thedrifter
08-01-07, 11:50 AM
Wounded Marines, Sailors To Get Extra Help They Need
POSTED: 7:20 am PDT August 1, 2007
UPDATED: 7:32 am PDT August 1, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- The Marine Corps Wednesday will activate a battalion assigned to assist wounded and ill Marines and sailors and their families on the West Coast.
The Wounded Warriors Battalion-West will be part of the Wounded Warrior Regiment, which, headquartered in Quantico, Va., was established to help service members transition from care by the Defense Department to the Veterans Administration.
Members of the battalion will remain in contact with wounded veterans to make sure they're getting the care they need.
A ceremony marking the activation will feature the 1st Marine Division band and comments from Sgt. Maj. Bradley Kasal, who was shot seven times and suffered 40 shrapnel wounds while trying to save a wounded Marine in a house in Fallujah, Iraq. Kasal received the Navy Cross, the Marine Corps' second-highest award for valor.
The regiment is spending $53 million to build barracks at Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune, N.C., for recovering Marines. Wounded Warrior Battalion-East was established at Camp Lejeune on June 30.
"I think where we drop ... is when a Marine goes out on convalescent leave and he then has to go to the local medical facility for his treatment," Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway told a House Armed Services Committee panel March 1 in discussing the Wounded Warrior Battalion concept.
"There's not a Marine in the chain, and I don't know that (the wounded service member) receives the priority that we would like to see him have."
Ellie
POSTED: 7:20 am PDT August 1, 2007
UPDATED: 7:32 am PDT August 1, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- The Marine Corps Wednesday will activate a battalion assigned to assist wounded and ill Marines and sailors and their families on the West Coast.
The Wounded Warriors Battalion-West will be part of the Wounded Warrior Regiment, which, headquartered in Quantico, Va., was established to help service members transition from care by the Defense Department to the Veterans Administration.
Members of the battalion will remain in contact with wounded veterans to make sure they're getting the care they need.
A ceremony marking the activation will feature the 1st Marine Division band and comments from Sgt. Maj. Bradley Kasal, who was shot seven times and suffered 40 shrapnel wounds while trying to save a wounded Marine in a house in Fallujah, Iraq. Kasal received the Navy Cross, the Marine Corps' second-highest award for valor.
The regiment is spending $53 million to build barracks at Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune, N.C., for recovering Marines. Wounded Warrior Battalion-East was established at Camp Lejeune on June 30.
"I think where we drop ... is when a Marine goes out on convalescent leave and he then has to go to the local medical facility for his treatment," Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway told a House Armed Services Committee panel March 1 in discussing the Wounded Warrior Battalion concept.
"There's not a Marine in the chain, and I don't know that (the wounded service member) receives the priority that we would like to see him have."
Ellie