By: Gordon Williams, Red Cross Volunteer

Red Cross volunteer Roger Carle of Tacoma is an award winner — honored by his colleagues in the Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) program. But it’s the backstory of how Roger won the award that makes him an inspiration to volunteers everywhere.

It begins on a wintry day last February when Roger was on duty at the reception desk of the Airman’s Clinic at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He staffs the front desk two days a week, greeting and guiding visitors to the clinic.

This day, as Roger recalls, he was approached by a very official-looking group of visitors. As he was to learn, they were from The Joint Commission (TJC) — an investigative body which inspects and rates medical facilities.

One of the visitors approached Roger and began quizzing him. “She wanted to know all about how our check-in process worked,” Roger says. Obviously, the inspector liked what she heard. As Kristin Mather, regional SAF program manager tells it, “Not only was Roger cheerful and helpful as always, but he answered all the inspector’s questions even with the pressure of having a crowd gathered around him.”

Because of Roger’s stellar performance, the SAF crew at JBLM dubbed him the “TJC Champion.” That led to Roger’s award, presented to him at a ceremony presided over by Will Willis, the newly appointed leader of SAF for the Red Cross Northwest Region.

Mather says she wasn’t surprised at how well Roger handled the investigator. He has been a Red Cross worker in the clinic for nearly a decade. If anyone knows the ropes, he does. Roger, in turn, says he wasn’t a bit intimidated by the presence of the TJC inspectors. “I’ve been talking to officers most of my working life,” he says. “I've talked to generals with one and two stars.”

In his role as a Red Cross SAF volunteer, Roger works the reception desk at the McChord clinic on Monday and Tuesday. He greets visitors to the facility, checks in new patients, answers questions from anyone who comes in the door, and generally makes himself useful.

Every Wednesday he works the retail window at the clinic’s pharmacy, dispensing medicines to patients. In a given week, he will serve several hundred visitors to the reception desk and another hundred or so at the pharmacy window.

Roger has a deep commitment to the military that began years before his first day with the Red Cross. His whole working career — more than 40 years — involves service with the military. ‘“I’ve been associated with the military all my life,” he says. Beyond that, his wife Joyce also previously worked at the McChord clinic.

Asked what he has done during his military career, Roger says, “A bit of everything.”

He spent eight years on active duty with the Army, plus more years in the National Guard and the Army Reserve. After serving in the Army, Roger did an about face and signed on as a civilian employee with the Navy. Having worked for both the Army and the Navy, Roger now volunteers at an Air Force facility.

He spent his Army years stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia and Germany. At one point he helped service Army landing craft, His time in Germany was spent in the Artillery, as a nuclear weapons technician. Much of his time with the Navy was spent at the Underwater Weapons Command at Keyport WA. “I maintained and repaired torpedoes,” he says. “I tore down torpedoes and inspected and repaired them and put them back together.”

He retired from active work 12 years ago but quickly found himself bored and looking for productive ways to spend his days. “There was only so much time I could spend cleaning the house,” he says. “I talked to my wife, and she said why don’t you go out there and volunteer?” In March of 2015, he went to the McChord clinic and volunteered with the Red Cross.

He chose the Red Cross, he says, “because it was the only organization I knew that was working with the military. I wanted to meet new people, but I also wanted to give a hand to soldiers and airmen.”

Roger says he finds his work deeply gratifying. Not only does he get to meet new people every day, but he gets to help people at a time when they feel especially vulnerable. Newcomers obviously feel comfortable talking to Roger. He, in turn, enjoys greeting visitors to his reception area. Roger takes special pleasure in being able to help the elderly. “They talk to me,” he says. “They tell me their birthday; how old they are.”

The Red Cross needs more volunteers to work at the JBLM medical units and to fill the other SAF roles. To volunteer, go to redcross.org/saf. Roger encourages anyone looking for fulfilling work to sign up. His work at McChord has kept him involved and fulfilled for a decade. “I don’t have to go to work, but I want to,” he says.