Guard troops will be back for Christmas
Toolbox
By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau - Published: November 25, 2009
MONTPELIER – Thanks to a successful fundraising effort by the Vermont National Guard Foundation. Vermont soldiers headed to Afghanistan early next year will spend Christmas with their families.
About half of the approximately 1,500 Vermont National Guard soldiers slated for departure will spend their final weeks of pre-deployment training at a military facility in Indiana. The Army is giving them eight days of holiday leave, but no airline ticket to get back to the Green Mountains.
With airfare costs running beyond the financial reach of many Guard families, Senate President (and gubernatorial hopeful) Peter Shumlin launched "Operation Holiday Homecoming." On Tuesday, Shumlin, Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie and the head of the Vermont National Guard Foundation announced that the foundation had met, and exceeded, their fundraising goal to bring troops home.
"It's not just the money, it's the message it sends that Vermonters really do care," Dubie said at a Statehouse press conference. "The reason we wanted to have this press conference is to say thank you to everyone."
The plan originally called for private, chartered flights from Camp Atterbury, Ind., to Burlington International Airport. For logistical reasons, Dubie asked instead that the troops be transported by bus. The new plan diminished the costs significantly, from more than $300,000 to $85,000. Shumlin said Tuesday that donations from "thousands and thousands" of Vermonters had raised $175,000.
The extra will go to the Vermont National Guard Foundation, which anticipates unprecedented need from Guard families as the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team prepares for the largest mobilization of Guard troops since World War II.
"We realized that with this large deployment,, we were going to need to be ready to handle the needs of families left behind," said Steven Gray, head of the foundation.
The foundation, which helps Guard families with financial emergencies, has never actively fundraised before this year. Gray said the organization is looking to raise $300,000 for the tough year ahead. The $90,000 in excess funds raised for Holiday Homecoming, Gray said, has helped to foundation toward its goal.
Flanked by a three-paned poster board plastered with letters from charitable Vermonters, Dubie said the brigade's mission remains in flux even as the soldiers prepare for final training missions. Dubie said it's still unclear where his soldiers will be in Afghanistan, or if they will all be working in the same region. Decisions about troop levels, expected in the coming days from President Barack Obama, Dubie said, will soon provide more clarity for soldiers and their families.
"We know we'll be doing training and mentoring of Afghan military and Afghan police, but even in the last 48 hours we've been getting indications they are still determining where exactly all our people will be," Dubie said. "It's a very dynamic situation and we expect we'll be in the transition phase of whatever the new policy is."
Dubie said morale is high for the 1,500 soldiers en route to Afghanistan. The Guardsmen and women returned in recent days from a training mission in Fort Polk, La., and all but a lead group of 50 are now back in Vermont. The soldiers will depart for Camp Atterbury in five waves – two groups will leave on Dec. 6 and Dec. 11. The remaining soldiers will leave in three groups in early January, then head directly for Afghanistan.
Dubie said the letters included with donations to Holiday Homecoming have served as a welcome morale boost.
"Every one of them is unique but every one of them warms your heart," he said. "And it's not the amount, it's the message that people care."
Shumlin said he was heartened by the outpouring.
"Vermonters in their generosity haven't just brought home these brave men and women for the holidays, they've also improved the lives of the families left behind, and in so doing improved the lives and comfort and peace of mind of the men and women going to Afghanistan," Shumlin said.
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