Through the application, members of the community can view video interviews from wounded warriors sharing their personal experiences with actual IED strikes during combat. The app “allows a more immediate catharsis for these veterans by sharing their story within a secure platform of people who appreciate the combat environment,” said Ken Falke, co-founder of the program.

Ultimately, the app creates a social platform for members to share life-saving lessons in a collaborative environment through videos, pictures, text and links. App features include vetted and password-screened membership; user profiles; wounded warrior recovery stories; FaceTime chats with community members and more.

The free app is available from the iTunes App Store. A web version will be available later this year along with an iPhone and Android version at a later date. Shoulder 2 Shoulder, a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business, is the developer.

These sites are not affiliated with AFCEA or SIGNAL Magazine, and we are not responsible for the content or quality of the products offered. When visiting new websites, please use proper Internet security procedures.

I always look forward to Memorial Day just for the fact that we get to celebrate those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and not to mention, it always falls on my birthday or the day after. For those who have lost their lives and for the Wounded Warriors that now have long roads to recovery, we owe them the homage and the support they ultimately deserve. As we all get ready to bust out our grills, head to the pools and begin our shopping sprees, we should all take a moment and thank those who have given us the freedom to do these activities.

Today I am greatly appreciative of the opportunity I have to help our Wounded Warriors and their families. SAIC has given me the chance to reach out to different Wounded Warrior Organizations and assist them with getting Warriors jobs that they can succeed in. As a Wounded Warrior myself, this is a great privilege to be able to pay it forward to those who need help just like the great individuals who supported me during my road to recovery. This is a special and important initiative SAIC has, and we are continuing to improve our program in order to better assist these warriors as they enter a different stage of their lives. These brave men and women need our support just as much as we need them to keep us safe, and sometimes it is hard for the ones that do not have significant physical wounds to accept the fact that they need help. I want to encourage any Warrior who is currently suffering from these invisible wounds—or a family member who knows a Warrior who is struggling—to seek medical attention because the help is out there. We have wonderful people that dedicate their lives to helping our Wounded Warriors and I believe these groups of individuals should be recognized and respected just as much as our Armed Forces on Memorial Day.

I gracefully ask everyone to observe Memorial Day with reverence and enjoy the day we have dedicated to our brave men and women who fought for our country and those who have supported our nation’s Armed Forces.

Jonathan  Cisneros is a wounded warrior who now works as a staffing assistant for SAIC’s Wounded Warrior Hiring Initiative.  The program helps match veterans with open positions within the company, giving them priority status for certain jobs.

In this month’s issue of SIGNAL Magazine, Technology Editor George I. Seffers focuses on DISA’s efforts in his article, “Fostering Technology Transformation.”

Alongside the National Security Agency (NSA), DISA plans to provide cellphone access to its nonsecure Internet protocol router network (NIPRNET) over the next few months, and within 18 months to its secret Internet protocol router Network (SIPRNET). With easy access to department networks, mobile devices could fundamentally change the way the military does business.

DISA’s chief technology officer, David Mihelcic, says this will happen not just at the unclassified level, but also at the point where the Android, iPhone and other smartphones will be capable of meeting security requirements for sensitive unclassified data. According to Mihelcic:

With respect to mobility, we want to bring to the modern warfighter the same capabilities that consumers and other business users have with smartphones.

Under the mobility effort, the first increment calls for services that support secure, unclassified use of smartphones on Defense Department networks.

The next step is building the architecture, and then in the coming months focusing on cloud computing, which will offer “certain value-added services” such as attribute-based access control. Other cloud projects include Forge.mil.

Mihelcic also emphasizes the importance of information sharing. He cites several examples, such as Enterprise User, which is a set of software patches applied to defense networks, allowing users to plug their Common Access Card into a Defense Department computer, where they are granted guest access on that network.

Enterprise User also will play a role in the agency’s efforts to make the networks more accessible from any computer anywhere in the world, according to Mihelcic:

Moving forward, we believe capabilities like the mobility effort, as well as the commercial smartphones for classified programs, will allow us to do those same activities from much smaller form factors—smartphones or tablets.

Through DISA/NSA efforts over the next 18 months, the military hopes to see major changes in technologies available to the warfighter. Is this a reasonable amount of time to overcome security barriers and other challenges? What’s your opinion? Share your ideas here.

