By SHERRI LONON
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

As long as U.S. troops continue to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tampa-based Operation Helping Hand intends to assist the forgotten casualties of war.

Those forgotten casualties are the families of those who have been injured in the line of duty, said Bob Silah, chairman of Operation Helping Hand, a creation of the Tampa Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America. Operation Helping Hand is a nonprofit group that provides assistance to the families of wounded active duty troops who are receiving treatment at Tampa’s James A. Haley Veterans Hospital.

The group, which is all volunteer, serves anywhere from 14 to 25 families at a time by providing the things they might need while living away from home. Gifts to families have included everything from gasoline, grocery and calling cards to lodging, cash, clothing and beyond.

While most branches of the military take care of housing concerns for the spouses and children of service personnel staying at the hospital, some are not eligible, Silah said. Also, family members, such as parents, might not receive any assistance.

The needs, he said, are great.

“It’s like a revolving door,” explained Silah. “They come in, they get treated and they either get discharged or sent to another hospital.”

While service personnel are undergoing treatments at the hospital, they tend to only receive their regular enlisted pay. But, they still have an obligation to pay for their permanent household while also taking care of any family that may come to town to help during the recuperation process. The pay situation generally improves a bit once they receive medical discharges, but it’s the in-between time that puts a major strain on finances, Silah said.

This is where Operation Helping Hand comes in.

“It’s that limbo time between treatment and medical discharge,” he said, adding that oftentimes the wounded and their families are forgotten. “It angers me. Nobody mentions these poor people who get wounded while they’re protecting us.”

Silah said it’s hard sometimes to find out exactly what the families need, because they generally won’t ask for assistance. The group relies on hospital staff to help find out.

“(There was one) family that was living in a car,” he said. “They wouldn’t tell anybody they needed money.”

It’s people like that, or the Herricks of North Florida, the group seeks to help.

Diana Herrick knows firsthand the importance of organizations like Operation Helping Hand. Her husband, Pete, was wounded May 2, 2004, while serving in the Navy in Iraq. A mortar attack left Pete, a petty officer third class, paralyzed from the neck down. The same attack killed five and injured 33, she said.

Since his injury, Pete has received treatment in Tampa off and on. At one point, he spent several months at the hospital while the couple’s two children stayed with Diana’s parents near the family’s North Florida home.

As Pete has undergone treatments, Diana said the members of Operation Helping Hand have provided a shoulder for her to lean on.

She remembers in particular an 11-month stay in Tampa, during which time she was spending about 10 hours a day at the hospital learning how to care for her husband.

“The Navy put me up in a hotel for 11 months and I just stayed here every day and learned how to care for him,” she said.

It was during that time that Operation Helping Hand offered to help.

“We started getting introduced to people who were giving us gas cards, phone cards, money for things we might have left home,” she said. “We were doing without, and just the little things to make you feel good.”

She recalls a dozen roses in particular.

“They make the family feel special, not just the patient,” she said.

During this time, the Navy did do a good job of helping provide for the family as well, she said.

“We were some of the luckier ones,” she said. “For us, it was more just the support. They wanted to do anything they could to help.”

She knows, however, of many families that haven’t been as lucky financially. It is for them, she hopes, that Operation Helping Hand succeeds in its mission to provide assistance.

“A lot of times, if it’s the mother for the fiancee and not the wife, they don’t get the same pay to be there with their family member,” she said.

Still, it’s important for the injured to have their family close, she said.

“It just makes such a difference for the families of the injured who have to be there for such a long amount of time,” she said. “It’s not unheard of for the severely injured to be in the hospital for a year or a half a year.”

Having family near “effects how well that person heals,” she said. “Because of (groups) like Operation Helping Hand, people are able to stay away from home longer and help that person heal.”

That’s exactly what Silah would like to continue doing. The organization, however, thrives on donations. Operating with only a small amount of overhead to pay for copies and postage, the group tries to put all of its funding in the hands of the people that need it, he said.

“People don’t know what’s happening out there and these kids are in a lot of pain and misery and we’re one of the few organizations that are helping them,” he said.

For more information on Operation Helping Hand, visit http://www.moaatampa.com/operation_helping_hand.htm. Tax deductible donations can be sent to PO Box 6383, MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa 33608, or call Silah at 963-1854 or vice chairman Bob Sawallesh at 654-3900. Checks should be made payable to MOAA Operation Helping Hand.