Hundreds of Veterans Help Sandy Victims and Each Other

Hundreds of Veterans Help Sandy Victims and Each Other
By JAMES DAO
November 14, 2012

They have come from as far as Alaska to tear down water-damaged walls and clear debris from flood-ravaged yards. They have been assigned team leaders and given marching orders. They have been asked to work in the rain, sleep on a gym floor and eat military Meals Ready to Eat. If that all sounds like a military humanitarian mission, well, that’s sort of the idea.

For the past week, hundreds of military veterans from across the nation have flocked to Far Rockaway, summoned by a beacon from Team Rubicon, a nonprofit created by veterans to help other veterans through a therapy known as disaster relief.

Team Rubicon was formed in 2010 by two Marines, Jake Wood and William McNulty, to help veterans who were struggling to find their way back into civilian life. The idea was to employ skills the veterans had learned in the military, combine them with some high-adrenaline action and give them a healthy dose of public service.

The result, they hoped, would be experiences that might renew the sense of purpose many veterans say they lose after separating from military life.

“We became a veterans service organization that happens to be good at disaster response,” Mr. McNulty said.
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