A new organization is revving up a fight for a cure for the fatal neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, that disproportionately targets military veterans – and is calling on the Defense community to join the battle.
In a commentary for Defense One, Brent Colburn, the former assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs in the Obama administration wrote "as long as the disease remains a mystery, we won't have the funding we'll need to find a cure."
The new organization – I Am ALS – was launched by Brian Wallach, a federal prosecutor in Chicago and father of two who was diagnosed with ALS in 2017, and his wife Sandra and aims "to bring to the fight the best thinking from the worlds of organizing, fundraising, and advocacy," Colburn wrote.
"What felt like a gut punch to Brian's friends and family, he saw as a call to action. It was the opening bell of a new fight, not the final round," Colburn wrote.
And with about one out of six of the 6,000 people diagnosed with ALS in the United States each year having served in the military, the defense community "can't afford to be on the sidelines," he wrote.
Colburn noted an average year of care can cost more than $300,000 per patient, "not to mention the lost value to our military when sailors, soldiers, airman, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen are felled by the disease."
"They may sound like small actions, but spreading the word is a fundamental step towards finding a cure," he wrote. "Tweet, post to Facebook, talk to your colleagues and neighbors. Too often ALS exists in the shadows, and those afflicted pass so quickly they can't speak for themselves. Be their voice."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.