#FlashbackFriday: 10 Years Ago, a Unique Exchange Facility for Wounded Heroes Opened in Germany

Ten years ago this month, on Jan. 16, 2013, the Exchange’s Wounded Heroes Service Center celebrated its grand opening at Kleber Kaserne, part of the Kaiserlautern Military Community in Germany. The first facility of its kind, it serves patients at Landstuhl Medical Center, about 16 miles away.

During the center’s early years, its clientele consisted mainly of troops wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq.

“After being evacuated from war zones, many injured service members come to Landstuhl with little more than the clothes on their backs,” said a 2014 Exchange Post story marking the center’s first anniversary. “With handicapped access and private dressing rooms, the center provides easier access to what troops need.”

A file photo of the Wounded Heroes Service Center, which celebrated its grand opening in January 2013. (Exchange History on Flickr)

According to a U.S. Army article at the time, wounded Soldiers often needed to acquire new uniforms while they were undergoing medical treatment, or were awaiting travel back to the State or back to a combat zone.

Financed by U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserlautern with the Exchange funding additional improvements, the center was built in a 720-square-foot warehouse at the back of the Military Clothing store. It operated apart from the MCS, providing wounded troops with some privacy. Aisles, Dressing rooms and restrooms were designed to be wheelchair-accessible.

Before the center opened, Soldiers who were evacuated from a combat zone to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center were required to be transported by bus to Kleber, where they would wait in the back of the Military Clothing store for their items.

“We used to have to help them walk through the warehouse, and it was very hard to get through the warehouse,” Deniz Barcala, who still manages the center and the Military Clothing store, told a U.S. Army reporter at the time. “They needed a shopping cart, because they were getting at least 30 items and it wasn’t healthy for them to go through the warehouse like that.”

The center supplies injured troops with uniforms, gloves, hats, boots, duffel bags and more. It served more than 1,700 wounded Soldiers during its first year.

Associates assist service members in their shopping, put items in their carts and packed up items for the bus ride back to the medical center.

“Everyone drops what they are doing,” warehouse worker Robert Young told the Kaiserlautern American news site in 2014. “We immediately meet the Soldiers in the (WHSC). We get their paperwork, they get a shopping cart and we start pulling their sizes. We make sure their boots fit properly. If they want to try things on, we have two dressing rooms.” (Young, an Army Veteran. is now a warehouse worker at the Stuttgart/EUCOM Furniture Mart.)

To view a brief Defense Logistics Agency video about the center, click here.

Sources: Exchange Post archives, U.S. Army (army.mil), 21st Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs, Kaiserlautern American