The app’s claim to fame is its clean, intuitive interface that helps people simplify without adding more clutter or unnecessary features. It uses swipe, pull and pinch gestures in place of typical button-style navigation, and lists created in the app are color coded based on the most time-sensitive or important tasks.

You can purchase the app from the iTunes App Store for $2.99.

These sites are not affiliated with AFCEA or SIGNAL Magazine, and we are not responsible for the content or quality of the products offered. When visiting new websites, please use proper Internet security procedures.

An organization called Dive Pirates (you can insert your various arrrr and treasure jokes here) makes this possible through a small band of dedicated volunteers with a passion for scuba. The program embraces wounded warriors, offering them a chance to learn to dive and a trip to the Caribbean to become open-water certified at no cost. But more than that, it welcomes them into a community that helps keeps injured warfighters and others who qualify for adaptive scuba in the water.

Dive Pirates works with dive shops around the country to set up support networks for these special-case individuals. The store employees serve different roles such as trainers or buddies and ensure that once Dive Pirates finishes it work, the newly trained divers still have a way to enjoy the sport. Depending on the severity of disability, an adaptive scuba diver needs a certain number of swimming buddies to accompany them for safety. The foundation encourages family members and close friends to act as these buddies whenever possible, adding to total support during the recovery process.

Chris Hull, one of the soldiers I met in Tampa, says his experience so far has been great, and he is taking extra classes to earn additional dive certifications. He suffered his injuries during a car crash on Friday the 13th at exit 13 while on leave and is now a quadriplegic with some ability to move his arms. Hull requires a three-buddy system; his dad and two instructors make up his team. “Scuba is something I always wanted to do,” he explained. With the help of Dive Pirates, “There’s no reason not to,” he added.

Hull’s friend Matt Richardson joined him for the pool training. Richardson became a quadriplegic after being shot while on active duty in Iraq after surviving a previous tour in Afghanistan. The two soldiers met through a wheelchair rugby league in Florida and were looking for the next physical challenge. Richardson’s injuries are more severe than Hull’s, but they haven’t stopped him from tackling the opportunities that come his way. He had a chance to dive a little in the Army and said “I love it. There’s nothing like just sitting in the water in an environment where you aren’t supposed to be.”

What’s hard to capture in black and white is their spirit. Like most persons with handicaps who feature in news stories, Hull and Richardson have tenacious spirits coupled with wry senses of humor they use to cope with their situations. Richardson referred to one of his damaged limbs by saying, “It’s crap.” But they also recognize that many in their situation have a hard time recuperating especially mentally and that they must plow through their challenges or stagnate. While easy to say, living with that determination is not so easy to do, but neither soldier seems concerned with easy. To illustrate, taking on scuba has unique challenges for people in their condition. In addition to the expected challenges inherent in diving without use of or sensation in various limbs, most quadriplegics cannot sweat, so staying cool in the sun, or during any physical activity, requires planning.

Despite that fact, both men say that sports have played a major role in their recoveries. And both are happy to be in a program like Dive Pirates that introduces them to a new group of people who support them and share their interest in scuba. Out in the heat that Saturday were two representatives from different dive shops in the Tampa area and multiple volunteers from out of state including a couple who flew in from Las Vegas. All were there to train or assist in various ways. Joking and big talk were primary land activities as the group developed nicknames for the soldiers—cupcake for Hull and Captain Jacked up for Richardson—and the soldiers told the others the tricks they had planned. Someone even brought a bag of Doritos jacked chips for Richardson.

Sophie Wimberley, vice president of Dive Pirates, is enthusiastic at all times about her program. She loves getting adaptive scuba divers in the water, loves creating groups of support and loves seeing how many people are willing to give their time and their money to the effort. One of her main goals is to ensure that donations are used wisely and well; the organization’s financials are broken down online so people can see what their money funds.

Wimberley wants to get more people involved as trainers, buddies or adaptive divers and to find other programs to connect with to expand efforts. She also would like to start training another group of people to take over the program when she and her contemporaries are ready to step down. But as those plans develop, focus will remain in making tangible strides with wounded warriors who didn’t give up their enthusiasm and courage just because they’re no longer on the battlefield.

Note: Dive Pirates is the Homefront Help feature of the week. Read that write-up for more information about the program. The group’s leaders are always looking for volunteers and opportunities to expand, so please contact them about any donations or ideas. And if you’re a wounded warfighter check out what the program has to offer you.