A Little Long Beach Hospitality for Warriors

Eileen Kane slept at her friend’s house last week so that she could give up her Lindell Boulevard apartment to strangers.

It was the second year that she had allowed a wounded U.S. military man and his family to stay at her place as part of the Waterfront Warriors project in Long Beach.

“I only have one bedroom and I told them they are welcome to it,” Kane said of the wounded veteran from Maryland (who wished to remain unidentified), his fiancé and their 20-month-old baby.

A Marine with three tours in Iraq, he joined the National Guard, returned to the war-ravaged country and was blown through a concrete wall and shrapnel ripped into him after a fellow soldier stepped on a landmine and was killed. He still suffers from internal injuries, including a shifted spine.

Kane is among hundreds of local volunteers who opened their homes (and hotel) and volunteered their time for the annual five-day Waterfront Warriors event in Long Beach. Founded by City Councilman John McLaughlin, the Waterfront Warriors assist the wounded, ill and injured military men and women on their return to civilian life by providing them with a vacation in Long Beach. Thirty wounded veterans and their families attended this year's event.

“What I take away from it is how much they appreciate it,” said Kane, who volunteered at a surfing outing for them at National Boulevard beach last Thursday.

Kane was joined by Paul Gillespie, chief of Long Beach Lifeguards, and his wife, Janine, who have opened their seven-bedroom West Holme home to different families each year.  

“At first you’re a little apprehensive about everything, but the people we’ve had in our house couldn’t have been any nicer,” Paul said when asked what it’s like to live with strangers for days.

They housed Preston Kaplan, an Army gunner from California who lost a leg below his knee and wears a prosthetic. He liked Long Beach so much when he took part in the project last summer that he returned again this year with his wife and sister-in-law.

Janine explained that since she and her husband have three children in their late teens to early 20s, they are accustomed to people being in and out of their home.

“The first night you’re trying to get to know each other,” she explained. “And at some point they eventually tell you their story of how they were injured.”

Paul said that he was standing in his kitchen when Kaplan told him that he lost his lower leg in an explosion. One night last week, Kaplan and one of Paul’s friends, a Vietnam veteran, sat in the living room and exchanged war stories.

“You never know what you’re going to get,” Kaplan said about staying in unknown homes, “but it was like I was part of the family.”

The veterans’ rest and relaxation last week included a welcome parade and barbeque, a waterfront party, boat trips, and visits to the former World Trade Center Site and Liberty Island.  

“The community here is very welcoming,” Kaplan said. “You actually do feel they really appreciate you.”

When, on his first night back in Long Beach, he went body surfing, his prosthetic leg came off. He tossed it onto the shore and kept surfing.

“I think it was at that moment that I said that these men and women don’t let their injury defeat them,” Janine said. “They just don’t let it choose to stop them. They’re truly inspirational.”

* This story was corrected from the original.