December 9, 2025 • 28 mins
Welcome to the One CA Podcast, a product of the Civil Affairs Association.
As we take a brief pause this December, we’re revisiting some of this year's most impactful episodes, conversations that highlight the “last three feet” of U.S. foreign relations through the voices of military professionals, diplomats, development officers, and field agents.
This month’s rerun features a standout discussion from our archives, selected for its enduring relevance and insight. Whether you're tuning in for the first time or revisiting a favorite, we hope these episodes continue to inspire your work in the human domain and beyond.
To learn more about the show or get involved, visit civilaffairsassoc.org or email us at CApodcasting@gmail.com.
From all of us at One CA, thank you for listening—and we’ll see you with new episodes in January.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the One CA podcast. I'm your host Assad Raza, and
today we have John Non Maker andAmanda Edmonds for Veterans
without Orders. Welcome, John and Amanda.
For having us. Hi there.
Thanks for having. Us, thank you for guys coming on
before we start, can you both briefly just share a bit about
yourselves and your connection to the civil affairs community?
Yeah, for. Me, I did a 26 years in the
(00:22):
military. Over 20 of that was in civil
affairs, retired a little over two years ago now and served in
numerous positions across the CAcommunity, whether it's S3, a
few commands, commander general staff college.
But I'd say the two most important ones that that kind of
directly correlate to what we'retalking about today was I was
(00:44):
the deputy J9 one at Indo Paycomand humanitarian assistance and
disaster response as well as wasa S com Illinois for a time.
Amanda. Amanda here and did 12 years as
a civil affairs specialist. All of that time was in CA Most
notable was by serving in Iraq at the Baghdad Provincial
Reconstruction Team. There.
(01:05):
I also served on the steering committee for the Women's
working group, which I'll be able to talk more about that and
how it relates to VWO now. And then.
Also, when I deployed to HOAA, which is probably where I did
most of my CA work on a mobile medical team, I also was the
team leader and instructor for the first ever CMO class to the
UPDF in Uganda. So that was pretty neat.
(01:27):
But yeah, I also completed my master's coursework at Fordham
in New York City and humanitarian action, so.
Thank you, guys. Really quickly, John, what years
were you at Indo Paycom? 15 to 18, I believe, OK.
Amanda, you said you were at thePRC in Baghdad.
What years were you there? 2007 to 2008.
OK, awesome. So that's after me guy that was
(01:48):
in Baghdad with the civil affairs team out there during
the withdrawal in 2011, which was a pretty rough time.
Can only imagine. All right, so let's move on and
talk a little bit about the organization's mission.
Sure. So veterans with our orders,
this is our 10 year anniversary actually essentially for
leveraging the decades of experience that we have with
(02:08):
veterans, but also first responders who work under
pressure and in different environments and a lot of them
have worked in humanitarian locations and different
missions. So really cool group and
community that we have and just using all of those skills and
highly trained veterans to help in different things, whether
that's experience in healthcare or linguistics, diplomatic
(02:30):
relations or different skill sets that they come from.
We also have modeled our initiatives after different
successful organizations. So we know we have the
blueprint, it works. That includes women recognizing
that they're really the backboneof their communities, and we
really like to focus on them andempower them by providing them
with different water filtration systems.
(02:51):
And they go out into their communities and they're sharing
clean water and they're sharing hygiene.
We call it wash, and you might have heard the term before, but
it's water, sanitation and hygiene when they're going
around to different communities,bridging those borders and
offering that education and resources to different
communities. So that's kind of the gist of
what we do, and that's kind of what our mission is and who it
(03:13):
entails. Thanks, Amanda.
Congratulations, 10 years anniversary.
That's awesome. So, John, can you talk a little
bit about what inspired you to create VWO?
Yeah, I think for me it happenedand when I was in Mozambique and
one of the other Co founders, Kyle Toto, was there with us and
going into Mozambique, I was really a soldier doing like HIV
clinics and doing some training.But I think I put glasses on
(03:36):
this kid and gave him some food and water and I watched him
change. And I realized then like how
easy it was to change a life with simple eyeglasses.
And one of the things I say now is that's the second that I from
being a soldier to being a humanitarian, pretending to be a
soldier for the rest of my career.
(03:57):
So I think that was kind of the first spark that wished me into
help Co founding VWO. The second one is looking at my
LinkedIn network back then. And I was like, got civil
affairs, I got BHA, I've got theUN, I've got linguist, cultural
experts, Phaeos. And I thought, wow, imagine
taking just my network and putting it onto a platform to
(04:19):
tackle some of these problem sets we've been exposed to a
civil affairs soldiers and what we could do with it.
So we got together and just started going down the path of
starting a nonprofit. So that's cool that you got that
humanitarian bite right while you're still in uniform.
So Amanda, I know you mentioned something that you guys want to
talk a little about some of the programs or initiatives that
your organization offers. Can you kind of expand on that?
(04:41):
Yeah, sure. So there's four different key
initiatives that BWO really focuses on and I can cover two
of them and I'll let John kind of take on the other two.
But one of them is empowering the local women.
And this really strikes home with me just because of what I
got to see first hand being partof the steering committee named
Baghdad, which really that organization was basically a
(05:03):
coalition that started in 2007, which really just brought in
women to address the gender issues that were happening in
post conflict reconstructions. So it was really eye opening to
go to the first ever Erbil conference in northern Iraq and
really get to hear the stories and the plights of the women who
have gone through the conflict and how they're using their
(05:24):
voices to make an impact in their communities.
So that really strike home with me.
And that just gives us the opportunity to give them the
tools and the knowledge when we do go to these different
communities to be able to make it an impact even after we
leave. So they become ambassadors, they
get equipped with the different filter buckets that we use from
Sawyer and the the knowledge of the WASH training that we use
(05:45):
from Project WET, which is also science backed education that's
tailored to each of the different regions that we go to.
So yeah, being able to connect that to my work with women back
in Baghdad is just really cool. Another initiative is honoring
service members. And really every single mission
that we've been on is dedicated to the memory of someone who has
served or sacrificed. This is pretty personal for me,
(06:09):
just because my brother and I both served in civil affairs
together. We both served in Iraq together.
So being able to dedicate the upcoming 2025 mission to Malawi
to him, the Staff Sergeant Matt Smolinski project is pretty
personal for me. And we get to continue the
legacy of these service members.We get to tell their story
before every mission. We get to hear from the family
(06:30):
members personally, I mean a large turn out of our team.
We'll get on these calls and we get to hear the story of that
service member. We get to take their
personality. We get to take their spirit with
us on the mission. And it does really drive the
energy, I call it, of each of the missions.
