Aidpage

• Army Emergency Relief - http://aerhq.org/
• Navy – Marine Corps Relief - http://www.nmcrs.org/intfreeloan.html
• Marine for Life - Marines helping Marines http://www.mclcal.org/text/dept/m4life.html
• Air Force Aid Society - http://www.afas.org/
• Reserve Aid - http://www.reserveaid.org/
• Coast Guard Mutual Aid - http://www.cgmahq.org/

National Guard / Reserve Income Replacement Program

"The Reserve Income Replacement Program (RIRP) was developed to provide specific payments to eligible members of the National Guard and Reserve who are involuntary serving on active duty (the term active duty includes full-time National Guard duty) and who are experiencing a monthly active duty income differential of more than $50.00, as determined by the member’s Service Secretary."

Click here for info on the VA's program of Supportive Services for Veterans 

Arkansas National Guard Military Family Assistance

California - Veterans Assistance

   California - Military Family Relief Fund

   California National Guard Assistance Program

   California - General Assistance, Vehicle Repairs, Holiday Assistance & School Supplies

     California - Misc VSO's

     http://www.ranchocordovaelks.com/CTS.htm

Transitional Assistance

http://www.usvetsinc.org/ 

Colorado - Check off Colorado

Shelter for Homeless in Denver: Click Here

Florida Programs:

       http://www.floridaguard.army.mil/programs/family.aspx

       http://www.dma.state.fl.us/family/documents/FLFRPAFApplication.pdf

             Florida - Misc VSO's

     https://www.floridaelks.org/Army_ofHopeProgramSummary_andRequestForm.pdf

Georgia's National Guard Family Support Foundation

Hawaii

Transitional Assistance

http://www.usvetsinc.org/  

Illinois Military Family Relief Fund

Illinois - Additional Preograms

Minnesota's Military Appreciation Fund

Nevada

Transitional Assistance

http://www.usvetsinc.org/  

New Jersey State Family Readiness Council

Pennsylvania Military Family Relief Fund

South Carolina:

       Military Relief Fund

            Program Brochure

                 Application

Texas - VFW Grant

     Transitional Assistance

             http://www.usvetsinc.org/  

Washington State - Veteran's Innovation Fund

Washington State - Veteran's Family Fund

Wisconsin - Veteran's Emergency Assistance Fund

Military Business Men/Women, Entrepreneurs - Assistance/Programs/Initiatives

VETBIZ

Patriot Express - SBA

The Veterans Corp

Injured / Wounded Warrior Programs:

Our Military Kids

Misc Programs:

Military Housing Assistance Fund Grants

FREE SAT / ACT Software for Children of Military Members

http://www.eknowledge.com/military.asp

Free photos to canvas

http://cool.canvasondemand.com/2009/operation-hi-mom-honey/announcing-operation-hi-honey/

YMCA Memberships and Respite Care

for Active Duty and Title 10 Military Members/Family

The Department of Defense has partnered with the Armed Services YMCA to fund memberships at participating YMCA’s throughout the United States and Puerto Rico for the following groups:

** Families of joint deployed National Guard and Reserve personnel (Army/Navy/Air Force/Marine Corps)

** Active duty personnel and their families at independent duty stations

** Active duty families assigned to newly established joint bases

** Relocated spouse and family members of deployed active duty personnel

This program is for Guard / Reserve families while spouse is deployed – including 3 months for spouse pre and post deployment. You MUST use the YMCA at least once a month in a six month period in order to be renewed.

FITNESS FACILITY MEMBERSHIPS

The DoD will also buy down memberships at local fitness facilities (e.g. Gold’s Gym, Bally’s/24 Hour Fitness, etc.) for single active duty personnel at independent duty stations.

RESPITE CHILD CARE

Deployed Guard and Reserve personnel and independent duty personnel with children up to age 12 will be authorized free respite child care up to 32 hours per month, per child in YMCA facilities in states approved by the DoD. Please check with your local YMCA as this program is currently only in 10 states at certain locations. (PA and NY are 2 of the 10)

GET STARTED:

1. Complete the ½ page Eligibility Form which can be found at http://www.militaryonesource.com
2. 2. Visit http://www.YMCA.net to find a participating local YMCA.
3. 3. Take the Eligibility form, a copy of your deployment orders and your military ID card to your local YMCA.

The Dads at a Distance web site has been designed to help fathers who are
military men

&
any other fathers who have to be away from their children

to maintain and strengthen the relationships they have with their children while they are away.

