..Holiday Appeal for Walter Reed Hospital Soldiers - JOE GALLOWAY

JOE GALLOWAY ^ | 11/26/2003 | JOE GALLOWAY

[ALOHA RONNIE]

NEVER FORGET

A Holiday Greeting from 'WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE and YOUNG' Co-Author JOSEPH GALLOWAY:

Friends:

As we head into the holidays it is time to think of the airplanes which land every night at Andrews AB outside Washington carrying 12 to 15 wounded soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq bound for Walter Reed Army Hospital.

Many are evacuated straight out of the field with no possessions. They need some of the smaller things to make life a little easier.

A list of what is needed and where to send it is attached.

GOD Bless Them.

JOE GALLOWAY

-----------------------------------------------------

The American Red Cross at Walter Reed is looking for incidentals/comfort items for sick and wounded Armed Forces Personnel now recuperating at the hospital. When someone stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere is wounded or falls ill, they're immediately evacuated and eventually end up stateside. It takes weeks for their personnnel effects to catch up with them.

Things that the Red Cross is asking for are:

telephone cares of at least 30 minutes / rolling luggage (small), totes, carry-ons / individually wrapped snacks / magazines / notepads, pens / playing cards and games / sweat pants and shirts (all sizes) /

All items should be addressed to:

ATTN: Barbara Green / Walter Reed Army Medical Center / 6900 Georgia Ave, N.W. / Washington, DC 20307-5001 /

Checks should be made out to the American Red Cross.

For more information, call (202) 782-2080 or e-mail Barbara.Green.1@AMEDD.army.mil

NEVER FORGET

[Soaring Feather]

He hadn't talked with any of his family in Oklahoma for over a week.

This is so sad. Thank heaven you went there. Thanks so much for praying with him.

[blackie]

God bless these warriors ~ Bump!

[McGavin999]

Thank you SO much for doing this. I'm on the other side of the country or I'd be there with you. You're right about the Red Cross, something really needs to be done about that. If anybody can figure out a way to make them more responsive to our guys, it's the Freepers.

[Darksheare]

"I said to him, "Do you know that the Red Cross has clothes - sweats, underwear, socks, sneakers and phone cards that we've sent here for you guys?" He had NO clue. "

I'm close to babbling incoherently on this one.
FAMPListers, soldier info ping.
See TruthNteg's post, of which a small quote is above.

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks for the ping and your post 178, TNT.

Dear Father in Heaven,

We ask that you will surround Gerald Santos and Rick Diaz with a very special prayer blanket woven with your healing, comfort, mercy, love, and protection. Wrap them with this swaddling garment to make them feel safe, loved, and cared for. Let them receive at a heart level and in their outer waking consciousness an understanding and a certitude that all will be well. And by thy grace, make it so. Let all be well with them.

Father, we cannot begin to repay these fine young men for the blood they have shed and the sacrifice of their perfect health for us and this nation. Father, please bless them abundantly, and let them and all who have made similar sacrifices be assured of the gratitude from us which they deserve.

Father, we understand that there have been instances where organizations who are supposed to tend to these warriors in our name have failed in their obligations. We ask that you will send legions of angels into those organizations and shake them up with your Light, shatter the matrices of dense thinking and bureaucratic red tape and guide them into a renewal of their original purpose. In the meantime, let those who are stepping up to the plate with caring hearts for these heroes be given the wherewithal and ability to minister to each and every one of them in need of the compassionate grateful hand. Let not a one of them fall through the cracks of our attention.

Father, raise awareness in our nation of the debt of gratitude we do owe these, our finest treasure. Open the hearts of our brothers and sisters throughout the nation and let them be moved to see to it that these and all our veterans are cared for and compensated justly.

We ask for and are expectantly grateful for your divine Will made manifest in this situation.

Amen

[onyx]

Thank you for this ping and for the updates on our heroes.

Like you, I am stunned and angered by the Red Cross --- I think they must be democrats.

I continue to pray for all the guys, but I'll surely light a candle for Rick Diaz tomorrow morning after Mass. God bless them all.

[mystery-ak]

Red Cross is letting our troops down bump

[onyx]

Big time --- BTTT

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

TNt, thank you!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please read TruthNtegrity's #178, about her visit to Walter Reed Hospital to see Sgt. Santos:

When I got to Sgt. Santos room he was gone, and the reason was - he was in physical therapy. When he came back, he was walking (!!!!!) on crutches, but walking. I let out a "HooHah" and he broke into a proud grin.

Then I talked with a Rick Diaz, who had been a passenger on that Chinook on Nov. 2....he was still in hospital blue cotton Hospital-issued pajamas. I said to him, "Do you know that the Red Cross has clothes - sweats, underwear, socks, sneakers and phone cards that we've sent here for you guys?" He had NO clue.

As Gerald Santos told me, unless you have family or friends who can go down for you, the Red Cross doesn't exactly come to the wards and make the items available.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Red Cross is telling Americans not to send anything to Walter Reed, that they are overwelmed with our support.