And we like to bring different points of them out inside of
(06:52):
each of those missions. So two really cool initiatives
with BWO and John, I don't know if you want to tell the story
about the teacher in Guatemala and kind of how that drove the
initiative with empowering women.
I always say we have 4 lines of effort.
The first one being having a platform for veterans to
continue to serve mainly not just veterans and 1st
responders, but the core group is, is really civil affairs.
(07:14):
So there's a lot of other organizations out there that are
veterans together, whether it's to do CrossFit or to go camping.
We kind of do the same thing, but it's really to get you out
to do humanitarian work. So that's our first line of
effort. The second one is providing
clean water and health in these communities.
It's an easy sell for our listeners here on how critical
clean water is. Over a 2 billion people don't
(07:36):
have access to clean drinking water.
And I think those in Civil affairs have probably peeled the
onion back like I did and realized, wow, like, this is the
root cause to health. Does the root cause to school
attendance. This is the root cause of all of
these other issues. So really focusing as much as we
can on, like Amanda said, Wash. And then just to kind of caveat
some of the things that she said, our third line of effort
(07:58):
is empowering women. We know we can't go into a
village and say, hey, you need no more village leaders that are
women. So what we do is we only train
specifically mothers in these villages, in these communities
and tribes on how to use our water filtration systems and it
really gives them the power of life.
And I'm giving one quick exampleon that.
One of our main efforts is we invest in these fist size
(08:20):
filtration systems by Sawyer Products.
They cost about 25 bucks apiece.They provide enough clean water
for five families for up to 15 years.
Now saying that, it sounds like,wow, that's amazing and it is.
But seeing them, they look so plastic and cheap.
Like organizations like USAID really don't get behind them
because it's such a simple solution.
(08:41):
But five families for up to 15 years for like 25 bucks, It's
absolutely insane. And to really caveat a little
bit more on like why working with women is makes our programs
more effective. If you give one of these filters
to a mom and say, hey, this is going to keep your son from
getting sick, it's going to giveyou more energy.
You're going to all of these different benefits will take
care of that filter. What we found is getting that
(09:03):
filter to a man and he finds outthat filter is worth 20 to 30
U.S. dollars. He'll sell it to feed his family
for two to three weeks. Now, not one of those is better,
but for the effectiveness really, we found that mothers
keep those filters maintained inthe last 15 years.
Just a little bit on the. The last one is honoring fallen
(09:23):
soldiers. It's really an awesome way to
memorialize the fallen soldier. The story she was talking about
with the woman in Guatemala was like 2017.
And we had a woman that was not paying attention in class.
And I asked one of my colleagueslike, hey, can you find out why
she's not paying attention? And we got done with class and
she's like, oh, I was in your training two years ago.
(09:44):
And now I go around and teach inall these other schools.
I'm just here for a refresher. And she was actually taking
clean water out of the one filter we gave her to all the
surrounding schools that she could walk to every single day.
And it was just super inspiring.That's a great Moe hearing from
someone that took a Class 2 years prior and going out to the
villages and taking it upon herself to teach it to a schools
(10:06):
and kids and other family members out there.
That is awesome man. This is great.
There's so many good Nuggets that just came out of this.
Powering local women, honoring service members, providing A
venue for veterans and 1st responders to serve and give
back to the community and give them that sense of purpose that
they potentially miss when they get out the military or their
jobs. How did you find out about
Sawyer Filtered? How did you get in contact with
(10:27):
them? Yeah, they're one of our biggest
cheerleaders. We love what they do.
It was really starting off research on what's the most
simple way with the biggest impact, what has the biggest
Roe. And we love Sawyer, but we're
not married to that technology. But right now and for the past
10 years, we haven't found anything that gives us a bigger
bang for our buck. They're really great for
(10:48):
disaster response. We just did over 1000 of them in
Hurricane Lane in North Carolina.
And so that was clean water for that disaster.
So if you think about the water,bottled water scenario that's
going on there, we did that one logistics trip is providing
clean water for five families for 15 years that are still
using them today up in the mountains.
It's just absolutely incredible technology and it's great for us
(11:12):
because there's also like littlehidden benefits.
One, we could pump 18 duffel bags of these into a country
just in our checked baggage. The other thing is if we take
100 into say Nicaragua and threebreak and two gets stolen, our
programs and projects are 95% successful.
We have two other complementing tools like the filter that we
(11:32):
use. One is called the spa tap and
which is a very simple thing that goes on the bottom of a one
liter bottle of water. If you're a woman carrying water
3 hours, you're not going to waste that water to wash your
hands, which is obviously one ofthe biggest causes of disease
around the world. You're going to use it to cook,
maybe wash your clothes. You're going to use it to drink,
not going to waste it to wash your hands.
Well, that spa taps slows the flow rate down so much that it
(11:55):
doesn't waste any water. And out of one liter of water,
you can get 60 hand washes and it's fun.
So the kids see this like silicone cap and they encouraged
them they want to wash their hands.
We were actually teaching hand wash it before COVID.
So before it was cool. We have no idea how to calculate
if we saved any lives post COVID.
But I mean, the last one I'll let Amanda talk about is the
(12:16):
solar lamps. Yeah, so there's billions of
people around the world who don't have access to safe
sanitation, access to latrines. I don't think they realize,
though, the dangers that can happen with women and girls
specifically when they don't have safe travel to a latrine.
They don't have safe place for menstrual hygiene, and it's
(12:39):
posing more risk to them for being abused, to get attacked
for sexual assault. That was eye opening for us.
So we have a partnership where we're able to bring in solar
lamps. They're super small.
They're easily folded, just kindof like our filters.
We can just throw them in a duffel and take them in the
country with them. I mean, they're super light Oz,
(13:01):
I'm talking. And it's just lit up by solar.
So they can snap it together. It has buttons around it and let
the solar light activate it at night.
And it gives them safe travel tolow latrine or they don't have
to risk their lives going to thebathroom.
And it can also light up the latrine.
And I had a conversation with one of the attendees and he
(13:21):
emailed me after the event and Isaid, hey, Amanda, thanks so
much for sharing that information and showing me that
solar light. I had no idea there was so much
danger associated with the lack of safe sanitation.
I knew that it was a problem, but I didn't understand the
depths of it. And also specifically for women
and girls, so. We this came out of a study out
of Haiti. Just these girls Having these
lamps deterred rape and sexual assault and violence by over
(13:44):
50%. So for 11 bucks could cut the
possibility of rape by 50% by just giving them this deterrent.
