Some Sandy relief volunteers needed a guitar, and . . .
From the Veterans Green Bus Facebook page
Roanoke’s own Bill Hudson delivered!
Note from Dan: This was an email forwarded to me by Bill Hudson, a musician and regular reader of this blog.
By Gordon Soderberg
The Veterans Green Bus Driver
December 7, 2012: I’m sitting on the Veterans Green Bus in a parking lot in Rockaway, NY. I got here a month ago to assist Team Rubicon’s efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy. They requested I bring the bus from Detroit to Chicago to pick up tools and crew members and drive them to New York. They asked me to do this because of my experience in establishing Forward Operating Bases for large scale disaster-relief efforts.
Arriving on Nov. 2 in Rockaway, the sand was piled 10 feet high in the streets and the people were just beginning to come back to find what was left of their former homes, and to begin the long hard work of removing the sand from their basements and the contents of their waterlogged houses.
The Veterans Green Bus was loaded with tools and supplies chosen for this type of work and a crew of six veterans. They immediately began working to help residence with the heavy work.
Team Rubicon USA is a national nonprofit that uses veterans to bridge the gap between the time natural disasters occur to when long-term recovery efforts and the organizations that run them come in. In this case it took a little over a month. This was the biggest recovery effort the organization has been involved with and why they called for the Veterans Green Bus.
Until Hurricane Sandy, Team Rubicon responded with region teams made of of 6 to 20 veterans and stayed in hotels, campgrounds or airport hangers to work from. The location and size of this event demanded that they scale up in numbers of veterans and be able to sustain their efforts on site for an extended period of time.
We brought with us everything we needed to accomplish the mission. Outdoor cooking gear, tools for 100 veterans to work with and generators power to operate tools, communications, heating systems and generators for hot water for cleaning hands and decontaminating equipment at the end of every workday.
The bus was converted into an office for communicating with volunteers on the ground and resources outside the recovery area. It was also home to the hard core volunteers who stayed every night to keep an eye of the increasing amount of supplies that was streaming in.
We were blessed to have several companies help us. Home Depot donated $50,000 for the tools; Palantir Technologies donated the use of their interactive battlefield awareness software which the veterans green bus members adapted to use for disaster relief.
This gave us a force multiplier to effectively identify homes and damage and the required tools and volunteers needed to accomplish the work. GoalZero donated massive amounts of their solar powered lights, cell phone chargers, refrigerators and battery packs so that we could keep fresh food on site for the crew and light our bus without having to start the engine at night.
We had everything we needed to do our job. But one thing was missing to be able to sustain our positive attitude and bring a little light to an otherwise dark and depressing situation. We had no music or the ability to make any.
I took the chance to make a call to Bill Hudson, a long time friend from my days in Slidell working to help the victims of hurricane Katrina. I knew if there was anyone who could get us a guitar it would be Bill and his network of musician friends. A simple request for a guitar went out and a few days later we received a beautiful Ovation Applause in a case and already in perfect tune.
One of our crew on the bus was from Montana, a wounded veteran of the war in Iraq who had spent his post-war years trying to find work in his hometown without any luck. He would make money by playing in a country band on the weekends. He heard about Team Rubicon and volunteered.
Jacob Kimmel playing a guitar rustled up by Bill Hudson | Courtesy, Gordon Soderberg
The only obstacle was that there are no planes trains or bus service in his hometown to get him back into action. In Salt Lake City there was a plane ticket waiting for him donated by Jet Blue — all he had to do was get there. So, like any former Army man he started marching. He walked for 10 miles carrying everything he needed to work with before getting picked up by a stranger.
When the guitar arrived his eye lit up like it was his first Christmas. He picked up the guitar and stated playing for the rest of the crew. His original songs were funny; his talent for playing was enjoyed by all. He helped people forget the hard work and the pain of shoveling sand day after day after day after day. He kept our spirits high and the songs gave us hope for a brighter day.
Over the past several weeks we have had the joy of music in camp and have been blessed with talented veterans who also craved the opportunity to play a guitar in the middle of a disaster zone. It was the single best gift we have received in the last month of gifts that have come our way for the work we do.
So thank you very much Bill Hudson and the friend of the Feel Good Tour. Your gift will keep on giving as the bus will be on duty bringing aid and comfort to those affected by natural disasters and the tools to rebuild for years to come.
