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Giving soldiers a ‘second chance’

Clarksburg woman dedicates time to the injured

Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Marianne Reid⁄Special to The Gazette Cindy McGrew of Clarksburg, founder of Operation Second Chance, enjoys a Washington Capitals game with Cpl. Adam Kisielewski.

During the past year, she has met hundreds of soldiers that have been injured in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

McGrew is the founder and president of Operation Second Chance, a year-old non-profit organization dedicated to providing assistance to wounded soldiers. She said that helping others has brightened her life.

Michael Buyas, a double amputee and vehicle commander with the Army’s Striker Brigade, remembers meeting McGrew at a movie theater in Silver Spring last summer. McGrew ran up to him while he was getting ready to buy tickets.

‘‘I didn’t know who she was but she paid for my ticket,” Buyas said. ‘‘She was pretty cool.”

McGrew said she had seen Buyas around Walter Reed and knew he was a soldier.

Buyas, an Oregon native, had both legs amputated after being injured in Iraq.

Last week, McGrew took Buyas and a couple of other soldiers to see the Washington Capitals play at the MCI Center. The tickets were donated to Operation Second Chance.

Buyas said he and the others enjoyed the opportunity.

‘‘You come back with injuries and it’s good for us to take our minds off things,” he said. ‘‘It’s good to be with a group of people in the same situation. It’s a good opportunity for the soldiers.”

McGrew, 47, did not always know a lot about the needs of the soldiers. Her quest for knowledge began in June 2004 when she learned that her friend, Montgomery County Police Sgt. Mike Russo, would be deployed in Iraq as an international police advisor.

‘‘I was very worried and concerned about the area that he was at and I wanted to learn more,” McGrew said. ‘‘I did my own Google search for the unit he was attached to and I started reading about three soldiers who were wounded and coming to Walter Reed.”

She sent e-mails to those three soldiers to let them know she lived only 30 miles away from Washington, D.C. McGrew has lived in Clarksburg for the past 18 years; she grew up in Germantown.

At first, she offered to run errands for the soldiers but later, after reading about two more soldiers that were injured in Iraq, she decided to visit the medical center. Walter Reed is considered to have one of the best prosthetic units in the United States, so McGrew met soldiers from all over the country.

She said she feel in love with the soldiers and became attached to them.

‘‘I found myself going back everyday and it wasn’t enough for me because I met more,” McGrew said.

In November 2004, two of her personal friends joined her during her trips to the hospital. They visited soldiers, picked up groceries and bought playpens for the soldiers and their visiting families.

Her mission grew and soon McGrew couldn’t pay for all the services she was providing.

So in January 2005 she created Operation Second Chance.

Robert Huegel, a squad leader with the Army’s 571 Military Police Company, is one of the soldiers McGrew met.

He was responsible for protecting police stations in Iraq and was injured five days before he was scheduled to return to his home in Pennsylvania.

McGrew was by his side at the hospital right after he underwent a below-the-knee amputation.

‘‘I couldn’t believe she wanted to stay there with me,” Huegel said. ‘‘I kept telling her to leave and I just wanted it to be over, but she just wouldn’t leave. She stayed the entire time and she just came back the next day and the next. In my mind, I owe Cindy everything.”

Visiting the soldiers sometimes takes an emotional toll on McGrew, but it is a toll she is willing to bear. She said she wants to tell the soldiers that even though severe injuries may have ended their career in the armed forces, they can still inspire those around them.

‘‘There are some nights I cry all the way home because I may have met a new soldier with an even more horrific injury than a prior one,” McGrew said. ‘‘But I’ve learned there is always somebody better and there is always somebody worse. I don’t look the injuries at all.”

In December McGrew met in the Pentagon with the presidents and CEOs of 84 other non-profit organizations that provide aid to U.S. soldiers. They received advice from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and updates on key defense issues from government officials.

‘‘I want to continue helping one hero at a time,” McGrew said. ‘‘We need the finances coming in so that we can keep them going out. It’s never-ending. There is such a need.”