Soldier Develops Clothing Line for Wounded Veterans

My older brother Larry served two tours of duty in Vietnam. The first one was in the 101st Airborne as a parachutist jumping out of helicopters into the rice fields, many times without a chute. Then he re-enlisted and joined heavy artillery, loading two hundred pound shells into the big guns. During both times of service, he was involved in a lot of action. It seemed that he was at all of the hot spots where the heavy fighting was.

He was wounded twice. Once, he caught some shrapnel in his leg, the second time a land mine blew up underneath the Jeep that he was riding in. Although he survived the war physically, it was the mental wounds that eventually did him in. But at least he didn't have to walk around with part of his face missing, or losing part of an arm or leg like many of his comrades that I saw at the Veteran's Hospital here in St. Louis.

My brother eventually succumbed to drug and alcohol abuse, but at least he was whole and intact physically. A lot of war veterans also have to cope with missing arms, legs, or other disfigurements.

One veteran has decided to make living with that disfigurement a little easier. He has decided to come out with a line of clothes specifically for veterans.

Jason Redman suffered a shattered face from a machine gun bullet in Iraq. He had to wear a fixater, that metal rod thing that screws directly into your skull. That made it impossible to wear normal clothing. He had to rip his shirts to get them to fit over the metal contraption on his head.

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

"Those experiences motivated Redman, who lives in Chesapeake, to start up a nonprofit organization called Wounded Wear. Redman, a lieutenant with the Navy SEALs, created the organization about 18 months ago."

This month the organization achieved national attention when Redman and others in the company visited Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington and handed out free clothing to the veterans.

Each specially designed kit of clothing contained a medium-weight jacket, polo shirt, three T-shirts, pajama pants and a luggage roller. The value of each one of the sets of clothing is valued at about $400.

Redman is also offering to tailor the veteran's uniforms free of charge so they fit them. Even though the soldier probably won't be wearing the uniform much anymore, it's still important that the uniform fit because it is a symbol of that soldier's service to his country.

Redman hopes to one day work with a clothing company to develop a line of clothing with the Wounded Wear brand. But for right now he is happy to be able to offer the clothing to the veterans at no charge. Wounded Wear gets most of its money through donations. What a worthy cause.

Source: http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_1f1c58f7-2ea7-5414-af8c-08d4cc779540.html