Story, photo by Ben Sherman

Staff Sgt. Louis Thompsonremembers the day that hesaw the end of his active-duty military career.

“The doctor told me that Icouldn’t do my military jobany more. I sat in the doc-tor’s office and cried. Forty-one years old and I’m sit-ting there crying like a babybecause all of a sudden mylife is about to change in away that I wasn’t preparedfor,” Thompson said. “I feltlike my feet had beenkicked out from under meand I had no purpose as faras the military was con-cerned. You know, you’redone for here.”

Like a lot of WoundedWarriors,Thompson felt sorryfor himself, because all of hishopes and dreams of a mili-tary career were taken awayfrom him. He said he wentthough every stage of griefbefore he accepted thechange.

“I said to myself, ‘Wait aminute, I’ve got one of twochoices. I’m either going tosit here feeing sorry formyself or I can figure out away to make the most of it,”Thompson said, adding thathe realized that it was up tohim to make the most of thesituation.

He was medevaced out ofIraq in 2008, and has had sixoperations since then. He’shad problems with both ofhis knees and his feet.

“They’ve reconstructedboth of my knees using myown bone and cartilage.Theywon’t do a total knee replace-ment because they tell me I’mtoo young,”Thompson said.

Operation WarfighterSo when he came into the

Warrior Transition Unit hereat Fort Sill, he was lookingfor a plan for the future. Hefound it in OperationWarfighter. OWF is a tempo-rary assignment internshipprogram developed by theDepartment of Defense forservice members who arerecovering at military treat-ment facilities throughoutthe United States.

The program provideswounded, ill or injuredSoldiers with meaningfulactivity outside of the hospi-tal environment.

Work therapyStacey Dancy serves as

transition coordinator for theFort Sill WTU.Part of her taskis giving the WoundedWarriors work therapy, butalso extending that programinto the Operation Warfighterprogram, where she arrangesfor Soldiers to go out into

federal agencies and dointernships.

“OWF is for active-dutyWounded Warriors whohave not finished their med-ical hold or retired.What weare trying to do is get withSoldiers who are transition-ing out and give them thepremium spots, by lettingthem work in an internshipthat is non-paid, becausethey are already gettingpaid as Soldiers. And so it isreally a win-win for bothparties, because the agencygets someone who is reallyexcited to do the job,” saidDancy.

It didn’t take Thompsonlong to see that OWF waswhat he was looking for.

“As a Soldier I’m going totake advantage of everyopportunity that they haveto help me because I’ve got alife after the military to thinkabout. So I went to Ms.Dancy and said,‘I want to goto work with the Corps ofEngineers,”he said.

Working with the Corps ofEngineers was a perfect fitfor Thompson, who ownedhis own business for 12years while serving in theOklahoma National Guardon weekends.

His company did con-struction on military andgovernment installationsworldwide under govern-ment contracts.

“The majority of the workI did was military contractwork and run by the Corpsof Engineers, so I am veryfamiliar with them. I felt likeI had something to offeragain,”he said.

“A lot of time we associateour value with our job andespecially as a Soldier, whenyou can’t do your MOS youhave a low image of your-self,”Dancy stated.“So it wasgreat for SergeantThompson to get a positionworking with the Corps ofEngineers.”

Thompson has been ableto work through the Corps’quality assurance and proj-ect management programsat Fort Sill, because of hisbackground in project man-agement and safety.

But it hasn’t been easy forThompson to adjust to thenew situation. “I wentaround with one of thequality assurance guys for acouple of weeks, and theproblem with that was,because of my injuries,being on my feet so muchreally wore me out, becausethose guys are on their feetconstantly. It was tough,”Thompson said. “I got tomeet with the safety man-ager and it was a match, itwas perfect. I can use my

experience, my construc-tion background and mili-tary background as far assafety management goes. Ican go out and do some-thing when I get out of theArmy,”he added.

Thompson has been in theprogram for six months,working with Frank Howe,safety representative for theCorps of Engineers as theyoversee the building of FortSill’s new AdvancedIndividual Training barrackseast of Reynolds Hospital.

“Sergeant Thompsonappreciates the role of thesafety officer and keepingworkers safe. He has a goodeye for being able to do haz-ard identification in thefield,”Howe said.

He has received his dis-ability retirement rating andis looking at retiring at theend of March. He will finishhis degree at CameronUniversity and complete allof his safety training andcertificates so that he canbecome a safety manager,preferably with the Corps ofEngineers.

“The opportunities are outthere, and Soldiers whohave been in the Army for awhile, who are mature andknow what they want haveto take advantage of them.

Sergeant Thompson came inand said, ‘I heard about thisOWF program and I want todo it.’ He pretty much devel-oped his own plan. I setsome things up for him andhe took it from there,” saidDancy.

InternshipWhile Thompson is wait-

ing for a job to develop hehas applied for an internshipin Korea.

“I really love it in Korea.They are doing a lot of con-struction over there, buildingthe new facilities at CampHumphreys and CampCarroll, and it’s a non-paidinternship to where I get theexperience of working anddoing on-the-job training,”hesaid.

“I know that a lot ofSoldiers who are comingback are hurting, and thelast thing they want to hearabout is another program.But as they work to get backinto a normal routine and bea part of society, there areprograms they will be ableto look at and take advan-tage of,”he added.“If I couldgive one message to everySoldier it would be thatnobody is going to give it toyou if you don’t get out andlook for it and take advan-tage of it yourself.”

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Wounded Warrior’s Strength

WTU Soldier focuses on future after Army

“The doctor told me that I couldn’t do my military job any more. I sat in the doctor’s office and cried.”Staff Sgt. Louis Thompson

Frank Howe, safety representative for the Corps ofEngineers talks with Staff Sgt. Louis Thompson about iden-tifying hazardous situations on job sites. Thompson, aSoldier in Fort Sill’s Warrior Transition Unit, is getting on-the-job experience through Operation Warfighter.