Marines taking care of their own

Mar 7, 2010 — The Free Lance-Star

Rusty Dennen

Mar. 7, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Owen McNamara, Tyler Gump and Jerry Magallanes share a bond that goes beyond the fact that they are Marines who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Each came back with injuries that changed his life. Now, the three friends are getting help through the Wounded Warrior Regiment at Quantico.

Founded in 2007, the regiment and its components worldwide have changed the way injured Marines and their families get non-medical care, with a more streamlined, one-stop system.

McNamara, a sergeant, and Gump and Magallanes, both staff sergeants, are outpatients at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. They carpooled to Quantico last week to a job fair sponsored by the regiment and Marine for Life, which helps Marines transition from the service.

McNamara, 24, who grew up near Boston, is typical of those who wind in the wounded warrior program.

He joined the Marines at 17. Six months later, he was in combat in Fallujah, Iraq. Wounded after the initial battle for the city and deployed again in 2005, he survived several bomb attacks on convoys. Next, he spent 21/2 years at The Basic School at Quantico.

By then, McNamara knew he was having problems.

"My family had noticed it. Friends from high school said: 'Hey, you've changed. You're not the person you were before.'"

GETTING HELP

In 2008 he was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, and was referred to the Bethesda hospital for treatment.

"Some days are better than others," he said in an interview. He has wrestled with insomnia, drinking and trouble getting back to a normal life.

He expects to get out of the Marines within a year.

Until then, "I'm trying to get something lined up. I'd like to see myself stable in some sort of career, maybe federal employment," he said.

McNamara, who is engaged to be married and has a stepson and a 7-month-old daughter, spends weekdays in Bethesda and weekends at his Partlow home in Spotsylvania County.

The Bethesda hospital is one of 15 medical and trauma centers that fall under the Wounded Warrior Regiment's two battalions -- East, headquartered at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and West, at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

McNamara met Gump and Magallanes at Bethesda.

Gump, 29, was injured in a non-combat accident last year in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

"I had a bunch of metal and another Marine fall on top of me," he recalled.

A few weeks later, he was having bad headaches, was dizzy and began to stumble when he walked.

"I couldn't stand up for long periods. I couldn't do my job, so they had me doing desk work." He was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury -- in which the brain is severely jarred against the skull -- and PTSD.

"My short-term memory is not the greatest anymore."

He now walks with a cane.

Gump grew up in Ohio and joined the Marines in 1998 after high school.

"I had a chance to go to college, but I wanted to do something for myself. It was a big leap."

An avionics technician, he served two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan.

Gump is waiting for clearance to get out of the Marines. He's in the midst of a divorce and wants to get his life back on track.

"I'm looking to get my foot in the door somewhere. I'm saying, 'Hey, I'm here.'"

Magallanes, 37, of Santa Ana, Calif., was diagnosed with PTSD after a tour of duty to Iraq in 2004 as a military policeman.

"I used to have flashbacks. I couldn't sleep. I had nightmares I was claustrophobic, hypervigilant. I couldn't function with people."

Magallanes wants to stay in the Marines.

"I have 17 years' service and I want to finish my 20. I think I can still make a difference, mentoring other Marines and helping them with their issues."

McNamara, Gump and Magallanes are among more than 5,000 Marines receiving care through the wounded warrior program, for all types of injuries. Thirty-one are on the "300 List" -- the most seriously injured who will require years of help and follow-up. The name was taken from the movie "300," about a Spartan rear guard that held off the Persian army at Thermopylae in one of history's most famous last stands.

A NEW APPROACH

As new Marine Corps units go, the Wounded Warrior Regiment got up and running at warp speed.

Its commander, Col. Gregory A. Boyle, had to start from scratch.

He was commanding a Marine regiment in Hawaii in 2006, seeing firsthand the effects of the Iraq war. He attended the funerals of 23 Marines and visited wounded Marines all over the country.

That year, Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, wanted to form a new regiment to improve care of the wounded.

Boyle was intrigued.

