TOWN OF TONAWANDA — Chris Kreiger thought that, once he left Iraq in 2004, his fighting days were over. The Town of Tonawanda resident soon discovered, however, that the biggest battle remained.

As he continues his quest to ease the transition for soldiers re-entering civilian life, Kreiger — just as he did when he departed for the Middle East — relentlessly charges ahead at full speed.

A trained nurse practitioner who also worked full-time in the construction field, Kreiger joined the National Guard in 1997 as a combat medic. He ended up getting called into duty in Bosnia in 1999, New York City in 2001 in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks and, in February 2003, in Iraq. Serving as an Army medic, Kreiger was among the first wave of soldiers sent into Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Kreiger suffered four injuries during his 15-month tour of duty, including getting struck in three bomb bursts and being involved in a Humvee accident that crushed his right lower leg. On top of that, the non-stop roaring and firing of tanks left him with hearing loss in his right ear before he was even sent to Iraq.

Upon returning home in May 2004, Kreiger was prevented by his extensive injuries — which included tumors on his spinal cord and brain that developed years later — from working. He began the arduous process of applying for veterans benefits, but the extensive paperwork and wait time left him without any source of income for upward of a year.

“In that amount of time being laid up, I fell behind on the mortgage, the other bills,” he said. “The bank didn’t want to hear any story. They wanted their money.”

On top of those expenses, Kreiger and his family — his wife, Melissa, and sons, Christopher and Cole — were stuck with the bill from the ankle surgery he required in May 2005 (the VA said it would reimburse him, but the claim was denied because a doctor incorrectly filled out a form).

The combination of claimants became too much for the family to bear, and in November 2005 the family lost its North Tonawanda home. Forced to live in a two-bedroom apartment, Kreiger had to ceaselessly lobby for his due benefits.

“That’s all we’ve got,” he said of the benefits. “If they screw that up, you have to expect to piss someone off.”

He finally started receiving some money in 2006, and it wasn’t until 2007 that he was awarded his full benefits.

“He was the poster child of the Iraqi war,” said Celia O’Brien, who works with Kreiger in her role as COO of the Western New York Veterans Housing Coalition.

Once the money started coming in, Kreiger and his family moved into a new house in the Town of Tonawanda. But the scars from the fight at home — a war Kreiger never expected to wage — left him wanting to assist others in a similar situation.

Meanwhile, Niagara Falls resident Dionne Kane was going through a transition of her own. In 2005, she had recently lost her close friend, Staff Sgt. Aram Bass, who was killed while serving in Iraq. On the heels of that tragedy, she saw Kreiger profiled in a newspaper report about the effects of war. His story stood out so much that she reached out to him so that others might not follow his path.

And from that, Western New York Heroes was conceived.

Kreiger and Kane formed the group to help vets transition to civilian life, providing money, food, job training and other temporary assistance to men and women returning from war.

The transition is particularly tough, Kreiger said, because of the minimal preparation returning soldiers are given. While acknowledging that progress has been made since his decommission, Kreiger said that his return from the front involved a 15-day cooldown period in Kuwait (during which he was mostly left to himself), then another 10-day wait in a base upon returning to U.S. soil, again with little supervision.

“The doctor says, ‘Do you feel like hurting yourself?’ You say, ‘No.’ They say, ‘OK. Good luck,’ ” he said.

“The mental health is the hardest part,” said O’Brien, whose husband also served in the Middle East. “In Iraq, you’re used to driving down the middle road, being aggressive ... You can’t do that in real life.”

Once Kreiger and Kane knew what they wanted to do, they began filling out the necessary paperwork to procure nonprofit status. Once that was done, it became a matter of getting the word out.

“Then it was me taking my story ... and running with it,” Kreiger said. “People don’t want to get help, especially vets. Or they don’t know where to get help.”

Kane, who holds a computer information systems degree, performs tasks ranging from volunteer recruitment to resume writing for clients when she’s not working as the IT projects manager for Fidelity.

Kreiger, who has seen Western New York Heroes become a full-time job (minus the pay), spends countless hours soliciting donations, speaking to people and groups, filling out forms in the den of his home and organizing fundraisers, including Saturday’s benefit at Club W in Buffalo. Fantasy Island and the Buffalo Bisons are among the groups that plan to hold fundraisers for WNY Heroes in the near future.

Once the group got off the ground, it began collaborating with other agencies to improve its services. An alliance began this past fall with O’Brien and the housing coalition that both sides call beneficial; O’Brien has since become a board member for WNY Heroes.

“There’s a lot of agencies out there now,” she said. “We’re trying to pull them together so they can grow stronger.”

WNY Heroes has helped more than 200 families to date, Kreiger said, including one recent case in which a vet and his family were literally found on a street corner in the rain (WNY Heroes has arranged for housing for the family and medical care for the man, who was diagnosed with cancer). But he knows that’s just the beginning.

“The more and more we do this, we’ve found the need is much greater,” he said.

The group is close to bringing on two former VA counselors as volunteer mental health assistants, Kreiger said. WNY Heroes also is there to help with the paperwork that needs to be completed before a discharge is issued — which Kreiger said is quite helpful because of the prolonged wait soldiers endure to complete that paperwork when returning stateside, which is compounded by the desire to see family members.

Plans are in the works, meanwhile, to raise enough funds to hire office staff (O’Brien has pledged to allow WNY Heroes to use of one the housing coalition’s Buffalo offices as workspace). O’Brien considers all of this one more step toward an elusive multi-resource for veterans, a place in which returning soldiers can receive medical support, employment help and every other service they need to re-enter society.

Kreiger has no intention of taking the group national, he said, because he wants to ensure that all of the money remains in Western New York. He didn’t intend for this to become his main work upon returning home, but he’s not shying away from anything.

“I’m there to try to make sure others don’t end up in the situation I was in, because it sucks,” he said.

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: Fundraiser for WNY Heroes and the Western New York Veterans Housing Coalition Inc.

• WHEN: 2-6 p.m. March 27

• WHERE: Club W, 199 Delaware Ave., Buffalo

• MORE INFORMATION: Visit wnyheroes.org



GET HELP

Following are some of the services offered to veterans by Western New York Heroes:

• Return and Recover, a reorientation program to help with the transition back into civilian life, including work with family members

• Bridging Hearts, a grant program for wounded combat veterans

• Grant a Wish, a grant program for all former soldiers

• Tickets 4 Troops, a program in which tickets can be given to local soldiers to enjoy a night out at any form of entertainment

• Operation Thanks, a program that provides entertainment to veterans

More information, including links for job resources, benefit applications, scholarships, loans and insurance discounts, are available at wnyheroes.org.