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Joseph Carroll, brother of Alpha Gamma Rho, took the year off from school, but isn’t in financial trouble or falling behind in classes. The U.S. Army is deploying him to war.
At the University of Maine, his fraternity brothers are making sure they show him as much support as they can. From Tuesday through Thursday the brothers of AGR will table in Memorial Union to raise funds for the USO, a nonprofit organization that provides morale-boosting programs and services for soldiers and their families.
“It seems like our fraternity has always had some connection to the military,” said Raymond Longvall, chapter historian for the fraternity. “We’ve always had that kind of relationship and we figured since one of our close brothers, Joe, is going over pretty soon, we found it fitting.”
The fraternity has two recent graduates who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Derek Lucas is on his second tour in Afghanistan. Mariano Canone graduated last year from ROTC and will deploy overseas sometime in the near future.
Longvall has a cousin in the military and Mike Leimbach, another brother working on the fundraiser, has a biological brother serving in Iraq. His father also served in the military.
Leimbach took a minute to answer a call from his brother in Iraq while explaining the fundraiser. He quickly returned when the call was lost.
“They do not have great phones. He basically said hello and then it cut out,” Leimbach said. A few moments later, they got a decent connection and were able to chat.
The USO, which was commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941, is a non-governmental charitable foundation funded completely by donations. They provide entertainment and care packages to active-duty military personnel. They also provide support for military families.
Currently, the organization has more than 25,000 volunteers and hosts 5.3 million visitors to its centers each year, according to its Web site. There are more than 130 USO centers in nine countries and 21 domestic states.
The brothers of AGR hope to host uniformed soldiers to draw attention to their efforts.
“We kind of came up with the idea [the fundraiser] and once we brought it up to the brotherhood, they were all for it,” Longvall said. “Like I said, a lot of us have some relation to the military and we’re all very close to Joe. … It’s a perfect fundraiser.”
“We’d like to make it a continual thing,” Leimbach said.
Beyond raising money for the USO, the brothers are planning to surprise Carroll when his company deploys in March. They will see him off at Bangor International Airport and plan to thank his whole battalion.
In the future they would like to greet troops at the airport when they return home.
Bangor International Airport is the main departure and arrival point for troops deploying overseas and returning home from their tours.
The Maine Troop Greeters say they have welcomed more than 4,300 flights and more than 924,000 military personnel home to Bangor since May of 2003.
Longvall and Leimbach hope to make Greek Life at UMaine a part of the tradition.
“Just greet them, welcome them home, thank them for everything they did and their sacrifice for being over there,” Leimbach said.
“Hopefully if we can get this thing started, we can spread it to all of Greek Life,” Longvall said.
He noted that in previous wars, the draft greatly affected Greek life, often emptying fraternity houses.
“It’s not just us affected by the military, it’s pretty much all of Greek Life,” Longvall added.
The money collected from the USO fundraiser will go toward creating care packages for soldiers overseas.
“Just a box of cookies, maybe a letter from home can make a difference for a soldier’s month,” Leimbach said. “It’s kind of a terrible place to be.”
Bangor Daily News