Defense Media Network

Wounded Warriors: From Transition to Timeout

Supporting warfighters

“The love of my wife and the support of staff at Black Butte Lake had a tremendous positive effect in my healing,” Golia said. “There are lots of prior service members on the staff at Black Butte, and that’s been really great.”

Wounded warriors heal in a variety of ways. Medical and occupational therapies tend to be most effective when coupled with activities that take them outside the career and social environments that they experience day to day.

USACE’s support of Operation Warfighter is important, he added, particularly in light of the drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan.

“This is a success story, but not just for me,” said Golia. “There are many more of my brothers and sisters in the services who are returning home now, and they could benefit from an opportunity like this.”

 

Kandahar Afghanistan Volunteers

Many Americans are unaware that USACE has a major presence in Afghanistan. But in an area office at Kandahar Airfield, which had previously been a district office, USACE personnel have been deeply involved in reaching out to injured warfighters.

“What adds to the awareness is that we are right next door to the Warrior Recovery Center,” USACE public affairs specialist Jasmine Chopra-Delgadillo explained. “When you open the door to go out one of the gates, you see the sign, you see the soldiers.”

Many of the USACE personnel working at the “Castle Compound” area that USACE occupies at Kandahar Airfield are veterans themselves or have children serving in the military. Their familiarity with the stresses warfighters endure is bolstered by seeing them on a routine basis.

“It does make you pause and want to volunteer,” Chopra-Delgadillo said. “We really didn’t set up anything formal. People just got together and decided, ‘I want to go spend time with [the warriors].’

“One thing we found as we started to connect by volunteering was that some of our people, especially those located near military bases stateside, were already doing this type of outreach. One of our program managers, Veronica Rife, was already doing volunteer work with wounded warriors on construction projects at Fort Knox.”

In April, civilian Adam Walker led the organization of a traditional, American-style barbecue for wounded warriors on the Castle Compound. Walker previously volunteered to help injured warfighters at USACE’s Norfolk District in Virginia.

“I wanted to provide an event for the wounded soldiers that felt as if they were at a cookout back in the United States,” said Walker. “The barbecue was a way to create a laid back, relaxing atmosphere that could help the soldiers forget about the challenges facing them in Afghanistan.”

Cookouts and spontaneous get-togethers have been taking place routinely in the compound that had previously been home to TAS, even as the number of USACE personnel working there has been drawing down.

“What I’ve often heard from soldiers who have been wounded is that they are so eager to get back to their brothers, to go back to their austere bases. When they get to our compound, they’re kind of shocked because our facilities are great compared to what they’re coming from. They’ll say, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s carpet on the floor!’ We sit down and they relax. I never ask why they’re here, but you can tell sometimes from their wounds.”

“I go grab them and bring them over to our movie night on Thursdays,” Chopra-Delgadillo said. “Another one of our people bakes them cakes. We put together a [charity] 5K run with the proceeds going to personal items for the wounded warriors like flip-flops, socks, and comfortable clothing. You can imagine that when they arrive here, they’re often medevac’d and when they get to the hospital, they don’t have anything.”

Chopra-Delgadillo said soldiers who arrive at the Warrior Recovery Center from the battlefield are typically focused on rejoining their units. Taking time away from their recovery with USACE volunteers helps them decompress a little.

“What I’ve often heard from soldiers who have been wounded is that they are so eager to get back to their brothers, to go back to their austere bases. When they get to our compound, they’re kind of shocked because our facilities are great compared to what they’re coming from. They’ll say, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s carpet on the floor!’ We sit down and they relax. I never ask why they’re here, but you can tell sometimes from their wounds.”

Although the adjacent Warrior Recovery Center is well equipped, the ground between the center’s residential and treatment buildings is, like most areas in Afghanistan, covered with pebbles over mud and dirt. This surface is unsteady, making it difficult for soldiers with lower body injuries to navigate.

Taking note of Soldiers on crutches hobbling over the rocks, USACE personnel, including Tony Carter, Nandy Perillo, Mike Rooney, John Caudill, Steve Reed, Bee Xiong, Jim Armstrong, Mark Alton, Al Lorenzo, Bob McEchnie, Julio Arocho, Lt. Col. Stephen Bales, Perry Hubert, and Doug Jamieson built a wooden walkway between the buildings in their off-duty hours.

Helping wounded warriors where they can is something USACE’s people do from the heart, Chopra-Delgadillo explained.

“People are doing this on their own. There isn’t any credit. We’re doing this because we really want to connect with these Soldiers.”

After this interview, Chopra-Delgadillo was off to the Warrior Recovery Center to gather some wounded soldiers for movie night back at USACE’s compound. The feature? Iron Man 3.

 

Maximizing Opportunities to Help

While USACE’s involvement with Operation Warfighter is at least three years old, it is reaching out through other programs as well. Some, like the Department of Veterans Affair’s (VA) Work-Study Program were established well before OWF.

Work-Study, as the name suggests, places full- or three-quarter-time students in college, vocational, or various professional programs in part-time VA or VA-related positions. Students often work at the schools they attend, at nearby VA facilities, or with other proximate government agencies. They receive a stipend for the part-time positions, which are termed “work-study assignments.” Veterans and those in the latter stages of transitioning out of the military with service-connected disabilities are typically given priority consideration.

In USACE districts that are not located near military installations, the agency has begun establishing relationships with VA employment coordinators, Diane Hibbs said. Hibbs is chief of the Civilian Personnel Advisory Center (CPAC) for the USACE Great Lakes and Ohio River Division.

Whether interacting with wounded warriors in theater, bringing them into the USACE workforce through OWF internships, providing support for VA work-study programs, or just spending some quality time together on the water, every day USACE personnel reaffirm their support of uniformed service members who’ve been hurt. Aiding wounded warriors in transition to a new military specialty or back to civilian life and providing some time out along the way is a worthwhile 21st century USACE mission.

Hibbs reported that the Buffalo District is actively working to get separated wounded warriors work-study assignments to facilities in the district through the VA program.

With the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, efforts to engage and help injured service members will likely shift to programs like the Army’s AW2, that refers wounded warriors who have already separated from the military to various agencies and hires them in civil service positions. The Great Lakes and Ohio River Division has hired several wounded warriors through AW2 in the past, and OWF interns who have received their medical discharges are encouraged to apply for USACE positions through AW2.

Hibbs agreed the changing deployment disposition of U.S. military forces will probably result in more wounded warrior aid volume through programs like AW2.

“The medical separation process can be a lengthy one, so people will be going through for some time to come,” Hibbs said. “Once they separate from the service, a lot of these individuals will be eligible for AW2.”

Prev Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page

By

Eric Tegler is a writer/broadcaster from Severna Park, Md. His work appears in a variety...