"We thought we were doing a good job taking care of our Marines, but across commands we were doing it in many different ways," he said in a recent interview. Conway and Boyle talked in Hawaii, and Boyle was offered the job.

At the time, the Army's wounded warrior program was already under way. Marine Corps efforts were mainly through the Marine for Life support program for thee injured.

"A lot of stuff we have here now didn't exist anywhere in the Marine Corps previously," Boyle said.

The regiment "was just me for the first 30 days," he recalled. "First, we wanted to build a concept of what this was going to be."

A core group of 52 staffers with broad experience in care of the wounded and peripheral issues was brought in to hammer it out.

The aim was to better coordinate every aspect of care, Boyle said. "But we had nothing on how to tie in the [U.S.] Department of Labor, Veterans Affairs, Navy hospitals how to actually take care of these Marines."

There was a sense of urgency, not only because of the numbers of wounded Marines coming home from the war zones, but because Walter Reed Army Medical Center's patient-care deficiencies made headlines in February 2007.

Boyle watched congressional hearings on Walter Reed and programs on C-SPAN about treatment for the war's wounded, and gleaned information from other sources to help shape the program.

MAKING THE CALL

One advance was a two-way call center. Marines can call in, but staffers can also call them with questions such as "Are you having problems with your marriage, finances, sleeping at night? We're actively trying to find the issues out there," Boyle said.

"We thought that Marines are typically not going to ask for help, so we said, 'Why not outreach?' It's one of the best things we've done."

And it helps get the word out on topics of general interest.

For example, when the American Legion was offering $500 stipends for wounded veterans, "We called about 2,000 Marines and said, 'Apply and you'll get $500,'" Boyle said.

Over the first year and a half, the call center in Dumfries handled more than 150,000 calls on topics such as life insurance, financial planning, the GI Bill, employment and education support, psychological concerns, counseling and benefits. The site is named after Sgt. Merlin German, who died in 2008 after being severely burned in Iraq in 2004.

By summer of 2007, the regiment had its East Coast and West Coast battalions -- with their medical detachments -- in place.

The regiment coordinates all non-medical care to avoid duplication and runaround on things such as family issues, transition from the military and employment.

"It's one-stop shopping, it's all here," Boyle said.

Its operations center at Quantico oversees the activities of the two battalions and deals with federal agencies, members of Congress, contractors and nongovernmental organizations. In three years, the Wounded Warrior Regiment has grown to more than 400 employees, with a budget of $22 million.

Most staffers are active-duty Marines or reservists. "We wanted Marines talking to Marines," Boyle said.

Town-hall-type meetings and surveys on topics of concern, such as hospital stays, help steer programs. Some regiment staffers focus on future initiatives and assess how well things are being done.

"I think we're doing very well," Boyle said. "Our vision is that every [wounded] Marine leave the Marine Corps with a job, going to school, or training" for a vocation.

McNamara said it's working, for the most part, for him.

"You always have other Marines to rely on, and being at a hospital" as an outpatient, "you always have care right across the street."

But he adds, "It all comes down to the individual."

Wartime brain injury and PTSD treatment is still evolving, he says.

"It's still a learning experience for everybody."

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431

Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com

REGIMENT PROVIDING A VARIETY OF SERVICES

The Wounded Warrior Regiment provides family support, clinical services staff to help with care coordination, chaplains, recovery care coordinators, job transition assistance, liaisons with the Department of Veterans Affairs and 23 support offices around the country and overseas.

Two wounded warrior battalions, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Camp Pendleton, Calif., have medical detachments, including at Landstuhl (Germany) Regional Medical Canter; the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md.; Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington; Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii; naval hospitals in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, California and Japan; Brooke Army Medical Center, Texas; Veterans Administration polytrauma centers in Minnesota, Florida and California; and Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

Marines and their families can contact the Sergeant Merlin German Wounded Warrior Call Center any time, toll-free, at 877/487-6299.

-Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment

woundedwarriorregiment.org

Newstex ID: KRTB-0063-42648606