A Veteran's Promise

Bob Kunkel of Wheatfield was busy running his family's business, Elastomers, and watching his four children grow, when his life took a dramatic turn.

Watching television a few years ago, Kunkel was shocked by the devastating injuries suffered by soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It tore my guts out, because they have no clue how dramatic their life would be changed," Kunkel said, "and I had to do something."

It dawned on Kunkel, that he had a very special gift he could offer to wounded soldiers.

Kunkel is a Vietnam War veteran. He served in 1967 and 1968, when he suffered a serious leg injury in an explosion. That injury earned him the Purple Heart, but left him with the loss of a knee and a fused leg supported by a brace and a built-up shoe.

Maybe, wounded soldiers would relate to him, and he could help simply by talking with them.

Kunkel says he wrote letters, one a month for one year, to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After a year, he finally heard back, and was invited to meet with some of the patients.

"The majority of the people that I interact with, the injuries that I see today, that type of injuries in my time, they would have never made it out of the field," Kunkel said.

For the past three years, at least once a month, Kunkel travels to Walter Reed to visit with soldier patients, including some of the most gravely wounded and traumatized individuals.

"Sometimes they talk. Sometimes there's no conversation," Kunkel said. "I stood in a soldier's room, probably for about an hour. Then he thanked me."

Kunkel is full of stories, as each visit is different.

One young soldier, who also had suffered a serious leg injury, had not left the hospital for four months. When he was able to leave for part of the day, Kunkel helped him down to his rental car to take the soldier for a drive. Due to the device attached to the soldier's leg to aid in the healing process, Kunkel was having trouble getting the young man into the car. So, with the help of four others, they helped the soldier sit on a back board, then lifted the board, allowing the soldier to slide onto the back seat. Kunkel drove him up and down the street, just so he could take in the scenery.

In addition to serving as "a big ear," Kunkel takes gifts to the soldiers. Some he buys himself, while others are donated by people who have learned about his visits.

Ladies at Immanuel Lutheran Church in East Aurora have been making quilts for soldiers, complete with a sewn message on one corner thanking them for their sacrifice.

"There's an i.d. tag sewn in, and I'll write the soldier patient's name in," Kunkel said.

He also brings nontraditional, but thoughtful, gifts, such as cutting boards and can openers designed for those who have lost arms. He once gave a device that rigs a fishing pole so someone with one arm can use it, and there are the boxed cookies and caramel corn donated by Western New York businesses.

Kunkel's gifts don't end here.

Through the years, he has refused to think of himself as disabled. So, he took Jujitsu classes, eventually earning a third degree black belt. He simply modified the techniques so he could perform them with his leg brace and the back brace he must also wear.

Free of charge, he teaches soldiers at Walter Reed self-defense techniques that can even be used by someone in a wheelchair.

"You would think I'm teaching them to fly," he said of the empowerment attained in his classes.

Through the years, Kunkel says he has questioned why he was hurt in Vietnam. Now, he has an answer.

"When I reflect back on my service experience, my injury, all that is training for what I currently do down at Walter Reed," he said.