Deployment
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Copyright Benita Koeman 2008 - 2012
Adaptive Clothing - Sew Much Comfort
Our mission is to provide custom-made adaptive clothing, free of charge, to our injured service members which aides in their recovery, provides a tangible reminder of our gratitude for their sacrifice and gives them an added measure of comfort and freedom as they recover from their injuries and return to everyday life. Adaptive clothing accommodates their medical devices and situations, provides ease of use, increases personal independence and minimizes the visual impact of their medical condition.
Adaptive Clothing - Wounded Wear
Wounded Wear provides free clothing and free clothing modifications to wounded warriors and raises national awareness of the sacrifices of America's wounded and their families.
Art - The Wounded Artist Project
Welcome to The Wounded Artist Project website. We are a Michigan-based nonprofit that is sending art kits to war wounded recovering in military hospitals.
We believe The Project art kits will provide a welcome diversion from boredom for wounded recovering from traumatic wounds, burns, and amputations when they are in downtime from regular therapy sessions. And while art is a recognized tool for helping people deal with trauma, we want our kit recipients to also use our kits and think about their futures. Somewhere, sometime, someone will look over the shoulder of one our artists and ask, "Wow, you really drew that?" Imagine how encouraging that will be.
We want to build three stages of kits: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Artists will have to send us samples of their work to move into the next stage which will be more to their interests.
Assistance to Combat Support Hospitals - Operation Comfort
Operation Comfort provides support to our service members who have been wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq and are receiving treatment at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC). Our goal is for our wounded military, who have given so much for our country and the world, to see in tangible ways that we appreciate their sacrifices and that we want to help them recover as quickly and completely as possible.
Assistance to Combat Support Hospitals - Operation Military Embrace
Operation Military Embrace supports wounded military & their families at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) and other military & private facilities by:
- Providing one-on-one support and comfort through monthly visits to BAMC
- Filling individual private requests of injured personnel (portable DVD players, autographed sports memorabilia, etc.)
- Sponsoring a monthly breakfast and free PX ("military store") in honor of our wounded outpatients and their families (this is like a pay raise for them - a welcome event since their pay is already so low).
- Hosting outings & dinners for outpatients & families
- Providing financial assistance in their time of crisis (Example: a single Mom leaves her job for over a year to care for her wounded loved one)
Assistance to Combat Support Hospitals - Operation Undergarment
Operation Undergarment is a grass roots clothing drive to provide injured and sick soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen that are deployed in combat zones with clothing items to make their hospital stays more comfortable.
Assistance to Combat Support Hospitals - Support our Wounded
Angels Of Mercy Program - Serving our wounded military and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center & National Naval Medical Center. Providing assistance to Combat Support Hospitals in Zone.
No Soldier Left In Need - Serving the long-term needs of our wounded military and their families, working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Military Severely Injured Center and other programs to identify long term needs of discharged wounded military.
Cards and Letters
Comfort Items - Aid for Wounded Warriors
Aid for Wounded Warriors is a non-profit project that provides comfort and relief items for soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines sick, injured or wounded from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. We purchase specific items requested by Military Medical Centers, VA Medical Centers and Fisher House rehabilitation facilities each week. We also provide financial support to CrisisLink, a Hotline for wounded soldiers and their families, and Hope for the Warriors, special projects for wounded soldiers. Many of the servicemen and women are grievously wounded and will require long hospitalization and rehabilitation. The purpose of our mission is to lift their spirits and enhance their morale as well as affect a lifetime support program.
Comfort Items - American Citizens Encouraging Support
Comfort Kits are special kits that we send to various hospitals for our wounded soldiers and also to a couple of VA Hospitals for other Veterans to help them be more comfortable in their hospital stays.
Comfort Items - American Red Cross
Military comfort kits help ease the suffering of wounded warriors. For a wounded or injured service member, the journey from the battlefield to the hospital can be long and uncomfortable and many make the journey without any personal items. You can make sure they are warmly welcomed at a military hospital with comfort kits filled with most-needed items such as a phone card, robe, shower shoes, toiletries and MP3 music gift card.
