An Unconventional Response
Veterans stepped up when Hurricane Helene hit
Over the years, I’ve had the life-affirming experience of befriending and filming with military veterans. Many of them part of the Farmer Veteran Coalition. Often, they talk about how the service provides a clear sense of purpose and quote President Reagan:
“Some people spend their entire life wondering if they’ve made a difference in this world. Marines don’t have that problem.”
For those in combat, a big challenge of the military- is returning home. After war, where purpose is clear— they come back and no longer have orders. Life is aimless, and the missing intensity opens up wormholes of unproductive overthinking.
Justin Neal faced this after years in Afghanistan. Civilian life could be slow. Empty. When Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina last September, he felt the call to help. A friend told him a group of military veterans were getting together in the parking lot of the Harley Davidson in Swannanoa. He went. There he met the founder of the group, Adam Smith. He knew he was in the right place. A strong kinship formed among the men, now known as Savage Freedoms Operations.
Justin is also one of the core members of the Rural Revival Project team and we were excited he and Adam agreed to do a Truth Talk at Spruce Pine about their unusual rescue work during Hurricane Helene. After a short break following our talk Cotton of the Carolinas- the room began to fill up again.
The air in the room was thick with purpose. Adam started off the conversation sharing how he came close to suicide after he left the military, but ultimately found meaning from this low point. He chose to dedicate his life to helping other veterans face the same mental health challenges he did.
Soon we started talking about Hurricane Helene. After the storm, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was too tangled in bureaucratic rules to help people out. Thousands of people were cutoff from electricity, running out of food and water. Adam, who served as a Green Beret in the Army for more than 15 years, chose not sit around. Using extensive military connections, he got helicopters and supplies out to people straightaway. They flew hundreds of flights delivering millions of pounds of food and water to people over the next few weeks. Elon Musk’s company- Starlink, generously provided free internet for people whose power had been cut off, and he sent Riley Sennott (another core member of the RRP team) to coordinate the generators and internet routers. Riley, who was in the audience, came on stage and discussed how he, Justin and Adam coordinated logistics to make sure resources got where they needed to go. The conversation was interrupted often by overflowing applause of gratitude from the North Carolinians in the crowd.
But there were other jobs too, the kind of job no one really wants to applaud: finding the remains of those who passed away. 107 people died from the hurricane in North Carolina alone. Justin talked about how his experience in the military prepared him to search for people’s loved ones. To spend days flipping over car doors and metal roofing. A job that few untrained civilians would be suitable for. When a job needs to be done, Justin said- he does it.
As the conversation came to a close, it became clear that this was a case of a square peg in a square hole. This made sense. Military veterans are trained to be effective in the most dangerous of scenarios, and often are looking for ways to serve their community after returning home. Adam, Justin, Riley and dozens of others like them, had stepped up at a time when government agencies were failing people. To be fair though, Adam repeatedly shared that the people in FEMA are really good people, often police officers and firefighters. However, they are just held back from helping by rules made in an office that didn’t fit the realities of a disaster zone.
We wrapped up the conversation with a final round of applause. It felt good.
This is what rural America is all about.
I've been following the devastation since Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina last September, I have a friend there who was fortunate to escape with her life as the mud came so fast when she finally got rescued she didn't even have a pair of shoes to wear. It has been so heartbreaking to keep up with it all and how very slow the government was to get help there. So many are still missing. I was so thankful to read Justin's story about the group he is with and the help they have been supplying So very thankful for this group and so many others who are helping these wonderful people out. What a blessing you are to so many.
There's nothing wrong with having policies that drive strategy - that's a job of government. But sometimes there's nothing better than a mission to drive action. That's a job military men and women are built to take on. They don't call the guys who spoke in Spruce Pine "special forces" for nothing. They met a hurricane with a blizzard of action, with immeasurable impact. It was a privilege to see what they brought to the mission and hear what they took away.