Warbird Information Exchange

Vets Find Safety Net Online 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.

Kaalberg's request? Clothes for his children: ages 7, 5, 3 and 9 months.

Response was swift. One recent evening, the organization posted the request for $500 worth of clothing and diapers. The profile included a photo, a brief note about Kaalberg and a list of his children's clothing sizes. By 12:30 p.m. the next day, 14 people had responded from across the country. Several reached out even after his $500 request had been met, asking how else they might assist the retired Soldier.

Kaalberg said he was floored by the reaction. He stumbled a bit over his words when asked to describe how the outpouring felt. "It's really hard to ... how do you say 'thank you' to people you've never met? It surprised me so much."

Lyn Fadale was one of Kaalberg's many donors. The 63-year-old grandmother from Redondo Beach, Calif., offered $115 to the family in the form of a Target gift card.

"I am very much against this war, but this doesn't stop me from caring about all these guys and what they've done for us," she said.Retired U.S. Army Cpl. Erik Johnson learned of the site through a veterans' mailing list. An injured Iraqi war veteran himself, the 40-year-old Rockland County, N.Y., man recalls the strain of trying to adjust to life outside a war zone.

"It's really difficult to come back here and go back to a normal pitch of living," said Johnson, who owns a small design firm. "The suicide rate [of returning vets] is unbelievable right now. I can understand why."

Johnson used the site to help an Air Force veteran from his home state of Washington, a man severely injured during an air attack who wanted a computer so he could go back to school and enter the ministry.

Johnson now serves as the veteran's by-phone "help desk."

Mahler, 52, came up with the USA Together concept about a year and a half ago. He no longer needs to work, having made enough to live on after selling a software company he co-founded in 2001. With time and energy on his hands, he was searching for a new challenge and wanted to do something philanthropic. With the Iraqi surge and high casualty counts in the news, Mahler thought about the VA hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., he had driven past for 25 years. He called the hospital and set up a coffee date with its spokeswoman.

"I asked, 'What's hard?' " Mahler learned that people often wanted to help a veteran after they had read about his or her plight in the local newspaper. Most veterans, obviously, never got that sort of exposure.

"I wanted to show their individual stories," he said.

The site allows donors to choose a Soldier they want to help. The all-volunteer staff never sends veterans donated cash. Instead, they buy the requested good or facilitate connections -- helping a Soldier get in touch with a carpenter who wants to build a wheelchair ramp or with a lawyer who would like to offer legal assistance.

Ironically, the biggest obstacle the site is facing is the Soldiers' needs get met so quickly that the site looks empty of need and donors must often wait for a new request to post.

The postings are slowed because of an extensive vetting process, said Beth Braun, spokeswoman for USA Together. Injured Soldiers must provide documentation of their service, their injury and a contact number for a Department of Defense caseworker.

Needs have changed some since the site first went up about a year ago. Today, Mahler said, more veterans are seeking help with their mortgage or rent payments. "That's probably the single biggest thing we have noticed," he said.

Joshua L., a retired Army specialist from Morris, Minn., had a need almost as basic as shelter. In late January, he posted a request for a new or used mattress and box spring.

The 31-year-old man moved back home to live with his mother after serving 15 months in Iraq. Hit by multiple IED blasts, he was left with severe back and shoulder pain, as well as a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The bed he had been sleeping on was 25 years old, sagging in the middle and aggravating his back. "As soon as I posted, people helped," said Joshua, who asked that his last name not be used. People quickly donated $725, enough for USA Together staff to buy a new mattress and box spring.

"I'm sleeping a little better," he said.


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