News From the Cause
9/11 transformed Army, San Antonio: (NEWS-EXPRESS, SAN ANTONIO)
September 09, 2011
Staff Sgt. Ray Padilla suffered though a litany of injuries received in Iraq that included a serious burn on one leg and shrapnel from a bomb blast that went untreated for years.
Then the day came in 2010 when those wounds no longer could be ignored and he got orders to board a medical evacuation flight.
After two war-zone tours and service as a drill instructor, Padilla returned to an empty house, his marriage over, his three kids with his ex-wife.
“That's part of the job,” he said.
On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, a stoic Padilla has a new family at Fort Sam Houston. He and three fellow veterans sit in a conference room at the Warrior and Family Support Center, a facility that illustrates just how much the landscape has changed because of the terror attacks.
The 12,000-square-foot center is part of a sprawling medical and rehabilitation complex that went up on Fort Sam in the wake of 9/11. Wounded and ill troops relax at the facility, paid for with $5 million in cash and donations.
Hundreds like Padilla live in the nearby Warrior Transition Battalion. They work toward rehabilitation at the Center for the Intrepid, a high-rise that opened at Fort Sam in 2006 with $62 million in private funds. So far, 5,400 troops have been treated at Brooke Army Medical Center.
Fort Sam was a sleepy place on 9/11. Scores of historic buildings were vacant and a good part of the installation's 3,000 acres lay empty. Ten years later, a construction boom driven by the war on terrorism and an ever-rising casualty count has transformed Fort Sam.
Every major historic structure has been renovated, and 51 new buildings have been added. Brooke Army Medical Center, home to the service's sole military burn unit, has added a $457 million trauma tower. The burn unit itself has been given a $21 million facelift. Four Fisher Houses now are home for families of the wounded.
Fort Sam recently began training medics from the Army, Navy and Air Force for the first time. Airmen learn to protect convoys at Camp Bullis, and the National Security Agency and Air Force have dramatically expanded intelligence and cyber warfare assets here.
Texas saw its troops mobilized almost immediately after 9/11. The Texas Army National Guard deployed soldiers to protect airports and other sensitive locations. Through the years, the Guard has sent 31,000 soldiers and airmen to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Texas Army National Guard's 36th Infantry Division ended a deployment Thursday in Basra, Iraq, with no one killed in the yearlong tour.
Fort Hood has sent two divisions to war three times since 2003. The deployment tempo still was high this summer, with half the post's soldiers at war. The Army had just 7,971 soldiers in combat zones in September 2001, but had deployed 184,149 by April 2003 as U.S.-led forces took control of Iraq.
War on two fronts has exacted a price, with 6,234 U.S. troops killed. Capt. John Kirby, a top aide to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted Thursday that nearly 46,000 have received Purple Hearts.
Texas has had more deaths than any other state except California. So far, 553 troops from Texas have been killed.
Suicides have taken a toll on U.S. troops as well, with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans accounting for two-thirds of the victims since 2003.
The expansion of hospital and rehabilitation facilities here has occurred amid a stream of wounded troops coming to San Antonio. Arriving on medical evacuation flights that land twice a week at Lackland AFB, many eventually move into the Warrior Transition Battalion, created in 2007 to improve living conditions for wounded and sick GIs.
Padilla is isn't alone in his angst. The troops here rally around each other while making sense of a country they've fought for but often don't understand. Click here to view more
