Wounded Marines and Sailors Get New Treatment Facility at Camp Pendleton

A new treatment facility for wounded, sick and injured Marines and sailors was unveiled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Camp Pendleton on Thursday.

Much more than a medical facility, the Warrior Hope and Care Center is designed to offer troops a one-stop shop for counseling, reconditioning and transitioning services.

“When a Marine and his family walk through the doors of this new facility, they will see a visual representation of the Marine Corps commitment to them and their welfare,” said Lt. Col. James Fullwood, the commanding officer of the Wounded Warrior Battalion West.

The base originally opened the Wounded Warrior Center in 2006, which consisted of barracks for Marines and sailors wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Five years later, Fullwood told the crowd gathered at the ceremony that Marines and sailors will no longer have to go to different locations on and off base for the "mind, body, spirit and family services" they need.

“It brings them a sense of peace and calm to know they’ve got the best facilities, the best resources, at their fingertips,” he said.

The 30,000-square-foot facility has 38 office spaces that will be staffed by workers in family services, mental health, recovery and the battalion's Warrior Athlete Reconditioning program.

In addition to exam, classroom, presentation and training rooms, the center offers a state-of-the-art physical training facility, which includes equipment like an underwater treadmill and a wheelchair accessible lap pool designed for wounded military personnel. The complex also features a computer lounge, family lounge, child play area, a track, climbing wall and outdoor seating.

“The equipment here is designed specifically for the Marines and their injuries, as opposed to the equipment somewhere else on the base where it’s just for healthy individuals,” said GySgt. Paul McQuigg after he toured the new facility.

McQuigg, who sustained serious injuries in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq in 2006, said it is important for wounded troops to have a place designed to meet their needs.

“In the past, every individual unit was doing the best that they could to take care of their wounded, sick or injured,” he said. “Now, what the Marine Corps has done, is pulled all the wounded and injured into one unit whose main focus is taking care of the wounded or injured.”

The Warrior Hope and Care Center was built for $29 million, which was $1.7 million less than budgeted, according to construction officials.

The contract was awarded to Barnhart-Balfour Beatty Inc. in September 2009, and construction began in early May 2010.

“It gives service members and their families hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and they are given the means to get to that light at the end of the tunnel,” McQuigg said.