A DAY THAT WILL BE WITH ME FOREVER AND I WILL NEVER FORGET!

On Tuesday, March 31, I headed out with Debbie. As I said in my previous posts, Debbie and her husband Richard have the ranch next door to Hoppy and Loy and they share in the Longhorn cattle partnership.

Debbie is an awesome quilter and last year Richard converted their large 2 car garage into a Quilting Cave for her. It is a beautiful shop!

Well Debbie invited me to go along with her Quilting Club and present patriotic quilts to those service members touched by war and this includes all wars.

I met Gail Belmont, the Executive Director of Quilts of Honor, a non profit organization, who herself was in the military. She also plays Taps for the fallen and lives in California.

With the help of the Internet, I wanted to give you the background on this great organization:

Gail started Quilts of Honor with her friends and started quilting quilts for our warriors. The Navy Seals asked for a special gift and that gift was given to President Bush. The "Presidential" Quilt was presented to him after Hurricane Katrina. Later on the "Warrior" quilt was quilted by Gail and was presented to the Pentagon and installed in the "9/11 Memorial Display Case".

In June 2009 she and her parents left California and traveled across America to the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. They picked up quilts from quilters wishing to also honor our military. Gail and her parents began their journey with 200 quilts and when they arrived at Camp Lejeune, they had over 1,300 quilts!

In August 2009, the "Lady Warrior" quilt was presented to the Women's Memorial at Arlington Cemetery.

Today we were traveling to The Center For The Intrepid (CFI) at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

It is named after the U.S.S. Intrepid, the legendary aircraft carrier that sparked this country's spirits following the devastation of the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

Today the Quilters presented several soldiers with their very own patriotic quilt that they made for them. It was a very touching ceremony and sure made me teary eyed.

Here one of the ladies explains the history of Quilts of Honor to the soldiers and gives a little information about the quilter who personally made their quilt.

 Each Quilt has a sewn label that has the soldiers name, rank, branch and the date they joined the military along with other information, including the quilters name. The quilter on the right is Bonnie and she is in her late 80's.

Here is my friend Debbie. Like the others she if very proud to be involved with Quilts of Honor.

As you can see, it can be emotional. Not only for the soldiers, but for us too.

I did not know it at the time, but the soldier below is Army First Lt. John Arroyo. I saw him on the news the day after we left the Intrepid Center. It was the 1-year Anniversary of the Fort Hood shooting. I looked up his history on the Internet and found out the following information.

Lt. Arroyo is a 16 year active-duty soldiers with a decade on Special Forces and had gone on numerous deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was one of several that were shot a year ago (April 2, 2014) by another soldier at Fort Hood.

Spc. Ivan Lopez opened fired on several soldiers, killing 2 and injuring 14 before turning the gun on himself. The bullet hit Lt. Arroyo in the throat and ripped through his right shoulder and stopped upon impact with his scapula. His right arm went limped and his Army Combat Uniform was saturated with blood. He could not call out for help because he had no voice. Holding his throat he walked back in the direction of his brigade.

Over the next year, he has endured 5 surgeries on his throat and a major 12 hour nerve graph surgery on his shoulder. His voice is now raspier and he has not regained the use of his right arm. He wants to return to active duty, but he said that is up for the Army to decide.

He is now enrolled in Bible college.

After the quilt presentation, we went took a tour of the Center of the Intrepid. Here we are being brief on what to expect and that we may see burn victims and soldiers with missing limbs. We could take pictures but not of the soldiers because of privacy.

The mission of the CFI is a one stop shop where wounded troops can undergo physical and occupational therapy, wound care and prosthetic fitting. They provide rehabilitation for soldiers who have sustained amputations, traumatic brain injuries, burns and functional limb loss along with psychological and emotional issues.

Here is Tony, our tour guide. He is retired from the military and volunteers at the center. He told us many  soldiers are taught to walk all over again with their prosthesis. Notice behind Tony, there are stones and turf, they are taught to walk on stuff that they will be faced with on the outside. Here he is pointing to the treadmill. The treadmill moves and rises in the center at different heights to act like the uneven ground that the soldier will encounter outside.