December 17, 2012 - 8:00 AM
I am sure, “Rooster” by Alice in Chains is a favorite! It was always a favorite when friends played in the barracks.
In a previous blog Mr. Casey said he was using do-overs while he is away.
I just had a thought:
Sandi Saunders should take over the responsibility of maintaining
the blog and column until Mr. Casey returns to work.
She is extremely articulate and she shares many of the
same ideas and philosophies with Mr. Casey
Does anyone else think this would work?
Rob Thommins, I would agree with that.
I assume this is the open thread.
Anway, buried in another thread, suzie baited us with questions about where was God and what kind of upbringing did the Connecticut shooter have. AS IT TURNS out, the Lanzas are Catholic and the killer even went to Catholic school for a little while. Newtown is pretty well packed with churches. So, suzie, I guess that’s where he picked up his values.
And another yet another thread, our dear friend pammala suggested the the school had no security and had just let this guy in. NO, PAMMALA, the guy shot out a window and unlocked a door. Then he went to work with his mother’s wonderful assault rifle.
Great idea, Rob T.
Good job, Bill.
Job well done, Bill Hudson!
Bill, based on the picture, does it mean you gave them a sitting Ovation?
Just so everyone knows The Feel Good Tour is not me alone. This would of yet gotten off the ground if it was not for Guy Nouri (inventor of the paint program) who sponsored from the get go. Al Coffey a local musician has been with me from the start. Henry T. Fiddler (his real name) came all the way from Arkansas to help out. Rich Baumann came all the way from Wisconsin and he brought a pile of instruments (he did this twice). The Blues player Guy Davis flew in to do a concert and play for the kids at one of the schools. Mel and Vinnie came from New York with some more instruments. Last but not least all the folks who gave us the instruments, we could not do it without you!
Still Pickin’
Bill
Hey Warren….that was plain funny..I think I’ll steal that one.
You are an inspiration to the rest of us Bill.
I was talking to Gordon yesterday and he told me Steve Colbert donated $125,000 to his group. So I guess they will he will be around for a while.
I know there are a lot of people who don’t like Stephen Colbert, but he is a good man who uses his celebrity power to help a lot of people.
http://www.squidoo.com/stephen-colbert-charity
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/12/14/stephen-colbert-donates-super-pac-money-to-charity-video/
Almost 800,000.00 is no small change.
So looks like the killer in the CT shootings has a lot in common with a local psycho !!
AS IT TURNS out, the Lanzas are Catholic and the killer even went to Catholic school for a little while. Newtown is pretty well packed with churches. that’s where he picked up his values.
Rob Thommins:
“Sandi Saunders should take over the responsibility of maintaining
the blog and column until Mr. Casey returns to work.
She is extremely articulate and she shares many of the
same ideas and philosophies with Mr. Casey
Does anyone else think this would work?”
It would be entertaining, for sure. I might enjoy it, but Sandi is much more of a participant than a moderator and I think she would have too much trouble balancing her time between moderation and firing back replies to posts. Sandi certainly has the time, but I think a better stand-in would be Nosaj, Miriam, or Dave Gresham. They’re all lefties too. It would be fun to rotate the columns, though, so they aren’t ALL left-wing stuff. How about an original post from Michael A. Howdyshell, Jack, Dave Hicks, Shrillary, Dave Gresham, Sandi, Steve C., and Art Hill.
Now that would make for an interesting week!
Thanks for that vote of confidence John W. However, I prefer the term “bleeding heart commie liberal bra-burning feminist” to Leftie. Thanks.
teve C is currently getting his rear handed to him at work and won’t be posting mucch till friday.
Thanks for sharing this Bill Hudson, good on you and all your friends, what a great story!
LOL, I just read that Rob #2. Thanks but no thanks, there are some people who would hate me as the moderator even more than as a participant.
Hey Sandi…thanks but it is only me but many hands and hearts.
As to you being a moderator …what a hoot! One of these days I am going to have to buy you a beer. Love hearing your post.
Thanks Bill, I love what a good and talented man you are. I hope we do meet someday. Please tell your friends that we stand in awe of their efforts too. This shows what America is really made of and what it means to be an American.