Comfort Items - Blue Star Riders
Blue Star Riders is a non-profit organization. We are riders and non-riders who support those who defend our freedom. We are dedicated to supporting our troops and veterans, as well as honoring all wounded troops and fallen heroes.
Our activities include visiting hospitals and outreach centers, attending funerals for fallen heroes, and to spread the word of the Fallen and Wounded Warrior Torch. We bring awareness of our fallen and wounded warriors by attending veterans events like Cripple Creek, Rolling Thunder and special memorial services for families.
Comfort Items - Bold, Brave, Courageous
The purpose of Bold Brave Courageous is to offer comfort items to injured military personnel who have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq. These items include supplemental clothing, toiletries, and entertainment devices such as CDs, CD players, DVDs, books, and games. We package these "comfort items" up in rolling suitcases, then deliver these suitcases to the injured personnel who are recovering in our Nations military hospitals.
Comfort Items - Comfort for America’s Uniformed Services (Cause)
Cause recreation and entertainment programs reach thousands of injured service men and women facing months of medical care and rehabilitation far from home and family. These programs are designed to bring a bit of relaxation and fun into what are, for many, very challenging circumstances. But they also serve a much more serious purpose: that of helping wounded warriors begin the normalization process and the re-entry to home and community as they take their long journey back to health.
Programs include: Gift Packs: filled with items designed to bring a bit of comfort and recreation to soldiers and to the family members at their side -- are delivered monthly to Walter Reed; Events: "lightening the load" through spa days, video game tournaments, Sunday brunches, UFC nights.
Comfort Items - Defenders of Freedom
Defenders of Freedom is a non profit organization with the purpose of raising money to support our troops who are currently deployed around the world. Because our troops are actively working to keep America safe, Defenders of Freedom believe passionately in showing them as much support as possible.
100% of the profits are used to:
- Send "support boxes" to our men and women in uniform
- Support wounded soldiers with encouragement and needed items, especially those with no support
- Support the families of our wounded soldiers both physically and emotionally
- Support the USO
Comfort Items - Hearts Across Miles
Special request for entertainment items: dvds, board games, electronic games, etc. for injured troops in Iraq. Site also lists other items needed for our injured.
Comfort Items - Landstuhl Hospital Care Project
The Landstuhl Hospital Care Project (LHCP) is a non-profit organization that provides comfort and relief items for military members who become sick, injured, or wounded from service in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. Donated items are distributed to patients at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany, the largest American military hospital outside the U.S.; to field hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq; and to VA facilities throughout the United States.
Donations to LRMC are done through the Wounded Warrior Ministry Center. This allows all in-patients, out-patients, LRMC liaisons, LRMC nurses, and medical escorts access to supplies. The purpose of the program is to enhance the morale and welfare for troops and veterans by contributing quality of life items.
Comfort Items - Operation Comfort Warriors (American Legion)
Operation Comfort Warriors is a program dedicated to meeting the non-medical needs of wounded military personnel, providing them with comfort items not usually supplied by health care. OCW ensures that patients at U.S. military hospitals and warrior transition are given items like sweat suits, DVDs, puzzles, electronic devices, books, calling cards and more.
Comfort Items - Operation First Response
The mission of Operation First Response, Inc (OFR) is to support our nation's wounded Heroes and their families with personal and financial needs. OFR backpacks are sent to combat support hospitals in Iraq and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The backpacks are given to our wounded when they arrive at the hospitals with no personal belongings. These backpacks ensure that our wounded have a little love from home to comfort them until they return to the states. Operation First Response is always in need of handmade blankets and quilts.
Comfort Items - Operation Quiet Comfort
Your contributions of time, talent and resources help OQC provide meaningful support to our wounded warriors and the amazing medical professionals who care for them. OQC is positioned at U.S. Combat Support Hospitals, Troop Medical Clinics, and with medic teams on the front lines.
Care packages are sent to "Any American Hero" at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany and Combat Support Hospitals in the Middle East. Often our injured men and women arrive for medical care without their belongings. You can help in our mission to provide honor and comfort for our troops. The war on terror is dynamic and the needs of our units change frequently. As a result, our projects change to meet those needs.
