Former Assistant Chancellor Douglas Plank, along with other Pepperdine alumni, is giving back, one U.S. veteran at a time.
JEN CLAY
Staff Writer
J.R. Martinez is 21 years old. Like many people his age around the country, Martinez traveled abroad during the past year. But it wasn’t to study Baroque architecture in Italy or to casually stroll the halls of the Louvre in France. He received deployment orders in February 2003 to fight in the war for Iraq’s freedom. And just weeks later he returned home a wounded veteran.
In April 2003, Martinez was driving a Humvee vehicle through the city of Kabala in central Iraq. The vehicle hit a landmine, and Martinez suffered burns to more than 40 percent of his body.
After receiving medical care in Kuwait and Germany and enduring several operations, Martinez heard Pepperdine’s former Assistant Vice Chancellor Douglas Plank, speak at a river cruise luncheon in San Antonio, Texas, in April. Plank had recently co-founded The Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes (CSAH), a non-profit organization created to provide new beginnings for wounded or disabled veterans who served in the Iraq war.
After hearing Plank speak about CSAH, Martinez immediately wanted to get involved. He is now the volunteer spokesman for the organization.
“I thought this was the perfect opportunity for me to jump in and use my experience to help so many other troops that come back from war,” Martinez said.
A Pepperdine alumnus, Plank holds a degree in organizational communication and has completed all coursework for a doctorate in organizational leadership. He worked for the university under different posts for 15 years, eventually ending his tenure as an administrator in 2000.
No stranger to non-profit ventures, Plank said he co-founded CSAH with current president Roger Chapin after sensing a need for the organization.
“We felt like there wasn’t a mechanism for average Americans to express appreciation of our troops,” Plank said. “We thought we’d provide an organization by which we could address those issues of expression of tribute and support, but focus it specifically on our wounded troops, the men and women who have paid a sacrifice and the families of those killed in action, those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, since 9/11.”
The organization is planning its first Road to Recovery conference slated for early December at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and CSAH Executive Vice President Plank isn’t the only member of the Pepperdine community involved with the event. As the organization’s director of development since June, recent Pepperdine graduate Vaughn Heydel is helping fundraise for the conference. Heydel first met Plank at a weekly Bible study during the spring semester and says the job has worked out perfectly.
“It’s really, really excellent being able to impact society the way that I get to,” Heydel said.
Heydel is raising money from high schools and elementary schools. For the conference, CSAH plans to host a total of 1,600 guests including 400 soldiers, with up to three family members invited per soldier.
Individual donations and corporate sponsorships will cover the $2,500 event cost per person, and the organization has a budget of $3 million for the conference.
“We have all the puzzle pieces put together as far as being able to raise the money, it’s just now a matter of implementing them,” Heydel said.
The conference will include a keynote address, seminars, success stories, private needs assessment for soldiers and entertainment including a “Grateful Country Music Night” and “Sports Legend Night,” according to the organization’s Web site.
To contact the soldiers, CSAH acted in unison with the Department of Defense. According to military law, CSAH is unable call soldiers directly.
“Once these soldiers get their invitation, they have to contact us if they’re interested in coming,” Heydel said.
In addition to the conference, CSAH is developing programs such as
“Homes for Paralyzed Heroes,” a program planned for 2005 which will modify homes for wheelchair-bound veterans.
Plank, whose wife is an associate professor of biology at Pepperdine, said his experience has been inspiring and extremely rewarding.
“They [the soldiers] get the fact that we have freedoms here that we take for granted, and they personally sacrificed, oftentimes, limbs – arms and legs and other serious injuries to defend our freedom, so it’s just very humbling to work with people like that who have that kind of commitment,” Plank said.
Heydel said the excitement of the soldiers is matched by his gratitude for their sacrifices.
“It feels really good when I talk to a soldier and he is just so thankful for what we’re doing for them because that’s kind of what I feel for them,” he said.
As volunteer spokesman, Martinez said the response he has received while speaking on behalf of the organization has been “very positive.” An injured soldier himself, he knows exactly what these soldiers face upon returning to the United States.
“One quote that I tell everybody is ‘the battle may last only a few minutes or a few hours, but the real battle for all these men and women and their families is when they come back,’” he said.
For more information, visit saluteheroes.org.
Submitted MM-DD-YYYY