Military Service Induced Need

Organized by: A. R.

A.'s Photo
A.'s Photo


Hi. We are a military family. I was in for many years, and my husband is still serving going on his 21st year(hence the reason I cannot put our family's name down). We have two young children. Between the both of us, we have lived in 15 places in the past 21 years. Every time we have happily and dutifully followed to each and every assignment. As far as deployments are concerned, he has been to the desert several times, as well as to a lot of other quite dangerous places.
The reason we are asking for donations is a rather weird story. It's a long story, but please read it in full because most people are not even aware this type of thing is possible. Plus, this actually happened to thousands of families that year. I believe that if you are donating money to someone, it is your right to know exactly what it is for and why it is needed. You worked hard for your money, too, after all. Usually the military takes care of you when you move - it always winds up costing you money, but it usually never puts you in dire straits. However, one of our moves knocked us on our backsides! We moved ourselves from overseas back to the states one year. Everybody did it, and usually made money doing it. It was our way of paying off debts incurred when my husband was on a remote tour for a year (due to a family death and unexpected medical expenses with our family literally half a world away from each other). It was A LOT of hard work, but it was going to be worth getting that debt off our backs. We were supposed to have made $7,000.
Unfortunately, someone that signed our contract with the military did not check to see if the numbers they agreed to were the updated military rates. They came back to us after all of our goods were paid for and on the boat and bags packed, and they said that they had made a mistake. We were now actually going to owe THEM $14,000. They even admitted that it was their clerical error, and that we had done nothing wrong. If we had known this, we would have not moved ourselves by any means.
It was such a mess that even the base went to Congress on behalf of us and thousands of other families requesting some type of financial easement. However, Congress denied it saying that the law prevents any legal action against the military for breaking contracts. We could not even bring a civil suit. It's pretty bad when the base and the personnel that messed up is begging the government to make things right. Anyway, after all was said and done, that became a $14,000 debt that we have been struggling for years to get rid of. WE are paying off the MILITARY's debt, basically. Anyway, everyone knows people in the military aren't rich, and we have moved several times since. We have had family emergencies, I have had to care for an ailing parent half way across the country that later died, and we have had service obligations that all cost money. The care of my parent living so far away, while having two kids and other obligations took a financial toll as well. Back and forth, airplane tickets, funeral expenses, helping another family member with a house fire at the same time.... that has added another 7,000 to the total.So we have tried for years now (even with a financial advisor) to pay down this debt, but it's just to much to overcome.
So is my goal 25,000? Well, unlike those other thousands of families affected years ago, the military did it to us again. He is being deployed to a very dangerous area. However, there are many expenses that come with it that are not being covered by the military due to the unique nature of this deployment. He has deployed many times, and this is the first time that it has ever cost us more than a couple thousand for him to go (it always costs some out of pocket at the beginning of the deployment for any military member). This time, though, it has added another 6000! And now with one week before he leaves, they are saying that he may not even go to that area - they may send him somewhere else. So all of that money for for naught. This all adds to over 25,000. However, we have paid some down on our own. We have other debts, too. But those are the normal debts that we have caused that are our responsibility and our responsibility alone. I first cringed at even thinking about asking for donations for something we personally owe. Everyone has debt, and everyone works hard for their money. However, I decided to finally ask when I realized that really this is not our debt. It is the military's mistakes that we are paying for. We have done everything our country asks and then some. We have done everything right, and live good Christian lives. We givemoney to charities to help other military families in need. Then I realized... we are in need in a big way! So I thought maybe asking for a dollar here and a dollar there might not be such a horrible thing.
Thank you for reading this saga. Even just having people aware that this can happen is a win. If you do decide to donate, whether it's a hundred dollars or fifty cents, it's appreciated more than you will ever know. God bless you and your family!


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A. R.

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