Today was a good day even though it started out with a problem from one of my Soldiers. I was approached by a Soldier with a question about a pay issue. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do for this young man and was forced to tell him that it could be a couple of weeks before he received his pay. Due to circumstances beyond his control he has found himself without a paycheck for the last couple of weeks and no exact payment date. While his housing and food are covered, his car payment is not and we all know how important having a car in this area can be.

He didn’t ask for help, he simply wanted to know why he hadn’t been paid and revealed that his pay had been messed up long enough that if he missed this payment, he would lose his car. I wanted to simply issue a check from the Angel’s Wings treasury but even if we had the money, things like this aren’t covered in our charter or bylaws.

Fortunately there is a non-profit on post that is able to help. I don’t have permission to share their name so I won’t but I wanted to say thank you to those that stepped up without question to help this individual. $300 might not sound like much to some but it really can be a game changer for others and for this Soldier receiving this money made the light appear at the end of the tunnel. We all know that bad things only happen when we aren’t ready for them and that is exactly the situation that this Soldier is in. If this pay issue were to have happened at any other time he could have handled the situation but because of his current circumstances, this has become a major event in his life.

I was able to visit with the non-profit and explain the situation on his behalf. I wasn’t in the office for more than 5 minutes when the President of the organization authorized a grant in excess of the necessary amount to help this Soldier. Today I was able to approach this Soldier and hand him a check that helped keep his life in order while everything else was trying to tear it apart. Today was a good day.