BALTIMORE, Md. –
During the day Sgt. Jamye Mort works hard to find candidates to join the U.S. Army, but in her off time, she volunteers to help her fellow Soldiers.
Mort, a recruiter with the Frederick Company, Baltimore Recruiting Battalion, spends her off-duty hours volunteering with a local non-profit organization that helps veterans and their families cope with mental health and physical issues.
A Soldier of 12 years, Mort started volunteering in October of 2019 and has taken on a variety of duties to include managing the organization’s social media pages, helping with fundraising, and assisting with administrative tasks. Recently, she became a team leader on its social media platforms.
One of the organization’s primary missions is to help Soldiers cope with suicidal thoughts, which is an issue Mort feels strongly about.
“I don’t think we should lose veterans to suicide, and I don’t think our veterans should have to struggle to talk to somebody,” Mort said. “We all know somebody or had something happen and have lost a battle buddy.”
This was not Mort’s first time reaching out to her fellow Soldier’s. She once served with a battle buddy who was going through a difficult time in his personal life. After the Soldier reached out, she and her fellow Soldiers made it a point to check-in with him, call and make plans to go out and do things with that Soldier. Now, years later, that Soldier is still around doing great things, she shared.
Unfortunately not everyone is always as fortunate.
“I’ve also had friends who have committed suicide and they are not around,” Mort said.
Her experience with suicide and understanding the need of her fellow service members led Mort to volunteer work, because she wanted to pitch in and help out her fellow veterans.
“I do it because I want other veterans to have someone who they can turn to and if I can help make that happen, that’s all I need,” she said.
Most of the volunteers are veterans or closely tied to a military member, which she believes helps these service members.
“Most civilians don’t understand when we have issues, but we understand each other,” Mort said. “There is always a need for veterans to reach out to other veterans.”