Every year, more than 200,000 men and women leave active duty military service and reenter civilian life, according to the Government Accountability Office. While some make the transition without issue, that is not the case for all veterans. Warrior Ethos is an organization working to provide resources to those service members making the change.
Warriors Ethos was founded by Jared Shepard in 2011, an Army veteran himself. The organization has helped roughly 2,000 service members take their first steps out of uniform.
“The idea is, you know, if you raise your right hand and you take an oath to serve the country, that shouldn’t be the best thing you ever do,” Shepard said. “You should be able to build upon what you do in the military and become successful in whatever you do after the military, whether it’s four years later, or 40 years later, right? We want people to go be successful, outside of the military.”
Florent “Flo” Groberg, a retired Army captain, had to leave the service in 2015, and his departure didn’t align with how he planned on leaving the career that he loved.
“I never served with the idea of like, ‘Hey, you need to invest in me and transition me out,’” Groberg said. “Now, I also never expected to leave the military because of injuries. So to me, it was my whole plan and roadmap was thrown way off, specifically, because my career was shortened by many years.”
Groberg found himself in need of a new roadmap to begin his life’s next chapter.
“I needed to find what my next passion would be,” Groberg said. “And so for that, Warrior’s Ethos, came in at the perfect time because I could relate to their people.”
Groberg’s circumstances weren’t all that different from those who had leaned on Warriors Ethos before him — with one notable exception.
Groberg received the Medal of Honor for his actions in trying to stop a suicide bomber while escorting a group of coalition and Afghan leaders in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan. However, Groberg was also medically retired due to the injuries he acquired while trying to save the lives of others, leading him to wonder, “what’s next?”
“Receiving the Medal of Honor, is probably the least expected thing you could ever have in your career,” Groberg said. “First of all, you don’t serve for medals. And you sure as heck do not want to serve and be singled out and highlighted as anything other than a service member, or veteran. So when I received the medal, and it highlighted me, it was a tough pill to swallow specifically, because four individuals didn’t come home. Command Sergeant Major Griffin, Majors Gray and Kennedy, and Ragaei Abdelfattah.”
For the people at Warriors Ethos, recognizing veterans’ inner struggles is ingrained in their work.
“If you look at all the bad things you ever hear about veterans, you know, homeless, unemployment, divorce, whatever else happens to be suicide, those are all failures in transition,” Shepard said. “That veteran did not successfully get traction and whatever they were doing next, and thus, they lost their way. So we kind of figured you know, what we can we can put a dent in all of that, by just helping guys and gals be more successful, be more prepared to get out of the military and go do whatever they’re gonna go do next.”
Warrior Ethos recommends that service members begin making their transition plans before actually separating from their service.
“One of the things that we help you do is we walk you through how to plan,” Shepard said. “That plan is multiple things that include your spouse, that includes your family, it’s a financial plan, it’s a business plan, it’s a, what do you want to do next plan, right, and all those things come into play.”
For Groberg, the catalyst was a networking event — a dinner he had no interest in attending.
“They pushed me to go to that dinner, I really wasn’t interested at first because I have no association with this, and they said, ‘No, trust me, there’s gonna be some key people that you might want to meet,’” Groberg said. “That led to giving me more self confidence. And then who led to different careers later on with Boeing, Microsoft, and now in the private equity side.”
According to a 2019 Pew Research study, one in four veterans said readjusting to life was at least somewhat difficult post 9/11. Those responses add up to about 50,000 veterans needing services from groups like Warriors Ethos each year.
“Warriors Ethos pushed me in a way that wasn’t off-putting,” Groberg said. “They knew that I had a need and a requirement, I just did not potentially know how to accurately express it at the time. They also understood what type of help I was seeking. And to put a plan together, and we adjusted the plan when things didn’t work out the way I wanted it, or the way they perceived it. In the end, we found a winning solution organically. ”
For Shepard, the ideal outcome is one where Warriors Ethos is no longer needed.
“I mean, the perfect world for me would be is that the military gets so good at transitioning its service members that I can turn this off, I would, I would love that,” Shepard said.
Shepard acknowledges that, while the military might not be at a point to provide every resource yet, it is making improvements. But for now, Shepard plans to continue his mission.
If you know someone who could benefit by connecting with Warriors Ethos, or if you want to join their efforts, visit www.warriorsethos.org
Access the full Weapons and Warfare episode here.
Access all Weapons and Warfare podcast episodes here.
