Appeal for assistance on behalf of a serviceman in need.

[autographedcat]

davehogg posts over in his LJ:

Angie and I have a dear pair of friends - R&S. Rob just got back from his third overseas tour of duty in the Air National Guard, his second to Iraq. Last month, a non-profit group that helps military families in this situation made their mortgage payment ... and the check bounced.

This has left them in a very ugly financial situation.

So, we are having the first Virtual Arts, Crafts and Bake Sale.

If you donate $10, S will send you a plate of brownies.

For $20, I'll send you an 8x10 of any picture on my Flickr page.

Want a picture taken of something/someone specific? Want your picture taken with Spark? Want to babysit Britt? Want to do Angie's math homework? Feel free to make us an offer!

[EDIT: To do this as quickly as possible, you can send the money to my PayPal account, which is my davehogg at ATT dot net.]

If you have a few spare dollars to throw that way, go leave a comment to Dave's entry. I'd appreciate it if you did.

(I know some folks are reluctant to donate to random appeals like this, because they have no way to know if the people involved are on the level. Well, presumably you know me, and I know and trust davehogg, who is aiela's fiancé.)

Comments

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Ah. Um. Ok. I don't grok the US military system at all... See, I was thinking he'd be paid, if he's military, whether he's serving overseas or at home. I gather the "called-up" thing refers to him either being a reservist or something, and thus not paid when not on duty (in which case... WHY are they sending reservists to a warzone??) or something else weird (to me) about the way things work.

I don't understand "reupped", but yes, it sounds like people in his/their position are badly treated. That's definitely discriminatory on the hiring front. Thank you for explaining the pay situation, I understand that now.

[aiela.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realized later that was what was unclear - he's a reservist. And yes, they're calling up reservists and sending them into war zones.

Which, to me, is absolutely ridiculous when it comes to National Guard, because the entire point of the National Guard is to, well, do things locally. Not get shipped halfway around the world. Their purpose is to do things Stateside.

"Reupped" is being used to mean when he resigned up for another -- I think it's 4 years of service. Once he has twenty years of combined active duty and reserve time, he will get a military pension, and that will be a huge help financially to his family.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, that makes things clearer yet again. Except for the bit where they're sending reservists of forces meant to do stuff locally into war zones, which so doesn't make any sense to me... but then, I know veryvery little about anything military in the first place & next to nothing about US miltary...

Kudos to him for thinking of his family, although I wonder if it's worth it... otoh, too late for another road now, what's present has to be coped with somehow. Kudos to you all for helping. I'll see if my paypal account still works & I can figure it out again...

And thank you again for further explanation.

[acciochocolate.livejournal.com]

One of many sad things about this current mess the US finds itself in is that the US military is very low on servicemen and women. As ACat notes, the military doesn't pay worth a damn. So the president (he's not mine, I didn't vote for him) has NatGuard being called up to fight a war in another country. And these folks don't have the proper stuff, either. On top of all that, TPTB don't want to treat people who have been injured in the war zones. Can't find the link at the moment, but it was depressing reading.

I'm not for this, but if one wants to fight a war, one needs a properly-supplied military with lots of warm bodies, which means lots of funding by the gov, and the re-instatement of the draft.

And very little of the training the military gives one is useful in the outside world. Paying for college is a help, though.