A Project of the CharlieMike Foundation
SOF Veterans · Fly Fishing · The Drift Debrief
They were trained for everything. Except getting out. Mend the Drift puts SOF veterans on the water with guides who lived the same transition.
Our Story
Joshua Nacey is a Special Operations Forces veteran, service-disabled veteran, and founder of the CharlieMike Foundation. After years navigating a transition no one prepared him for, he found the river — and it did what years of pushing through never could.
Mend the Drift is built on the belief that SOF veterans don't need more programs. They need the right terrain, the right peer, and enough time on the water to lower the guard. The river asks nothing of your rank. It only asks whether you can be still enough to listen.
Most transition programs were built for the broader veteran population. SOF veterans fall through the gap — carrying more, showing less, and reaching out last. Mend the Drift was built for exactly that veteran.
Sources: USSOCOM / AAoS Study · GAO-24-106587 · JAMA Network Open 2025
The Project
Mend the Drift is not therapy. It's not a feel-good event. It's a structured peer experience on moving water — designed for the operators that standard programs were never built to reach.
Day One
Two guys on a drift boat, learning to read the river. No agenda, no timeline, no forced conversation. Just water, instruction, and room to breathe for the first time in a long time.
Day Two
Back on the river. The guard comes down on its own out here — it always does. By day two, the conversation starts to find its current. Nobody pushes it. The water does the work.
Day Three
After two days on the water, something shifts. Back off the river, we sit down and capture it — an honest conversation between people who've walked the same ground. That conversation becomes The Drift Debrief, for every SOF veteran who needs to hear that someone else feels the same way.
Media
A podcast by Mend the Drift
Recorded conversations with SOF veterans — captured after two days on the water, when the guard is finally down. Not polished. Not produced. Real.
SOF veterans don't open up easily — not in clinical settings, not to strangers. But after two days on the water with someone who's been there, something changes. The guard comes down. The real conversation starts.
The Drift Debrief captures those moments and shares them. Not as therapy content — as testimony. For the veteran who thinks no one else feels this way. For the clinician trying to understand what the transition really costs. For anyone who wants to know what it means to carry what these men carry.
Stay UpdatedGet on the Water
Mend the Drift is built for SOF veterans navigating the transition home. If that's you — or someone you know — we want to hear from you.
If you are a SOF veteran navigating the transition out of service — struggling to find purpose, connection, or solid ground — Mend the Drift was built for you.
Know a SOF veteran who needs this? You don't have to have the words. Just tell us who they are and why you think the river might help. We'll take it from there.
Partners & Sponsors
Mend the Drift is built on partnerships with organizations and businesses who understand that the right experience at the right time can change everything. If you build gear, guide on rivers, or believe in what we're doing — we want to talk.
Tier One
Tier Two
Tier Three
Support the Mission
Every dollar goes directly toward getting SOF veterans on the water. Gear. Guides. Boats. Time. This is what it costs to reach the veterans that standard programs never find.
Donate NowCharlieMike Foundation · Established 2019 · 501(c)(3) · All donations are tax deductible
Contact
Whether you're a veteran who needs the water, an organization that wants to partner, a sponsor who believes in the mission, or just someone who wants to know more — we'd like to hear from you.