Vietnam Marine Vet needs help

[tallyho8]

I need information to help out an old buddy and I know there are some very knowledgeable people on this forum who may be able to supply this info.

I just received a phone call from a friend who served 2 tours of duty in Nam and until last year was working as a contractor in Iraq. He met a Romania girl and got married and moved to her small hometown in Romania where he was told he could get a job. Through a series of unfortunate events he lost everything he had and now is stranded in a small town in Romania with no money, no credit, no relatives able to help and he is sick and he needs to get back to America. He is originally from Knoxville and says he will be able to get a job in Nashville if he can get there. Unfortunately, I can find no plane tickets cheaper than about $1200 and I can't handle this at the present time.

Before I start a lengthy process of looking for help for him, does anyone know an organization or agency that could assist him or any other helpful information to help him get back to the states?

 

[mjarrels]

Maybe Navy Relief or Red Cross?

mark

 

[Unclebuck257]

Advise him to go to the, or any, American Embassy and with him being a Vet, I'll bet they can get him onto a military plane, or series of military flights, and get him back to the US, under the circumstances. That is, providing none of his "mishaps" involve any wrong doing etc.

With all due respect to you though, there's something about this story that could be somewhat incorrect. What Vet wouldn't know to go to the nearest US Embassy first?

BTW, I'm not being a smartA in any way. I'm a Nam Vet myself and this just doesn't pass the smell test at first glance. Be careful, he could be misleading you, no matter how close you two are.

Red Cross is another avenue to look into.

 

[Charlesaf3]

I'm pretty sure the american embassy will loan him the money for the flight home, but he won't get to go out of the country again till he repays it.

 

[AlanB]

I will second most of what has been said,

I do not think he can hop unless he retired.

I believe the Embassy is the place to start.

In the FWIW price on tickets sounds about right too me, I just bought two too Germany myself.

Did you check Round Trips as well as one way's? Sometimes they are actually cheaper. (believe it or not)

 

[Podunkadunk]

Where's his wife?

 

[tallyho8]

Thanks to everyone for the help so far. I have been busy all day trying to get more info and it is very difficult. I can get him on a friends phone just now and then as the lines in this small village are busy most of the time and the calls are about $3 a minute. I have not been able to get a call through yet today.

Some of the info I have so far: He is about 300 miles from the embassy and phoned them and they offered to give him free phone calls to the US for help and not much more. His wife took him for everything and split. I think this may be very common for Romanian women to do to foreigners. I offered to send him $200 by Western Union to help out and he turned it down saying that what he really wanted was help finding a way back to the US. He thought I could look up a cheap flight to the US on the internet as he could get no internet access and not much help from locals.

I have spent hours researching flights from Bucharest to the US and never realized how difficult it is to find the lowest fares. All the web sites want you to put in the date of departure and city of destination and every time you enter a different date or city it is a different price and most prices are in Euros making you do a conversion and most do not include the taxes and fees which in some cases are more than the ticket. It is much easier to check Orbitz for flights that originate in the US.

He admits to being a little foolish when he let himself fall for a foreign girl 20 years younger than himself but I guess when you start getting a little older and lonely in a foreign country you tend to make mistakes even though you know better.

I am going to try to get him to hitch hike to the embassy to try to get help but with him being ill I am not sure if he can do it. (I do not yet know what is wrong with him except that he has a terrible cough)

 

[mjarrels]

Any JUSMAG near by or at the Embassy?

mark

 

[jdbower]

You may be better off researching the rail system, as long as he's able to travel (ie, has a passport) it may be much cheaper to take a train to a major western European city in France, Italy, or Germany. The Czech Republic is also a common source of cheap labor in Europe, to the point where some Czechs commute via plane to London where they can earn UK money and live in the Czech economy. Prague may offer some cheaper rates to a major city that can bring him to the US.

 

[RavensRoost]

Tallyho, I think jdbower is on the right track: use train to get out of Romania.

I looked around in expedia.com and for some reason flights out of Bucharest to Atlanta are expensive. Same for leaving out of Bucharest, Athens, Prague, or Istanbul. It even looks like Bucharest-Atlanta is the cheaper of those choices.

Like Jeff, I suspect the further west he goes by train the cheaper the airfare, but the savings can quickly be eaten up with other costs.

The real surprise is Kiev-Atlanta is only $803 via Moscow. Kiev is about 400 crow miles from the northwest corner of Romania. Moscow!

So which way he goes kinda depends on where in Romania he is located, trains, and how much money.

If this guy is someone you previously entrusted your life to (obviously successfully), then he is worth saving: I will help with $. PM me.

RavensRoost
US Army 1964-1971