The Green Beret Foundation, which provides U.S. Army Special Forces Soldiers with ongoing support, has a new president and chief executive officer. This won’t be Charlie Iacono’s first role in a position to help servicemembers and veterans, as he formerly held a senior position with the United Service Organizations. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin’s Executive Producer Eric White talked with Iacono, to find out more about his new mission, as well as that of the Green Beret Foundation.

Interview transcript:

Eric White The Green Beret Foundation, which provides U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers with ongoing support, has a new president and chief executive officer. This won’t be Charlie Iacono’s first role in a position to help service members and veterans as he formerly held a senior position with the USO. I recently got the chance to speak with Charlie to find out more about his new mission, as well as that of the Green Beret Foundation.

Charlie Iacono The Green Beret Foundation is a small foundation, but incredibly mighty organization, as I like to characterize it. We are the premier not-for-profit organization, community impact organization for those who are Green Berets, both former past Green Berets, current active duty, as well as future. And then I always like to talk about the importance that we are also inclusive of family members. So we have really an outlook on we have to care for the entire community. And very much part of that community is those that are left home when our Green Berets are deployed overseas and downrange. And our programs range from casualty support, health and wellness support, which I like to classify as mental health resiliency and family support. If family members are struggling, children need support. We have a very comprehensive family support program. And then, of course, we have our Next Ridgeline program, which is our traditional transition support. So when active duty service members are beginning to transition out of the military after their distinguished service and career, we help them find that next ridgeline which will look and possibly be something entirely different from what they’re used to doing. And so we want to really focus on really the holistic aspect of the individual, both the Green Beret and their family. And then, of course, we have our Gold Star and Surviving Families program that we are very fortunate and honored — it’s a sacred program. It’s a program obviously, just like our casualty support program, that we hope that the utilization of those programs are low. But we nevertheless prepare ourselves to address any kind of crisis that could be occurring or could be happening within the community of family and service member.

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Eric White Yeah, I wanted to focus on the transition aspect just because, of course, from the Special Forces standpoint, is it safe to say that there’s no more different transition than for the folks who are serving in the special forces to going into civilian life? Obviously, veteran transition is difficult for everyone, but for Special Forces specifically, just because their skill set is so unique. What can you tell me about that?

Charlie Iacono Yeah, no, that is a fantastic question and it’s a great observation. We are very fortunate at the foundation. Kind of our motto of our transitions program is “from team room to board room,” and we really help Green Berets transition from the active duty space to their next great adventure. And you couldn’t have said it better. These are service members that are so highly trained in very specialized aspects of warfare. And we recognize now, having been in the nonprofit space for 20 plus years and obviously having a lot of friends in the corporate space, these are incredible assets to bring in to an organization. And really our job at the foundation is not only to help them navigate their VA and benefit claims program benefits, but really to begin to have conversations with them early on to say, what do you want your next chapter to be? What do you want it to look like? Do you want it to be challenging or just as challenging as your time as a special forces soldier was? Or do you want to look to something that really feeds your passion in your life? Again, it kind of gets back to that mentality that we spend so much time talking about at the foundation and our incredible leaders at the board of directors speak about really caring for the holistic mindset of both mind, body and spirit and making sure that when they transition into their next career and that next chapter, that they are not only readily equipped for that next ridgeline, but they’re also given the opportunity to really evaluate what they want to do. And we recognize that this could be a very bumpy chapter in their life story. And we work tirelessly at the foundation to smooth that pathway to the best of our abilities. And we leverage a diverse group of veteran organizations that work specifically in select areas. I’m really excited to talk about in my chapter, being here at the foundation, really bringing the transitions program to the next level and working with some of our largest defense contracting companies here in the United States and making sure that we build a diverse portfolio of partners that not only have incredible job opportunities and career opportunities for these service members, but really, diversify our portfolio of interests. So when we go to chat with the next Green Beret about their transition, they see the value add the Green Beret Foundation brings to their their chapter and their career search.

Eric White The other focus that I wanted to touch on, and obviously, once again, being a family member of any active service member has challenges for across the board. But are what are the unique challenges for those who are related to those in the special forces? Just because I imagine that there’s a level of secrecy of what they’re allowed to discuss with their family and that can bring its own challenges. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Charlie Iacono Yeah, you know, I think having never served myself, but having had a number of family members from past generations and cousins that have served and close friends that have served, the challenges that are encountered for family members, I think is an incredible weight that they carry on their shoulders, whether it’s a five year old son or daughter or an 18 year old son or daughter that’s kind of navigating their transition from high school to maybe college or maybe entering the service themselves. And then the spouses; there is a weight on their shoulders that is really hard to describe unless you have experienced it yourself. Then to layer on top of that, being a spouse or a family of a special forces service member, specifically the Green Berets, is also very challenging and trying. I like to explain it that the emotional energy and the complexity of navigating that relationship has to be one of the hardest experiences a spouse or a child will encounter. But we also see the grace in that and the fact that they are a support mechanism to the Green Berets. And obviously they are thinking about their loved ones when they’re deployed and obviously those that are left behind and anxiously awaiting their return are thinking about them and praying for them. And I think one of the most incredible things the foundation does, is we support the family in that. From beginning to end, we look at the need to be there as an asset, as an additional team member in their support circle. We’re going to really begin to focus in my tenure as the president and CEO to ensuring that our programs not only meet the current needs of family members and Green Berets, but the future needs and what those needs might be. We’ll be doing a lot of exploratory, discovery phase conversations and interviews with those who are in our community because we want this foundation to be representative of not only the incredible community and the storied history of the Green Berets, but really that next generation, too, because we don’t know what the next global conflict will look like. We don’t know what the needs will be for those returning Green Berets. But I’m a big believer in the fact that you have to plan and orient your organization to be able to execute on when those needs are identified. And your point or your question of not being able to share things and understanding the complexities of that, that also has to be a weight on their shoulders. But I have to say, you know, some of the strongest people I know are military spouses, some of the strongest and most incredibly gifted young children and young teenagers and young adults are children of service members, both from the special forces community as well as other branches of the military. The United States military not only safeguards our freedoms here at home and overseas, and really is the defender of freedom and democracy across the globe. But I also like to say that the United States military builds that next generation of leaders. And so many of those leaders are found in the military, families and spouses. And we are just really privileged and honored to work with them at the Green Beret Foundation.

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