July 2009 – Cpl. Ronny Porta, USMC, was driving his Humvee outside Al Asad, Iraq, on May 5, 2007, when the vehicle struck a controlled IED (improvised explosive device). The impact caused life-threatening injuries for the young Marine – third, fourth and fifth degree burns over 80% of his body, and eventually the loss of his right arm and right ear and severe damage to his right eye.

Two of his comrades died instantly. Two years later, Porta has undergone 70 surgeries, and there are more ahead.

Porta’s U.S. military service is no ordinary story of the all-American, patriotic boy serving his country. The Lima, Peru, native moved to the U.S. in 2000 after his parents had worked years saving money for the day when they could bring their children to live with them.

Porta was 15, a high school freshman. One year later, he watched in horror as television repeatedly played footage of planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the burning Pentagon on 9/11. That day, the 16-year-old knew he would do something to help the U.S. military. By age 17, he had settled on the Marines.

“This country gave me so much, I wanted to give back,” Porta told AFA Journal. “I am grateful to this country for giving my family a safe place to live.” So he joined the Marines and volunteered for a tour of duty in Iraq.

After his encounter with the IED, Porta was flown to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, on May 7. His parents and younger sister soon joined him from Maryland, but with the entire family away from work and home, expenses quickly mushroomed.

While their son has been receiving Brooke’s first-rate care, unfortunately, the Porta family’s needs do not qualify for financial assistance from the military or Veterans Administration (VA).

Enter Operation First Response.

Super moms to the rescue
Home schooling mom, wife and patriot Peggy Baker founded Operation First Response (OFR) in 2004.   

“My son Joshua joined the Army right after 9/11,” Baker said. “He was working on the rooftop of a building just a few buildings over from the Pentagon and saw the plane crash into the Pentagon.” Fortunately, Baker’s son served 15 months in Iraq and returned home uninjured.

But during Joshua’s Army time, Mom’s life focus began to change dramatically. From the time her son enlisted, the Culpeper, Virginia, woman began making friends among other military moms, many of whose children had died or were severely injured fighting for freedom.

“One of the ladies I met – her son lost his leg and was flown to Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] in Washington,” said Baker. “We went in to visit them. That was 2003, and for about a year, we were going to Walter Reed nearly every weekend.”

Friends began to accompany the Bakers on the hospital visits, and they were soon taking items that wounded soldiers’ family members could use at the hospital. Next, the visitors were driving them to run errands in the city.

 At the time, Baker and her husband Stephen, who runs his own business, still had home schooled 11-year-old twins, but they had to do something.

“We realized the incredible need, so we decided to open Operation First Response,” Baker said. “We’re just regular families trying to make a difference for these young men and women who are out there sacrificing so much for us.  It’s been an incredible journey, and I have seen God’s hand in our work.”

Baker soon found a friend and ally in Heather Sliwinski, who is now OFR’s part-time staff member. “Heather is an incredible blessing to so many of our heroes,” Baker said. “She is the mother of six and just for that alone, I admire her. I consider it an honor to call her my co-worker and most of all my friend.”

The mothers of soldiers are constantly thinking of their sons and daughters when they’re in harm’s way. Any news coverage of war, any mention of injured soldiers, and a mom’s heart skips a beat.

“I don’t think a day goes by that a mother is not in constant prayer for her child’s safety,” Baker said. “When a soldier is killed in action, the military blocks the details from the media and the Internet until the immediate family is notified. So when you see something about war casualties on the news, you don’t hear from your soldier during that time. You’re praying that it’s not your child, but you don’t want it to be another mother’s child either. It’s a difficult thing.”

OFR quick to respond
There are numerous civilian groups working to meet the needs of soldiers wounded at war, but Andrew Smith told AFA Journal that OFR is tops. E4Cpl. Smith, U.S. Army, was injured in Iraq September 20, 2003.

“I was in infantry,” Smith said. “I was with the 10th Mountain Division, and we were on a mounted patrol in Faluja, Iraq. I was driving a Humvee when we got hit by a roadside bomb. I took shrapnel in my left knee and left leg.”

