In 1987, a young woman working in the West Wing of the Reagan White House was introduced to a dashing Army colonel. She was a 2nd lieutenant in the Air National Guard. He was a Vietnam combat veteran. They fell deeply in love. Within months they married.
On November 12, 1992, Brigadier General Tom Carroll, 44, who was the assistant adjutant general of the Alaska Army Guard at the time, was making a routine flight to a facility in Juneau from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage in an Army C-12F twin-engine Beechcraft along with seven others. The guard were preparing for an instrument-aided landing when the plane crashed on southern Chilkat Peninsula. They died shortly after the crash.
This week’s guest is his surviving spouse, Bonnie Carroll- an American widow.
"We had five wonderfully happy years together," Bonnie said. "Then he was gone. That August, I got together with some of the other families who lost loved ones that day. We chartered a helicopter and visited the crash site. It was on the side of a mountain, and the remains of the plane were still there. For us, being at the site provided finality, and was very much a healing experience." While that experience may have helped stanch some of the emotional bleeding, the ache of loss only grew deeper. Bonnie looked around for some group that might offer support.
There was none. "No group was there for all those who lose a loved one serving in the Armed Forces to reach out to," she said.
All that winter, Bonnie Carroll thought about that void, thought about creating an organization to fill that void, talked to folks who could empathize with her pain: others who had lost a husband or a wife, brother or sister, son or daughter; officials in the Pentagon and the VA. In October 1994, she launched the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.
Today she still serves as the President & Founder of TAPS- the leading national Military Service Organization providing compassionate care, casework assistance, and 24/7/365 emotional support for all those impacted by the death of a military loved one. She is a 2015 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Contact Information for Bonnie Carroll T.A.P.S. Social Media
T.A.P.S. Website https://www.taps.org/
LinkedIn (company) https://www.linkedin.com/company/tragedy-assistance-program-for-survivors/
LinkedIn Profile (personal): https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnie-carroll-4411bb4/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TAPSorg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TAPSorg/
