When his doctor attempted to maneuver him into the office of a psychiatrist and medication, instead, Ephraim took charge of his own healing. He read powerful books and began exploring alternative methods for providing critical humanitarian relief to those who needed it most.  Shortly after the dive-training incident, Ephraim watched the film 13 Hours.  He left with renewed anger and frustration for, like the men in Benghazi he’d signed up to fight – not stand down while others fought. He was sick of the 90% training, 5% waiting, and 5% fighting ratio.

It was time, he knew, to find an alternate avenue to fulfill his calling.

He wanted to help the people least likely to be helped by conventional humanitarian or missionary work. He wanted to help the innocent people caught in the crossfires of combat zones.

“I want to be on the frontlines,” he says, “going into places where other people can’t go to do things other people can’t do.”

Ephraim’s brother is enmeshed in the humanitarian community, and told him about an organization called the Free Burma Rangers, (FBR) a “is a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement working to bring help, hope and love to people in the conflict zones of Burma, Iraq, and Sudan.”

Founded by former Special Forces Officer David Eubanks, this group of hard-core humanitarians seemed like the perfect fit. Following his gut, Ephraim flew to Thailand and spent a few days with David Eubanks. That dose of humanitarian work in the midst of such a horrendous humanitarian crisis was enough for Ephraim to know he’d found the outlet for him to be of his highest service to others.

It wasn’t they typical application process to be selected for the FBR, but David Eubanks saw enough of Ephraim to give him the opportunity.

“We’re going to Iraq next week,” he told Ephraim. “You’re welcome to join us. “

Ephraim laughs at the picture David painted for him – It is not a paid position. FBR is strictly volunteer. Ephraim would have to buy his own ticket to Iraq. He’s been helping people in the most dangerous areas of that country, but he wasn’t guaranteed to have a gun. Or, if he was lucky enough to be given a weapon one day – and even if it worked – he wasn’t guaranteed to have a weapon the following day.

It’s crazy. He was a Navy SEAL, trained with the best equipment. Now he was invited to risk his own life – on his own dime- with a group of people he’d never met, in a country that wasn’t his, without the might of the United States military. But what sounds crazy to others sounds like optimum performance to Ephraim. In fact, he says, those conditions are precisely what makes the FBR so good. It’s a group of people who are 100% committed to their mission and are willing to sacrifice so greatly to achieve it.

There’s no one else he’d rather do such work alongside than people like that – people he knows are not in it for the money, not going to take cover when the bullets fly.

Within a week he’d sold all his belongings and had his boots down in Iraq.

Technically he was on vacation time. That’s a much more pleasant phrase than “terminal leave,” the proper term for this time off before he would officially transition from the Navy SEALS to civilian life – especially considering how he was using this time. Ephraim spent the final days of “vacation” in the streets of Iraq, alongside tanks, fighting terrorists. He spent his first weeks as a civilian doing the same thing.

The FBR operate outside of the media spotlight. A Burmese videographer captures their experiences on film as a means of documenting the human rights and humanitarian issues. An occasional journalist appears to get a picture that meets their outlet’s narrative and disappears back from whence they came.

Were it not for a video of Ephraim Mattos being shot, that’s now gone viral, it’s likely most of us would never have heard of them.

After weeks of bloodshed, heartache, loss, salvation, and countless near-death encounters, Ephraim was at his limit. Body, mind, and soul were greatly fatigued and almost broken. He’d witnessed so much of the very worst of humanity that even living among the very best of humanity was now almost not enough to push him forward.

This particular rescue mission was very likely a suicide mission. But David, his good friend and “the best combat leader I’ve ever served under,”  was going in. And there was no way in hell anyone was going to let him go alone.

“We knew we had to do something. We knew we had to get those kids out.”

So, at peace with his decision, Ephraim pushed his terror aside and gave everything he could to rescue the 3 children they’d seen still alive, foraging for water and food among the bodies, and the two men they’d glimpsed holding on among them.