Comforting his comrades
By David A. Maurer / Daily Progress staff writer
December 19, 2004
Charlottesville Daily Progress, VA
Dec 19 2004
ARLINGTON – The wounds range from angry red scars on furrowed flesh
to invisible brain trauma injuries that manifest themselves in blank,
sometimes confused stares.
These consequences of war were as evident as the sweet scent of maple
syrup on a recent Sunday morning at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post
3150 in Arlington. Since October the post has been hosting brunches
on the second and fourth Sundays of the month for wounded soldiers
from nearby Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Beginning shortly after 9 a.m. more than 100 hungry warriors will limp,
shuffle and stroll into the small, cozy building that’s just big enough
for a bar, kitchen and small dining area. Efficient and enthusiastic
volunteers will continue to serve them until 2 p.m., longer if need be.
The troops are picked up at the hospital and shuttled back and forth
to the wood structure that’s been tucked away in the residential
neighborhood for 70 years. The current members feel they’re now
providing some of their most important services to their fellow
veterans.
“The VFW has a motto that we remember the dead by helping the
living,” said J. Gary Wagner, past commander of the post and current
adjutant. “A lot of guys who came back from Vietnam got mixed welcomes.
“So the Vietnam-era guys especially want to make sure that’s not
repeated. We go out of our way to make sure these vets are welcomed
home appropriately.
“The wounded are very appreciative and really enjoy these brunches.
It gets them out of the hospital for a couple of hours, and I think
it helps give them a sense of a return to reality.”
The first wave
Sgt. Paul Shelmerdine was in the first wave of walking wounded to
arrive for breakfast. He has been at Walter Reed since July 17,
and expects to be there for some time.
Shelmerdine was seriously wounded in Iraq when a car bomb went off
in front of the vehicle he was in. His right side was riddled by
shrapnel, some of it tearing through his right forearm that now has
a steel rod in it from wrist to elbow.
Despite having to deal with painful wounds, and being a long way from
his two children and pregnant wife in Warren, Maine, Shelmerdine was
in an upbeat mood.
“There’s been a great outpouring of support and caring for us and this
[brunch] is amazing,” Shelmerdine said after finishing his meal.
“I can remember when my uncle came back from Vietnam. He never talked
about his experiences, and the Vietnam veterans were kind of looked
down on. That’s not the feeling now. People might not like some of
the decisions the higher-ups have made, but they are very supportive
of the troops and it shows.
“This brunch is a good experience for us, because a lot of time when
people first get to the hospital they’re kind of focused on themselves
and shrunk into a little ball. Being able to go out and talk to people
and share experiences helps them to open up.
“The more you can talk about your injuries or experiences the better
it’s going to make that individual. An experience like this helps
you get better.”
During the brunch cheery volunteer waiters circled the dining area
taking orders, serving food, refilling coffee cups, dispensing hugs
and chatting with the troops. Their expressions of warmth and caring
made the atmosphere seem like a family gathering.
One of the volunteers who helped mastermind the Sunday brunches for the
wounded is Greene County resident John “Big John” Miska. Helping make
it happen is just one of the things the Vietnam veteran has done during
the past two years to provide aid and comfort to his wounded comrades.
“My involvement started when my friend Jamie Villafane was wounded
and I went up to Walter Reed to see him,” said Miska, minutes before
taking a group of soldiers back to the hospital. “I asked him if he
needed anything, and he said he was pretty much all dialed in, but his
gunner in the next bed, Sergeant Charles Horgan, didn’t have anything.
“It’s not that the Army doesn’t give them everything they need, but
it’s a throw-away razor, a lace-up-the-back hospital gown, hospital
booties. There’s something to be said for having your own underwear.
“I asked Charles what he needed and got him telephone cards and some
other things. Then Jamie went home and they moved another guy in who
didn’t have anything so I helped him out. It sort of grew one guy
after another.”
Lending a hand
After shuttling troops back and forth to the brunch, Miska spent
the remainder of the day handing out comfort items and visiting
with wounded soldiers at the hospital. He and other volunteers like
Ray Miller, Joe Dudley and Ray Durand, who are members of veteran’s
groups in the Charlottesville area, never make the trip north without
filling their vehicles with items to hand out to the wounded.