It's it's insane. Wow, that's amazing.
And just to clarify, when you guys go on a mission, do you
guys take the water filters, thespa taps and the solar lamps or
do you guys just take specific items for Pacific Mission?
(14:06):
It depends. Like we just got back from
Uganda and we didn't need to putin spa taps into some of the
hospitals that we worked in because they had hand washing
stations. Another one is we couldn't get
spa taps in in Mass. So we really just focused on
teaching some of the high schoolers on how to build tippy
taps, which are you might be familiar with where you hang a
(14:27):
Jerry can and until like a suspended piece of lumber and
have a pedal to where it really limits the water.
Not as much of the Spa tap, but it's a good enough solution.
One of the amazing things as being CA and we have a trusted
partner in almost every country that you could think of and we
have assessments done. We're looking at data, but
depending on what capabilities we take or purchase in country
(14:49):
depends on the assessment. Thank you.
And you know, there's always challenges, you know, having a
nonprofit, usually fundraising and funding.
But what are some of the biggestchallenges for your nonprofit?
Yeah, You've kind of hit on thisif you think of your network, of
what problems I could throw at you, and you just get your
network together, pick the topicof the day, think of your
network of how you would solve that problem and go out and do
(15:11):
it. And I bet you and your network
alone could probably make a dentinto that problem set based on
just who you know and be able tomobilize them.
I do this full time now. And what caused this was we went
to Uganda in February and took Noah Hodges and a good SF buddy
of mine. We provided clean water for 3600
(15:32):
people. You've saw over 1000 patients.
We taught 10 schools, handed outsolar lamps, everything, like
all of these amazing things. And we did it for like $15,000.
It was super efficient, super effective.
And that's kind of what our thing has been is like raise
funding, go do a mission, raise funding, go do a mission.
But the biggest challenge we face right now is after looking
(15:53):
in that impact report and deciding to do this full time, I
realized like we need to scale. And to scale, we have the
experts within our ranks to do the mission part of things.
But what we don't have are fundraisers, social media,
people that know how to target funders, accountants, like those
things may not exist within our things.
(16:14):
So I think that's one of our biggest challenges is how do we
scale what we have with this proven concept to really make an
impact into the the water crisis.
I. Mean, imagine a world in which
we don't have just three missions in 2025, but we have
multiple missions going on simultaneously.
We would be able to accomplish that with more funding, with
(16:34):
more dedicated development team members.
So are there any plans to expandprogram to partner with other
organizations to kind of fill that gap?
Yeah. Actually one partnership that we
have going on right now is with an organization called
Freshwater Project Internationaland they focus on WASH
infrastructure, specifically in Malawi for the last 20 years.
(16:55):
Recently, they just partnered with the National Women's Soccer
League and Malawian. She also was nominated as the
MVP for the league this year, Temwa Chewinga.
So we recently just did a fundraiser in Kansas City
following the National Women's Soccer League championship game,
which was an amazing event. But through this partnership in
(17:16):
Malawi and this upcoming mission, we're able to leverage
their connections in country. Like John said, we have these
trusted partners and all these places we go to.
So when we hit the ground, we'vealready got a dedicated team
who's already done the insights,the assessments, they have, the
data, so we can leverage their skill sets.
(17:36):
There's also other partnerships involved in this campaign, which
is led by Temwa in her home country.
So we have some amazing people that are connected to this
campaign and we really look forward to the impact that will
be made in Malawi in 2025. So we'll be primarily providing
healthcare through the differentschools.
So we're really excited to kind of partner with them and really
(17:58):
make an impact with what we're best at, which is providing
water and wash training and alsoproviding solar lights.
Freshwater has been building andthe infrastructure that they've
put together already. So we're just amplifying the
great work that they're doing and being able to help
contribute bigger impacts. And a good example, Amanda's
actually been to Malawi. She knows the landscape, she
(18:18):
knows the culture, has trusted partners there.
That's just on this call to kindof re re emphasize the fact of
like how awesome the Civil affairs network is to go after
some of these challenges. Out of curiosity, how did you
get in contact with the Women National Soccer League and how
did you create that network and develop that relationship?
Yes, I always say I'm never the smartest guy in the room, but I
(18:40):
know a lot of people. I'm also a WASH ambassador for
Rotary and also on their Disaster Notification Assistance
Advisory Board. That's a network that's almost
as powerful as the CA community.But the person who runs
Freshwater International is actually help me with the
disaster response for the cyclone that hit Malawi.
(19:00):
I sent teams up to her NGO in Malawi and she helped guide them
right to the disaster point without while other NGOs were
still trying to figure out whereto go.
She has a connection through Malawi and their ambassador team
that had connections to Tim Wah and reached out to us to see if
we would partner up on this mission and it was a no brainer.
(19:21):
That's one of the things people ask is how do you pick where you
go? And it's really the big one is
having trusted partners. And of every partnership we've
ever had, I would give them access to my personal bank
account. That's how much I trust the
people that we work with. And that's how I feel about
Freshwater. That's awesome.
That's good to know. So can you kind of expand on how
do you use veterans and how you leverage your their skills in
(19:42):
these missions? Well, I'll say one of the
coolest things is most organizations have to spend
countless dollars on training uptheir people with us.
We don't necessarily have to do that.
If you think about your two O 1 file in the schools you went to,
I would look at that and say you've been in the Middle East
or and we have an operation going on there.
You speak Swahili or whatever those things are within the CA
(20:04):
community. We can cherry pick the right
people or that right mission. And that's kind of more
specific. But even on a general level, if
you think of veterans alone and what they bring to any
organization, whether it's working in Austria environment
or. Leadership or team building, you
have all of these things. But the biggest thing is that I
really enjoyed is I worked with civilian NGOs when I first got
(20:25):
out of the military and realizedI don't know how to talk.
I use words that they don't understand.
Like really think that was an implied task.
What's an implied task with BWO?Which is awesome.
It's not just having veterans that still understand MDMP or
what an OP order is or what the troop leading procedures are.
It's super awesome. They just put AT shirt on them,
(20:46):
give them a little bit of direction and they're out
running. One story I tell all the time is
I was in Haiti with VWO in 2015 and one of our partner NGOs was
like, man, you guys are an effective team.
And she's like, you and Noah areIn Sync.
You guys are knocking this out. You're so effective.
How long have you guys been goodfriends?
(21:08):
And I looked at my watch and I was like, I've known Noah for
about 4 1/2 hours and I had two conference calls with him before
we got to Haiti. CAI know he's been trained in
all of these things and we savedso much money by just tweaking
that, the experiences you already have and just putting
the right people on target. Yeah, that is really cool.