Comfort Items - Operation Second Chance
Our mission: to aid in the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded service men and women, to assist in the modification of housing to accommodate disabled veterans, to assist the families of wounded service men and women, to facilitate the transition of wounded service men and women back into civilian society. Some programs included: DVD Drives, Gift Card Collection, Letter/Card Distribution.
Comfort Items - Project Lifting Spirits
Since 2007, Project Lifting Spirits has been providing blankets, games, books, etc. to our wounded service members at the VA and Eisenhower hospitals in Augusta, Georgia. We have also purchased and distributed Girl Scouts cookies, organized greeting card signings with local elementary schools for the Veteran's Day Augusta Green Jackets game, and created/delivered cards, posters, bookmarks, and drawings from elementary schools and daycare facilities in Columbia County , Georgia and Springfield, Tennessee. These items are provided to the service members as small tokens of appreciation to let them know that they serve a grateful nation.
Our goal is to provide these cards and gifts to our local wounded troops and goody boxes to our deployed wounded troops on a more regular basis throughout the year. Currently, we provide items to Fort Gordon Army Base, the Veteran's Administration Hospital's Active Duty Rehab Unit in the Augusta, Georgia area as well as Fort Campbell, Kentucky and the CBWTU - Alabama. The CBWTU covers Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Each location will have various delivery schedules and frequencies based on their needs and requirements. We are slowly getting bigger and need your continued support. Please help us by getting the word out and letting us know of any fundraising opportunities available.
Comfort Items - Soldiers' Angels
"May No Soldier Go Unloved," encapsulates the motivation behind Soldiers' Angels. We have over 30 different teams supporting all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Through special projects, dedicated teams and individuals supporting our troops, we make a visible difference in the lives of our service members and their families. Our nearly 200,000 volunteers assist veterans, wounded and deployed personnel and their families in a variety of unique and effective ways.
Some teams and projects include:
- Blankets of Gratitude - Knitted/crocheted/loomed blankets for hospitalized veterans
- Blankets of Hope - Handmade sewn and no-sew blankets for the wounded
- First Response Backpacks - Supplies for wounded in-country
- Tank Support - Helping Veterans Travel to Medical Appointments
- Valour-IT - Adaptive laptops for the wounded
- VA Crochet & Craft - Handmade comfort & dignity for hospitalized Vets
- Veterans Support - Assisting veterans facilities
- Wounded TLC - Letters and care packages for the wounded
Comfort Items - Under Armour Wounded Warrior Project Backpack
Under Armour ® has pledged to support our nation's wounded service members through an ongoing commitment of monetary and project donations to the Wounded Warrior Project.
You can join this effort by purchasing WWP/UA-Branded product and by gifting a Wounded Warrior Project UA Backpack to injured heroes. Each gear pack contains WWP-embelished Under Armour® product worth more than $300 and will be presented to an injured service member recuperating in a military hospital. Your gift will bring light to a young hero just when he or she needs it the most.
Each backpack includes: 1 UA jacket, 1 UA t-shirt, 1 pair UA shorts, 2 pair UA underwear, 4 pair UA socks and assorted comfort items which will be shipped directly to an injured service member.
Comfort Items - Veterans of Valor
The delivery of packs filled with items like iPods loaded with music and encouraging audio books. Each recipient receives a backpack that is a lightweight, JanSport LiveWire™ audio backpack with built-in controls which enable a user to navigate an Apple iPod® without pulling it out of the backpack. The backpack also contains two large main compartments, two outside twin mesh pockets, and an organizer inside to keep essentials handy. The backpack easily attaches to a wheelchair.
Comfort Items - Warmth for Warriors
As an all volunteer organization, we are always looking for more help. We are knitting and crocheting homemade hats to comfort our soldiers as they serve for us in Iraq and Afghanistan. These hats are sent to medical units where the sick and wounded are prepared to leave for hospitals in Germany or back home in the United States. A warm, wool hat, made with love, provides both physical comfort and a "hug of thanks".