                                                       http://daads.com/

Click here for Self Help Books for teens with parents struggling with PTSD

Hello,

       First let me iintrouce myself. My name is Cathleen Gagnon Varner. I am a single mother and  I have I live in Washingto PA. I have two sons. My oldest is a United States Marine. My youngest son is still in school. I have fallen on very hard time. My Bills have gone up so high that I can't pay Them. I have gone to every possible place For help. I have been turned down every time. I am in danger of losing my home, also There are going to shut my power off. I do not know what to do. I am very scared. I have no family that can help. Ive even gone to the armed forces for help. My family has a very strong history  in the armed forses. They two have turned me down  also. My father was army ,  my  uncle a marine,  my brother is a marine, my son is now a marine. And best of all my cousin who rose the flag at Iwa -Jima. Rene Gagnon was his name. I now fell that I have been abandon from my country To. Im asking if you can find it in your hert to help me. I am asking for donations for help.Please GOD help me. Even if its just one dollor. Please send any donations to Cathleen Gagnon Varner 39 Mark ave, Washington PA. Please have it into your heart to help me. Thank you, God Bess you, and God bess all of our armed forces.

By Jeffrey D. Barnett (a Marine officer and Iraq War Veteran):

"Before my deployment [to Iraq] I was disposed to always be active. Whether it was with work, hobbies, reading, social activities, or other things, I did not like to be idle. Now I am sometimes content to sit idle with only my thoughts. Watching the ocean, sitting in my front yard with my dog, driving at night: moments when I can contentedly reflect on life alone. Adding a few friends and a pleasant discussion to this activity is now probably my favorite pastime. I now place a much greater value on experiences, while before I almost exclusively valued achievement. And I don’t necessarily mean grand, individual achievements, but also group achievements through things like playing poker or gaming with friends.

Now, I certainly enjoyed experiences before Iraq. Going to the movies to see the latest Will Ferrell film was just as gratifying then as it is now. However, my perspective on activity has changed, and now I am content to relax and just let things happen rather than relentlessly steer every activity towards an ultimate goal. I still steer towards goals, and be sure that I am still relentless, but I now have a far more balanced desire for simple experiences. This has given me a much deeper appreciation for my experiences and those who share them with me, because I know they are just as mortal as I am.

The second change runs slightly counter to the first, causing disconnect with others: After experiencing real chaotic violence and seeing how ugly humanity can be it’s difficult to get excited about some things the rest of the world views as important. For example, about a year after I returned from Iraq a new video game was released and heavily criticized in the media for brief scenes of semi-nudity, I remember feeling frustrated that some of my friends were deployed at that time and probably facing worse circumstances than I had, yet America was in a tizzy over whether its children should be exposed to alien buttocks. At the end of the day, after you’ve seen school children walk in a single-file line past the dead body of a man executed at gunpoint, it’s difficult to care about the social degradation caused by bare buttocks in a video game."

Read the full post in NYT...

  Looking for any Marines that were in Platoon 276 (boot camp) San Diego CA. 8/64- 9/64.  Where are they now?  If anyone knows anyone that was in during that time please let me know. It has been 2 long. 45 years now.

Hello I would have never thought I would do anything like this. I am 25 years old and a stay at home mom to a 20 month old. I have been with my sig other for almost 8 and a half years. Okay, my like began in a small town, there I was the model student. I was in athletics, I did community service, and I was also a tutor. I graduated second in my class. I was accepted to all the schools anyone can dream of. I decided on Texas Christian University. I was there my whole freshman year. But being away from home really took a toll on me. I was lonely and I wasnt as busy as I had been my entire life. I guess it was there that my mind took a trip back in time. I remembered why I had always hated family gatherings and why I tried my hardest to stay busy. Anyway at the back of my mind I kept a dark secret. I was molested from the age of 6 til 10. Although I remember clearly now during my childhood until the time I started college I always kept it in the back of my mind for fear of embarrassment and because I did not want any one to know because I was threatened if I was to ever tell. Anyway I was away from home from the protection of my immediate family and the comfort of my boyfriend. The memories for some reason flooded over me. I really did not know how to handle it. I started doing mediocre at everything. So i decided to go closer to home. I transferred my second year to Arizona State. There I thought I was going to go to school with my high school sweetheart. But he decided to join the Marines. His brother joined and he for fear of anything ever happening to him joined to protect him. At this point I did not let anyone know of what my mind was remembering. I knew things would not be the same. I could not keep the memories inside anymore and I told my boyfriend and then my sister and then my parents. And like I always knew things were never the same. Our family gatherings were no longer gatherings or a hundred or so. They were just only my immediate family because everyone else did not want o believe what happened. My cousin molested me for years and no one wanted to believe me. Anyway it took years for me to deal with the change and take something horrible and change it to something good. I felt then like I was the only one, now I feel like I should help others who are in the same shoes as I once was. I really want to help young girls and boys to get on with their lives. All through this ordeal my studies were not being challenged by me. I put them aside and tried dealing with my problems, and me getting better jeopardized my studies. I was no longer an A+ student. At this time my boyfriend found out he was going to Iraq. I just decided that it was best that I take time off. We spent time together and he left for his deployment. We talked only a few times during the time he was gone. The only news I heard was something bad. He was with 3/25 Lima Co they lost many young men during their deployment. In fact my boyfriend almost died, his team leader, Cpl Andre Williams, was killed just an arms length in front of him. His deployment was my worst time ever, It was hard going anywhere. Everywhere I went was something about the war. But today I am so glad he came home when so many were lost. A year after he came home after 7 years of being with him, we concieved a baby boy. We named him Carter. In June 2008 John finished his duties with the marines. Now the only thing we are battling is PTSD. Some days he feels good. Some days he has the worst headache imaginable. Yet we are still trying to go through all the red tape at the VA trying to get him helped. He is in school at the time full time. We do not have very much money so I stay home and take care of our son. John hopes to be done with school in the next year and a half. We just hope by then we get some help with his disability. Cause clearly he is not the same person I have known all these years. I still love him though, he helped me through my rough patches. Now is my time to help him. I just want to finish school so we can do things on our own but our families arent rich. I owe money from when I was in school, about 27,000. If someone could help me get back in school, we will be set the rest of the way from there. Money doesnt mean alot to some people but this 27000 is a big thorn. It would never be there if so many things didnt happen.

