“By day two Rudy’s smile was back.” Says Sahm. “By day four, his purpose.”
Our Story
The idea for FORCE BLUE grew out of a dive trip co-founders Jim Ritterhoff and Rudy Reyes took to the Cayman Islands in Summer 2015 to meet up with their friend, Keith Sahm, General Manager of Sunset House, the oldest continuously operated dive resort in the Caribbean.
For Ritterhoff and Sahm, experienced recreational divers who’d been reef diving for decades, this was just another week in paradise. But for Reyes, a former Recon Marine who had struggled with PTS and depression since returning home from multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, the experience was nothing short of life changing.
“Here’s this trained combat diver,” Ritterhoff remembers. “One of the best, most highly skilled individuals you’ll ever encounter underwater. Yet he’s never seen a fish.”
For Reyes, like most SOF veterans, diving had never been about exploration or enjoyment. To him diving meant hauling 200 lbs. of gear underwater to destroy some potentially dangerous target in the dead of night. What Cayman offered was transformative.
Reyes immediately proposed scheduling another trip so that he could bring down more of his Recon brothers to experience what he just had. But after a few hours of discussion, the three men hatched a different plan. One that would include combat divers from all branches of service, along with marine scientists, conservationists and journalists.
“We saw it as the ultimate win-win,” says Sahm. “An opportunity to do some good, not only for our veterans, but for the planet as well.”
“By starting a program that isn’t just about helping veterans or just about helping the marine environment, but about helping both, we’re really uniting two worlds.” Says Ritterhoff. Hopefully, FORCE BLUE will encourage each to look at the other with a bit more empathy and understanding.”
Our Mission
To unite the community of Special Operations veterans with the world of marine conservation for the betterment of both.
Our Core Values
HEROES
Humility
Excellence
Respect
Openness
Empathy
Service Before Self
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
Like the service branches from which we form our ranks, FORCE BLUE strives to cultivate an organization based on mutual respect, encouragement, mentorship, tolerance, and open-mindedness, thereby engendering a welcoming environment for all.
Onboarding as a FORCE BLUE scientific diver is open to any Special Operations Forces (SOF) veteran — without regard to race, creed, color, age, religion, or sexual orientation — provided he/she has successfully completed his/her military dive training and remains in good standing within the service community.
FORCE BLUE is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in terms of ideas and the people that form our organization. Our team includes military veterans and civilian staff members, as well as volunteers and those individuals and families supported through our various programs.
Giving Warriors a Cause. Giving a Cause its Warriors.
Mission Therapy
FORCE BLUE is the only nonprofit organization in the world that provides “mission therapy” for former combat divers — individuals in whom governments around the world have invested millions to create the best possible underwater and maritime operators — by retraining, retooling and deploying them on missions of conservation, preservation and restoration.
By uniting the community of Special Operations veterans with the world of marine science and conservation in one, mission-focused program, FORCE BLUE has created a model of caring, cooperation and positive change with the power to restore lives and restore the planet.
Harkening back to the days of Jacques Cousteau and the French Commando frogmen he trained, FORCE BLUE is creating a modern-day cadre of elite combat veterans with the aptitude and ability to achieve great things on the conservation front, and the visibility to let the world actually know about it.