Green Berets solve complex challenges in service because they’re informed. Yet when they transition out, the civilian world often leaves them looking for answers. The Green Beret Foundation stands ready to ensure our nation’s most elite soldiers continue to succeed post service.
From the sidelines of the Stars and Stripes Classic, the first ever lacrosse battle between Green Berets and Navy SEALs, and the brain child of Green Beret Foundation, Fran Racioppi kicked off the game with Chairman of the Board retired Lt. Gen. Ken Tovo and Board Member and Green Beret Chris Robinette.
With penalty markers flying, we talk about the future of Green Beret Foundation support and how the reduction in conflict is creating opportunities to focus on transition support, job preparation and job placement. We also explain GBF’s position as the only VA accredited disability processing team in the Special Forces non-profit sector. Making informed decisions matters in service and beyond.
Watch, listen or read our conversation from Gillette Stadium and don’t forget to check out the rest of our series from the Stars and Stripes Classic and the full game highlights. If you haven’t signed up for next year, stay tuned for more information.
The Jedburgh Podcast is brought to you by University of Health & Performance, providing our Veterans world class education and training as fitness and nutrition entrepreneurs. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge.
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General Tovo and Chris, welcome to The Jedburgh Podcast live from Gillette Stadium. Stars and Stripes Classic just
started. We’re about halfway through the first quarter. Green Berets versus Navy SEALs. They’re out there on the field. I’m going to say with pride that the Green Berets took a two-minute penalty for unnecessary roughness. One of my only questions at this moment in time is, why did it take eight minutes for that to happen?
I’ll say there’s been plenty of legal roughness so far in the game. It’s been pretty exciting to watch, down one to nothing at the point, but that’s not going to stand. There we go. It’s now one-to-one. Green Berets just scored.
This game was the brainchild of Charlie Iacono, the CEO of the Green Beret Foundation. You guys, as board members, were the ones who had to approve that thing. For a second, talk about when Charlie came to you and said, “I want to do this lacrosse game. We’re going to do it in 2025 at Gillette Stadium and face the Navy SEALs on the field,” what’d you think?
It was an easy sell for me. We had talked a couple of years ago. I had a young woman who was a boxer and wanted to get a Navy SEAL Foundation versus Green Beret Foundation boxing event going. For one reason or another, we never could pull it off. I had talked to Charlie about it’d be great to do something like that. He came back with that idea on steroids. I had the opportunity to meet with the founders of the PLL at one point for a helmet ceremony. I mentioned it to them and they jumped on it. The Rabil brothers took Charlie’s idea and helped put it into action. Kudos to the PLL as well for making this happen and helping get this across the line.
Charlie’s done a great job, not just building the programs and services since he’s been on board but thinking about how to expand the brand, build partnerships, and work with corporations. This is a no-brainer event in terms of getting everybody into Gillette Stadium in partnership with the PLL. All of those things are fantastic. We took that as an idea and put it into motion.
It’s even beyond, frankly the Green Beret Foundation and Navy SEAL Foundation. We approach this as an opportunity to help the military connect to society. We do have a recruiting crisis in the military. Part of that is society needs to know their military. This is an opportunity. It was great. Before the game, we’ve got the SEAL Foundation and the Navy SEALs to bring up some of their boats and guys. We’ve got some of our vehicles. You’re watching the youth of America get a chance to talk to Green Berets and Navy SEALs, get behind a gun, talk about what they do, and connect. That’s important.
We can’t make it this mythical thing that lives out there. We have to remember that at the end of the day, the guys who were on that field, the units that we all served in, were still regular people who came from society and identified that we wanted to give back and be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We went out there, raised our hand, and did it. That’s what these guys are doing.
That’s the other connection that is necessary for the youth of America to see. This is something that’s achievable for them. It’s a high bar but it’s not an impossible bar. If you want to be in a Green Beret, you can get there. It will take hard work. It’s not going to be given to you for free but you can achieve it if you want like every guy out on the field did at one point in their career.
