Tapping Military Skills to Create Disaster Relief

in over seven hundred communities. They've raised nearly a quarter of a billion dollars for the work that they're doing. He's also author of a book, It's Once a Warrior, How one veteran found a new mission closer to home. I already know who I want to give it to for the holidays. And Jake joins us on the phone in l A. Jake, so nice to have you here with us. Welcome to Bloomberg. Yeah, Hey, thanks girl for having me. Yeah, you bet. There's a lot I want

to talk about. I want to talk about your book, but I want to talk about your experience. You were in the Marine Corps. Tell me a little bit about that and especially the experience when you came home. Sure, so I joined the Marine or after college. I ended up enlistening in two thousand five after league the University of Wisconsin, and I served in the Marine Corps from two thousand nine UH in an infantry unit. And my

first tour was in Iraq in two thousand seven. A lot of people probably remember the surge that the US authorized there. So I was a part of the surge in an infantry battalion and later served in Afghanistan as a as a sniper and a small sniper team in in Helmont Valley. And you know, these were two challenging tours.

They were the two bloodiest years of both wars, and so you know, I saw a lot of combat, and you know, really, just like many veterans, I came to that point in in my life where I had to make a decision of whether I was going to stay in and continue fighting or whether I was going to get out. And there was a tough choice, and it's you know, again, it's the choice that every vetter has to make at some point. And I ended up deciding

to get out of the Marine Corps. I was really proud of everything I've done, but I just did not want war to find my life. And so I came home, and I think, like many veteran I didn't exactly know what was going to be next. I figured I might go back to school and give an m b A. I thought it maybe come to Wall Street and work there. But about two months after I got out, the Haiti earthquake cap and that was really the startup to movemon.

What was interesting too, and just in the beginning of your book you talk about your specifically, we're talking about a friend of yours, um Charlie who who who died um over in the Middle East. You weren't there when he did, but it got you thinking and you realized too that when you came home to your family, you had a loving family, you had a loving girlfriend, and you know, the reality you right, was that those people who knew you better than anyone no longer understood you.

That Iraq and Afghanistan had changed you. And I think that is so much you know better than anybody, that that's so much the case for veterans who go abroad, go elsewhere, and then come back home. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Uh, you know, I think for those who have seen combat. Their lives are forever marked by their life before war in their life after. And that doesn't have to be bad. You know. For some people they struggle with, you know,

moving on from war. They struggle coming home. I think many people also find strength in their experiences and they come back. But certainly, you know, when Charlie died, it was a Marina I went through sniper school with. It was this realization for me that I, you know, I the people in my life couldn't possibly grasp that loss, and it was a it was a moment of clarity for me that again I would forever be transitioning back.

It would never end, and it made you want to do what well, you know, it made me want to figure things out. And I guess that didn't really know what that was going to be in that in that moment. But when when Haiti happened, I just felt compelled to help. I felt like I had you know, after four years in the Marine Corps, I felt like I had developed some skills and had some experiences that could help in that situation. And so, you know, we organized the team.

We went down to Haiti four days after the earthquake. We did some tremendous work while we were down there, and that's really when we discovered that there was this potential to build a new model and disaster response by really tapping into the skills and experiences of military veterans and and and it's interesting too, because I mean it's grown tremendously and you've had you guys have had quite an impact around the globe. Yeah, you know, I think

we have built a model that is really compelling. I think when people hear about the work that we do, come answer I get is Wow, that seems to make so much sense. I can't believe they thought of that before. And that's always a good thing to hear when you're an entrepreneur. It's it's much better than somebody scratching their head and saying, gee, I makes no sense. But but but you're right. I mean, we've we've scaled to over a hundred thousand volunteers across the country with an affiliate

in Canada. We've responded to over seven hundred and fifty disasters and crises around the world and here in the US. So I mean, this is this is a disaster really for a major scale. So Jake Um, I want to get into your book, But I also want to find out what you guys have been doing when it comes to COVID, because you have been actively involved. Yeah, we've been involved on all fronts. Really we were. We were tracking COVID early when it was making his way through Luhan.

You're not caught left footed? Um? And are you surprised then? That? Can? I ask you? Are you surprised that the world kind of seems to have been caught flat footed, especially in such a global, globally connected world, that we weren't kind of more in tune to what was going on in China. Um, you know, I think it was a reflection of, uh,

you know, certain leadership styles. I think there was a tendency among some leaders to kind of stick our head in the sand and kind of rely on hope as a strategy versus really confronting the brutal facts of what

was transpiring. I think, you know, certainly, I don't know that anybody anticipated that it would be this bad when this was making its early rounds through central China, But it became pretty evident, you know, at a certain point when it was racing through Beijing and other major cities that yes, this was coming UM, and I was a little surprised with just how flat footed many corporations and you know, levels of our government were. Um. You know,

we reacted swiftly. We reorganized our entire company to to get into the fight, and we did. You know, we did everything from search about ten thou volunteers into food banks across the country to support partner organizations like feing America too. We deployed a hundred medics to Navajo Nation and treated a three thousand COVID patients there. We've been operating mobile test sites throughout the West, UM screening patients

