Category: Support the troops

The other day I told you that Wreaths Across America, the organization that puts wreaths on the markers of veterans across the country, was coming up short in contributions this year to meet some of their goals. According to the Washington Post, Google, of all folks, came up with the cash;

Google, which is mapping the cemetery with cameras mounted on people and cars, donated $250,000 to Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit organization that has been laying wreaths there since 1992. Others also contributed smaller amounts after a reading a story in last week’s Washington Post that reported that the effort was falling short this year.

“We’re happy to do our part to honor veterans during this holiday season,” said Susan Molinari, Google’s vice president of public policy and government relations.

Good for Google – I never expected it from them. WAA will now be able to put 130,000 wreaths on markers in Arlington out of the nearly quarter million heroes stationed at their final duty.

AW1Ed sends us a link to Fox News about the Missing in America Project which insures that veterans get the burial that they deserve;

Like other veterans identified by the organization, Goulet said Friday’s group of South Carolina soldiers from Charleston, Horry and Lexington counties went unclaimed most likely because they had no known living relatives to claim their remains, leaving their cremated remains destined to languish in funeral homes and on shelves at coroners’ offices. In other cases, the remains may be abandoned by family members who could not afford to cover burial costs, he said.

They also have a Facebook page.

Along the same lines, Jilly sends us link to Opposing Views which says that Wreaths Across America is falling short of their goals this year, I suppose because the troops have fallen to a back bench behind all of the other crap going on in the country today.

The practice began in 1992 when Worcester Wreath Company donated 5000 wreaths to Arlington National Cemetary, who decides where the wreaths are placed. However, as the size of the donation increased, members of Wreaths Across America have always decorated headstones in Section 60, the resting place for many soldiers of the current conflicts. Last year, according to The Washington Post, the group was able to lay 110,600 wreaths, amounting to a little over a third of all Arlington headstones. On top of that, the group was also able to lay 400,000 wreaths in veteran cemeteries across the country.

This year, however, they failed to raise around $525,000 that they needed to hit their goals. Thus, this year only 100,000 wreaths will be sent to Arlington. Fortunately, another 370,000 to 400,000 wreaths will ship to about 900 cemeteries this year, up one hundred from 2012, according to the Associated Press. So, despite individual donations being down, the group’s outreach continues to expand.

Do what you will with that information.

I get a lot of email asking for your attention and I usually pass on it – but when Jack Daniels speaks to me, I listen. Every year for the last three years they’ve tugged on my ear about their “Operation Ride Home” program. This year they’ve donated $100,000 to the till to get troops home to their families during the upcoming holidays. They claim that in the past two years, they’ve paid for the trips of more than 2,000 Joes and their families to the bosom of their loving families.

Vouchers for plane tickets (averaging $300-400 per person) or $100 pre-paid debit cards to help with gas, lodging and food for each identified service member and dependent will be provided through the campaign based on the service member and his or her family’s individual circumstances.

“For the past two years, we have seen a tremendous outpouring of support to help our nation’s heroes and their families make it home for the holidays,” said Phil Epps, Group Brand Director for Jack Daniel’s. “Every donation, no matter how big or small, helps us reunite these families over the holiday season. For those troops who haven’t seen their families for years, or grandparents who haven’t seen their new grandchildren, there can be no greater present. That’s what Operation Ride Home is all about.”

So, if you have the time and a couple of extra bucks floating around toss a few their way at Operation Ride Home.

The Washington Times reports that 13 marines returning from Afghanistan got an unexpected welcome at O’Hare airport in Chicago. When they landed, the local fire department greeted the aircraft with an arch of water. inside the airport they were welcomed by fire fighters and police who joined the USO folks. Then they all had their seats upgraded on their final leg of the journey to San Diego thanks to some folks who gave up their own first class tickets;

American Airlines then upgraded six of the Marines’ tickets on a San Diego-bound flight to first class — the last of the available seating in that section, AP reported. Seven other first-class ticket holders immediately gave up their seats, though, and traded down so the Marines could all sit together.

