Wounded Warrior Program Director: Patricia Orsini
New Director of the House's Wounded
Warrior Program, Retired Master
Gunnery Sergeant Patricia Orsini
As the director of the Wounded Warrior Program at the House of Representatives, Orsini will continue to answer the call to service, helping to establish and supervise the House’s new program aimed at finding wounded veterans jobs working in the House.
Chief Administrative Officer Daniel P. Beard said Orsini was chosen to head the $5 million program in part because of her experience in developing similar, successful programs in support of veterans.
“Patricia’s extensive experience will be invaluable because she not only understands the needs of wounded warriors, but she also understands what it means to be a veteran,” Beard said.
Orsini’s goal is to develop a program that will employ as many as 50 veterans to work with Members of Congress, Committees, Leadership offices and in support services.
She has served more than 24 years in the U.S. Marine Corps in a variety of positions, including assisting active duty and reserve Marines with medical benefits. After retiring from active duty in 2002, she worked for the American Legion as deputy director for health care services and for the Veterans Administration as a service representative.
In 2004, Patricia was re-called to active duty in support Operation Iraqi Freedom at Quantico with the Marine for Life Injured Support Program. The goal of the program was to create and manage a “medical hold” process to assist injured reservists. Last year, she helped establish the Wounded Warrior Regiment within the Marine Corps.
Throughout her career, Orsini has played a unique and emotional role, she said, in taking care of the nation’s veterans. She has escorted the bodies of fallen Marines in airplanes bound for home and played the bugle at many of her comrades’ funerals. “Those are the times when I’ve had the most empathy for the dedication our veterans have to our country,” she said.
Orsini said she is looking forward to the challenge that establishing the program will bring.
“I’m excited to put together this wonderful program, which will find jobs for wounded warriors at a time when they most need the support of the nation they fought for — when they return from war,” Orsini said.
The House Wounded Warrior program was established at the direction of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Committee on House Administration Chairman Rep. Robert Brady. They directed Beard to develop the program in a letter dated November 7, 2007: “From our visits with our wounded military over the past several years, we are well aware that these service men and women possess a wide range of valuable skills and experiences, as well as enthusiasm for hard work, which would be enormously valuable to any employer,” the lawmakers wrote.
Pelosi, Hoyer and Brady are currently formulating the final elements of the program, which will be announced shortly.
