Page 31 - The Edge - Summer 2019

Wounded Warrior Project The organization helped Sonntag prepare for retirement

Continued from page 30 and provided an education on benefits he wasn’t aware
of, such as combat-related special compensation.
Sonntag is quoted as saying: “I cried for a day because
vessels. Moments later, other than a slight headache and I found people who understood me. They knew exactly
a bit of nausea, Sonntag, a sergeant first class, felt normal, what I had been through. Meeting others showed me
refusing medical attention. there was a life for me when I got out of the military.”
His decision that day, Wounded Warrior Project reports, Wounded Warrior Project was founded in 2003 in
would turn out to be one of worst mistakes of his life. In the Roanoke, Virginia, by a group of veterans and friends who
years between the mortar explosion and when he finally took action to help the injured service men and women
sought help, Sonntag lived with debilitating headaches and of this generation.
violent nightmares. Sometimes he would get lost driving According to the organization’s website, Wounded
home. Other times, he would forget what he was doing while Warrior Project is one of the largest veterans’ service
writing an email or his sentences would run together in a organizations in the United States, with office locations
jumble during conversation. and partners across the country. As a veterans’ charity,
Fortunately, he walked into the Veterans Affairs hospital the organization serves veterans, caregivers and families
in Long Beach, California, in 2008, where doctors found of veterans who incurred a physical or mental injury or
a head injury and internal damage on the right side of illness on or after September 11, 2001.
his body. His carotid artery was blocked and so was his The project’s message to former members of the
right kidney, according to Wounded Warrior Project. Two military is: “We’re stronger together. As a warrior or
surgeries and months of counseling helped Sonntag put his caregiver, there may be times when you feel like no
life back together. one understands what you’re going through. Wounded
Eventually, Sonntag met Norbie Lara, a spokesman for Warrior Project is here to make sure you know you are
Wounded Warrior Project and a wounded veteran himself. never alone.”

SUMMER 2019 | THE EDGE 31