Soldier and daughter enjoying the Christmas party at the Mologne House residence for outpatients at Walter Reed AMC

Child Care Assistance

Picture this scenario: You have preschool-age children, your spouse is deployed, you’re barely making ends meet and you receive the dreaded phone call that your loved one has been severely injured.

You hop the first plane to Walter Reed with the kids. You’re in an unfamiliar city with no transportation and no one to watch your children. But you need to be in the hospital for hours on end with your spouse. What do you do?

Unfortunately this scenario is all too real. Military families received reduced-cost day care on a sliding scale based on rank, but some cannot afford even this.

That’s where the Foundation steps in, paying for on-site, quality child care for families of the wounded.

Many families at Walter Reed benefit from having their children with them during the recovery process.

News Report on the Hospice Gift to Walter Reed Hospital

Laptop Computers Help the Wounded Keep in Touch

The wounded and their families staying at Fisher Houses at military hospitals had access to one shared desktop computer with a dial-up modem. Spouses and parents had difficulty updating other family members around the country about the progress of their loved one’s recovery. Recovering patients weren’t able to contact their buddies in their deployed units to say they were ok and to encourage them.

The Foundation solves this problem by providing laptop computers on wireless networks for each family staying at Fisher Houses around the country. Some of the laptops are outfitted with voice recognition software for those who cannot use a keyboard. Each family keeps the laptop while they stay at the Fisher House and turns it in when they leave for the next family to use.

The first laptop network was given to the Fisher Houses at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) in 2005. Since then, laptops have been donated to the houses at Tripler AMC in Honolulu; Wilford Hall AMC at Lackland AFB and Brooke AMC at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio; Darnell AMC at Fort Hood, Texas; Womack AMC at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; the Intrepid Center at Brooke AMC and the Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego.

The Hospice Room and Lounge at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Since April 2003, Walter Reed AMC has treated more than 6,000 patients from Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. Among this group are many cancer patients diagnosed during their deployment. Those who choose to live out their final days at WRAMC had few options for a place to spend special time with their families. Bathrooms were not often easy to access for the physically stressed. There was no area for a family member to sleep except in a bedside chair.

Our answer was to construct a hospice/palliative care suite at the hospital. Ladonna Somers and her husband Michael, an Army sergeant who died of cancer at the hospital in December 2004, were our inspirations. Basil Walter and Seiko Obayashi of the New York architectural firm Basil Walter Architects generously donated their time and skills to design the needed rooms.

The rooms were formally presented to WRAMC on January 22, 2007. We owe thanks to the many donors, including active duty and retired military personnel from all over the world, Health Net Federal Services, the George Washington chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army and many more.

Michael Somers' family (right) in whose honor the hospice was constructed; Basil Walter and Seiko Obayashi (middle and left), the project architects.

Emergency Financial Assistance

The Foundation receives referrals from the command, groups working with soldiers and their families, military relief societies and associations regarding wounded service members who are experiencing financial crises. The Foundation reviews these requests to insure they are truly “unmet needs” which cannot be supported by government agencies. Then we take action.

A few examples of how Military Heroes® has helped:

• Paid past-due mortgage payments to keep the family of a soldier with traumatic brain injury (TBI) from losing their home;
• Covered the monthly shortfall between the base housing allowance and the cost of a handicapped-accessible apartment for a wounded soldier and his family while he is being treated at Walter Reed;
• Paid bills for those who could not handle the extra expense of staying near their convalescing soldier;


A recovered soldier, his wife and four children receive the gift of a 2002 luxury Suburban for their cross-country drive to start their new life.

• Paid back real-estate taxes, credit card bills and repair costs for a burned soldier starting his life again after his recovery;
• Built a driveway so a soldier with TBI would have access to his specially-equipped van;
• Donated $150,000 to Coast Guard Mutual Assistant and Air Force Aid Society to help families in the Gulf recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rite
• Donated $50,000 in motorized wheelchairs, walkers, furnishings, electronics, and personal items to residents of the Gulfport Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH) who were relocated to the AFRH in Washington after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their residence.
• Paid for car repairs for a mother whose son with TBI backed it into traffic while she was at work;
• Supported the weekly dinners at Fran O’Brien’s for patients at Walter Reed and their families.
• Kept a wounded soldier, who purchased a home with the money he received for his injury, from losing it to foreclosure.