Supporting Wounded Veterans

Every year, the community around the city of Virginia Beach and the surrounding military bases celebrate Patriot Festival during the weekend after Memorial Day.
Three years ago, the United Services Organization (USO), an organization dedicated to support members of the US military and military veterans, decided to use that festival as the anchor point for an event to promote the well-being of wounded warriors and their families. Thus Warrior Week was born.
Last year, the Embassy hosted a group of Danish wounded veterans and arranged for a visit with the USO to inspire our veterans with new ideas about helping those, who have been wounded in battle. Our hosts mentioned Warrior Week as one of the initiatives they have come up with to support veterans, in this case by giving them an opportunity to take part in activities that challenge them physically and mentally in a very supportive environment.
Earlier this year, we were proud to learn that our veterans had received an official invitation to send 20 soldiers and 20 family members to Warrior Week 2017, where they will be able to go sky diving, deep sea fishing, surfing, water skiing, horseback riding, shooting, or just hang out on the beach and enjoy time off with a loved one and with old and new friends while watching concerts and getting a healthy dose of American hospitality.

Learning experience

The United States has decades of experience in how to take care of her military veterans, often in a partnership between federal and state agencies, and private charities, and the Embassy is working with a number of US partners to learn from their experiences and see what might work in a Danish setting, where the unique needs of wounded soldiers is a relatively new challenge. We have taken the Danish participation in Warrior Week as an opportunity to show Danish decision makers new ways of helping and to show Danish industry and charities some of the things that have been proven to work over here. The Danish Ministry of Defense is putting together a fact-finding mission, which will observe the activities and meet with the USO and other organizations to learn from their experiences. We hope that this initiative will be another step in getting our veterans the support they deserve for their sacrifices. The event page can be found HERE.

ADBC reception

In addition to all the events going on during Warrior Week, ADBC will host a reception in honor of the attending Danish veterans June 1st. Ambassador Lars Lose along with other dignitaries are expected to be attending, and we invite all ADBC members to attend and show their support. We will send out more information as the date gets closer.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact ADBC at adbc@usadk.org.