A home — and a mom — for wounded warriors

[Woodmonkey]

Jonathan Gurwitz: A home — and a mom — for wounded warriors


The phone rings in the middle of the night. For the families of military personnel serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is the beginning of the nightmare. A loved one is gravely injured.

With luck, the wounded go to a field hospital, then a combat hospital, then to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and, finally, to a military medical center in the United States.

Among the more than 25,000 service members wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, nearly 2,900 have come to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

Waiting for them is Judith Markelz. As the program manager of the Soldier and Family Assistance Center, she knows what challenges await them and their loved ones.

While the wounded make the long journey from combat zone to treatment facility in the United States, their panicked families travel across the country to be with them. Parents and spouses hastily pack suitcases. They leave keys with neighbors and call employers — "I don't know when I'll be back."

They come to a strange city. They see a son or daughter, husband or wife whose limbs have been blown off and skin has been burned away.

Amid the bewilderment, the Soldier and Family Assistance Center is a place at Fort Sam Houston that families and wounded warriors can call home. A place where the clothes and personal articles that were forgotten in the tumult can be found. Where the recuperating can play video games and send e-mails to friends. Where hugs and freshly baked cookies are dispensed freely.

The center is unique among military installations. And it operates almost entirely on donations from the community.

"We could not do this anywhere else," says Markelz. "People in the community want to do something, want to help these wounded warriors. This is the place they come."

Fifty-eight volunteers help Markelz and two other paid staff members man the SFAC through the week.

"We provide somebody who puts their arms around you after you've received that phone call," Markelz says.

If the Soldier and Family Assistance Center is unique, then a big part of its unparalleled operation is Markelz, who has managed it since the doors opened in late 2003.

"She has an amazing capacity for caring," says Col. Wendy Martinson, garrison commander at Fort Sam Houston.

"There are no words to describe what she does," according to Spc. Eric Gonzalez.

The 22-year-old native of Alexandria, La., was standing over an improvised explosive device when it exploded in Baghdad in 2005. Today, with 37 pieces of shrapnel in his body, he works with Markelz in the SFAC. "She's been called 'Mom' more than a few times."

Evelyn Jackson, a program assistant, endorses the maternal description.

"If they don't check in," she says of the wounded warriors, Markelz will chide them: "'Why haven't you called,' or 'Why haven't you come to visit?'"

Even as she tries to evade her motherly character, Markelz demonstrates it.

"They don't want my sympathy," she says. "They want me to tell them to get up and get going. They're young and unbelievably strong. They are simply the best."

For outpatients at Brooke Army Medical Center and the Center for the Intrepid, treatment and therapy may occupy only a few hours out of the day. Without a place to go and activities to do, they face constant isolation and the threat of depression. For the families of the wounded men and women, weeks in a strange community grind into months and sometimes years.

"You're not on your own," notes Pfc. Eric Tennyson, 20, of Fairfax, Va., who was severely burned in a car bomb attack in Mosul last July. "You've got other guys with you."

The Soldier and Family Assistance Center's calendar of events is filled with meals, shopping excursions, recreational events and social outings thanks to the generosity of individuals, religious groups and businesses, the help of a slew of nonprofit organizations and the perseverance of Markelz, her staff and volunteers.

While the calendar is packed, the center itself is bursting out of its 1,100-square-foot haven on the second floor of the Powless Guest House. Three-and-a-half years ago, there was hope that a Soldier and Family Assistance Center would have a brief existence. After more than 158,000 individual visits, it's clear that many more wounded warriors and their families will need its services.

A book and video library, a children's play area and five Internet terminals are shoehorned into the same, large room that normally serves as a cafeteria for 200 people on Thursday nights.

"There's no private place here," Markelz notes. "You have to be 'up' to come in here. With everything happening, we have to be positive."

But there are days when Markelz's wards aren't feeling 'up' and "they need a private place," she says. "We don't have that."

An effort is under way, led by Steven Huffman, president of Huffman Developments, to build a 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art home for the Soldier and Family Assistance Center.

Similar to the public-private partnerships that erected the Center for the Intrepid and Fisher Houses at Fort Sam Houston, the Soldier and Family Assistance Center project — known as the Returning Heroes Home —envisions a $2.5 million fundraising campaign. The project is still in the preliminary stages of design and approval by the Army.

"She helps everybody; she gives them hugs; she does everything," staff assistant Birgit Tompkins says of Markelz. "If you have a problem, you go see Judith."

When "Mom" Markelz has a problem, she counts on the community to help.

The Source

[conlor]

That's a wonderful story. I'm sure Ms Markelz loves what she's doing, and loves every one of the military personnel who comes through.

[Woodmonkey]

I thought so too, Connie

[MrsWildweasel]

That is really cool. I am glad to see there are people like her out there. Just wished I lived closer to help out.