it's been one month since the death of Pete Reed a volunteer medic from New Jersey who went to Ukraine to treat wounded civilians the former U.S marine was killed by a Russian missile he was a man dedicated to serving others to making a difference this week our Briana vannozzi spoke with his widow Alex Potter to reflect on his life his work his passion and the Legacy he leaves Alex I want to ask you first how you're doing it's been a month now mutual friends of ours have told me just how incredibly brave and strong you are that is evident in all of the interviews you've done but how are you I'm doing okay you know some days a little more overwhelmed than others kind of that momentum that was had the first few weeks up until the funeral and traveled back to Alaska has died down so now I'm just working on sortings repeat stuff closing out his Affairs getting back to work myself and just settling back into Alaska so what have you learned about Pete in all of those travels and all of the stories that have been shared that you didn't know about him you guys have spent um time as a couple that a lot of people will never experience particularly with your work what have you learned about him since then I'm not sure um that it's anything new that I've learned but just hearing from people who are different parts of different communities of his life before I met him whether it was at Camp Beckett or out in Jackson Hole um just how much he impacted people's lives and I realized that when we were together but hearing those stories and seeing his tangible impact on so many people's lives was really amazing has there been Alex any new intelligence about the shelling that hit Pete's ambulance along with his fellow Aid workers that was not known at the time that you can share with us not anything particularly new you know at the time of his death we thought it was a shell or a mortar 120 millimeter mortar but um soon after that people were able to identify at least preliminarily identify the munition as an anti-tank guided weapon um so that means they would have had to have been tracked and very specifically targeted um as civilians yeah I mean is that something that you all had encountered in in your previous work in either mosul or or elsewhere these attacks sort of double Taps double Taps yes but and that's well known that that happens in in multiple conflict zones but when we were working together in mosul we were maybe a little bit further back from no we weren't further back from the front it was just a different type of enemy it was a different type of combatant you know it was an Insurgent group rather than a state to state actor conflict um so guided Weaponry wasn't something that we were at a risk of in mosul in particular what uh has been sort of the outpouring I mean if you can share with us um I mean there are just so many people as you mentioned who have been touched by the both of you and in particular Pete what is this outpouring been like it's been pretty incredible you know just like I said support from his childhood friends Marine Corps friends other NGO workers and journalists that we connected with overseas um even ukrainians who are thanking him for what he did for their country um so yeah hundreds and hundreds of people have messaged most of whom I don't know and have never met but they were all part of Pete's life in some way I guess that sort of speaks to the larger mission that you both I would say were called to you spoke about you and Pete being soul mates I've heard that used from folks who know you both what is it that was driving you both to do this type of work that of course inevitably puts you in danger I think both of us are very service-minded people you know you hear the phrase service service before self in some forums and Industries or in the military realm that I'm in That Others May Live I think that service has just come naturally to both of us from the time that we were kids even before we met each other um whether it was you know for him being a mentor at Camp Beckett or just naturally wanting to help people with what they're struggling with um myself previously being a journalist trying to bring light to conflicts and people who are struggling um yeah we were both really cut from the same cloth I think we obviously had Divergent interests in our own um passions and things that we wanted to pursue but what was at the heart of our moral compass and driving force in our life was helping other people um and we're both you know pretty extreme people so that just kind of led us to serving in the most extreme circumstances where other people might not be willing or able to help well and saving lives ultimately right I'm sure you must have heard from families survivors who you all have been able to give a second chance yeah absolutely and I know that people suffering in any way shape or form weighed really heavily on him you know even though our organization saved thousands of lives in mosul he could still remember individual cases where we weren't able to save the person and that really weighed on him so the the moral imperative to decrease or eliminate suffering was really at the Forefront of his mind I've heard a lot of people friends of yours of Pete's say we should all try to live like Pete what does that mean he wasn't a perfect person by any imagination Rowdy and kind of show Bodhi and uh a little bit you know just not for everybody but he was always very caring wanting to to help people but he was always very present which is something I have honestly like struggled with to like be completely present in the moment but that was why everybody thought that Pete was their best friend and they felt so close to him even if their interaction was so short um so just like having that care but truly being with someone in the moment that they need you to be in yeah which I feel like is harder now than ever for people to be present and some of some people like Pete just get it just naturally know how to do it um I'm thinking about your work ahead now and with Global Response medicine where does it go from here you all also I'm so sorry I offer extra condolences your fellow co-founder also recently passed not while doing humanitarian work as I understand it from a long Health Battle where does the organization go from here yeah so um grm will continue to serve in places where the medicine is most needed we don't have a current operation in Ukraine specifically but we continue to have projects in Mexico and elsewhere and I know our staff will continue to support and push forward Pete's vision of um bringing the care where it's needed the most to the people who need it the most you said you're trying to get yourself of course back into sort of the swing of things if that even is a thing at this point do you still anticipate traveling abroad traveling to war-torn areas to continue your work as a photojournalist not as a photojournalist I stepped away from that a couple years ago just to pursue some other things I'm in the Air National Guard in Alaska now so there are some other career aspirations that I'm working on um that I won't totally get into here but um I know Pete was my biggest supporter in my current Endeavors and he would be really upset if I didn't continue doing them and pressing forward so yeah you know life moves forward and I just hope to live the rest of my life in a way that would really make him proud so I think you already are um just lastly Alex what do you want people to know about Pete I think a lot of folks feel like they know him or knew him you knew him best what do you want his memory to be just as a guy he was he was bigger than her than life and he really cared and loved people you know he struggled a lot with his own with his own demons from being in Afghanistan and then being in mosul but no matter what he was struggling with he was always there to support me and uplift me and do the same with everyone around him so he was an incredibly incredibly loving strong and brave human being and I hope he's remembered as such yeah who clearly married an incredibly loving and strong and brave human being um Alex thank you so much can I share with you I know you've probably been told so many stories about Pete but my brother since we grew up just down the street used to babysit him and Chandler and I can remember Pete's and Chandler sticking their head through the railings of their banister getting stuck my father having to go over with a tool kit and removing the wooden railings and you would think for like a five-year-old you know they'd be kind of frightened being stuck like that having you know essentially the whole neighborhood come into the house it didn't phase Pete and I just always think about that story there were others locking themselves in the bathroom having to remove the doorknob of their bathroom my dad was there frequently with his tool kit but it just to me you saw that in him as a five six year old you know I'm only a few years older that he was just unfazed there was no fear in his body he was very um yeah that's really interesting that was present even as a child but there weren't too many situations that phased him at least in the present moment you know he was always able to he was a very good Problem Solver um both you know physically and emotionally whatever he saw in front of him as an issue to be solved he was like oh well this is where we are these are the steps we can take to solve that problem and we'll just go from there that doesn't mean it didn't affect him later personally in his private life but as as far as fixing things in the moment he was always very level-headed it was it was pretty impressive well I think that's an interesting point you make because in memorializing any anyone we often tend to um sort of glorify all of those good parts but doing this type of work takes a toll I mean a real mental toll that I imagine you both just leaned on each other to get through yeah absolutely um and you know I think that I was able to get through and rationalize some of the things that we had been together in Iraq and mosul a little bit easier than he was um but you know here's a dude dudes like to box up things and not really talk about their emotions as much but yeah we were definitely each other's support through that battle and Through the follow-on Years um yeah we definitely relied on each other for that support well Alex I just want to thank you again um it's not easy to do these conversations and yet um you've just been Grace under fire we all send our thoughts to our deepest condolences and those don't end here those will be with you so thank you so much thank you I really appreciate it