This Soldier didn't know and hadn't received anything.

Contact the DoD: here. I suggested they fire the Red Cross and hire the Boy Scouts to deliver the Christmas mail. Just make sure our Soldiers know we care!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you. CBS did a good thing if Americans came away from this special thinking...

"we will never forget.." and "where do we get such men?"

---

Please read TNt's #178 above. The Red Cross isn't getting mail to at least some of our Soldiers.

[Travis McGee]

Never Forget Bump!

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[tinacart]

"That way it's easier for them to take their cut."

Bingo! I trust them as much (or less) as I trust our Boy Scout hating "United Way." We can't trust the so-called Red Cross(Commies) to distribute the items to OUR patriots rather than our enemies, or to steal the money outright and then redirect it to them. Actually, I trust the Red Cross as much as I trust the U.N. Sorry, but that's been my training and experience... If I'm wrong and it can be proven, I'll gladly concede. But, from every report I've heard and from the stories from soldiers in wars past, I just can't trust the commie red cross! BTW, thought they'd already decided to do away with the "cross" because it can be offensive (to anyone not Christian), so, are they not changing the name also, or are they afraid donations will slip? After all, the commie countries they SUPPORT sure aren't donating! Forget the RC, donate directly!

[hedgetrimmer]

Bump!

[VOA]

...We ask that you will send legions of angels into those organizations and shake
them up with your Light, shatter the matrices of dense thinking and bureaucratic
red tape and guide them into a renewal of their original purpose. ...

TEXOKIE,
while I give a hearty Amen to all you said in your prayer, it appears that
we should add in a bit more for The Red Cross, given their "United Way"-esque weasely
words and actions.

I fear that only when a legion of lawyers and fraud investigators (as in The
Red Cross' breaking of contracts, verbal and/or implied, to donors) show up at their
headquarters and their banking institutions with some big fat subpoenas.
I'm afraid that a few "perp walks" is about the only thing that would bring
The Red Cross back onto the straight and narrow.

Given some of the INCREDIBLE duplicity of chapters of The Red Cross here in
California (especially the San Diego chapter), I almost despair about the
organization so much that I think my charitable dollar would more likely reach
people in need if I just threw it out the window, as opposed to writing The Red Cross
a check.

Sad, sad, sad.
For me, the final straw with The Red Cross was when Dr. Bernadette Healy quit after
trying to fix the organization.

[VOA]

check your Freepmail, please...

[VOA]

ALOHA RONNIE,

RE: What to do about the Red Cross situation at WRAMC

1. AR, can you get Joe Galloway to investigate? Seeing how he sent along the request
for donationa, then passed along the "stand down for now" request...
I would guess that he'd not be happy at what TruthNtegrity found on the latest
visit. Even if it was a momentary gaffe by one of the Red Cross folks.

If things are being run that badly, I'd guess Galloway would be a bit embarassed to
have used his reputation to push donations...that aren't really making their
way to the folks who need them.

Maybe if Galloway applies a bit of heat, the Red Cross will "see the light".


2. Besides Ragtime Cowgirl's suggestion to e-mail the DoD, do you know of any other
responstible parties we can (very respectfully) talk to about the situaion?


AR, especially after seeing that CBS show last night...it just chaps my hide
to think donations make it all the way to a Red Cross room at WRAMC, only to
languish while our best-and-brightest labor to heal their bodies (and spirits, for some).

Sad to say, it appears that The Red Cross is confirming that old maxim:
"The best predictor of performance is past performance...or the lack thereof."

[radu]

I'm absolutely disgusted with the Red Cross!! Not surprised in the least, though. After what they did with the donations after 9/11, I've not trusted them. After this, I'll never give ANYthing to them again!! How dare they?!!!!!

You can bet your bottom dollar I'll spread the word about this! I'm furious! I hope enough people contact DoD about it that an investigation begins. Enough is enough! What a rip-off organization!! I have to wonder just what their plans are for all the things that have been sent to the hospital.

[windchime]

Bump!

[VOA]

I'm absolutely disgusted with the Red Cross!! Not surprised in the least, though.

IIRC, after a large rural fire in the San Diego area took out a number of houses,
it was found that the local Red Cross chapter had spent about zippo on the victims
after the Red Cross solicited (and received) donations for the disaster.

I guess this finally made the light of day; it was also found the head of that chapter
was one of the highest paid charity executives in the country...and the chapter
hired a retired high-ranking Marine Corp officer to answer questions (just a shameful
CYA move).

I'll never give the Red Cross a cent.

Especially seeing how Dr. Bernadette Healy tried to do a course-correction of The Red Cross
and finally quit (and/or was pushed out). As I understood it, she was viewed as
a troublemaker when she challenged the International Red Cross about their balking
at recognizing a Red Cross-type organization in Israel...while the International
gave full recognition to The Red Crescent.
A curse on the lot of 'em.