Afghanistan

Program Recruits Veterans to Help in Child Exploitation Fight

Never before has a military veteran been given a mission like this.

Marc Budnik joined the military in 2002 as a mechanic, eventually becoming an Army Ranger and was part of the military surge into Iraq. But in March 2010, the career that took him around the world chasing terrorists came to an abrupt end.

“I was shot in Afghanistan,” he explained.

Life changed for Budnik. He recouped stateside and started a family. He was recruited for another mission, as a computer forensics analyst.

“It allowed me to continue my focus on catching the bad guys,” Budnik said.

Budnik is now a “H.E.R.O.” – the acronym for his job: a human exploitation rescue operative, working the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s new HERO Corps.

The program was designed two years ago to retrain wounded veterans and enlist them in the fight against online child predators.

“The intent is to give you the expertise and knowledge in order to have the ability to transition into the computer forensics field,” Budnik said.

He is now based at a computer forensics lab in Long Beach.

“Out here, you’re not running around kicking doors in and getting after the bad guys. Out here you’re doing it behind the scenes,” he said.

Now, he pulls out hard drives, destroys cellphone warranties and pinpoints pedophiles.

“Continue to go after the bad guys, to find the criminals that harm innocent children,” he explained.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that in the last year, more than a thousand kids have been rescued nationwide because of people like Budnik.

“But, even better than that, we’ve put away over 2,300 of these predators,” said Joseph Macias, Homeland Security Investigations special agent-in-charge.

Macias said that makes the success of this program twofold.

“For us, it’s a great program because we’re giving back to the military personnel that have given to us for so long,” he said.

And for Budnik, he still gets to serve his country: on a very different battlefield.

“I believe that this is a little bit more rewarding, to know you’re rescuing innocent children and protecting the future of this country,” he said.

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