Ground Broken on Family Support Center

[unhappycamper]

Participating in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Warrior and Family Support Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio are, from the left, U.S. Rep. Charles A Gonzalez, wounded warriors Lt. Dan Moran and Spc. Francesca Duke, Randall Robinson and gold star mother Jayne Webber-Hardy, on Saturday morning, Sept. 15, 2007. (AP Photo/J. Michael Short)


Ground Broken on Family Support Center
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
Published Sunday | September 16, 2007


SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Officials and volunteers broke ground Saturday on a $4 million support center for the families of severely wounded soldiers who seek treatment and rehabilitation here.

The privately funded facility will be the Army's first designed specifically to aid the wives, children and parents of severely wounded service members. It will replace a cramped room at the Brooke Army Medical Center that opened months after the start of the Iraq war.

Judith Markelz, the program manager for the Warrior and Family Support Center, said the initial center was opened in December 2003 "naively thinking we'd close in six months."

But the ongoing war - and the advances in battlefield medicine that allow soldiers with severe wounds to survive - has created growing demand for a place where families can get the comforts of home they abandoned when their loved one was wounded. Many leave jobs and friends behind for an extended stay in San Antonio.

Brooke, housed at Fort Sam Houston, includes the Army's only burn unit. An amputee rehab center opened in January.

Jayne Webber-Hardy spent six months in San Antonio after her son, a member of the Michigan National Guard, was severely burned in Iraq. The 23-year-old died of his injuries.


Rest of article at: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1115&u_mod=ap.online.headlines.us&u_sid=10133227


uhc comment: privately funded????