Intrepid. The word means fearless. Throughout history there have been many people, ships, and even automobiles to which the word has been applied. Among those are the nearly 14,000 disabled veterans injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Three years ago, an institution called The Intrepid National Armed Forces Rehabilitation Center (210-916-6100) was added to the list. Its mission: to serve the needs of soldiers of today and tomorrow. In January 2007, its doors opened at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.

An Individual’s Commitment to Disabled Veterans
Forty million dollars was allocated for the creation of a rehabilitation hospital specializing in the needs of disabled American veterans, specifically amputees. The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a non-profit organization begun by the late philanthropist Zachary Fisher funded the facility.

Fisher never served in the armed forces; he created the fund out of his vision of support for their efforts. The fund is named after the USS Intrepid, the aircraft carrier/museum that Fisher helped keep afloat. It donated the facility to the Department of Defense.

Basic and Advanced Rehabilitation Services Provided
Both current service members and veterans who need extensive medical or rehabilitative care are treated at the 60,000 square-foot facility. (Each year The Center for the Intrepid serves 300 to 400 new patients, every one of them working to recover from life-altering injuries.) It is state of the art, and plans to stay that way. Pools and exercise equipment, standard fare for rehabilitation of the severely injured, are just the beginning of available resources.

A gamut of medical and technological professionals sees to the physical, mental, and emotional needs of patients. In addition to basic diagnostic and treatment approaches, for example, physical therapy, patients may also receive such advanced treatments as high-tech prosthetics, computerized and video monitoring, biomechanical/gait studies, and advanced physical training.

Disabled Veterans Benefit from Innovative Medical Approaches
Some of the best minds in the country staff the research laboratories. One of these is Dr. John Fergason, a world-renowned prosthetist from the University of Washington.

For Dr. Fergason and other staff members, providing new treatments and technologies to improve the lives of prosthetics wearers is of utmost importance. That's why tools such as the Uneven Terrain Modeler were created at the Center. The Modeler is a virtual reality simulator that puts patients with new prosthetics into various situations where their prosthetics can be tested, and adjusted, on the fly.

A Patient is Part of a Military Family
We all know that the men and women who serve in our nation's armed forces undergo both physical and mental injuries that few outsiders can understand. When they are injured, they also experience emotional angst. Some of that is due to a separation from those they love. Ken Fisher, head of the Fisher House Foundation, understood that when he decided to build a pair of 21-room housing units alongside the Center, so each military family could stay together at a time when emotional support was most needed.

Fisher is no stranger to the families of service members in need. His organization has been supplying cost-free living space to military families at hospitals and rehabilitation facilities since 1990. Every year some 10,000 military families stay together, thanks to his efforts.

With newly injured soldiers coming out of battlefields such as Iraq and Afghanistan every day, the Center's waiting list is constantly growing longer.

See Related Articles
For more information about health care benefits for disabled veterans, see VA Care is Here!: An Overview of the VA Health Care System.

Discover how veterans with disabilities stay active, despite their injuries, in VA Equipment Grants Help Veterans with Disabilities Stay Active.