Disaster relief that can save veterans - Jake Wood - TEDxSanDiego

Team Rubicon is a relief organization that utilizes the practiced teamwork, skills and experiences of US veterans by deploying them into disaster stricken areas. But, as Jake Wood shares, a recent loss in the organization changed its focus toward giving struggling veterans a chance at continued purpose, community, and self-worth.

Two years ago,
after having served four years

in the United States Marine Corps

and deployed both to Irak and Afghanistan,

I found myself in Port-au-Prince

leading a team of veterans
and medical professionals

in some of the hardest hit areas
of that city,

three days after the earthquake.

We were going to the places
nobody else would go.

The places nobody else could go

and after three weeks,
we realized something -

military veterans are very, very good
at disaster response.

And coming home, my co-founder and I,

we looked at it, we said,

"There are two problems.

The first problem is
an inadequate disaster response.

It's slow, it's antiquated.
It's not using the best technology.

It's not using the best people."

The second problem
that we became aware of

was a very inadequate
veteran reintegration.

And this is the topic,
that is a front page news right now.

As veterans are coming home right now,
from Iraq and Afghanistan,

and they are struggling
to reintegrate into civilian life.

We sat here and we looked
into these two problems

and finally we came to a realization.

These aren't problems,
these are actually solutions.

And what do I mean by that?

We can use disater response
as an opportunity

for service for the veterans coming home.

Recent surveys show
that 92 percent of veterans

want to continue the service
when they take off the uniform.

And we can use veterans
to improve disaster response.

Now, on the surface
this makes a lot of sense,

our organization Team Rubicon
was born in 2010,

we responded to the tsunami in Chile,

the floods in Pakistan,

we sent training teams
to the Thai - Burma border.

And we went to South Sudan,

shortly after the independence,

to train doctors
in simple surgical techniques.

But it was earlier this year,
when one of our original members,

caused us to shift focus
in the organization.

This is Clay Hunt.

Clay was a Marine with me, we served
together in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We served in the same sniper team
in the Helmand Valley in 2008.

Clay was with us in Port-au-Prince,

he was also with us in Chile.

Earlier this year, in March,
Clay took his own life.

This was a tragedy.

It rocked our organization,
but it really forced us

to refocus what it is that we were doing.

You know, Clay didn't kill himself

[because of] what happened
in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Clay killed himself because
of what he lost when he came home.

He lost purpose.
He lost his community.

And perhaps, most tragically,
he lost his self-worth.

So, as we evaluated
and as the dust settled from this tragedy,

we realized that, of those two problems,

and the initial iteration
of our organization,

we were a disater response organization
that was using veteran's service.

We had a lot of success

and we really felt like we were changing

the disaster response paradigm.

But after Clay we shifted that focus

and suddenly, now moving forward,
we see ourselves

as a veteran service organisation

that's using disaster response.

That might not seem
like a major shift in focus

for many people out here in this audience,

but I'll tell you why it is.

Because we think
that we can give that purpose,

that community and that self-worth
back to the veteran.

And tornados in Tuscaloosa and Joplin
and then later hurricane Irene,

gave us an opportunity to look at that.

Now, I want you to imagine
for a second an 18-year-old boy

who graduates from high school
in Kansas City, Missouri.

He joins the army,
the army gives him a rifle,

they send him to Iraq.

Every day he leaves the wire
with a mission.

That mission is to defend the freedom
of the family that he left at home,

it's to keep the man around him alive,

it's to pacify the village
that he works in.

And he's got a purpose.

But he comes home
to Kansas City, Missouri,

maybe he goes to college,
maybe he's got a job,

but he doesn't have
that same sense of purpose.

You give him a chainsaw and you send him
to Joplin, Missouri, after a tornado,

he regains that.

Going back, that same 18 year old boy
graduates from highschool

in Kansas City, Missouri.

He joins the army,
the army gives him a rifle,

they send him to Iraq.

Every day he looks into
the same sets of eyes around him,

he leaves the wire, he knows
that those people have his back.

They've slept on the same sand,
they've lived together,

they've eaten together,
they've bled together.

He goes home to Kansas City, Missouri.

He gets out of the military,
takes his uniform off.

He doesn't have that community anymore.

But you drop 25 of those veterans
in Joplin, Missouri,

they get that sense of community back.

Again, you have an 18 year old boy
who graduates high school

in Kansas City.

He joins the army,
the army gives him a rifle,

they send him to Iraq.

They pin a medal on his chest,

he goes home to a ticker tape parade.

He takes the uniform off,

he is no longer sergeant Jones
in his community,

he's now Dave from Kansas City.

He doesn't have that same self-worth.

But you send him to Joplin after a tornado

and somebody once again
is walking up to him

and shaking his hand and thanking him
for his service.

Now, they have self-worth again.

So what? What's it mean?

I think it's very important.

Becasue right now, there's a void
in leadership in this country.

And somebody needs to step up
as we have corruption,

and scams on tops of industry and politics

and institutions of higher learning.

Somebody needs to step up

and take that role
of leadeship in this country,

and move this country forward,

in the direction that it's meant to move.

And this generation of veterans
has the opportunity

to do that, if they are given the chance.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)