[Listen] Program helps Chattanooga’s veterans and families of July 16 victims turn traumatic memories into music

Bob Regan, a Grammy- and Dove Award-nominated songwriter and past president of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, created Operation Song in 2012. Bob Regan, a Grammy- and Dove Award-nominated songwriter and past president of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, created Operation Song in 2012.

By Casey Phillips July 17, 2016 14 min read

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Out of misery comes music: Operation Song helps veterans turn traumatic memories into therapeutic compositions

On a guitar, Bob Regan, a Grammy- and Dove Award-nominated songwriter and past president of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, plays during an Operation Song meeting at the Chattanooga Lifestyle Center.

Longtime country songwriter Don Goodman laughs during an Operation Song meeting at the Chattanooga Lifestyle Center.

During an Operation Song meeting, songwriter Don Goodman, right, offers support to Cathy Wells — mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" Wells, one of the five servicemen killed in Chattanooga during the terrorist attack on July 16, 2015.

Cathy Wells — mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" Wells, one of the five servicemen killed in Chattanooga during the terrorist attack on July 16, 2015 — listens as her song is played during an Operation Song meeting earlier this month.

Samuel Dean, who served in the Marines for 21 years, including numerous Middle Eastern tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bahrain, has written a rough draft of

Learn more

To find out more about Operation Song, to hear the music created by its participants or to support its programming via a donation, visit www.operationsong.org or www.Facebook.com/operationsongchatt.

Some stories are easier to tell than others.

Some – the especially painful ones – never slither into the light of day at all, but skulk along as unspoken traumas that harry the mind and weary the soul.

In the field, a soldier carries heavy loads on all sorts of terrain, but the greatest burdens are the tar-black memories that cling to them in secrecy long after they’ve taken off their uniforms.

Helping veterans coax out and face down these terrible tales and, in the process, transform them into music, is what Nashville composer Don Goodman is trying to do.