Smith’s injuries were not life-threatening, and he was able to finish the mission. Still, when he returned to civilian life, his financial needs became severe because it can take a year or more for VA benefits to kick in.

Meanwhile, one of his Army buddies was deployed to Afghanistan where he died on duty. “His mom requested that we – a bunch of his Army friends – come to be pallbearers,” Smith said. “We wanted to go, but we didn’t have the funds to get there. I was living in Georgia, and the funeral was in Wisconsin.”

Smith learned about OFR and contacted Baker. OFR made sure that any of the slain soldier’s friends who wanted to attend the funeral were able to do so.

“I’ve been in touch with a number of other groups,” Smith said, “and nobody else responds like Operation First Response.” He said many assistance groups do great work, but a lot of them also have particular restrictions or more red tape than does OFR. For example, a group may assist only soldiers with a specific type of injury. Not so with OFR.

“If they have the funds, they’re going to help you,” Smith said. “After we bought a new home, we found out that we were going to have to come up with another thousand dollars to pay for propane gas that was in the tank. OFR came in and helped out again.”

Compared to Ronny Porta, Smith is quick to say he himself is one of the fortunate ones. Porta decided to forgo college (on a soccer scholarship) to join the Marines. Though he faces more surgeries and extended rehab, Porta still plans to go to college, but it won’t be on a soccer scholarship. His life will always bear the scars he received defending freedom.

In contrast, Smith was in Bible college prior to joining the Army. After his discharge, he resumed college and is fulfilling his calling as a youth pastor at Auburn Baptist Church in Riner, Virginia. Still, he encountered a number of bumps in the road, and his family could well have faced financial crisis without OFR.

Volunteers are needed
Word of mouth is the group’s best advertising, especially as military personnel and OFR’s beneficiaries spread the word. The organization has earned the trust of the military community.

“I’d say 95% of our cases come from the large military medical facilities like Walter Reed and the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda,” Baker said. “Our cases generally come in from a professional or a military chain-of-command that knows a case in need of our help.”

Baker is grieved that veterans who return home after being wounded in battle too often find themselves among the homeless, or they can’t pay their utilities or feed and clothe their children. She calls OFR’s clients wounded warriors, and her passion for its mission is contagious.

“It’s just wrong!” she said. “I know that America is a generous nation. If there’s a disaster in another country, we’re there in a heartbeat. If we can come to the rescue of other nations, surely we can come together for our own.”

One of the greatest needs is something anyone can do. OFR needs volunteers across the nation just to be available to welcome a wounded soldier home.

“When I’m talking to a soldier for the very first time,” Baker said, “my first question is, ‘Where are you from?’ I may know somebody in that city who can help them re-enter society. American communities are the ones getting these kids back; they’re the ones that need to reach out.”

Other means of support include handmade blankets and quilts collected and distributed through OFR. And OFR backpacks (filled with personal items) are sent to combat support hospitals in Iraq and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The backpacks are given to the wounded when they arrive at the hospitals with no personal belongings, thus ensuring the soldiers have a tangible symbol of support from home.

Smith said Baker and Sliwinski are remarkable in many ways, not the least of which is staying in touch with the soldiers they have helped. A case in point: Baker is, indeed, up to date on everything about Ronny Porta.

“Ronny is such a miracle,” she said. “Many people look at this [kind of injury] as such a tragedy, but, they are tragedies laced with miracles. I feel like I’m participating in miracles every day.”    

OFR is a volunteer organization with one full-time employee and one part-time assistant. Salaries account for less than 3% of the budget. The group is registered as a non-profit 501(c)(3), so donations are tax deductible.

www.operationfirstresponse.org
888-289-0280
20037 Dove Hill Rd.
Culpeper, VA 22701

OFR’s history of helping
• 2,199 – mortgage/rent, utilities, groceries
• 1,014 – air transportation
• 1,033 – ground transportation/lodging
• 5,254 – backpacks sent to hospitals

Opportunities for helping
• Call and volunteer for your city.
• Make a donation to OFR.
• Provide blankets, quilts or back-pack items. (See Web site or call before sending goods.)
• Volunteer at a military hospital. 
• Pray for OFR and our wounded.