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fight oar die

Supporting Our Veterans Through Fight Oar Die

With a name as powerful as that, we knew the mission would speak to us… and boy, were we right.

The Fight Oar Die group is made up of four veterans from various Army backgrounds, ranging from Infantry Paratroopers, US Army Rangers and US Special Forces. These men are still fighting for freedom – just in a different way. In late 2017, they made it their goal to be the first-ever all U.S. veteran rowing team to race across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge. Their goal in rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic over the course of 50 days was simple – to raise awareness of the issues veterans and their families face after they return home from combat deployment – things like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and reintegration issues. So, much like they fought for our country and our freedom on the frontlines of war, they focused their passion and drive towards fighting for returning combat veterans to have a better chance at success… or in other words, their freedom to live as normally and peacefully as is possible after they made such an impossible sacrifice.

"We [OAR] want to show our fellow veterans that anything is possible. To stop taking their lives and start living them."

“And that’s exactly what they set out to do. Their mission was to become the first all-American, all-veteran team to row from the Canary Islands to the West Indies – about 3,000 miles. In fact, more people had been to space than had rowed the Atlantic.” The race was set to take 50+ days, and required a lot of operational costs, in total $300,000. With this investment, the group hoped to raise a total of $2.2 million to support U.S. veterans charitable causes.

Mercury One, through our incredible donors, sought to help the veteran team place a down payment of $50,000 on the boat.

Editor’s Note: Full disclosure — Fight Oar Die team member Beau Maier is also a nephew of Glenn Beck’s.