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Team Rubicon

Want something done right? Send in Team Rubicon. Like they say on their blog:

If you don't understand this, you don't know Team Rubicon

From their About page:

What's with the name? Simple. The Rubicon was a small stream that separated Gaul (France) and ancient Rome. On January 11th, Caesar crossed the Rubicon, and it marked the point of no return. This Sunday, January 17th, our 4 man team will cross the Artibonite River, separating the Dominican Republic and Haiti, carrying crucial medicine and supplies to the people of Haiti. Once across, we will be irrevocably committed to our task.

Team Rubicon is sponsored by the Marine Corps Intelligence Association

A great post about them from the Mudville Gazette:

Turbulence report
Then, on the fifth day, the slow kids showed up:

The US military's takeover of emergency operations in Haiti has triggered a diplomatic row with countries and aid agencies furious at having flights redirected.

Brazil and France lodged an official �protest with Washington after US military aircraft were given priority at Port-au-Prince's congested airport, forcing many non-US flights to divert to the Dominican Republic.

Brasilia warned it would not �relinquish command of UN forces in Haiti, and Paris complained the airport had become a US "annexe", exposing a brewing power struggle amid the global relief effort.

Negative, ghostrider, we do not have UHF freq for our "complaint department". Roger that. Thanks for trying, and have a safe flight. Mudville out. (Clicks mike key twice rapidly.)

Meanwhile, as France and Brazil file complaints, here's a group that just went in through the Dominican Republic:

...we spent a considerable amount of time this morning developing our en-route security plan, as the news reports indicated that the route was plagued by bandits. While planning, we also made contact with several locals who were willing to take us by minivan from SD to the border, and then transfer into pickup trucks for the ride from Jimani to PAP.

We left via two minivans around 11:00, and had an uneventful six-hour ride to the border... Along the road, we passed many UN and other aid vehicles, some formal, most not, returning empty from Haiti. The border crossing was very simple; we didn't even have to get our passports stamped, but did so anyway to observe all the formalities. We offloaded from our minivans and transferred into TWO mini-pickups. We packed and equipped ourselves in light of the fact that news reports implied we would be overrun by mobs of famished civilians once we got to the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Our arsenal included machetes, hatchets, and (in my case) a folding shovel. We put our dust masks, stowed the doctors and the Jesuit safely inside the vehicles, and climbed on top of the luggage for the last 40 miles to Port-au-Prince. We were ready for anything...

Which in this case consisted of an utterly uneventful hour-and-a-half drive. Several things NOT mentioned in the news happened en route and deserve notice...

Follow their progress through milblogger Badger Jake's site here.

Awesome work -- these are people who are actually making an dent in the suffering there. You are not going to see them holding meetings and riding around in United Nations SUVs "observing"... Posted by DaveH at January 24, 2010 2:47 PM