Joseph Kauper
Founder of Harbor Site Foundation
He was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corp 1997-2001
Upon leaving the Marines he worked as an information security contractor for the Army in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Returning stateside in 2003 he began working as a uniformed officer for the US Dept of State Diplomatic Security Service. He took a leave of absence from 2005-2006 where he was working as a contractor in Afghanistan on a communications project in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Shortly after his return back at the Department of State he was hired on as a police officer for Port Authority Police Department.
In late 2010 a fellow police officer and former Marine who had served two tours in Iraq took his own life. This prompted some of the veterans on our job to begin to ask some important questions that many returning veterans ask themselves:
Where is the support network for police officers returning from hazardous duty tours in areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan?
Due to the strict requirements in their line of work, Will a police officer who sustained the "invisible" injuries of combat such as post traumatic stress and Traumatic Brain Injury be placing their job in jeopardy in order to seek assistance?
Where is the transition assistance for a soldier, sailor or Marine returning from combat to getting back to patrol on the streets here in the US?
These are questions that many police departments in the United States have yet to address. Joseph Kauper, Police Officer Mike Stoia and Jersey City Police officer Collin Congleton (all former Marines) started the Harbor Site Foundation to bring these issues to light and remove the stigma that goes hand in hand with these diagnoses'.
