Veteran's mailbox stuffed with checks, Chiclets

Veteran's mailbox stuffed with checks, Chiclets After he Sent a Small Donation to Veterans' Causes
by Mike Argento, York Daily Record

Some time ago, Bill Walters got a solicitation for contributions to help disabled veterans. It was around Christmas, and the organization was raising money, it said, to help families of wounded veterans visit them over the holidays.
It was a worthy cause.

Walters couldn't simply toss it in the trash. Walters is a vet – he served in the Navy during the Korean War, mostly in the Mediterranean – and he thought it was a good cause. He knows the struggle a lot of vets face, dealing with the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense, and, as a vet, he believed he should contribute to help them.

So he sent a check. It wasn't a huge sum, maybe ten bucks, but it was the thought that counts.

That was all it took.

Not long after that, he received solicitations from something called the Coalition of Salute America's Heroes. He had never heard of the group. But it had heard of him. His mailbox was stuffed with solicitations from the group and it's head, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chip Diehl, seeking money…

The mailings were slick and contained pleas "to help our severely wounded troops." One of them sought money to help wounded troops have a happy Fourth of July. It didn't say how the organization planned to help severely wounded troops have a happy Fourth of July. Maybe it planned a barbecue or something.

The mailings also contained numerous photos of maimed soldiers – young men missing limbs or blinded or disfigured – photos intended to tug at your heart and loosen your grip on your cash.

Walters set those mailings aside, and, soon, they had lots of company.

He received solicitations from a group called Help Hospitalized Veterans. That group sent him a nickel glued to a reply card in the mailing. A whole nickel.

Not to be outdone, the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes sent him a crisp, new dollar bill.

The Retired Enlisted Association Memorial Foundation sent him a check for $2.50.

Help Hospitalized Veterans met the ante, also sending a check for $2.50.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund also sent a check for $2.50.

What's the deal with $2.50? Did somebody do a study that concluded a check for $2.50 will get you to write an even bigger check? Why not make it three bucks, even? Or five?

And that wasn't all. The Wounded Warrior Project sent him lapel pins.

The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial went further, sending Walters a personalized coffee mug and an American flag umbrella.

Help Hospitalized Veterans send him certificates naming him "A Patriot of the Year" and "Donor of the Year."

Which seemed kind of strange.

"I must have sent them money, because I was named Donor of the Year," Walters said.

But he doesn't recall sending the group a contribution, and if he did, it was about $10. It seems a rather low threshold for "Donor of the Year."

The "Patriot of the Year" and "Donor of the Year" solicitations contained sweepstakes entries, promising a first-place prize of $25,000 in cash, or a 2007 Ford Mustang GT convertible, or "a fabulous Caribbean cruise for four."

AdoptaPlatoon was cheap. It sent a box containing two Chiclets.

Receiving all of these pleas for money got Walters wondering. First, how did they get his name? And second, are they all legitimate? Are there people out there low enough to prey upon veterans and the special bond they feel for their brothers in arms? If they are, how much money do they actually contribute to veterans, and how much do they use for fundraising and administration?

How they got his name is not that much of a mystery. Walters is a vet, after all, and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The vets groups probably share mailing lists or sell them to each other.

Now, the question of the groups' legitimacy is thornier.

Some of the groups are recent inventions. The Coalition to Support America's Heroes was started in mid-2004 and despite claiming to be nonpartisan, has ties to a Republican fundraising group that, in turn, was instrumental in supporting the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004, according to Sourcewatch.com. The group does claim, though, that 91 percent of the money received goes toward veterans' causes.

Help Hospitalized Veterans has been around since 2001 and reports 68 percent of its collections go to charitable causes. The Retired Enlisted Association Memorial Foundation dates to 1963 and is a well-established veterans' group.

At least one of the groups makes a specious claim. Soldiers' Angels has Patti Patton Bader, a great-niece of Gen. George S. Patton, claiming to recall seeing her father return from Vietnam and being spit upon by protesters. The protesters-spitting-on-vets story, though, is an urban myth and has been refuted repeatedly, most notably by Holy Cross sociology professor and Vietnam vet Jerry Lembcke in his book "The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam."

Most of the groups do appear on a Department of Defense Web site – Americasupports- you.mil, part of a government public relations effort to drum up support for troops and the war in Iraq. The Web site warns that merely listing them there is not meant to be an endorsement.

Defense spokesman Cmdr. Greg Hicks said those receiving solicitations should check out the groups asking for money to help troops.

"Do research," Hicks said. "Give them a call or check their Web sites. Check them on Americasupportsyou.mil."

Although the Defense Department doesn't endorse groups, Hicks said, those listed on the department's Web site go through an application process and have to check out. The department, he said, wants to make sure the groups are legit and are as apolitical as possible.

"It's about supporting the troops," Hick said.

Yes, it is.

And it's also about getting free coffee mugs, umbrellas and being named "Donor of the Year" – all for ten bucks.

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