Sgt. Jason Wood, USMCR, might be the most popular person in his unit—at least that’s how he feels when he distributes boxes filled with magazines, lotion, lip balm, batteries, socks, and other items, which were purchased by members of the Clearwater (Fla.) Chapter and shipped to his unit in Iraq.

Wood, the son of Clearwater Chapter President Cmdr. Victor Wood, USNR-Ret., is part of a truck company unit attached to the 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines. Earlier this year, chapter members adopted his reserve unit as part of their “Support Our Troops” program.

Since the program’s inception in January 2004, chapter members have demonstrated their patriotism by wearing flag pins on their clothing and placing decals that say, “We Support Our Troops, MOAA Clearwater Chapter” in their car windows. Members also started a “Support Our Troops Fund” and are collecting money to purchase items requested by members of their adopted reserve unit.
“We want to support them and let them know there are people back home who are thinking of them so they can keep their attitude right,” says Victor Wood. “We’re also trying to fill a void, because we don’t think enough attention is being paid to the Guard and Reserve.”

Chapter members’ support for members of the Guard and Reserve also can be seen in their newsletter, MOAA Drumbeat. Former Air Force Capt. Sue Morse, the newsletter editor, often publishes articles about improving Guard and Reserve members’ health care and retirement benefits, and chapter members are encouraged to contact their congressional representatives and voice their support for these issues.

“These troops have families, jobs, and benefits to be concerned about and can be called to go at a moment’s notice. It is up to chapters like us to help pass any bills that may come our way, and we have to get the word out and act when the need arises,” Morse says.

Members of the future

Guard and Reserve members have been deployed more frequently and for longer periods since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Although the military continues to rely heavily on these components, benefits and resources to help Guard and Reserve members and their families often have not kept pace; as a result they often are left looking to their communities for support.

Many of MOAA ’s 422 chapters have launched programs specifically to help Guard and Reserve members who live in their communities. Reserve component members and their families know they can turn to the chapter for resources and support. The chapter, in turn, gets an opportunity to maintain ties with the active duty force. Supporting the Guard and Reserve also helps chapters fulfill their mission of promoting patriotism in their local communities. These support programs often provide a rallying point for chapters with diverse memberships as well as help struggling chapters attract new members. According to Victor Wood, the “Support Our Troops” program has helped strengthen the Clearwater Chapter, which had only 47 members four years ago. Today, the chapter has 118 members.

“We needed to get programs that everybody could get behind that were meaningful,” says Victor Wood. “We’ve really focused on doing good works and getting recognition, which is important because people want to join a group of winners.”

Lt. Col. Paul Pendowski, USAF-Ret., president of the Military Officers Club of Northeastern Wisconsin, says forging ties to area Guard and Reserve units is essential to keeping national MOAA  and its chapters strong. Shortly after the chapter adopted the Army’s 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion, based in Green Bay, Pendowski learned the battalion had 30 officers. One of those officers, former battalion commander Lt. Col. Dan Ammerman, USAR, joined the chapter. Recently, he was appointed to serve on the Advisory Committee for Active Duty National Guard and Reserve Matters that was established by national MOAA’s board of directors (see “News Notes,” September 2004 ).

“The handwriting is on the wall,” says Pendowski. “Reservists and guardmembers are the future of moaa. As the Guard and Reserve play a larger role in the total-force concept, chapters can’t really close their eyes to those members. We need to wrap our arms around these folks, because they’re a big part of our future.”

Showing support

The 95 members of the Military Officers Club of Northeastern Wisconsin have indeed wrapped their arms around the reservists in the 432nd, which deployed to Iraq in April 2003. When several members of the battalion were home on leave this past winter, CWO5 Randy Hansen, USA-Ret., a member of the chapter and national MOAA’s board of directors, contacted the Green Bay Packers’ public relations department and asked if it would be willing to donate some tickets to the battalion. Team officials responded by donating 50 tickets, allowing 13 battalion members and their families to attend a January 2004 playoff game between the Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.

Later that same month, Hansen and Ammerman began working to get an Army transportation contract written and accepted by Midwest Airlines so members of the 432nd could fly home from Fort Bragg, N.C., together when they completed their tour of duty in April 2004.

Working directly with Midwest Airlines’ charter office and Fort Bragg’s transportation office, Ammerman and Hansen were able to get a Midwest Airlines flight that would allow battalion members to come home at the same time. Pendowski and Hansen also persuaded the manager of Executive Air to let them use one of his airplane hangers for an April 22 airport reception that drew more than 1,500 people and was covered by several local TV stations and newspapers.

The chapter has continued to support the battalion stateside. During their deployment, several members of the 432nd sustained injuries and two members were killed. Chapter members worked closely with a state veterans’ assistance officer, a representative from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), and staff members at a local veterans’ medical clinic to help ease the battalion members’ transition back to civilian life.

The chapter also worked closely with Marcy Jo Chachakis, who heads the 432nd’s Family Readiness Group (FRG), which provided resources and information to family members while the battalion was deployed. Chachakis credits the chapter for rallying numerous businesses and community groups into supporting the battalion—something that helped the 432nd FRG win the U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s Family Readiness Group of the Year award.

