Former Marines Jake Wood and William McNulty founded Team Rubicon in January 2010 in response to the earthquake in Haiti. While victims of the quake waited for large relief organizations like the Red Cross to mobilize and make their way in to the disaster area, Team Rubicon (TR) got in within days and immediately started providing medical care to those most in need. They are comprised of mainly military veterans and medical professionals, and have taken the best those worlds have to offer to create an organization capable of rapid response and commitment to their cause.
In response to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Eastern Turkey, TR has deployed a team to begin providing relief and preparing for potential follow on support. If you would like to learn more about this group or donate in support of their mission in Turkey, visit:
http://teamrubiconusa.org/
To pull their information right from their site, here is how they see they see themselves:
We are a new way of thinking in disaster response. We bridge the gap between catastrophe and large-scale relief, uniting military veterans with medical professionals to form a quick-reaction force. We utilize flat command structures, social networking technology, and simple decision making processes. We don’t wait for ideal situations to develop, we make dysfunctional situations ideal.
We are volunteers not satisfied with standing on the sidelines. We believe that inaction is not an option; that our skills are needed, and that Team Rubicon is a model for delivering them. We are 21st century “Medical Minutemen.”
We are capable of doing MORE with LESS. We are self-sustaining, self-reliant and self-deploying. We bring only what we need, deploying rapidly to where we are needed. We arrive on-site, identify problems, create solutions and GET THE JOB DONE.
We are doctors, firefighters, medics, nurses, physician assistants and military veterans.
We are Team Rubicon.