Today My Grandson Leaves for Iraq--Again. Here's What We Can Do

On this, the day my grandson flies from his base in Colorado to Iraq, I thought I'd begin this blog with a letter published in the Glendale News-Press. The city had decided to hang banners supporting our toops. As you can see, I had mixed emotions about that:


As a writer I am a proponent of the power of words. Put those words on a banner and the effect may be even greater.

Nevertheless the idea of our city's spending a large sum of money on banners (see GNP Thursday, Aug 23, 2007 Page A3) when so much needs to be done for our troops bothers me. In the past I've blogged to encourage our citizenry—in the midst of a fervor of well-deserved support for our troops—to do more than pass around patriotic photos of troops on the Web, wave flags or, yes, hang banners. We need to do more because many of the military issues we heard about in the past have not gone away. Here are a few:

1. A huge number of soldiers still earn beneath the poverty level of a citizen of the US.
2. Many veterans, including a poet friend of mine who suffers from PTSD, are not receiving the medical benefits they were promised and deserve.
3. I'm not sure about the flak jacket and armored vehicles snafu (my grandson who just returned from Iraq said he was issued his flaks) but last I heard there were some 10,000 faulty ones that hadn't been recalled out of 30,000.
4. Benefits for our soldiers (general ones—not just health benefits) have been cut in the last few years, not increased.
5. Most of our soldiers called up from the reserves—some of them for the third time—do not receive education benefits when they return home.

Besides a blog and letter here and there, I've donated a foreword to a book that supports Fisher House, a Ronald McDonald's House type service that provides homes for the families of wounded servicemen and women being treated overseas. It doesn't feel as if it's doing any good.

It may seem a bit ridiculous to say, considering that I'm writing this letter, but I'm about worded out. Still, perhaps because my grandson is in the military soon to return to Iraq for the second time, I just can't let go. So here are a few ideas that don't necessarily take a lot of time or money (but could if one was so disposed.):

1. Let's donate to the USO. Or Fisher House (the charitable organization I mentioned above. If everyone sent a dollar, we could make a huge difference.
2. Send letters and care packages overseas. Make that gift something that the guys and gals need so they won't have to spend their precious salaries on things that are cheaper here at our local CVS. Some churches have overseas programs in place.
4. Send similar gifts to the soldiers who are back in the US after a tour of duty. Many of them have had their tours extended--involuntarily--and will be going back to the desert sand soon.
5. Write letters to your congress people and our President about the benefits our new vets (and yes, our Viet vets!) aren't getting. And, yes, send letters of thanks, too, when they actually vote for something that supports them.
6. And, when you see a soldier at your local Italian restaurant, don't just offer, buy the guy (or gal) a meal on the Q.T.. Not out of charity. Out of thanks.

Now about those banners. If we must put up banners, perhaps they could include calls to action? Maybe one or more of the suggestions above, complete with URLs to make helping easier.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson wrote the foreword for Eric Dinyer's book of patriotic quotations, Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Part of the proceeds for the book benefit Fisher House. Her chapbook of poetry won the Military Writers Society of America's award of excellence.