For a guy like me, for example, that would be easy to get there
(21:28):
and fit in, no major adjustments.
You don't have to learn the new Lex con.
You don't have to learn all these other things and kind of
feel like you're out there. And I think that the attraction
though, for veterans, that's thethings that we miss, you know,
when we get out. And it's like you miss being
with that community, the people who understand you.
So being able to go out on a mission and go to those austere
environments and work with limited resources, again with
(21:49):
the people who get you, it just provides a new sense of purpose
and meaning outside of the uniform.
Okay, what are some of the most valuable lessons that you both
have learned while running this nonprofit?
For me, John actually approachedme just as I was getting out of
the military, and it was a time when I was actually in the
process of starting my own NGO. I've run businesses before, but
(22:10):
I realized that my skills, my energy could be best used for an
organization that was already doing it.
I would say like for any other civil affairs soldiers who might
be looking to continue doing this sort of work or thinking
maybe I should start my own nonprofit.
I would just ask you to considerVWO is already an organization
that exists. We're already in place, and we
(22:30):
already have an amazing network.So I just encourage you to reach
out to John's, then see how you might be able to contribute your
skills. And I would say the biggest
lesson I learned is a proof of concepts like I they
continuously get reinforced on this.
And I'll give you an example is when the hurricane hit North
Carolina a couple months ago, I had a sister NGO reach out to me
and say, hey, we need some help.Can you deliver filters to this
(22:54):
area of North Carolina? I was like, yeah, we can do it.
Let me let me get a network mobilized within 24 hours.
So we are donated over 1000 filters, which is a lot of money
and put it on a private plane. And I said, hey, send it to
Raleigh and I'll get it on point.
I got a team together in Raleighready to go pick up the filters
and everything. And then the pilot called and
said, hey, I'm dropping these filters at a different location
(23:17):
in the middle of nowhere of North Carolina, this small dirt,
maybe one concrete airstrip. And I thought, I'm like, Oh my
God, how am I going to get somebody there to get these?
And I pick up the phone and I call Rebecca Bronner and she's a
civil affairs officer. You guys may know her.
And I explained to her, I'm like, Rebecca, I need you to go
to this location and get all of these filters and get them to
(23:38):
Raleigh. And I explained to her what
needs to happen, how it needs tohappen.
And I was like, do you have any questions?
And she hasn't said a word yet. And she says one question.
Can my parents go with me? And I'm like, I'm asking you to
drop everything you are doing and go do this.
And it's going to be work. You're going to have to drive.
And all she asked me is like, isit cool if I, my mom and dad
(23:58):
roll with me? And she did.
And just some pictures of her mom and dad.
I Facebook page putting packagesof filters in the back of cars
to get them into North Carolina.One of the things I learned is
like this, it's not just veterans, it's veterans that
have done this type of work. It's our veteran network that is
all over, not just the US, but think of how many people you
know, Roz in Europe or in the Middle East or in Africa or like
(24:20):
all the friends, like the proof of concept is done.
Like we're ready to scale. That is awesome.
I want to thank Rebecca out there.
Thank you and your family. That's awesome.
But John, I know you wanted to talk a little bit more about the
skills that you're looking for for your veteran volunteers.
You want to kind of expand on that before we end this?
Yeah, that's what we've done is we've effectively given clean
water to like 10,000 people a year, just with a limited amount
(24:43):
of money and a limited amount ofpeople.
I talked about earlier in February about seeing that
impact report of what we could do if we scaled.
That's decision we made in May was let's do it.
Let's open this up to be not just quiet professionals doing
great work around the world. Let's tell people what we're
doing and let's scale and try tomake it bigger.
So I would say if you ask I haveis if you're a reservist or
(25:05):
retiree and you're out there andrun a bank or own a business or
even run a coffee shop or whatever it is you do help
invest in us to grow to where wecan provide more opportunities
for more veterans to do what we've been doing for our entire
careers. So that's one is invest in us
both financially and maybe even time 2, I would say help tell
our story. People have told our story.
(25:26):
The small network that we've hadthat are involved with this, but
no better people that tell our story than Civil affairs because
everybody gets it. You can articulate what the
water crisis is to most people have no idea how to talk about
something like that. You could even start a campaign.
If you look at what happened after the Afghanistan
evacuation, the small NGOs that stood up and formed a task force
(25:49):
and what they were able to accomplish, which is veterans,
think about maybe you were on anoperation and got bit by that HA
bug in Haiti or wherever it is you may have served that you can
get out there and do something. And one of the things I tell
people is they, I'm a big fan ofSimon Sinek.
They, they always say kind of start with why.
If you look at the why for me personally, one of the things I
(26:11):
say is for civil affairs, you, you're not only exposed to
things that you see in combat, explosions and maybe your
friends passing away, but as civil affairs, you're also
exposed to seeing VP camps and kids dying from something as
simple as diarrhea. I mean, in the world right now,
two kids died since we started this podcast from something like
diarrhea. If those things are still on top
(26:33):
of your combat experiences, the things you were exposed to, this
is a, a platform to, to help people.
And then the last one I would say is, but if you have the
time, talent OR treasure and you're like, you know what?
I, I really, we want to be a part of something like this.
We don't own it, Amanda, and I don't own VWO.
It's an idea, it's an organization.
And tomorrow the board can say, hey, you're gone.
(26:54):
It's a product of the people that are involved with it.
So if you want to get involved, John, at Veterans without
orders.org, we'd love to have, the more CA people we can get as
the core, the better that this organization is going to be able
to tackle some of these complex problems in the world.
Thank you. John, think of most of your CA
guys, I would say at least 90% of them probably got bit by the
HA bug sometime in their career,right?
(27:15):
I think we all have. I know I have.
So thank you for sharing that. Amanda, do you have any closing
thoughts? Just to piggyback off of what
John was just saying, the core of our organization is civil
affairs. So we're speaking to you.
We're speaking to the people whohave these experiences.
And I mean, like John said, likewhat are you doing with all of
the training that you have? How can we continue to make a
(27:35):
difference even outside the uniform?
So I just say, imagine a day where we can all come together
around the country and support 1Mission and continue to serve
together even outside of our days of civil affairs.
And that is awesome. John will have your e-mail on
and make sure we have the site for VW out on there too.
So thank you both so much for your time and sharing about
(27:55):
Veterans without orders. No, thank you and thank you more
for getting it right, the O on there.
Not borders, orders. Thanks for listening.
If you get a chance, please likeand subscribe and rate the show
on your favorite podcast platform.
Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an
episode, e-mail us at ca.podcasting@gmail.com.
(28:19):
I'll have the e-mail and CA Association website in the show
notes. And now, most importantly, to
those currently out in the field, working with a partner
nation's people or leadership toforward US relations, thank you
all for what you're doing. This is Jack, your host.
Stay tuned for more great episodes one CA podcast.
Welcome to the One CA podcast. I'm your host Assad Raza, and
today we have John Non Maker andAmanda Edmonds for Veterans
without Orders. Welcome, John and Amanda.
For having us. Hi there.
Thanks for having. Us, thank you for guys coming on
before we start, can you both briefly just share a bit about
yourselves and your connection to the civil affairs community?
Yeah, for. Me, I did a 26 years in the
(00:22):
military. Over 20 of that was in civil
affairs, retired a little over two years ago now and served in
numerous positions across the CAcommunity, whether it's S3, a
few commands, commander general staff college.
But I'd say the two most important ones that that kind of
directly correlate to what we'retalking about today was I was
(00:44):
the deputy J9 one at Indo Paycomand humanitarian assistance and
disaster response as well as wasa S com Illinois for a time.
Amanda. Amanda here and did 12 years as
a civil affairs specialist. All of that time was in CA Most
notable was by serving in Iraq at the Baghdad Provincial
Reconstruction Team. There.
(01:05):
I also served on the steering committee for the Women's
working group, which I'll be able to talk more about that and
how it relates to VWO now. And then.
Also, when I deployed to HOAA, which is probably where I did
most of my CA work on a mobile medical team, I also was the
team leader and instructor for the first ever CMO class to the
UPDF in Uganda. So that was pretty neat.
(01:27):
But yeah, I also completed my master's coursework at Fordham
in New York City and humanitarian action, so.
Thank you, guys. Really quickly, John, what years
were you at Indo Paycom? 15 to 18, I believe, OK.
Amanda, you said you were at thePRC in Baghdad.
What years were you there? 2007 to 2008.
OK, awesome. So that's after me guy that was
(01:48):
in Baghdad with the civil affairs team out there during
the withdrawal in 2011, which was a pretty rough time.
Can only imagine. All right, so let's move on and
talk a little bit about the organization's mission.
Sure. So veterans with our orders,
this is our 10 year anniversary actually essentially for
leveraging the decades of experience that we have with
(02:08):
veterans, but also first responders who work under
pressure and in different environments and a lot of them
have worked in humanitarian locations and different
missions. So really cool group and
community that we have and just using all of those skills and
highly trained veterans to help in different things, whether
that's experience in healthcare or linguistics, diplomatic
(02:30):
relations or different skill sets that they come from.
We also have modeled our initiatives after different
successful organizations. So we know we have the
blueprint, it works. That includes women recognizing
that they're really the backboneof their communities, and we
really like to focus on them andempower them by providing them
with different water filtration systems.
(02:51):
And they go out into their communities and they're sharing
clean water and they're sharing hygiene.
We call it wash, and you might have heard the term before, but
it's water, sanitation and hygiene when they're going
around to different communities,bridging those borders and
offering that education and resources to different
communities. So that's kind of the gist of
what we do, and that's kind of what our mission is and who it
(03:13):
entails. Thanks, Amanda.
Congratulations, 10 years anniversary.
That's awesome. So, John, can you talk a little
bit about what inspired you to create VWO?
Yeah, I think for me it happenedand when I was in Mozambique and
one of the other Co founders, Kyle Toto, was there with us and
going into Mozambique, I was really a soldier doing like HIV
clinics and doing some training.But I think I put glasses on
(03:36):
this kid and gave him some food and water and I watched him
change. And I realized then like how
easy it was to change a life with simple eyeglasses.
And one of the things I say now is that's the second that I from
being a soldier to being a humanitarian, pretending to be a
soldier for the rest of my career.
(03:57):
So I think that was kind of the first spark that wished me into
help Co founding VWO. The second one is looking at my
LinkedIn network back then. And I was like, got civil
affairs, I got BHA, I've got theUN, I've got linguist, cultural
experts, Phaeos. And I thought, wow, imagine
taking just my network and putting it onto a platform to
(04:19):
tackle some of these problem sets we've been exposed to a
civil affairs soldiers and what we could do with it.
So we got together and just started going down the path of
starting a nonprofit. So that's cool that you got that
humanitarian bite right while you're still in uniform.
So Amanda, I know you mentioned something that you guys want to
talk a little about some of the programs or initiatives that
your organization offers. Can you kind of expand on that?
(04:41):
Yeah, sure. So there's four different key
initiatives that BWO really focuses on and I can cover two
of them and I'll let John kind of take on the other two.
But one of them is empowering the local women.
And this really strikes home with me just because of what I
got to see first hand being partof the steering committee named
Baghdad, which really that organization was basically a
(05:03):
coalition that started in 2007, which really just brought in
women to address the gender issues that were happening in
post conflict reconstructions. So it was really eye opening to
go to the first ever Erbil conference in northern Iraq and
really get to hear the stories and the plights of the women who
have gone through the conflict and how they're using their
(05:24):
voices to make an impact in their communities.
So that really strike home with me.
And that just gives us the opportunity to give them the
tools and the knowledge when we do go to these different
communities to be able to make it an impact even after we
leave. So they become ambassadors, they
get equipped with the different filter buckets that we use from
Sawyer and the the knowledge of the WASH training that we use
(05:45):
from Project WET, which is also science backed education that's
tailored to each of the different regions that we go to.
So yeah, being able to connect that to my work with women back
in Baghdad is just really cool. Another initiative is honoring
service members. And really every single mission
that we've been on is dedicated to the memory of someone who has
served or sacrificed. This is pretty personal for me,
(06:09):
just because my brother and I both served in civil affairs
together. We both served in Iraq together.
So being able to dedicate the upcoming 2025 mission to Malawi
to him, the Staff Sergeant Matt Smolinski project is pretty
personal for me. And we get to continue the
legacy of these service members.We get to tell their story
before every mission. We get to hear from the family
(06:30):
members personally, I mean a large turn out of our team.
We'll get on these calls and we get to hear the story of that
service member. We get to take their
personality. We get to take their spirit with
us on the mission. And it does really drive the
energy, I call it, of each of the missions.
And we like to bring different points of them out inside of
(06:52):
each of those missions. So two really cool initiatives
with BWO and John, I don't know if you want to tell the story
about the teacher in Guatemala and kind of how that drove the
initiative with empowering women.
I always say we have 4 lines of effort.
