WASHINGTON – For many, environmentalists are perceived as liberal, soldiers as conservative. But former Marine turned conservationist Rudy Socha is bridging that gap.
His new environmental organization, Wounded Nature – Working Veterans, recruits veterans who want to enter the workforce and pays them to clean up rural coastal areas that other nonprofits may have a difficult time reaching.
Wounded Nature - Working Veterans founder Rudy Socha, right, sits with fellow Marine Ken Vibbert in Turkey in 1971. (Photo courtesy of Rudy Socha)
In the first week of 2012, 15 veterans are slated to sail off on five houseboats – one for each branch of the military and the Coast Guard – and begin cleaning shorelines that are often overlooked.
“One of the problems veterans are having now is getting jobs when they return from combat,” said Socha. More than 15 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were unemployed in June, according to a statement by Todd Bowers, deputy executive director for Iraq-Afghanistan Veterans of America, on the National Institute of Mental Health website.
Socha said Wounded Nature could provide a transitional job opportunity back into civilian life.
“Our real mission is to convince employers that these people should be at the top of the hire list, not the bottom,” said Socha, who enlisted in the Marines as a machine gunner in 1970 on his 17th birthday. After serving in Turkey, Greece, France, Spain and Italy, he wrote a book about successful former Marines in civilian society.
The veterans on the vessels will do everything from cooking and cleaning to boat maneuvering and media relations in addition to their environmental cleanup duties. The experience, Socha said, should equip them with a variety of job skills before their four-month term expires.
While Wounded Nature will rely on veterans for labor, the organization is billed as a wildlife and environmental nonprofit rather than a veteran’s group. Socha said he realized the problem when he looked at smaller coastal areas away from the main public beaches.
“I found out there was a lot of coastline that’s not being cleaned right now,” he said. “No one is taking on the rural estuaries and rural beaches.”
The 55-foot houseboats used by the nonprofit will dock off of the clean-up area, reducing travel time by staying nearby and launching small boats toward shore. In addition, Wounded Nature plans to take marine scientists and journalists along to conduct research.
The nonprofit will focus on East Coast states, beginning in Florida and Georgia at the start of 2012 and working its way north.
Supporters of the program include FedEx, Lockheed Martin and Pepsi. Local companies are expected to contribute to the project when it arrives in their towns.