The Navy SEAL Foundation (NSF) recently pledged one of the organization’s largest single grants in its 20-year history to support a major Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) study. The Foundation committed $50,000 to the project that could someday help injured military personnel, including Naval Special Warfare (NSW) veterans, through the use of the first-ever, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to earn Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA. In partnership with noted author, podcaster and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss, NSF made the donation through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. The Foundation joins more than 2,500 individual, corporate and benevolent foundation donors that contributed $30 million in under a year toward the MAPS’ psychedelic research fundraising campaign. Ferriss was one of the early challenge organizers who has personally contributed to the project through a generous $1 million gift. When asked what NSF’s participation meant for the study, Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies responded, “We are delighted that the Navy SEAL Foundation has listened to those Navy SEALs who have found relief from PTSD through legal psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy outside the US and to those SEALs who are living with PTSD and haven’t found relief from the limited treatments available to them. By supporting the advancement of research into MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD, the Foundation is responding to an urgent need for their constituents: a PTSD treatment that may prove to be more effective than any other currently available option. This grant from the Foundation will facilitate the final drug approval Phase 3 study through the FDA — a gift to Navy SEALs and all who live with PTSD.” Next year our nation will mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the starting point of the most prolonged period of armed conflict our country has ever known. Young men who joined the Navy and became SEALs right after the attacks have endured two decades of harsh training and combat, and now many of them are beginning to retire from their service. These warriors have served bravely, they have lost teammates, and they have endured injuries and hardships that most of us cannot imagine. Without proper treatment, our veterans will continue to battle the adverse effects of their service-related experiences well into the future–and so will their families and caregivers. It’s important to remember that positive outcomes from successful PTSD treatment extend to the patient’s family and caregivers, making the choice to invest in studies for the Navy SEAL Foundation. Accomplishment Ranks America’s Premier Non-profit Organization Serving SEALs and the Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Community Among the Top 3% of rated Charities; Perfect 100 Score for the Sixth Straight Year Places Them in the Top 1% for Stewardship and Fiscal Responsibility
The Navy SEAL Foundation (NSF) has once again been awarded a perfect 4-Star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest and most-referenced independent evaluator of national charities. Robin King, CEO of the Navy SEAL Foundation shared, “Our mission of support for the men, women, and children of NSW would be impossible without the backing of our donors and fundraisers as our work is 100% supported by contributions from the public. Our donors are our teammates in this work, and just like in the SEAL Teams, trust in one’s teammates is a vital component for mission success.” King continued, “NSF is committed to fostering that trust by maintaining fiscal transparency and sharing the impact of our programs with our supporters.” Michael A. Thatcher, Charity Navigator’s President & CEO, informed the Navy SEAL Foundation’s management staff and board of directors about the impressive distinction–its tenth consecutive 4-Star rating. He also shared NSF was awarded a “perfect 100” score, another clear indication of the Foundation’s long-term commitment to their donors, fundraisers, volunteers and the elite Special Forces community that they serve. According to Thatcher, just 3% percent of charities rated by Charity Navigator received the 4-Star designation ten times in as many years. Additionally, only 70 charities can claim the designation of receiving a perfect score this year, which distinguishes the NSF as one of the top benevolent organizations in the nation. In collaboration with the United States Navy’s Underwater Archaeology Branch, I taught a computer how to recognize shipwrecks on the ocean floor from scans taken by aircraft and ships on the surface. The computer model we created is 92% accurate in finding known shipwrecks. The project focused on the coasts of the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico. It is now ready to be used to find unknown or unmapped shipwrecks.
The first step in creating the shipwreck model was to teach the computer what a shipwreck looks like. It was also important to teach the computer how to tell the difference between wrecks and the topography of the seafloor. To do this, I needed lots of examples of shipwrecks. I also needed to teach the model what the natural ocean floor looks like. Conveniently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration keeps a public database of shipwrecks. It also has a large public database of different types of imagery collected from around the world, including sonar and lidar imagery of the seafloor. The imagery I used extends to a little over 14 miles (23 kilometers) from the coast and to a depth of 279 feet (85 meters). This imagery contains huge areas with no shipwrecks, as well as the occasional shipwreck. Finding shipwrecks is important for understanding the human past – think trade, migration, war – but underwater archaeology is expensive and dangerous. A model that automatically maps all shipwrecks over a large area can reduce the time and cost needed to look for wrecks, either with underwater drones or human divers. The Navy’s Underwater Archaeology Branch is interested in this work because it could help the unit find unmapped or unknown naval shipwrecks. More broadly, this is a new method in the field of underwater archaeology that can be expanded to look for various types of submerged archaeological features, including buildings, statues and airplanes. |
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March 2022
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