Lieutenant Colonel Karen J. Wagner, born February 22, 1961 at Fort Riley, KS. A national honor society member and an athletic track & basketball upon graduation from Judson High School, Karen was a distinguished military graduate of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She was commissioned on February 14, 1984 as a Medical Service Corps Officer.

She also holds a Master’s degree in Health Services Administration from Webster University. She was promoted to her present rank of Lieutenant Colonel in August, 2001.

Wagner’s many Army postings included serving as adjutant for the 85th Medical Evacuation Hospital at Fort Lee, Va.; executive officer and company commander of D Company in the 187th Medical Battalion at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio; and chief of personnel for the 57th Evacuation Hospital in Wuerzburg, Germany. She also headed the personnel services branch at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

The army classified Karen’s job as 70F, but the closest that got to glamorous was its Army med moniker, foxtrot. She was a hospital administrator. A paper pusher. But if the duties were low in drama, their effect was not. Her focus was personnel, and the matters she dealt with—promotions, commendations, station assignments for families with two Army parents—were at the heart of a soldier’s Army experience. A form that was filled out incorrectly or that languished too long in some superior’s inbox would be the kind of completely predictable, explainable snafu that could drive a soldier out of the service. In a bureaucracy the size of the Army’s, those kinds of problems would be fixed only by a personnel officer who cared, and Karen did. More to the point, in a top-down hierarchy, a soldier is always at the mercy of the person above him. One person’s bad day will become a bad day for everyone who depends on him.

But nobody ever saw Karen have a bad day. When she was back at Fort Sam in the mid-nineties, working in the inspector general’s office on investigations into matters like the quality of patient care, her old colleagues in HR knew when she was coming to visit because she’d start singing “Hey Baby, Que Paso” as she walked down the hall, then dance with one of the captains once she got through the door. Her frequent morning announcement, “Here we are, another day in paradise,” had no bitter edge, since she was the co-worker who regularly brought boxes of warm doughnuts in for the office. And she was funny. When a hard-ass colonel would create a fuss about some otherwise meaningless glitch, like an upside-down slide in a PowerPoint presentation, her standard explanation, “It’s a black thing, sir. You wouldn’t understand,” would bust up the room.

She could pull that off because she was good at her job, and the Army took note. In 1997 she was transferred back to Walter Reed, the Army’s flagship hospital, where she was named brigade executive officer and deputy brigade commander. It was a huge responsibility. Walter Reed is a unique beast. The seven companies stationed there, which include the hospital’s doctors, nurses, and staff, number up to seven hundred soldiers each, nearly five times the size of a normal company. Typical Army companies would be grouped into battalions, whose commanders would manage the company commanders and report to the brigade executive officer. But some of the companies at Walter Reed were already close to battalion size, so that level was skipped, and the company commanders reported directly to Karen. Thus her dual title and, essentially, two full-time jobs: She had to manage the brigade staff, as well as the day-to-day health, welfare, and discipline of every one of the 2,600 soldiers at Walter Reed.

The pressure didn’t faze her. She recognized quickly that maintaining soldier discipline would prove to be the sticking point. Another Army med peculiarity is that much of the manpower comes from doctors and nurses who outrank the young captains who command their companies. They can be difficult people to order around. If Karen was going to continue her string of successes at Walter Reed, she’d have to teach her company commanders how to lead.

One of them was Augie Schomburg. He was a 32-year-old Army med officer when he took charge of Bravo Company in July 1999, a captain so green he only learned of his promotion the day before he arrived at Walter Reed. He’d been there ten minutes when Karen called him into her office. She shut the door behind him and invited him to sit down. Then she went to work on him.

“This is not a standard company,” she explained. “More than half your soldiers are lieutenant colonels and colonels. You’ve got docs doing Senate-funded cancer research, high-profile, politically connected people. Setting the tone here will be about the art of influence. You’ve got to demonstrate good leadership. And you’ll do that by showing the same level of respect to everyone, from the lowest civilian staffer to the highest-ranking surgeon, even though he might not be able to put on his uniform correctly, which he probably won’t.”

