Gary Becks

Gary Becks is the founder of Rescue Task Force and he has served on World Emergency Relief's Board of Directors for 18 years. In March 2009 he oversaw the merger of Rescue Task Force and World Emergency Relief and has recently retired as CEO of the merged organization.

RTF / WER is a nonprofit organization that has provided food, medical supplies and support to victims of natural and man-made disasters for over 20 years. WER annually ships about $80 million dollars worth of relief supplies to our projects and to project partners around the globe. On the field operations side Gary has personally led over one hundred missions to conflictive and natural disaster zones around the globe. In addition to his extensive work in Honduras and Nicaragua he has served in El Salvador at the request of that country's President. His service has additionally taken him to South Africa and into Iraq, Burundi, Albania, Kosovo, Africa, Cambodia, deep into the interior of Afghanistan where he had also worked during the Soviet occupation. Gary worked extensively in Sri Lanka and Southern Thailand in response to the Tsunami and they are very active with Haiti relief. Gary and his Thai bride spent their honeymoon in Louisiana assisting victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Gary has worked in Washington D.C. on Congressman Duncan Hunter's personal staff and he has served as a Senior Research Analyst for the United States House of Representatives.

Becks is listed in the prestigious Heritage Foundation Guide To Public Policy Experts. His book, "But I Can Still Carry Half A Load", narrates his humanitarian assistance to victims of global conflicts during the cold war.

Using 'trains' of burros, vintage aircraft and helicopters and dug-out canoes Becks continues to lead disaster response teams and volunteer medical teams into isolated villages around the globe. On the Miskito Coast of Honduras many villages have never had contact from outsiders.

Projects include the construction and equipping of full service medical clinics and a maternity clinic deep in the jungles of La Moskitia, Honduras, providing regional Indian villages their first ever full time medical care. The combined organizations also operate twenty-one Literacy Learning Centers for women inside of Afghanistan and they built two medical clinics in Tsunami ravaged villages in Sri Lanka. Local projects have included support to our war wounded returning to Balboa and Bethesda Naval Hospitals, and Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Centers.

Gary Becks served in Viet Nam with the Third Marines as a Med-Evac corpsman. His decorations include seven Air Medals for performance in over 140 combat missions. He is a former Fire Department Battalion Commander and served for many years as Special Assistant to U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter.

Gary and his wife, Benyapa, live in San Bernardino, California. He has three daughters and one son and Benyapa has one son. They are proud grandparents of seven grandchildren.