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The following article profiles the Fisher House facility at Ft. Lewis. I know a number of Stryker families have taken advantage of the organization's housing at Ft. Lewis and elsewhere.
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune
Like a lot of Army spouses, Sora Oakes figured she’d be better off staying back home with her family while her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Don Oakes, was in Iraq.
So when he deployed in April, she and their son Connor moved out of their quarters at Fort Lewis and in with her folks in Tennessee.
That worked fine – until Oakes got hurt Nov. 9. He suffered a badly broken leg when a wall collapsed onto him during a mission in Diyala province.
In a few days he was at Madigan Army Medical Center, and Sora and 4-year-old Connor were back at Fort Lewis in need of a place to stay.
Like hundreds of other military families who have found themselves in similar circumstances, the Oakes family found a home away from home at Fisher House.
“It’s been a godsend, I’ll tell you that,” said Sora Oakes, who figured she was looking at an extended costly hotel stay to be close to her husband while he recovered.
Instead the family is living for free in one of the seven suites at the Fort Lewis Fisher House. It’s part of a nationwide network of 38 such facilities that opened in 1990 to help military families through medical emergencies.
The Fort Lewis house was built in 1992 and generally runs at 96 to 98 percent capacity. This past year it’s been full, said house manager Jodi Land.
There are longstanding plans for a second Fort Lewis house, but they’ve been temporarily shelved while the foundation builds new houses near VA hospitals, including one in Seattle, that are located away from military installations.
[...]