Miska, a disabled veteran who was wounded in Vietnam and spent time
at Walter Reed, knows firsthand what the injured are going through.
His personal experiences have made him determined to make sure this
generation of troops get everything they want and need.
“When I got out of the service and joined the veteran organizations,
there was reticence on the part of the older veterans toward us
younger vets,” Miska said. “There wasn’t a welcome.
“Nobody really cared, and I think that was probably societal in
nature. I want to make sure these guys know we won’t abandon them.
“By the grace of God I was from Virginia, so when I was at Walter Reed
my family could bring me everything I needed. But I still think back
to those days and remember there were a lot of guys who had nobody
and nothing.”
Volunteers like Miska have done such a good job that not one soldier
who attended the brunch could think of anything they needed. Staff
Sgt. Larry Gill from Mobile, Ala., said the one thing he wanted was
to see Miska get his own parking space at Walter Reed.
“They should give Big John a parking space, because he’s up there
that much,” said Gill, who was seriously wounded by a grenade blast
while serving in Iraq. “He’s constantly bringing gifts and has even
taken soldiers shopping.
“The support we’ve gotten has been just awesome, there’s no other
word for it. It’s unfortunate that the Vietnam veterans didn’t get
this. I guess it was just one of those times in our history that it
just wasn’t clinking like it should have.
“The Vietnam vets have been fighting for everything they’ve got for
30-plus years. They know the problems and what needs attention.
They’ve gone out of their way to make sure the soldiers from the
conflicts now don’t run into those same problems.”
Although the troops couldn’t think of anything they lacked, Miska
could. He said with cold weather upon us, items such as coats, boots,
gloves and hats are needed.
“All items need to be new and sizes tend to be more large and extra
large than small or medium,” said Miska, a member of VFW Post 8208
in Greene. “We also need nice, zippered toiletry kits.
“Through the good graces of the VFW’s state headquarters, we’ve gotten
an entire pallet of Mach 3 razors. We have shaving cream and all that
sort of thing, but we want to make up toiletry kits so when guys come
in we can just hand them out.
“Phone cards are always helpful, but at this time donations for those
can be sent to Operation Uplink. We provide the brunch for the troops
free of charge, so if people would like to help with the cost of that
they can send donations to the Adopt A Soldier program or they can
donate directly to the post here because they have a fund set aside
for this.”
Greg Moscater, commander of Post 3150, said he and his fellow veterans
are ecstatic that they can provide a respite from the hospital setting
for the injured soldiers. He knows it helps more than hunger pangs.
“There was a wounded Army colonel who came to one of the first Sunday
brunches,” Moscater recalled. “He seemed pretty depressed and was
really quiet and kept to himself.
“About three weeks ago we were visiting the troops at Walter Reed and
I saw the colonel. He told me how much he was interested in coming
back to have breakfast with us.
“I saw a real improvement in him. I think coming here helped pick up
his spirits.”
Sgt. James D. Wilson and his wife, Heidi, need all the picker-uppers
they can get these days. The 23-year-old soldier from Daytona Beach,
Fla., was serving with a U.S. Army Special Forces unit in Iraq when
he suffered head injuries as a result of an explosion.
Recalling war
Wilson remembers little of the ambush that landed him in the hospital
several weeks ago.
“We went into this area to get some wounded Marines and on the way
back we got ambushed pretty bad,” Wilson said as a heaping plate of
eggs, sausage and fried potatoes arrived.
“I remember shooting my fifty [50-caliber machine gun] and then I
woke up in the hospital in Germany. Three IEDs (improvised explosive
devices) went off under our convoy and car bombs came from the sides.
“The explosions slammed my head down hard. I don’t remember anything
after that.”
Wilson apologized for not being able to arrange his thoughts more
clearly. He struggled to articulate how much the brunch means to him.
“This cheers me up,” Wilson said. “I’m not feeling well right now,
but I feel a little better coming out.”
