A Chapel Hill couple met with President Bush to talk about health care for veterans.
Also in the meeting were Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Sen. Bob Dole and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala.
Ret. Sgt. Ted Wade and his wife, Sarah, joined about a dozen other veterans' advocates in the meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Barb Barrett reports.
Ted Wade lost his right arm and suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in 2004 while serving in Iraq.
His wife, Sarah, has been working on Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of her husband and other veterans. She has supported legislation to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act for the families of injured veterans and testified in a hearing last month that she lost her job at a Chapel Hill restaurant because, she was told, she had too much going on in her life.
More after the jump.
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"The president called the meeting inspiring and said that with their courage, our military are showing the strength of a new generation of wounded warriors," said White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo. "They are helping to build a new culture that defines people by their potential, not their disabilities."
The Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs will hold a hearing Wednesday to hear about improvements in the treatment of wounded troops since recommendations come out this summer from a panel appointed by Bush and chaired by Dole and Shalala.
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