Comfort Items: Blankets, pillows - Blankets for Recovery
Quilt, crochet, or knit blankets for our wounded troops. -- People all over the nation are creating Blankets for Recovery. Let’s bring the warmth of blankets to the hearts of the our Veterans. FLAGS sends Blankets for Recovery to our wounded men and women.
Give your love in a gift. Lap blanket size or throw cover size works well for your gift of caring. Create your blankets, write a note, email us for the mailing address to our volunteers across the nation. The volunteers will deliver the blankets at different locations. Recipients of the blankets feel your love and blessings.
Comfort Items: Blankets, pillows - Operation First Response Cot Quilts
Operation First Response is always in need of handmade blankets and quilts (sizes may vary)
Smaller sizes will be included in our backpacks sent to our wounded
cot size = 45×45 or 45×60
Larger sizes will be had delivered to military medical facilities in the States
Comfort Items: Blankets, pillows - Operation Helping Hand/American Angels
Sends a blanket to comfort and warm some of our wounded men and women. We mail all year round to three different military hospitals.
Comfort Items: Blankets, pillows - Operation Pocket Field Pillow
A group of volunteers in my community began Operation Pocket Field Pillow in February 2009, when my son deployed to Afghanistan. To date, we've made and shipped over 10,000 ACU pocket field pillows to our combat troops and over 2,000 fleece travel pillows to our wounded. Our aim is simple; to keep working to let our troops know that we will not forget them. Our pillows are small enough to store in a ruck or pocket, and are meant to be taken out in the field on missions.
All the ACU and fleece we use is donated, and the few donations we receive help pay to ship boxes of our field pillows to Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany. Visit our blog to learn how you can make an ACU pocket field pillow.
Comfort Items: Blankets, pillows - Patriotic Pillow Project
We will stitch our prayers & care into each pillow that will be created for each special honorable recipient. A Thank You note will be included with each gift of comfort, so each brave, wounded G.I. will know how very much we care about each & everyone of them. These pillows are compact but powerful. The pillows had been donated by United Airlines. They generously donated some 2,000 pillows. We have recently received 8,250 NEW pillows to date from C.A.R.C.; the Chicago Association of Retarded Citizens the manufacturers of these beautiful and skillfully crafted gifts of comfort. We are currently purchasing the pillows from the C.A.R.C. center at cost as a collaborative effort to provide comfort to our “Healing Heroes!”
Comfort Items: Blankets, pillows - Pillows for Soldiers
Our goal is simple. Supply a large, very comfortable, high quality pillow to as many United States Military and National Guard service men and women as possible; to those who serve our country now, those who have served in the past and those who will serve in the future, including the families of fallen soldiers.
We hope that every time they lay their heads on their pillows, they know how much we all stand behind them, support them, admire them, respect them and revere them . . .and how God has blessed us with their selfless courage and dedication.
Comfort Items: Blankets, pillows - Quilts of Valor
The mission of the QOV Foundation is to cover ALL those service- members and veterans touched by war with Wartime Quilts called Quilts of Valor (QOVs). This foundation is not about politics. It's about people.
Comfort Items: Blankets, pillows - Threads of Thanks
A group of women from Minnesota discovered that there is a need for lap quilts in hospitals as well as onsite residences where injured soldiers returning from Iraq live during their recovery. So - they got together and created the quilt group Threads of Thanks, for the sole purpose of making and distributing these lap quilts.
The quilts are distributed to Walter Reed Medical Center and also to the Mologne House, which is located on the medical center grounds, and where many of the soldiers live during their recovery. Threads of Thanks would love help from any quilter willing. They will gladly accept anything you want to donate.
Entertainment (Spa Days, Sunday Brunches, etc.) - Comfort for America’s Uniformed Services (Cause)
Cause recreation and entertainment programs reach thousands of injured service men and women facing months of medical care and rehabilitation far from home and family. These programs are designed to bring a bit of relaxation and fun into what are, for many, very challenging circumstances. But they also serve a much more serious purpose: that of helping wounded warriors begin the normalization process and the re-entry to home and community as they take their long journey back to health.