CFI is a cutting edge rehab center and there is a prosthetic fabrication lab "in house" that makes everything from carbon fiber legs to robotic arms.

This leg prosthesis was in a display cabinet.

There is also "CAREN", a 3-D rehabilitation simulator, there first of its kind in the world. It provides virtual reality training. There is also the Motion Analysis Lab that allows specialists to detect gait deviations not discernible to the naked eye, the firearms training simulator that reacquaints patients with their weapons systems , driving simulators so patients missing a limb can adjust to driving, could get reacquainted with handicapped add ons for their personal cars.

There was a 2 story climbing tower, running track, gym, a 6 lane pool with a FlowRider that is a unique wave machine and it allows patients to practice lying and kneeling on a boogie board and they can surf using a surf board. Most days the FlowRider is being used.

There was a daily living apartment that was set up with house hold furnishings, including small and large appliances, furniture, dishes, pots and pans, cooking utensils and etc. They practice everyday skills, how to clean, strip a bed, iron, vacuum, use the oven and cook because many have to learn how to do simple household tasks all over again. We did not get to see this because it was being used at the time.

This is just one of the work out rooms.

We saw several soldiers doing rehab.

This 4-story, 65,000 square foot out patient facility was dedicated in January 2007. Funds for the $55 million dollar facility were donated by more than 600,000 Americans through the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a non profit established in 2003 to continue an effort begun by the founders of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher, to offer financial assistance to the families of military personnel lost in action. The fund redirected its efforts to support catastrophically disabled service members.

Along with the help of the Internet, I wanted to give you some insight of Zachary Fisher, the man who started all of this. God Bless this man for what he did for our country and our military!

Elizabeth and Zachary Fisher

He was the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuanian. His father Karl was a stonemason by trade and raised his 3 sons to be bricklayers. Zachary was born in Brooklyn in 1910 and died in 1999.

He began his involvement with construction and in 1915 while still in his teen years he and his brothers formed "Fisher Brothers". They grew into one of the real estate industry's premier residential and commercial developers.

After Pearl Harbor, he tried to enlist in the military but was turned down due to a preexisting medical condition.

In the earliest days of his construction career, Zachary was a strong supporter of the U.S. Armed Forces. He and his wife Elizabeth established the Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher Armed Services Foundation. They had made significant contributions to the families of the victims of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. Since then they have made contributions of $25,000 to numerous military families who have lost loved ones under tragic circumstances.

In 1978, Mr. Fisher founded the campaign to save the historic and battle-scarred World War II aircraft carrier the USS Intrepid from the scrapyard and transform it into America's largest naval museum in New York City. More later on the history of the USS Intrepid.

In 1990 they founded the Fisher House Foundation. Now temporary lodging facilities for families are found at all the major military bases and Dept. of Veterans Affairs medical centers through out the nation. The Fishers personally dedicated more than $20 million to the construction of comfort homes for families of hospitalized military personnel.

After his wife Elizabeth who was a former USO Dancer, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Zachary joined David Rockefeller to create the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research at Rockefeller University. Elizabeth passed away in 2004.

One of Zachary's many achievements was the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Since Zachary's death in 1999, his nephew Ken is now the chairman along with his wife Tammy are the trustee's of the Fisher House Foundation. Ken is a senior partner at Fisher Brothers, a Real Estate Development Investment Company.

With the help of the Internet, here is the a little tidbit of the USS Intrepid:

She was an aircraft carrier 872 ft. long. Her speed was 33 knots. She was built during WWII, commissioned in August 1943. She survived many air attacks and being torpedoed several times

She had one of the most distinguished service records of any Navy ship and to think that in 1976 she was slated to be scrapped after decommissioning if it wasn't for Zachary Fisher.

I wanted to write about her, but oh my gosh, it would have been pages. Her military history was astonishing. Please read more about her. Just Google: USS Intrepid. It is worth reading!

This was one of my most memorable days that I will cherish for ever. God Bless Our Military and to all who volunteer their time in so many different capacities for our soldiers.

The Quilting Ladies. I sure did enjoy my day with these patriotic gals.

So until next time..............Happy Trails!