Fort Lewis wounded warriors team up with Habitat for Humanity

Over and over again we read about how our wounded troops, no matter how seriously they are wounded, end up still giving back, helping others. While these remarkable people are simply heart warming to some, others are reminded of how little they ask of us and what we fail to do. How can anyone look at these people, read the accounts of a broken system, over 900,000 claims in the VA backlog, not to mention how many still in service wait for care, and not be totally appalled?

Think of how unique they all are. Teenagers right out of high school, deciding they are willing to risk their lives for the sake of the rest of us and enter into the military to do it. Twenty year olds, trapped between being a kid and adult, willing to go wherever, whenever this country asks them to go. We had twenty-something year olds give up their jobs, careers they spent years going to college to prepare for, families, houses, friends, everything they wanted out of life, after September 11th. Many of them had no intention of joining the military but after this nation was attacked, they stepped up and said they would go to the ends of the earth and lay down their own lives.

Thinking about all of that, how many wounded and waiting for the care they thought we would honor, they still give back. Astonishing!

Fort Lewis' wounded warriors team up with Habitat for Humanity
A group of 27 soldiers who are part of the Warrior Transition Battalion out of Fort Lewis are helping build low-income houses on a Habitat for Humanity project this week.

By Erik Lacitis

Seattle Times staff reporter

Every little bit helps, when you're back home from Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever you were stationed, and know that because of your injury or illness, your Army days are likely over.

And so Wednesday, a group of 27 soldiers who are part of the Warrior Transition Battalion out of Fort Lewis were helping build low-income houses on a Habitat for Humanity project.

They said they wanted to give back to the community, as if they hadn't done enough for the country already.

"It makes them feel needed," said Staff Sgt. James Warren, who has 10 soldiers in his Alpha Company squad that's part of the battalion. He was there helping hammer and hoist materials.

He's 35 and if you're speaking from his right side, sometimes he asks you to repeat what was said.

"Gunfire battles," he explained. That would have been when he was in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2004.

Now he's with the transition battalion, of which there are 37 units across the country, started back in January 2008 after searing reports of troubled medical hold units. Wounded and sick soldiers felt as though they were adrift for months, sometimes years.
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