Programs include: Gift Packs: filled with items designed to bring a bit of comfort and recreation to soldiers and to the family members at their side -- are delivered monthly to Walter Reed; Events: "lightening the load" through spa days, video game tournaments, Sunday brunches, UFC nights.
Entertainment - Operation V.I.P. Visit Important People
This program was implemented specifically for the patients of the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Spending time at this world-class treatment facility is extremely inspirational and important. A high profile sports personality/celebrity who is passionate about the soldiers' well-being and recovery visits the burn unit as a means to promote reintegration into everyday life. In many cases, additional contact and future activities result from the one-on-one time that the scheduling provides.
Entertainment (Lunches, Fellowship) - Purple Heart Family Support
Our mission is to provide support to the families waiting at the bedside of their injured or ill Marines and Sailors by providing lunches and fellowship during the weekends at hospitals around the United States and to encourage support of our wounded military personnel in communities throughout the United States.
Entertainment (Dinners, Recreation Outings) - The Aleethia Foundation
The Aleethia Foundation supports recently injured troops in their rehabilitation upon returning home. We are just a few people, all volunteers, trying to aid in the initial phase of recovery. We do this by providing dinners and short term recreation outings and small grants.
Entertainment (A Night Out) - Veterans of Valor
Each month, Veterans of Valor visits the medical wards at facilities in Washington D.C. and San Antonio. One night is set aside for dinner and an evening out for wounded veterans and their families. Such events provide the opportunity for all involved to convene away from the hospital environment, relax and celebrate progress made along the long road of recovery.
Enjoyment and relaxation is only one aspect of this event. Its therapeutic value is immeasurable. During recovery, these service members enter a hospital community filled with other wounded heroes who may look like or face the same challenges they do. Bonds of close-knit support are formed in this setting, and are crucial to the individual’s complete recovery. Our outings are often the first time these brave men and women step into public with disfiguring injuries. We foster and encourage these early steps into public with a wounded service member's support network and community in tow. Veterans of Valor has seen individuals make impressive progress during this transitional phase from hospital to hometown community.
Entertainment (Recovery Recreation Opportunities) - Yellow Ribbon Fund
Long-term rehabilitation at any hospital is not easy. Family and community support helps a patient tremendously in their recovery. Most injured service members at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital are away from their own communities, with only a few family members around and some with none. Many are amputees. These active duty service members' primary responsibility is to successfully accomplish their recovery mission. That mission still leaves many of them a substantial amount of free time.
Yellow Ribbon Fund volunteers arrange opportunities for the patient to enjoy our community, just as members of their local community would do if Walter Reed were there, instead of here. We take them to local sporting events, invite them to join us in hunting, fishing, and other sports. We take them and their families to a variety of other events in our community. When the Government does not cover the cost of a family visit, the Yellow Ribbon Fund arranges free hotel rooms and apartments. If a family is here for an extended period, the Yellow Ribbon Fund arranges taxis and rental cars so that they can enjoy our community.
Entertainment - WWE
WWE Superstars regularly visit military bases and hospitals, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital, to bolster the morale of our troops. Since 2003, the WWE has produced WWE’s Holiday Tribute to the Troops with WWE Superstars performing before troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004, the USO of Metropolitan Washington presented WWE with the first ever “Legacy of Hope” award for our extensive support of our troops and the USO’s Operation Care Package program.
Mentor Program - Wounded Warrior Mentor Program
In 2004 the West Point Class of 1958 initiated a mentoring program for wounded Soldiers and Marines at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. when it became apparent that Wounded Warriors needed more individual attention than the Army could provide. We found that Wounded Warriors needed additional, one-on-one, assistance to orient them on a new profession and a new life, as well as counseling on benefits, jobs, educational opportunities, and handling of finances as well as navigating the complexities of the military medical system.
