Excited and Depressed

Last night was amazing.    Last night was our first Wounded Warriors meeting.  After just the last couple of days I dare say this is a life changing experience.

I know I’m going to need a lot of help but immediately after sending out the e-mail to my coworkers, I had 33 volunteers.  While not all of them made it to our first meeting last night, we still had a good turn-out.  The two Navy Chiefs currently running the volunteer side brought with them the six military members running the patient care side.  One soldier was from Roll 3, two were from the mTBI (mild Tramatic Brain Injury) recovery program and three were the medics that live with the Wounded Warriors.  The medics take the wounded soldiers to their appointments and generally oversee their recovery.

They talked to us about the soldiers and their needs for about an hour then invited us on a tour.  The Wounded Warrior barracks are simple and fairly well stocked at the moment.  Fighting season has only just begun so they expect the number of soldiers will obviously pick up.  The mTBI team is ONLY the OIC and NCOIC and they were told to set up their recovery ward without a budget.  I believe the line they were given when they asked how exactly they were going to do that was “through creative networking”.  It took them two and half months but they got a tent and metal bunk beds with cloth covered springs (calling them mattresses just seems like too much of a stretch).  This will be our main focus right off the bat because they have nothing.  Their patents are staying with the other wounded soldiers for the moment.

The soldiers were extremely welcoming.  There were four in the dayroom when we arrived.  The way they talked openly about their injuries caused by IEDs and bullets amazed me.  What amazed me even more was how irritated they were about being in recovery and not out with their unit in the fight.  They are young, male and mostly infantry.  An impressive group.

As we toured the barracks, we were shown all the great things built by the Seabees like the deck and wall lockers.  But their list of needs was still extensive.  I was both excited because I know we can help and depressed that this is how our wounded soldiers are treated.  I just kept saying how shocked I was that the government wasn’t providing for them.  My friend said “If you have enough volunteers to write Congress, more power to you, we struggled just to keep up with what they need”.

It was not lost on me that I just undertook running this project just weeks before I leave.  I was optimistic that someone would step forward and right off the bat, someone did.  My friend Rita who is a military construction project manager, agreed to be the coordinator.  Coincidently her tour ends shortly after I return in the fall so I will be back in time to continue what she starts.