Just How Charitable Are Charities

This is an event from the past, as told by my husband, David.

After seeing all the nonsense, posted on the smoking ban forum, about these so called "charitable organizations", I am reminded when I was in the service 300 miles at sea heading east in the atlantic. I was awakened at 2200 hours, and told the captain wanted to see me on the bridge; my mother was dying. My father was trying to get a hold of me through the red cross. He wanted to know if they could bring me home. They said sure but I would have to take out a loan for travel expenses and wait to get it approved. Of course I would have to have a good credit record. I had just turned 18. No record yet. This upset my father. He remembered I had told him the call sign of our ship. He called the naval reserve who had a large short wave radio at their center. They radioed our ship with all the info. The Captain talked to me personally and said, "son we will get you home." He went to the officers lounge, opened the safe and "gave" me some money. He said "we take care of our own here." He then radioed the carrier. We were going to refuel the next day and moved up the schedule. I was hi-lined to the carrier at dawn and put on a waiting plane on deck. It was an anti sub plane. I was the only passenger. When we landed in the states a navy pickup truck was waiting for me to take me to the train station. My dad was waiting for me in Ohio. He took me to the hospital where my mother was in a coma. I made it home 4 hours before she died. It took me under 24 hours to get home from 300 miles at sea. Since that day I have not given one dime to their organization. And I will not give to any other "charitable frauds". By the way, the Navy told me to take all the time I needed, it would be approved. I would, to this day, walk through Fire for that Captain. This is a TRUE story.