Two years ago, after having served four years in the United States Marine Corps and deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan, I found myself in Port-au-Prince, leading a team of veterans and medical professionals in some of the hardest-hit areas of that city, three days after the earthquake. We were going to the places that nobody else wanted to go, the places nobody else could go, and after three weeks, we realized something. Military veterans are very, very good at disaster response. And coming home, my cofounder and I, we looked at it, and we said, there are two problems. The first problem is there's inadequate disaster response. It's slow. It's antiquated. It's not using the best technology, and it's not using the best people. The second problem that we became aware of was a very inadequate veteran reintegration, and this is a topic that is front page news right now as veterans are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and they're struggling to reintegrate into civilian life. And we sat here and we looked at these two problems, and finally we came to a realization. These aren't problems. These are actually solutions. And what do I mean by that?
两年前,我在美国海军陆战队 服役了四年 也曾调配到伊朗和阿富汗 我被安排到太子港(海地共和国首都)领导一支 由退役军人和医疗专业人员组成的队伍。 就在地震刚过去三天, 我到达这座城市受灾害最严重的一些地区里。 我们去了没有任何人想要去的地方, 也没有任何人能够去的地方。三周过后, 我们意识到,那些退役军人 非常善于应变灾难。 回来过后,我和我的伙伴 审视了情况,发现两个问题。 第一个问题,危机处理不妥当 速度太慢。方法过时。科技并非最先进的 也没有最完善的团队 我们意识到的第二个问题是 没有好好融合退役军人 现在这个议题上了头条 当军人从伊拉克和阿富汗退役回来 他们都很难重新融入普通人的生活 所以我们仔细地研究了这两个问题 终于我们的结论是,这些并不是问题 而是解答。我指的是什么呢?
Well, we can use disaster response as an opportunity for service for the veterans coming home. Recent surveys show that 92 percent of veterans want to continue their service when they take off their uniform. And we can use veterans to improve disaster response. Now on the surface, this makes a lot of sense, and in 2010, we responded to the tsunami in Chile, the floods in Pakistan, we sent training teams to the Thai-Burma border. But it was earlier this year, when one of our original members caused us to shift focus in the organization.
首先,对退役军人来说 灾难管理是一个机会 近来调查发现有92%的退役军人 愿意在退役后继续服务社会 我们可以让退役军人改善赈灾行动 初步看来,这是理所当然不过了 在2010年,我们已经派遣救灾队前往援助 智利海啸、巴基斯坦水灾,也派培训队伍到泰缅边境 但却是在今年不久前,一位前队员 导致我们转移了组织的方向
This is Clay Hunt. Clay was a Marine with me. We served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clay was with us in Port-au-Prince. He was also with us in Chile. Earlier this year, in March, Clay took his own life. This was a tragedy, but it really forced us to refocus what it is that we were doing. You know, Clay didn't kill himself because of what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clay killed himself because of what he lost when he came home. He lost purpose. He lost his community. And perhaps most tragically, he lost his self-worth.
他就是克莱·亨特。克莱是我的海军伙伴 我们一起在伊拉克和阿富汗服役 在太子港和智利,他也和我们同在 不久前,克莱自杀了 这是个悲剧。不过却让我们 重新思考我们的方向 克莱并非为了在伊拉克和阿富汗 所发生的事情而自杀。反而是为了 回家后他所失去的一切而自杀 他失去了生命目标。他失去了他的社群。 最悲惨的是,他失去了自我认同。
And so, as we evaluated, and as the dust settled from this tragedy, we realized that, of those two problems -- in the initial iteration of our organization, we were a disaster response organization that was using veteran service. We had a lot of success, and we really felt like we were changing the disaster response paradigm. But after Clay, we shifted that focus, and suddenly, now moving forward, we see ourselves as a veteran service organization that's using disaster response. Because we think that we can give that purpose and that community and that self-worth back to the veteran. And tornadoes in Tuscaloosa and Joplin, and then later Hurricane Irene, gave us an opportunity to look at that.
