A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF VMLC
The VMLC helps Veterans who are “on the verge” --- on the verge of being homeless, on the verge of becoming financially broken, on the verge of becoming jobless, and in some cases on the verge of suicide.
In the case of aircraft crashes there are always a multitude of factors, that when added together, result in a tragedy: Perhaps there was bad weather. Perhaps there was pilot error – an action or decision (or failure to make a decision) on the part of the pilot that led to the accident. Perhaps there was poor pilot training, a lack of experience, and fatigue involved? Perhaps there was a mechanical failure of some type much like the aircraft that USAF Veteran and US Airways pilot “Sully” Sullenberger landed in the Hudson River off Manhattan after both engines were disabled by a bird strike. Perhaps there were other human errors on the part of air traffic controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance engineers?
The bottom line is it is rarely just one factor which plays into the catastrophic disasters that have occurred in aviation history. It is often several of these factors taken together that caused the accident. Can you imagine if just one of those factors was removed? Would the accident have occurred?
The VMLC is there to make sure our Veterans remove a factor that can cause them to spiral into a catastrophic situation. Through no fault of their own our Veterans sometimes fall into situations where they are unable to pay their rent --- we step in to give a “hand up” to prevent homelessness. Sometimes they fall into a situation where they are unable to get to their site of employment because of a disabled vehicle – we step in to give a “hand up”, repair their vehicle and keep them employed. Sometimes our Veterans fall into situations where they are unable to interview for jobs because they can’t afford to pay their cell phone bill or Internet fees – we step in to give a “hand up” so they can find a job and be self-sufficient. As you can imagine, there are many other factors that can cause a Veteran difficulty – and VMLC steps in to give our Veteran a “hand up.”
There are times when a Veteran cannot see anything good in their life; they have unintentional, unwanted, blinders on at a time when everything seems to be going wrong and they find themselves on the verge of suicide. The VMLC is not equipped to handle these very traumatic situations, so we sponsor Post Traumatic Growth Training at Boulder Crest Retreat in Sonoita, Arizona. An institution specializing in supporting the very Warriors who have seen the worst of humanity.
There are moments in history where all that was needed to prevent the plane from crashing in the first place was an intervention to stop just one of the factors. This is why VMLC exists – to prevent just one of the factors in order to prevent a tragedy. Thank you for your donation to help us help our Veterans “on the verge” which allows them to “keep flying” and to have “safe landings.”
Hope to see you at our 19th Annual Heroes Patriotic Luncheon on November 10th.
