This article is from: srnnews.com
Project Dynamo Steps in ‘Where Government Help Would Take an act of God and Congress’
With a volunteer force of former military personnel, this rescue organization performs extractions globally, from Israel and Ukraine to Haiti and Florida.
By Addie J. Davis/ The Media Line
The outbreak of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran left tens of thousands of tourists stranded in the small Mediterranean country with little warning. Closure of the airspace meant seeking alternative routes by water or through the Egyptian and Jordanian border crossings, options which made many nervous for fear of the heightened tensions in the region. American tourists seeking help from their government received little or no support, navigating the difficult situation on their own.
This is where organizations like Project Dynamo stepped in to help. A nonprofit rescue organization made up primarily of volunteers that are former military, Project Dynamo began operating in Israel during the first days of the war, Mario Duarte, the president and CEO, told The Media Line.
“We evacuated, you know, close to 300 people, assisted a total of 1,500 Americans and allies,” he said of their operation in Israel, named Blue Chariot, which included 22 cross-border trips into Jordan and Egypt.
On one of these trips was Arianne Malachi, her husband Eliram, and their one-year-old and four-year-old sons. What started out as a family vacation quickly turned into something more serious as Israel bombed Iran the night they arrived.
Arianne said Eliram is from Israel, so they go every year as his family still lives there. Though they had dealt with missiles before, Arianne said this time was different.
“Even the Israelis aren’t walking outside. This is something very serious,” she said, claiming they didn’t see anyone on the streets for the first two days of the war.
Arianne described feeling abandoned by the US embassy, with her mother, Diane, who was in the US trying to help their situation, echoing a similar sentiment.
“Basically, the United States said, ‘Figure out a way to get back on your own,’ she said.
Being told they could not get on an evacuation flight till mid-July, and other options not panning out, the young family turned to Project Dynamo.
“It was a 24-hour period from when we started talking to them till we actually got on the bus with them,” Arianne said.
Arianne said they were concerned about going through Jordan, recalling horror stories they had heard of Israeli’s experiences in their neighboring country.
“He’s an Israeli Jew and basically was told all his life, you know, ‘You don’t go into an Arab country, you don’t go into Jordan,’ this kind of thing,” Diane said about her son-in-law.
However, Arianne said they felt safe and comfortable travelling with Project Dynamo.
“We would not have done if we hadn’t had Project Dynamo as like backing and their security,” she said.
This is not the first time the organization has performed extractions in Israel. Following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas leaving about 1,200 people dead and 250 taken as hostages, Duarte said Project Dynamo coordinated a flight of about 400 Americans out of the country.
The organization is completely donor funded, Duarte said, though he noted they received help from the Florida government and Ron DeSantis for that mission.
With about 175 volunteers registered to deploy at any time, the great majority being former military, Duarte said they have responded to crisis areas, war zones, failing states and natural disasters.
There are millions of Americans around the world, and Duarte pointed out that it’s impossible for the government to respond to each need.
“There is this space where we go in, where we can help all these people that to get government help would take an act of God and Congress,” he said.
He explained they are not slowed down by bureaucracy or red tape.
James Judge, a volunteer who started with Project Dynamo early on and served on the Coast Guard cutter ADAK during Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Arabian Gulf from 2004 to 2005, told The Media Line they exist to fill the void where the government is not.
“We use our deep network of contacts we’ve developed over decades of experience in the US military and the intelligence communities to get Americans out of really bad places,” Judge said.
Duarte, who owns his own boutique advisory and lobbying firm, worked as a federal intelligence contractor, served in the Army and the Army Reserves and was the secretary of strategic state intelligence in Guatemala—where he was an integral part of moving the Guatemalan embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem—to name a few of his exploits.
Though he only joined with the nonprofit last year, he said he had run across them while in Afghanistan.
Project Dynamo was born following the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 when veterans and contractors already in the country banded together to help those left behind, Duarte explained.
