Every outing includes a licensed captain, a trained counselor, and the vets themselves.
Once you step on board, says a co-founder, you can’t tell who is a vet, who is a counselor, and who is a captain.
fleet of sloops (five in all). Particularly impressive is the fact that several vets have worked with the program to obtain their US SAILING keelboat certification. Once certified and registered as VoD volunteers, says Acierno, they’re free to use the boats on their own, without supervision. “That’s really our goal of social reintegration,” he explains. “Ultimately, we want to remove the structure so that these guys are comfortable on their own being out of the house, at the marina, or out there sailing like anyone else. We don’t want to be too coddling. Fewer rules, more activity, that’s our unofficial motto.” Weather permitting, VoD conducts several two-hour sails each week on Wednesdays. All veterans and active duty personnel are welcome. At 11:00, it’s women only; and at 2:00 it’s men and women. Every outing includes a captain on board and a mental health provider – essentially a counselor. Characteristically, the all-female sails draw three to five vets each week, and those at 2:00 anywhere from six to 20 people. So how effective is the program? Acierno offers an anecdote as testimony: “One particular day, we were just getting started when the mainsheet on one of the boats jammed, causing the boat to round up and snag the anchor line of another boat in the mooring field. The two boats came into contact and the captain on our boat, who was a vet and volunteer in our program, was concerned. He thought it best to go back to the dock and call it quits for the day. In any other program, that would be the thing to do. But we teach that stress, used correctly, can be good. So the counselor stepped in and calmly mentioned that if nothing goes wrong, then nothing is learned, and in the big picture, all veterans have been through far more than that and came out okay. The captain agreed, and they continued sailing. Later, one of the first-timers onboard said it was the first time in a long while that he’d had something go wrong that didn’t shut him down for the rest of the day. ‘Normally, when that happens,’ he said, ‘I just leave and feel bad, but
we stuck with it and somehow I actually enjoyed myself.’ ” Once the vets in this program realize that what they’re getting involved in isn’t counseling, says Acierno, but something akin to practicing dealing with social stress in a fun setting, they feel empowered, and they tend to buy into it. “We give them the opportunity to confront social stress and then guide them through the process of dealing with it productively. Done right, it can be a big success for everyone.” Last summer, some of the vets who had been in the program for a while started taking the boats out to race in the local evening races run by Charleston Ocean Racing Association (CORA). Several of them have continued doing that by participating in this winter’s frostbite series. Next up—Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week in mid-April. You won’t be able to miss this crew during the regatta because the Hunter 28 they’ll be onboard is loudly branded with the organization’s name stretching across the topsides. Of course, racing isn’t the only outgrowth of this program. Some of the vets have become proficient enough to deliver boats up and down the coast. “Our program is something of a conduit,” explains Acierno. “Charleston is a maritime area, so sailing is a relevant thing to do. The time we spend with these guys on the water is just the feeder aspect of our program. There are a lot of things they can go on to do from here.” According to Acierno, half of the people who come down to the docks to sail on Fridays are vets, but not VA patients. The interesting thing, he says, is that if you stepped aboard one of the boats, you’d never know who is who. “You really wouldn’t be able to guess who’s the captain, who’s the counselor, and which ones are vets among the crew.” That’s another testament to successful social reintegration. It can be powerful—just like sailing.
News & Views for Southern Sailors
For more information regarding Veterans on Deck, check out the organization on the Web (www.veteransondeck.org).
SOUTHWINDS
March 2013
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