Jumping Out of a Plane to Stay Alive: Belonging as Veteran Suicide Prevention with Dave CampisanoJumping Out of a Plane to Stay Alive: Belonging as Veteran Suicide Prevention with Dave Campisano
The Recovered Life Show
Dave Campisano, founder of 22Mohawks, explains how shared challenge builds belonging — and why belonging saves veterans’ lives. A Veterans Day conversation on the jump, the research, and becoming someone it is safe to be vulnerable with.
27:19•11 Nov 2026
Jumping Out of Planes and Building Belonging: Veteran Suicide Prevention with 22Mohawks
Episode Overview
- Shared, demanding challenges can help veterans rebuild belonging and identity after leaving the military.
- Parachute training and communal living give participants a structured way to connect before they feel ready to explain themselves.
- Research using tools like the UCLA Loneliness Scale and qualitative interviews is underway to show how these programmes affect suicide risk.
- Ongoing connection is supported through cohorts, group messaging and the developing Frontline Connect app with peer and clinical oversight.
- Talking openly about vulnerabilities helps others feel permission to share their own pain, which can be a powerful step away from suicide and addiction.
“We all just need to become that person where it’s okay to speak to your vulnerabilities, because if you do that, you’re going to give other people permission to do the same.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This Veterans Day conversation on The Recovered Life Show zooms in on belonging, suicide prevention, and why jumping out of a plane might help someone stay alive. Guest Dave Campisano, founder and president of 22Mohawks, talks with host Damon Frank about a static line parachuting programme that flies veterans and first responders to Florida twice a year. It isn’t about thrills; it’s about connection.
As Dave explains, shared challenge gives people “a reason to interact before they have to explain themselves”, letting trust grow naturally while everyone trains, lives together, and faces fear side by side. You’ll hear how veterans from all walks of life come together, many with no previous parachute experience, to rebuild a sense of identity that can be shaken when leaving the military.
Dave links this to Thomas Joiner’s interpersonal theory of suicide and stresses that simply being on a roster isn’t the same as truly feeling you belong. Loneliness, he notes, can hit even when you’re surrounded by people. The episode digs into the harsh numbers around veteran suicide and the frustration of trying to “prove” that community saves lives.
Dave’s team is now working with researchers, using tools like the UCLA Loneliness Scale and qualitative interviews to show how programmes such as parachuting, pups for vets, and fitness challenges might reduce risk. There’s even an app in development, Frontline Connect, designed to keep cohorts talking and flag worrying patterns or language to peer supporters and clinicians.
One of the most moving moments comes when Dave reflects on a friend’s suicide and says the real goal is to “become that person where it’s okay to speak to your vulnerabilities” so others feel safe to open up too. If you or someone you love is wrestling with trauma, isolation, or addiction, could building genuine belonging be the next step towards a better recovered life?
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