To learn about the Burma mission, please view the mission scope post here: http://teamrubiconusa.org/2011-project-karen-shan-mission-scope/

Day 1 – Friday – Arrival
We all traveled from different parts of the United States, Doctor Geelhoed from Maryland, Zach Smith from Sacramento, Jason Jarvis from Seattle, Andrew Stevens from Anchorage, and myself (Marc Fiorito) from San Francisco.  We convened on a Monday in Los Angeles to prep and pre-brief the mission at hand. Zach went over logistics, Jason reviewed powerpoint presentations, I recharged our sat phone and BGAN. We had 20 hours to sort the rest of the medical inventory, test our comm kit, and wrap our heads around the upcoming mountain of a mission that we were about to endure. We departed from LAX Tuesday night.

LAX -> HNL -> NAIA

During our 5-hour layover in Manila we cabbed it over to the Manila American Cemetery to pay our respect to the brave heroes that lost their lives in WWII.

NAIA -> BKK

In Bangkok we crossed paths with TR’s Co-Founder William McNulty. We chatted mission details over beer and crispy duck. The Bangkok airport is a unique blend of new meets old – massive steel canopies contain towering Yaksha demon warriors statues.

BKK -> CNX.

The sweet early evening air filled our nostrils as we stepped onto the tarmac, a final assurance that we had finally arrived in Chiang Mai and reached checkpoint alpha. We were greeted by our Thai/Burma coordinator Rob. Jumping into his Toyota Hilux, we packed the bed with eight bags of medical supplies and personal gear. Add in six large men and it was a tight fit for all. Stevens and I hunkered down in the bed of the truck and braced ourselves for a three-hour high-speed ride into Maesariang.

Scents of fried street vendor food and elephant dung filled our nostrils as we moved in fast-forward. Our lives were precariously in the hands of an ex-LA movie industry professional turned Thai river-restaurant owner. Rob has been working with TR for the past year coordinating medical and educational support for Thai-Burma border relief. He originally intended to produce a documentary on the current Burmese condition, but instead quickly focused his attention on procuring aid.  Rob realized the situation was more dire than simply calling attention to it with a camera.

We carved the mountain roads and climbed in elevation, deeper and further into the lush Thai jungle. Temperatures dropped and the nightly rains commenced. Andrew and I clutched to the bags as we pitched hard left and right with each turn. Zach, Glenn, and Jason caught some shut-eye in the cab. It was close to 2300 when we arrived at Rob’s restaurant, which jutted over Maesariang’s turbulent Yuam River.  A corner of the restaurant’s thin particleboard deck sagged, supported by bowed beams that were burdened from rain storms.

We promptly sat down to discuss the mission at hand.  Food and beer arrived. While we feasted on fried fish, spicy fried pork balls, rice, and soup, Rob took us through the mission details.

We planned to depart the following afternoon, first via truck, then boat, then foot, then boat, then foot again. We were all anxious to leave; anticipation levels were high. After retiring to the Northwest Guest house around 0100, we collapsed in our rooms for some desperately needed sleep. We had been traveling for 96 hours.

Day 2 – Saturday – Prep and Depart Maesariang

Waking up in a new country, on the floor, tucked under a mosquito net will take some getting used to, but I’m assuming these accommodations will be luxury compared to what we’ll see in the camps. We headed to the outdoor market for breakfast and took in the local scenery. Jason, having spent some time in Thailand on a previous endeavor, brushed up on his Thai language skills and acquired some fruit and scrambled egg/condensed milk crepes. Delicious. Maesariang sits on the eastern bank of the Yuam River and acts as a small trading outpost for Mae Saem Laep and Burma and sees very few tourists. At the height of 6’7” Jason Jarvis was a striking sight to many locals who on occasion stopped cold in their tracks.

We regrouped around 1100, jumped in the back of another truck (reoccurring theme) and headed to a local Buddhist Monastery to be blessed with safe travels for our impending departure.  We were each given an amulet as the monk prayed for our safety.

