Dennis Miller Kicks-Off USA Cares “Share-A-Minute”

A National Campaign to Raise Assistance for Post-9/11 Veterans & Military Families

RADCLIFF, KY USA Cares, the nation’s leading non-profit organization providing post-9/11 veterans and military families with financial support and other critical resources, on July 2 kicked off a nationwide fundraising campaign called “Share A Minute with A Service Member.” As a vocal advocate for Military Personnel and their families, comedian, talk radio host, author, actor and USA Cares National Spokesperson Dennis Miller announced the effort on his daily radio show, “The Dennis Miller Show,” and urged listeners to donate today.

“USA Cares…helps the newest veterans, those who are serving in hostile places at the moment,” Miller said. “A recent RAND study said that there may be over 300,000 who suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI); post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and over half of them are undiagnosed and untreated. Now the costs to America will be billions of dollars and we can do better: We will do better one person at a time.”

USA Cares Founder, Command Sergeant Major Roger Stradley, US Army (Retired), joined Miller to elaborate on the campaign: “When a young man or woman gets on a plane to go to Iraq or Afghanistan they are looking at about 525,000 minutes away from his family. And of course they are back home waiting that same amount of time. It costs USA Cares about $25 a minute to provide support in helping with the wounded, helping with home foreclosure issues [and] quality of life. And so what we have done is come up with a program called Share-A-Minute. It’s on our website at usacares.org and we’re asking you to step up to the plate, take one minute for these guys and gals and allow us to continue to help with what we’ve been doing for the last five and a half years.”

Miller concluded the announcement with a call to action to listeners: “What have I given you my highest approval on? Well whatever it is it’s now second because this is four stars, two thumbs up, salt of the earth people doing the right things for our veterans. If you have it in your heart, and I know you see what Americans donate, it absolutely boggles the mind, but if you can carve out a little piece for the USACares.org people, we would appreciate it.”

USA Cares currently receives more than a hundred new requests for assistance a week from military families. Dedicated staff and volunteers work through every one of them, one at a time, with the determination and commitment to quickly resolve the issues and allow the Military Families to receive the assistance needed. “The only way we allow them to repay in any way is by saying thank you.” USA Cares Executive Director Bill Nelson said.

About USA Cares
USA Cares is a worldwide non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization serving US Military Service Members of all ranks and branches and their families with direction and advice along with grant assistance for quality of life issues caused by military service. Continuing into their sixth year, USA Cares has received requests from over 11,000 Service Members and families with millions of dollars in organizational and found resources. In partnership with The Homeowners Preservation Foundation, USA Cares has also saved hundreds of military homes from foreclosure across the Nation. In 2007 alone, USA Cares helped 98 wounded service members; saved 192 homes from foreclosure or eviction and provided 4,146 requests with other forms of assistance. Military Families anywhere in America can apply for assistance through the USA Cares web site, www.usacares.org, or by calling 1-800-773-0387.

About Dennis Miller
Emmy award winner and four-time Writers’ Guild award winner, Dennis Miller offers his unique take on the day’s topics with comedy and satire on his daily radio show, The Dennis Miller Show, launched by Westwood One in March 2007. It's been said that Miller is "One of the premiere comedy talents in America today..." While others are blunt assessing Miller's comedic stature, Dennis himself makes a virtue of understatement, but there is nothing low key about his career.
Miller is a five-time Emmy award winner for his critically acclaimed half-hour, live talk show "Dennis Miller Live" which had a nine year run on HBO. He also wrote and starred in the Emmy-nominated cable comedy special "Raw Feed", his sixth such special. He was the host and executive producer of CNBC's "Dennis Miller", a topical interview talk show featuring reasoned discourse, opinion and humor.

Why Share A Minute?

Active Duty and recent Veterans of the Global War on Terror are today facing two imminent crises: The impact of undetected and/or inadequately treated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and 2. The national mortgage meltdown impacting military homeowners. USA Cares has been on the frontlines working to assist our military and their family’s weather these two storms.

A recent Rand study estimates over 300,000 Iraq/Afghanistan veterans may be suffering from PTSD/TBI. Of these, over half are undiagnosed, while the other fifty percent are receiving inadequate treatment. The cost to the nation will reach billions of dollars. Those who bear these invisible wounds deserve our support and respect and they need to know that they can receive care without jeopardizing their family’s finances.

Home foreclosures are at record highs. Due to financial instability caused by multiple mobilizations and deployments, many military families are being caught up in the mortgage crisis—probably at much higher rates than their civilian counterparts.

USA Cares has responded to these crises—and has been doing so since it was founded in 2003. Since then, we have responded to over 11,000 requests for help with over $5 million in direct assistance grants. In the last two years, largely because of these two huge problems, demand has gone through the roof! For example, USA Cares is working with other partners to field a program for PTSD/TBI victims who lack the financial resources to attend the treatment they need and deserve. We will ensure that the service member doesn’t have to choose between groceries or treatment. On the housing front, USA Cares is a recognized leader in mortgage loss prevention assistance for the military.

