THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409130310
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
One man's junk is another's treasure.
Ask Bob Craig. The Air Force major is using military surplus computers to help paralyzed veterans at the Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center reach into the mainstream.
``Once they can use a modem and hook into cyberspace and Internet, they can do their own banking, send E-mail, write letters and fax them,'' said Craig, 36, a hospital volunteer and a military construction programmer on the Air Combat Command civil engineering staff at Langley Air Force Base.
The vets aren't quite that far yet, but they've gotten started.
Last October, Craig began volunteering in the hospital's spinal cord injury unit. The patients are quadriplegic or paraplegic - some with limited movement in their limbs, some with none.
Craig came up with two computers in a work area. One was broken. ``They used the other one a lot. They knew how to play card games on it,'' he said.
Each Sunday afternoon, Craig taught the patients DOS, the basic language of computer operations. Some of the 58 vets in the unit became enthusiastic students.
``Once the appetite was created, I started looking at getting more machines down there to use,'' Craig said.
A communications squadron at Langley is a clearing house for surplus computers. The Air Force was upgrading equipment. Old computers were available.
Craig offered to do the paperwork for the intergovernmental transfer of some machines to the VA hospital. The first shipment arrived in May.
``Eight computers are up and running right now. They're always full. They're used from the moment the men are up in the morning until they have to put down at night,'' Craig said.
Vets are enjoying the privacy of typing their own letters, instead of dictating them to volunteers.
Eugene H. Hodge, 46, is an Army veteran who worked reconnaissance in Vietnam. A quadriplegic since a car accident in 1989, he has lived at the Hampton veterans hospital for almost three years.
``They had nothing set up for us to use,'' said Hodge, patient representative for the Paralyzed Veterans Association. ``Then Craig came and now he's got World War II vets that have never seen a computer before and he has them playing games where before they were afraid to even touch them. He's given them a whole new outlook on life and something to occupy their time.''
Hodge, a former high school wrestling coach and vocational carpentry teacher, is taking more computer courses. He writes letters to his sons on the equipment.
The hospital's staff has noticed a change in the patients since the computers came.
``It's given them a cohesiveness where one person who knows the computers better teaches another,'' said Sharon L. Wagnitz, head nurse on the Spinal Cord Injury Unit B. ``It's definitely had a positive effect.''
Craig has arranged for the transfer of 13 computers and four printers to the veterans hospital. He would like to have even more modern equipment; the IBM-compatible 286 machines are old and can't run modern software programs.
Newer computers would operate technology made especially for people with handicaps, like sip and puff switches or something called a ``head mouse'' - an infrared pointing device. Craig also is seeking mouth sticks and specially designed keyboards.
His first concern is to get additional support for the computer room.
``We're trying to form a coalition between the VA hospital and patients and local technical societies and volunteers and the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services and veterans organizations. With that coalition we could apply for grants and pool resources to buy new equipment,'' Craig said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
GARY C. KNAPP/
Air Force Maj. Bob Craig works with Eugene H. Hodge, foreground, and
Clarence Mcleod at the Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Graphic
COMPUTER TUTORS, DONORS
To volunteer as a computer tutor at the Hampton veterans
hospital, or to donate computer hardware or software, call Air Force
Maj. Bob Craig at 764-3255. Craig is looking for 386 or 486
IBM-compatible computers as well as software with icon,
point-and-click and predictive capabilities.
by CNB