PTSD, Hearing, and Gaming by: Ali PTSD is a common condition among veterans, with statistics showing that around 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans, in particular, have PTSD during a given year. PTSD poses a big challenge for those battling it, with symptoms including intrusive thoughts, increased arousal, and sensory sensitivity. A 2019 study has found that this condition has a major effect on noise and light sensitivity in particular. The findings indicate the extent to

It is that time of year again! PAX East is just around the corner and we are getting ready to Stack Up in a big way through our Air Assault program, where we fly disabled and deserving veterans to awesome gamer and geek culture events, just like PAX East in Boston. This year’s trip is sponsored by an amazing streamer who raised well over the 10k mark in 2018. Thanks to Cahlaflour and her fantastic community we are sending three Veterans out to Boston to enjoy all the show has

Earlier this month we had the opportunity to take an amazing veteran to PAX East 2018 in Boston Massachusetts through our Air Assault program. Cody L. Bowman was the Veteran selected to join us for four fun days of gaming and more and you can read more about this awesome veteran from our pre-convention write-up located HERE. During the show, our Media Team had the chance to catch up with the Cody throughout the Convention weekend and record some of his exploits, which you can

Our Air Assault program ventured north of the 49th Parallel to see the developers of SQUAD in Vancouver Canada! We looked far and wide and identified two amazing Veterans who are also big-time SQUAD fans to visit the developers for a round of motion capture fun. The mission featured several firsts for our Air Assault program. Not only was this our first mission out of the US, it was also the first to feature an Allied Veteran, a member of the Australian Defense Force, to join

This past PAX South 2018 was, as always, a fabulous extravaganza of video gaming fun! We here at Stack-Up had the great honor of spending it in the company of two remarkable individuals, Jake and Randy, our PAX South 2018 Air Assaults. We sat down to chat with these two about their experience in San Antonio at PAX South and now we would like to share that with you. Sit back and hit play as we experience the magic of PAX through the eyes of these two amazing veterans! We are t

The Stacks – Stacking Up with Mission Continues and the American Legion by: Ethan Whinston For the second straight week, the Queens Chapter of The Stacks participated in a service event with The Mission Continues (TMC). You can click on the link to find out more about their work. This time they were at the American Legion Post in Weehawken, NJ, helping with restoration. In recent years, the post had fallen into disrepair. But its new leadership is trying to reestablish and re

The Stacks – Stacking Up with SCA and Mission Continues by: Ethan Whinston Take a moment as we check in with the latest action out of our Queens Chapter of The Stacks! On January 18, members of the Queens chapter of The Stacks participated in a Martin Luther King Day event run by the Student Conservation Association. The Queens Stack participated with a contingent from The Mission Continues. The event was a restoration of historic St. Nicholas Park in Harlem. The SCA has made

With PAX South 2018 rapidly approaching we wanted to take a moment to introduce you to the incredible Veterans who will be joining us on what will be the first of many Air Assault missions in 2018! Our Air Assault program is where we hand-pick deserving veterans and bring them, all expenses paid, to attend life-changing video game and geek culture events, whether it be a Comic-Con, an Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), a Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) or even a game developer studi

Stack Up is pleased to announce the Stack Up Overwatch Program (STOP) An initiative to bring awareness to suicide prevention and promote positive mental health. In accordance with Stack Up’s mission of bringing comfort and friendship to veterans coping with PTSD or transitioning back into civilian life, the Stack Up Overwatch Program consists of veteran and civilian volunteers called the STOP Squad who will be available 24/7/365. They will provide members of the Stack Up comm

5 Unique Holiday Gift Ideas for a Military Veteran Gamer by Charlie Merritt Shopping for that special person in your life can be a daunting task. Especially, when that person happens to be a military veteran. So here at Stack Up, we have decided to give you a leg up with 5 Unique Gift Ideas for a Military Veteran Gamer. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, get your debit card ready. Nintendo NES Classic Addition Mini Console Nothing says gamer quite like the o

It may be the Queens chapter of The Stacks, but that doesn’t mean they can’t venture into other boroughs for events. On October 14 and 15, the Queens Stack attended the second annual Fort Hamilton Comic Con. The Stack had been at the first comic con last year as well. The convention featured a variety of presentations, including panel discussions about the business of film-making, a singing performance by Japanese sensation, TIA, and a debate over whether Star Trek or Star Wa

