Fairchild: One Year Later True Cost Incalculable; Military Spends Millions

The true cost of Dean Mellberg’s rampage may never be tallied. Pain, fear and broken families don’t have neat, easy price tags.

But the Air Force knows it has spent more than $3 million in federal money since the June 20 massacre.

Slightly over half - about $1.6 million - went to hospital bills, rehabilitation services, home health care and medicine, said Maj. Candace Ballmer, a spokesman for Faichild Air Force Base.

Pentagon officials said the rest paid for counseling, physical therapy, ongoing medical services and repairs to the base hospital complex. Medical bills will continue to be covered, they added.

In the weeks after the shootings, about $34,000 was raised in local charity drives. The money was placed in a trust fund controlled by a committee of military officials and civilians.

That money was used for a wide variety of expenses the federal government couldn’t cover, such as the travel costs of relatives who came to stay with victims and wages lost by civilian victims, said Lt. Col. Eric Reffett, Fairchild’s liaison to the committee.

It bought supplies that volunteers used to build wheelchair ramps at victims’ houses, paid some day-care expenses and in one case rented an air conditioner for a victim recovering at home during last summer’s heat wave.

“There was a huge outpouring of love from the community to the victims,” Reffett said. “It’s terrible a tragedy like this has to happen, but it has really cemented the relationship between the base and the community.”

Lawsuits could add millions more to the cost of the shootings.

Michelle Sigman and her family filed claims totaling $15 million. Attorneys for other victims are expected to file more claims, perhaps by the end of June.

If the claims are rejected, lawsuits will follow.

, DataTimes