Commentary
Page 8
Street Roots • June 17-23, 2016
PHOTO BY SUZANNE ZALOKAR
Damon Faust is a cofounder of the nonprofit Remote Emergency Training Solutions. Faust, a combat veteran, spent 2005 in Iraq.
BY SUZANNE ZALOKAR
STAFF WRITER
amon Faust and business partner Ross
Fielder have a vision: putting veterans’ skill
sets to work in Haiti. It’s an experience Faust
knows about this firsthand.
Faust, co-founder of the nonprofit Remote
Emergency Training Solutions, put his skills as a
combat veteran to use as a wildland firefighter. He
has also worked with Team
"I'm good in a crisis. 1 know a Rubicon, which gives veterans an
lot of veterans who will tell yon opportunity to apply their military
experience to disaster response,
the same thing. We function
and Hero Client Rescue, which
better in those stressful situa
emergency medical
tions where there is trauma or provides
services throughout Haiti.
danger or threats around us.
The best version of himself, he
The USA did a really good job
will tell you, is when he is serving
his community.
of training ns to do that."
Veterans and victims of huge
DAMON FAUST
natural catastrophes have
something in common: trauma.
Helping others, Faust said, is a way to process the
grief and confusion and guilt and pain that one may
have experienced as an agent of war or otherwise.
Faust was born in Portland, then raised in a
suburb of Sacramento. He joined the military, like
many young people, to get out of where he was and
to make his mom proud. He landed in combat arms
and quickly realized he wanted to get out He
learned that if he did a National Guard stint he
might be able to get out of active duty. He did, and
he went back to Sacramento for a year of service.
D
After he left, Faust’s unit received orders to go to
Iraq. Faust felt an obligation to some of the younger
guys still there. He had taught some of them to drive
a stick shift and had built a solid bond in the year
they trained together. He re-enlisted in active duty
and spent all of 2005 in Iraq with the Army.
Coast Guard. None of them had any sort of first-aid
training. It was really great to give them some of
those skills. One of the things I kept reiterating was
whether or not you use this in your day-to-day
helping your community, these are skills that you
can use for your family and your friends.
Suzanne Zalokar: Tell me what impression your
time in Iraq left on you?
S.Z.: lbw have this freedom to go to Haiti in part
because of the compensation you receive from the
military, meaning you don’t have to get time off from
work to go. Some poeple might think you are living the
dream. What is that like?
Damon Faust: While in Iraq, I lost a good friend,
and lots of my friends were injured pretty bad.
Somewhere there, I realized that I wanted more. My
military service kind of fucks me to this day. On the
other hand, if I hadn’t gone to Iraq, I wouldn’t have
found the motivation to want to do something
different. It was love-hate and a catalyst for change in
my life.
One of the lingering things that always sticks with
me: Underneath all of that chaos and violence and
ugly and hatred, I saw benevolence and compassion
- and not just between guys in my unit, but between
guys in my unit and Iraqi civilians and between
others. It was very interesting to me that in all of
that chaos, there was still love.
S.Z.: Where are you now, with RETS?
D.F.: I have a friend who is the CEO of Hero
Client Rescue, (a service that works to build a strong
emergency response capacity in underserved
communities worldwide). She’s been in Haiti since
the earthquake (in 2010).
I told her I wanted to put my skills to use, and
that evolved into me coming down there and helping
her do some really cool training with the Haitian
D.F.: I am dependent on the system, and that
terrifies me.
My girls have changed my perspective. I have a 5-
and a 3-year-old. That is one of the reasons that I do
a lot of volunteer work. I have a deep fear that they
will describe their dad ¿is an isolated, shut-in vet who
drinks too much in the garage. I haven’t done that in
a long time. I was working through some things in
my head. I still struggle with depression and things
like that, but I’m finding other ways to use my time,
ways to use those hours.
You know that compensation from the VA? It can
make you feel that your power has been stripped.
My ex-wife participated in the caregiver program,
which the VA created for modem war fighters. For
us, a spouse could become a caregiver, and they
would get compensation too. That changed our
whole family dynamic.
One of the things it did was strip my role in the
household, or I felt it did. I no longer felt like a
partner. I felt like someone who was in need of care.
And my ex-wife no longer felt like my partner either.