The monastery overlooked rice fields and the entrance was about 100 feet tall. It was lined with various Buddha’s ranging in size from 6 inches to 30ft.

After a meditative (and contemplative) morning we headed back to the guesthouse and packed up our belongings. The afternoon was approaching and it was time to move.

The journey to our final push-off checkpoint was riddled with hazards. Excessive rainfall and massive rivers had caused damage to most of the roadways. Zach and I traveled in the bed of the truck surveying the passing embankments and trying to avoid sudden spinal compression.

We passed through many small villages located on the Salween River which serves as the borderline of northern Karen State in eastern Burma and Mae Hong Song Province in Thailand. Merchants line the streets selling everything from tires to toothbrushes. The Salween River flows like a lava bed – rapid but viscous. Entire trees would float by then twirl in the chocolate colored eddies like small twigs. The river was up almost eight meters and it looked angry.

In 2002 during similar conditions, a refugee camp just 4 km up the Salween River was devastated by a flash flood that killed 26 and destroyed over 250 houses.

The afternoon rain was relentless. We put some new Triple Aught Design gear through the wringer and their schoeller Stealth LTs were our new best friends. The truck stopped about a click past the market. We quickly unloaded bags and followed our guide down a winding, muddy footpath. Stilted houses hugged the side of the dirt bank. With slippery conditions and 60lbs. of gear each, we slid down in one-foot sections. Families sat sheltered on their stoop expressionless as we passed. A subdued bass tone that deepened and strengthened with every couple meters became more and more audible. When we broke through the trees we saw our new mode of transport. Both amazing and ridiculous, the longboats were propelled by V8 truck engines with a straight exhaust strapped to an 8-meter long prop/rudder.

Being on a longboat in a swift and swollen river against the current has a way of instilling fear and forcing you to trust your driver. Everything seemed to be moving twice as fast and we clung to the western bank to narrowly avoid head on collisions with trees, leaves, and garbage that were funneling down the center of the river.

After a three-hour truck ride and then another three hours by three separate boats, we had made it to our next rendezvous point. We can call this place home for the next five days. Courses and lectures start promptly tomorrow morning as we move forward with our mission goals and greet our students. On the menu for dinner: fried egg and noodles.

• Share

Filed under: Burma, Photos, Proactive Missions by Marc Fiorito on September 9, 2011
3 Comments »

Burma – Background

Although Burma was at times divided into independent states, a series of monarchs attempted to establish their absolute rule, with varying degrees of success. Eventually, an expansionist British Government took advantage of Burma’s political instability. After three Anglo-Burmese wars over a period of 60 years, the British completed their colonization of the country in 1886, Burma was immediately annexed as a province of British India, and the British began to permeate the ancient Burmese culture with foreign elements. In 1948 Burma won back their independence, but entered into a 40-year period of internal strife, riddled with war, corruption, and a struggle for controlling power.

The military government announced a change of name for the country in English from Burma to Myanmar in 1989. It also continued the economic reforms started by the old regime and called for a Constituent Assembly to revise the 1974 Constitution. This led to multiparty elections in May 1990 in which the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory over the National Unity Party and about a dozen smaller parties. The military, however, would not let the assembly convene, and continued to hold the two leaders of the NLD, U Tin U and Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San, under house arrest imposed on them the previous year. Burma came under increasing international pressure to convene the elected assembly, particularly after Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and also faced economic sanctions. In April 1992 the military replaced Saw Maung with General Than Shwe.

War with the tribal minorities along the borders ensued.

Burma – Current State

Burma, a resource-rich country, suffers from pervasive government controls, inefficient economic policies, corruption, and rural poverty. Despite Burma’s emergence as a natural gas exporter, socio-economic conditions have deteriorated under the regime’s mismanagement, leaving most of the public in poverty, while military leaders and their business cronies exploit the country’s ample natural resources.

