Help our combat vets get aid they deserve
The Arizona Military Family Relief Fund needs our help. Not our money. Our help. The Arizona Legislature created the fund back in 2007 as a way to provide financial assistance to service members who were deployed to combat zones after Sept. 11, 2001.
It seems so long ago, doesn’t it? Because it was. This March will be the 11-year anniversary of our invasion of Iraq. April will mark the 11th anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. May is the 11th anniversary of thenPresident Bush declaring an end to major combat operations. Although it wasn’t. And it still isn’t. Certainly not for the people
in the field, as well as for many having difficulties since they’ve returned home.
And so the Arizona Military Family Relief Fund, which has assisted many, many Arizona veterans and their families, now needs our assistance.
“We need people out there who may have friends or family members who were deployed to let those people know that we are here and available to help them,” said Stan Zeitz, a retired Air Force colonel and Vietnam veteran who sits on the fund’s advisory board.
“We have been involved in these conflicts for so long that people come back from them who aren’t aware that we are here to help them get through some of the difficult times that our veterans experience.”
Money from the fund has helped families of injured and wounded soldiers pay for things like travel, lodging and household expenses while the service members undergo rehabilitation.
The fund has paid rent and utility bills for service members dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder.
It tries in every way it can to give back to those who have given so much for us.
“Adjusting to the world after you’ve been to a combat zone isn’t an easy thing,” Zeitz said. “It’s not easy for the families, either. Or for the friends or co-workers. It’s those people we’re hoping to reach. If they think some veteran they know could benefit from the fund, they should have that person contact us. We don’t want any of our vets to suffer when there is help available.”
The Arizona Military Family Relief Fund is reachable by phone at 602-255-3373 or via e-mail at mfrf@azdvs.gov.
To qualify, a veteran must have been deployed to a combat zone after Sept. 11, 2001. The difficulties experienced by the veteran must have been caused or related to the deployment. And he or she must have been an Arizona resident when deployed.
The benefits apply to all military personnel, including members of the Arizona Army National Guard, Air National Guard and Reserve.
“I know how military people are,” Zeitz said. “They don’t like to ask for help. But this fund was set up just for this purpose and they should take advantage of it.”
I spoke to Zeitz about this three years ago.
I said back then that it’s embarrassing that we have to be reminded that there still are American soldiers in war zones. And still families of soldiers who must deal with death or injury or psychological damage.
Military personnel who are lost still receive news coverage but it’s not as extravagant as it was when the wars began. We don’t — we can’t — remember all of their names. Even those of our most recent losses.
Like 1st Lt. Jonam Josue Russell, 25, who was killed last summer in Afghanistan. There was a large memorial service for him at Arizona State University, from which he had graduated.
And Air Force Capt. James Michael Steel, 29, once an honor student and athlete at Glendale’s Cactus High School and a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He died this year when his F-16 crashed in Afghanistan.
Many other service members have made it home, but some veterans carry a sense of guilt for having lived when others did not. That can keep them from asking for help.
But as Stan Zeitz told me, “This aid isn’t a ‘gift.’ This was earned.”