Operation
Homefront brings peace of mind to servicemembers deployed to
Middle East
As tens of thousands of troops deploy from
this and other military towns across the United States,
their friends and neighbors down the street are joining
together to help the families left behind by deployed
servicemembers.
The organization key behind this effort is Operation
Homefront, a charity founded almost spontaneously during
last year’s deployments to
Afghanistan
by The Roger Hedgecock Show, Southern
California
’s top talk radio host, and CinCHouse.com,
a non-profit organization and the Internet’s largest
community of military wives and women in uniform.
The charity operates a 24/7 hotline for military
wives to call in to a cadre of volunteers from CinCHouse.com
who then coordinate with The Roger Hedgecock Show to obtain
donated products and services from the local community.
“The deployments to
Afghanistan
were so last-minute that the show began receiving these
crazy calls for help from military families who weren’t
prepared or were too young and new to the area to know how
to handle the situation,” said Roger Hedgecock.
“We were also receiving thousands of calls from
local citizens after 9/11 who wanted to help in some way.
Operation Homefront was our way of putting the two
together, and the community has been united by the
effort.”
“We were grateful and relieved when Roger contacted
us about creating Operation Homefront,” said Meredith
Leyva, founder of CinCHouse.com.
“Thousands of wives were coming to our site asking
for assistance, and command family support leaders were
scrambling to help them.
By getting the community involved, Roger has brought
much needed help to these women and their children while
giving servicemembers
peace of mind so they can focus on the dangerous task at
hand.”
While
much of the assistance pertains to the ‘Murphy’s Law’
of military life, meaning that major household items and
cars will inevitably break down shortly after a service member
deploys, Operation Homefront has rapidly become known for
handling far more serious crises including eviction and
homelessness. Nearly
100,000 women join the ranks of military wives each year,
usually between the ages of 18 and 25, and there is nearly
100 percent turnover among wives every six years – meaning
almost none of these families participated in the Persian
Gulf War. While most military wives are capable of handling
the stressful job of single-handedly parenting and running a
household, family support leaders have come across wives
with small children who were left with no money or resources
and thousands of miles away from their extended families.
Neither the servicemember nor the wife knew any
better. One
wife and newborn was found on base housing with nothing more
than a large bag of fast-food hamburgers intended to last
them though the six-month deployment.
Nearly
50 percent of Operation Homefront case referrals come from
military sources, such as command family support groups, who
do not have the resources or cannot help a family in an
official capacity due to the complicated and sensitive
nature of some situations.
Family leaders such as Navy Ombudsmen and Marine
Corps Key Volunteers have come to trust Operation Homefront
for their quick follow-through and 100 percent response.
While
Operation Homefront is thriving in
Southern California
, other communities such as
Chicago
,
Charleston
and
Modesto
are jumping on board and inviting Operation Homefront to
their area. Local
talk radio hosts and volunteers have heard about Operation
Homefront either through Roger’s frequent fill-in
appearances on The Rush Limbaugh Show or through internal
sources at Clear Channel Communications, the radio network
that airs The Roger Hedgecock Show.
Similarly, military wives and regular visitors to CinCHouse.com
are creating the organizational infrastructure in their
area. Roger and CinCHouse.com
welcome the interest.
“There
isn’t a neighborhood in America right now that isn’t
home to the family of a deployed servicemember, whether
active duty, Guard or Reserve,” said Sandra Aldridge, the
“XO” of CincHouse.com and the director of Operation
Homefront in San Diego.
“The most important thing Americans can do right
now is to offer a little help to these families, whether it
be a donated product or service from their local business or
volunteering to mow the lawn or provide
transportation. Little
things like that go along way toward letting our troops know
that we support them and are taking care of their families
while they are away.”
For
more information on Operation Homefront, visit http://www.cinchouse.com/operationhomefront/
or contact Meredith Leyva at (850) 233-2101.
