Success Story

In working with Wounded Warrior families at San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC), we periodically encounter a family that needs special care. One such case involved a soldier who had been shot in the chest by an Afghan soldier. A bullet was still in his chest near his spine. He periodically suffered terrible pain and the bullet could not be removed because of the risk of spinal damage.

The WOUNDED WARRIOR EMERGENCY SUPPORT FUND (WWESF) helped this soldier and his pregnant wife overcome a series of hardships. First, they lost all their possessions in a house fire. The WWESF completely furnished a home for them from the local Thrift Stores and from a cache of donated furniture and provided a cash grant to help them establish their new home.

Secondly, after this soldier had been medically retired he waited in vain for over three months for his VA disability payments to start. WWESF used a contact in the office of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to resolve his pay issue. A source of income was becoming critical since the wife was going to give birth within the month.

Thirdly, their car had been vandalized and would stop running whenever it wanted to because of an electrical short. This was not good for a new mother and child. The dealership worked for two weeks and could not isolate the problem or fix it. We worked a rescue with the dealership and with the help of other Air Force donors, we put the family into a 2012 low mileage vehicle.

This story has a happy ending. The family now has a beautiful baby daughter, a new home and a new auto. The Wounded Warrior is using his VA benefits to attend college and the future looks bright for this family.