Wounded Warriors: A Soldier’s Story of Healing Through Birds

Robert C. Vallieres struggled to find his "new normal" when he returned home after serving in the military. An accident in Kuwait left him suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and internal injuries, leaving him in constant pain.
After clinics, bottles of painkillers, and behavior modification pills, hope seemed to vanish. Then a local weekly newspaper ad caught his eye: a bird-watching trip to see raptors in the mountains of New Hampshire. An Emily Dickinson poem that states, "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune--without the words, and never stops at all," sprang to his mind.
Wounded Warriors is Vallieres's story of self-healing from crippling "invisible" wounds through the help of birds. The problems of TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder do not have definitive solutions. His story of recovery offers a winged hope to thousands of military personnel who suffer these physical and mental battles. Watch an author interview.View a hawk watch.

ROBERT C. VALLIERES is a Persian Gulf War veteran. He lives with his wife and son in Concord, New Hampshire, and volunteers for the New Hampshire Audubon Society. Vallieres received a BA in Fine Arts from Notre Dame College in Manchester, New Hampshire, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Spirit of New Hampshire Volunteer of the Year award in 2009.

JACQUELYN M. HOWARD is an environmental management specialist, naturalist, avian field biologist, and writer.

CINDY PARSONS is a spokesperson for Warriors Speak, a division of the Wounded Warriors Project, and a full-time caregiver for her son, Sergeant Shane Parsons, a double amputee with a traumatic brain injury.