Helping Hollywood Tell the Wounded Warrior Story

Filed under Advocate Story, Soldier and Family Story by on June 20, 2011 at 11:39 am {no comments}

By Kathreyn Harris, AW2 Advocate and Spouse

AW2 Advocate Kathreyn Harris and her husband, AW2 Veteran Shilo Harris at the Joining Forces panel discussion in Los Angeles, CA.

Editor’s Note: AW2 Advocate Kathreyn Harris and her husband, AW2 Veteran Shilo Harris participated in a panel discussion as part of first lady Michelle Obama’s Joining Forces campaign to inform the Hollywood community on ways it can help communicate to US citizens the experiences of military Families during and after war.

I never thought my voice would represent so many amazing people. I have the opportunity daily to help on a one-on-one basis. This trip to Los Angeles for the first lady’s Joining Forces campaign event, however, gave my husband Shilo and me a chance to show our country what our wounded warrior population is made of.

We brought awareness to a larger population. We, as Families of wounded warriors, experienced the stares and snickers. Hopefully by talking to members from the Hollywood guilds we were able to open the door to awareness about what we went through.

We talked about the firsthand adversity we face and how we overcome it. We talked about many of our friends that face these challenges as well. We shared some of our personal experiences—and explained how they are not always pretty, but are necessary. We spoke about the heartache that the public seldom sees.

We talked about our children and how they had to grow up. One of the speakers spoke about how there are so many kids in our country that have no idea what their freedom costs another child. I could see as we talked about our kids and their pain, how so many people in the audience could never dream of it.

The fact that so many Families are ripped apart emotionally is something few know about. These Families may still live in the same home and carry on day to day, but they are separated because of so many reasons. This is something we as wounded warrior Families know about—maybe not firsthand, but through a friend.

With the help of the Joining Forces campaign, I hope the appreciation and awareness we feel in the city of San Antonio, will be felt throughout the nation. I know the Hollywood guilds will be able to bring this awareness into the homes of so many who might not otherwise ever gain an understanding. I also know I talked about the heartbreak and heartache, but that there are so many stories of excitement and happiness to share also.

There is amazing strength and resilience that not only the warriors express, but their spouses and children as well. Our stories need to be told, so that others will know why they are able to carry on with their lives without interruption.

 

A Wounded Warrior’s Pixie Dust

Filed under Resources, Soldier and Family Story, Training, Uncategorized by on March 9, 2011 at 11:29 am {one comment}

By Emily Oehler, WTC Stratcom

Throughout my life there have been key people, that when I met them, I knew it was something special. I’m not talking about celebrities or those with political power. I’m talking about someone who centers you, makes you realize there are greater things in this life, and makes you a better person for knowing them.  Really special people. When I have met these rare people, I was instantly struck to my core—an indelible mark I would forever carry. I would say it was like a lightening strike, but for me, it’s been more like a feeling of being sprinkled with the joy of pixie dust. Magical.

Two years ago I met one such person and his wife—they both gave me a dash of pixie dust—retired SSG Shilo and Kathreyn Harris. On the flight home after meeting them at a work conference, I wrote Shilo and told him he was one of the most beautiful people I had met and that his strength, humor, compassion, and faith were inspiring. Since meeting the Harrises, I’ve had the honor of interviewing them a few times for work with the Warrior Transition Command (WTC) and the Army Wounded Warrior Program (AW2).  During my last visit, they each sat down with me for separate three hour interviews to share the nooks and crannies of their life since Shilo was severely injured in Iraq. They shared their story in hopes of helping others cope with similar life-changing events. The newly finished 30-minute video is a compelling look at service, marriage, compassion, fortitude, faith, loss, hope and love. 

Warriors in Transition:  A Story of Resiliency demonstrates true strength of character:   

  • On February, 19, 2007, during his second deployment to Iraq, the vehicle SSG Harris was traveling in was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED), killing three Soldiers, wounding the driver, and leaving SSG Harris with third degree burns on 35% of his body. Due to the severity of his burns, SSG Harris lost his ears, tip of his nose, three fingers, and he sustained fractures to his left collar bone and C-7 vertebrae. Shilo told me, “You know when I’m talking to Soldiers I try to tell them you have to look at everything that God gives you as a gift. It may not always be the gift that you want, but you have to take what you get sometimes and turn it into something else. And that’s kind of what I’ve done.” Since retiring, Shilo has become an Outreach Coordinator for the Wounded Warrior Project. 
  • So that Shilo could recover at home, Kathreyn became his primary caregiver spending up to six hours a day on his wound care.  Additionally, she was mom to their daughter and stepmom to his three sons (and now a newborn baby!).  During his recovery, she became an Advocate for the Army Wounded Warrior Program (AW2) to support other wounded warriors at Brooke Army Medical Center.  Kathreyn shared with me that, “The situation that we’ve been put in, it would have been just as easy to let it guide our life into a negative  and into turmoil—and all the negative things that you can imagine but we’ve taken what happened to Shilo and we’ve turned it into a very positive thing.”

