My name is SFC Arron DeWitt. Some of the Active duty Reserve and National Guard Soldiers stationed here at Camp Atterbury, Indiana recently sponsored a Wounded Warrior Hunt for 10 recently wounded warriors; they were able to harvest 13 deer while here on Camp Atterbury from 14-17 November 2011. The event was a great success thanks to local donations and the sacrifices of other Soldiers and Civilians on and around Camp Atterbury. The event was such a great success we have decided to conduct a spring turkey hunt here in April for the wounded warriors. We expect a much larger participation due to the notoriety and the great time the wounded warriors and even their families had. They were able to do the things that they would’ve enjoyed prior to being wounded thanks to the countless volunteer guides and donors from Camp Atterbury. I am looking for any and all assistance in making the Spring Turkey Hunt a memorable hunt for all of the wounded warriors. We estimate a total of 30 participants and this is a rough estimate since we will not know exactly how many will be able to participate due to all of the changes that come along with our wounded warriors status on a daily basis. We had several Soldiers here for the deer hunt that had recently been discharged from the hospital. The way the hunt will work is the wounded warriors will show up two days prior to the hunt. They went to an Indianapolis Colts Football game on Sunday courtesy of the Special Forces Association, On day two they will meet with all the guides, receive their gear, (most of the Soldiers attending will not have any gear for the hunt)and all Wounded Warriors and Guides will meet at the conference center here on Camp Atterbury for a Steak Fry. Day 3-5 are all hunt days. The Wounded Warriors and Guides will link up at Camp Atterbury Range Control at 0530 and the guides will move them to the hunting areas. All blinds will have been placed by the hunt staff prior to the wounded warriors arriving. For the November deer hunt the hunt staff was able to place 15 blinds and hard stands for the hunters. At the end of the hunt each day the hunters will check their birds and all processing will be done by volunteer Soldiers from Camp Atterbury. The Soldiers can either take the birds with them when they return home or they can donate them to a local food pantry through one of the local processers. During the deer we hunt we had 9 deer donated to feed the hungry. The last day of the hunt will culminate with a social for all hunters, guides, and sponsors to sit down to a nice meal and tell stories of the weeks hunting. Awards will be given for the largest bird, first bird, best hunt video, and many other minor awards to be determined at a later date. The Social will also provide the opportunity for the Soldiers to meet the sponsors of the hunt and talk to the people who made this memorable hunt possible. A prize table will be created where a drawing will be held to pass out the remainder of the small door prizes to the wounded warriors and the guides. I hope to have enough small items donated to provide each and every hunter and guide with something to remember the great time they had during this hunt. I am very grateful for your interest and look forward to hearing from you. Just to give you an idea of the obstacles we had to overcome during the deer hunt we had to provide each and every hunter with clothing, scents, calls, hunter orange, chairs for the blinds, blinds, even shotguns and muzzleloaders, tags were purchased by the Special Forces Association. The one change to this hunt will be the fact I want the wounded warrior hunts here on Camp Atterbury to continue and I would like to give the one outstanding hunter that harvests the largest bird a fall hunt that will be even more memorable. I am currently working with some great outfitters here and in the surrounding states to make this possible. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I, myself am a wounded warrior and I find myself lucky to be able to do all of the things I loved to do prior to being wounded. Some of the participants we will have will have prosthetics, some will have recent wounds that have not completely healed, and all of them will have mental wounds that with our assistance can be healed allot quicker than if they sat in a hospital room feeling down. With our help they can experience the outdoors once again and come to the realization that life still goes on no matter what the extent of their injuries are. Thank you for the support and any contributions. You can send emails to arron.r.dewitt@usar.army.mil