Emissary of Hope Honored for Aid to Combat Veterans

WASHINGTON – Veterans today honored the real-life volunteer introduced to 75 million Doonesbury readers as “Jim the Milkshake Man” for his bedside visits to wounded vets at the Army’s Walter Reed hospital.

Jim Mayer was recognized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for his 500th peer visit.  It’s called a peer visit because Mayer, like many of the war-wounded veterans in hospital beds, lost his legs in a land mine explosion.

Mayer’s amputations arose from the Vietnam War.  Besides the occasional milkshake, he brings to their bedside a message of hope based on lessons learned since his own traumatic injuries 37 years ago this month.

In a recognition ceremony, the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, told Mayer, “Jim has a unique perspective; he has been through what these young troopers are enduring.  He really helps them come to a renewed belief in themselves, in their capacity for challenge, change and opportunity — and in their ability to do what they may have thought impossible.”

The Milkshake Man became a household name after the Doonesbury character B.D. was depicted losing his leg in a 2004 cartoon.  In B.D.’s recovery in Walter Reed’s Ward 57, he finds inspiration from dedicated staff and trained volunteers like Mayer.

A native of St. Louis who joined VA in 1974, Mayer currently is an outreach official in the Seamless Transition Office, working to ensure that as combat veterans separate from military service, they can move seamlessly into VA programs.

But it is Mayer’s volunteer work with wounded servicemembers that earned him special recognition.  He is one of a group of Vietnam veteran volunteers who work together to help today’s severely wounded veterans before and after their discharge by providing support and friendship.

Nicholson applauded him for making an “inspiring impact on the lives of all the young heroes you’ve cared for, cajoled, kidded, consoled and loved.”

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