Today is Memorial Day in America. It is a holiday observed to honor the men and women who lost their lives while serving in the military.
For those who leave active military duty fortunate enough not to have made that sacrifice, there can still be a feeling of loss – loss of purpose, loss of community or even loss of self-worth.
But an organization named Team Rubicon is seeking to bridge the gap between military and civilian life by uniting the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams. And we’re proud they chose our Dell Rugged laptops to help them also close the gap between the moment a disaster happens and the point at which conventional aid organizations respond.
Team Rubicon recently deployed Operation Tenzing to Nepal after a 7.8 earthquake hit Kathmandu and surrounding areas. Brian Brown (above), vice president of a security and tech firm here in Austin, Texas, is also the logistics chief for Team Rubicon Region VI. His role in Operation Tenzing is a tech specialist where he establishes satellite communication links, deploys Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and drones for rapid damage assessments to direct rescue and recovery missions and support the medical mission.
“I’ve seen a lot of things good and bad in my years in the field with TR [Team Rubicon]. What never stops driving me is the people,” Brown said in his moving diary from the field. “If I never flew another UAV, touched another satellite link, or completed any mapping, it would be OK. TR has given me a conduit to make an impact on others, and in return, the impact on me has been profound.”
His impact on the Sermathang village children pictured with him above appears to include giving them the joy of watching themselves on his Latitude 12 Rugged Extreme. It’s the same laptop John New, director of end user services at Dell Andrew Moore, executive director and general manager, Dell Rugged Mobility Products, uses when he volunteers with Team Rubicon as their Region VI deputy logistics chief.
New Moore recently supported another Team Rubicon response when approximately 47 tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma and Nebraska.
“As we prepped the response gear late in the night and early into the next morning, my Rugged let us watch the live weather coverage as communities were slammed by significant tornadoes and flooding,” New Moore said. “This allowed us to ensure we had the right gear in the deployment trailer to allow our volunteers to help the impacted communities.”
Like Team Rubicon, Dell recognizes what veterans such as New Moore have to offer after their military service. That’s why we actively seek to recruit them for our team. And, once they’re on board, we support them through our Veterans Employee Resource Group.
It’s the least we can do to thank them for their service, while today we remember and honor those who died.
[Update: Apologies to my Dell teammate John New for mistakenly attributing his volunteer work with Team Rubicon to Andrew Moore. Due to severe weather over the holiday weekend, New was busy again with Team Rubicon and the Travis County Search and Rescue, where he serves as vice president of the Board of Directors. Corrections noted above, and many thanks offered for his continued service to those in need.]