Schomburg took it in, not entirely sure what she meant. But he started to understand as he looked around the room. She had an impressive corner office overlooking the rose garden. Her dark cherrywood desk was uncluttered, with just a short stack of that day’s business, a bowl of chocolates, and some doodads revealing her love for the San Antonio Spurs. But the I-love-myself wall typical of most accomplished career officers was conspicuous in its absence. Neither her college degree nor her master’s in hospital services was displayed, nor any of her many awards. Instead, her success was implied by mementos that mattered more to her: a flag from the company she’d led at Fort Sam and a collection of commander’s coins given to her by superior officers, part of the Army tradition of quietly recognizing contributions that didn’t quite rise to commendation level.

She’d teach him more at thrice-weekly meetings with the rest of the company commanders. This was the nuts and bolts of her command, sitting in her office with her protégés, weighing the plights of individual soldiers against the needs of Walter Reed. They managed a potential controversy when a rash of people, from colonels on down, misused special credit cards they’d been given for travel expenses. They developed a strategy for getting the docs to satisfy their physical fitness requirements, curing a long-standing headache at Walter Reed.

Bigger lessons came when they addressed the case-by-case discipline problems. A JAG officer attended those meetings too, typically bringing with her an armload of litigation files detailing everything from hot checks to bar fights. Karen had the final say on whether to prosecute. Once again, soldiers’ careers were in her hands. One time the charge was cocaine possession. A soldier had treated himself to a small party in the barracks, then jumped out a window and broken his leg. If he’d had a higher rank, he’d have been kicked out immediately. But he was just a kid, and his company commander, Captain Diana King, didn’t know what to do. Karen didn’t hesitate.
“What does his sergeant suggest?” Karen asked.
“She said to give him a second chance.”
“Then that’s what we do,” Karen replied. “You have to trust the people under you. The Army trains them to do the right thing. So put your faith in the Army.”

But faith’s just a concept until it’s tested. In early 2000 Karen learned she’d been passed over for promotion to lieutenant colonel, and the news hurt. Her colleagues reasoned she was a victim of bad numbers, that if more spots had been open that year, she would have gotten the nod. Still, Schomburg, King, and the rest of her company commanders were shocked. They sent her flowers. Karen tried to hide the disappointment and instead pressed on. More days in paradise. That summer she transferred across the Walter Reed campus to the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command, where she’d be the secretary of the general’s staff for Major General Harold Timboe. He was in charge of every Army hospital from Maine to Wisconsin and down to North Carolina, and Karen was his gatekeeper, responsible for every bit of information that went in and out of his office. She nailed the assignment. When she came up for promotion again the next year, she got the bump, a rarity for someone who’d been passed over already.

Every officer has her own idea about how to mark a promotion. Some do it quietly in their offices; others simply show up for work wearing their new rank. Karen intended to celebrate. In July, some sixty friends and colleagues gathered for a formal ceremony in the grand foyer of Walter Reed’s historic Building One, where General Timboe pinned a lieutenant colonel’s silver oak leaf to the epaulet of her crisp dress greens. As passersby noticed who was getting the honor, the crowd grew to more than a hundred, most of whom then followed her upstairs to a reception in the Eisenhower Suite.

Karen insisted that the real treat that morning was the strawberry cake she’d ordered for the occasion. “You’ve got to have a great cake when you’re promoted,” she said, “because that’s all that anyone will remember.” On that point she was wrong. The buzz at the reception was about her new assignment to be the medical branch representative to the deputy chief of staff for Army personnel. She was going to the Pentagon.

Karen J. Wagner High School in Converse, Texas, was named in her honor.

Sources: SA Express News, VFW Post 12119 Website, Where My Spot? DC Roe Website, Texas Monthly, John Spong (2011)

Volunteers from the Togus Regional Office

Volunteers clean the headstones at the Togus VA Cemetery

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Thank you to my comrades at arms and their families for their sacrifices.

Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery

Signed Bexar County Hidalgo Award by the Bexar County Commissioner's Court to honor the legacy of LTC Karen Wagner for her service to her nation, soldiers, and time served in Bexar County, Texas.

LTC Karen J Wagner Bexar County Hidalgo Award

Signed Resolution by the Senate of the State of Texas to honor the legacy of LTC Karen Wagner for her service to her nation, soldiers, and time served in the State of Texas. 

LTC Karen J Wagner State of Texas Signed Resolution

Togus Regional Office employees honor the fallen on the Patriot Day National Day of Service and Remembrance

On Friday, September 10, 2021, over 10 volunteers from the Togus Regional Office partnered with the non-profit organization Carry the Load, the National Cemetery Administration, and the VA Maine Healthcare System to clean the 5,373 headstones of the Togus VA National Cemetery. Moving amongst the hallowed graves of Veterans dating back to the mid-1880s, volunteers symbolically brushed the full surface of each headstone, while reflecting upon the ultimate sacrifices made by those 2,977 Americans who perished in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and as passengers of United Flight 93, along with those of the conflicts to follow. Forty-seven of those lost on 9/11 were Veterans.

By a joint resolution approved December 18, 2001, Congress designated Patriot Day as a day to remember those that have fallen, those that helped to fight, and those that were impacted by the events of that day.

Carry the Load was established in 2011 with the mission to provide an active way to honor and remember our Nation’s heroes by connecting Americans to the sacrifices made by our Military, Veterans, First Responders and their Families. For more information, visit https://www.carrytheload.org.





We will never forget.  Thank you for your service.

'Ten Hut! Salute!
Thank you for your sacrifice!! 

I had the honor of serving with LTC Wagner at Walter Reed. Her legacy remains an inspiration to everyone who knew Karen, and her contributions and sacrifice will long be remembered.

My heart overflows with gratitude and thankfulness to my comrades at arms and the sacrifices they and their families have made for all of us.
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

In humbled but often speechless suffering, commitment, dedication, and never forgotten remembrance:

Handpicked to serve as a member of the Honor Guard, my standards of conduct and level of professionalism must be above reproach, for I represent all others in my service. 

Others earned the right to wear the ceremonial uniform, one that is honored in rich tradition and history. I will honor their memory by wearing it properly and proudly. 

Never will I allow my performance to be dictated by the type of ceremony, severity of the temperature, or size of the crowd. I will remain superbly conditioned to perfect all movements throughout every drill and ceremony. 

Obligated by my oath I am constantly driven to excel by a deep devotion to duty and a strong sense of dedication. 

Representing every member, past and present, of the United States Air Force, I vow to stand sharp, crisp, and motionless, for I am a Ceremonial Guardsman.

LtCol Wagner, thank you for your service. May you Rest In Peace eternally in the arms of Our Savior Jesus Christ?Amen

Watch this Carry the Load Video about Karen Wagner: https://twitter.com/CarryTheLoad/status/1391756628802908160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Karen, my military sister; Thank you for your service and sacrifice to our County. Rest in the arms of the Lord. Your legacy will not be forgotten.

LTC Wagner, your service and ultimate sacrifice to our country will never be forgotten. Your legacy will forever be etched in the annals of military history. That indeed is your second act.

I meet Karen when she was a LT at Fort Sam Houston.  When I arrived at Walter Reed, Aug 2001, she had gotten promoted moved to Pentagon.   We had plans to meet for lunch and catch up.  I think about her and I am in my second act; working for VA and Veterans.  I know you are resting.  Thank you.  Elizabeth HF

LTC Wagner we honor you as productive citizens after our time in uniform. All who follow are your second act.

Hi Lt. Col. Wagner,  Wrote an article about you today for the VA Vantage Point blog.   Thank you so much for your service to our country.  Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.

God bless.

KAREN J WAGNER

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