Veterans Day Archives - Page 2 of 3

Charities for Veterans and Military Organizations

“CharityWatch believes it is reasonable for a charity to set aside less than three year’s worth its annual budget for financial stability and possible future needs.”

I was reading this article in CharityWatch, Multiple Names + Exaggerated Programs = Two Related Charities, But Little Help for Vets or Cancer Relief. Ticked me off.

“Help the Vets (HTV) and Breast Cancer Outreach Foundation (BCOF) are two relatively new charities that share the same address and phone number, as well as the same family members in leadership positions, including the president. But of more concern to donors should be another shared trait between HTV and BCOF — the likelihood that most donations will go towards paying for-profit, professional fundraisers rather than for helping veterans or cancer sufferers.”

I found these grades of charities for veterans and military organizations in the Winter 2016/2017 Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report, so they theoretically have changed since then, though unlikely. The entities noted with a ? means that CharityWatch did not have enough information. Perhaps some are less than three years old.

“CharityWatch believes it is reasonable for a charity to set aside less than three year’s worth of its annual budget for financial stability and possible future needs. When a charity’s available assets in reserve exceed three year’s worth of its annual budget, CharityWatch downgrades its final letter grade rating. However, we continue to show what a charity’s efficiency rating was prior to being downgraded for those donors who do not wish to factor a charity’s high assets into their giving decisions.” (Those graded thus have two grades and a dollar sign.)

The listings in italics have a grade of B+ or better and therefore are ranked among the top-rated charities.

AdoptAPlatoon Soldier Support Effort: ?
Air Force Aid Society: A/F $
American Legion National Headquarters: D
American Studies Center: ?
AMVETS National Headquarters: D
AMVETS National Service Foundation: F
Armed Services YMCA of the USA: A
Army Emergency Relief: A+/F $

Blinded Veterans Association: D
Bob Woodruff Family Foundation: A-

Center for American Homeless Veterans: F
Circle of Friends for American Veterans: F
Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes: F

Disabled American Veterans: D
Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust: ?
Disabled Veterans National Foundation: F
Disabled Veterans Services: F

Feed Our Veterans: F
Fisher House Foundation B+
Foundation for American Veterans: F
Freedom Alliance: C-/D $

Gary Sinise Foundation: A
Good Charity: ?
Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind: A

Healing Heroes Network: F
Help Hospitalized Veterans: F
Help Our Wounded: F
Help the Vets: F
Homes for Our Troops: A

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund: A
Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America: A-

Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation: B-
Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation: F
Mission Continues: A
National Military Family Association: A

National Veterans Foundation: ?
National Veterans Services Fund: F
National Vietnam Veterans Foundation (DISSOLVED): F
Navy SEAL Foundation: A+/C+ $
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society: A

Operation Homefront: A

Paralyzed Veterans of America: F
Paws for Purple Hearts: F

Semper Fi Fund: A+
Soldiers’ Angels: B
Special Operations Warrior Foundation: A/F $

Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors: B+
TREA Memorial Foundation: ?
Troops Need You: F

United American Patriots: F
United Service Organizations: C
United Spinal Association: C-
United States Armed Forces Association: F
United States Navy Memorial Foundation: D

Veterans Assistance Foundation: C-
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and Foundation: F
Veterans of the Vietnam War & The Veterans Coalition: ?
Veterans Support Organization: F
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund: D
Vietnam Veterans of America: F
VietNow National Headquarters: F

Wounded Warrior Project: C
Wounded Warriors Family Support: A

About a fifth of these received a B+ or better. Over a third received an F.

World War I doesn’t get its props

Those partitions after World war I have geopolitical implications to this day.

I was reading about World War I trench poetry remembered in comics anthology, and it hit me how relatively little most Americans know about the first World War (1914-1918), the “War to end all wars,” as someone put it, terribly incorrectly.

And it’s not its remoteness in time (1914-1918). We’re in the midst of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War (1861-1865), with a pretty fair breakdown of every important battle.

As the article noted: “Of the two, World War II may be the one explored more often in pop culture…” Indeed, Tom Brokaw’s book title, The Greatest Generation, has been adopted as truth about those post-Depression young soldiers from the US going off to war after Pearl Harbor.

…but World War I… was important as well… More than 16 million people were killed, the war began an era of industrialized warfare, and it caused the redrawing of the map of Europe and the Near East.

Those partitions have geopolitical implications to this day.

Read about the Christmas 1914 truce HERE and HERE.

