Profiles In Courage: Nancy Schiliro

From time to time, I want to highlight some of the success stories of the Wounded Warrior Project so that you understand how great this organization is. I mean, if I'm going to ask you to donate money to them, its important that you understand where it goes, right? All of these people are heroes, but I wanted the first one to be extra special. For my first PIC, I chose Nancy Schiliro from the Marine Corps. Why? Because people generally think of people that are helped by the WWP to be these salty grunts that get shot or hurt in some kind of glorious battle. Not Nancy--she was injured while assigned as an embarkation specialist (I assume thats Corps jargon for a transport officer/logistics?) working near Al-Asad, Iraq.

Her story, from the WWP webpage:

Nancy clearly remembers the February day near the end of her deployment when she was injured. She and a partner were just chatting near one of the base’s large diesel fuel bladders when a mortar round went off. 

“I blacked out and don’t really remember much after that. I woke up and my hand was cut up. My face was cut up, but I didn’t feel anything. My partner looked at me and said ‘are you all right?’ I’m like yeah, I am, I feel fine.”

At the time, what upset Nancy most was the black smoke billowing from the ruptured fuel bladder. She was afraid the enemies would think they accomplished something. 

It wasn’t until Nancy returned home in March that she began having headaches and developed problems with her eye. A sonogram indicated her retina had been shattered in her right eye and was overcome with infection. 

After four surgeries couldn’t stop the infection from spreading to her left eye, doctors were forced to remove her right eyeball. The emotional pain of having a prosthetic eye was worse than losing her sight. She went into isolation. 

“I stayed by myself. I didn’t want anyone to look at me. I wanted my eye back and I was mad at the world.”

A counselor and friend of Nancy’s coerced her into attending Project Odyssey, a Wounded Warrior Project program to help injured service members deal with combat stress. She had no interest in going, but agreed to go only because her counselor accompanied her.

As soon as Nancy began to meet other female warriors with similar experiences, her walls began to come down and confidence was building. 

“I have to say it saved my life. It really did. Instead of being what I thought was a disappointment to my family, I ended up being their inspiration,” says Nancy. 

The transformation that began at Project Odyssey led Nancy to a career with WWP as a benefits liaison in 2009. “Now I work strictly with Odyssey to make sure I give other men and women the same experience I had by participating in Odyssey,” says Nancy.

 

“The only regret I have in my life is that I wasted almost three years in depression,” Nancy laments. “If I can give any veterans out there advice, I try to get them help as early as possible, because I don’t want them to suffer the way I suffered, and waste the time I wasted.”

 

It truly is an inspiring story. Thank you, Nancy, for your service.