“The administration back then left a lot of people behind, a lot of Americans, a lot of dual citizens, and a lot of people that had helped us, you know, while we were deployed over there,” he said.
He noted that while Project Dynamo was not the only group to form in response to the Afghanistan withdrawal, it is one of the only ones born from that crisis to continue operating.
Judge, who is the owner of a PR firm and has had a career in public affairs in the Coast Guard and other government entities, said they have rescued more than 7,000 people from dozens of countries. Originally joining with Project Dynamo to assist with its public relations, but said he has supported the organization in several roles, including participating in on-the-ground missions.
A native Floridian, he recalls their rescue efforts in his home state in the wake of Hurricane Ian, likening the scene to a “warzone.”
“The visuals will not go away—concrete telephone poles snapped in half like twigs…The entire house ripped off, literally just the foundation and some pipes sticking out of the ground where the house used to be. Like I just can’t describe it,” he said.
“We successfully rescued a ton of people and then also several hundred animals, including cats, dogs, parrots, actually a couple lemurs,” he said, claiming they were one of the first boats on the water, even before law enforcement.
He described the rescue of two people, one of whom was an amputee, in a mobile home flooded with five or six feet of water.
During the recent flooding in Texas that left more than 130 people dead, Duarte said they were on the ground, searching the banks of the river for survivors in areas they knew would take too long for the government to get.
“Having done this several times, after a day or a day and a half or so, we knew that the chance of finding survivors was very close to zero,” Duarte said. “We kept our hopes, but really at the end, it had become already only a recovery effort.”
As a Texas resident, Durate explained the mission had a personal component for him.
Judge’s volunteering with Project Dynamo has landed him in countries around the world, including in Israel and surrounding nations during the 12-day war with Iran, where he explored route options for evacuations.
“When Israel happened, I was on vacation with my family and I had to leave the next morning at 4 AM to start traveling around the world,” he said.
Within 12 hours after arriving in Israel, he said there were numerous missile attacks. Though this would be expected on a military base in Afghanistan, he said it was strange to see it in a first world country.
“When we were in Afghanistan in 2010, we got rocket attacks all the time. It was a different scenario to be in an allied country under attack by ballistic missiles from Iran and being in a populated city like that,” he said.
Judge and Duarte both recognized the risks and potential for danger on every operation, but Judge explained many of the team members believe in God and pray before, during and after the missions.
“If you really kind of operate your life that way and you trust in the Lord, I think it gives you a sense of calm in the most chaotic situations,” he said, saying the most repeated commanded in the Bible is to have no fear.
In Haiti, an extraction of a Texas missionary family entailed its own dangerous situations.
“Driving around and there are gangs shooting each other and killing each other,” Duarte said of the situation in the failed state.
“Almost got our bird brought down as well,” he added.
“I really believe there was like a dozen miracles that happened during that whole deal,” Judge said about Haiti, describing the rotor strike as the helicopter exited the compound, but saying everyone made it back safely.
“Getting that family back to safety and escorting them all the way to Texas, and seeing mom meet her grandchild for the first time, and hug her son and her daughter-in-law, and the tears running down their faces. Like, that’s why we do it,” he said.
In Ukraine, Judge talked about the rewarding experience of uniting babies born to surrogates with their parents. He explained the babies were born and the time was up for their parents to retrieve them, so they figured out a plan, working with the State Department and embassy in Warsaw, Poland, to coordinate a plan for the parents to pick up their children.
“The baby rescues were unbelievable…You’re getting to introduce parents to their natural child,” he said.
Judge also described how they negotiated the release of an American citizen who had been wrongfully detained and tortured by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Despite all the missions in their four years of operation, Duarte said they have had a “100 percent mission success rate.”
“It’s just been extremely rewarding, in addition to being fun, you know,” Judge said. “It’s part of the purpose that we participate in the military was helping people one way or another, and it’s great to be a part of that again.”
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