In order to continue this important work on behalf of our military and their families, USA Cares is embarking on a national fundraising campaign this July 4th through Veteran’s Day, November 11th. The campaign is called Share A Minute, and it is based on the number of minutes a deployed service member spends in Iraq/Afghanistan—525,000. Since it costs about $25 for USA Cares to provide a minute’s worth of assistance, it is our goal to join with 525,000 donating Americans who will each buy a “minute” for a service member. This level of support will ensure that USA Cares can meet all the needs of our military personnel and their families not only through the present twin crises of PTSD/TBI and housing, but also through those challenges for our military families yet to come.

We cannot do this without the support of our fellow Americans. Please visit http://www.usacares.org/ and join our team!

Roger StradleyFounder, USA Cares

Caring Casualties - The Undecorated Spouse

There’s a largely unreported and unrecognized casualty group associated with the war on terror: The military family.

These are the caring casualties. They are just as wounded as the service members themselves. They face the same struggles as those who serve, but receive less recognition or acknowledgement of their plight. They’re fighting to have their wounded warriors healed while dealing with threats to their homes and a struggling economy, and they’re trying to take care of their families – many with little to no support. It’s completely understandable that they are passionately fatigued. Life is put on hold as surely as if they also were wounded. Now imagine if the wounded didn’t know they were hurt but had all the symptoms.

A recent RAND Study said there may be 300,000 returning service members who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and possibly 320,000 more suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury. Of those, half are undiagnosed, and of those diagnosed only half receive treatment.

Without a doubt the service member needs to get to treatment. There’s an argument that the caring casualties should receive treatment, too. With some compassion and understanding we can make changes in the lives of our returning veterans and their families, showing our unconditional dedication and willingness to take care of them.

Treatment can’t wait. These warriors aren’t getting the help they need because in many cases, they don’t know they need assistance, or worse, they are in denial, unable or unwilling to ask for help. This places the burden on their families.


Service members go home and try to pick up where they left off, a life that’s been in stasis. Relationships and work performance become difficult, made even more so when the causes are viewed as whining or feigning an injury to avoid work or duty or passion and compassion. It wasn’t anything the family did or didn’t do. It’s because the service member was exposed to events and circumstances outside understandable comprehension, because they have seen images that may never fade.

There are hundreds if not thousands of books written that attempt to bring home the savage nature of war, but at the personal level, each individual is unique and each family faces a particular set of challenges that can’t be specifically treated. Each of these individuals has to be treated. The RAND study said that the cost to America of non-treatment of those affected is measured in the billions of dollars. And this is only a measure of dollars, not of the toll on marriages and children, not of the tragedy of alcohol abuse or even suicide.

We have to take dramatic steps, including creating a national dialogue among health care providers, the government and the service members and their families to address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The stigma of this wound must be removed. America has a rich history of finding innovative solutions to complex problems, and this is one of those times.

Roger Stradley
Founder, USA Cares

News Enterprise Front Page "Share A Minute"!

We appeared on the front page of the local newspaper today, here in Hardin County. The News Enterprise and Josh Coffman did a great job at being extremely accurate in his report.

We have asked for permission and recieved it to republish the article here.

I am also beginning with this post to provide a sample of some of the visitor feedback off of our Guestbook at USA Cares. It will follow the end of all my postings.

Have a great American Day!

Roger

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USA Cares asks supporters to share a minute
July 11, 2008
By JOSHUA COFFMAN
jcoffman@thenewsenterprise.com
RADCLIFF — With the number of troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries numbered in the hundreds of thousands — coupled with the ongoing national mortgage crisis — USA Cares expects its workload to multiply in the coming years.
Currently helping service members with $3 million a year, organizers say need could grow to more than $12 million annually in coming years.

The nonprofit group, which aids veterans of the post-Sept. 11 conflicts with mortgage assistance and other quality-of-life help, has kicked off a massive national fundraising campaign.
USA Cares estimates it spends $25 for every minute soldiers serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Its Share a Minute with a Soldier program seeks to raise $25 for every minute a soldier on a one-year tour would spend in combat — 525,000 minutes in all, or $13.1 million — more than four times its current operating amount.

The fundraiser kicked off on July 4 and runs through Veterans’ Day, Nov. 11. Several celebrities are helping get the word out, including the organization’s national spokesman, comedian and radio show host Dennis Miller.

Since Miller appeared on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” earlier this year, the number of calls for help into USA Cares has increased by 30 percent, to about 130 weekly. The day after the TV spot was the single-highest day for donations to the group.
USA Cares also is getting support from former Mr. Universe and American Gladiator Mike “Titan” O’Hearn, author and consultant David Scott, and Bryan Anderson, a multiple amputee who earned a Purple Heart in Iraq.

