Stuttgart Opens Warrior Transition Unit

Stuttgart Opens Warrior Transition Unit
By Brandon Beach
Special to American Forces Press Service


STUTTGART, Germany, Jan. 24, 2008 – U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart has activated its Warrior Transition Unit as part of the Army’s new mandated Medical Action Plan.
WTUs are being established on U.S. military bases throughout Europe, giving wounded soldiers access to extended medical care locally.

“Once a soldier is in the WTU, his or her 24-hour, seven-days-a-week job is to heal,” said Mimi Langenderfer, of the new Soldier and Family Assistance Center on Panzer Kaserne, another major component of the WTU push here. Stuttgart’s Soldier and Family Assistance Center, which has its headquarters at Army Community Service, has been fully operational since Jan. 1.

Consolidating an umbrella of services from legal assistance to financial planning to housing support, the center will function as a one-stop location for soldiers and their families.

“When you have a soldier who comes back injured, you have deeper layers of issues to work out,” Langenderfer said. “The SFAC gives soldiers and their families time to work through what they need.”

Before Warrior Transition Units, which sprang up topically after media reports in 2007 revealed problems with care at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., wounded soldiers were placed in medical hold units or evacuated to the United States. Not so any more. The idea is to keep soldiers in their local communities and close to home.

“They don’t have to worry about where their family will be,” said Army Staff Sgt. Benjamin Godinez, squad leader for the new Stuttgart WTU. “Mentally, it helps out the healing process.”
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