Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. -- Chief Master Sgt. Erik Wineland said May 26, the day he was medically discharged from the Air Force, was one of the darkest days of his life.
He had to leave a way of life that he loved. Financially, Wineland and his wife Paula also faced an uncertain future.
That was when a lady named Sharon Roark with the Air Force's Wounded Warrior Program came into the picture, an event that changed his life. But that's getting ahead of the story.
When Wineland joined the Air Force in August of 1986, the then 17-year-old high school graduate from Pennsylvania acknowledged that patriotism wasn't his reason for joining.
"My motivation was to get away from the dead smokestacks and try and make a better life," he recalled. "Wish I could say I was a patriot right off the bat, but I really didn't realize what I was until I knew what I did mattered."
Wineland, who joined Arnold Engineering Development Center's (AEDC) work force as a supply technical adviser in July, said his outlook on the Air Force changed as his active- duty career progressed.
"I started out as an inventory manager, a supply guy," he said. "Then we combined career fields a couple of times and then a couple more times. Then eventually when I was a chief master sergeant, I was the group superintendent for a whole logistics readiness squadron.
"I was working with the transportation, supply and logistics planners and the fuels guys. You had to know a little bit about everything."
He came to realize that serving in the Air Force was not only something he thoroughly enjoyed, but also it was a blessing and a privilege.
The final stage in Wineland's transformation to a full-fledged patriot took place when he was with the Air Mobility Command Headquarters at Scott AFB, Ill.
"They put me in a job doing war planning - we moved people, figured out how many parts we needed to lay in at different stops along the way," he recalled. "I really started realizing how important things we do really are."
One day Wineland walked into work and saw his boss, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant, sitting quietly at his desk. Something was not right.
"He had a weird look on his face - I said, 'What's wrong?'" Wineland recalled. "He said, 'Go in the other room and look at the TV.' And I walked in the room and that's when the second plane hit."
"He said to me, 'This is your Pearl Harbor.'"
For Wineland, the world as he knew it totally changed that day.
"At that moment, we pretty much worked in the vault, we were locked down," he said. "We were constantly mobilizing the National Guard members, laying down spare aircraft parts to move people and equipment everywhere that we needed to go. At that point, I found myself reaching back on everything that I had learned."
Wineland was among the first ones to land at Baghdad International Airport after the multinational troops had moved into the area during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"I was responsible for setting up an aircraft parts store to lay in parts and equipment so we could open up the runway to bring the American Red Cross in," he said, "and then bring in additional troops because the runway was still destroyed from the first time we went into Iraq."
By this time, Wineland said he had fully realized his calling.
"I spent from 2003 to 2007 deployed each year," he said. "It was the most frustrating and most rewarding period in my life. "I think that's what they mean when they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
In 2006, Wineland deployed to Afghanistan and found himself in a unique position.
"I was under the impression that I was going in there to train the Afghan soldiers on logistics," he explained. "When I hit the ground, the Army said 'No, we don't need you to do that, you're going with the Marines.'"
He soon learned that the Marines had a very different role for him to play.
"They said 'We need you to train Afghan commandos, to do counter-terrorism operations between Pakistan and Afghanistan,'" Wineland recalled. "My job was to guide this Afghan sergeant major in the ways that we do things as opposed to the way the Soviets taught them."
Wineland's initial reaction was, "This is Air Force, not air assault."
He told them he wasn't qualified to conduct that kind of training, but the Afghan general in charge of these trainees insisted Wineland was the man to lead the effort.
Wineland used his finely honed logistics skills to find the right people to help him rise to the challenge of training the Afghans on how to "set up a perimeter, kick down doors and kill bad guys."
While training the Afghan troops how to deploy from a helicopter, Wineland incurred a back injury that caused him intense and unrelenting pain. He kept quiet about it fearing he would lose the job he loved.
Eventually, the pain became so unbearable that Wineland sought medical attention.
"The Air Force medical community is one of the most wonderful things in the world," he said. "I can't thank them enough for what they did for me."
The Air Force, immediately recognizing the severity of his injury, tried to find a way Wineland would be able to remain on active duty and offered him limited duty options.
The time had come to make a tough decision.
"I couldn't in good conscience tell people you have to go to Iraq, you have to run every day, but I'll be right here in the office," Wineland said. "That's when I realized as much as I hated it; it was time to move on."
He was depressed and worried about the future. He and Paula had recently bought a tract of land in Tennessee to build a home.
Administrative out-processing followed by a medical discharge can drag on for a long time.
"[That time] - it was all a blur, which means you have no job, you have a house payment to make," he said. "It was the most depressing, dark and sad moment in my whole entire life. This was not the way he wanted to go, he said.
"[Then] all of a sudden, I started getting calls from the Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC), from a lady named Sharon.
"I thought it was somebody telling me I needed to do some out-processing, and the last people I wanted to deal with were the ones who were putting me out of the thing that I loved and had worked for." He avoided her phone calls and e-mails.
"One day, she just got a hold of me and said 'Why are you avoiding me,'" Wineland recalled. "And I said, 'I don't know who you are or what you want from me, but I just want to be left alone.'"
Roark, who is a case manager with the Wounded Warrior Program at Randolph AFB, Texas, finally got his attention. He realized this woman was genuinely trying to help the distraught serviceman.
Wineland initially insisted he wasn't a wounded warrior, but Roark was persistent and made him realize that he was no less of one than those flying a warplane or on a counterinsurgency mission. Wineland told her his biggest concern was employment and that financial and family obligations already were awaiting him in Tennessee.
Roark said, "Well let's check Arnold Air Force Base."
Wineland replied, "There's nothing there."
That conversation took place in May 2009.
"In June, I got an e-mail and it said, 'I have a position at Arnold AFB in the civil service,'" Wineland said. "It was the most incredible thing that I've ever experienced. It took the worry and stress out of my life."
Wineland said besides Roark, there were many "heroes" who helped him during a challenging time.
He credits Deanna Markovitch from AFPC for monitoring his progress with medical and administrative issues.
"Another hero is Britt Covington, for calling me early one morning to tell me that AEDC received my information and is looking into helping me," Wineland said. "Then there's Tom Sizemore who worked with the personnel system to find a spot for me in what seemed to be lightening speed. Vicky Colvin and Sharon Arnold helped me through the mounds of paperwork.
"Colonel Bender - he took a chance on me and found me a spot at AEDC," Wineland continued. "My thanks also go to Mr. Piercy for his patience and support during my transition from the military life to civilian life."
The Air Force's Wounded Warrior Program (AFW2) was created in 2005, as a Department of Defense and Air Force initiative to provide personalized care to any Airman with a combat-related illness or injury requiring long-term care that requires a Medical Evaluation Board or a Physical Evaluation Board to determine fitness for duty.
"Our AFW2 Airmen receive individualized guidance and support to lead them through the difficult process as they return to duty or transition back to civilian life," explained Roark, who joined the program in December 2007 after serving with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
For more information on the Air Force's Wounded Warrior Program, go to www.woundedwarrior.af.mil, or call the Wounded Warrior program office at 1-800-581-9437.