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Wounded Warrior Program

Wounded Warriors

The Wounded Warrior Program was established to create fellowships that provide employment opportunities within the House of Representatives. The fellowships will provide veterans with experience and exposure to ultimately broaden their scope of transition opportunities. Positions are available in Congressional Member district offices nationwide. Wherever possible, those selected for the program will be given the opportunity to transition into full-time employment. However, full-time employment is not guaranteed at the conclusion of the two-year fellowship. 

Applicants must have served on active duty since September 11, 2001, have a 30 percent or greater service-connected disability rating and less than 20 years of service. If a fellowship is located within a Member’s district, the appointment is contingent on the Representative’s continuous representation of that district. In addition to a current resumé, applicants must submit a copy of their DD214 and a VA letter confirming that they have at least a 30% service-connected disability rating.

NBC Nightly News recently did a piece on the program. Click here to view it.

Please follow the link below to see positions that are currently open in various locations.

House Leadership Announces First Wounded Warrior Hires

Fellows || Graduates


Meet Some of the Fellows

Megan Morse

Megan Morse grew up disliking the military. She resented the occupation that kept her father, a Navy Seabee, away from home.
Read more about Megan »

Bradley Herron

Perhaps it was no surprise that Bradley Herron would fight for his country on day. He grew up near Patrick Henry's Virginia birthplace. His high school's mascot was the Patriot. His grandfather fought in World War II, storming the beaches of Normandy and then serving under General Omar Bradley in Northern Africa.
Read more about Bradley »

Brandon Schantzer

Growing up, Brandon Schantzer thought of himself as a "Two Streeter." That was the label people carried on Schantzer's street – Second Street – in South Philadelphia. It was an identity tied up with the area's rough reputation.
Read more about Brandon »

Jeremy Howland

Jeremy Howland was not exactly a straight-laced kid growing up. Often in trouble, Howland was expelled from two junior high schools and four high schools. "My rebellious phase was probably longer than most people's," he recalls. "There was never a dull moment with me." Howland managed to get his act together in time to graduate from high school.
Read more about Jeremy »

Erasmo Valles

Erasmo Valles has been serving others since he was a boy. With his dad working in the oil fields and his mother taking care of the house, Valles had to quit playing high school sports and get a job to help support his family. After high school, Valles served his country by becoming a Marine. "I always wanted to be in the military," Valles says. "Everyone always told me the Marines were the best, and I wanted to be the best and serve my country."
Read more about Erasmo »

JD Kennedy

As J.D. Kennedy prepared for Marine Corps boot camp, the world shifted. When the Indiana native had enlisted right out of high school, he was looking to escape the "bunch of corn fields" and lack of opportunity at home. "I wanted to leave town.
Read more about JD
»

Andres Lazo

Andres Lazo climbs mountains because they are there. Lazo has made an art of tackling challenges and turning struggles into triumphs. Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lazo grew up in view of a 10,000-foot-high mountain. One day, as a teenager, he decided to see what was on the other side of that mountain.
Read more about Andres
»

Daisy Fuentes

As a little girl, Daisy Fuentes knew what she wanted to be when she grew up: a police officer. She looked up to her mother, an immigrant from El Salvador who made a new life for her three children in the U.S. "She worked so hard to provide for us and protect us." Fuentes figured she could protect people too by working in law enforcement.
Read more about Daisy
»

Josh Revak

Among all the gear Army Specialist Josh Revak packed for his first tour in Iraq, one item proved the most valuable by far. Revak was a budding singer and songwriter when he signed up for the Army in 2002. Just out of high school in Duluth, Minn., he had been shaken by the events of September 11, 2001. He was hungry to carry on his family's military tradition. His grandfather had been a Marine, and his father had done an enlistment with the Army.
Read more about Josh
»

Christopher Chaisson

Change was among the only constants for Christopher Chaisson as he grew up. The son of a peripatetic green beret, Chaisson moved constantly, attending seven middle schools and three high schools from Alaska to Massachusetts. When he realized he wasn’t ready for college, Chaisson enlisted with the Army. “I wanted to be a green beret.”
Read more about Christopher
»

John Riccio

As a boy in Kenosha, Wis., John Riccio dreamed of distant shores. Riccio, the latest addition to the CAO’s Wounded Warrior Program, had a bad case of wanderlust growing up in a small town between Chicago and Milwaukee. “You have this weird sense that you’re from those places, but you’re not.”
Read more about John
»

Josh Van Strander

She was four or five years old at the most. The little girl Josh Van Strander met during a routine patrol in Helmand, Afghanistan had been injured in a car accident. Someone had given her leg braces, but her parents had neither the money nor the wherewithal to follow up on her condition.
Read more about Josh
»

Shannon Smyth

Shannon Smyth’s first semester in college changed his life. That fall, Smyth had watched the events of 9/11 unfold on television, and had decided to leave school for the Air Force. “I knew there was more responsibility out there, and I knew there was more I could do to help my country."
Read more about Shannon
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Alberto Velasco

Alberto Velasco survived two tours as a Marine reservist in Iraq. After returning stateside, he assumed things would get easier. Life settled down. Velasco returned to his job as a police officer in a Chicago suburb, and married his sweetheart. Then disaster struck.
Read more about Alberto
»

Ryan Peters

Ryan Peters gave two years of his life to his country, serving in the United States Marine Corps before an injury forced him to be discharged. But he simply wouldn’t let his disability stand in the way of him and his country.
Read more about Ryan
»

 

Graduates

Scott MacDonald

Scott MacDonald, the Wounded Warrior Program's first fellow to graduate, embraces change. MacDonald's life changed drastically – for the worse and the better – one night in 1998. MacDonald, a Navy radioman, was on liberty that November night. He was driving back to his Virginia base from a family visit in Connecticut. He pulled over to assist at a multi-vehicle accident, helping to stabilize several injured drivers and treating wounds with torn clothing.
Read more about Scott
»

 

Jarod Myers

Jarod Myers has a hard time imagining his life without the Wounded Warrior Program. Now working for Tex Vet, a non-profit resource for veterans in Texas, Myers looks back on his fellowship as a formative experience. "This program has done so much for me as an individual," he says. "It has unequivocally allowed me to grow as a person and as a professional. I really do not know where I would be or who I would be if I hadn't come on board."
Read more about Jarod
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