JURY
DARREN JACKSON (COMBAT STRESS) – Films
Darren Jackson served in the Royal Artillery as an Air Defence Gunner throughout the 1980s and 1990s. During his military career, he deployed on operations during the First Gulf War, served as a Team Leader in Northern Ireland, and took part in United Nations operational tours.
After leaving the military, he happened to meet several veterans wearing Combat Stress T-shirts. He was fascinated to learn that an organisation existed solely to support veterans’ mental health — something his generation of soldiers was far less aware of while serving.
Some time later, while browsing the Combat Stress website, he saw a role that felt like a natural fit. He applied — and was fortunate enough to join the charity.
“I am passionate about ensuring that today’s serving personnel know who Combat Stress is and how we can support them, so they never feel unaware of the help available in the way many from my generation did.”
Darren Jackson has now been with Combat Stress for seven years and is currently in his third role within the organisation.
COMBAT STRESS
Here to help 24/7
FREE HELPLINE: 0800 138 1619
TEXT: 07537 173 683
EMAIL: helpline@combatstress.org.uk
BENJAMIN PATTON (PATTON VETERANS PROJECT) – Feature Scripts
Benjamin Patton is the founder and Executive Director of the Patton Veterans Project (PVP), a non-profit which harnesses the power of filmmaking to help veterans coping with posttraumatic stress to reduce isolation and build community, as well as help reduce the military-civilian divide by educating the public about the challenges veterans and military families face today.
Since 2011, PVP has held more than 75 film workshops helping nearly 1400 veterans US military bases, VA hospitals, and private clinical facilities in the US and abroad craft more than 300 short films about their service-related challenges. In 2022, PVP published a joint-VA clinical study demonstrating that vast majority of unenrolled veterans with diagnosable PTSD made a mental health appointment within two months of completing the film workshop.
Prior to founding the Patton Veterans Project, Ben worked in television and music production in New York City for nearly 20 years. Among other things, he was a producer and development executive at PBS’s New York City flagship station, and a commercial music producer. He later became an independent producer, creating video biographies of veterans and military families as featured in Smithsonian Magazine.
A descendant of six generations of West Pointers dating back to 1812, including WWII’s General George S. Patton, Jr., Ben has spent most of his career supporting military veterans and their families in various ways. He is the author of Growing Up Patton – book and audiobook (Berkley Caliber, 2012), a memoir about his father, Major General George S. Patton, a highly decorated veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Ben has been featured on CBS This Morning, NPR’s Weekend Edition, Morning Joe and Fox and Friends, and he has been a featured speaker at the Pritzker Military Library, The Clinton School of Public Service, West Point and the Army War College. He is a contributor to The Hill, The Huffington Post and Veterans Life magazine. His articles have appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, among other publications.
In 2024, Ben was awarded the Meritorious Public Service Medal, one of the highest commendations that can be conferred by the US Army to a private citizen.
Ben earned his BA from Georgetown University and MA in Developmental Psychology at Columbia University-Teachers College. He and his wife and two sons split their time between New York City and Garrison, New York.
Contact info: ben@pattonveteransproject.org • +1(917) 968-6096