Michael Arndt
MICHAEL J. ARNDT
Member of the Board
Michael was drafted in to the U.S. Army in 1969. He served in a reconnaissance platoon with the First Cavalry Division in 1969-70 with nearly 40 combat assaults by helicopter and participated in a significant number of firefights near the Cambodian border. After his tour in Vietnam, he served with the Berlin Brigade in Berlin Germany.
Michael has been a Professor of Theatre Arts at California Lutheran University for the past thirty-five years. He has served as chair of his department, Chair of the Faculty, and currently is serving as Division Coordinator for the Creative Arts Division. He is a founding member of the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company and has served as the company’s Artistic Director for the past 20 years. Michael holds a B.A in Speech and Drama from Augsburg College and a M.F.A. In Theatre Arts (Directing) from the University of Minnesota.
With the help of the Military Order of the World Wars and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, he began a project of collecting video stories from combat veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He compiled and edited the stories into a multimedia play entitled “Under Fire: Stories of Combat Veterans Across Generations”.
JIM CRIGLER
JIM CRIGLER
Member of the Board
Jim Crigler grew up in the farm country of South Eastern Missouri. Graduating high school in the turbulence of 1968, Jim’s goal was to be the first in his family to get a college education. In the summer of 1970 a draft notice interrupted that dream.
For four years, Jim served as a warrant officer helicopter pilot flying in Vietnam with A Troop 7/17 Air Cavalry and the 129th Assault Helicopter Company, US Army. Jim flew thousands of combat missions during his tour of duty. After the service, he graduated magna cum laude with a BS degree in Business Management from the University of Missouri.
After a successful career in telecommunications, Jim decided to create his own path in business. For the last 23 years Jim has been President and CEO of Winona Search Group Inc., a human resources consulting and search firm.
Jim has served in a leadership role on several non-profit boards including the American Red Cross of Winona County and American Huey 369. He is passionate about helping those men and women that have served to protect our freedoms as well as the Gold Star Families that have lost loved ones in that effort. Jim is an author (Mission of Honor: A Moral Compass for a Moral Dilemma) and speaker and regularly presents at colleges and universities throughout the Midwest. He also wins canoe races.
In March of 2017 Jim attended the Warfighter Advance evolution. “This is a game changer for me and all the men and women that have attended this course,” he said. “This is an organization that I will wholeheartedly support.”
Dan Hammer "gunny"
Dan Hammer “gunny”
Gunnery Sergeant USMC (ret)
Dan currently serves as the Senior Director, Site lead of the StraCon Patuxent River, Maryland, Headquarters for StraCon. He is directly responsible for the management and performance of 10, major defense contracts and supporting personnel. For NAVAIR, PMA-201, aircraft weapons, PMA-261, Heavy Lift Helicopters, PMA-268, UCLASS, UAV systems, PMA-275, MV-22B Osprey, NAVAIR AIR4.5X, NAVAIR AIR 4.11, 4.11.2, 4.11.7, NAVAIR AIR 6.8 Additive Manufacturing & Digital Thread. For the US Army, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Program Director Aerostats, for Unmanned, Tethered Elevated Sensors Systems. Dan is directly responsible for 52 onsite and offsite government contractors. Dan is directly responsible for cost schedule and performance of (7) of these programs.
Prior to joining StraCon, Dan completed a 22-year career in the US Marine Corps, retiring as a Gunnery Sergeant working for NAVAIR PEO(U&W) PMA-242, Direct Strike and Time Sensitive Weapons Co-IPT Lead for Aircraft Gun Systems, Airborne Direct Munitions, and medium caliber ammunition. Dan was also the lead for the US Marine/US Navy adoption of the GAU-21 Common Defensive Weapon System (CDWS) as the direct primary replacement for the services aging .50 caliber crew served weapon. During his fleet tour as a CH-53A/D/E helicopter aircrewman, mechanic he flew combat missions in Kuwait, Iraq, Horn of Africa and Somalia. Over his 22-year career he attained over 5,000 hours in the Sikorsky CH-53 series helicopter, and deploying with the 11th, 13th, and 15th Marine Expeditionary Units.
