Shopping Is WORK!
I am pooped! Two full days of shopping can tire you beyond belief! No, I was not shopping for myself, or my family. I was shopping for our two new Fisher Houses at Ft. Sam Houston. Getting these two premier homes up and running has kept me from blogging since my return from Florida. Soldiers Angels donated $3,000 worth of gift cards, so off to shop we went! We returned with 30 vacuums (a good start), laundry baskets for each room, and other needed essentials for families to feel at home. We then spent a good part of the day assembling the vacuums! My tired is the good kind of tired!
The timing is interesting, in light of the recent reports of Walter Reed's malfeasance as regards the out-patient treatment for veterans. So the witch hunt is on;
"Van Engelen has been interviewed widely since a Washington Post report Feb. 18 exposed “mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses and other delights” at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Building 18, where 700 soldiers are treated.
Van Engelen was treated at another nearby outpatient facility at Walter Reed. Once, still groggy from his head wound, he was forced to hail a taxicab to get to the rehab clinic because he was too weak and dizzy to walk.
“They’ll repaint the building and patch the holes. But this is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said in a phone interview. “Across the board we fail to plan for the return of these soldiers. It is a system that is completely broken.”
The Post article by reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull was based on four months of visiting Building 18 to interview soldiers without the permission or knowledge of Walter Reed officials. “Behind the door of Army Specialist Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs down in the air weighted down with black mold,” they wrote. “When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole.”
Stung by the report, the Pentagon sent in a crew that patched holes and applied fresh paint. Then Army Surgeon General Kevin Kiley toured the facility and proclaimed, “I do not consider Building 18 to be substandard.”
I cannot speak for veteran treatment, but I can speak to the excellent treatment of our activie duty OIF troops. Thanks to Soldiers' Angels, my fellow Fisher House volunteer Tammy and I have spent two days, with more to come, buying things to outfit the two newest Fisher Houses to house the families of wounded soldiers, so they can be with their loved one being treated at BAMC or The Center for the Intrepid. [CFI was built with private funds of over 600,000 Americans who donated to see that our soldiers are treated properly! I was there the day that was filmed, and it was just that moving. You can see one of the new Fisher Houses in the background of one shot in that presentation.]
With the help and support of Soldiers' Angels, the Fisher House guests will soon have all the comforts of home. Now go donate to both of them!
The timing is interesting, in light of the recent reports of Walter Reed's malfeasance as regards the out-patient treatment for veterans. So the witch hunt is on;
"Van Engelen has been interviewed widely since a Washington Post report Feb. 18 exposed “mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses and other delights” at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Building 18, where 700 soldiers are treated.
Van Engelen was treated at another nearby outpatient facility at Walter Reed. Once, still groggy from his head wound, he was forced to hail a taxicab to get to the rehab clinic because he was too weak and dizzy to walk.
“They’ll repaint the building and patch the holes. But this is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said in a phone interview. “Across the board we fail to plan for the return of these soldiers. It is a system that is completely broken.”
The Post article by reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull was based on four months of visiting Building 18 to interview soldiers without the permission or knowledge of Walter Reed officials. “Behind the door of Army Specialist Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs down in the air weighted down with black mold,” they wrote. “When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole.”
Stung by the report, the Pentagon sent in a crew that patched holes and applied fresh paint. Then Army Surgeon General Kevin Kiley toured the facility and proclaimed, “I do not consider Building 18 to be substandard.”
I cannot speak for veteran treatment, but I can speak to the excellent treatment of our activie duty OIF troops. Thanks to Soldiers' Angels, my fellow Fisher House volunteer Tammy and I have spent two days, with more to come, buying things to outfit the two newest Fisher Houses to house the families of wounded soldiers, so they can be with their loved one being treated at BAMC or The Center for the Intrepid. [CFI was built with private funds of over 600,000 Americans who donated to see that our soldiers are treated properly! I was there the day that was filmed, and it was just that moving. You can see one of the new Fisher Houses in the background of one shot in that presentation.]
With the help and support of Soldiers' Angels, the Fisher House guests will soon have all the comforts of home. Now go donate to both of them!
You won't see this often, but I am hoppin'. I could not believe this news. Not under GWB! How dare he! He visits there all the time. Is it possible he could not have known?
I believe so, but why is it this way? I am so tired of hearing about men that they determine are not disabled, but they cannot even see, hear or function. I had better stop writing. I feel the tempature rising in my veins...
PS. GOOD ON YOU! GOOD ON OUR SOLDIERS' ANGELS! We must never let our men down. Never.
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