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Ep. 45 — A U.S. Army Special Operations team leader is haunted by the death of two comrades and devotes his career to data-driven decision-making / Justin Richmond, Founder, and Executive Director, impl. project. The twist in the road for Justin Richmond surfaced on September 29, 2009, at Camp Bautista — a key Filipino military base in the Southern Philippines — when two of his colleagues were killed in an IED attack. Richmond was deployed as a U.S. Army Special Operations team leader helping the Filipino army with stabilization, counterinsurgency, and information operations. His superiors had decided to support what would prove to be a disastrous Filipino military mission. A Sergeant at the time and the lowest ranking task force member in the room, Richmond expressed his qualms but lacked the authority to be heard. The casualties of the task force’s decision were Jack Martin and Chris Shaw. “On the 29th of September, Jack and Chris hopped their Humvee and went to do a water resupply and in the middle of that road was a really big bomb and they drove over it and killed Jack instantly and Chris held on for a little while. He got medivacked over to us, myself, and one of his former teammates were on his Aid and Litter team, got them off the helo and prepared him for the forward surgical team, but the injuries were too significant and he didn't make it after that,” Richmond recalls. “And I look back and I think about the people that were involved in this decision and there wasn't maliciousness, there wasn't guile. It really boiled down to a lot of complacency and hubris.” Richmond’s inability to convince his superiors to abort the ill-thought-out mission forced him to confront how critical decisions are often made in the U.S. military in the absence of clear actionable data. The crisis of faith led Richmond to first join USAID, then Palantir, and then to set up a non-profit called impl. project to use data to drive community outcomes in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. Abruptly grounded in his global mission by Covid-19, Richmond turned his sights to the U.S. and is using data to identify and address the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, in particular, the skyrocketing rise in domestic violence. “The quarantines have forced families into situations that they wouldn't have gone into otherwise if there wasn't COVID and there wasn't quarantines. And I'm a huge believer in the quarantines, I think they should have happened faster and I think they should stay longer because it's the only way we're going to save lives. Having said that, this puts people that are already in vulnerable relationships, really in the cross-hairs of their abusers, and requires them to essentially shelter in place with people that don't have their best interests in mind,” Richmond says. “So domestic violence hotlines across the country are just exploding. I know in Virginia, we're seeing 75% more calls than we did at this time last year . . . and we realized that this is something, a need that a lot of women have.” Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Justin Richmond's twist in the road surfaced on September 29, 2009 at Camp Bautista, a Filipino military base in the Southern Philippines. Richmond was deployed there as a US army special operations team leader, helping the Filipino army with stabilization, counterinsurgency and information operations. Richmond's inability to convince his superiors to abort the ill-fated mission, forced him to confront the dissonance between America's promises and America's actions. Chitra Ragavan: Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory and advisory firm, helping technology startups find their narrative. Joining me now is Justin Richmond, founder and executive director of impl. project, a scrappy little nonprofit with a global vision and mission to use data to drive community outcomes....