Project Valour IT - Beginnings

This post will remain at the top all day.

The concept behind Project Valour IT started simply. Captain Charles Ziegenfuss was badly injured in Iraq by an IED and while at Walter Reed Hospital requested a laptop computer with voice activated software. He received both requests. He thought it would be a good idea for other soldiers to be able to do the same.

Project Valour IT began and is dedicated in memory to his father, SFC William Ziegenfuss. This project is part of Soldier's Angels who does so many things for our soldiers from sending care packages to a program called Armor Up.

Both are featured in today's Washington Post .

Capt. Charles Ziegenfuss had arrived. He was on a stretcher in intensive care. An explosion in Iraq had blown him open three days before. Great masses of flesh were missing from his arms, his legs. His face was pockmarked from the blast of shrapnel and grit. They pulled a three-inch nail out of him. She sat beside him for hours. When he could open his eyes, she told him his family was on the way. Then she sat down again, waiting.
...
"It doesn't have to be a lot," says Bair, who is 44, the daughter of a man who served in the Army, and a volunteer for Soldiers' Angels, a California-based nonprofit. "Sometimes it's just holding their hands and when they say, 'It hurts,' you just squeeze and say, 'I know.' "
...
Bair, coming down after work or on weekends, brought the two women everything from toothbrushes to sandwiches. She got Soldiers' Angels to arrange for domestic help for Carren's sister while Chuck and Carren's kids were staying with her. When Ziegenfuss emerged from the fog of pain medication, Soldiers' Angels got him a computer -- and, because of his heavily bandaged left hand, where he lost a pinky, added voice-activated software. He got back online with his popular blog, From My Position.. On the Way (edited:inserted name of blog). It's gotten 90,000 hits in the past three months.

Captain Ziegenfuss was able to go home on August 18. He wants to return to Iraq and his command.

"Libraries" of laptops equipped with the voice-controlled software are being formed for wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines at each major military medical center to check-out for a few hours at a time. Bethesda Naval Hospital is the start.

The next phase includes the following military hospitals:

Brooke Army Medical Center (TX)

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (Germany)

Madigan Regional Medical Center (WA)

The National Naval Medical Center

Naval Hospital, Camp Pendleton (CA)

Walter Reed Army Medical Center (DC)

It is such a simple concept, provide those whose injuries prohibit them from writing a means of communicating with loved ones. Let's help out our military men and women.

Read his post famous, almost to see his take on the Washington Post article. And then read the rest of his blog. He and his wife Carren have faced this with a great deal of courage and humor.

Linked with The Indepundit's open Liberty Call

Thanks to Argghhh! who has a blogroll of those who are dedicated to a blog burst for Project Valour IT in Taking Care of Business

Linked to Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Open Trackbacks(plus more)