Introducing Team USA Cares: Marquardt

We have all heard about "Army Buddies" and I am fortunate to have one too. Jim and I have followed each other's careers and lives since 1979. He went off to the first gulf war, where he served with distinction. He rode in airplanes, jumped

 out of them with the 82nd Airborne but it wasn't until after he retired from the Army that he took to being a pilot. 

Since we started USA Cares in 2003, Jim, I and others have traveled to locations all over America telling the USA Cares story and making the case that military families deserved a extra effort from all of us that live in peace and freedom.

Lined up in the landing pattern in New York with jumbo jets, or landing in a little field in Georgia, Jim has shown a level of professionalism and savvy that I would have never guessed. But his passion for flying is equally matc

hed by his passion for USA Cares. I wish I had a nickle for every hour that we have spend on the phone or together talking about strategy and what to do next and how can we do things better. 

15,000 military families have come to  USA Cares for assistance, and we have dispensed over $5 million in grants, so Jim's original process, which remains the base plate for our process remains true. Protect the dignity and privacy of our clients. Provide a hand up and not a hand out. 

Jim gets very animated about caring for our guys, he has a son who has served multiple tours in Iraq with the Air Force and will again. So for Jim, it is personal. The fact that he has friends who are now leading the Army serving and doing so well is a source of quiet pride in this Allan Park, Michigan native.

And speaking of Allan Park, last week, Jim and I drove (weather wouldn't let us fly) to his old high school, Cabrini, where he told 800 students that one person could still make a difference and that all you had to do was believe. Jim believes that. The following week, the entire school all wore red to show their support for our troops. I think they got the message.

I have seen him at his worst and I have seen him at his best. Jim is not only my best friend, but he is one of my heroes. He would be the first to tell you that he isn't perfect, but I would be the first to tell you that while he isn't perfect, he has the passion of a warrior, and the compassion of a Priest. 

This is my introduction of Jim Marquardt.

The War Isn’t Over Yet

In all the excitement about a new President, and confirmation hearings and of course the state of our economy, it is easy to come to a conclusion that because the war is no longer on the front page of the newspaper or the lead story on the nightly news that, well, it must be over.

I wish that were so.

While it is true that Iraq just held a very successful national election that had very little violence associated with it, our new President has already made the decision to send two more combat brigades to Afghanistan to help achieve the same results we hope that our guys and gals did in Iraq. So the war isn't over, in fact, if we are sending thousand more of our very best, into harm's way, then we should continue to have to have the same attitude that we did right after we sent troops into Afghanistan and then Iraq. They have earned the respect of our nation, and certainly they deserve our continued support.

There are lots of reasons for depression, I am constantly reminded about how hard it is to raise money for nonprofits in this economic climate, yet at the same time, I continue to see the generosity of American's and of corporations and foundations, that when they know there is a need, they respond appropriately. Pacific Life, out in California, sent us another check for $10,000 to help USA Cares continue our work. With the simple message of text "VET" to 90999, Dennis Miller while appearing on "The Factor" began our incursion into the mobile giving world, and in the middle of all that, Bill Nelson, our Executive Director signed an agreement with medical facilities in Texas, including the Veterans Administration, where USA Cares would help families cover normal living expenses while the Veteran received residential treatment for as long as three months for the after effects of PTSD and or TBI.

For those men and women who are diagnosed with PTSD and TBI, the war is not over either. It may not be over for them ever. From what I have read and heard, you don't get better with time, you get better with treatment, and that is not necessarily medication. So we need a national effort in making sure that we don't repeat what we saw happen after Vietnam and the Agent Orange issue.

President Obama has selected the best VA Secretary that could be selected. General Shinseki, who I have the pleasure of calling "friend" and even better the privilege of serving with in the 1^st Cavalry Division is the most compassionate and caring man I think I ever worked for, and even better, his wonderful wife Patti is equal to caring. The VA is in good hands, and I can tell you that the General is not one for long meeting, but is demanding on action.

I will never forget when he took 1^st Cavalry at Fort Hood, his first Quarterly Briefing by the brigade was pre-briefed that we could say all we wanted to say, but at 90 minutes he was leaving. And that is what happened. He left at 90 minutes. We all got the message. I know that the bureaucrats at the VA are going to hunker down, but seeing the improvement in the VA over the last ten years, I have full confidence that our best days are ahead of us.