Sometimes a Soldier with an amazing attitude can unintentionally be the catalyst to re-inspire and re-energize those who work to support him.

That’s what Staff Sgt. James Dubose found to be true, anyway.

A squad leader with Charlie Company, Dubose said it can be easy to be overwhelmed with the daily information and issues to handle that come along with taking care of Soldiers. But he said the reward comes from seeing Soldiers grow and progress in their time here.

On the mountain, while gliding down the slopes on skis, Staff Sgt. Roberto Flores gets to once again experience the adrenaline rush that he’s always been drawn to.

“You get that sense of freedom and speed that allows you to be, I don’t know, free,” said Flores, an infantryman who was injured in Afghanistan in December 2011. A bullet severed his spinal cord, punctured his right lung, and exited through his right arm. Flores, a remote care Soldier in the Warrior Transition Battalion, received most of his care at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System... Full Story

In early December, Warrior Transition Battalion staff took a week to visit more than a dozen of the unit’s most seriously ill and injured Soldiers who are homebound or in off-base treatment facilities.

From Dec. 2 to 8, members of the WTB’s Remote Care Panel worked 18-hour days, travelling throughout California to visit their Soldiers and support their panel, said Headquarters and Headquarters Company Nurse Case Manager Capt. Matthew Helbert.

These visits, which in... Full Story

“I never, ever expected to get a phone call. I thought you were invincible,” Cheryl Leonard said to her husband, recalling his last deployment.

But her phone did ring in March 2010, just a few months after 1st Sgt. Mike Leonard went to Afghanistan.

As a new leader with Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s then-5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Leonard had opted to join his Soldiers in a patrol in Kandahar Province.

“I wanted them to see I was in... Full Story