[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 31 (Thursday, March 11, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E347-E348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    FRED DOWNS, JIM MAYER NAMED DAILY POINTS OF LIGHT AWARD WINNERS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LANE EVANS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 10, 2004

  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, on March 1, the Points of Light Foundation 
singled out two career employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs 
(VA) for recognition as a Daily Point of

[[Page E348]]

Light. I know of no individuals more deserving of the honor than Fred 
Downs and Jim Mayer, each a remarkable success story.
  Both men were profoundly injured in Vietnam. Mr. Downs lost his left 
arm; Mr. Mayer lost both legs below the knee. Both were scarred by 
shrapnel and multiple surgeries. Their stories could have ended there. 
Instead, they turned their lives and their work into encouragement and 
inspiration for other veterans and for all who know them.
  Mr. Downs and Mr. Mayer have long volunteered to work with those who 
have suffered traumatic injury in service to their country. Their 
service began during the 1991 Gulf War. They heard news reports that 
Saddam Hussein had dispersed a million land mines to maim and kill 
coalition forces if they invaded Iraq. They strategized to figure how 
they could best help the wounded, utilizing their own experiences and 
recoveries and recalling when they most needed someone with whom to 
talk.
  Mr. Downs and Mr. Mayer organized field trips, picnics and hosted 
backyard barbecues for the injured from the Gulf War. After the war was 
over, the team continued visiting service members injured in training 
accidents or deployments. They keep in touch with many of the patients 
they have met. Twenty-two of the 58 wounded soldiers Mr. Mayer met 
during the Gulf War showed up at his house for a July 4th barbecue in 
1996 for a five-year reunion. He and Mr. Downs also attend the annual 
National Veterans Wheelchair Games and the National Disabled Veterans 
Winter Sports Clinic, where they meet with and counsel veterans.
  As American troops began the build-up for Operation Iraqi Freedom, 
Mr. Downs and Mr. Mayer met with military surgeons at Walter Reed Army 
Medical Center. They shared their insights into traumatic injuries and 
talked to them about how they felt when they were injured. The pair 
also discussed how they thought the medical staff could help the 
wounded soldiers. They have continued to share their stories with 
servicemen and women who have similar injuries, who come to realize 
there is life after amputation. Since April 2003, the pair has visited 
more than 60 amputee soldiers at Walter Reed and the National Naval 
Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, as volunteer amputee peer 
visitors.
  The following article from VA's in-house magazine, VAnguard, 
discusses what these two gentlemen are doing to help the young men and 
women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

                            Messages of Hope

       With their Kevlar body armor and rapid access to medical 
     treatment, soldiers wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom are 
     surviving what were once fatal injuries. One day they're 
     busting down doors in Baghdad and the next they're lying in a 
     hospital bed with busted-up limbs.
       ``When you first see them, they're still confused and can't 
     seem to comprehend the magnitude of what happened to them,'' 
     explained Frederick Downs Jr., VA's chief of prosthetics, 
     describing his visits to wounded troops at Walter Reed Army 
     Medical Center in Washington, D.C., which has received almost 
     300 battlefield casualties from the war in Iraq.
       Downs knows exactly what they're going through. As a 23-
     year-old lieutenant with the Army's 4th Infantry Division, he 
     was nearly killed when he stepped on a ``Bouncing Betty'' 
     land mine on Jan. 11, 1968, near Chu Lai, Vietnam. He 
     survived the blast, but lost his left arm above the elbow. 
     Now, more than 30 years later, he shares his story with 
     soldiers who have similar injuries. ``I want them to 
     understand there is life after amputation,'' Downs said.


                            a simple motive

       Since April, Downs and Jim Mayer, director of Leadership 
     VA, have visited more than 60 wounded soldiers at Walter Reed 
     and National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., as 
     volunteer amputee peer visitors. Their motive is simple, 
     according to Mayer, who lost both legs to a land mine on 
     April 25, 1969, while serving with the 25th Infantry Division 
     in Vietnam. ``If you've been through an amputation and you 
     see others who are experiencing that trauma, you just want to 
     help them in any way you can,'' he said.
       Their efforts began during the 1991 Gulf War after hearing 
     news reports that Saddam Hussein had dispersed a million land 
     mines to maim and kill coalition forces if they invaded Iraq. 
     ``We were concerned there were going to be a lot of 
     casualties and we wanted to do something to help,'' Mayer 
     recalled. The question was, how could they best help the 
     wounded?
       Mayer found the answer when a friend asked if he could 
     remember a particular turning point during his recovery at 
     Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. ``I remember a 
     former patient who came to visit us one day, it was just a 
     chance encounter. He lost both arms and had these prosthetic 
     hooks. I was mesmerized because I realized he had a life,'' 
     he said.
       The encounter provided hope for his own future, something 
     he said severely wounded soldiers rarely have. ``After a 
     traumatic injury, you live hour to hour, day to day and you 
     tend to block out the future. At first you put your hope on 
     the shelf because hope is too far in the future.''
       And so it was that Mayer, Downs and about a dozen other 
     Vietnam veterans, many who worked for VA, started visiting 
     wounded soldiers and sharing their stories of overcoming 
     traumatic injury. During the first Gulf War, Mayer estimated 
     he volunteered about 800 hours at military hospitals. He 
     organized field trips, picnics and hosted backyard barbecues. 
     He also started bringing milkshakes on each visit, leading 
     patients to nickname him ``the milkshake man.''


