Fund aims to pay way for soldiers

BOISE – When Iraq-bound members of the Idaho National Guard finish their training in Texas and Louisiana this fall, they’ll get about two weeks’ leave before they head off to war – but no plane ticket home to see families in Idaho.

“The government doesn’t pay for it,” said Jack Friesz, a retired construction supervisor with a grandson in the Guard. “So I just thought it would be a good gesture and show of patriotism to try to raise funds so these people can come home.”

Friesz’ idea has become the “Call to Duty Fund,” with volunteers around the state trying to raise money for soldiers’ plane tickets. The project got a boost over the weekend when U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo donated $10,000 from his leadership PAC, the “Freedom Fund,” toward the effort.

“Sen. Crapo feels very strongly about the effort that Call to Duty is assisting with, that is helping defray the cost of plane tickets for those who may have some financial hardship in coming home for one last leave before being deployed to Iraq,” said Crapo’s spokeswoman, Susan Wheeler.

Crapo has more than $1 million in his campaign fund – though his only opponent in his re-election bid is a write-in – plus about $80,000 in the Freedom Fund. He opted to draw the contribution from the Freedom Fund, Wheeler said, because, “The money that’s donated there is expected to be used for a wide range of things. Generally, it’s used for supporting other candidates.”

With Crapo’s donation, Friesz said the Call to Duty Fund is up to about $50,000, but it still has a long way to go. It would cost at least $300,000 to buy plane tickets for every needy Guard member, he said, and the goal is $600,000.

When Friesz first broached the fund-raising idea in a letter to the editor of the Boise newspaper in July, he got about 150 phone calls in the next three days. “My phone was busy all the time,” he said.

Now the fund drive has become a full-time project for the 74-year-old retiree. “You should see some of the e-mails I get. It just about brings tears to your eyes,” he said.

He read from one, in which a mother of three said her soldier husband told her to borrow the money and buy the plane ticket home now, before it got any more expensive.

“As you probably know, we can’t afford the ticket,” she wrote. “We are using bill money to do all this because I figured it was really important for the kids to see their dad, and we’ll figure the bills out later.”

“Day after day, we get these type of requests,” Friesz said. “If the public could read all this we’re getting, this fund would be over the top in two days.”

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has signed an official state proclamation declaring Oct. 8 to be “Call to Duty Fund Day.”

Friesz said his group is hoping to get cities and counties around the state to issue similar proclamations, and hold fund-raisers for the project on Oct. 8. So far, fund-raisers have included a dunk tank at a Wal-Mart, a movie screening, a radio station live broadcast, a shooting range benefit, a club breakfast and donation buckets at businesses.

“Over in Pocatello there’s a group that’s working on a potato supper,” Friesz said. “Two businesses by midweek are going to donate $1,000 apiece.”

Donations to the Call to Duty Fund can be made at any U.S. Bank branch.

“A lot of it has just been small donations from individual people,” Friesz said. “And they’re still coming in all the time.”

About 1,600 Idaho Guard members are training in Texas, where they’re part of a 4,300-member combat brigade. They’ve been training there since early July, said Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, public affairs officer for the Idaho National Guard. Leave will be scheduled in November or December.

“Generally speaking, this will be the first opportunity that they’ve had en masse to take leave,” Marsano said.

Marsano said the Guard applauds the Call to Duty effort. “It’s a wonderful grass-roots effort to help our soldiers, and we think that’s wonderful,” he said.

Friesz recalled when he was 11 years old and World War II broke out.

“I sure remember the patriotism,” he said. “People that didn’t live then just can’t comprehend what this country did. Everybody was on the bandwagon. They had scrap drives and I don’t think you could find a rusty nail anyplace in the United States.”

He’s hoping people can feel that same sense of patriotism by helping fly Idaho soldiers home for a last visit before they head off to combat.