TAMPA, Fla. — Led by Bryan Stern, a veteran with more than 25 years of military experience, the nonprofit Grey Bull Rescue is an international organization that has just one mission: Bring Americans home safely. 

What You Need To Know

  • According to its founder, Grey Bull Rescue Foundation works to bring home Americans in dangerous situations from all over the world

  • Founder Bryan Stern is a U.S. Army and Navy veteran with more than 25 years of military experience

  • Stern first began rescues around three years ago in Afghanistan with Project Dynamo

  • His group recently rescued an American from a war zone in Lebanon

Stern said his group travels across the world rescuing Americans in dangerous environments. 

"We go and set up all kinds of ways to get out of the country," he said. "Ground ways, maritime ways, boats, airplanes."

Hours before interviewing Stern, he was returning from Lebanon where his organization has set up Operation: SAFE PASSAGE, to rescue U.S. citizens trying to escape the country as violence in the Middle East escalates.

"We did an operation for an American from Nevada, and because of where he was located so close to the war zone where they were doing drone strikes down the street from his house, all the communication was jammed or GPS was spoofed," he said.  

Stern said the American had been trying to get himself and his wife out of Lebanon and back to America with no success.

However, after Grey Bull Rescue was contacted, Stern and his team quickly set up a plan to get them home.  

"From first contact (it) was like 12 hours, not even," he said. "He's been asking for seven weeks to everybody else, so we work at the speed of need."

Stern first began rescues like this around three years ago in Afghanistan with Project Dynamo. According to the Grey Bull Rescue website, the group rescued 117 stranded Americans in a single day.

Since then, a Grey Bull Rescue press release says the group has deployed on more than 600 rescues and "saved the lives of more than 7,000 men, women, children, babies and counting."

Now running Grey Bull Rescue, Stern said whether it's a rescue from a war zone or from a worldwide natural disaster, bringing Americans home is all that matters. 

"If you have a passport that looks like my passport and you're in trouble, help should come," he said. "Grey Bull is designed to be here 10, 15, 20 years. It is designed to be here until the need is not needed anymore." 

Americans still in Lebanon or Israel trying to get out of the area can submit their information on the Grey Bull website by clicking the "Request Help" button.