Marine Corps Base Quantico -- Nothing stops Joyce Ammen from helping someone in need. She was late for her interview for this article because she stopped to check on a woman who’d just been in an accident on rain-slicked 95. She’d just come from picking up 1,000 pounds of ribs to give away to needy military families.
“People think I’m crazy because of how much I care,” Ammen said. “But this is me. Take me as I am.”
Ammen is the founder, executive director, financial officer and total staff of the non-profit Operation Care, which provides food, drinks, furniture, personal hygiene products, toys and other nonperishable items — not to mention support and love — to service-members and their families in the Washington, D.C. area. She often gets up at 2 or 3 a.m., goes to bed late and never takes a day off.
She assists troops who are deployed and those who are recovering from combat-related injuries in local military hospitals. Her organization is supported by the Gary Sinise Foundation and she partners with numerous local Giant, Wal-Mart, Safeway and Costco stores and other businesses to obtain the products she freely distributes.
Aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, she focuses her efforts on the 200 military police who work for the Provost Marshall Office. She calls them all “her kids.” She started helping the command in April.
“Mrs. Joyce or as the Marines call her, ‘Big Mama,’ has on a continuous basis supported Security Battalion, donating everything from 180 turkeys, holiday meals in a box, boxes and boxes of hand warmers, hygiene products, school supplies for their children, etc.,” said 1st Sgt. Jacquelynn Muncy, company first sergeant for the Military Police Company. “The list is long and she continues to go overboard with providing the service members in the command with necessities and community donations. I can say none of it goes to waste and the Marines are super appreciative of all her unexpected deliveries.”
“All I want is to say thank you to those who are ready to make the ultimate sacrifice,” Ammen said. “These kids need our love and support. I just want the MPs to get what they need. They’re out there in the heat and cold putting their lives on the line every day.
People think they’re the bad guys at the gate who check IDs, but they’re the good guys keeping the base safe,” she continued. “They save people from domestic violence and child abuse. They’re keeping the bad guys out.”
Ammen, who was born and grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, is a survivor of three abusive marriages and was left homeless at one point when her then-husband took their house. She credits her fiancé, John Gunning, a military policeman, for showing her how to love people again.
Gunning was killed in the first months of the Iraq War in 2003.
“Instead of letting that bring me down, I fought my way back up,” Ammen said. “Now I see him in every military policeman I meet.”
Operation Care was granted 501(c)-nonprofit status by the IRS in 2007. Ammen operates the organization from her townhouse in Lorton, Virginia, and out of two small storage facilities. In the house, there are three freezers that she keeps filled with frozen foods for Marines whose funds for groceries are stretched to the limit.
“They’ll tell me, ‘Big Mama, you really saved our butts ‘til the first of the month,’” Ammen said.
She’ll also give out blankets and comforters to provide warmth until the heating on base is turned on, four cases of infant formula to help a family get started with a new baby, funds to pay for utility bills, cars when an MP needs a way to get to work and sunscreen and bug spray to protect MPs posted at the base gates.
“Some of these men are afraid to ask for help, so I tell them ‘write it on a piece of paper and give it to me.’ I’ll get it for them,” Ammen said.
“I’m a bureaucratic fighter and I don’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” she continued. “I find out what stores have left over and I ask for it. It amazes me, all the stuff I can get.”
Ammen is tenacious in getting the help “her kids” need, but she is unfailingly respectful to them.
“I always say ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir.’ That weirds the E-1s out! But for me, it’s respect for the uniform,” she said. “And none of my kids have ever been greedy. They’re all sweet kids. They respect me because I treat them well. Many come from broken homes and don’t know love or compassion and that’s what I want to give them, more than anything.”
Sgt. Jamanz Thomas, who works for headquarters, said she heard about Ammen and Operation Care and contacted her in a time of need when she was pregnant.
“I’ve been in touch with her ever since,” Thomas said. “I have a four-month-old, and she gave me enough diapers and wipes that I haven’t had to buy any yet. Today, she’s giving me toys for my baby. She is always calling me and texting me to see if I need anything.”
In addition to donating material goods, Ammen provides emotional support. She’ll have a Marine over to her house to play video games — nothing violent, of course — if he needs to get away from base. Her cell phone is always on, even in the middle of the night, in case a Marine feels a panic attack coming on and needs to talk to someone, but doesn’t want to scare his wife. She bolsters Wounded Warriors by telling them that they’re still tough and handsome and that their injuries don’t define them.
Ammen said her dream is to have a warehouse filled with food and clothes for “her kids.”
“I want to continue doing this until the day I die,” Ammen said.
Operation Care welcomes donations of food, high protein snacks, used cars (if possible), blankets, hand/feet warmers, coffee and hot chocolate for this season. Monetary donations are also welcomed. Call 571-839-5325 or e-mail operation.care703@gmail.com.
— Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com