Lejeune gives injured Marines a home
Jay Price, Staff Writer
So many Marines have been wounded -- and so many want to stay in the Corps -- that Camp Lejeune has performed one-of-a-kind surgery, turning a barracks into housing for injured warriors.

The idea is to give Marines hurt in Iraq and Afghanistan somewhere to stay together rather than sending them home to wait for operations or discharge papers.

The barracks will be dedicated tonight.

Fourteen first-floor rooms have been fitted with ramps and grab bars, and two rooms have been made fully wheelchair accessible, as has the building itself.It's the first facility of its kind in the Corps, but not for long: A similar project is planned for Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Lejeune Marines and sailors have taken heavy casualties in the war, particularly this year, when more than 1,200 have been wounded. The camp's 2nd Marine Division is the main unit in Iraq's Anbar province, where U.S. casualties have been the highest.

The revamped barracks aren't huge, but they're an indication of change in the military's attitude toward the badly wounded. In earlier conflicts, those hurt too badly to fight again were almost always discharged. Now, in part because of advances in treatment, prosthetics and rehabilitation, many are encouraged to stay if they gain the approval of a board of military medical experts.

Gunnery Sgt. Kenneth Barnes, 36, the senior enlisted Marine overseeing the barracks operation, said the barracks idea came from Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell.

Maxwell, who suffered a severe head wound during a mortar attack in central Iraq last year, has gained national attention for his visits to counsel other wounded Marines, and for advocating on their behalf. He gained an enthusiastic backer for the barracks in the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force's commander, Lt. Gen. James Amos.

Amos was already assembling a unit to track wounded Marines to ensure their cases were being handled properly, Barnes said. After Maxwell lobbied Amos and had him meet wounded Marines who needed the housing, the general quickly endorsed the idea.

"He said 'I want this. How can we make it happen?' " said Staff Sgt. Angela Mink, a spokeswoman for the Expeditionary Force.

The barracks is across the street from a physical rehabilitation clinic and next to a headquarters building that contains the central office that tracks each wounded Marine or sailor. A caseworker is assigned to each and often knows better than the Marine his schedule for operations or rehabilitation, Barnes said.

Barnes, who was wounded last year by a roadside bomb, said that until now the options for post-hospital housing weren't great.

The wounded Marines could head home on leave or to bunk down in their unit's normal barracks, which not only was tough physically for some, but hard mentally because often their unit still would be deployed. Marines need camaraderie like they need air.

Often, Barnes said, young Marines on convalescent leave get bored and depressed, and sometimes turn to drugs or alcohol.

Creating a central place for them at Lejeune not only dodges those problems but puts the Marines among people who have conquered similar problems.

"When you look left and look right, you know there's somebody on both sides who knows exactly what you've been through," Barnes said.

A big goal, Barnes said, is to help those who want to stay in the Corps. That means finding them suitable jobs, retraining them and working through psychological issues.

Losing their team, having their futures inside and outside the Corps changed so radically, and dealing with the difficulties of rehabilitation all take a toll, he said. Having a new team of Marines around them helps.

One resident of the barracks, Lance Cpl. Brian Floyd, 19, was wounded by a roadside bomb in Fallujah in May. After being discharged from the hospital, he went home to Fayetteville for three months.

"I was about to go crazy," said Floyd, who's waiting on a third operation next month in which doctors plan to patch a shrapnel hole in his skull with a titanium plate.

"This helps you feel like a Marine again."
Staff writer Jay Price can be reached at 829-4526 or jprice@newsobserver.com.

Ellie