Invincible Spirit Festival

On June 5, 2015, members of the Texas Disabled Veterans Association attended the Fort Sam Houston, Texas SAMMC Patient, Staff, and Family, Appreciation Event In conjunction with the “Invincible Spirit Festival” and met Gary Sinise (Actor/Director/Musician), TDVA members gave Mr. Gary Sinise a Texas Disabled Veterans Association (TDVA) Challenge Coin on behalf of the TDVA membership for all of his hard work honoring and visiting Wounded Warriors throughout the Nation! Mr. Sinise also heads The Gary Sinise Foundation at Garysinisefoundation.org which creates and supports unique Veterans programs. TDVA was also able to discuss several of our ongoing Veteran’s programs with Mr. Sinise. Several hundred patients, medical staff members, veterans, and family members enjoyed cold beverages, barbecued food with all the trimmings, and music featuring, Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band also featuring Robert Irvine.

The San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC) formerly Brooke General Hospital (BGH) is situated at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, and is part of Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) and the U.S. Army Medical Command. BAMC is the command element over all Army medical facilities in the San Antonio area, including SAMMC. It is a University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and USUHS teaching hospital and is home to the Army Burn Center. The hospital today is a 425-bed Joint Commission-accredited facility, expandable to 653 beds in the event of disaster. Services include general medical and surgical care, adult and pediatric primary care clinics, 24-hour Emergency department, specialty clinics, clinical services, wellness and prevention services, veterinary care, and environmental health services. SAMMC is a Level I trauma center, the only stateside one in the MEDCOM, and is part of the Southern Regional Medical Command. Within the SAMMC complex is the Center for the Intrepid which has a threefold mission which is to provide rehabilitation for OIF/OEF casualties who have sustained amputation, burns, or functional limb loss, to provide education to DoD and Department of Veteran’s Affairs professionals on cutting edge rehabilitation modalities, and to promote research in the fields of orthopedics, prosthetics and physical/occupational rehabilitation. The staff and equipment for the building was selected to provide the full spectrum of amputee rehabilitation as well as the advanced outpatient rehabilitation for burn victims and limb salvage patients with residual functional loss. Just outside the gates of SAMMC there is a building called the Wounded Warriors Transition Barracks where recently injured and wounded military personnel who have recovered at SAMMC continue their ongoing physical and mental therapies as they return back to military service or transition back into civilian life. SAMMC has cared for thousands of service members who were injured in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and military operations throughout the world, and nearly 1,500 medical professionals have been deployed in support of those missions. Since the Global War on Terrorism began in September 2001, the Burn Team has made frequent trips to Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center in Germany, transporting patients back to SAMMC for care.