Local resident Rik Middleton found purpose in serving others as a member of Team Rubicon.

By Mary O’KEEFE

Imagine having a job where you are working with 20 to 100 people in often intense situations.

“Then one day, boom! You are gone,” said Rik Middleton, former U.S. Navy Corpsman [medic].

He explained what it was like at the end of an individual’s military service.

“In the military there is a brother- sisterhood that is built. One day you are on active duty and the next day you are not. There is a void and for some ­– me included – [that void] doesn’t go away,” he said.

For Middleton, that longing to serve was strong and he was constantly looking for something that would replace that void.

“It took me a long time to find an organization that would accept me, complement me and give me something of purpose to accomplish,” he said.

He found that purpose in 2018 when he joined Team Rubicon.

Team Rubicon was formed in 2010 after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. The call for help was made and two U.S. Marines ­– Jake Wood and William McNulty – knew they could help. They, along with six other veterans, gathered funds and supplies and flew to the Dominican Republic where they rented a truck and headed to Haiti, according to teamrubiconusa.org.

Team Rubicon has response teams in regions throughout the United States and will go anywhere they are needed.

Recently Middleton was in Warner Springs, California at the Schoepe Scout Reservation at Lost Valley. He was there with Team Rubicon, not for a rescue or rebuild, which is normally why team members are deployed, but this time members were there for training.

Training is key for members of Team Rubicon. Due to the nature of what they do, all members must be trained in the same manner and work as one cohesive group.

Team Rubicon members respond to a variety of events, some are disasters and some are proactive measures to prevent disasters. Each time the teams go out they are divided into small groups, about six people including the group leader.

“You can only supervise so many people in a disaster, so our control [teams] are five members plus me [as a leader],” he said.

At times there are anywhere from 50 to 80 people who show up to any given call for support. The members are assigned into smaller teams and sent out to specific areas. There are a number of jobs, or sectors, that need to be filled to make certain everything runs smoothly, including someone who arranges transportation, a safety person and incident commanders.

Middleton’s first Team Rubicon mission was in October 2018 when the team responded to Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas. Since then he has been active in many missions, and has many memories of how the team has helped others.

For example, he and the team responded to a flood. They found an American flag in the basement under a lot of water. The flag had been folded and was in a wooden case. The flag was soaked and the wooden frame destroyed.

“One of our vets talked to the homeowner and found that the flag had been draped on his grandfather’s casket during World War II. He was heartbroken because the flag was muddy and the case broken,” he said.

Team members took the flag and washed it by hand. Another member reached out to a friend who was a carpenter and he built a new case. They then ceremonially folded the flag, placed it in the case and presented it to the family.

“The homeowner was visibly shaken,” Middleton said.

Another time when they were working at a flooded area an older woman found one of her quilts had been damaged. Although nearly blind, the woman had been the head of a quilting club in her town and this particular quilt had patches representing all the former members of the club. A Team Rubicon member happened to also be a quilter; she sent the quilt to her quilting club and they unstitched it, cleaned it, re-stitched it and presented to the woman.

A few years ago Middleton and a small group from Team Rubicon responded to the earthquake in Trona, California. Members were sitting at a table in a room of responders when a woman and her daughter approached. They had traveled from Long Beach.

“The woman said, ‘I have been to every other table and no one seems to be able to help us. Can you help us?’” Middleton recalled.

The woman’s parents were in their 80s and were refusing to leave their home, which was certain to be red tagged because of damage resulting from the earthquake. They were afraid if they left someone would burglarize their home. There was no electricity and the temperatures were in triple digits. The woman was afraid her parents would die in their home.

        “[Rubicon team members] drove to the nearest Home Depot, which was an hour away. We picked up 13 sheets of plywood and drove back to their home. We boarded up all the doors and windows,” he said.

The elderly couple then agreed to leave their home, certain that their belongings would be safe.

“We know this is probably the worst day of someone’s life and they may, or may not, recover from it so we look at how we can make [things] better,” Middleton said. “We find a way to say yes.”

Team Rubicon pays for transportation, housing and food for their volunteer members. They do not take federal funding.

To support Team Rubicon or to find more information, visit teamrubiconusa.org.