JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - When a Soldier prepares for a deployment, he must first complete the necessary training. The training consists of physical training, military occupation specialty training and mental preparation. But many Soldiers aren't prepared to be injured before they leave their home country.
Army Spc. Shane Whitacre, a resident of Moberly, Mo., and member of the 2175th Military Police Company, deployed with the 1139th Military Police Company to Iraq in 2009.
While training at Camp Clark, the unit conducted combatives training. During the training, Whitacre heard a snap in his right shoulder, but continued to move forward with the training and the deployment.
"When he got to Iraq he didn't want to be the person who says, 'I have a problem,'" said Jenn, Whitacre's wife. "So he stuck it out throughout the deployment. When the unit came back to the States, they went to Ft. Dix. When Shane arrived there, he didn't want to have his shoulder looked at and have to stay away from his family for even longer for medical reasons. He was just ready to come home."
Once Whitacre arrived back home, his wife intervened and made sure he had his shoulder evaluated.
"I noticed his shoulder injury was pronounced enough that it was causing him to be cranky and his shoulder was really sore," Jenn said. "We tried numerous over-the-counter pain killers and none of it phased his injury. So I pushed him to get his shoulder taken care of."
After multiple x-rays and an MRI, Whitacre finally had surgery Dec. 17, 2011, more than two years after the injury occurred. Doctors knew about some of Whitacre's injuries prior to the surgery. But during the operation, they found even more muscle tears.
"He had two tears in his rotator cuff, a hole in his muscle tissue, bone spurs that were shooting into his shoulder muscle tissues, and he had ripped his bicep," Jenn said.
Working through the process of a shoulder injury, a surgery and surgery recovery has proven to be a challenge for the Whitacre Family.
"One thing that we didn't know how to handle was that because of his surgery, Shane can't hold our seven and a half month old baby," Jenn said. "It's going to be a couple more months before he is able to hold her again in his arms."
Prior to the surgery, juggling schedules between the spouses wasn't an issue. Jenn works days and her husband worked the nightshift, so there was always someone at home to take care of their new daughter, Auguste, and their three other children.
"Before, we never needed to take Auguste to child care," Jenn said. "Now we need child care, but the issue was how do we get her to child care? Daycares in Moberly aren't open when I leave for work and Shane can't drive while he is on pain medication and his shoulder is recovering."
Since Jenn is a Family Assistance Center Coordinator in the Missouri National Guard Family Program, she knew exactly where to turn to in order to get the help her Family needed.
"I contacted H.E.R.O.E.S. Care, which is through Operation Homefront, and I spoke to them about what we needed help with," Jenn said.
H.E.R.O.E.S. Care is an affiliation of program partners working together to provide support to military families in the communities where they live. H.E.R.O.E.S. Care combines the power of national organizations dedicated to providing emergency financial aid, employment opportunities and mental health care services through a network of specially trained care givers before, during and after deployment.
"H.E.R.O.E.S. Care contacted Family Life Fellowship Church in Moberly and talked to Pastor Vic Comstock," Jenn said.
The church was more than willing to help with the needs of the Whitacre Family. Pastor Vic put Jenn in contact with Gretta, a woman at the church who is also the wife of a Soldier in the 2175th MP Company. Gretta helped Jenn find a driver to help her husband get Auguste to and from child care.
"Elaine comes by our home, drives my husband's truck, and takes Shane and Auguste to child care, and then takes my husband back home," Jenn said. "She has also taken him to physical therapy appointments and stuff when I can't leave work. She has been a real trooper."
As with many other actions, it's the small things that make the biggest differences.
"By the church doing this one small thing, it enables me to go to work and to take care of all of the families within Missouri," Jenn said. "Because that's what my job is. My job is to take care of the service members and their families. The one small act impacted the entire military community because I can go to work."
The Missouri National Guard has been working on a new initiative called Partners in Care.
"It's essentially the same kind of approach that H.E.R.O.E.S. Care has," Jenn said. "They are targeting faith-based communities for situations just like this. Sometimes there are things we just can't handle ourselves."
Partners in Care is still considered a new program.
"Churches are getting on board and providing additional resources out in the communities where our Soldiers and Airmen live," Chaplain Col. Gary Gilmore said. "This is a great example of the needs our families face, the variety of responses needed to be successful, the rallying of community support and the fact that Jenn has a key role in helping our entire state. By supporting her, we are supporting the larger care-team effort for the Guard. Every Soldier, Airmen and family matters."