I want to talk about the programmatic of the foundation. Last time we spoke, we went into detail about what the different initiatives are, whether it be scholarships, casualty support, or assistance on the VA disability front. That has taken front and center of so much of what the foundation is doing. Can you give an update on how far that program has come over in 2024 and why, specifically, the VA disability piece has become a central tenant of the foundation?
We went through a strategic review several years ago, in which Chris was a part of the volunteer team, the lead. He can tell you some of the outcomes of that. One of the things we got from that team was the need to transition the weight of our effort away from casualty support because of the tempo of the war. Fortunately, we were taking fewer casualties. The real needs in the community were in transition, mental health, and spiritual health. Going forward, these have been where we put the focus of our programmatic spending.
Every Green Beret will leave the force at some point. Whether they do 5 years, 10 years, or a career of 30 years, they will pass through the VA system, which is a difficult system to navigate. Particularly to acknowledge all the wear and tear a Green Beret goes through in his training and operational cycle. We made the commitment a few years ago as a board to fund this VSO program. It’s grown beyond our expectations. We’re not just taking care of folks in uniform today. We’re taking care of Vietnam veterans who didn’t get their appropriate VA benefits many years ago. It’s important.
I think that’s right. When I came out of the board, there was still significant spending in support. We were doing the casualty support, but in the last few years, that started to wane a little bit. The need did not shrink in terms of the community. Not only did we make an investment in particular things like the VA disability or care rating. It’s becoming the forefront and coming home. I’m at a twenty-year mark from when I first came in. A lot of my friends do it at retirement age.
I was at dinner where I was like, “I’ve got to do my package.” They asked me if I knew how it works. Not only do I know how it works, but we’ve essentially cornered the market and are doing that well for a lot of folks. I’m on a text thread with guys on my former ODA who are still not feeling great and breaking down. They’ve gotten out or they’re coming up in their twenty-year mark. I said, “This service was designed and built to solve that real need.”
Not only is that a need we installed at the right time, but we’re also very proficient at it with the staff. They’re exceptional in terms of getting results, getting people appropriate ratings, and getting through the process in almost a fire-for-gateway way. If you talk to some of the people who have gone through it, they’re connecting with us online, initiating a basic set of paperwork, minimal churn in terms of updating records, and coming away with solid ratings. We’ve done the right thing for the community in getting that set up.
It’s important, as the first quarter ends here, to give an update on the game. Unfortunately, we’re down 4 to 1 at this point but they’re going to reset here during this quarter break. It’s important to understand when folks are transitioning out, they might feel good at the moment of transition but so many things manifest later on.
When we talk about what the call to action is, how do we get people to realize, “This is something you need to do? It’s something you want to do.” You have to go to that advocate from GBF, who sits in your special forces group. Go talk to them and get that process going. It might take 1 year, 2 years, 4 years, or 5 years even for things to come up. We don’t want to back into it. We want to address it head-on.
The other thing that’s important to talk about is that our transition program has grown to be much more than just the VSO transition, the Veterans Affairs piece. We’ve partnered with about a dozen corporations who are helping with targeted job placement for Green Berets. They’ve got gaps to fill and they want good proven performers who are complex problem solvers. The very definition of SFMCO is awesome. We’ve put together a whole program that helps ease the transition from uniform service back into the civilian world. That includes the job placement aspect.
The next Ridgeline 2.0 program is the one you’re talking about. I agree that the Army and Special Forces have already put our operators through a selection process. Employers can use that process to say that a person has already been assessed and selected for excellence. Let’s take that and give them a skill. They may lack hard skills, but we know they have the soft skills, character, and what we want in them to build a great organization. We can teach them what they need on a daily basis once they’re in their organization.
They’ve proven their ability to learn complex skills and difficult skills. For many corporations, the skills piece is less important than the heart. It’s complex problem-solving but also about commitment to the mission, whatever the mission is, and the ability to do what it takes to accomplish a mission. Whether that’s in a business suit or a uniform, that’s one of the differentiators Green Berets bring to civilian life. They understand commitment, purpose, and working hard.
