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From: White House Media Affairs Office [mailto:whitehouse-noreply@messages.whitehouse.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 8:38 PM
To: Owens, Missy
Subject: Fw: Pool Report 1


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From: Sig Christenson <saddamscribe@yahoo.com>
To: Abrams, Adam W.
Cc: McCormick-Lelyveld, Catherine M.; Stephens, Semonti M.
Sent: Wed Apr 13 20:31:45 2011
Subject: Pool Report 1
First pool report; more to come

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden entered the Warrior and Family Support Center at 4:42 p.m. escorted by the facility's director, Judith Markelz, long known here as a passionate supporter of wounded troops being treated at Fort Sam Houston.

Markelz, gesturing often with her left hand, did most of the talking while the First Lady, wearing a long red and white striped dress and red pumps, listened along with Mrs. Biden. At one point the women shared a hearty laugh, walked down the hallway a few feet and stopped for more conversation.

Markelz then brought them to an area where several people were working on crafts and introduced FLOTUS and Mrs. Biden, who wore a green dress with sparkling cream-colored pumps, to retired Army Lt. Col. David Jayne, a burn survivor who started the class more than three years ago with his wife, Jane.

But before they arrived, though, Jayne alerted the group as they worked on their craft projects.

"Smile, be happy!" he told them. "Everybody be happy back there!"

Around 350 people have taken his class, which he said is designed to help burn victims and troops suffering from traumatic brain injury to learn how to use their hands again.

"We get people in here that sit down and they look around and they can't move, they can't cut, they can't do anything, and in one to three months they're back to normal," said Jayne, who was badly burned over 65 percent of his body in a 1959 helicopter crash in Coban, Guatemala but returned to Army flight duty after years of treatment at Brooke Army Medical Center.

Family members are included in the class, he explained, "because the person that's injured is more likely to take part and graduate."

A few moments passed with Markelz and Jayne talking talking with FLOTUS and Biden, but a couple of women quickly called out, "Hi!"

FLOTUS hugs one of them as another woman tries to take a photo. It is the first of many hugs to come during the tour.

"Oh, no!" she cried. "It came out blurry!"

She finally got the shot and Obama and Biden moved on to their next stop, the kitchen.

Sig Christenson, military writer, San Antonio Express-News
(210) 250-3205 (O)/(210) 859-9135 (Cell)

Second pool report; more to come

FLOTUS and Mrs. Biden moved on to the Warrior and Family Support Center's spacious kitchen, where students from the University of Texas at San Antonio had cooked barbecue brisket and sausage for the 100 or so troops, families and volunteers this day.

The students included Hobart Doyon, 22, of Lavernia, who welcomed the visit.

"I think it's nice of them to come and show support for the center. this center is 100-percent supported by donations. The government does not fund anything for this center," Doyon, a member of the UTSA Collegiate Entrepreneurs Association, he said before the arrival of FLOTUS and Mrs. Biden.

As he talked, UTSA student Mark Porter sliced the brisket into long, thin strips while Jaime Oleszcovski, Donato Rodriguez and Whitney Hammond also helped prepare the meat.

Before entering the kitchen, Mrs. Biden stopped to look at a wall full of photographs of Warrior and Family Support Center volunteers.

FLOTUS quickly hugged one man, while Mrs. Biden shook his hand.

Both hugged Rachel Medrano, a 71-year-old San Antonio volunteer whose husband, Daniel, served 22 years in the Army and is a Vietnam veteran.

She was the center's Outstanding Volunteer of the Year for 2009-10 and vividly remembers what FLOTUS told her.

"'Thank you for all you do for our troops,'" she said. "They both said the same thing. I told her I'll do anything for my troops."

Medrano, who cooks Mexican food for troops and families stopping by here, said she was excited to meet the First Lady, saying, "because to me, she's the most beautiful woman in the whole world, from the very first time that I saw her. Oh, I think she is."

Sig Christenson, military writer, San Antonio Express-News
(210) 250-3205 (O)/(210) 859-9135 (Cell)

Third report, more to come

Slowly, very slowly, FLOTUS and Mrs. Biden work their way into the Warrior and Family Support Center's spacious lobby, which is anchored by a sculture of butterflies done by a badly injured soldier from Braintree, Mass., who recovered here from a roadside bomb blast.

"Hope," as the statue is called, originated with a drawing he had done while serving in Iraq. depicts a swirl of 75 metal butterflies in flight. The swirl represents the Holy Spirit while the butterflies signify the conquering of obstacles and freedome from life-altering injuries.

Markelz, the center's director, made a point of presenting FLOTUS and Mrs. Biden with silver necklace's anchored by butterflies, which are the facility's symbol of hope.

