Joyce Orrell helps bring “a touch of home” to wounded soldiers

The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in the United States armed forces are some of the toughest, most dedicated, most dependable personnel that make up one the most formidable fighting force on earth.
But when the guns cease fire and the echoes of the artillery fade away, these elite warriors shed their superhero suits and reveal what is so often forgotten underneath: a real person.
To Joyce Orrell and her husband Curtis, it is both obviously simple and profoundly rewarding to take care of those real people who give so much to their country.
The Orrells are involved with the Wounded Warriors program, and Joyce is a part of the San Diego North County Blue Star Mothers, a local chapter of an organization founded in WWII that supports American troops when they ship out and when they return home again.
“We try to bring a touch of home to the barracks,” Joyce says. “A lot of the kids call us mom and dad, and that means so much to us. It’s about building those personal relationships.”
The Orrells came to Valley Center from Ramona 25 years ago on what started as a simple errand.
“We were looking for a Christmas tree,” Joyce recalls. “And when we found this valley, I said, ‘That’s where we’re going to live next!’”
After Joyce retired from her career as a bank operations officer, she remembered what it was like for her husband, a Marine who served in Viet Nam, to return home.
“He knows what it’s like to come home and feel like nobody wants you,” she says. “So when we wanted to do something for our soldiers now, we asked how we could help them feel welcome when they get home.”
It wasn’t long before the Orrells got an e-mail from a nurse at Miramar with an invitation to help welcome returning soldiers home.
“They asked if we would be a part of the homecoming, making cookies and brownies,” Joyce says. “And when they said that they needed official huggers, I said ‘Yes!’”
The more soldiers the Orrells welcomed home, the more wounded veterans they saw that needed something extra special. That led to the Wounded Warriors program and a lot of opportunities to build the personal relationships that are so badly needed.
“We had a mom from Valley Center who lost her son as part of the three/five group that has lost seventy-five men since September,” Joyce says. “So we made up three huge platters to bring up, and one young man just looks at it all for a minute before he says, ‘From the bottom of my heart, I just can’t tell you how much this means to us.’ These kids ask for nothing, but they’re willing to give up so much on our behalf.”
The Orrells are part of a group that visits the Wounded Warrior barracks at Camp Pendleton every Thursday, bringing home-cooked food and an atmosphere of home.
“We started with about twenty to twenty-five meals every week, and now we’re up to a hundred to a hundred and fifty,” Joyce says. “The Wounded Warrior barracks are for the soldiers who don’t need to be constantly monitored in the hospital, but they need to be close by to get fitted for prosthetics or go to physical therapy. It’s a very uplifting place, not depressing at all.”
The work done by the volunteers became much more special for the Orrells last fall, when they welcomed their son, Sgt. Michael Orrell, back from active duty.
“It was a relief to have him home, but we also remembered that we have so many more out there still,” Joyce says. “Michael is our only child, but we think of all of them out there as our kids.”
The Orrells plan to keep volunteering for as long as they can, and Joyce says that you don’t have to have a child in the military to be a part of welcoming our soldiers home again.
“We have a lot of members, but we also have a lot of associates who don’t have anyone in the military,” she says. “We encourage anyone who wants to help to join. We welcome the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, National Guard—everybody. And every time we leave, we always wonder when we get to come back again.”
To find out more about the Wounded Warrior project, visit the Web site at www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
For more information about the San Diego North County Blue Star Mothers, visit their Web site at www.sdncbluestarmothers.org/