The last time Sebrena Lora Cagle saw her son, Pfc. Randy Armstrong, it was August 2009.  He was on a gurney at Madigan Army Medical Center receiving treatment for injuries sustained in Iraq, his hand "basically blown apart" by a gunshot wound.

In April, Cagle was in a hospital herself, recovering from a collapsed lung and other injuries as the result of a bicycle accident.  Armstrong, 22, wanted to travel home to be by his mother's side as she had been for him, but he didn't have the money to go, so he sought help from the Army's Wounded Warrior Program on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

It was there that Armstrong, who is assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion on JBLM, learned about Veterans Airlift Command, or Vac, a volunteer organization based in Minneapolis that flies injured servicemembers to where they need to go at no charge.  Within a week, he was by his mother's side in Visalia, Calif.

"They worked their butts off to get me down there," Armstrong said. "I wouldn't have been able to make it without them. It meant a lot to me."

Accompanied by his wife, Shanique, Armstrong flew from the Tacoma Narrows Airfield and stayed in California for five days, during which time he saw not only his injured mother but also most of his family members. "It was pretty awesome to be able to go down there and see my family this time," he said. "It was therapeutic for me (too). Stress was lifted off my shoulders."

Armstrong was able to make the trip thanks in part to pilot Kimmie Miller, who works as chief pilot for a Portland, Ore., based businessman and veteran who donated the use of his aircraft and the cost of fuel for Armstrong's trip. Miller, whose brother is an active duty soldier who has served in Iraq, donated her time and said she volunteers for VAC as a way to give back and honor her brother's commitment.

VAC was founded by Walt Fricke, a pilot who was injured in Vietnam. When he retired from the mortgage business four years ago, he thought, "what better way to spend my retirement than to fly my airplane and pick up a wounded soldier or his family and get him home or get his family to see him," Fricke wrote on his Web site (www.veteransairlift.org).

The notion took hold, and VAC took off. The original handful of Fricke's pilot friends now comprises a nonprofit organization that includes more than 1,500 volunteer pilots who have flown 351 missions and 800 passengers just this year, said Mission Coordinator Lisa Young. Pilots donate their time, aircraft and fuel.  Primarily based on the east coast and in Texas, the organization is trying to expand to the west coast, Young said.

The program transports veterans, retirees and servicemembers - injured or otherwise - who have served overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mission priority is on active duty service members undergoing medical treatment for wounds sustained in combat, but VAC will fly families to the service member as well. Being able to visit family improves the wounded servicemember's outlook, Young said.

"They need their family and friends. It's a really good, soothing way for them to heal."

For more information about the Veterans Airlift Command or to volunteer, visit www.veteransairlift.org.