Help Veteran Recover Belongings

Fellow veterans,

At this moment in time I am having to eat a huge slice of humble pie and come to you all in a moment of despair. The bottom line up front, I need to raise $2000 by Friday and would like your permission to solicit help from the group.

Here is the back story. Everything I am about to tell you is 100% true, and at least one member of the admins, should he choose to do so, can vouch for everything I am saying. Earlier this year I made a decision to leave my job at MARSOC to pursue studies in Europe. I was accepted to a University in Scotland to study Sports and Exercise Science. My goal has been, and continues to be to work with/help veterans suffering from TBI’s and PTSD and promoting exercise and nutrition as the keys to fixing our brains and overall health. Well, when my two children and I arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland we were met by immigration at the airport and told we were not permitted to stay in the UK. Apparently the United Kingdom has a rule that undergrad students cannot bring their dependents with them, a rule I clearly over looked.

Prior to leaving for the UK I went through a divorce in South Carolina, and the South Carolina Family court fucked me pretty good. Let's just say between lawyer fees, mediation, and the final outcome I had to pay out over $12,000. But with the remainder of my retirement and disability my older two children and I have been able to manage.

So when I learned I could not stay in the UK I had to make another decision, and decided it was cheaper to relocate to Romania than it was to buy three plane tickets home. I had this move budgeted down to the penny, but as you can imagine when I suddenly had to move again it through a wrench into everything.

Now, all this time my personal belongings have been held up in a warehouse in New York City. I recently received an email from the owner telling me if I did not pay him now they were going to auction off all my stuff, and what they couldn’t sell they were going to destroy. I am talking practically mine and my two older kids entire lives are in those boxes: school pictures, military awards, my shadow box, our winter clothes, two years’ worth of medical/physiological research, books, everything.

When the movers gave me a quote it was about $2800. When I arrived in Scotland they notified me the final price had practically doubled. So now I am in a bind. The total for the shipment is around $4000 but I spoke to the owner of the company and he will settle for now for $2000 by Friday November, 23.

I’ve never asked for anything, and I truthfully I’m a bit embarrassed to be doing so now but I am at a loss. When times were better I have given out over a thousand dollars to veterans who came to me for help, other friends who were down on their luck. Some of you may have seen my website where I try to share helpful information for our community. Mata and I raised about $5000 one year in a Hope for the Warriors Marathon, another time I raised a couple grand for cancer charities by riding my bicycle across Europe. And now here I am asking for help to get my belongings out of New York and back here with my children and I where they belong.