Army Charity Not So Charitable

Recently the AP reported that a charity with close ties to the army, aptly named Army Emergency Relief has been holding onto the donations it receives instead of using it to provide emergency relief.

Apparently the charity lacks the same independence that the Navy and Air Force charities posses. Army Officers pressure enlisted men to make contributions, and when soldiers take out loans due to financial hardship they are almost forgiven or reduced, as is common with the other charities.

Reading this story reminded me of a Squadron 'Stand-Down' I went to when I was with MWCS-38 in San Diego. Every calendar quarter or so the squadron would meet in a large meeting room and the command would talk at everyone else.

One of the better stand downs our l.t. colonel went over how much funds members of our squadron had received from the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society how much we had had paid in... it wasn't pretty, squadron members received about three times what we paid in (if my memory serves).

Our lt. col did a good job of not chiseling us into donating money to the Relief Society, he just guilt ed us. And after reading that AP story I realized I should break them off a donation. If you want to do the same, visit their web page.