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Grey Bull Rescue team to appear at Tampa’s SOF Week
The organization rescues Americans and allies from war zones and denied areas around the world.
Tampa will host the annual Special Operations Forces Week, an initiative supported by the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Global SOF Foundation, May 18-21.
Designed to foster collaboration, learning and development, the event brings community members, government leaders and industry partners together. The U.S. Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, conducts global missions and activities.
Tampa-based Grey Bull Rescue will have a presence at the conference. According to founder and chairman Bryan Stern, the organization focuses on rescuing Americans and allies from war zones, denied areas and natural disasters.
Missions have taken place all around the world, including Russia, Venezuela, Haiti, Jordan, Iran and Lebanon. Stern and his team have evacuated hostages and kidnapping victims.
Grey Bull Rescue has successfully conducted 809 missions, Stern said, often in areas that the government cannot successfully reach. Over 8,750 lives have been saved, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
The politician has been an active voice against the Nicolás Maduro administration. Maduro has been Venezuela’s president since 2013. Machado was able to be safely evacuated in December 2025 and was brought to Norway to reunite with her family and receive her Nobel Peace Prize.
Grey Bull Rescue is donor-funded. Stern and his colleagues began overseeing missions in 2021.
“SOF Week is important for a lot of reasons,” he explained. “Most of my team, including myself, comes from the Special Operations community and we’re currently engaged in many of the problem places in the world.”
Stern served for more than 25 years in the U.S. Army and Navy. He received a Purple Heart and was a survivor of the 9/11 tragedy in 2001.
“I grew up in the intelligence and special operations community focused on operations that don’t have a lot of support and have very high stakes,” Stern said. “So, that’s what Grey Bull does. I’m uniquely prepared from an expertise and thought process perspective.”
Preparations for each rescue vary depending on the situation. “Each one of these things is very very different,” he added. “There’s nothing cookie cutter about them.”
The goal is to “define success” and understand the enemy. During the planning process, the Grey Bull Rescue team discusses how to influence and deceive the “bad guy.”
Stern and his colleagues will share stories of their operations at SOF Week. They will bring mission vehicles to the conference as well, including a Navy SEALs assault boat.
SOF Week will be hosted at a variety of locations including the Tampa Convention Center, JW Marriott Tampa Water Street, Westin Tampa Waterside and Peter O. Knight Airport.
The goal is to find corporate sponsors, Stern said. These companies can donate money or items to support Grey Bull Rescue’s work.
“I believe we represent the future of SOF,” he added, “meaning unsupported small teams deep behind enemy lines conducting operations and having a strategic impact and moving the needle on geopolitical issues.”