The first one being having a platform for veterans to
continue to serve mainly not just veterans and 1st
responders, but the core group is, is really civil affairs.
(07:14):
So there's a lot of other organizations out there that are
veterans together, whether it's to do CrossFit or to go camping.
We kind of do the same thing, but it's really to get you out
to do humanitarian work. So that's our first line of
effort. The second one is providing
clean water and health in these communities.
It's an easy sell for our listeners here on how critical
clean water is. Over a 2 billion people don't
(07:36):
have access to clean drinking water.
And I think those in Civil affairs have probably peeled the
onion back like I did and realized, wow, like, this is the
root cause to health. Does the root cause to school
attendance. This is the root cause of all of
these other issues. So really focusing as much as we
can on, like Amanda said, Wash. And then just to kind of caveat
some of the things that she said, our third line of effort
(07:58):
is empowering women. We know we can't go into a
village and say, hey, you need no more village leaders that are
women. So what we do is we only train
specifically mothers in these villages, in these communities
and tribes on how to use our water filtration systems and it
really gives them the power of life.
And I'm giving one quick exampleon that.
One of our main efforts is we invest in these fist size
(08:20):
filtration systems by Sawyer Products.
They cost about 25 bucks apiece.They provide enough clean water
for five families for up to 15 years.
Now saying that, it sounds like,wow, that's amazing and it is.
But seeing them, they look so plastic and cheap.
Like organizations like USAID really don't get behind them
because it's such a simple solution.
(08:41):
But five families for up to 15 years for like 25 bucks, It's
absolutely insane. And to really caveat a little
bit more on like why working with women is makes our programs
more effective. If you give one of these filters
to a mom and say, hey, this is going to keep your son from
getting sick, it's going to giveyou more energy.
You're going to all of these different benefits will take
care of that filter. What we found is getting that
(09:03):
filter to a man and he finds outthat filter is worth 20 to 30
U.S. dollars. He'll sell it to feed his family
for two to three weeks. Now, not one of those is better,
but for the effectiveness really, we found that mothers
keep those filters maintained inthe last 15 years.
Just a little bit on the. The last one is honoring fallen
(09:23):
soldiers. It's really an awesome way to
memorialize the fallen soldier. The story she was talking about
with the woman in Guatemala was like 2017.
And we had a woman that was not paying attention in class.
And I asked one of my colleagueslike, hey, can you find out why
she's not paying attention? And we got done with class and
she's like, oh, I was in your training two years ago.
(09:44):
And now I go around and teach inall these other schools.
I'm just here for a refresher. And she was actually taking
clean water out of the one filter we gave her to all the
surrounding schools that she could walk to every single day.
And it was just super inspiring.That's a great Moe hearing from
someone that took a Class 2 years prior and going out to the
villages and taking it upon herself to teach it to a schools
(10:06):
and kids and other family members out there.
That is awesome man. This is great.
There's so many good Nuggets that just came out of this.
Powering local women, honoring service members, providing A
venue for veterans and 1st responders to serve and give
back to the community and give them that sense of purpose that
they potentially miss when they get out the military or their
jobs. How did you find out about
Sawyer Filtered? How did you get in contact with
(10:27):
them? Yeah, they're one of our biggest
cheerleaders. We love what they do.
It was really starting off research on what's the most
simple way with the biggest impact, what has the biggest
Roe. And we love Sawyer, but we're
not married to that technology. But right now and for the past
10 years, we haven't found anything that gives us a bigger
bang for our buck. They're really great for
(10:48):
disaster response. We just did over 1000 of them in
Hurricane Lane in North Carolina.
And so that was clean water for that disaster.
So if you think about the water,bottled water scenario that's
going on there, we did that one logistics trip is providing
clean water for five families for 15 years that are still
using them today up in the mountains.
It's just absolutely incredible technology and it's great for us
(11:12):
because there's also like littlehidden benefits.
One, we could pump 18 duffel bags of these into a country
just in our checked baggage. The other thing is if we take
100 into say Nicaragua and threebreak and two gets stolen, our
programs and projects are 95% successful.
We have two other complementing tools like the filter that we
(11:32):
use. One is called the spa tap and
which is a very simple thing that goes on the bottom of a one
liter bottle of water. If you're a woman carrying water
3 hours, you're not going to waste that water to wash your
hands, which is obviously one ofthe biggest causes of disease
around the world. You're going to use it to cook,
maybe wash your clothes. You're going to use it to drink,
not going to waste it to wash your hands.
Well, that spa taps slows the flow rate down so much that it
(11:55):
doesn't waste any water. And out of one liter of water,
you can get 60 hand washes and it's fun.
So the kids see this like silicone cap and they encouraged
them they want to wash their hands.
We were actually teaching hand wash it before COVID.
So before it was cool. We have no idea how to calculate
if we saved any lives post COVID.
But I mean, the last one I'll let Amanda talk about is the
(12:16):
solar lamps. Yeah, so there's billions of
people around the world who don't have access to safe
sanitation, access to latrines. I don't think they realize,
though, the dangers that can happen with women and girls
specifically when they don't have safe travel to a latrine.
They don't have safe place for menstrual hygiene, and it's
(12:39):
posing more risk to them for being abused, to get attacked
for sexual assault. That was eye opening for us.
So we have a partnership where we're able to bring in solar
lamps. They're super small.
They're easily folded, just kindof like our filters.
We can just throw them in a duffel and take them in the
country with them. I mean, they're super light Oz,
(13:01):
I'm talking. And it's just lit up by solar.
So they can snap it together. It has buttons around it and let
the solar light activate it at night.
And it gives them safe travel tolow latrine or they don't have
to risk their lives going to thebathroom.
And it can also light up the latrine.
And I had a conversation with one of the attendees and he
(13:21):
emailed me after the event and Isaid, hey, Amanda, thanks so
much for sharing that information and showing me that
solar light. I had no idea there was so much
danger associated with the lack of safe sanitation.
I knew that it was a problem, but I didn't understand the
depths of it. And also specifically for women
and girls, so. We this came out of a study out
of Haiti. Just these girls Having these
lamps deterred rape and sexual assault and violence by over
(13:44):
50%. So for 11 bucks could cut the
possibility of rape by 50% by just giving them this deterrent.
It's it's insane. Wow, that's amazing.
And just to clarify, when you guys go on a mission, do you
guys take the water filters, thespa taps and the solar lamps or
do you guys just take specific items for Pacific Mission?
