What We Do

Since March, 2003, over 4,161 American service members have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and over 27,000 have been wounded, with over 12,000 not able to return to duty within 72 hours. Americans are surviving battle injuries that in the past would have killed them. Many of these brave young men and women, and others injured elsewhere, are patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center.

At any given time, Walter Reed has between 40 and 60 patients on inpatient status and as many as another 800 on outpatient status. Of these patients, approximately 107 are amputees. At the same time the Bethesda Naval Hospital treats between 10 and 30 on inpatient status and another 50 or more on outpatient status.

While they are at these two hospitals in the Washington Metropolitan Area, they are our neighbors, and we welcome them into our community. In cooperation with the staffs at these two local hospitals and the military units there, the Yellow Ribbon Fund offers its programs.

From March 1, 2005 through December 31, 2007 , contributions made through the Yellow Ribbon Fund have provided:

• over 670 free rental cars for over 31,000 days,
• over 8,100 free taxi rides,
• over 2,500 free hotel room nights to over 685 family members in hotels,
• over 38 families the free use of our 5 apartments,
• hundreds of free tickets to sporting games, concerts and plays, and
• hundreds of lunches, dinners, golf games, duck and goose hunts, fishing trips, etc.

Our volunteers have mentored and found internships and jobs for dozens of wounded service members.

One of the best brief descriptions of what we do is in a brief television introduction offered by WUSA, the local Washington DC affiliate of CBS News. Much of our help for the troops is actually help for their families, so that the families can stay in our area and care for their injured loved one. If you have not had the opportunity to view the video linked on the Home Page, look at it here.