From Fox News, the backstory on the welcome;

The welcome home started with a phone call. Stephanie Hare, a native of Illinois who now works in England, called the USO at O’Hare and explained that her fiance, Rajan, who had served seven months in Afghanistan, was with a dozen other Marines on a plane bound for Chicago from Baltimore.

“I just thought if they could get them some Chicago pizza, champagne or something, that would mean a lot,” she said.

On the other end of the line was John Colas, a 74-year-old former Marine USO volunteer. He told Hare he’d try to do something in the hour or so before the flight landed. But he cautioned that while volunteers make an effort to welcome military personnel whenever they come through the airport, he wasn’t sure he could pull anything off in such a short time.

Colas got on the phone with the police and fire departments, the airlines and anyone else he could think of.

“There must have been 15 Chicago firemen and an equal number of Chicago police and they formed a corridor for the Marines when they got off the airplane,” he said.

Rajan said the Marines didn’t know what to make of it, starting with the slightly unnerving experience of looking out a plane window to see a fire truck.

“For a second, we were like, ‘Are we in trouble?’” he said.

There’s always a Vietnam-era veteran behind these things.

Some folks who are making a documentary about how students are learning about the military from veterans at one school, Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California. The name of the documentary is King High Remembers. To help the students learn about the military, they brought a number of veterans into the school to answer their questions;

Our documentary short, “King High Remembers,” is about the evolution of a living history project at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California. It brings together hundreds of military veterans and hundreds of high school history students and gives the veterans an opportunity to share their stories and experiences so that the students can help preserve their history.

Fellow documentarian, Brandon Krajewski and I, spent the better part of a year taking over 25 hours of footage and reducing it down to 40 minutes. We have a rough cut at this point, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. The hardest part now is raising the funds to help us both finish post-production and send it out to as many places as we can.

So they’re asking us to help them raise the money to produce this documentary. We’re always complaining about how civilians don’t take the time to understand us, well, here’s a way to help them understand. The documentary’s producers claim that their goal is to encourage other schools to start their own project, and I think that’s pretty much what we all want. You can click over to their Indiegogo donation page and throw them a couple of tax-deductible bucks.

Someone sent us a link to the Saturday Evening Post interview with Gary Sinise. Denizens of this blog know that I spend very little time on the folks in Hollywood irrespective of their political views, however, Gary Sinise is the singular exception. I’ll admit that I’ve watched Forrest Gump a million times and every time I appreciate the journey of Lieutenant Dan. Apparently, that role is what has inspired Sinise to support the troops in the nearly fanatical way that he has over the years;

Life profoundly changed for Gary Sinise after his Oscar-nominated role in Forrest Gump as the Vietnam vet and double-amputee Lieutenant Dan—a character at first supremely bitter who ultimately finds the courage to come to terms with his disability and even thrive. Wounded vets everywhere responded, and Sinise found himself at the center of a vital cause—to bring attention, appreciation, and help to America’s sometimes-forgotten heroes, the real-life disabled military men and women.

But the meat of the article is in the interview;

Q: Any personal memories of the wounded heroes you’ve met that stay with you?
GS: There are many. I remember a horribly injured marine in intensive care. His wife asked me if I would go and see him. He had lost three of his limbs and most of his other hand. He was burned over 90 percent of his body, and he had suffered a very severe brain injury. She said, “He’s probably not going to know you’re there, but could you do it anyway?” I could see his eyes flickering as I was talking to him. I don’t know if he knew what I was saying, but I was just letting him know that I was there and that I supported him. It was very challenging because he was one of the most severely wounded that I’ve seen—and I’ve seen a lot of very, very badly injured vets. I never forgot him. Later, I called up his wife, and she told me they were moving from place to place, convalescing. I said, “We can build you a house.” That project will be completed this fall, and they’ll be able to move in. His wife is going to have to care for him for the rest of his life, and she’s so heroic and so incredible.

So you should read the whole thing instead of reading me prattle on.