Dan earned a BA in Financial Management Decision Sciences (FMDS) from Western Washington University in 1987. Dan earned his Level III Program Management certificate from Defense Acquisition University (DAU) in 2005. Dan volunteers in his southern Maryland community with his private civilian aircraft as an Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Young Eagles pilot, mission leader, this endeavor provides young people from the community from all backgrounds, ages 7 – 17 years old, to experience the wonder of sport aviation by providing free introductory airplane flights.
Dan participates as a facilitator and peer/mentor for operational stress programs for veterans across Calvert and St Mary’s counties.
MARY NEAL VIETEN
MARY NEAL VIETEN
PhD, ABPP, CDR/MSC/USN(ret), Executive Directorr
Dr Vieten is a board certified clinical psychologist who served on active duty in the US Navy from 1998 – 2008, then transferred to the Select Reserve and finally retired after 22 years of service. Her professional career focused on effective responses to warfighters’ operational trauma. Her expertise is recognized internationally through speaking invitations, documentary film, radio and podcast interviews, and contributions to the academic literature.
In addition to Warfighter Advance, Dr. Vieten contributes to warfighter reintegration and the broader industry through a consulting and private practice that serves clients who are military, police, EMS, veterans, and civilians who work or have worked in high-risk operational environments. She has been successful in keeping her clients in their occupations, or returning them to a fit-for-duty status, while empowering them to manage residual symptoms and assist their peers. Her work is frequently directed to those who have failed in previous treatment, those requesting care without medication, those for whom the medical model has not mitigated their symptoms, those who are not functioning well enough to navigate the complexity of VA services, and those without means to pay.
Dr. Vieten is the chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry (www.psychintegrity.org) and is a member of the Board of Directors of Operational Grateful Nation.
Why Warfighter Works
Why Warfighter Works
The Warfighter Advance 7-Day program helps traumatized warfighters return to fit for duty status without the use of prescription medications. This program works because it gives warfighters their greatest weapon back: control of their minds and lives.
Warfighters are trained to function in high-tempo, high-risk situations, but are not trained in how to come home. Life at home is less clear, less purpose-driven and more complicated than military service, especially war. The absence of preparation for life at home can create a sense of isolation and distress, pushing warfighters away from the people who love them and could help them. Warfighter Advance trains our participants how to reintegrate into the civilian world successfully.
Warfighter Advance is a safe learning space where warfighters can begin the climb back into a functional life through knowledge. They learn first that they are not sick, broken, flawed or worthless. Their feelings are validated and explained by the lack of training to re-enter civilian life. They are taught the dangers of psychotropic drugs and shown a path to a healthy lifestyle through exercise and nutrition. They are taught how to deal with grief and anger, the basics of self-management, and the value of community.
Returning home after a tour of duty, warfighters can find themselves on shaky ground when it comes to trusting their own instincts in a world very different from the military. Civilians can seem harder to trust than their military family. But gradually warfighters can be challenged to trust. We teach both self-trust and trusting others at Warfighter Advance through team building and situational training, providing them the tools they need to trust their new environment appropriately.
Our community provides a safe space for the warfighters to be themselves. They
learn that they have all had similar experiences, both in service and at home. They talk together about their fears, their grief, and sorrow, along with the exhilaration and excitement of victories big and small. They discover new sisters and brothers. Every graduate is enrolled in our alumnae association through which they keep up with each other on a private social media page. They are contacted once a month by a mentor to make sure they are thriving. They call for help. They respond to other’s calls for help. The community is rebuilt. Nurturing happens. Successes are celebrated. Isolation is dispelled. This is what coming home was supposed to be.
They may have killed. Their brothers or sisters may have been killed. They may have experienced a moral injury. The military presents plenty of opportunities for grief to manifest. But grieving gets in the way of accomplishing the mission. Bottled up and unaddressed, grief is a force of destruction to the soul. At the Warfighter 7-Day Advance Program, we prepare the participants to face their grief. Then we give them opportunities to stare their grief in the eye and to embrace it, feel it, let the tears flow, often for the first time since deployment. Once they face their grief, it loses its control over them, and they no longer need to fear it.
Joy comes from the realization that they have changed. The armor has fallen off and they feel free from the isolation and failed expectations that were controlling them and holding them back before they experienced the Warfighter Advance training. They are now open to new experiences and new people. They are able to take charge of their lives. They now know they can do what they want to do and be what they want to be.