“moaa has been important because [members have] provided us with assets,” says Chachakis. “They’ve provided us with people to come in and talk to us about what our soldiers are facing, and they’ve been a face for us to point to when our veterans returned and say, ‘Here’s someone who’s been in that type of situation that you can talk to and that knows where you’re coming from.’ Most FRGs don’t have that type of resource.”

In July, the chapter joined with the VFW and the American Legion to organize a two-day welcome home celebration honoring members of the 432nd and other returning guardmembers and reservists.

Hansen arranged for a World War II airplane group to perform a flyby during the welcome home parade, and former chapter president Lt. Col. Steve Sato, USAF-Ret., helped set up a hospitality suite for battalion members and their families. Maj. Jim Strong, USA-Ret., the chapter’s second vice president, organized a motorcycle rally during which members of the community and the battalion rode 43.2 miles in honor of the 432nd. Proceeds from the ride were donated to a scholarship fund established in the name of a battalion member killed in Iraq.

Area businesses pitched in, and one local theater donated the use of its facility so family members could view videos shot in Iraq by members of the 432nd battalion. The chapter also invited several dignitaries to speak at the celebration, and chapter members worked with hospitals throughout the state to transport servicemembers who were injured during their deployment to the celebration.

Forging new bonds

Some MOAA chapters are just starting to forge bonds with Guard and Reserve members in their area. Recently, five members of the Savannah (Ga.) Area Military Officers Association (SAMOA) volunteered to help their local ESGR office.

The chapter contacted the ESGR after member Lt. Col. Sid Strickland, USA-Ret., suggested the chapter take a more active role in helping area Guard and Reserve members. Chapter President Cmdr. John Toler, USNR-Ret., contacted Southeast Georgia ESGR coordinator Jerry Loupee, who briefed chapter members about the ESGR ’s goal to foster and maintain good relations between area employers and Guard and Reserve members.

“Generally speaking, more than 50 percent of our military with boots on the ground—and that’s considering all military branches—are guardmembers and reservists,” says Loupee. “It’s gotten so some of these units or individuals have been called up two and three times in the last five years. It’s really amazing we haven’t had more problems with employers, and that’s one of our functions—to get involved and keep things copacetic and happy with our employers.”

Following Loupee’s briefing, several chapter members signed up for a training class to become ESGR volunteers. Members Col. Tom Kiernan, USA-Ret., and Col. Jack Powell, USA-Ret., received training to become ESGR ombudsmen. Not only do they possess firsthand knowledge of the military, both have previous legal experience. Kiernan served as a jag officer while on active duty, and Powell worked as a court-sanctioned family mediator during his civilian career.

Toler, Cmdr. Lee Thompson, USN-Ret., and Col. Fletcher Ware, USA-Ret., also received training to become ESGR liaisons. In addition to cultivating good relationships between area employers and guardmembers and reservists, the three men will counsel troops going through the mobilization and demobilization process.

This will be no small task. According to Loupee, ESGR volunteers briefed 22,499 Guard and Reserve members at Fort Stewart, Ga., last year. In addition, more than 82 Guard and Reserve units are in southeastern Georgia, not to mention hundreds of employers.

“We have no staff, and we rely completely on volunteers,” says Loupee. “Including the five MOAA members, I believe we’re up to 16 volunteers in my area, and we need help badly.”

Thompson says he’s happy to help. Like many other chapter members, he brings a great deal of knowledge to his job as an ESGR volunteer, having served in the military and in the human resources office of a local company during his second career.

“I worked for a company in Savannah that had a number of [employees] who were in the National Guard during Desert Storm, and they were always concerned about what was going to happen to their jobs, their pay, and their health care benefits once they came back home,” says Thompson. “It was really sort of a gray area for them.”

Toler, Ware, and Thompson plan to meet with both employers and Guard and Reserve members during the coming months to educate them about their legal rights and responsibilities under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against people because of their service in the armed forces. They also plan to set up “boss lift” programs to educate area employers about the important work being done by their Guard and Reserve employees.

Honoring reservists

Members of the Emerald Empire Chapter in Eugene, Ore., also have begun looking for ways to support Guard and Reserve members. Like many other chapter members, they’re concerned members of this service component are not receiving the attention or recognition they deserve.

“We’ve been trying to figure out a way to recognize the fact that we have a lot of people from Oregon on active duty now, but we don’t have any military installations nearby,” says chapter President Capt. Charles Cole, USN-Ret. “The only military we have around us are National Guard and Reserve units, so that got us talking.”

Recently, the chapter formed a committee led by Brig. Gen. Norm Hoffman, USA-Ret., that is forging relationships with area Guard and Reserve units. Starting in November, members will honor the outstanding lower enlisted member and noncommissioned officer from each Guard and Reserve unit in the area at an evening dinner meeting. In the meantime, Hoffman is working with committee members to obtain ESGR Statements of Support for the Guard and Reserve from area employers.

“I told everybody when I joined the chapter that I wanted to belong to an organization that does something,” says Hoffman. “Projects like this not only help the Guard and Reserve, they also help the chapter by giving members a project they can get behind.”