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VOLUNTEER PILOTS HELP WOUNDED TROOPS TRAVEL FOR
CARE -- Veterans Airlift Command provides free
flights
for wounded warriors and veterans.
Veterans Airlift Command web site here...
http://www.veteransairlift.com/
Story here...
http://www.heraldsun.com/state/6-790074.html
Story below:
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Volunteer pilots help wounded troops travel for care
By CHRIS MAZZOLINI : The Daily News of Jacksonville
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- While still recovering from the bomb blast that
threw Cpl. Christopher Brink out of an armored Humvee in Iraq, the
Marine found himself trying to fly to Camp Lejeune from his home in
Florida.
It took him 13 hours, with three layovers in airports where he was
unable to carry his own bags and often needed a wheelchair to get from
gate to gate.
"It just took me forever," he said. "It was horrible."
So when the 21-year-old Brink booked another flight home to Melbourne,
Fla., he wasn't necessarily thrilled about it. When he tried to alter
his flight plans -- and was told he would have to pay another $400 -- he
had enough.
Brink's father had another idea. While Brink was recovering from his
wounds in Bethesda, Md., he had heard about a group called Veterans
Airlift Command, a nonprofit group of volunteer pilots who fly wounded
service members to and from hospitals.
Brink gave them a call -- and he was soon on a free flight home.
Better yet, the recent flight from Ellis Airport only took about three
hours.
"It worked out a lot better for me," said Brink, who arrived at the
airport on crouches. "I couldn't believe it. There's been tons of guys
who ask me if I need help. This is above and beyond."
Brink's life changed in June. It was his first deployment to Iraq, and
he was riding down an Anbar province road in the gun turret of a Humvee.
It was a routine patrol until the armored vehicle rolled over a
pressure-plate roadside bomb. The blast blew the doors off, killed the
vehicle's team leader and an interpreter and threw Brink out of the
Humvee.
His lower body was badly wounded with multiple fractures. His arm was
broken and he had a concussion. Brink was medevaced back to Fallujah and
through a number of hospitals in Iraq and Europe before he made it back
to the U.S.
Brink spent two months in the hospital, and it wasn't until he could go
out without a wheelchair that he began to feel like himself again.
"I hated the hospital," he said. "But seeing all the guys much worse
than me, I was just happy to be here. I'm just lucky to be alive and to
have all my limbs."
Brink's recent flight allowed him to transfer into a reserve unit so he
can receive medical care closer to home. He's still with his mother
unit, the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, and he hopes to return in three
to seven months when his wounds heal.
Veteran's Airlift is a Minnesota-based group that will provide free
flights for wounded warriors, veterans and their families for medical
treatments or other "compassionate purposes." The group was founded by
Walt Fricke, a former Army helicopter pilot who was shot down and
wounded in Vietnam in 1968.
"I know what it's like to be wounded in a hospital 700 miles from home,"
he said.
Fricke founded the group earlier this year, originally thinking it would
be a "little shuttle service." But he decided to make it a national
program and began recruiting pilots across the country. He now has 30
pilots and 25 airplanes, with a goal of having 1,000 planes across the
country by the end of 2007.
Brink's trip home was the group's inaugural flight and another flight
from Yuma, Ariz. to Seattle was scheduled later that day.
Fricke said the Veterans Airlift will also serve as the "air force" for
USA Cares, a global service group that assists service members and their
families.
Billy and Christopher Ball, pilots from Jacksonville, Fla., who flew
picked Brink up, said flying him home is the least they can do.
"We are delighted to do it," said Christopher Ball. "It doesn't matter
what you think about the war; they are heroes. They deserve to be
supported without question."
Fricke said the flights were payback for the soldiers' service.
"Having been through the Vietnam thing, our generation paid a tremendous
price of lack of honor and respect," he said. "But that was well worth
it if it means this next generation will have it better."
Fricke said they are looking for interested pilots in the Camp Lejeune
area to help serve the wounded coming into the base and the "wounded
warriors" barracks.
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Larry Scott