Organizers also are reaching out to corporate sponsors and are hoping to land other celebrities to lend time. Actor Tom Hanks, spokesman for Major League Baseball, another partner of USA Cares, recently appeared on Miller’s radio show, discussing soldier care.
Roger Stradley, the group’s co-founder, said high-profile people are eager to help because they see how the end result assists soldiers.

“They get it,” he said. “It makes sense.”

He pointed to a heated election season in which presidential candidates have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in mere months, saying that soldier-aid groups can do the same.
Although the goal is lofty compared to its past endeavors, USA Cares seeks to raise less over the next five months than Barack Obama or John McCain raised in June alone.

“Americans are passionate about certain things,” Stradley said. “They’re passionate about who their president is going to be, but they’re also passionate about their troops.”
As the number of home foreclosures increase, affecting many military families, the number of soldiers returning from combat with mental health concerns continues to stay high.
The RAND Corp. reported earlier this year that more than 300,000 service members suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, and many of those do not seek treatment.

Stradley said, in the case of reservists and National Guard members, many “say what they need to say” in order to avoid red flags on post-deployment surveys and return to their homes and jobs, rather than seek medical care.

USA Cares is focusing on what it calls the “caring casualties of war,” spouses and family members of those returning. While soldiers who suffer may hide their symptoms from the military and their civilian employers, those at home deal with the outlash and frustration of the sufferer’s stress and nightmares.

“PTSD is clearly becoming the Agent Orange of the Iraqi and Afghan wars,” Stradley said, noting the strain on a service member’s home life. “It leaks out where you’re most comfortable.”
USA Cares is partnering with other groups focused on providing health care to help cover bills for soldier families as those who need it seek care.

“They’re desperate for relief,” Stradley said. And, as costs increase for USA Cares’ expanded mission, it asks the public to help. To donate, go to usa cares.org and click the Share a Minute icon.

“What we’ve been doing with $2 or $3 million won’t work anymore,” Stradley said.

Joshua Coffman can be reached at (270) 505-1740.

Guestbook Entry

My family and I would like to sincerely thank Michelle Anderson and the staff at USA Cares with assisting us with repairing our vehicle. You are truly an angel in disguise. May God always bless you and our troops! -Suesan L.F.-

The Combat Cash Myth and Military Families

Often when I am talking about USA Cares and how we help deployed service members, there is a comment about just how much money extra a guy or gal makes when they are in a combat theater. Sounds like they make a ton of money. If they work for a defense contractor they might, but when they are wearing our uniform, not so much.

What I do know is that even in a combat environment the deployed troop sets up "second household" that has a cost not normally associated with a family budget. In the cases we received from military members, we will often hear that their cell phone bill was over $1,500 because of some family issue that was resolved or discussed over the phone. This generation has become very use to immediate connection and being in Iraq makes it no difference, in fact makes it even more needed sometimes.

When the soldier is not out on a mission (and I use the word "soldier" for all the guys and gals there), they are back in their area, where there are now in most places facilities like the PX and places to spend money. Money they might not spend if they were still at Fort Hood, but none the less, it is still getting spent.

Spouses back home are reluctant to say "no" because of the situation and that too is understandable. In fact, many times there is a tendency to over compensate with gifts and expenditures because.... well you just never know.

In the middle of all that mix is that fact that when the military member walks out the door on Tuesday and won't be home for a year, the family essentially just went to a single parent status, complete with not enough time for all the things that were normally done by the other spouse. Care provider for the kids, taxi driver, assistant team "mom" and the thousand competing priorities associated with raising children. And never mind that the stay-behind spouse may have to change his or her job, if the hours don't match up with affordable daycare or even the availability of daycare, and Grandma, well she is 1,000 miles away.

I think that we are facing a time never seen in America. An almost perfect storm of challenges that are washing at the foundation of our military families. Our wounded, both the visible and invisible (PTSD and TBI), the subprime mortgage meltdown, rising prices and a challenging economy mixed with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, never mind the other 200 locations that our service members serve. The old saying that the sun never sets on the American Soldier (Marine, Sailor, Airman or Coastie) is true more than ever.

What can we do? Continue to recognize and support them, even when they are off the front pages of the news. Remember that they are there, still serving. It is the least we can do.

Roger

Board of Director Meeting

We just finished up another USA Cares Board of Director meeting, and once again, I am humbled by the idea that men and women of stature travel from across America to discuss how to push the organization through the next five years and beyond. The growing housing crisis, how military families are effected even more than the average American family and the expanding understanding of the effects of those who have wounds that are invisible continues to make our work even more important. PTSD and TBI are the Agent Orange of this war.

In a future post, I will show a glance at our newest project, Barrier Removal, for those who we care so much about.

Our new Executive Director, Bill Nelson, has shown a tremendous ability to plan and execute the future growth and direction of this five year old organization, and I am excited about what will be happening to us.

I also briefed the board on our newest project, Share A Minute, that will be the focal point of our fund raising for 2008. More on that later.