(14:06):
It depends. Like we just got back from
Uganda and we didn't need to putin spa taps into some of the
hospitals that we worked in because they had hand washing
stations. Another one is we couldn't get
spa taps in in Mass. So we really just focused on
teaching some of the high schoolers on how to build tippy
taps, which are you might be familiar with where you hang a
(14:27):
Jerry can and until like a suspended piece of lumber and
have a pedal to where it really limits the water.
Not as much of the Spa tap, but it's a good enough solution.
One of the amazing things as being CA and we have a trusted
partner in almost every country that you could think of and we
have assessments done. We're looking at data, but
depending on what capabilities we take or purchase in country
(14:49):
depends on the assessment. Thank you.
And you know, there's always challenges, you know, having a
nonprofit, usually fundraising and funding.
But what are some of the biggestchallenges for your nonprofit?
Yeah, You've kind of hit on thisif you think of your network, of
what problems I could throw at you, and you just get your
network together, pick the topicof the day, think of your
network of how you would solve that problem and go out and do
(15:11):
it. And I bet you and your network
alone could probably make a dentinto that problem set based on
just who you know and be able tomobilize them.
I do this full time now. And what caused this was we went
to Uganda in February and took Noah Hodges and a good SF buddy
of mine. We provided clean water for 3600
(15:32):
people. You've saw over 1000 patients.
We taught 10 schools, handed outsolar lamps, everything, like
all of these amazing things. And we did it for like $15,000.
It was super efficient, super effective.
And that's kind of what our thing has been is like raise
funding, go do a mission, raise funding, go do a mission.
But the biggest challenge we face right now is after looking
(15:53):
in that impact report and deciding to do this full time, I
realized like we need to scale. And to scale, we have the
experts within our ranks to do the mission part of things.
But what we don't have are fundraisers, social media,
people that know how to target funders, accountants, like those
things may not exist within our things.
(16:14):
So I think that's one of our biggest challenges is how do we
scale what we have with this proven concept to really make an
impact into the the water crisis.
I. Mean, imagine a world in which
we don't have just three missions in 2025, but we have
multiple missions going on simultaneously.
We would be able to accomplish that with more funding, with
(16:34):
more dedicated development team members.
So are there any plans to expandprogram to partner with other
organizations to kind of fill that gap?
Yeah. Actually one partnership that we
have going on right now is with an organization called
Freshwater Project Internationaland they focus on WASH
infrastructure, specifically in Malawi for the last 20 years.
(16:55):
Recently, they just partnered with the National Women's Soccer
League and Malawian. She also was nominated as the
MVP for the league this year, Temwa Chewinga.
So we recently just did a fundraiser in Kansas City
following the National Women's Soccer League championship game,
which was an amazing event. But through this partnership in
(17:16):
Malawi and this upcoming mission, we're able to leverage
their connections in country. Like John said, we have these
trusted partners and all these places we go to.
So when we hit the ground, we'vealready got a dedicated team
who's already done the insights,the assessments, they have, the
data, so we can leverage their skill sets.
(17:36):
There's also other partnerships involved in this campaign, which
is led by Temwa in her home country.
So we have some amazing people that are connected to this
campaign and we really look forward to the impact that will
be made in Malawi in 2025. So we'll be primarily providing
healthcare through the differentschools.
So we're really excited to kind of partner with them and really
(17:58):
make an impact with what we're best at, which is providing
water and wash training and alsoproviding solar lights.
Freshwater has been building andthe infrastructure that they've
put together already. So we're just amplifying the
great work that they're doing and being able to help
contribute bigger impacts. And a good example, Amanda's
actually been to Malawi. She knows the landscape, she
(18:18):
knows the culture, has trusted partners there.
That's just on this call to kindof re re emphasize the fact of
like how awesome the Civil affairs network is to go after
some of these challenges. Out of curiosity, how did you
get in contact with the Women National Soccer League and how
did you create that network and develop that relationship?
Yes, I always say I'm never the smartest guy in the room, but I
(18:40):
know a lot of people. I'm also a WASH ambassador for
Rotary and also on their Disaster Notification Assistance
Advisory Board. That's a network that's almost
as powerful as the CA community.But the person who runs
Freshwater International is actually help me with the
disaster response for the cyclone that hit Malawi.
(19:00):
I sent teams up to her NGO in Malawi and she helped guide them
right to the disaster point without while other NGOs were
still trying to figure out whereto go.
She has a connection through Malawi and their ambassador team
that had connections to Tim Wah and reached out to us to see if
we would partner up on this mission and it was a no brainer.
(19:21):
That's one of the things people ask is how do you pick where you
go? And it's really the big one is
having trusted partners. And of every partnership we've
ever had, I would give them access to my personal bank
account. That's how much I trust the
people that we work with. And that's how I feel about
Freshwater. That's awesome.
That's good to know. So can you kind of expand on how
do you use veterans and how you leverage your their skills in
(19:42):
these missions? Well, I'll say one of the
coolest things is most organizations have to spend
countless dollars on training uptheir people with us.
We don't necessarily have to do that.
If you think about your two O 1 file in the schools you went to,
I would look at that and say you've been in the Middle East
or and we have an operation going on there.
You speak Swahili or whatever those things are within the CA
(20:04):
community. We can cherry pick the right
people or that right mission. And that's kind of more
specific. But even on a general level, if
you think of veterans alone and what they bring to any
organization, whether it's working in Austria environment
or. Leadership or team building, you
have all of these things. But the biggest thing is that I
really enjoyed is I worked with civilian NGOs when I first got
(20:25):
out of the military and realizedI don't know how to talk.
I use words that they don't understand.
Like really think that was an implied task.
What's an implied task with BWO?Which is awesome.
It's not just having veterans that still understand MDMP or
what an OP order is or what the troop leading procedures are.
It's super awesome. They just put AT shirt on them,
(20:46):
give them a little bit of direction and they're out
running. One story I tell all the time is
I was in Haiti with VWO in 2015 and one of our partner NGOs was
like, man, you guys are an effective team.
And she's like, you and Noah areIn Sync.
You guys are knocking this out. You're so effective.
How long have you guys been goodfriends?
(21:08):
And I looked at my watch and I was like, I've known Noah for
about 4 1/2 hours and I had two conference calls with him before
we got to Haiti. CAI know he's been trained in
all of these things and we savedso much money by just tweaking
that, the experiences you already have and just putting
the right people on target. Yeah, that is really cool.
For a guy like me, for example, that would be easy to get there
(21:28):
and fit in, no major adjustments.
You don't have to learn the new Lex con.
You don't have to learn all these other things and kind of
feel like you're out there. And I think that the attraction
though, for veterans, that's thethings that we miss, you know,
when we get out. And it's like you miss being
with that community, the people who understand you.
