Operation Wounded Warrior

 

Operation Wounded Warrior was the first long motorcycle road trip I’ve taken since my return from Japan four years ago.  Unlike the trip in Japan which was strictly for pleasure, this trip had a mission; delivering health and comfort items to wounded servicemen and women recuperating from battle at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX.

 

The injured troops at BAMC are the worst of the worst medical cases needing the absolute best care available.  BAMC is a Level-1 amputee and trauma center, and is the premier burn unit in the United States, not just in the military.  The wounded warriors who have the misfortune to end up at BAMC spend on average, 30 months in recovery and rehabilitation, learning how to live with the injuries they’ve sustained.  There is nobody more deserving of our help than these warriors whose lives have been forever changed.

 

Our trip started as we headed out on motorcycles and a pickup truck full of goods that we had colleted in Las Vegas.  On the way, we stopped in Kingman, AZ to meet up with some Legion Riders who had collected 17 boxes of books and magazines.  Several of their members joined us for a partial ride as we headed to our first overnight in Florence, AZ where we connected with the main body of OWW.

 

The amazing thing about the American Legion is the friendships that we make as we travel across the country.  We were busy stacking boxes into one of the trucks that hauled the goods destined for BAMC when I heard a familiar voice ask, “Is that Doc?”  I turned around to find an old friend, whom I met a whopping two months earlier at the American Legacy Run at the national convention.  Two months doesn’t normally count when it comes to calling someone an old friend, but with the Legion Rider family of friends growing as fast as it is, two months is like an eternity.

 

As we rolled across the country, we picked up riders along the way, and by the time we arrived in San Antonio, we had riders from Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and two riders who came from Illinois just to join the effort.  The Legion Riders from Las Cruces, NM were a great help to our mission.  Besides joining us on the ride, the arranged police escorts in Las Cruces and in El Paso, TX as well as hosting an end-of-run party on the return trip.

 

For the most part, we stayed tents in KOA campgrounds.  The folks at the KOA in Ft. Stockton, TX treated us better than anyone could ask for, having BBQ ready for us both times we stopped there.  Why anyone would live in Ft. Stockton is an unknown but if the folks at the KOA are any indication, maybe it’s the friendliness of some good folks in west Texas.

 

The last leg of the trip into San Antonio was the most impressive, with 42 motorcycles, two rental trucks full of goods, and three chase vehicles lumbering down the Interstate.  For those of you who have never been to west and south Texas, it is a diverse environment, full of wildlife and other wonders of nature.  Heading down I-10, we encounter what could be the title of a great horror movie, “Attack of the Killer Mustard-Flavored Butterflies.”  For some unknown reason, millions of butterflies decided that they wanted to do their annual mating dance in the air at precisely the same moment that we came riding through.  What ever you learn in life, a truth of bikers is this simple fact; don’t eat the green bugs, they taste nasty.

 

Post 593 in Converse, TX became our hosts while in the San Antonio area.  The graciousness of the people at the Post cannot be overstated.  Members of the Post, Auxiliary, SAL and ALR took great care of us, providing dinner and breakfast for us, as well as a place to stay for those of us who decided not to get a motel room.  They offered to take us to their homes so we could take showers to get the road grime off of us.  They opened their hearts to our cause.  They even taught us a new game, called Butt-Darts (don’t ask); a game that may one day become the national ALR pastime (or maybe not).

 

But this trip really isn’t about us; it’s about the troops and their families at BAMC.  It is hard to put on paper what a person can only understand by taking part in a trip like this and meeting these people.  These are wounded warriors with determination and outlooks that can’t be described by words; men and women with more spirit than can be imagined.  It’s about the young Marine, whose face badly scarred, who went back to his room to put on his uniform because he didn’t think he represented the Corps well enough to us while sitting around in a T-shirt and shorts.  It’s about the Soldier who was heading home with a missing arm, and hobbling on a crutch, but looking forward to custom-built trike that he could ride and control with his hooked-arm.  It’s about the family members who may indeed be the real heroes of the ordeals their loved-ones have gone through.

 

Contrary to popular belief, the troops who are actually in the hospital at BAMC are in the minority.  These are they ones who first come home from war and need around the clock medical care.  Our efforts for OWW were not geared towards these troops because they get everything they need while laying in a hospital bed.  OWW was geared to help the troops who are on long-term medical hold and are primarily being treated as outpatients.  Once released from the hospital, patients are moved into transient quarters while awaiting permanent on-base, handicapped accessible housing.  They have no full-time care or assistance other than family members who come to help them.

 

The goods we brought to BAMC are controlled but the Soldiers and Family Assistant Center, which is operated by volunteers and donations only.  There is no funding for the SFAC.  The SFAC is a place where those recuperating can come to use the Internet, watch TV, read books and relax outside of the 12x12 room they live in.  The can pick up donated items to help make their lives more comfortable.  It is a place where they make friends who themselves are wounded and are in similar conditions as they.

 

It is also a place where family members can go to get away from some of the stresses placed on them because of the condition of their sons or daughters, husbands or wives.  That’s right, family members.

 

As I stated, troops discharged from the hospital do not have full-time assistance.  These are troops whose lives have been changed forever; changes that require them to learn how to do things they never imagined.  How do you brush your teeth if you have no arms?  Or wipe your butt?  Or put on a pair of underwear?  How do you shave your face when each time you look in the mirror you see the scarred face of a burn victim that used to have the face you grew up with, and it makes you want to puke?  How do you learn to live your life again when life as you knew it no longer exists?

 

The answer is a family member that helps.  Like the mother who has the fortitude to get past the embarrassment of bathing her 21 year-old son, something she hadn’t done since this now grown man, was a baby.  Imagine having to help your grown child go to the toilet.  Or the father, who quit his job, lost his house and went bankrupt, because someone had to take care of his son.  This is a man who now lives in another 12x12 room and relies on his son’s meager military salary to sustain them both.  Or the husband, who hasn’t been able to sleep with his wife because she is still covered with gauze and bandages that protect the skin graphs that will save her life, yet sleeps on the floor next to her night after night because he doesn’t want to stay alone at Fisher House.

 

What gives a person the dedication to give up their life’s fortunes to help another human being in such ways?  Keep in mind that these family members do not live in Texas; they are there as long as their loved one needs the help, however long that may be.  It is simply the love of a child or spouse that drives these truly amazing people.

 

The items we took to BAMC help sustain their lives in small, but important ways.  The free bar of soap they get is $1.00 that they don’t have to spend for that bar of soap elsewhere.  The free lap blankets that help amputees keep their stumps warm also help them afford to buy their baby a new crib because they don’t have to buy a blanket for themselves.  The audio books allow blind soldiers to stimulate their minds.  The lady’s makeup we took may help a woman scarred for life feel just bit more beautiful again when she looks in the mirror.

 

Some Final Statistics