While Bush’s Buddies Cash In On the War, Pentagon Scum Won’t Supply Wounded Female Troops With Clothes Forcing Them to Beg Civilians for Help

December 14, 2007
Wausau Daily Herald [Excerpts]

The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs aims to collect new women’s undergarments and comfortable clothing for wounded female troops in Iraq awaiting medical care in Germany or the United States, said Gundel Metz, coordinator of female veterans’ issues.

A service member’s clothing often is destroyed by an injury, and the military often is unable to send personal gear immediately to a hospital, said Maj. Frances Wiedenhoeft, a nurse anesthetist at the University of Wisconsin Hospital who currently is stationed in Iraq.

The 18-year reservist, who calls Madison home, said she got the idea when she arrived at Balad Air Base Hospital during her current tour in Iraq. During each of her three deployments, people back home have asked how they could help, Wiedenhoeft said in an e-mail interview.

“I have always received such a generous outpouring of support from family, friends and my workplace for those needs,” she said.

Wiedenhoeft said when she got to the intensive care unit at the hospital in Balad, the overwhelming opinion was there was a need for women’s clothing that would be easy to put on after an injury.

She contacted Metz, who has been working stateside to set up donation centers, including collection points at VFW Post No. 388 in Wausau and at the Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation’s rural office in Stevens Point.

The foundation has been working with the state’s Veterans Affairs department on helping veterans make the transition back home, said Bobbie Kolehouse, its director of rural women’s health programs. The foundation’s collection point so far has received a couple of checks, Kolehouse said.

Wiedenhoeft said the vast majority of the injured treated are military personnel, but the hospital occasionally treats injured Iraqi women as well.

“They are quite destitute here for the most part ... and may not have much to put on to go home,” she wrote.

New clothing items and financial contributions can be dropped off at collection points through Dec. 31. Organizers also hope to collect video games and players to help give injured soldiers something to do while they’re awaiting transport, Metz said.