The country’s armed forces are known as the Tatmadaw, which numbers 488,000. The Tatmadaw comprises of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The country ranked twelfth in the world for its number of active troops in service. The military is very influential in the country, with top cabinet and ministry posts held by military officers.

After many failed cease-fire agreements, fighting on the frontlines within the Shan and Karen states still poses a grave threat to civilians. Villages are being destroyed, landmines litter the jungle floor, and the indigenous people are being pushed to the borders of Thailand. Camps of IDPs (internally displaced people) are becoming the norm in Karen State. There are approximately 503,000 IDPs living in Burma. MASH sites have been created where injured soldiers can be treated and landmine victims can fabricate new prosthetic limbs. For the IDP camps in the Shan and Karen states, maintaining a proper defense is a constant concern. Soldiers patrol the ridge-tops and regulate the illegal poaching of teak wood while keeping the Burmese Military advance at bay.

The United Nations and several other organizations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country, including child labor, human trafficking, and a lack of freedom of speech.

Team Rubicon Mission

Team Rubicon proactively deploys to the Thai/Burma border to provide medical aid to refugees and train Community Healthcare Workers (CHW).  TR is increasing the medical competency of Karen Department of Health and Welfare (KDHW) and Free Burma Ranger (FBR) Shan medics. TR calls this a long-term force multiplier effect that enables local medical workers to become leaders and teachers of these skill sets.  Over the course of four days TR will take students through a rigorous curriculum, covering subjects in landmine and gunshot trauma care, long term care of trauma patients, primary care, tropical medicine, surgical theater/technique.

Team Members:

Zach Smith = Team Leader, Paramedic/Firefighter, Technical Rescue

Dr. Glenn Goelheed = Physician, Navy Surgeon and Tropical Medicine Expert

Jason Jarvis = Paramedic, Army Special Forces Medic, Combat Trauma Instructor

Andrew Stevens = Marine, EMT, Disaster Mitigation and Security-Risk Analyst

Marc Fiorito = TR Media^TM Asia Desk Chief Corespondent, Photo-Journalist

Why TR is Involved:

Team Rubicon specializes in veteran focused disaster relief in the developing world and the United States. TR is committed to indigenizing medical skill sets in order to decrease foreign aid dependence in the developing world. Burma presents TR with an ideal challenge due to its access restrictions, large displaced population, and lack of conventional aid presence. With collective first-hand knowledge of frontline trauma care in Iraq and Afghanistan, TR passes on these skills to those most in need.

• Share

Filed under: Burma, Proactive Missions by Marc Fiorito on September 9, 2011
3 Comments »

I packed my rucksack full of the same supplies that I had many times before in my Army days.  Plenty of dry socks, rain gear, sleeping bag, eye protection, work gloves, ACU’s and food for three days.  As I loaded my boots into the top of my bag I noticed they still had a few small droplets on blood on them from a mission my unit conducted around the city of Tal-Afar, Iraq in 2005.  It was then it hit me – like many times before I am once again packing all of the necessary gear to conduct an operation in an area that I was not familiar with and that held many unknowns. What was known to me was that this was a mission of a different kind.  We weren’t going to clear buildings, engage insurgents or secure an LZ for a MED-EVAC bird.  We were going to deliver disaster relief to our fellow Americans in Vermont who had seen their entire life’s memories wiped away by a tropical storm.

This team was comprised of our military’s brightest and best. A Blackhawk pilot, a Marine grunt, a Purple Heart recipient, a combat medic, a platoon leader, an air transportation NCO, an IS tech, and an engineer.  Each individual had different war stories to tell and a myriad of life experiences to draw upon.  The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines were all represented proudly.  None of these team members ever shared a foxhole, but what they did share was an innate desire to serve their country both in deserts and mountains far away, and in the flooded northeast hills of the country they swore to protect.  All came together in Vermont for the common goal of using our years of military training and experience to offer a helping hand to our fellow Americans in need.

