It’s Here: My Partnership with the Call of Duty Endowment
This May, for Military Appreciation Month, I’m proud to partner with the Call of Duty Endowment to support one of the most important challenges facing veterans after service: finding meaningful employment.
A couple of months ago, I shared that something was coming. Today, is release day!
The Call of Duty Endowment Navigator: Tracer Pack – inspired by my journey from the Navy to NASA – is now live in Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7 and Warzone™. Activision’s net proceeds from the pack will go directly to funding veteran employment programs.
Why This Matters to Me
Transitioning out of the military can be extremely challenging for service members. You spend years operating in high-performance environments built on teamwork, discipline, and mission focus and then you’re asked to translate that into a civilian career.
That transition isn’t always clear.
I was fortunate to land at the Medal of Honor Museum and found myself in another structured, mission-driven organization. The sense of purpose carried over. The team culture carried over. But even for me, the shift required deliberate thought about what came next and why.
For many veterans, that clarity doesn’t come easily. And the stakes are real.
I’ve watched teammates, people who performed at the absolute highest levels under the most extreme conditions imaginable, struggle to communicate their value in a job interview. Not because they lacked ability. Because nothing in their military career prepared them for that particular moment. The language is different. The environment is different. The metrics are different.
That gap- between what a veteran has done and what a civilian employer understands – is exactly what the Call of Duty Endowment was built to close.
How the Endowment Works and Why It Works
The Call of Duty Endowment is the largest private funder of veteran employment in the United States. The numbers speak for themselves:
- 169,000+ veterans placed into quality jobs
- Average starting salary of approximately $76,000
- Over $10 billion in economic impact through first-year salaries alone
- Placement achieved at a fraction of the cost of traditional government programs
But what I find most impressive isn’t just the scale, it’s the model.
The Endowment doesn’t just hand out money. It funds high-performing nonprofits that have proven they can place veterans into careers, not just jobs, efficiently and at scale. It holds those organizations accountable to measurable outcomes. And it leverages one of the most powerful brands in entertainment to fund the whole operation.
That last part matters more than people realize. Through in-game content, community engagement, and partnerships like this one, the Call of Duty franchise raises millions of dollars annually for veteran employment. Players around the world participate without even realizing the full impact of what they’re contributing to.
That’s not just meaningful. That’s measurable. And it’s a model worth understanding.
The Navigator Pack and What It Represents
When the Call of Duty Endowment approached me about this collaboration, I didn’t have to think long about saying yes.
The Navigator: Tracer Pack was inspired by my career – from BUD/S and deployments to Afghanistan after September 11, to three NASA missions, 378 days in space, and nearly 55 hours of spacewalks. It’s the first time my story has been brought into the Call of Duty universe, and I’ll admit there’s something surreal about seeing your life reflected in a game played by millions of people worldwide.
But more than the personal significance, what matters to me is what it does.
Every pack purchased puts money directly into the hands of the Endowment. Every player who sees the Navigator pack learns something, maybe for the first time, about the veteran employment crisis and the organizations working to solve it. Gaming reaches audiences that traditional media and traditional outreach simply don’t. Younger audiences. Global audiences. People who may never watch a documentary about veterans or read a long-form piece about military transition but who will absolutely notice a new operator pack and want to know the story behind it.
That reach is powerful. And it’s one of the reasons this partnership made sense to me.
The name “Navigator” means something too. Navigation is what we do at every major transition point in life. You don’t always know exactly where you’re going. But you orient yourself, you use the tools available to you, and you move forward with purpose. That’s what I tried to do when I left the Navy. That’s what I tried to do when I left NASA. And that’s what every veteran in transition is trying to do right now.
What I’ve Learned About Mission After Service
It has been a privilege to lead in some extraordinary environments: underwater, in combat, in orbit, and in boardrooms. What connects all of it is this: the mission always continues. It changes form. It asks different things of you. But the drive to contribute, to lead, to be part of something larger than yourself that doesn’t leave you when you take off the uniform.
What can leave you, if you’re not careful, is the structure that channeled that drive.
The military gives you clarity. Here is the mission. Here is your team. Here is how success is measured. Civilian life doesn’t always offer that out of the gate. And for veterans who are used to operating inside a clear chain of purpose, that ambiguity can be genuinely disorienting.
The best thing we can do as individuals, as organizations, as a society is build better bridges. Better pathways from military service into careers that honor what veterans have done and what they’re still capable of doing.
The Call of Duty Endowment is one of those bridges. And I’m proud to help build it.
A Note to Veterans Reading This
If you’re currently navigating your own transition whether you just separated or you’ve been out for a few years and still haven’t found your footing, I want you to know that the difficulty you’re feeling is real, and it’s not a reflection of your ability or your worth.
You have skills that most people will never develop. You have operated in environments most people will never experience. The challenge isn’t your capability. The challenge is translation and that’s a solvable problem.
The Call of Duty Endowment funds organizations that specialize in exactly that. I’d encourage you to visit their website, explore the resources available, and reach out. The mission isn’t over. It’s just different now.
Get Involved
If you pick up the Navigator: Tracer Pack, you’re directly supporting a veteran finding their next mission.
If you’re a veteran looking for employment support, visit www.callofdutyendowment.org.
And if you want to follow what I’m working on next, you’re already in the right place.
Thanks for being part of this.
— Chris
