Emergency responders may not be fighting another person, but they are engaged in a battle nonetheless. That may be one of the reasons why organizations are finding that veterans are well-equipped for work in disaster relief in their life after the military.
Veterans on a mission
This month, about a dozen veterans were deployed from Colorado to Alaska to help fight fires that have broken out in the state, Colorado's 9 News reported. Their training is the result of a new partnership announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture between the Bureau of Land Management and Team Rubicon.
Team Rubicon is a veteran organization that takes advantage of the skills of former military members and trains them as first responders for emergency situations across the country.
According to the Team Rubicon website, the organization was born when two marines, Jake Wood and William McNulty, and six other veterans and first responders flew to Haiti in the aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake to help provide aid in areas that traditional organizations deemed too dangerous. The two realized that the skills they had learned in the military translated well to disaster relief. After they returned to Haiti they started Team Rubicon. Today the organization gives veterans purpose, community and self-worth as they bridge the gap between when a disaster occurs and the time that more conventional aid can arrive.
There are a number of jobs that fit the skill set of a veteran.
Building on military skills
Multiple organizations are eager to work with the nonprofit to bolster wildfire fighting capacity nationwide. The National Park Service announced that the Point Reyes National Seashore is partnering with Team Rubicon to host firefighter training for 75 to 80 veterans during the end of June. Successful completion of the training will allow the veterans to be deployed to fight wildfires during the critical summer season.
"It has always been a bucket list thing for me, since I was young, I have always loved the outdoors and taking care of the environment," Veteran Marc Gonzalez of Colorado Springs told 9 News. "Fighting wild land fires is just something I have always wanted to do. This opportunity came up with Rubicon and I could not say no."
To date, nearly 28,000 members of Team Rubicon have been deployed nationwide in response to floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons and other disasters, the Department of Agriculture reported.