War Veteran Cord Dwigans Support Fund

Many people have asked to help the War Veteran who had his truck broken into while it was on the side of the Interstate after an ambulance picked him up due to having an episode brought on by his TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury).

Unfortunately, the next day Cord was admitted into the VA Hospital. The VA has been taking good care of him and he's getting the support he needs. We've taken his dog because he was suffering from an infected leg and we needed to get her treated. She is staying with us while she heals.

Cord knows I'm doing this fund for him and all money raised will go to fixing his truck, caring for his injured service animal, clothing, furnishing an apartment to get him off the street and whatever else it takes to get Cord back on his feet and on the right path.

Fox 4 News in Kansas City ran the story and I'll post a link to it here once it's aired.

The full FB post and story is below.

Someone stole a War Veteran’s military medals (along with other things) from his truck that was on the side of I-70 and 57th street yesterday. Please keep a look out if you see someone with military medals that wouldn’t normally have them.

Yesterday, some of you may have seen the gentleman walking down Parallel, near Providence hospital, (with no shirt or shoes on) and his dog. I saw him when heading towards the Legends and then on my way home I saw him again. I went home and got water and Gatorade and headed back out to see if he was still walking. I drove back towards the Legends and saw he was sitting under a shade tree near the car lot by 435. I pulled over and gave his dog water and him the Gatorade.

I learned that he was just released from Providence and he was trying to get back to his truck which was parked on the side of the highway somewhere (apparently he had called an ambulance and they picked him up). He is a War Veteran, did multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and had/has a traumatic brain injury which causes him some pretty severe problems. The dog he had with him is his service animal hence he was allowed to take him to the hospital.

I told him to stay there and I would go and get my boyfriend and we would take him. So we came back and picked him up and proceeded to drive in the direction he thought his truck was in. After going all the way to Leavenworth and back (not road, Leavenworth the town) It was clear he was confused and had no idea where his truck was.

You have to understand this poor guy was out of it, new to the area, and had no clue where he was. After we realized we were never going to find this truck, he just kept saying you can drop us (him and his dog) here and we’ll figure it out. He felt horrible to burden us and we were all in a horrible position and frustrated, but we couldn’t just put him and his dog back out and tell them to figure it out.

We called Providence to see if they could tell us where the ambulance picked him up but they couldn’t and suggested we call the police. KCK police couldn’t help, but we called the State Highway Patrol, and thank goodness they told us the truck was at 57th and I-70 (they had dispatched someone with the ambulance call).

We were all so excited to pull up and see the truck only to realize someone had broken out two of his small back windows and stole a bunch of stuff, including his military medals (this was in broad daylight on the side of I-70)

It was clear this guy was living out of his truck and it was heartbreaking to see that someone had taken what was probably the one and only thing he had in his possession that meant the world to him.

So if you hear of, or see anyone with military medals that don’t belong to them, can you please let me know? It’s sickening that someone would break into a vehicle with a handicap tag and service animal sticker in the window, and steal military medals.

Please pray for this gentleman, I’m guessing he could use a lot of them. If you by chance have contacts to a shop that can fix his truck windows that would be a tremendous blessing to him as well. Lastly, if you know of any local services that help veterans with housing let me know and I can let him know. Thanks for reading.