USO's Operation Enduring Care: Uniting America in Support of our Wounded Warriors and their Families

In 2012, CharityWorks is honored to work with the USO to help change forever how we as a nation address the non-medical needs of those wounded in the service of their country. The funds we raise this year will help build the USO Warrior and Family Center at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The Center is a core element of USO's Operation Enduring Care, a comprehensive initiative designed to prepare wounded warriors for productive lives when they return to civilian life or upon recovery. The Center is an opportunity for every American to pledge their support to those who expect so little, but deserve so much.

The USO Warrior and Family Center will meet the most important non-medical needs of wounded warrior s and their families from point of injury on the battlefield to their return home to their communities across America. The 25,000 ft2 facility will be open year-round, seven days per week, twenty-four hours per day. The Center's design is based on a continuum of care recovery model that combines the holistic healing of body, mind and spirit through a 360-degree lens of non-medical care for the warrior with an exceptionally caring and compassionate network of staff and volunteers for both warriors and family members.

The war in Iraq may have come to an end and the war in Afghanistan is winding down, but the nearly more than 40,000 service members wounded in the two conflicts will be battling the wounds of war for the rest of their lives. These brave men and women have survived wounds that would have been fatal in earlier war--- multiple amputations, severe burns, and the invisible wounds of modern warfare: post traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and depression. Many have gone through countless surgeries, and will require years of therapy and a lifetime of support from those of us who have benefitted from their sacrifice.

Brent (Hoss) Hendrix, a three-time Purple Heart recipient, was declared dead after he was injured by a roadside bomb while on a rare daytime mission to find an insurgent in the Anbar provice of Iraq in 2006. A fellow soldier cut a small hole in Hoss's trachea and resuscitated him while he was still on the battlefield. Since then, Hoss has undergone 66 surgeries. During two of them, his heart stopped beating, but he came back to life through the skill of his surgeons, the love of his father, and a will of iron.

This courageous young man who lost so much in the service of his country shared his story with CharityWorks' members and Advisory Board, and helped us understand just how important it is to a wounded warrior to have a place of refuge that is non-military and non-medical ---- a place where they can get away from the "white coats" and the brass for just a little while to hang out with their buddies, take care of personal business, prepare for life as wounded warriors, and just feel like they're living a normal life.