Mikal A. Vega was a United States Navy SEAL who served in the military for 22 years conducting special operations. He was medically discharged from an active duty career due to injuries sustained during his service on the front lines in Operation Iraqi Freedom, during which he was awarded two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
Drawing upon experiences gained during his recovery, he developed Project Reconnect, a system for decompression that can help veterans and families recover from wartime trauma. Vega’s vision for Project Reconnect is to establish a center in Coronado, California, offering a variety of self-paced therapies to military and civilian veterans who suffer from the visible and invisible wounds of war.
Project Reconnect is in partnership with One Freedom, a nonprofit organization that provides education and training to returning veterans, families, and care providers, and will offer the Strength after Service™ classes at the Project Reconnect facility. These classes are based on the brain-body response to stress and skills to self-regulate. They have been taught to more than 11,000 active duty personnel and more 6,000 veterans and family members.