Im 19 years old and i am currently  trying to get into the U.S. Marines.   A few weeks after my 18th birthday i got a tattoo on my knuckles,  that turned out to be a major mistake.   At the time tattoo's were allowed in the Marines but now the rules have changed, the only way i can get into the Marines is if i get the tattoo removed,   I can not afford this by anymeans.  I have been in contact with diffrent plastic surgeons and it will cost about $1300.  That is the only thing standing in my way from doing something that i have wanted to do since i was a little kid.  I need this more then anything, not just to be a Marine but to get my life on track and to setup a strong foundation for the rest of my life.    PLEASE HELP ME

Hello.  I am new to this so I am not even sure if I am doing this properly but its worth a shot.  I am very stressed and I may vent so I apologize.

I am 25 years old and married to a soldier serving in Iraq. I have been very depressed and extremely stressed out since he left.  I have had to take on so much on top of worrying about him everyday.  My stress level has reached a new high.  I just have so much on my plate right now I just cannot handle it anymore.  We have so many bills to pay each month and it never seems like I can pay them all.  I was laid off from my job and I have been trying so hard to find a new one but it seems like there are none in my small town.  My credit as well as my husbands nearly perfect credit is now in the toilet because I would forget to pay a bill all together one month or I would forget to pay a bill and pay extra on another one to try to pay it off and then when that bill would arrive I wouldn't have the money to pay for it anymore.  The people at my husbands bank are not nice at all.  They would not let me change the address on his account even though I have full power of attorney on it, I was told  that they would not recognize it.  I went in this month to pay on his loan, they always have to look up the account for me and the teller was very rude and never mentioned to me that there was a problem with the account.  Now I did not receive the notice in the mail being they did not let me change my address and I received a call saying the account went negative on January 31 and they have been charging me 5 dollars a day ever since.  This was an error that never should have happened in the first place.  I changed a bill that was being taken out directly from that account to another one because it was easier for me to keep track of and I assumed it would stop that month but it did not.  If I was told about it I would have gladly taken care of it right away but I didn't have the chance.  I guess this is what is putting me over the edge right now.  I have more bills than I can keep track of right now.  I have way too much on my mind and I am so lost and have no idea what to do.  My husband and I were married at the court house before he left and are planning to have a wedding for our families this fall when he returns but now I am not sure if this can happen.  To top off the stress with the wedding planning the place where I bought my dress ordered it 4 sizes too big and did not order the wrap that came with it and is being very difficult with me.  I actually had to go to the Better Business Bureau about her and she continues to lie which is so frustrating.  I am just so overwhelmed right now.  I have no clue what to do anymore.  I want to find a consolidation loan but I have bad credit so I cannot get one.  Can anyone help me?  Point me in the direction of away I can get help with my financial trouble?  Is there some place that will give me a loan?  My husband will be home on leave sometime this spring for 2 weeks and I am so afraid we will have no money while he is here and I will have a break down.  If someone could help me out I would be so grateful.  You would save my sanity.  I really feel as though I am going to loose it soon.  I have so much going on on top of everything I have already wrote about.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.