Photo by Bernard S. Little Maj. Gen. Carla G. Hawley-Bowland, Northern Regional Medical Command (Provisional) and Walter Reed Army Medical Center commanding general, and Command Sgt. Maj. James E. Diggs, NRMC(P) and WRAMC, fill out their pledge forms for Army Emergency Relief following Walter Reed’s kick-off ceremony for the annual AER fund-raising campaign Wednesday in the old hospital (Bldg. 1).

The AER slogan is ‘‘Helping the Army Take Care of Its Own,” and this year’s campaign theme is ‘‘Helping Maintain Army Strong.”

AER offers need-based financial aid in the form of interest-free loans and tax-exempt grants to Soldiers and their families, and scholarships to family members, explained retired Lt. Gen. Robert F. Foley, director of AER and guest speaker at Wednesday’s ceremony.

‘‘For commanders throughout the Army, AER is that valuable tool that helps us keep our Soldiers mission-ready, especially when they have nowhere else to turn,” said Col. Peter T. McHugh, the U.S. Army Garrison commander at Walter Reed.

‘‘Sometimes, it’s AER grants and loans. Sometimes, it’s AER scholarship programs. Sometimes, it’s through command referral systems [to AER] that allow a Soldier to take care of situations when there is just nothing for the Soldier,” McHugh said.

‘‘Everyone of us who has been in the military has had that Soldier who needed to get home for that family emergency and couldn’t afford the travel or food, or the Soldier who woke up one morning and had lost everything through some tragedy — a house fire or theft,” McHugh added.

‘‘We are there through AER for our Army Family, and our contributions to that program ensure we can take care of our own,” he said.

Foley told the story of a sergeant who was injured by an improvised explosive device in Iraq and eventually ended up at Walter Reed for surgery and physical therapy, before going back to Fort Polk, La., for recuperation and rehabilitation.

‘‘While he was there, he was notified by his family that his father passed away,” Foley said. The Soldier didn’t have enough money to fly back to Arizona where his family was, so he got an AER loan for travel expenses.

Once the Soldier got to Arizona, he discovered his brother had been incarcerated and had six children, who his mother and father had taken in, along with his 13-year-old sister.

The Soldier extended his leave, paid some bills, and returned to his own family at Fort Polk — a wife and four children.

Six days later, he was notified his mother passed away, Foley said.

‘‘Now, there are a total of 11 children who [he] obviously wanted to ensure he provided care for,” Foley said. ‘‘He went back to AER to request another loan, and was told his initial loan would be converted to a grant, and additional requests of money from AER would be grants until he could get himself back on his feet and stabilize the situation.”

Foley explained that AER does everything it can to be flexible with the Soldiers it helps. ‘‘We make decisions based [on] the family’s situation, and situations change sometimes.”

Foley said on average, 90 percent of AER assistance is in the form of interest-free loans, while 10 percent are grants.

Last year, AER provided approximately $80 million in assistance to more than 72,000 Soldiers and their Families, Foley said.

Foley cautioned Soldiers against using pay-day lenders when challenges surface. ‘‘That’s not a good option. That’s an option that a Soldier can get a loan pretty quick, but it’s going to be at a high interest rate — usually 500 or 600 percent. Our experience is that Soldiers who get themselves in a spiral of debt find it very hard to get out of, so encourage Soldiers to come to AER [when the emergency need exists].”

Foley also highlighted the Command Referral Program, in which a company commander or first sergeant can refer a Soldier in need to their local AER office. With some quick paperwork, a leader at the company level can get up to $1,000 immediately for a Soldier in need.

He added that AER’s Grants to Wounded Warriors Program provides $200 to every Soldier medically-evacuated from a theater of combat [such as Afghanistan and Iraq] in the form of a debit card.

‘‘We help Soldiers everyday, [and] AER plays a huge role in that,” said Maj. Gen. Carla G. Hawley-Bowland, commanding general of the Northern Regional Medical Command (Provisional) and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The general explained that many wounded warriors and their families’ lives ‘‘are turned upside down,” first by their injuries, and then, by the challenges they face during their recovery here while trying to maintain their homes and families. AER helps them meet these challenges.

Hawley-Bowland said Walter Reed contributed about $45,000 to AER [through WRAMC’s fund-raising efforts] last year, ‘‘and yet we got a ten-fold return on our investment in helping Soldiers here at Walter Reed.”

Walter Reed’s AER gave out $561,454 in loans and grants for emergency needs of Soldiers and their families, according to Barbara A. Green, AER specialist at WRAMC.

‘‘Just this week, a Soldier at Fort Meade [Md.] lost everything when his house on post caught fire,” Hawley-Bowland said. ‘‘They got away with their wedding rings and a couple of rosaries, and that was it; everything else had been destroyed. AER is helping them out.

‘‘You never know what life [has] for tomorrow,” the general said. ‘‘[AER] is one way that we can help be prepared to take care of our Soldiers tomorrow.”

‘‘So I encourage all of you to contact everyone and ask people to give what they can,” she said. ‘‘We know it’s tough with the recession and everything else— we all have commitments. But if we give what we can from the heart, we will help out and you will get a ten-fold, bountiful increase in what you can give.”

Walter Reed’s AER representatives are Mitchia (Shay) Tull-Cook, AER officer, and Anthony Morris, AER specialist. They are located in Army Community Service, Doss Memorial Hall (Bldg. 17). Hours for the office are 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. They can be reached at (202) 782-4383 or 3412.

Barbara Green, AER specialist, is located in the Soldier Family Assistance Center (SFAC), in Heaton Pavilion (main hospital), third floor. Hours of operation are from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. She can be reached at (202) 356-1012, Ext. 40828 or (202) 782-2071.

Also for more information about the services AER offers, visit AER’s Web site at www.aerhq.org.

Editor’s note: Follow Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Twitter at www.twitter.com⁄walterreedarmy.