Vets Find Safety Net Online

Vets Find Safety Net Online
March 02, 2009
Chicago Tribune

MOLINE, Ill. -- The requests are often humble: A disabled veteran in Decatur needed help with an overdue winter fuel bill. A Soldier in Minnesota asked for a box spring and mattress -- "it doesn't have to be new." A combat medic from Moline asked for clothes for his four young children.

Desperate for help and hobbled by federal bureaucracy, the men went public with their needs, recently posting their stories to total strangers on USATogether.org, a non-profit group created by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to help injured veterans.

Strangers are coming to the aid of Soldiers with things such as auto repair, a new washing machine or lodging for family while a Soldier recuperates at a Veterans Affairs hospital far from home. Potential donors can read a Soldier's profile and either help financially or donate goods and services.

"There's a normal human dignity that it's hard to ask for help," said USA Together founder and Chief Executive Officer Dave Mahler. But some of these Soldiers "come out and are literally released with nothing. No money. Not a chair to sit on. We want to be the extra safety net."

For Army Sgt. Leonard "Leo" Kaalberg, the help could not come soon enough. A roadside bomb in Iraq in July 2007 left the burly former high school defensive end with pounding headaches, short-term memory loss and severe nerve damage on the left side of his body. Today, the 28-year-old Moline father of four, the recipient of two Purple Hearts, is struggling to reinvent himself while humbled by the most basic of tasks. On some days, Kaalberg's left side hurts so much that he can't pick up his infant son.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/vets-find-safety-net-online.html?col=1186032369115