Cyber gladiator battles community need

  • Published
  • By Maj. Alysia R. Harvey
  • 960th Cyberspace Operations Group Public Affairs
Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas --  One of the 960th Cyber Operations Group's Cyber Gladiators is battling community need by going above and beyond as an avid volunteer.

Maj. Brett Bonin, a Cyber Command & Control Mission System senior duty officer, assigned to the 854th Combat Operations Squadron here, is a three-time awardee of the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal with nearly 2,000 volunteer hours.

"Brett has done some terrific work in his community that has clearly made a difference," said Col. Mark Melcher, 854th COS commander. "He has volunteered more than 321 hours over the past year performing in a number of community volunteer leadership roles within his extended North Texas community, and his leadership has been instrumental to the health and welfare of the civilian community.  Coupled with his superb performance as a mission commander at the 426th Network Warfare Squadron and senior duty officer at the 854th COS, Major Bonin is a model Citizen Airman!"

Bonin served in the U.S. Army until 2004, where he was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers and led responses to numerous floods and hurricanes. However, in 2005, having separated from the Army, Bonin and his wife found themselves to be Hurricane Katrina disaster refugees. 

"Growing up on the [Gulf] Coast, we were used to evacuating for a couple of days and then returning," Bonin said. "As a child, I can remember the older generation talking about Hurricane Betsy and the worst case of a perfect storm up the mouth of the Mississippi and into New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. This was the perfect storm, and it was an awful feeling to not know where I would live or if everything I owned was destroyed."

He went on to say he and his wife watched his former colleagues at the Superdome and around New Orleans from a television in the run-down motel room they were lucky enough to secure as people were evacuating. Having been on the other side in his military career, he says it was demoralizing not being able to help and being dependent on so many others. However, the outpouring of support they received inspired him to become an avid volunteer.

"The disaster made me realize that I was no longer a leader in the military or community, but just an average Joe with little ability to help others," Bonin said.
So, after the Katrina response settled, he signed up to volunteer with the Catholic Charities Refugee Services, American Red Cross, Community Emergency Response Team in Dallas, Habitat for Humanity, and Good Samaritans. After three years of volunteer leadership, he joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 2009, and has continued to volunteer and serve as a traditional reservist.

"Being affiliated with a broad group of NGOs allows me to pick volunteer assignments that are conducive to work, Reserve, and family obligations," said the St. Amant, La., native, who also serves as a Global Security Officer for Hewlett-Packard in his civilian profession.

One of those NCOs is Good Samaritans, a North Texas non-profit organization that coordinates victim assistance and distributes food to those in need. Bonin is the vice president, and this year alone, his leadership has enabled critical services to be delivered to more than 6,500 citizens in different states of distress, from impoverishment and abuse to homelessness. He has helped raise more than $2.5 million, distribute 4,000 pounds of food, ensured the homeless had shelter in the cold winter periods, and connected those in need with partner non-government organizations and government agencies with the appropriate caregiving capabilities.

Bonin has also been a Red Cross officer for nearly seven years.  He deployed as a government liaison officer in response to the Ebola virus and led responses for both the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, and the category four tornado in Granbury, Texas.

During the Ebola response, he represented all non-government organization functions on the Dallas Unified Command team by monitoring and coordinating solutions for the sheltering, mass care, feeding, and the supportive counseling needs of all impacted people.

"At the peak, there were over a hundred civilian personnel who were under different variations of quarantine or self-monitoring," said Bonin. "The experience was very rewarding because we thwarted failure, which would have equated to sickness and death, as well as a large-scale epidemic and wide-spread martial law."

His efforts did not go unnoticed and lead to a promotion as a supervisor in training at the Dallas Fort Worth-North Texas Red Cross.

"This operation relied heavily on relationships, communication, and situational awareness, and we were able to rely on Brett as an accurate and trusted source," said Larry Bushwar, the American Red Cross North Texas Ebola Response Director, in a volunteer performance report he wrote on Bonin.  "He was instrumental in helping us translate and respond to needs for those in isolation."

This step up the proverbial ladder is a feather in Bonin's cap, but he considers himself a "champion of community volunteerism" and says regardless of the recognition, he enjoys the contribution he's making to his community and will continue to do it.  

"After my work with the Ebola response, people didn't want to shake hands with me when I went back to work and meetings were mysteriously cancelled several weeks after I returned, he said jokingly. "But I will continue to volunteer so that I am plugged in and prepared to respond actively instead of watching from the sidelined in a Podunk hotel as I did during Hurricane Katrina."