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Public help sought for housing for families of recovering GIs

San Antonio Express News
by Sig Christenson, Express-News Military Writer
05.23.06

Curtis Hunter worked low to the floor of the Center for the Intrepid, mounting a receptacle for an electrical outlet to a galvanized metal frame.

If the work isn't quite a labor of love for the 62-year-old San Antonio journeyman electrician, helping build a new high-tech facility for troops badly injured in combat had extra meaning.

"It does to me because I was a medic in the Army," said Hunter, who trained at Fort Sam Houston and later was based in Japan, where he cared for troops wounded in Vietnam.

"I knew some of them," he said.

At the end of last week, the Intrepid center was taking form. Sunlight reflected off shiny silver frames that filled the interior of the five-story building. Workers laid electrical wiring and piping. Next door, a pair of Fisher House residences for the families of wounded troops also were beginning to take form, but one thing was still missing ‹ about $4 million in needed donations.

A fund drive for the Intrepid center has been completed and now tops $41 million. But local civic leaders say the Fisher House project, which is critical because families of the wounded will stay there at little or no cost, needs a big cash infusion.

They're appealing to San Antonio-area residents and businesses to meet the goal.

The homes will have 42 rooms and cost $10 million.

Contributions for the Intrepid center and Fisher Houses from Texas and San Antonio have been relatively low, but Joe Krier, president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, thinks local residents and businesses simply aren't aware of the need.

"Bank of America gave over $1 million to this project, but candidly it has not been on the radar screen locally very much at all," he recently told the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board. "We've seen not much local support."

All funds for the Intrepid center and Fisher Houses are coming from private sources. No money is being taken from the government for either.

Arnold Fisher, a 73-year-old New York real estate developer spearheading the project, said the idea is for everyday Americans to support troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We don't want government money," he told the editorial board. "This is Americans doing this for Americans."

The Intrepid center will open Jan. 29 and serve up to 400 war veterans a year. The troops, often victims of bombs hidden in roads, trees and cars, will have a climbing wall, gym and track, plus a simulator with a 300-degree projection screen that gives the illusion of various environments as they move.

Fisher, who arrived in Korea as a corporal only four days after the 1950-53 war ended, said the center wouldn't be state of the art, but "state of the world."

More than 500,000 Americans have contributed to the center, giving from as little as $2 to as much as $3.5 million. But of those, just 300 came from Texas.

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund guarantees that all contributions will continue to go toward construction of the houses, with nothing taken out for administrative costs.

Actor Denzel Washington, who with his wife sits on the Fisher House Foundation board, gave $500,000. Two months ago, Bank of America contributed $1 million to the center. The money will go to construction and furnishings.

"I think it's highly probable that the people of San Antonio, if they know this, could really help," said Bill White, Fallen Heroes Fund president. "I think that's what we're asking, not necessarily a challenge, but it would be great to have the people of San Antonio supporting this effort and being part of this excitement in January."

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