While South Shore soldiers serve in Iraq with the Massachusetts National Guard, we follow families as they live, cope, love and wait. This is part of an occasional series.

JEFF LOUGHLIN/The Patriot Ledger

The Diaz family no longer has to worry about a leaky roof at their Brockton home, thanks to Operation Homefront, a group that assists military families. Clockwise from left are Mariliz, Marco, Blancaliz, 14, and Marco II, 10.

GUARDIAN ANGELS

Support network aids families
while loved one is in Iraq

By DON CONKEY
The Patriot Ledger

BROCKTON - During the year he spent in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Marco Diaz was worried about more than roadside bombs and insurgents. He couldn’t stop thinking about the old slate roof on his house back in Brockton.

“Before I left, I knew we had a little problem with the roof,” he said.

While he was serving in the war, it got a whole lot worse.

Pieces of slate were falling off and every time it rained, Mariliz Diaz and the couple’s two children, Blancaliz, 14, and Marco, 10, had to scramble to deal with the leaks.

But before Diaz could find out how bad things were back home, people he had never met stepped in to help.

The Massachusetts National Guard has a coordinated, extensive support network in place for families with a loved one serving overseas. It’s what solved the Diaz family’s roof problem.

Shay Petronelli, a family assistance specialist in the National Guard’s Taunton office, heard about the Diaz’ problem and got in touch with Sandy Winkler, president of the South Shore chapter of Operation Homefront, a nonprofit devoted to helping military families.

Winkler, a Holbrook native who now lives in Brockton, knew just who to call: her friend Dennis Mann of Holbrook, a contractor.

Mann got a crew together and put a new roof on the Diaz house within days. It’s what Diaz came home to in September when his tour in Iraq ended.

“I just wanted to do something for the war effort, do my part for the country,” Mann said.

Normally, the roof job would have cost more than $10,000, but Mann’s crew did it for less than half that. The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Brockton donated money for the roof, so the work ended up costing the Diaz family nothing.

GARY HIGGINS/The Patriot Ledger

Dennis Mann of Holbrook-based Mann Construction Co. put a new roof on a house in Brockton for the family of a soldier who was serving in Iraq. The job ended up costing the family nothing.

For Diaz, the new roof was priceless.

“While I was in Iraq, it really comforted me to know that there are people back here supporting the families of soldiers who are away,” Diaz said. “That really takes a burden off of us, some of the worries about how things are going at home.”

While her husband was in Iraq, more than 5,800 miles away, Mariliz Diaz attended family-readiness group meetings organized by the National Guard’s Taunton office.

“They talked about how they can help families in need,” she said. “They made themselves very available to me.”

Dennis Mann and other South Shore residents with the know-how to help were available, too.

“Her (Mariliz Diaz’) husband was overseas, and she was not going to get a new roof,” Mann said.

Talking about the work he did, he said it “just makes me feel good.”

Don Conkey may be reached at dconkey@ledger.com.

Support network

Help at home: Military families needn’t cope alone

By DON CONKEY
The Patriot Ledger

QUINCY - If the roof is going to spring a leak or the car conk out, it’s going to happen during the first three months of an overseas deployment. It’s an old joke among military families, said Tanya Rioux, but one that proves true a lot of the time.

“Pools collapse. Water pipes burst, flooding cellars,” she said.

Whatever the problem, there is a network of support groups and organizations in place to help the families of servicemen and women deployed overseas. Rioux is a family assistance supervisor working out of the Massachusetts National Guard’s Taunton office. That office, one of eight in the state, covers the South Shore and the Brockton area.

The family assistance centers direct servicemen and their family members to help in a variety of areas, including financial and emotional.

Everything from free plumbing work by members of the Plumbing Association of Massachusetts to psychological counseling offered pro bono by local professionals is available.

The emotional problems caused - or worsened by a long separation can be the toughest to tackle.

“Issues run the gamut,” said Maj. Laurence Bazer, a chaplain in the Massachusetts National Guard. “Much of it is coping. The fact is that a parent, a spouse will be away for a full year, and for many, that will be the longest that they have ever been separated.”

There is also a network of nonprofit organizations including Operation Homefront offering help. Sandy Winkler is president of the South Shore chapter of that group.

The Holbrook native lives in Brockton and is a member of the Army Reserve. Her group supports families from all branches of the military but these days, most of the requests are coming from the families of Massachusetts National Guardsmen serving in Iraq, she said.

Whether it’s putting a kind-hearted contractor in touch with a soldier’s family in need of a new roof or helping out at the holidays, Operation Homefront tries to deliver whenever a family asks.

Even when a family isn’t struggling financially, it can be in turmoil emotionally.

“The emotional part is one of the biggest things for us,” said Marcy Maloney of Stoughton, a family readiness group leader for a Middleboro-based Army National Guard unit that has members serving in Kosovo.

“There are family emergencies that we help with, like deaths in the family that guys come home for,” said Maloney, whose husband Kevin is a National Guard specialist working as a medic in Kosovo.

Maloney helps run regular meetings for family members of servicemen in the unit, keeping them informed about services and benefits, and making herself available as a sounding board.

Shay Petronelli, a family assistance specialist who works out of the National Guard’s Taunton office, said pride can be an obstacle for some people.

“Some women feel ‘my husband would kill me if I go out and get help,’” she said. “But usually, after we have talked to them, they will change their minds.”

“We tell people that there are hundreds of families, thousands, going through what they are going through,” Petronelli said. “We tell them that they are not alone.”

Don Conkey may be reached at dconkey@ledger.com.