War-bound single mom reaches out to troops, and gets help herself

Brad Vest / P-IJoy Mack shares a moment with her daughter, Megan Fitzgerald, 6, at the Crossroad Economy Studios Extended Stay America hotel in Puyallup. The American Legion is paying for their stay because their home's heater isn't working properly.

War-bound single mom reaches out to troops, and gets help herself
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER

Like a lot of people, Joy Mack is struggling.

A single mom with two young daughters, at times Mack sometimes nets only $78 every two weeks after the bills are paid and the family needs met. She owns an older car that barely functions and is working to bring her house in Puyallup out of bankruptcy and fix some serious problems with it.

"A good house but with idiosyncrasies," Mack, 39, says of the home, which has old wiring and a faulty furnace that causes her children to wrap themselves in blankets to eat breakfast before setting off to school.

Getting the house repaired takes on more urgency for Mack than for most. After the New Year, Mack, 39, heads off to war.

A member of the Washington National Guard's 741st Explosives Ordnance Disposal Battalion, Mack leaves for training Jan. 3, then to Afghanistan sometime in February. She won't be home until 2010.

But Mack, who previously served in the Army from 1987 to 1991 with the 10th Mountain Division, is not complaining. She has sought no special treatment, no hardship exemptions.
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