When we arrived on site in Grafton, Vermont for day one of our mission we quickly discovered that there was much work to be done and only so much time to do it.  The local economy is reliant upon the Idyll dairy farm that occupied the outskirts of the town and that farm had not been operating since the storm.  We learned from our contact within Grafton that the farm needed our assistance to get back on their feet.  We loaded up in the trucks and headed towards Idyll Farms to see what could be done.  The fencing was in disrepair and the livestock had not been able to graze due to the destruction.  Our team leader spoke briefly with the farmer and assessed where we could help and we quickly got to work.  Within hours we cleared the damaged fence line of debris and paved the way for the farm to be up and running quickly.

Our next stop was the town of Jamaica.  The bridges in and out of the town had been destroyed and heavy machinery pounded away loudly to repair access into the town.  The homes that had been next to the swollen river were literally teetering on the edge of the bank.  Some homes were less fortunate and had been destroyed all together – only electrical wiring and exposed plumbing gave you an idea where the structure once stood.  Telephone poles were snapped in half and the sludge filled nearly every basement.  Not to be defeated by Mother Nature, the local townspeople had begun to rally a volunteer force to distribute food and supplies to the displaced homeowners.  Their resolve was evident by the words, “We are Jamaica, we will survive” scrawled on a chalkboard outside the local coffee shop.

After making contact with the EOC, we learned that there was a house owned by an elderly couple down by the river that had been flooded with mud in the basement.  We put on our work gloves, donned our masks and handed out the shovels.  For the entire day we shoveled the grime and muck out of the basement.  Bucket after bucket of mud was carried out of the basement and up the stairs with the never ending “thank you” from the home owner with every wheel barrel full of mud we removed.  All the while her dog Biscuit ran around wondering exactly what we were all up to.  The team’s spirits were high and we were all excited to see the progress we were making on her home.  We were covered in mud, sweating through our shirts and loving every second of it. After the task was completed she handed each of us a piece of glass art that was made in town to show her appreciation.  This simple trinket will always remind me of the smile on her face as we drove away after a job well done.

Our final day had the team assisting the town of Jamaica again with logistical support in the distribution of shelter material and supplies for the better part of the morning.  We then got word that the nearby town of Wardsboro had been hit pretty hard as well so the decision was made to travel south and see where we could be of assistance.  After attending their town hall meeting it was evident that there was yet again plenty of work to be done and a lack of an emergency support structure to accomplish the tasks.  The decision was made that in order for all of the necessary tasks to be accomplished there needed to be a command and control center set up at the town’s fire house immediately.  Once again, our team got to work.

We set up an operations center with a white board and overlay maps.  We created a task list, conducted local recon to identify possible danger areas in case additional storms approached, coordinated day care for the local volunteers, went to the surrounding towns alerting them of the points of contact for assistance, posted on a local blog that volunteers were needed and began to create a plan of action based on our triage of the situation.  It was our intention to create a fully functioning emergency support system that the town could utilize long after we had gone.  It took no more than four hours to provide their local emergency responders with all the details and action items needed to effectively assist the townspeople through their difficult time.

Although none of the team had ever been in an exact situation like this – we all had a frame of reference for what needed to be done.  We had all lived our lives for a time dealing with difficult situations while we wore this country’s uniform in very hostile situations.  Adapt and overcome – just like we had all been trained to do.

As I reflect back over my experience with Team Rubicon the gravity of the situation continues to set in.  It will be a very long time before the people of Grafton, Jamaica and Wardsboro ever have a sense that things are “back to how they were before the storm”. Our team’s mission was a small blip on the screen in the overall picture of what needs to be done long term in the state of Vermont.  But what keeps me motivated is this:  There is a farmer who is back to work because we were there.  There is an elderly woman who can begin taking steps to piece her home back together.  And there is a town that was given a usable model of what it will take logistically to bring their people back to their feet again.

The burning desire to serve our country that existed in our team member’s hearts years ago when we raised our right hand and swore to defend her from all enemies foreign and domestic – still exists within all of us.  That desire for service coupled with our vast array of skills and abilities is what makes our team so efficient in situations like these. I for one needed this experience.  I needed to be toiling again side by side with my fellow brothers and sisters in arms.  I’ll never forget what we accomplished together as a team for the people of Vermont.

