Troops help clean up WWII vet’s vandalized home

Troops help clean up WWII vet’s vandalized home
Army Times
By Gina Harkins
Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 6, 2013 7:05:09 EST

Marines are stepping up to assist a 93-year-old World War II veteran after learning he returned from a doctor’s appointment to find his home destroyed by vandals.

Elbert Wood served as a Marine rifleman for four years before being medically discharged as a corporal for wounds sustained on Guam. He received two Purple Hearts during his time in the Corps. When he returned to his home in Houston on Jan. 21 — 19 days after losing his wife — he found the walls, furniture, appliances and carpet covered in spray paint.

“When I opened the door, I was just amazed to see spray paint on the walls,” he said. “I’m 93, so I have to walk with a walker, and I just went through the house and hollered around to ask if anyone was still there.”

Two juveniles were later arrested. His was the second home they allegedly hit that day, he said, and he would’ve shot them had he been home when it happened. But one of the fathers came to apologize later, and Wood said he felt bad that the father has such troubled kids, so maybe he wouldn’t have been so hard on them.

Veterans with GruntLife, an organization for combat vets started by former infantryman Derek Cloutier, turned to Facebook to gather donations. Their goal: to send Wood to Washington to visit the World War II Memorial and National Museum of the Marine Corps.

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Hundreds of Veterans Help Sandy Victims and Each Other

Hundreds of Veterans Help Sandy Victims and Each Other
By JAMES DAO
November 14, 2012

They have come from as far as Alaska to tear down water-damaged walls and clear debris from flood-ravaged yards. They have been assigned team leaders and given marching orders. They have been asked to work in the rain, sleep on a gym floor and eat military Meals Ready to Eat. If that all sounds like a military humanitarian mission, well, that’s sort of the idea.

For the past week, hundreds of military veterans from across the nation have flocked to Far Rockaway, summoned by a beacon from Team Rubicon, a nonprofit created by veterans to help other veterans through a therapy known as disaster relief.

Team Rubicon was formed in 2010 by two Marines, Jake Wood and William McNulty, to help veterans who were struggling to find their way back into civilian life. The idea was to employ skills the veterans had learned in the military, combine them with some high-adrenaline action and give them a healthy dose of public service.

The result, they hoped, would be experiences that might renew the sense of purpose many veterans say they lose after separating from military life.

“We became a veterans service organization that happens to be good at disaster response,” Mr. McNulty said.
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Marines buy cows for widows in Fallujah

Marines trying dairy diplomacy around war-torn Fallujah
Cow purchases may help rebuild industry in Iraq
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times / January 18, 2009
ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq - As US forces work to revive Iraq's tattered farming economy, they seem to have found an effective new weapon: cows.

At the suggestion of an Iraqi women's group, the Marine Corps recently bought 50 cows for 50 Iraqi widows in the farm belt around Fallujah, once the insurgent capital of war-torn Anbar province.

The cow purchase is seen as a small step toward reestablishing Iraq's once-thriving dairy industry, as well as a way to help women and children hurt by the frequent failure of the Iraqi government to provide the pensions that Iraqi law promises to widows.

The early sign is that the program is working.
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linked from
http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

Georgian orphans get help from US soldier

Georgian orphans get a little help from American soldier
At the Tbilisi orphanage, Sgt. 1st Class Jarrod Gozy wasn’t on official Army business during the Sunday night visit. Instead, the Hohenfels, Germany-based soldier was there as a volunteer to check up on how the children were doing since he last saw them a few days before the trouble started.

After anti-Semitic graffiti, a quiet lesson on love

After anti-Semitic graffiti, a quiet lesson on love
By Anne Baker and Jeannie M. Nuss
Globe Correspondents / August 19, 2008
The congregation of Temple B'nai Israel in Revere has a hero, although no one knows his name.

On Sunday, members arrived at the temple for a morning service and breakfast to discover two of the building's walls covered in anti-Semitic graffiti.

"To me, this is not vandalism," said Rabbi Mark Sokol. "When you take a can of spray paint and put a swastika on a temple, that's a hate crime."

After police received a call at 5:45 a.m., they found a vulgar, anti-Semitic expression written in red spray paint at the front of the temple and a side area marked with two swastikas, said Revere Police Lieutenant John Goodwin.

"It's a very sensitive subject, so we will most certainly take a look into it," Goodwin said.

go here to read about human kindness that still lives on.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/08/19
/after_anti_semitic_graffiti_a_quiet_lesson_on_love/