Blayne works closely with Team RWB’s board members, staff, and volunteer leaders
to develop and implement programs that serve veterans across the country. He
provides strategic and operational guidance to the organization while building and
managing key partnerships. Blayne is a West Point graduate and former Special
Forces officer with combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon leaving the
military, he worked at Quest Diagnostics while earning his MBA at the University of
Florida. Blayne currently resides in Tampa with his two boys and leads the Team
RWB Tampa chapter.

Mission:

Team RWB’s mission is to enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity.

Show Notes:

http://veteranpodcast.com/010

Drew Cameron is a second-generation hand papermaker, trained forester and former Army soldier. He co-founded the Combat Paper Project and has been facilitating workshops with veterans and the community in which they transform military uniforms into handmade paper, prints, books and art since 2007. The portable workshop has reached thousands of people throughout the country in 29 states and more than 125 workshops. His work is represented in 33 public collections and has been shown numerous times including at the Corcoran Gallery, Courtauld Institute, Library of Congress, Museum of Contemporary Craft and Craft and Folk Art Museum among others. Combat Paper is now operating in four locations: New York, New Jersey, Nevada and California with open and ongoing programming. Drew is based in San Francisco at Shotwell Paper Mill and continues to practice papermaking, teach and encourage others to do the same.

About Combat Paper

Coming home from war is a difficult thing. There is often much to account for as a survivor. A new language must be developed in order to express the magnitude and variety of the collective effect. Hand papermaking is the language of Combat Paper. By working in communities directly affected by warfare and using the uniforms and artifacts from their experiences, a transformation occurs and our collective language is born.

Through papermaking workshops, veterans use their uniforms worn in service to create works of art. The uniforms are cut up, beaten into a pulp and formed into sheets of paper. Participants use the transformative process of papermaking to reclaim their uniforms as art and express their experiences with the military. The Combat Paper Project is based in San Francisco, CA with affiliate paper mills in New Jersey, New York and Nevada. The project has traveled to Canada, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Kosovo providing workshops, exhibitions, performances and artists' talks. Combat Paper is made possible through the collaborative effort of artists, veterans, volunteers, colleges and universities, art collectors, cultural foundations, art spaces, military hospitals and installations. Through ongoing participation in the papermaking process, we are broadening the traditional narrative surrounding the military experience and warfare. The work also generates a much-needed conversation between veterans and civilians regarding our collective responsibilities and shared understanding in war.

http://veteranpodcast.com/009

Since joining the Mission Continues in 2012, Aaron has worked as the Director of Strategy and Research, heading program evaluation and internal consulting efforts, while helping lead the Service Platoons initiative. Aaron serves as the Northeast Executive Director.

Aaron was born and raised in Cherry Hill, New Jersey to a family of public servants; Aaron’s parents were both K-12 public educators and his brother Joshua was a nuclear missile combat officer in the Air Force. Aaron attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating with a degree in Arabic and Systems Engineering while earning a commission as a United States Army Officer. During his military career, Aaron was an M1A2 SEP tank commander and platoon leader with the  4th Infantry Division, a Civil Affairs officer, and an Army Science and Technology Analyst at Ft. Monroe, Virginia. He deployed to the “Triangle of Death,” Iraq in 2005, leading infantry and tank platoons and earning the Bronze Star Medal during combat operations.

After his military service, Aaron completed a dual-degree graduate program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Columbia Business School, earning both an MPA in International Development and a MBA. During his time at the Kennedy School, Aaron led the Armed Forces Committee and the student government as president. Aaron continued his international development work through independent consulting projects in Nicaragua, Morocco, Tanzania and Qatar.

Aaron was selected as an Education Pioneer Fellow for New York City in 2011 and joined Wireless Generation, an innovative education technology company, helping to build public school districts’ data capacity through the development of a “Dashboard” software program in conjunction with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Before joining The Mission Continues, Aaron was a Senior Consultant for Deloitte Consulting LLP and built industry knowledge through projects with Fortune 500 companies in the aerospace and defense and retail sectors.

Aaron and his wife Natasha live in Harlem, New York City.

http://veteranpodcast.com/008

Vanessa Daley is the Project Manager of TAPS Youth Programs. She is the surviving daughter of SFC Dan H Gabrielson, an Army Reservist with more than 20 years of service, who was KIA 9 July 03 in Baqubah, Iraq.  At the time, Vanessa was a student at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, studying Elementary Education with an emphasis on Early Childhood. In 2005, Vanessa volunteered as a mentor at the TAPS Good Grief Camp in Washington DC. It was during those 5 days that she fell in love with the mission of TAPS & realized just how much she missed that military connection. For the next three years, Vanessa would continue to volunteer, even after taking a 2nd grade teaching position - in the same town that her father worked in for 20 years. Vanessa joined TAPS full time in 2008, moving to Fort Hood to work more closely with military families. In 2009, Vanessa helped the Army to launch it's Survivor Outreach Services (SOS) program & set up the first Regional TAPS office on a military installation, which just happened to be across from the 4ID Memorial - a wall on which her father is memorialized. Vanessa moved to Fort Bliss in 2011 with her husband, David - a soldier whom she met at Fort Hood, & began providing support to survivors there, setting up another regional TAPS office and working closely with the Fort Bliss SOS. Originally from Northwestern Wisconsin, Vanessa and her husband just bought their first home Up North & plan to raise their girls close to family.

About TAPS

The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) offers compassionate care to all those grieving the death of a loved one serving in our Armed Forces. Since 1994, TAPS has provided comfort and hope 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a national peer support network and connection to grief resources, all at no cost to surviving families and loved ones.

http://VeteranPodcast.com/007