page and tell them that you like us. We'd love for you to like us. And of course, I'll see you next Thursday for more of Voice of the Veteran on Think Tech. Tune in and tell your friends to tune in then as well. I'm Helen Dora Haiden, Veteran Advocate. Aloha.