Restaurateur Chris Sullivan and post-traumatic stress disorder researcher Carrie Elk have created a new nonprofit to study the effectiveness of a promising new treatment for an invisible injury affecting hundreds of thousands of troops and veterans.
Sullivan, a partner in Carmel Café and Wine Bar, is a big supporter of military charities and helped create the Flight 93 Memorial. Last year, he listened to an Army veteran talk about how the treatment, called accelerated resolution therapy, changed his life. The veteran took part in a study on the therapy at the University of South Florida in which Elk was a co-investigator.
Sullivan came away so impressed that after the preliminary studies, he put together a team of investors and partnered with Elk to create Military Associated Trauma Treatment, Education, & Research Services, or MATTERS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to studying accelerated resolution therapy.
The plan is to create the largest study yet on the effectiveness of the therapy in treating PTSD in the military population. Elk and her team of specially trained therapists will treat 200 to 300 combat veterans at sites around the country. The headquarters is a donated office on Gunn Highway.
Treating those with PTSD “is something important that needs to get done,” Sullivan said.
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Sometime after noon on Friday, a very tired group of Air Force commandos will march through the gates of MacDill Air Force Base, headed to the U.S. Special Operations Command memorial there.
They will have come off a six-day, 450-mile march, averaging 4 mph wearing 40- to 50-pound rucksacks.
It’s all part of the Air Commando Ruck and Climb, an effort to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides scholarships to children of special operations troops who have died and grants so that families can travel to see wounded troops.
The march, which leaves from Hurlburt Field on Sunday, is the second for the Air Commando group.
It’s the brainchild of Air Force Sgt. Deon McGowan, an Air Force commando, who lost friends in the crash of a Chinook helicopter in Wardak province, Afghanistan in 2011. The crash took the lives of all 38 onboard, including 22 SEALs and three Air Force combat controllers.
“I knew a couple of guys on the Chinook, and after it crashed I wanted to do something,” McGowan said before hopping a flight. “I said, ‘Hey, let’s walk to Tampa and raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.’ ”
This year’s march will honor five Air Force commandos who died last year — Lt. Col. John D. Loftis, Capt. Ryan P. Hall, Capt. Nicholas S. Whitlock, 1st Lt. Justin J. Wilkens and Senior Airman Julian S. Scholten.
McGowan said the marchers — four teams of four with two support personnel — will take turns marching 12 miles at a time until they arrive at Bay to Bay and Bayshore around noon, Friday.
Last year the march raised $25,000. This year the goal has doubled.
For more information, or to donate, go to www.firstgiving.com and search “air commando.”
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Growing up as a history nerd, with a nerdy subspecialty of interest in the Second World War, I am a sucker for stories about those who fought in that conflict.
Which brings me to Fantasy of Flight. The Polk City-based aviation museum is hosting a symposium this week honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, the black World War II pilots who helped break racial barriers and flew P-51 Mustang fighters with distinctive red tails.
Called “They Dare To Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen,” the Black History Month symposium, running Thursday through Saturday, is billed as perhaps the last time this many of the aging pilots gather in one place.
This year, four pilots will tell their stories. I was lucky enough to meet George E. Hardy, who now lives in Sarasota, last year. Aside from being fascinated by his story, I found an instant connection because we both at one point lived in the same section of Philly.
The panel will be rounded out by Leo. R. Gray of Fort Lauderdale, Daniel Keel of Orlando, and Charles E. McGee of Maryland, who, among many other accomplishments, served as a consultant to the 2012 George Lucas film about the airmen, “Red Tails.”
For more information, call (863) 984-3500 or go to fantasyofflight.com.
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For the first time in more than a year, I can happily report that no U.S. troops died in the past week. There have been 2,162 U.S. troop deaths in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the nation’s longest war.