A lot of Ridgeline 2.0 is putting people in a position to succeed in the next chapter, helping people with mind, body, and spirit, and also the next chapter of employment, employability, education, what that looks like, and helping guys make informed choices of what’s next so they can continue to contribute. As General Tovo said, being part of the mission is a big factor and component of what’s in that DNA. Putting people in a position to do that again in the next chapter is important.
There’ve been a number of acquisitions that the foundation has made, whether it be scholarship funds or different support mechanisms. I had the opportunity to go to Alaska with Warrior Sportsman, where we’re taking guys and getting them out in the environment but bringing them together and giving them an opportunity to be with guys they haven’t seen for a long time. Why is this acquisition strategy important?
Our philosophy is essentially that we’re trying to create a broad, holistic support capability for Green Berets, current and former, and their families. Also, consolidates the marketplace to some extent. Fundraising has become tougher in this economy and environment. In some senses, society assumes the wars are over. The military is presumed to be sitting at home station, not needing the support that it needed before, which is nothing further from the truth. The military is engaged around the world. Our thesis is that as we consolidate the market, it will help with fundraising and bring in the revenue necessary to support the programs we provide. It’s a tougher environment than it used to be for fundraising. Consolidation is one way to answer that.
There’s also efficiency in the services. You find best-in-class partners. If we were dedicated to building some of these functions ourselves, it would take years, whereas consolidating these mergers allows us to start delivering service today at a very high level for folks who need it now. There are a lot of efficiencies on the program side of how you think about building a holistic mechanism and delivering that speed to market. It’s also the inherent outcome of finding good partners.
As you look forward, over the remainder of 2024 into 2025, what’s your vision and call to action for the team?
We want to continue to build the brand. Events like this get the word out internally and to the community. We’ve got folks who came to play with the team and brought their families, who didn’t have as much awareness as we’d hoped about what the Green Beret Foundation does. We use this weekend event to inform and educate to some extent. We hope to continue to expand that understanding in the community we serve. We’re also trying to expand awareness in a broader community, both in the corporate world and with other foundations and potential donors, so that we can build the revenue base needed to support the regime.
The future is very uncertain in many ways on what the organization needs to prepare for. I view it as we want to keep the foundation in an athletic position for success in the future. It’s not a matter of if but when the next major conflict arises. We want to have the mechanisms to continue to immediately pick up, for example, if casualty service becomes an immediate demand and need. We’re financially prepared to do that. The service and program staff are prepared to do that.
In the interim, we want to continue to deliver high-value and high-need services to the community, wherever they live or where they’re at. It’s important to always be aware of where that organization’s service needs to be at any given time. Are we building the right things? Are we positioned to be successful when the environment changes? It can turn on a dime. I think about that a lot, making sure the organization is in a very athletic position and adaptable to meet the needs of Green Berets because that need is highly unpredictable when, if, and how we’ll have to respond to that.
That’s exactly what we’re hearing out of the commanders. Huge hit by our boys right there.
Unfortunately, there’s also a flag up in the air on it.
He’s going to take a two-minute break.
It isn’t helping the overall score here. It’s not looking very good for the Green Berets but I feel confident we’ll come back strongly at some point.
We’ve got a lot of the game left. I appreciate you taking a few minutes and sitting down with us. We’re going to get
back out there and keep watching this, cheering these guys on. Events like this are what will continue to draw awareness to how important both of these organizations are. We’re biased towards the Green Beret Foundation and the Green Berets but we need people to get out there and join not only the Green Berets but the Navy SEALs, too. We’ve got to build a force that’s capable of doing everything you were talking about. That’s being adaptable and ready to go when the nation has that call.
We need to be ready ahead of need so that we’re not lagging. As Chris said, it’s an uncertain future that’s the most optimistic. We know from history that our Green Berets will be called to action again, and we need to be ready to support them when that happens.
If our boys aren’t ready and SEALs are sitting around doing nothing, we’ll give them some action. Thanks for joining.
Green Beret Foundation
P.O. Box 25138
New York, NY 10087-5138
Note: Please use USPS mail or priority mail. Do not use FedEx.
15618 Summit Park Drive, Suite 801 Montgomery, TX 77356
Call: at: (844) 287-7133
