Closing ranks with military families

08/04/2005

Mark Brunswick,
Star Tribune
August 4, 2005


A statewide group believed to be the first of its kind in the nation started a campaign Tuesday to raise $10 million to support Minnesota’s returning combat troops and their families.

Major fundraising is expected to begin this fall with the first disbursements released later in the year. It is hoped that families of those Minnesotans killed in combat will each receive $10,000. If the goals are met, the group hopes to provide cash grants to all active or honorably discharged Minnesota military personnel deployed in combat zones since Sept. 11, 2001.

The group, Minnesotans’ Military Appreciation Fund, was formed by a nonpartisan group of citizens, including business, community, and political leaders.

“The grants will be an embodiment of the Minnesota values appreciating fellow citizens who are giving us the freedom and security we enjoy,” said Skip Krawczyk, president of Transport Distribution Services and a co-chairman of the group along with Eugene Sit, president of Sit Investments.

The group hopes the campaign will spark similar efforts in other states.

“Minnesota and Minnesotans do things like this. The fact is that a very, very small percentage of our population is bearing the danger and arduous burdens of those battles. It is indeed fitting that the rest of us find a way to say thanks,” said John Vessey of Garrison, a retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Leaders of the group include a number of big names, including former Vice President Walter Mondale and former governor and U.S. Sen. Wendell Anderson on the Democratic side and former U.S. Sens. Rudy Boschwitz and Dave Durenberger, along with former Gov. Arne Carlson, on the Republican side.

Said Carlson: “Today’s effort is one that pushes aside the politics of war and focuses on the results of war: the death, the wounding, the family separation, the economic hardships and the devastating realities that those families have to live with who are paying the price of serving.”

The group estimates that 5,000 Minnesotans already have served in the military and anticipates another 3,000 will serve by late 2006.

If fundraising goals are met, $500 to $1,000 would be given to all Minnesota military personnel who have served in a combat zone and $2,500 to $10,000 would be provided to those wounded in a combat zone.

Twenty-three Minnesota service members and a civilian contractor have been killed in operations in Iraq. More than 100 have been wounded.