Shooting Parrots wrote about tunnel master John Norton-Griffiths and Alf Price, who punched a 19-year-old Prince Wilhelm in the nose. Also, Charles à Court Repington may have named the war, back in 1920.

Back in June, Jaquandor noted A Century since the Conflagration.

Of course, what’s now known as Veterans Day commemorates the end of World War I. It’s Remembrance Day in other countries and used to be called Armistice Day. Armistice is such a quaint word.

There’s some melancholy song on the first Paul Simon solo album called Armistice Day.

Veterans Day 2013

The better photo ops during the shutdown involved patriotic old men in their 80s and 90s unable to get to war memorials.

Reading this somewhat self-serving history of the Department of Labor during and after World War II: “When the war ended, attention shifted to the needs of those returning from war and their families. The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of June 22, 1944—widely known as the G.I. Bill—provided a weekly unemployment allowance, as well as counseling, placement services, education and job training to nearly 10 million veterans between 1944 and 1949.” Taking care of that generation was important to the country.

At the end or near end, of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we see that
most Americans now believe those conflicts were mistakes. I’m sure battle fatigue was a major factor in people’s opposition to an American incursion into Syria. Yet this is not a reflection of what people felt about soldiers’ bravery, from all reports.

The Veterans Affairs Department is drowning under mountains of paperwork representing services not rendered. During the government shutdown, the VA secretary said that “more than 5 million veterans, as well as some active-duty service members, would not have received “crucial benefits after Nov. 1 if the event had continued much longer. As it was, the shutdown slowed the process of paying those vets.

The better photo ops during the shutdown involved patriotic old men in their 80s and 90s unable to get to war memorials. Yet, one could argue that veterans were hurt far more by the loss of benefits during the shutdown than by the symbolic lack of access to some shrines. Open memorials may matter, but money for essentials matters, too.

1917

They die in the trenches and they die in the air
In Belguim and France the dead are everywhere
They die so so fast there’s no time to prepare
A decent grave to surround them

Some weeks ago, I was listening to the great 1999 album by Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris called Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions. The fifth track on the album was described by the respected website AllMusic.com in this way:

“The album’s best track, ‘1917,’ was written by folk singer David Olney. It’s impossible to imagine anyone else singing this haunting tale of soldiers and women in World War I. Fragile and breathtaking, Harris’ voice is buoyed by the angelic harmonies of Ronstadt and Kate and Anna McGarrigle.”

I always find it extraordinary haunting.

Here’s the fourth verse:

They die in the trenches and they die in the air
In Belgium and France the dead are everywhere
They die so so fast there’s no time to prepare
A decent grave to surround them
Old world glory old world fame
The old worlds gone gone up in flames
Nothing will ever be the same
And nothing lasts forever
Oh I’d pray for him but I’ve forgotten how
And there’s nothing nothing that can save him now
There’s always another with the same funny bow
And who am I to deny them

Here’s a live version of the song 1917, also from 1999.

On Veterans Day, let us not glorify war, but always remember its horror.

Military Losses

Here’s a weird thing. A friend of a friend of mine had a husband in the military. She (FoF) started making comments on her Facebook page that people should send pictures of her husband so that her children would have mementos by which they would be able to remember him. Oddly, she never actually wrote that he had died.

So I began searching. I discovered that the most comprehensive listing of those who were killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan I could find is provided by MilitaryTimes.com, “honoring those who fought and died in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.”

But, as it turned out, he didn’t die in battle. He was stateside and had committed suicide. Apparently, after a third tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, it was just too much.

From this ABC NEWS story:

The increase in suicide deaths is one of the most distressing issues facing military leaders who want to reduce the rates among active-duty service members. More than 2,000 of them have killed themselves in the past decade [PDF], including 295 last year compared with 153 in 2001.

Despite their best suicide-prevention efforts, reducing the number of military suicides has been a frustrating challenge, military leaders acknowledged [in September 2011] at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. Recent efforts have included increasing at-risk service members’ access to mental health professionals, while reducing the stigma attached to mental health care. Internet outreach, including “video chats,” has also shown some promise.

The difficulty, however, is in identifying which initiatives work best and deciphering the multiple triggers that can lead to suicide within the armed services, which accounts for a small fraction of the total number of people who serve.

Despite my lack of understanding of the reasons for going to war, I feel real grief over the sheer despair these men and women must have been going through to take their own lives. Here’s hoping that the Telehealth programs now being used by the military can stem the tide of these horrible losses.