Mentor Program - Wounded Warriors Alliance (Colorado, Texas)
Wounded Warriors Alliance is dedicated to rebuilding self esteem, confidence, financial freedom and family relationships in our wounded warriors by providing a one week program that includes mentoring, educational opportunities and participation in public speaking forums at Eagles Summit Ranch.
Many of our participants come in search of themselves and do not know what to do with their lives after the traumatic experiences of war. Through this program we are striving to help our wounded warriors return home to full and productive lives.
Certificate Program includes private mentoring & group class time instruction with Dave Roever, Matt Roever, and other program graduates.
University Program includes internet courses accredited through Southwestern Assemblies of God University. We are also in partnership with Colorado State University - Pueblo. Accommodations at Eagles Summit Ranch Colorado and Eagles Summit Ranch Texas are limited, thus providing intense training and personal one-on-one tutoring with the instructors.
Family Camp offers the entire family (all ages) to come together for a week long camp experience, filled with hands-on learning, fun, and family time!
Music - Wounded Heroes and Music (WHAM) (Silver Star Families)
The Silver Star Families of America are collecting new and gently used MP3 and iPods to give to those wounded or ill veterans in the VA hospitals. Music soothes the soul and helps reduce the stress in people's lives. The same goes for the veterans who have so proudly served our country that are healing in hospitals.
If you have purchased a new iPod or MP3 player would you consider donating your old one if they are still useable? They would also need the USB cable and headphones included.
Phone cards - Armed Forces Aid Campaign
We help our wounded when they are evacuated to Germany in the same way – with free phone cards so they can talk to their loved ones during an often worrisome time.
Phone cards - Homefront Hugs
Phone cards are needed everyday, especially for our wounded. Our wounded troops need to talk to loved ones while so far away in rehab! Stuff a calling card into a card....and send a nice wish to our longterm wounded.
Phone cards - Operation Uplink
Phone cards are being provided at military hospitals and VA facilities. Since the program began, the Veterans of Foreign Wars has provided deployed servicemembers and hospitalized veterans with millions of minutes of free phone time. The unique program is part of VFW National Military Services, which includes other initiatives that boost morale, aid struggling military families and encourage troop support.
Transportation (air travel)
Transportation (to and from VA Hospitals) - Disabled American Veterans
The DAV is dedicated to building better lives for America’s disabled veterans and their families. The DAV’s Voluntary Services Program operates a comprehensive network of volunteers who provide veterans free rides to and from VA medical facilities and improve care and morale for sick and disabled veterans.
Transportation (vehicle adaptation) - Heroes to Hometowns (The American Legion)
Heroes to Hometowns is a transition program for severely injured service members returning home from OEF/OIF. Heroes to Hometowns establishes a support network and coordinates resources for those servicemembers. Last year The American Legion's Heroes to Hometowns Program assisted over 1,100 veterans.
If you are a servicemember, veteran, or family member of a servicemember or veteran who has been severely injured, please fill out the Heroes to Hometowns assistance request form.
Heroes to Hometowns can provide:
- A Welcome-home celebration
- Temporary financial assistance
- Pro-bono financial planning
- Housing assistance
- Home and vehicle adaptation
- Government claims assistance
- Entertainment options
- Family support
(If you are not severely injured and are in need of general transition assistance or support, you may also fill out the request form or contact your American Legion department service officer (DSO) or your local American Legion post ).
Transportation (vehicle adaptation) - The Home Front Cares (Colorado)
The Adaptive Housing and Vehicle Modification Program helps disabled military and veterans in the State of Colorado in obtaining housing and vehicle modifications necessary to improve their quality of life and to aid them in adapting to their disabilities.
resources
Military supporters, churches
Military chaplains
Organizations that support
Resources for
Encouragement
Military life
Free downloads for kids
Resources for wounded warriors and their families
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To be directed to the COMPLETE LISTING of Wounded Warrior resources, click HERE.
Adaptive clothing
Art kits
Assistance to combat support hospitals
Cards and letters
Comfort items: blankets, pillows, quilts
Comfort items: other
Entertainment
Mentor program
Music
Phone cards
Transportation (airline travel, vehicle adaptation, rides to and from VA)