I hope that one day I’m lucky enough to cross paths with that elderly lady from Jamaica, Vermont walking her dog Biscuit up and down her street that was once washed away.  If I do get that chance, I know I will be thanking her for allowing me this opportunity, instead of her thanking me.

• Share

Filed under: News, Personal Reflections by Jake on September 5, 2011
8 Comments »

TR’s Vermont Response Team assembled at approximately 11 PM on Thursday in Dorset, VT. After scouring local news and several calls to emergency services throughout the state we determined that the Town of Grafton would be our first stop. Upon our arrival in Grafton we were directed to Idyll Dairy Farm. Fortunately Idyll Dairy Farm’s livestock had been spared during the flood. As the only dairy farm in Grafton, and primary dairy supplier for the farmer owned co-op Cabot Cheese; Idyll Farms is critical to the local economy. Flood water had flattened fencing and littered the cow pasture with debris. As a result the cows could not be grazed. The Vermont response team assisted the staff at Idyll Farm in clearing all of the flood debris. With the pastures cleared of debris, the fences were repaired and operations resumed to normal. 

The team then proceeded to Jamaica, VT and the good people there informed us that they were quite fortunate and that another town further down the road had been hit worse.  We quickly learned this testament to the resiliency of everyone in the green mountain state. Several homes in Jamaica suffered severe damage or were erased by Hurricane Irene. The Green Mountain team spent the rest of the day clearing debris from a residence of an elderly couple that had been inundated by flood water, silt and debris. The TR team improved the safety and comfort for this couple by clearing out several hundred pounds of sediment from their basement thereby mitigating the risk of mold growth. I am amazed by how quickly the TR team, most of which were complete strangers yesterday, assembled into a tight knit group. The resilience of the Jamaica community was also apparent, they rarely asked for assistance, supported each other tirelessly and will continue to labor to reassemble their community.

On Saturday the team returned to Jamaica and continued to assist with recovery operations. As the forecast predicted more rain on Sunday the team shifted gears and began to assist in the preparation for additional flooding. Before leaving Jamaica the team helped establish shelter locations while also distributing clean up supplies to residences most affected by the flood. This effort was much like the day before when Jamaica’s residents worked side by side with TR volunteers to deliver help where it was needed most. It is clear to me that TR’s flexibility is one of its greatest assets. Within a few hours the team transitioned from shelter setup to supply distribution and on to the next location.

By midday the team had arrived in Wardsboro, VT; a town that had been completely isolated until Wednesday. TR’s Vermont Response Team Leader JC McGreehan attended Wardsboro’s first town hall meeting following Hurricane Irene. One of the unique challenges presented by widespread flooding in Vermont has been the significant distance and isolation between affected areas. It is not uncommon to see one house completely or partially washed away in close proximity to another that is entirely intact. The overworked Wardsboro Fire Department opened its doors to Team Rubicon and asked it to assist in organizing relief efforts. The team immediately split to the four corners of Wardsboro to evaluate damage and recruit volunteers. In many ways TR and Wardsboro were a perfect match. The team stepped in, partnered immediately with local experts and took concrete steps toward progress and recovery. By the end of the day information and available services had been disseminated to the community. The team was also able to check on more remote parts of the community that had been cut off by washed out bridges.

The recovery has a long way to go here in Vermont. And the residents here are incredibly resilient, capable and resourceful. Without a doubt TR has leant a much appreciated helping hand to some of its most vulnerable residents. I also believe TR will leave Vermont with several new lessons learned regarding flood disaster response.

-Chris Safulko, US Army veteran

See the full gallery on Posterous

• Share

Filed under: News, Personal Reflections by teamrubicon on September 3, 2011
No Comments »

Today’s music inspiration is Doogie Howser, MD.

• Share

Filed under: Video by William on September 1, 2011
No Comments »