Background:
It all began here when I reached out to this community to help a non-kossack Dallas Vet with PTSD get off the bus. He was traveling 6 hours each day to go to college. You responded.
Then you got busy got down to brass tacks, figured out how to get the job done, and Dallas Kossacks volunteered to it. Just before moving day, the Leo family lost the new apartment. We adapted. It was a moving experience.
We are ready to make the jump. The following is from Leo. He will be commenting and answering your questions directly.
Greetings, Daily Kossacks.
You have, quite literally, saved my life and that of my family... How am I to respond to this level of selflessness and generosity...?
When I returned from Iraq after five years of war, I had no family anymore... To be quite blunt, I had nothing. I would be medically evaluated, then thrown out unto the street as if the military had just discarded a used shell casing. In the end, that is all I was after all...
Fighting against suicide, My wife and I pressed forward. Through hard work, we made a modest home for ourselves, without the assistance of anyone.
At the behest of my wife, I began pursuing school to advance our lives in the right direction, and with her support I've managed to stick through it. Along the way, I came across several other Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and together we formed our own little family... A Marine, an Army Infantryman, myself, and another Army veteran.
We weren't getting support from anywhere else, so why not from each other?
Daily Kossacks, I am the "Leo" that you have been hearing so much of in the past two weeks. The pleasure is mine. The title isn't far off of my real name, as it is actually Leo.
As my family began to fall under hard times after losing my job, my vehicle, etc and the VA playing games with my benefits, one of the aforementioned veterans referred me to a very special man, and one I am certain you are all very familiar with.
You all know him as "Llbear".
While I pleaded with him that the other veterans in my small support network needed his assistance and expertise greater than I, he was determined to make sure that we were ALL taken care of. Our needs were all different, and he had a plan to systematically tackle each one.
He brought my current situation to the attention of the Daily Kossacks community, and in an unfathomable response, my family was instantaneously lifted from a situation where we'd be facing the idea of being homeless once again, to being set up in a beautiful new home, close to school, and even with an opportunity to perhaps cure my wife's blindness.
At the same time as dealing with his own father's heart surgery, and with his father's strong encouragement (I could never hope to aspire for the level of strength he has displayed these last few weeks), even while coordinating the assistance for my family, was Llbear done?
Hell no.
Not just "no", but HELL no.
Each of my friends had their own need of assistance, and Llbear has systematically and effectively lent us his heart and sweat in ensuring we are all taken care of.
Ladies and gentlemen... This man you know as Llbear is an incredible one. I even go so far as to say Superhuman... Heaven knows he's saved us far more than any muscle-bound man in blue and red tights. Knowing the strength of his father, it isn't hard for me to see where it all comes from.
That said, I cannot express in any means that would do justice how grateful my family... both in the small group of veterans who have come together, and my wife and son... is to each and every one of you for your assistance through these trying times. Prior to being introduced to Llbear and the Daily Kossacks, to be honest, I wasn't even aware that anyone gave a flying rat's ass about us... we seemed to be just another number to the VA, and everyone else we met who wasn't a veteran themselves simply decided to shrug us off as if we were trash.
The number of people who helped save my family are too vast to name individually, and for that I apologize... Grandma Marie, if you are reading this, I once again wish you the best birthday wishes possible, and I believe your daughter is blessed to have such a caring and wonderful woman as her mother. May you have many more years left to share that energy and life with us all.
Just when we had given up all hope, you all stepped forward in a show of force and strength that caused even the most powerful weapon of warfare, fear itself, to kneel before your infinite might.
You did this not with bullets, cannons, or any number of soldiers or weapons.
You did it by showing a level of generosity, wisdom, courage, and faith that is beyond reproach.
While I feel that it is so horribly inadequate a term to describe my gratitude for what you've done, Daily Kossacks... thank you.
You've given me a reason to keep fighting this war, the courage to face life's new challenges, and the strength to help my fellow veterans through their own trying times as I was once helped when no one else seemed to care.