                         Unforgettable Stories

       The group dwindled after the war, but Mayer and Downs 
     continued visiting servicemembers injured in training 
     accidents or deployments. Some of the stories are hard to 
     forget. There was the soldier injured on the train to Bosnia 
     when electricity arced from a cable to his helmet and blew 
     off his legs. There was the Ranger who broke his back when he 
     fell out of the Black Hawk helicopter during the 1993 raid in 
     Mogadishu. And there was the sailor who lost his legs when he 
     got tangled in a rope trying to rescue a shipmate and was 
     dragged through a porthole.
       Mayer keeps in touch with many of the patients he's met 
     over the years. Twenty-two of the 58 wounded soldiers he met 
     during the first Gulf War showed up at his house for a July 
     4th barbecue in 1996 for their five-year reunion. He sees 
     others at two of VA's National Rehabilitation Special 
     Events--the National Veterans Wheelchair Games and the 
     National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic. Some even 
     come to his April 25 ``Alive Day'' celebrations, an event he 
     has held every year since 1970 to mark the day he almost 
     died.


                      The Emotional Side of Injury

       As American troops began the build-up for Operation Iraqi 
     Freedom, Mayer and Downs, along with their buddy Jack Farley, 
     a Vietnam veteran and amputee who serves as a judge with the 
     U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, expanded their 
     volunteer role by meeting with military surgeons at Walter 
     Reed to share their insights into traumatic injury. ``We 
     talked about how we felt when we were injured and how we 
     thought the medical staff could help the wounded soldiers,'' 
     said Mayer.
       Dr. Artie Shelton, a retired Army colonel who commanded a 
     field hospital in Somalia and now works as a consultant in 
     VA's transplant program, helped arrange the meeting. He said 
     the Army physicians are extremely qualified and well trained, 
     but they may not fully understand the emotional and 
     psychological complexities of traumatic injury. ``The doctors 
     know the medical side, but Jim and Fred can tell them about 
     the full impact and repercussion on these soldiers,'' Shelton 
     said.
       Among the aspects of recovery Downs stresses are 
     encouraging the soldiers to do things on their own. ``Never 
     tell a guy he can't do something,'' he said. ``You need to 
     encourage him to try, to test himself and see what he can do. 
     It speeds up their psychological healing and helps them get 
     back into life again.''
       If they have doubts about what they can accomplish, Downs 
     tells them about his own life after injury: going to school, 
     getting married, starting a family, writing three books, and 
     leading VA's multimillion-dollar prosthetic and sensory aids 
     service.
       He also has gained international recognition for helping 
     establish land mine survivor programs in several countries. 
     The U.S. Agency for International Development recently asked 
     for his assistance with a land mine eradication program in 
     Afghanistan. (To learn more about his recovery and land mine 
     eradication efforts, visit the Center for Defense Information 
     Web site at www.cdi.org/adm/1250/Downs.html.)
       Mayer and Downs volunteer because they've been there and 
     because they care. But also because they want to bring a 
     little dignity to American troops who suffer traumatic 
     injuries.
       ``Vietnam vets, to put it politely, never actually felt 
     welcomed home,'' said Mayer. ``But these guys coming back 
     from Iraq, we're going to welcome them home and become their 
     friends, help them reconcile their injuries, and bring them a 
     little dignity.''

  Mr. Speaker, the selflessness, compassion and humanity of Fred Downs 
and Jim Mayer--all the more profound considering their own 
experiences--have been important to the young men and women recently 
injured in service and frightened about what such traumatic change can 
mean in their lives and how they can overcome it. I know my colleagues 
join me in expressing our gratitude and respect for their good works.

                          ____________________