Since Gary D. Becks founded the Rescue Task Force in 1988, he and volunteers for the Carlsbad-based nonprofit relief organization have traveled the world bringing aid to victims of natural and man-made disasters. Last year, the agency merged with World Emergency Relief and most recently sent a team to Haiti.

Question: What inspired you to start the Rescue Task Force?

Answer: I was raised and brought up with “old-time religion” morals and mentality. My mother was always volunteering her time in church and was a mentor to my sister and me in “giving back.” As a fire battalion commander, I went on a volunteer mission deep into the jungles of Honduras’ Mosquito Coast. I quickly found myself in a canoe paddling and wading through swamps to alleviate suffering in tiny villages. Our relief team was overwhelmed. … I looked around at the vast jungles, the hundreds of families in need, the distance we traveled, and it hit me hard: “Where is everyone?” Where are the Americans?”

Question: When did you decide to quit your job and dedicate all your time to this effort?

Answer: I brought the stories home to my family. I have four children, and with their support, we decided to leave the life we knew and move full-force into our new life of putting out fires on a bigger scale. No regrets. No looking back — we have a world to save, and we are doing that — one village, one disaster, one heart, one life at a time.

Question: How many relief missions have you gone on?

Answer: My daughter, Andrea Stone, and I have spent many years as a father-daughter team responding to disasters, building clinics, providing clean water and more. Together we are on our 294th mission and counting. I have been to just about every man-made disaster: Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and to natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. However, to many people of the world, every day is a disaster.

Question: What was your most emotional visit?

Answer: There are many emotions with every mission: disaster relief, medical/dental teams, shipping lifesaving supplies. … One that will live with me forever was visiting the severely war-wounded at U.S. military hospitals. We provide them with backpacks filled with entertainment and personal comfort items. After visiting with a 22-year-old Marine who had lost both arms and one leg, I witnessed his dad there tenderly caring for him. My gift was bigger than a backpack. I was giving him the gift of thanks and appreciation. He was not forgotten. Leaving his hospital room, I headed straight for the parking lot. I had a good cry, and not a moment goes by that I don’t appreciate our country, our soldiers and those who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms.

Question: What images stay with you?

Answer: I would have to say the children — the discomforts they endure with parasites; bloated bellies and malnutrition. Seeing a lethargic, weak little life just hanging on, one shallow breath at a time, for what is as simple as a $1 dose of worm medicine and clean water. If only we had enough money to save the world.

Question: What makes your organization different from the Red Cross or other emergency relief groups?

Answer: We do not have limits. There is no delay. … No red tape. We go where others do not, doing what others will not. We put in power, dig latrines, set up tents, search cities for baby formula, deliver emergency supplies via airboat, helicopter, canoe and mule — we do it all. One thing that sets us apart: We listen to needs. Many times our aid is given in the form of a simple hug or a shirt sleeve to wipe away painful tears.

Question: Where do your contributions come from?

Answer: About 80 percent from private individuals and the balance from businesses, churches, service clubs and the like.

Question: Could you describe your role in Haiti after the earthquake?

Answer: My daughter, Andrea, has done a phenomenal job of leading both a World Emergency Relief and “boots on the ground” Rescue Task Force team through this disaster. And we certainly aren’t done. We are shipping over $4.3 million of relief supplies to Haiti. These medicines, food and supplies will go to those in need — not into a warehouse at the airport. Guaranteed!

Question: Why did your daughter follow you in this line of work?

Answer: Andrea shares my gift. She, too, can feel and hear the needs from around the world. In her 37 years, she has lived more life than some people I know who are over 70. She was born with a heart condition and wasn’t supposed to live past age 3. Year after year she kept living, her heart compensating for her narrow veins. She has the scars to prove her battle to live and enough passion to save the world. Andrea’s first trip was just six months after undergoing her open-heart surgery.

Question: What do you personally get out of it?

Answer: The benefits are great — turning homelessness into shelter, fear into security. I get so much out of seeing life — lives touched, lives bettered and lives saved.

Question: How do you want to be remembered?

Answer: As a guy who enabled ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Most importantly, though, I will not be remembered. With time, the kids we see and the tears we dry will pass into distant memories. The villagers and victims will forget the names Rescue Task Force and World Emergency Relief. But they will never forget, during their time of need, the day that the Americans came.

This is one in an occasional series of Q&As that columnist Diane Bell conducts with newsmakers. If you have suggestions of people you would like her to interview, e-mail diane.bell@uniontrib.com.

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PROFILE