| Ohioans Respond to Call to Assist Military Families |
| DUBLIN, Ohio - More than 100
people braved the cold and rainy weather last night to attend a
town hall meeting sponsored by the Ohio National Guard and
hosted by Dublin Scioto High School. The National Guard’s
Operation: O.H.I.O. (Ohio Helps Its Own) is intended to help
individuals and organizations find out how best to plug into the
already existing network of family support organizations. For purposes of family support, Ohio has been split into six regions. There are eleven Family Assistance Centers (FACs) and Family Programs Coordinators around Ohio, providing support for the families of all military members in the state, regardless of the branch of service. “There is a lot of support for military families in Ohio,” said Lt. Col. Robert Bramlish, director of the National Guard’s family readiness program, “but there is always more that we need to do. Our goal through Operation: O.H.I.O. is to help Ohioans understand how they can best provide assistance to military families.” There are nearly 29,000 reserve component service members in Ohio, nearly 16,000 of whom are in the National Guard. In the years since the attacks of 9/11, the Ohio National Guard alone has deployed over 13,000 men and women somewhere in the world. “When our military members deploy, they need to focus on their mission,” said Bramlish. By taking care of families, we help diminish one of the most significant distractions our deployed members face.” “When I was in Iraq,” said Russell Galeti, Outreach Coordinator for the Ohio National Guard, “my fellow soldiers and I spent many hours wondering about how the loved ones we left behind were managing in our absence. Anything we can do here to reduce those concerns in theater helps military members conduct their missions safely and effectively.” During the town hall portion of the evening, many members of the audience talked about the different ideas they or their organizations had for helping the deployed military members or their families. The panelists all returned to the same thought, expressed by Maj. Gen. Gregory L. Wayt, Ohio’s adjutant general, in his closing remarks: “If you want to help military families, what do you do? There is a 1-800 number for each FAC in Ohio. If anyone wants to help military families, or if any military families need help, they just need to call the 1-800 number for the FAC in the region in which they live.” The National Guard will be hosting three more of these town hall events throughout the state over the next several weeks, with the next event scheduled in Perrysburg, Ohio, on April 1. The other meetings will be in Hamilton and Kettering. The dates and locations of those events can be found at the “Operation: O.H.I.O.” link on the Ohio National Guard’s website at www.ohionationalguard.com.
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