The First Lady and vice president's wife met briefly with some in the crowd, including Army Sgt. Chris Champion, 26, of Denver, Colo., a victim of a Taliban land mine that claimed his lower left leg and badly damaged his right leg below the knee, which was swollen many times its normal size.

"I think it was very sincere. For her to shake my hand and then grab my wife's hand and then sincerely look at her and ask, 'How are you,?', you know, instead of 'Hi,' and listen to what my wife had to say, that was impressive," he said.

"You know sometimes you get a feel like some of these people do things just for a PR tour, to check the box, I really don't feel that's the deal," continued Champion, who stepped on a 10 to 15-pound ammonium nitrate bomb wrapped in detonation cord used to blow doors off their hinges.

"I think that they're genuinely sincere about getting awareness out there for the Army family and Army wounded warrior family. After being here for seven months, I have a very keen sense of when somebody's bullshitting me," he added. "I've met a few four-stars, I won't name them, one in particular who is so fake I just wanted to tell him to get out of my face."

Champion thinks the new emphasis on troops and their family is a good thing for a nation largely disconnected from the all-volunteer force fighting its wars.

Soldiers and their relatives often call themselves the 'one percenters" because only a fraction of Americans have served in the military or fought in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"I think they want to be connected but are generally disconnected and have no idea, and it's sad to see because a lot of the publicity that you see out there has nothing to do with the front line and the guys that are actually going outside the wire, so to speak. So, yeah, in my opinion, they are pretty disconnected from what’s out there, what we go through, what we’re experiencing and who we are as a whole.”


Sig Christenson, military writer, San Antonio Express-News

(210) 250-3205 (O)/(210) 859-9135 (Cell)


Fourth and final pool report


After visiting with Champion and his wife, FLOTUS and Mrs. Biden briefly talked about their experience, standing in front of the sculpture, 'Hope.'


The vice president's wife opened first, saying it was "an honor for us" to visit the Warrior and Family Support Center as well as visit wounded troops and their families.


Despite seeing troops injured in the war zone, "actually I think we leave here more inspired because of the resilience and strength we see in our wounded warriors and their families."


“And the thing that is amazing, one of the reasons why we wanted to come to this facility, is because as Judy explained, all of this that you see around is donated by the community – 100 percent of every salary, of every brick, of every piece of wood, of every bit of food, this is all done by the community,” Obama said.


She continued, “And as you all know, Jill and I just launched Joining Forces and we’re rallying the nation around our military bases. And a lot of people are going to wonder how can I help? What can I do? This family center is an example of how communities step up and support the military families and the troops, and they do it with their own dollars, with their own energy.

"Judy said she had 67 volunteers waiting to volunteer at any given time. We've seen university students here, we've seen wives and mothers and sisters and brothers here helping, and I talked to one young man who I told him he should be the press event," FLOTUS said, drawing laughter from the crowd. "He said that even as a soldier he didn't know that these resources existed, and that's what we want the nation to know. This is the kind of stepping up that we can do, because most people will step up if they know the need is there, and San Antonio is an example of that, and there are hundreds of communities like this all across the nation. We want to see thousands of communities like this because not every military family is going to live near a base."

As FLOTUS closed out the final minute of the brief appearance before leaving for Fort Carson, Colo., she held Markelz's hand and urged Americans to go to www.joiningforces.gov<http://www.joiningforces.gov>, the White House website, for more about the campaign.

They hugged before leaving.

"They were so proud that she came there, she and Dr. Biden, Its an honor. this is apolitical, you know. in my opinion, its to reinforce the fact that we should remember the sacrifices of these young men and women, and also the sacrifices of each of their families," Markelz said.

About the Warrior and Family Support Center. It is on Fort Sam Houston, a short walk from the post's Warrior Transition Battalion, where wounded soldiers spend months and sometimes years recovering from their wounds. It is also near the old Powless Guest House, which was known originally as the Soldier and Family and Assistance Center when it opened nearly eight years ago. The Fort Sam Houston center was the first in the Army.

While funds to operate the center come entirely from donations, salaries for nine full-time workers are paid for by the U.S. government, Markelz said.

San Antonio developers Steve and Les Huffman[SN1] helped raise more than $5[SN2] million in cash and in-kind donations to build a new 12,000-square-foot center, which opened Dec. 8, 2008. Thousands of troops, including airmen, sailors and Marines, have been served since the much smaller center went into business at the Powless Guest House on Dec. 3, 2003. The facility always has been open to spouses, parents and children. "They come in all sizes, shapes and forms," said Markelz, who has headed the center since its inception.

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Sig Christenson, military writer, San Antonio Express-News
(210) 250-3205 (O)/(210) 859-9135 (Cell)

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