Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Antonio Express-News
February 13, 2008 By Scott Huddleston, Express-News
Two months ago, Maj. Jason Waggoner was writing mostly good-news stories for the Army from Iraq and collecting wish lists from soldiers for Christmas care packages.
He now sees the war differently, as one of the first public affairs officers wounded in the Middle East. After a Dec. 16 explosion forced him to have an above-knee amputation, he's come to view the nurses at Brooke Army Medical Center as little-known saviors.
"They take care of us day by day, but they don't get a lot of attention," said Waggoner, 39, one of five soldiers awarded a Purple Heart at Fort Sam Houston on Tuesday morning.
But the Army needs more than good nurses to care for the more than 30,000 troops wounded since 2001. It's looking more to the Veterans Affairs Department. Unlike Waggoner, who plans to stay in Army public affairs, more than 5,200 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan have enrolled in the VA in South Texas.
"Our relationship with the VA has picked up at incredible speed," said Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo III, the Army's public affairs chief, who pinned the Purple Heart on Waggoner.
Spc. Chad Pfeifer, Spc. Ryan Richardson and Pfc. Randall B. "Blake" McMinn also received Purple Hearts at a ceremony at the Center for the Intrepid. Spc. Randy Moore was awarded one in his hospital room.
The Army is scrambling to hire mental health professionals and is about halfway toward its goal of more than 250, Cucolo said. In the past year, it has increased screening for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. It's having to do things differently, including building community alliances and encouraging soldiers to seek help, Cucolo said.
In San Antonio, businesses, nonprofit groups and civic organizations can help the wounded with everything from job training and placement to housing and day care, Cucolo said.
"The community can stay in touch with the leadership at Brooke and the VA," he said. "There's going to be a constant churning, a constant change in what the needs are."
The local VA is expanding its role, with 16 staff members, including seven at Fort Sam, working exclusively with young veterans. At Fort Hood, the VA has put workers in areas of health care that are short-staffed because of deployments.
The VA also is finding "symptom-free individuals" with brain injuries and PTSD, said Timothy P. Shea, director of the VA service network that includes South Texas.
In a visit Tuesday with the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board, Shea discussed efforts to expand care to new veterans while serving more than 80,000 patients in South Texas. The VA opened a center specializing in treatment of PTSD in Waco in December and is screening all patients for brain injuries, he said.
The VA estimates that at least 500 severely wounded troops have made San Antonio their permanent home. Officials expect that figure to rise as Fort Sam and the VA expand their mission. An 84,000-square-foot polytrauma center is set to open in 2011 at Audie Murphy VA Hospital, with transitional housing and a possible Fisher House for recovering soldiers and their families nearby.
The VA has struggled to publicize opportunities in the private sector for a generation of technically savvy veterans searching the Internet for jobs, housing and other forms of support, Shea said. But the cooperation that exists among the VA, BAMC and the Air Force's Wilford Hall Medical Center is making San Antonio "a model for the nation."
February 13, 2008 By Scott Huddleston, Express-News
Two months ago, Maj. Jason Waggoner was writing mostly good-news stories for the Army from Iraq and collecting wish lists from soldiers for Christmas care packages.
He now sees the war differently, as one of the first public affairs officers wounded in the Middle East. After a Dec. 16 explosion forced him to have an above-knee amputation, he's come to view the nurses at Brooke Army Medical Center as little-known saviors.
"They take care of us day by day, but they don't get a lot of attention," said Waggoner, 39, one of five soldiers awarded a Purple Heart at Fort Sam Houston on Tuesday morning.
But the Army needs more than good nurses to care for the more than 30,000 troops wounded since 2001. It's looking more to the Veterans Affairs Department. Unlike Waggoner, who plans to stay in Army public affairs, more than 5,200 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan have enrolled in the VA in South Texas.
"Our relationship with the VA has picked up at incredible speed," said Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo III, the Army's public affairs chief, who pinned the Purple Heart on Waggoner.
Spc. Chad Pfeifer, Spc. Ryan Richardson and Pfc. Randall B. "Blake" McMinn also received Purple Hearts at a ceremony at the Center for the Intrepid. Spc. Randy Moore was awarded one in his hospital room.
The Army is scrambling to hire mental health professionals and is about halfway toward its goal of more than 250, Cucolo said. In the past year, it has increased screening for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. It's having to do things differently, including building community alliances and encouraging soldiers to seek help, Cucolo said.
In San Antonio, businesses, nonprofit groups and civic organizations can help the wounded with everything from job training and placement to housing and day care, Cucolo said.
"The community can stay in touch with the leadership at Brooke and the VA," he said. "There's going to be a constant churning, a constant change in what the needs are."
The local VA is expanding its role, with 16 staff members, including seven at Fort Sam, working exclusively with young veterans. At Fort Hood, the VA has put workers in areas of health care that are short-staffed because of deployments.
The VA also is finding "symptom-free individuals" with brain injuries and PTSD, said Timothy P. Shea, director of the VA service network that includes South Texas.
In a visit Tuesday with the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board, Shea discussed efforts to expand care to new veterans while serving more than 80,000 patients in South Texas. The VA opened a center specializing in treatment of PTSD in Waco in December and is screening all patients for brain injuries, he said.
The VA estimates that at least 500 severely wounded troops have made San Antonio their permanent home. Officials expect that figure to rise as Fort Sam and the VA expand their mission. An 84,000-square-foot polytrauma center is set to open in 2011 at Audie Murphy VA Hospital, with transitional housing and a possible Fisher House for recovering soldiers and their families nearby.
The VA has struggled to publicize opportunities in the private sector for a generation of technically savvy veterans searching the Internet for jobs, housing and other forms of support, Shea said. But the cooperation that exists among the VA, BAMC and the Air Force's Wilford Hall Medical Center is making San Antonio "a model for the nation."