Cardinal Health RBC continues support of Wounded Warrior Project

LAS VEGAS — Navy vet Jon Giacomin, CEO of the pharmaceutical segment at Cardinal Health, presented a “Quilt of Valor” to Jeremiah Pauley, Warriors Speak spokesperson, in honor of his service to our country and his commitment to Wounded Warrior Project at the Cardinal Health Retail Business Conference from July 22 to 25.

“I heard something earlier about the theme for this past week [being] ‘Position to win,’” Pauley told RBC attendees. “It really resonates with the relationship between Cardinal Health and  Wounded Warrior Project.”

By the close of the 2015 Cardinal Health RBC, Cardinal Health and its partners raised more than $4445,000 over the past year  in support of Wounded Warrior Project, including $4,000 for a guitar donated by Darius Rucker, who performed earlier in the conference. All told, Cardinal Health and its partners have raised more than $2 million in the past five years in support of Wounded Warrior Project.

Pauley participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and he shared with Cardinal Health RBC attendees his own story and experience through  Wounded Warrior Project. A Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army, Pauley had just led a team of men into a structure to clear it. Upon exiting the building, a roadside bomb exploded, killing one of his men and significantly injuring Pauley.

Pauley suffered from survivor’s guilt, having had to leave behind Private First Class Jody Missildine. “When I came home from Iraq after 2006, I struggled a lot with guilt. I thought often about Jody,” he said. “Every day I wear this bracelet [that] bears his name. And I never take it off. I do this to honor his memory, for his family and to serve as a constant reminder to me to always live each day to the fullest.”

Pauley may have taken his own life, he said, if it weren’t for the support of Wounded Warrior Project in his darkest hour.

In addition to direct donations — three pharmacies in Illinois raised $50,000 through fundraising efforts in their communities and the Cardinal Health pharmaceutical and medical distribution centers raised $165,000 collectively — the Cardinal Health RBC hosted a silent auction through Friday of the conference. The Cardinal Health Foundation pledged to match up to $150,000 of the proceeds generated by that event, all of which go directly to Wounded Warrior Project.