Mission Statement
At Knott Alone – Hold Fast, our mission is to bring veterans together on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, fostering purpose and connection through shared work and conversation. As combat veterans ourselves, we know the struggles of returning home, and we believe healing begins when we extend a hand, open up to one another and find strength in community to build a life worth living.
The Why
6,407
Number of veteran suicides in 2024
1 in 10
Veterans who have been diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder
Up to 31%
Veterans who develop PTSD following combat (depending on branch)
140,000+
Veterans who have died by suicide since 2001
Founding Story
Retired Army Lt. Col. Dan Knott grew up far from the Chesapeake Bay, in Buckingham County, tucked into the foothills of central Virginia. But the water was always calling. His mother was from Virginia Beach, his father from Hampton and his grandfather—“Pop Lane”—made his life on the water as a waterman and tugboat operator after serving in World War II.
Summers meant Boston Whaler rides, crab pots and lessons in grit, patience and persistence.
“That’s where it started,” Knott says. “Being on the water with Pop was when I was happiest. Purposeful work, salty air and connection.”
That sense of calling never left.
From Combat to Crisis
Knott went on to live another life first—one of extraordinary service. After joining the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech, he commissioned into the Army, where he pursued his dream of flying helicopters. Over the next two decades, Knott would serve at the highest levels of Army aviation, completing multiple deployments between Iraq and Afghanistan. He flew nearly every aircraft in the inventory, working alongside some of the most elite special operations units in the world.
It was a career marked by intensity, sacrifice and leadership. But it came at a cost.
“For years, I gave 110%—because the mission demanded it,” he recalls. “But eventually, that level of intensity wears you down. I didn’t know how much it was costing me until it was too late.”
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When he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel, Knott faced the same question many veterans do: What now? He had lucrative job offers waiting—government agencies, contractors, private aviation firms. But none of it felt right.
“I thought back to when I was happiest,” he says. “It wasn’t the money. It was being a shop teacher. Or being on a boat with my grandfather.”
Finding Peace on the Water
So Knott turned back to the water. Crabbing, oystering, hauling lines—manual, physical, honest work. It was there, not even realizing it, knee-deep in the Bay, that he began to quiet the anger and grief he carried home from war.
Still, healing didn’t come easy.
Knott remembers a breaking point: “I looked in the mirror one day and hated who I saw. Angry. Bitter. I had lost faith in humanity.”
“My brokenness meant that my marriage was trashed, my wife and kids were having issues of their own and my friends and family had been pushed away. I was drinking heavily and taking many unnecessary risks. It came to head when I felt like a burden to the world and nearly allowed my suppressed anger and rage to unleash on a person and then end it all.”
It was only through open conversations—first with a local preacher who became a trusted friend, later with fellow veterans—that Knott began to find peace.
“It wasn’t therapy in an office,” he says. “It was sitting on a boat, working the water and talking to someone who truly understood.”
A New Mission
That’s when the idea took hold: combine the healing power of purposeful work, the restorative force of nature and the trust of peer-to-peer connection.
In 2021, Knott purchased 130 acres on a quiet peninsula near the Bay to create a place where veterans could come together—away from the noise, away from the pressures of daily life—and find their footing again.
That place became Knott Alone – Hold Fast.
The name says it all. Knots are both literal and symbolic—ties that hold, bonds that connect, strength built strand by strand.
“When veterans are out on the water, tying knots, pulling lines, sharing conversation, they’re reminded they are not alone,” Knott explains. “They can hold fast. And they can begin to heal.”
Impact Beyond the Water
What started as an idea on a crabbing boat has become a lifeline. Hold Fast now offers day trips, weeklong immersions, even extended stays, blending hands-on labor, nature-based therapy and peer support. Weekly community dinners anchor the program, bringing together veterans, families and neighbors around one table.
The impact is profound. Knott has heard it from families: “You gave me my husband back.” “You gave me my dad back.”
For Knott, those words reaffirm the mission.
“We’ve been where they’ve been. We know the weight they carry. But we also know there’s a way forward—through work, through connection, through faith and through water.”
And so Knott Alone – Hold Fast keeps casting its nets wider, bringing veterans out on the Chesapeake Bay, one trip at a time.
For Dan Knott, it’s more than a program. It’s the mission of his life.
The Team
Dan Knott
Founder
U.S. Army
Nick Barnes
Director of Operations
U.S. Army
Dr. Deanna Beech
Clinical Services Director
Nichole Knott
Wellness Practitioner