Sierra Vista Herald-Review
By Bill Hess
Herald/Review
Published on Thursday, February 14, 2008 SIERRA VISTA - Service in Iraq has led to three local veterans being awarded $500 each from the American Legion.
The checks were passed out Wednesday night by Misti Owen, the commander of the American Legion, Bill Carmichael Post 52, to Anthony Patchell, Jeffrey Scott and Michelle Watson at the post facility in Sierra Vista.
“It’s a great thing,” said Owen about the national American Legion program that was presented $500,000 from the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes, as a partnership to the legion’s Heroes to Hometowns project.
For the three recipients, who now call the Sierra Vista area home, the checks will help from everything to buying gasoline to travel to the VA Medical Center in Tucson to purchasing diapers for soon-to-be-born children.
A former sergeant first class, Patchell said during his deployment to Iraq from May 2003 to August 2004, he went through a number of improvised explosive devices going off, rocket attacks and other fighting that led to his suffering from a number of back fractures plus other injuries.
Carrying 120-pound rucksacks full of intelligence surveillance equipment led to injuries that became part of the 70 percent disability he has received from the VA.
Recently he had back surgery at the VA facility in Tucson and expects to have more in the future.
A former instructor with Company A, 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, where the now defunct ground surveillance course was taught, Patchell is currently employed at the Intelligence Center as a civilian.
His $500 will go to help pay for traveling from Sierra Vista to Tucson, “six or seven times a month to see (VA medical) specialists,” he said.
Saying he liked his assignment on Fort Huachuca, Patchell, 33, of Pennsylvania, said he decided to return to the area with his wife and three of his five children.
He served in the Army for 12 years.
For Watson, 33 years old and from Ohio, military intelligence is also in her blood.
She served in Iraq as a member of an intelligence unit of the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart, Ga., in Kuwait and Iraq from September 2002 to August 2003.
The former sergeant, who served six years in the Army, has a 50 percent VA disability for back injuries and migraine headaches related to her service in Iraq.
Like Patchell, she is an instructor, along with her husband, at the Intelligence Center.
Expecting her second child in a couple of months, Watson said the $500 she received will be a help in paying for baby items, like diapers.
Also looking at the use of funds for an expected child of himself and his girlfriend is 24-year-old former Marine Scott.
The former corporal served with the 7th Engineers, 4th Battalion from Camp Pendleton, Calif., in Iraq from March to September 2004.
During that time he received shrapnel in his back and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.
A New Yorker by birth, Scott moved to Sierra Vista with his family.
With a 70 percent disability, he is working part time, as he waits to attend the U.S. Border Patrol Academy.
Saying he has passed the language test to learn Spanish and passed the interview process, Scott, a four-year Marine veteran, said he has been accepted now that his PTSD issue is behind him.
None of the three $500 recipients have been medically discharged, each noting their services only gave them 10 percent disabilities, which was increased by the VA.
Patchell noted his medical records indicate he has 21 specific areas for his disabilities.
The trio are looking forward to productive lives and each appreciate the funds from the national American Legion and the Coalition to Salute American Heroes.
Steve McKinney, the local post’s director of the American Legion Riders, said it was the national headquarters that accepted nominations and decided whom would each be given $500.
The national legion headquarters awarded 1,000 grants throughout the nation and Sierra Vista received three of them.
Owen said each local post - of which there are 14,000 - was asked to present checks to area winners.
McKinney said the special program is a good way to honor the men and women who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan and ended being disabled by their service.
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By Bill Hess
Herald/Review
Published on Thursday, February 14, 2008 SIERRA VISTA - Service in Iraq has led to three local veterans being awarded $500 each from the American Legion.
The checks were passed out Wednesday night by Misti Owen, the commander of the American Legion, Bill Carmichael Post 52, to Anthony Patchell, Jeffrey Scott and Michelle Watson at the post facility in Sierra Vista.
“It’s a great thing,” said Owen about the national American Legion program that was presented $500,000 from the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes, as a partnership to the legion’s Heroes to Hometowns project.
For the three recipients, who now call the Sierra Vista area home, the checks will help from everything to buying gasoline to travel to the VA Medical Center in Tucson to purchasing diapers for soon-to-be-born children.
A former sergeant first class, Patchell said during his deployment to Iraq from May 2003 to August 2004, he went through a number of improvised explosive devices going off, rocket attacks and other fighting that led to his suffering from a number of back fractures plus other injuries.
Carrying 120-pound rucksacks full of intelligence surveillance equipment led to injuries that became part of the 70 percent disability he has received from the VA.
Recently he had back surgery at the VA facility in Tucson and expects to have more in the future.
A former instructor with Company A, 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, where the now defunct ground surveillance course was taught, Patchell is currently employed at the Intelligence Center as a civilian.
His $500 will go to help pay for traveling from Sierra Vista to Tucson, “six or seven times a month to see (VA medical) specialists,” he said.
Saying he liked his assignment on Fort Huachuca, Patchell, 33, of Pennsylvania, said he decided to return to the area with his wife and three of his five children.
He served in the Army for 12 years.
For Watson, 33 years old and from Ohio, military intelligence is also in her blood.
She served in Iraq as a member of an intelligence unit of the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart, Ga., in Kuwait and Iraq from September 2002 to August 2003.
The former sergeant, who served six years in the Army, has a 50 percent VA disability for back injuries and migraine headaches related to her service in Iraq.
Like Patchell, she is an instructor, along with her husband, at the Intelligence Center.
Expecting her second child in a couple of months, Watson said the $500 she received will be a help in paying for baby items, like diapers.
Also looking at the use of funds for an expected child of himself and his girlfriend is 24-year-old former Marine Scott.
The former corporal served with the 7th Engineers, 4th Battalion from Camp Pendleton, Calif., in Iraq from March to September 2004.
During that time he received shrapnel in his back and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.
A New Yorker by birth, Scott moved to Sierra Vista with his family.
With a 70 percent disability, he is working part time, as he waits to attend the U.S. Border Patrol Academy.
Saying he has passed the language test to learn Spanish and passed the interview process, Scott, a four-year Marine veteran, said he has been accepted now that his PTSD issue is behind him.
None of the three $500 recipients have been medically discharged, each noting their services only gave them 10 percent disabilities, which was increased by the VA.
Patchell noted his medical records indicate he has 21 specific areas for his disabilities.
The trio are looking forward to productive lives and each appreciate the funds from the national American Legion and the Coalition to Salute American Heroes.
Steve McKinney, the local post’s director of the American Legion Riders, said it was the national headquarters that accepted nominations and decided whom would each be given $500.
The national legion headquarters awarded 1,000 grants throughout the nation and Sierra Vista received three of them.
Owen said each local post - of which there are 14,000 - was asked to present checks to area winners.
McKinney said the special program is a good way to honor the men and women who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan and ended being disabled by their service.
