Guardsmen volunteer to help wounded soldiers

[unhappycamper]

Guardsmen volunteer to help wounded soldiers
By John Milburn - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Mar 10, 2008 6:00:55 EDT

FORT RILEY, Kan. — They’ve gone to war recently themselves, but a cadre of Kansas National Guard soldiers has volunteered for a year — maybe longer — to help wounded soldiers get back on their feet.

Located in a cluster of tan modular structures adjacent to Irwin Army Community Hospital, the Warrior Transition Battalion is designed to give wounded soldiers a place to get well, while getting services they need to continue their Army career or life as a civilian.

Command Sgt. Maj. Terence Hankerson, a Guard soldier from Topeka, is the senior enlisted soldier at the battalion. He was wounded in Iraq last year and volunteered to serve at Fort Riley.

“Obviously, you want somebody who’s been through the process,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to identify with these guys. I can look them in the eye and go, ‘I know what you’re talking about. Believe me, I had an E-6 dogging me the whole time, too.’

“It doesn’t matter if you are a sergeant or a colonel, you’re still expected to make your appointments and heal, first and foremost.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_wounded_volunteers_030808/