Andrew Wilson, right, trains with Marine Ben Maenza last week at the 'Warrior Rehab Center" in Maryland. Maenza was last year's recipient of Brentwood's generosity.

Updated 12:00 p.m. Tuesday
Work crews, community working together to welcome Wilson home
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
Next Tuesday -- December 20--  hasn’t been declared Andrew Wilson Day … yet. But act surprised if it does happen, and plan to take part in the festivities if you can. That’s the word from Brentwood Police Chief Ricky Watson and many others who have come together in recent weeks to make sure young Wilson gets a hero’s welcome next Tuesday.

Andrew Wilson with parents Kim and Cliff Wilson, brother Blake and sister Bella in Washington, D.C.

The young Spec. 4 in the U.S. Army lost one leg above the knee and another below the knee on Oct. 19 following an IED explosion while he was on patrol in Afghanistan. He has gone through 11 surgeries since the explosion. 

Now in rehab at the new Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., he’ll return to a newly retrofitted Bonbrook home next week to spend Christmas with his family.

On Sunday, Andrew celebrated his 24^th birthday. On Monday – only 54 days since the explosion – he was fitted for his second prosthetic leg.

“That kind of goes down as the best birthday ever,” said his stepmom Kim Wilson. His dad Cliff is in Maryland helping with Andrew’s rehab and will travel home with him next week.

Andrew will leave the “Warrior Rehab Center” next Tuesday for a two-week stay at home. “He’s got a 30-day leave but he’s only going to stay home for two weeks,” Kim Wilson said. Andrew wants to get back to Walter Reed and his rehab as soon as possible.

In April, he plans to be at the airport to greet his fellow 10th Mountain Division soldiers when they return to Fort Drum, N.Y from their deployment in Kandahar – and doesn’t want to do it in a wheelchair.

“His goal is to be standing when his guys get home from Afghanistan,” she said.

Brentwood Police Chief Ricky Watson arrived at the Wilson's Bonbrook home Monday bearing building materials.

Crews are at work at the Wilson’s house this week in preparation for Andrew’s first homecoming. They are installing a wheelchair accessible shower, widening several doorways and adding an exterior wheelchair lift.

All of the work is being taken care of courtesy of the local companies Watson contacted and asked to lend a hand.

Large turnout expected Tuesday
The police chief also hopes that as many Brentwood residents as possible will be standing along Franklin and Concord roads late next Tuesday morning to welcome Andrew home.

Andrew and his dad are expected to arrive at Nashville International Airport at 10:45 a.m. where a limousine will pick them up for the ride back to Brentwood.

At 11:30 a.m. – or as soon thereafter as the limo gets to Old Hickory Boulevard and Franklin Road -- a Brentwood Police and Patriot Riders escort will lead a convoy south on Franklin Road from Old Hickory Boulevard to Concord Road where it will turn left and travel east to Sunset Road, just east of the Governors Club, Watson has confirmed.

The Bonbrook HOA has approved a $300 donation to support the homecoming and hopes to place flags along Sunset to line the subdivision’s main street.  A citywide solicitation of funds quickly secured enough money to pay for hundreds of yellow ribbons which will be hung along the route this weekend by volunteers.

Homeowners Associations representing the numerous subdivisions that line Concord Road have been contacted, encouraging neighborhood support. Brentwood Baptist Church is offering the use of its parking lot off Concord Road for anyone who wants to line Concord west of the interstate to welcome the motorcade.

 “I keep telling him, ‘All of Brentwood is praying for you,’” Kim Wilson said. Family members have been inundated with phone calls, emails and notes of support ever since they received news of the explosion.

Oak Hill School students gather with Andrew Wilson's family members  in celebration of the former Oak Hill student's homecoming.

Last Friday, Oak Hill School in Nashville dedicated its flag raising ceremony to Andrew, who had attended the K-6 school before moving on to BA. His parents, the Wilsons and Russ and Gay Bruner of Franklin, and oldest siblings, Whitney Fotineas and Jackson Wilson, were presented posters, letters and cards of encouragement students had made for Andrew. The ceremony was filmed and taken to Andrew.

Andrew also has two younger siblings, Blake and Bella Wilson, who attend Edmondson Elementary School.

All invited to help tie ribbons
Becky Gregory, who arranged for the yellow ribbon campaign last year for Marine PFC Ben Maenza’s Brentwood homecoming, is coordinating the ribbon campaign for Andrew.

Gregory needs volunteers Friday and Saturday to paint the town yellow. Anyone who would like to help is asked to meet at 2:30 p.m. Friday and/or at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in the Tower Park parking lot on Heritage Way.

Already she has volunteers from Brentwood Academy, the Brentwood High and Brentwood Middle lacrosse programs and Brentwood Soccer teams participating, she said.

“I have over 1,000 yellow ribbons to hang in a seven-mile stretch, so the more Brentwoodians we have on deck, the better” Gregory said. “We may even have some veterans helping. That brings a tear to my eye. What a wonderful place we live!”

Andrew and his sister, Whitney Fotineas, at Walter Reed. Andrew was cast for his second prosthetic leg on Monday.

Brentwood Academy is leading the fundraising effort for The Andrew Wilson Fund set up at Regions Bank and has “absolutely rallied around the whole family,” Kim Wilson said.

When BA’s Class of 2012 selected the national Wounded Warriors Project as its senior project “way before Andrew’s accident,” Kim said she recalled thinking at the time that it was a strange choice. “Now it’s come full circle. They realized the coincidence of it as well.”

Another coincidence is that almost exactly a year before the explosion that claimed Andrew’s legs, Ben Maenza, was similarly injured in an explosion on Oct. 21, 2010. Last year Watson rallied the community to raise funds and found donors to rehab Ben’s parent’s In-A-Vale home so that he could come home for Christmas.

In September, Ben – now a Lance Corporal -- returned to Williamson County to lead the local Wounded Warrior Project’s 2011 Soldier Ride.

Though Andrew’s family has tried to keep the hero’s welcome a secret, Kim Wilson said through social media Andrew has learned he’s going to be picked up in a limo but she doesn’t believe he knows the extent of the outpouring of support being planned.