for COVID UM and just about everything in between. UM. So it's been a it's been a pretty challenging year for us. And along the way, we knew that Mother Nature wasn't going to care about COVID, and so we've been responding to hurricanes along the Gulf, tornadoes and floods throughout the Midwest, UM, all in the COVID environment, which

of course has been a major complicating factor. Yeah, no doubt. UM. You know, the one thing I wanted to ask you, like, and let's get into your book a little bit, because I think what's interesting is there are organizations out there right that do similar things to what you guys are doing. But what's really novel and unique and kind of heartwarming is how you work with veterans who often come back

and don't have a purpose. I've been involved with UM a group called the Veterans Yoga Project, and it's a very similar thing of just kind of teaching veterans how to kind of cope, but also then be part of this community to help others. And I feel like that's what you're doing. You're taking veterans who maybe come back and maybe are a little bit lost, UM and trying to figure out a way to kind of get them involved and give them a sense of purpose again and

then also helping out the world. Yeah. I mean, I think we take the approach that, UM, we want to challenge veterans to be the best version of themselves, and we want to convince them that they are better skilled, more experienced, and more capable than anybody on the planet to help these these falling crisis And so we don't we don't treat veterans like the object of our charity.

They are the agents of our mission. And you know, I think that that's a really powerful way to help somebody heal is to say, hey, listen, your country still needs you. Why don't you get back in the game, you know, deployed down to southwest Louisiana after a hurricane and help peace that community back together. And I think what happens is in these men and women, they rise to the occasion. They get it overseas, they we do it here at home, but we have to ask them

to well. And I was gonna say, in doing this over the last decade and then putting it down on paper and writing your book, you know what kind of I don't know, maybe what surprised you in this process as you grew, it grew, the organization got more people involved. Um, I don't know what surprised you. Oh, I mean, you know, along the way, this has been an entrepreneurial journey, just

like any other company. I mean, we're a nonprofit. We rely on philanthropy, but you know, at the end of the day, we're stilling a product, We're building teams, We're having to establish processes and run I t you know,

capital projects and all of that stuff. So I think, you know, my answer to that would be any any challenge that any business leader you know, running a major, multimillion dollar enterprise runs into I've seen and I think maybe what's caught me most off guard though, is just the frequency that disasters are happening in this country and in the world. I mean, there are literally hundreds of disasters happening in the US annually. We don't hear about

most of them. But don't tell that. Don't tell that person in a small town, in a rural community whose home just got knocked down by a small creek flood that her tragedy is any less serious than somebody who just got devastated by Hurricane Harvey. I mean, it's the same. And so you know that, you know, we we need to think outside the box for how we face this challenge. It's it's certainly exacerbated by climate change. We need to we need to, you know, shift our thinking and how

we approach building more resilience. And that's why I think that the model we've built a team Rubicon has been so powerful. Well it's interesting that you say that too, because I feel like this year, this year where we've been dealing with COVID, still are dealing with the pandemic. UH And then you layer on top of that what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis and other Black Americans.

I mean, these are not um Certainly, the pandemic is a new problem, but the inequities, the injustices that have been um laid bare, are not new. They've been with us for years. And I do wonder it sounds like the work you guys are doing. I would you wonder if if somehow we get to a better side. And from what you are seeing as you guys work around the globe, do you feel like you know something is different this time around and we are moving towards creating

a better society. Well, I I certainly hope so. I think you know, you talk about how we've been that that long arc of justice right to a more equitable society, and I think we're getting there, never at the speed that we want. One of the things that going back to what has surprised me, you mentioned racial justice. From the beginning I have seen the disaster justice is racial justice.

I mean the inequities that have been driven by housing policies historically in this country are putting have put minority homeowners into highly vulnerable areas of land. They're susceptible to disasters, and so they are disproportionately impacted by by disasters, and they they're also often left behind in recovery efforts. You know, money flows disproportionately to two white neighborhoods from federal administration

and block grants. I mean this is well well researched in evidence, and so you know, we need to create more equitable disaster response systems as well. It's a part of that solution. What do you hope someone who reads your book, what do you hope that they come away with? Because you really get into a lot of details about your experiences and and building team Rubicon. Yeah. I had

two things really. I think the first is what a really raw and authentic experience for a young man who win over war and experienced combat is you know, how how that you know that young man or woman really internalized the conflict that they saw. I think the second one is listen, this is this is a hard time for America right now, um politically, economically, from a healthcare perspective, with COVID, I think Americans are a really lacking inspiration.

I think many of them have lost hope that you know, America can come back together and every time I see these men and women from Team Rubican dropped everything to deploy to a community they've never been to, to help people they've never they've never met. I'm reinspired by what's possible, and I hope that people picked up this book and and find themselves reinspired and convinced that America's best days are still ahead of it if if we choose UM

not optimistic. Note, I really appreciate that, and thank you so much. I hope you come back and talk to us a little bit more about the work you guys are doing. UM would love to check in with you again. Jake Would. He is co founder and CEO at Team Rubicon. It is a global nonprofit uh and you should check out his book Once a Warrior, How One Veteran found

a new mission closer to home. Jake of course joining us on the phone from l A and really timely considering, you know, helping out certainly veterans and then really helping out so many of the disasters that we are seeing, helping out in those disasters and helping those people that are impacted