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CommunitySoldiers get a patriotic welcome
Wounded vets enjoy fishing, barbecue
Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GRETCHEN PHILLIPS
A large group of residents, including John Worthington and his son Chris of Chesapeake Beach, arrived early in the morning to wave flags and greet soldiers coming from Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Saturday in Chesapeake Beach. The soldiers went out in boats for a day of fishing and then were treated to a barbecue.
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The recovering troops and members of their families started the day in the early morning with a charter fishing trip, where the group had great success reeling in rockfish and bluefish before decamping to the home of Norm Cuevas and Mary Mathis for entertainment, socializing and a hearty lunch. The event was organized by Operation Second Chance, a Clarksburg charity helping wounded veterans and their families to recover and return to civilian life.
For avid angler Cpl. Jason Beasley, 38, from Massachusetts, the trip was the realization of a desire from his time in Iraq.
‘‘I love to fish, No. 1,” he said of why he decided to go. ‘‘And, you get into a firefight, or whatever, overseas, you get into a bad situation and you say, ‘Man, it would be great to just go home and go fishing.’ This is great.”
Staff Sgt. Victor Campos Sr. of Giles County, Va., a 19-year veteran of the Armed Forces, recently received ‘‘the bad news I’m not going to be able to redeploy” after being evacuated during his second deployment in Iraq.
Nonetheless, he was cheered by the warm reception he and others received in Calvert County. As they got off the buses that brought them to the home, volunteers cheered and waved flags while Boy Scouts rang a bell to let everyone know they had arrived.
‘‘Yes, it’s awesome. I didn’t realize there are so many people supporting the troops,” Campos said. ‘‘...I appreciate everything. The community is being so supportive.”
The outing also provided a welcome relief for the families of Walter Reed patients who were too ill to attend themselves.
The Rev. Miquel Coleman of Culpeper, Va., whose gravely ill mother-in-law is being treated at the renowned army hospital, was glad he and his wife and children had a short respite from the hospital routine.
‘‘I just appreciate everything that’s been done,” Coleman said. ‘‘Although I’m not in the military I support the troops 100 percent. Everything we can do to show appreciation to the troops is a blessing.”
Ed Stapanon, a disabled Vietnam War veteran from Lexington Park, volunteered because he could understand the challenges facing wounded soldiers.
‘‘I know what it’s like to see your friends killed or shot. The American public has no idea what these soldiers go through. They don’t have a clue,” Stapanon said.
Mathis, the home’s co-owner, got involved in Operation Second Chance through her struggles with Walter Reed’s bureaucracy, she said.
In 2006, Mathis’ nephew was serving in Iraq when his unit was attacked, she said. Although he was fine, her nephew asked her to keep tabs on his injured buddies, a task that turned out to be more than she bargained for.
She got nowhere until she turned to Cindy McGrew, founder and president of the charity, after hearing about her on the radio. McGrew, who visits the hospital almost every day, tracked down Mathis’ nephew’s friends in short order.
‘‘I felt like we owed her. So I said, ‘What can we do for you?’” Mathis said.
Host veterans at your home, McGrew answered.
‘‘It just has grown,” Mathis said. ‘‘This is the second year now. We hope to keep doing it as long as the soldiers are at Walter Reed army hospital. That’s what we want to do.”
McGrew’s philanthropy started with a friend, a contractor serving in Iraq training police. Her worries for his safety led her to start visiting patients at Walter Reed after work. The visits ‘‘became the best part of my life,” she said.
She did her best to bring DVD players, movies and other amusements for the soldiers, many of whom were bored or on their own. Two years ago, she bought an Xbox 360 for a young man as a Christmas present. But he never got it, because McGrew was robbed in the parking lot of Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg by men who followed her to her car after seeing her buy the expensive game system.
McGrew, shaken but unhurt, managed to turn the attack to her advantage. Her story got her airtime on the radio, which is how Mathis and many others found out about her cause.
‘‘That incident turned into a blessing like this,” McGrew said. ‘‘So much good came out of it. The Xbox returned many times over because of the generosity that’s come out of this.”
Operation Second Chance helps wounded veterans in a variety of ways, large and small, she said. In addition to providing visits and gifts to soldiers in the hospital, it has paid families’ airfare and mortgage payments. It even financed an addition to the family home of a man whose injuries left him permanently housebound, so that he could have privacy despite his condition.
‘‘We just want to de-stress families’ lives as much as possible,” McGrew said. ‘‘...I feel like these guys sacrifice so much and ask so little, and we owe them so much. The government just doesn’t provide enough and we give assistance over and above what the government does.”