Heidi Wilson nodded her head in agreement. She doesn’t plan to
return to their Florida home until her husband can come with her. The
outpouring of support she has received from veterans’ groups such as
Post 3150 is making her ordeal easier to manage.
“This is such a nice feeling that we have this,” Heidi Wilson said
of the brunch. “It’s very helpful. They even take us on tours and
things like that, which keeps us busy. ”
Army Specialist Randall Clunen said he spends a lot of time alone in
his hospital room. He said he greatly appreciates the brunch because it
gives him a chance to get out and be around other people and veterans
who don’t stare at his injuries.
Clunen was serving with the 101st Airborne Division north of Mosul,
Iraq, on Dec. 8, 2003, when he was hit in the face by shrapnel. The
day he almost died happened to be his 19th birthday.
“The shrapnel came from a suicide car bomb that exploded about 30
feet from where I was,” said the young soldier from Salem, Ohio. “I
remember the explosion and getting up and walking over to the aid
station on my own.
“After that it’s a complete blur. The shrapnel shattered my teeth,
jaw bone and cheek bone. I have a titanium plate in my face now.
“When I went back home people stared and pointed at me, but they
wouldn’t come up and say anything. The past year has been rough,
but at the same time I’m engaged now, and I just want to get out as
quick as I can and get back home to my family.
“This brunch means a lot to me. I’ve become a lifetime member of
the VFW.”
As soon as the airplanes bringing in the wounded land at Andrews Air
Force Base in Maryland, the injured are welcomed home. At least three
times a week Tanya Cobb makes the trip from her Alexandria home to
the base to greet the incoming wounded.
The irony of this is not lost on the former lieutenant who served with
distinction in a special forces unit with the Army of the Russian
Federation. During her seven years of service she was wounded five
times in the Nagorny Karabakh conflict in Azerbaijan.
“Being a wife of a Vietnam veteran and a foreign veteran myself, I
call the returning wounded our American heroes,” said Cobb, who was
invited to join the elite Russian unit by its commander after he saw
her in action.
“We greet them and welcome them home as well as bring them donated
items on behalf of the Military Order of the Purple Heart ladies’
auxiliary and VFW Post 3150. We’re just trying to make sure everybody
feels welcome and there’s no generation, especially after the Vietnam
War, that comes home without getting a hug and a smile.
“After we thank them for everything they’ve done, we ask them what
we can do to help.”
Many ways to help
Cobb said help may take the form of giving break-away sweatpants and
sweatshirts to people with casts on their arms or legs. Sometimes it
just might be holding someone’s hand through a long, scary night.
“I met a girl who was in a medical unit taking care of Marines in
Iraq,” Cobb said. “She was wounded emotionally. Until I met her she
hadn’t been able to sleep for more then five or ten minutes at a time
in weeks.
“I spent almost the whole night with her after she arrived. When I
returned to the base to welcome home another group, she had left me
a note.
“She thanked me and said that was the first night of sleep she had
gotten in weeks. She said if she had difficulty sleeping again she
promised to pick up the phone and call me like I told her to do.”
As hungry troops keep filing in, Eric Anderson works the grill like a
pro. The Vietnam vet has been up since 5 a.m., but doesn’t mind a bit.
“It’s just real nice having them here,” Anderson said as he nodded
his head toward the soldiers in the dining area. “The only thing I’d
like to say to them is, God bless you, thanks for your service and
you’re always welcome here at VFW Post 3150.”
Those wanting to help can send donations to Virginia Organizing
Project, 703 Concord Ave., Charlottesville, VA 22903-5208. Put
“AdoptaSoldier” in the memo notation space on checks. Donations to
help defray the cost of the brunch can also be sent to VFW Post 3150,
2116 N. 19th St., Arlington, VA 22201. Write “troop’s brunch” in the
memo section of the check. Donations to purchase phone cards can be
sent to Uplink VFW Foundation National Headquarters, 406 W. 34th St.,
Kansas City, MO 64111. Those interested in helping Miska with his
ongoing efforts can reach him at (434) 760-1940.