经历这个悲剧后 我们重新思考了这两个问题 最初我们这个组织 是个聘用退役军人的灾难管理组织 当时我们已经相当成功 我们也觉得我们改革了灾难管理的原状 但是克莱之后,我们改变了方向 向前发展, 我把我们自己视为 一个应对灾难的退役军人组织 因为我们认为我们能够重新 赋予退役军人的对社群、人生目标和自我认同 在塔斯卡卢萨和乔普林市 (密苏里州)发生风灾后 还有后来的飓风艾琳,我们有机会看清这一点
Now I want you to imagine for a second an 18-year-old boy who graduates from high school in Kansas City, Missouri. He joins the Army. The Army gives him a rifle. They send him to Iraq. Every day he leaves the wire with a mission. That mission is to defend the freedom of the family that he left at home. It's to keep the men around him alive. It's to pacify the village that he works in. He's got a purpose. But he comes home [to] Kansas City, Missouri, maybe he goes to college, maybe he's got a job, but he doesn't have that same sense of purpose. You give him a chainsaw. You send him to Joplin, Missouri after a tornado, he regains that.
现在我要你想像一个十八岁的男孩 刚刚从密苏里州堪萨斯市的高中毕业 加入了军队,军队给了他一支步枪 把他送到伊拉克 每一天他离开军营去参加任务 捍卫他在家乡亲人的自由 确保他身边的战友活命 维持他前往的那个村庄的和平 他有目标。但是回到堪萨斯城 也许他到学院上课,也许他找到工作 他不再有同样的目标感 你给他一把链锯,在飓风过后 派他到乔普林市,他就找回了目标。
Going back, that same 18-year-old boy graduates from high school in Kansas City, Missouri, joins the Army, the Army gives him a rifle, they send him to Iraq. Every day he looks into the same sets of eyes around him. He leaves the wire. He knows that those people have his back. He's slept in the same sand. They've lived together. They've eaten together. They've bled together. He goes home to Kansas City, Missouri. He gets out of the military. He takes his uniform off. He doesn't have that community anymore. But you drop 25 of those veterans in Joplin, Missouri, they get that sense of community back.
回顾过去,那个同样的十八岁男孩 从密苏里州堪萨斯市毕业,加入军队 军队给他步枪,派遣他到伊拉克 每一天他面对同样的脸孔 离开军营,他知道这些队友会关照他 他们睡在同样的沙地。他们一起生活。 他们一起吃饭。他们一起打拼。 这个男孩回到堪萨斯市 他退出军队,褪下军服 他没有同样的团队了 但是当你遣送25个退役军人到乔普林市 他们找回同样的社群感
Again, you have an 18-year-old boy who graduates high school in Kansas City. He joins the Army. The Army gives him a rifle. They send him to Iraq. They pin a medal on his chest. He goes home to a ticker tape parade. He takes the uniform off. He's no longer Sergeant Jones in his community. He's now Dave from Kansas City. He doesn't have that same self-worth. But you send him to Joplin after a tornado, and somebody once again is walking up to him and shaking their hand and thanking them for their service, now they have self-worth again.
再一次,十八岁的男孩 从堪萨斯市的高中毕业 加入军队。军队给他步枪 送他到伊拉克 在他的胸前别上徽章。然后他回国参加退役阅兵仪式 褪下军服后,他就不再是队伍中的琼斯中士 他现在是堪萨斯市的大卫 他没有同样的个人认同感 但是当飓风后你送他到乔普林市 会有人走到他面前 握他的手,感谢他的服务 现在他们又有同样的个人认同感了
I think it's very important, because right now somebody needs to step up, and this generation of veterans has the opportunity to do that if they are given the chance. Thank you very much. (Applause)
我认为这是很重要的,因为现在 总需要有人站出来 而恰恰我们这一代的退役军人做得到 只要我们给他们机会 谢谢大家(掌声)