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'Forty & Eight' gives $20,000 A spring visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany prompted the 'Forty & Eight' veterans group to raise $20,000 to benefit the Landstuhl Chaplain's Fund. Members of the Forty & Eight were surprised by two things when they visited the medical center in Germany. The first was that morale was excellent. Regardless of the ailment, most soldiers just wanted to finish the job they had started. The second was that when ill or injured troops were transferred to the facility from a combat zone, they were given a $250 clothing allowance. Those coming in from areas like Bosnia did not receive this benefit. That spurred the group's fund-raising efforts on behalf of the Landstuhl Chaplain's Fund. The program provides clothes, comfort items and prepaid phone cards to those troops who do not qualify for the clothing allowance. The night of their medical center visit, the Forty & Eight voyageurs, or members, collected $400 among themselves. Wanting to put it to immediate use, they approached the chaplain. They were told to take their money home with them and speak with the Army's chief of chaplains to let him know what they were planning. One week later, that $400 became $3400 when Jamnick took a pie in the face during a Forty & Eight function in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Many other groups donated money. A South Carolina group donated $1300, and a New York group came up with $1100. After three months and many individual donations, the Forty & Eight was able to present Deputy Chief of Chaplains Brig. Gen. Jerome A. Haberek with a check for $20,000 to benefit the Landstuhl Chaplain's Fund. Established in 1920 by members of the American Legion as a fun and honor society, Forty & Eight's founders based the organization on their military experiences in World War I France. La Societe - also known as the 'Forty & Eight' - is an independent fraternal organization of wartime veterans. The box car of the French railways, which carried 40 men (quarante hommes) or eight horses (huit chevaux) to the front, is the symbol of the organization. Titles and functions are in French. The numerals '40/8' on a triangle of French horizon blue is the logo of La Societe des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux.
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2004 |
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