Veterans Helping Veterans through Wounded Warrior Project

John Melia founded the Wounded Warrior Project to assist members of the armed services who have suffered traumatic injuries in the line of duty.

Former U.S. Marine John Melia knew from experience what it was like to be an injured soldier without any gear.

In 1992, Melia was hurt in a helicopter crash off the coast of Somalia, injuring his knees and suffering burns over more than 20 percent of his body. He returned to the United States for medical care with nothing but the clothes on his back, he said.

A decade later, Melia, who had become an advocate for veterans, thought there was a major gap in services provided to injured soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

“There was nobody that was uniquely focused on this generation of vets,” said Melia.

So three years ago, in the basement of his home in Moneta, Melia founded the Wounded Warrior Project. He worked with family members and contacts from his years as an advocate for veterans to get the project off the ground…

“This was my dream, to make this work for those guys,” he added.

What began with Melia, his wife, and two daughters stuffing backpacks with toiletries, clothes and CD players to take to servicemen and women at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., has evolved into a national support network and lobbying force for traumatically injured soldiers returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflict zones around the world.

Or, as Melia, 40, describes it, “one wounded guy helping another wounded guy.”

The project, now headquartered in Roanoke, VA has since delivered more than 6,000 backpacks to wounded service members and helped counsel them; taken disabled veterans snowboarding and water skiing; sponsored cross-country bike rides to raise awareness and funds for soldiers with life-altering injuries; and helped get legislation passed to provide insurance to traumatically injured soldiers. An official at Walter Reed said that people from the Wounded Warrior Project have made bedside visits to soldiers and brought comfort items.

One aspect of the project’s mission is to lobby for the interests of servicemen and women who have suffered traumatic injuries in the line of duty. Earlier this year, representatives of the project drafted and successfully lobbied for the passage of the Wounded Warrior Bill.

The legislation created traumatic injury insurance for active duty soldiers who have sustained life-altering injuries in the line of duty. The payment can range from $25,000 to $100,000, depending on the extent of the injury.

“When somebody’s wounded, the bills keep going on at home,” Melia said. The payouts are scheduled to begin Dec. 1. The organization also provides information on financial planning and debt management to soldiers and their families, he said.

The project has garnered support from prominent people all across the political spectrum. President Bush, Sen. Hillary Clinton, actor Alec Baldwin, singer Jimmy Buffett, CNN host Lou Dobbs and Fox News personalities Tony Snow and Bill O’Reilly have all supported the project, Melia said.

Snow said he has visited Walter Reed with members of the project and has supported the soldier bike rides.

“These guys have credibility because they’ve all been through it,” Snow said in a telephone interview last week. “It’s the guys who have been there who can help men and women whose lives will never be the same.”

Waynard Caldwell of Roanoke, an advocate for veterans, said he knew Melia and was glad to hear about the group.

“That’s what we need — veterans to help veterans,” Caldwell said.

Since the project’s inception, the Wounded Warrior Project has raised more than $5 million to help traumatically injured soldiers and their families, said Melia, who left the DAV to work full time on the project.

Veterans from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War have been some of the project’s strongest supporters, Melia said. The organization’s board includes amputees from the Vietnam War and the current conflict in Iraq, Melia said.

The project now has 12 staff members in offices in Maryland, New York and Texas, Melia said. Two of the staffers are former soldiers who were traumatically injured in Iraq, including Army Staff Sgt. Heath Calhoun, of Grundy.

Calhoun was wounded in Iraq in November 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the Humvee he was traveling in. Doctors eventually had to amputate his legs above the knees.

Recruiting former service members who sustained life-altering injuries, such as Calhoun, is part of the project’s mission to help those servicemen and women assimilate back into civilian life, Melia said.

“I’m not the retired, disabled guy sitting on the couch anymore, I’m back in the community,” said Calhoun, who is 26, married and the father of two children, with a third on the way.

The Wounded Warrior Project aims to help wounded soldiers return to civilian life. The project has partnered with Disabled Sports USA to sponsor clinics and athletic events such as snowboarding and water skiing for soldiers who have suffered traumatic injuries.

The organization has also sponsored several cross-country bike rides to raise funds. The national media covered Soldier Ride 2005 extensively and President Bush met with project representatives at the White House.

Melia acknowledges that other organizations are also trying to help soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he said he and people on his staff have a combined 30 years doing advocacy work for veterans.

“This is the organization for this generation of vets,” Melia said. “This is who they identify with. So when we call them, they are happy to hear from us.”

For more information on the Wounded Warrior Project, go online to www.woundedwarriorproject.org or call (540) 342-0032. To check out coverage of Soldier Ride 2005, go to www.soldierride.com and www.foxnews.com/foxfan/front/0,3778,13,00.html