So being able to go out on a mission and go to those austere
environments and work with limited resources, again with
(21:49):
the people who get you, it just provides a new sense of purpose
and meaning outside of the uniform.
Okay, what are some of the most valuable lessons that you both
have learned while running this nonprofit?
For me, John actually approachedme just as I was getting out of
the military, and it was a time when I was actually in the
process of starting my own NGO. I've run businesses before, but
(22:10):
I realized that my skills, my energy could be best used for an
organization that was already doing it.
I would say like for any other civil affairs soldiers who might
be looking to continue doing this sort of work or thinking
maybe I should start my own nonprofit.
I would just ask you to considerVWO is already an organization
that exists. We're already in place, and we
(22:30):
already have an amazing network.So I just encourage you to reach
out to John's, then see how you might be able to contribute your
skills. And I would say the biggest
lesson I learned is a proof of concepts like I they
continuously get reinforced on this.
And I'll give you an example is when the hurricane hit North
Carolina a couple months ago, I had a sister NGO reach out to me
and say, hey, we need some help.Can you deliver filters to this
(22:54):
area of North Carolina? I was like, yeah, we can do it.
Let me let me get a network mobilized within 24 hours.
So we are donated over 1000 filters, which is a lot of money
and put it on a private plane. And I said, hey, send it to
Raleigh and I'll get it on point.
I got a team together in Raleighready to go pick up the filters
and everything. And then the pilot called and
said, hey, I'm dropping these filters at a different location
(23:17):
in the middle of nowhere of North Carolina, this small dirt,
maybe one concrete airstrip. And I thought, I'm like, Oh my
God, how am I going to get somebody there to get these?
And I pick up the phone and I call Rebecca Bronner and she's a
civil affairs officer. You guys may know her.
And I explained to her, I'm like, Rebecca, I need you to go
to this location and get all of these filters and get them to
(23:38):
Raleigh. And I explained to her what
needs to happen, how it needs tohappen.
And I was like, do you have any questions?
And she hasn't said a word yet. And she says one question.
Can my parents go with me? And I'm like, I'm asking you to
drop everything you are doing and go do this.
And it's going to be work. You're going to have to drive.
And all she asked me is like, isit cool if I, my mom and dad
(23:58):
roll with me? And she did.
And just some pictures of her mom and dad.
I Facebook page putting packagesof filters in the back of cars
to get them into North Carolina.One of the things I learned is
like this, it's not just veterans, it's veterans that
have done this type of work. It's our veteran network that is
all over, not just the US, but think of how many people you
know, Roz in Europe or in the Middle East or in Africa or like
(24:20):
all the friends, like the proof of concept is done.
Like we're ready to scale. That is awesome.
I want to thank Rebecca out there.
Thank you and your family. That's awesome.
But John, I know you wanted to talk a little bit more about the
skills that you're looking for for your veteran volunteers.
You want to kind of expand on that before we end this?
Yeah, that's what we've done is we've effectively given clean
water to like 10,000 people a year, just with a limited amount
(24:43):
of money and a limited amount ofpeople.
I talked about earlier in February about seeing that
impact report of what we could do if we scaled.
That's decision we made in May was let's do it.
Let's open this up to be not just quiet professionals doing
great work around the world. Let's tell people what we're
doing and let's scale and try tomake it bigger.
So I would say if you ask I haveis if you're a reservist or
(25:05):
retiree and you're out there andrun a bank or own a business or
even run a coffee shop or whatever it is you do help
invest in us to grow to where wecan provide more opportunities
for more veterans to do what we've been doing for our entire
careers. So that's one is invest in us
both financially and maybe even time 2, I would say help tell
our story. People have told our story.
(25:26):
The small network that we've hadthat are involved with this, but
no better people that tell our story than Civil affairs because
everybody gets it. You can articulate what the
water crisis is to most people have no idea how to talk about
something like that. You could even start a campaign.
If you look at what happened after the Afghanistan
evacuation, the small NGOs that stood up and formed a task force
(25:49):
and what they were able to accomplish, which is veterans,
think about maybe you were on anoperation and got bit by that HA
bug in Haiti or wherever it is you may have served that you can
get out there and do something. And one of the things I tell
people is they, I'm a big fan ofSimon Sinek.
They, they always say kind of start with why.
If you look at the why for me personally, one of the things I
(26:11):
say is for civil affairs, you, you're not only exposed to
things that you see in combat, explosions and maybe your
friends passing away, but as civil affairs, you're also
exposed to seeing VP camps and kids dying from something as
simple as diarrhea. I mean, in the world right now,
two kids died since we started this podcast from something like
diarrhea. If those things are still on top
(26:33):
of your combat experiences, the things you were exposed to, this
is a, a platform to, to help people.
And then the last one I would say is, but if you have the
time, talent OR treasure and you're like, you know what?
I, I really, we want to be a part of something like this.
We don't own it, Amanda, and I don't own VWO.
It's an idea, it's an organization.
And tomorrow the board can say, hey, you're gone.
(26:54):
It's a product of the people that are involved with it.
So if you want to get involved, John, at Veterans without
orders.org, we'd love to have, the more CA people we can get as
the core, the better that this organization is going to be able
to tackle some of these complex problems in the world.
Thank you. John, think of most of your CA
guys, I would say at least 90% of them probably got bit by the
HA bug sometime in their career,right?
(27:15):
I think we all have. I know I have.
So thank you for sharing that. Amanda, do you have any closing
thoughts? Just to piggyback off of what
John was just saying, the core of our organization is civil
affairs. So we're speaking to you.
We're speaking to the people whohave these experiences.
And I mean, like John said, likewhat are you doing with all of
the training that you have? How can we continue to make a
(27:35):
difference even outside the uniform?
So I just say, imagine a day where we can all come together
around the country and support 1Mission and continue to serve
together even outside of our days of civil affairs.
And that is awesome. John will have your e-mail on
and make sure we have the site for VW out on there too.
So thank you both so much for your time and sharing about
(27:55):
Veterans without orders. No, thank you and thank you more
for getting it right, the O on there.
Not borders, orders. Thanks for listening.
If you get a chance, please likeand subscribe and rate the show
on your favorite podcast platform.
Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an
episode, e-mail us at ca.podcasting@gmail.com.
(28:19):
I'll have the e-mail and CA Association website in the show
notes. And now, most importantly, to
those currently out in the field, working with a partner
nation's people or leadership toforward US relations, thank you
all for what you're doing. This is Jack, your host.
Stay tuned for more great episodes one CA podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.