IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Shaking hands, swapping military stories, and thanking veterans for their service never felt so good.
Brig. Gen. (promotable) Gustave F. Perna, commanding general, Joint Munitions Command, traveled to the Iowa City Veterans Administration Medical Center, March 29, to visit veterans during an afternoon tour.
"This is an honor for me to do this," he said while addressing hospital administrators.
Dressed in his Army Service Uniform, Perna attracted lots of attention as he went from room to room, while receiving information from Tammy Neff, primary care specialty medicine nursing administrator for the medical center.
Anthony Elmore rested in his chair while receiving outpatient care while his companion, Holly, concentrated between watching Elmore and watching Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson's "Die Hard with a Vengeance."
Elmore traveled from Hannibal, Mo., for the one-day outpatient care.
Perna greeted them as he noticed Elmore's Marine Corps baseball cap.
"I served with the Marines," he said.
"My brother served with the Marines," Perna replied -- a statement he would make a couple of times throughout the afternoon.
After Perna returned back to the Rock Island Arsenal, he learned via a telephone call that Elmore was extremely appreciative of Perna's visit and wanted to send him a letter stating so.
All in told, Perna received tours of the newly renovated (April 2011) 7th Floor inpatient ward, spinal cord injury ward, and women's health care center.
Touring the medical center with Perna, included JMC's Command Surgeon Maj. Peter Matos; Capt. Jeff Tzeng, a fourth-year occupational and environmental medicine resident from Walter Reed, on a three-month, temporary detail with JMC; Aide-de-Camp Capt. Jerod Farkas, and Staff Sgt. Wally McFadden.
Visiting veterans' hospitals is part of a larger Department of the Army/Chief of Staff of the Army's mission to reach out to veterans. Perna said he has visited VA hospitals and medical facilities at other locations across the country where he has been stationed.
Perna said that since he arrived at JMC in November 2010, he had been trying to travel to the Iowa City VA Medical Center. He was able to accomplish his goal prior to his departure from JMC this summer.
Perna learned that the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System serves approximately 4,400 Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operational New Dawn veterans. The hospital's primary service area is 33 eastern Iowa and 16 western Illinois counties.
During the tour, Perna handed out command coins and handshakes to the staff and veterans.
Dawn Oxley, acting director for the Iowa City VA Health Center, was grateful that Perna spent time with the patients.
"The patients and staff of the Iowa City VA Health Care System were grateful for the time Brig. Gen. Perna spent touring the facility and visiting patients," she said. "It was rewarding to see Brig. Gen. Perna interact with the patients, talk to them, and shake their hand. You can tell it was a very meaningful experience for them."
Perna left the medical center honored to spent time with the veterans.
"My message I wanted to convey to the staff and veterans: thank you for all that you do for our veterans; thank you for what you did for our country," he said. "The day was very rewarding; well worth my time!"
From its headquarters in Rock Island, Ill., JMC operates a nationwide network of conventional ammunition manufacturing plants and storage depots, and provides on-site ammunition experts to U.S. combat units wherever they are stationed or deployed. JMC's customers are U.S. forces of all military services, other U.S. Government agencies, and allied nations.
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