I don’t want to share too much and spoil watching the video, but I do hope you take time to watch them share their story—it’s not unlike many of the stories I’ve heard over the past four years shared by some of the 8,000 severely wounded Soldiers and Veterans I have had the honor of meeting. The Harrises’ story will feed your soul, inspire your heart, and captivate your mind. 

And, watch out for their pixie dust!

This is Just the Beginning

Filed under 2010 Symposium, Career and Education, Soldier Story by on June 19, 2010 at 5:08 pm {no comments}
SSG (R) Shilo Harris with his daughter, Lizzie

SSG (R) Shilo Harris with his daughter, Lizzie. Harris inspired wounded warriors and employers at the 2010 AW2 Career Expo.

By Emily Oehler, WTC Stratcom

When the AW2 Career Expo participants and employers first saw retired SSG Shilo Harris, they noticed his severe burns—no ears, a remade nose, little hair, scars, missing fingers, patched up skin. But when they listened to him speak during lunch, they only saw the strength of a Soldier, the love of a husband and the compassion of a man.

At 27, Shilo Harris joined the Army. “I wanted to go to combat even though I had a wife and kids. After 9/11, I knew I had to do something,” Shilo told the AW2 Symposium delegates and Career Expo employers. “I am proud of what I was a part of in Iraq and in the Army.”

For Shilo, February 19, 2007, was a day like any other, “we were running the roads building rapport with the locals—traveling along a road filled with IED holes the size of a VW bug.” An IED exploded under his truck killing his gunner and two dismounts and injuring the driver and Shilo in the front passenger seat. “We lost three great Soldiers, great Americans that day.”

“It rung my bell pretty good—and then I felt hot. I looked down and saw that the uniform on my right arm had melted into my skin like plastic,” Shilo explained. After the IED exploded, an AT4 exploded inside the Humvee creating a tornado of fire around Shilo.

As one Soldier performed combat lifesaving measures on Shilo, he remembers looking over at his mangled left hand thinking, “Man, I better get a day off for this.” Laughing, “You see we didn’t get many days off in Iraq.”

Kathreyn Harris, his wife, then shared her part of their story. “I knew when his commander called me personally that Shilo had done it up right with this injury—he gave everything his all, even getting hurt. He had third degree burns over one-third of his body and a C7 spinal fracture.”

She went on, “There I was the next day leaving my three year old daughter on the couch screaming with her grandparents not knowing what I was getting into as I left for Landstuhl to meet Shilo.” After seeing Shilo she explained, “with all the machines to keeping him alive and all the medicines keeping the infection down, everything changed. My focus now was to get my husband better so that he’d be with us for the rest of our lives.”

Fifty-one days in ICU, 45 of which Shilo was in a medically induced coma, then 17 days in a step down unit, then 4-6 hours a day of wound care, then learning to do everything again. As they stood together in front of the audience, Shilo with his hand on her back, Katherine stated, “We gained his independence back together.”

Shilo closed his remarks by charging the AW2 Symposium delegates, wounded warriors with their spouses, to “take advantage of this opportunity to improve care now and for years to come.” The delegates will spend the upcoming week identifying the top warrior care and transition issues that severely wounded, ill and injured Soldiers, Veterans and their Families face and provide recommendations on how the Army and other government agencies should resolve them.

“As you leave here, I’m begging you, go back and be a productive member of your community. Please be leaders in your communities—and know, this is not the end of the road, this is just the beginning.”

The Story Behind the Photo

Filed under Soldier Story by on December 21, 2009 at 2:34 pm {no comments}
SSG Shilo Harris is featured on several AW2 outreach materials

SSG Shilo Harris is featured on several AW2 outreach materials

By Lee McMahon, WTC Stratcom

The following has been republished from AW2′s fall issue of The Journey, which is available for download in PDF format.

AW2 Soldier SSG Shilo Harris was severely injured February 19, 2007, when the vehicle he was traveling in was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED), killing three Soldiers, wounding the driver, and leaving Harris with third degree burns (full thickness) on 35 percent of his body.

Due to the severity of his burns, SSG Harris is missing his ears, tip of his nose, and three fingers, in addition, he sustained fractures to his left collar bone and the C-7 vertebrae. Following his battlefield evacuation, SSG Harris remained in a coma for 48 days. He spent about two years in recovery at the burn unit of Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, TX.

SSG Harris calls his wife, Kathreyn, a “rock” who has been his strength throughout his lengthy recovery. SSG Harris is the first in the Army to participate in cutting-edge regenerative stem cell research to attempt the re-growth of his fingers.

He is assigned to the Warrior Transition Brigade at Fort Sam Houston, TX, while he continues to recover and awaits medical retirement. He speaks to groups and serves as a mentor to incoming patients at BAMC. Mrs. Harris now serves as an AW2 Advocate to AW2 Soldiers at BAMC.

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