INTREPID FALLEN HEROES FUND

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The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund serves United States military personnel wounded or injured in service to our nation, and their families.  Supporting these heroes helps repay the debt all Americans owe them for the sacrifices they have made in service to our nation.  They are, in the words of our founder, the late Zachary Fisher, “our nation’s greatest national resource,” and they deserve all the help that our nation can provide.  The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund is a leader in meeting this important national mission.

Begun in 2000, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund has provided close to $120 million in support for the families of military personnel lost in service to our nation, and for severely wounded military personnel and veterans. These efforts are funded entirely with donations from the public, and hundreds of thousands of individuals have contributed to the Fund.
 
Family Support
From 2000 to 2005 the Fund provided close to $20 million to families of United States and British military personnel lost in performance of their duty, mostly in service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Fund provided unrestricted grants to each spouse and dependent child; and to parents of unmarried service members. The payments were coordinated with the casualty offices of the Armed Forces, to ensure all eligible families received these benefits. In 2005 federal legislation substantially increased the benefits granted to these families. With that mission accomplished, the Fund redirected its support toward the severely injured.
 
The Center for the Intrepid
In January 2007 the Fund completed construction of the Center for the Intrepid, a $55 million world-class state-of-the-art physical rehabilitation center at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. The Center serves military personnel who have been catastrophically disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and veterans severely injured in other operations and in the normal performance of their duties. The 60,000 square foot Center provides ample space and facilities for the rehabilitation needs of the patients and their caregivers. It includes modern physical rehabilitation equipment and extensive indoor and outdoor facilities.

National Intrepid Center of Excellence
Following the opening of the Center for the Intrepid, the Fund turned toward another critical issue faced by our wounded troops: the treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  The Fund addressed this need by constructing the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE). NICoE is a 72,000 square foot, two-story facility located on the Navy campus at Bethesda, Maryland, adjacent to the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, with close access to the Uniformed Services University, the National Institutes of Health, and the Veterans Health Administration. NICoE provides the most advanced services for advanced diagnostics, initial treatment plan and family education, introduction to therapeutic modalities, referral and reintegration support for military personnel and veterans with TBI and post traumatic stress. Further, NICoE conducts research, tests new protocols and provides comprehensive training and education to patients, providers and families while maintaining ongoing telehealth follow-up care with patients across the country and throughout the world. NICoE was dedicated on June 24th, 2010 and has now begun its critically important work.
 
The NICoE Satellite Centers
To further enhance TBI research, diagnosis and treatment, IFHF will design and build several additional centers that will serve as satellites to NICoE, to be located at some of the largest military deployment bases around the country, the first of which will be at Ft. Belvoir, VA.  These NICoE Satellite Centers will extend the care currently provided at NICoE out to the home bases of many of the troops suffering the effects of TBI.  Data from these centers will be transmitted back to NICoE and aid in its ongoing research program, helping to improve detection, diagnosis and treatment of TBI, post traumatic stress and related afflictions. Secondarily, IFHF will also provide financial support for research efforts at these facilities and at NICoE.