The weekly Bored Room meeting for the week of October 11th, 2017! Stephen Call to Arms Veterans Appreciation Week at Twitch Long Beach Monday for Office Move Nightmare Actual Friday the 13th, please let us know if you can take part, would like to get the Redshirts together for a night of murdering each other Immortal Conquest Cuddles Call to Arms 30 days out (sign up link http://bit.ly/c2anov17 ) Shanghai Scouts Friday the 13th Skatch New Content Creators – Sign Up Steve Love

Check out episode six of the Stack-Up podcast the Red Shirt Report! Tune in each and every week on Twitch.TV/StackUpDotOrg for another great episode of the Red Shirt Report. We go live directly after the Bored Room meeting. Topics this week include: Ask a Vet Should a Civilian Salute? http://www.strawpoll.me/14026324/r Does Piracy equal lost sales? The rise of Retro gaming! Plus we recap the Bored Room meeting and have plenty of Stack-Up news! #stackup #podcast #gaming #chari

We here at Stack Up are always looking for new ways to support our Troops with gaming. From our Air Assaults to Supply Crates, through our Red Shirt Raider Gaming Guild to Rigs4Vets, or The Stacks, we are always hard at work trying to find the next way we can help make an impact in some veterans life. Sometimes, however, things just line up in the right way and an opportunity presents itself. This is the case with Tyler, and our quest to help get him back to gaming. You may r

Check out episode five of the Stack-Up podcast the Red Shirt Report! Tune in each and every week on Twitch.TV/StackUpDotOrg for another great episode of the Red Shirt Report. We go live directly after the Bored Room meeting. Topics this week include: College scholarships for games? Fortnite in the news! Navy submarines using XBox 360 controllers! Plus we recap the Bored Room meeting and have plenty of Stack-Up news! #podcast #videogames #StackUpNews #GamingNews #military #gam

Check out episode four of the Stack-Up podcast the Red Shirt Report! Tune in each and every week on Twitch.TV/StackUpDotOrg for another great episode of the Red Shirt Report. We go live directly after the Bored Room meeting. Topics this week include: PAX West 2017 Hightlights! eSports in the Olympics? Maybe… VR Is being used in hospitals. What else can it be used for? Plus we recap the Bored Room meeting and have plenty of Stack-Up news! #PaX #stackup #RedShirtReport #militar

The weekly Bored Room meeting for the week of September 13th, 2017! Stephen Friday the 13th CONFIRMED Next weekend, Global Game Jam/CrashFam, One Gamers Fund TwitchCon 10×10 problems INTERNS, both online and physical Twitch HQ out, working on other events for Veterans Day StackUp.org Cuddles Irma Call to Arms 58 days. (Big Push right now, carrying momentum into the event) Coming out of PAX West -updates Twitch Channel Quads Sunday BBQ Skatch PAX West AA Video https://youtu.be

Wow! What an amazing weekend! PAX West 2017 was a whirlwind of gaming excitement that all seemed to go by so quickly, and that’s even with the extra day! One of the best things for us here at Stack-Up is seeing a convention like this through the eyes of our Air Assaults! For this PAX West, we were joined by four amazing Veterans as part of our Air Assault program where we hand-pick deserving veterans and pays for them to attend life-changing video game and geek culture events

The weekly Bored Room meeting for the week of August 23rd, 2017! Stephen PAX West next week, whole staff will be in Seattle for our meeting? Appears we got the final disbursement for Telltale HB, just shy of 100K VERIFIED on Twitter! Events coming up TinyBuild Friday August 25th The Outpost Global Game Jam: Sep 21-24 CrashFam Tripwire Interactive 28th OCT: No team assigned yet, KF2 holiday update Cuddles Call to Arms Countdown – Who wants to stream? 67 Subs +134 new followers

Episode Two of the weekly Stack-Up podcast the Red Shirt Report! Tune in each and every week on Twitch.TV/StackUpDotOrg for another great episode of the Red Shirt Report. We go live directly after the Bored Room meeting. Topics this week include: AI In gaming. Is the Terminator coming? Ask a Vet! Is it OK for Civilians to wear Veteran Culture apparel? (Vet type T-shirts and gear) Random Twitch Virality! Plus we recap the Bored Room meeting and have plenty of Stack-Up news! #s