Vet's Day Bump: Laptops for Injured Troops

There are worse injuries to have, of course. But for a guy like me -- who makes his living by typing -- there are few things more terrifying than the idea of losing the use of my hands.

That's the situation Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss found himself in the summer of '05, when the tank company commander (and blogger) was wounded by an IED in Iraq. He felt humbled, humiliated, broken. "Being fed, bathed, taken care of like an infant — not exactly a fitting role for a warrior who's used to being the one who helps others. It sure as hell wasn't a role that I wanted," he noted.

But that began to change, when the Soldiers' Angels charity provided him with a laptop, and a buddy got him voice-controlled software to operate it. Suddenly, he was able to connect to the outside world. And he was able to take up his blog again, too.

"I know how much better I felt, how amazingly more functional I felt, after[wards]," he writes. "I can't wait to do the same, to give that feeling to another soldier at Walter Reed."

Now, you can help the Captain out. He's inspired Project Valour-IT, which has distributed nearly 600 laptops to severely wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines across the country.

There are a bunch of ways to pitch in. The first is to click this button here:

Another way is to bid on Air Force memorabilia, by clicking one of these two links.

Last, you can bid for two fine, fine military books - "Marines in the Garden of Eden" or the "Gulf War Chronicles."

Give or bid as much as you can. I just kicked in a C-note. You do the same. This is important, people.

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