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WASHINGTON D.C. (April 4, 2008) - It was all a big joke for
servicemembers and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center's Fisher House yesterday when comedian Kathy Griffin came to
visit.
With camera crew in tow, Griffin, star of Bravo cable network's
"Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List," spent the morning touring
the installation's two Fisher House facilities and joking with the
residents.
"I had to get a pass to come out here so I could see Kathy
Griffin," said Army Cpl. Nicholas Joseph McCauley. "I heard about
her; she seemed cool, and my buddy … who lost his leg in September
kind of figured he'd show me around, make me smile, cheer me up a
little bit."
McCauley is recovering from a head injury suffered March 23 in
Iraq. Getting out of the hospital, where he'd been for two days,
and verbally sparring with Griffin about his tattoos, a salty take
on an Irish phrase, seemed to give McCauley the boost he
needed.
"(She's) the first person I've ever met that's famous," he said.
"It's pretty cool. I get to be on TV, I guess. It's not cool being
on TV in a wheelchair, but I'm alive."
Army Spc. Michael Brown, a below-the-knee amputee who's living
at Fisher House with his wife and 14-month-old daughter,
agreed.
"It's definitely a cool thing to tell your friends about when
you go home," he said. "It's definitely a morale booster for
everybody that's here.
"You get so run down with appointments every day and the daily
grind," Brown continued. "Something like this is good to have, a
break … (to) find out what's actually going on elsewhere."
Amanda Poppenhouse, whose husband, Army Cpl. Adam Poppenhouse,
is recovering from a recent leg amputation, said celebrity visits
aren't uncommon, and most of the visitors take a real interest in
the families.
"We had a wrestler come (from World Wrestling Entertainment),
Mankind, I think is his name," she said. "We met him like two or
three times, and he recognizes us, calls us by name. He's really
cool."
She said visits by stars can offer an outlet for servicemembers
and their spouses to talk and tell their stories.
Servicemembers and their families soon will have a huge audience
to listen to their stories thanks to Griffin, who is planning to
turn her visit into an episode for her show. She discovered just
how many people are interested in troops' stories when an episode
of her show featured her tour to entertain troops overseas.
"Doing our silly little reality show, we got the most response
we've ever gotten from the episode where I went and performed in
Iraq," Griffin said. "I got lots and lots of e-mails, 'How are the
guys doing?' That was an interesting insight to something.
"So often you hear about these men and women and they're just
numbers … on the news, and it's a news story that's 90 seconds and
then it's on to what starlet was drunk and flashing," she
quipped.
Griffin said the combination of her audience's reaction to her
episode from Iraq and some stories last year about conditions at
Walter Reed made her want to show her audience a bigger picture.
She wants to make sure her viewers understand the facility and the
people there, and Bravo agreed.
"I felt really passionately about doing an episode here,"
Griffin said. "What I think is important about today, what's so
great about Fisher House and coming here, is it really humanizes
the numbers we see on the news."
Griffin was working to carry out a secondary mission as well: to
make the servicemembers and their families laugh.
"That's all I know how to do," she said. "I think everybody
needs a laugh and especially at a time like this.
"I just really, really hope I can provide them a good chuckle,"
she said before leaving to spend her afternoon with patients in the
hospital and her evening performing a stand-up comedy show.
The episode of her show featuring Walter Reed is expected to air
in late summer.
The Fisher House Foundation is a supporter of America Supports
You, a Defense Department program connecting citizens and companies
with servicemembers and their families serving at home and
abroad.
Editor's Note: Military families can also avail
themselves of the Defense Department's America Supports You
program, which highlights home-front groups across the nation that
are providing a variety of services and support to troops and their
families. A listing of these groups and information about their
efforts is available at www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil.
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