Posted on 12/27/2004 3:16:15 PM PST by ExSoldier
Son, I hold the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross (three awards), the Silver Star and I've been credited with seventeen air to air kills in the Pacific Theatre while flying with both the Black Sheep and Blackburns Irregulars. I'm here to tell you that to this day: I HATE THE RED CROSS!!!
Why, dad?
Because they charged us for everything we ever got from them. Didn't matter if it was a bar of soap, a razor or a candy bar, if the Red Cross provided it in a combat zone, the men who did the dyin' paid cash money! I won't take squat from them to this day. I sure won't give 'em anything, either!
My father came out of the battle of "Leghorn" (Italy) and has the same sad report. Shell shocked and bedraggled with barely the uniforms on their back they were charged for coffee and donuts. Not one dime.........
If the story that Stimson ordered them to charge, why did they continue to do so up to at least the Viet Nam War?
Do they still charge?
Should be easy to check. There can be only one person who flew with both the Black Sheep (VMF-214) and Blackburns Irregulars.
i have heard the same thing
Good question!
Starbucks, Red Cross 'Bring a Bit of Home' to Overseas Troops
Thanks!
Thank you so much for this link. I had not read this before, just going on my own experience. Thanks again.
I remember my mother telling me about an Uncle or other male relative who'd been in the military during the WWII, he hated the Red Cross and refused to donate a dime to them. I don't remember the whole story but it was something about so many soldiers & marines donating blood for free yet when they desperately needed for one of their own fallen to save his life the Red Cross refused.
I also remember the shameful way they handled our 9/11 donations. I think it was O'Reilly that nailed them the hardest & they wiggled and weaseled every way they could until the pressure became too great. I will never give them a dime again just from my own memory of that!
Your father tells the same story all my uncles told my mother who would not allow me to give a penny to the Red Cross. BTW, my uncles (I had many) fought in the front, the rear, in Africa, in Europe, and in the South Pacific. When the earthquake hit the Bay area in California some years ago, my husband made a fairly generous contribution despite my objections. Some years later, it was reported that NOT ONE CENT of the money donated to that earthquake actually went there -- the money went to the general fund. Red Cross workers in Washington DC are highly paid. Frankly, I will never give them a dime EVER.
Some of that money ended up going to buy already-rich New Yorkers brand new Sub-Zero refrigerators (the giant silver ones that snobs love because they're status symbols; they average $3000 each). These "beneficiaries" were given the money just because they lived in the "right areas" that happened to be somewhat close to Ground Zero, even though they personally experienced no hardship whatsoever.
Never again is right. They could drop a nuke on a U.S. city and I wouldn't give any cash to any organization (except maybe the Salvation Army). I'll give usable objects I have already bought, I'll give checks personally written to actual individuals that I know are suffering ... but handing over cash to a big organization that will then disappear into their accounting system to be dispensed as they see fit? Never, ever again, under any circumstances.
Only because the Red Cross workers would have been strung up if they'd tried to charge. You can be sure that somewhere, some sap donated $25 for a blanket that cost $4.
I heard this all the time from my father and uncles.
I have heard similar stories from some Vietnam vets.
My father is a WWII vet.
My parents speak of the Red Cross in the same venomous terms; I forget what the exact story is but there's a particular incident they're really upset about.....
There was one very good looking blonde donut dolly in our area of Viet Nam. She would come over to our base about once per month in the early afternoon. She was usually seen in the company of senior officers. She would set up in the enlisted men’s club and play karaoke music or play silly party games. We knew she looked down on us, but she was the only good looking round-eye in the area so we went. One of our troops had just came off of a rough patrol and stopped in the club while she was there. He got a beer and sat down at the bar. The donut dolly told him the bar was closed and there would be no drinking while she was entertaining. She invited him to join in the game. He told her what she could do to herself and walked out with his beer. She filed a complaint with the Commanding Officer and insisted the guy get captain’s mast.
A group of us were upset and discussing the donut dolly. One of the guys said he had asked her for a date earlier and she had told him it would cost him $100.00. We took up a collection and gave it to one of the enlisted men that had just came down with VD.
PING
I personally don't know about this.
BUT, you might rent and view the old WWII classic film by Billy Wilder "Stalg 17".
It's been a long time since I've seen it...but I do seem to vaguely recall a scene in
the film about a visit of The Red Cross to the POW camp.
I think the Red Cross visitor came off as at least naive...to maybe so willing to
not really see the misery in the camp that the blood pressure rose a bit.
No matter the detail, it seemed the American POWs weren't gonna' really get
substantive assistance from the Red Cross.
"I also remember the shameful way they handled our 9/11 donations."
Was it not the Red Cross who took a huge chunk of America's emergency donations and built themselves a new building somewhere?
Shades of Bev BBV's "infrastructure." Is the Red Cross a DUmmie organization?
Don't know about the war, but I had a colleague who was the chief HR officer for a large NYC corporation. In the early 60s, there was an aircraft crash at LGA and lots of area volunteers were used. He always said that the Red Cross and the Salvation Army showed up with mobile units and provided coffee and doughnuts to the volunteers and emergency workers. He said that the RC charged and the SA did not. When he became chief HR guy, he would not allow the RC to participate in his company's employee annual giving campaign while the SA always did.
bttt
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