CORPUS CHRISTI — Deirdre Johnson heard the stories around her family dinner table about the pangs of war. Remembering them inspired her to help returning troops.

Her grandfather, a World War II amphibious-boat driver, described soldiers shot before stepping onto land. Her father talked about eating rodents to survive during the Vietnam War, and an uncle and cousin shared their Bronze Star stories from the Gulf War.

“I never stopped listening to them,” said the 38-year-old mother of four, now raising her children at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi as her husband serves his third tour in Iraq.

Johnson designed a T-shirt being sold online to help raise $1 million for USA Cares, which financially assists thousands of post-Sept. 11 veterans and their families through the Warrior Treatment Today Program.

Modeled after her late father’s artwork, the T-shirt’s image is of hands in a heart shape encapsulating symbols of combat — boots, dangling military dog tags and a U.S. flag. Below the hands, the Constitution’s preamble is written.

Home Sweet Home Campaign is marketing the shirts in its T-Shirts 4 Soldiers program.

“I hope it’s plastered everywhere,” Johnson said of her drawing.

Johnson’s father didn’t have help for post-traumatic stress disorder, wrote her husband, Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Johnson in an e-mail.

“The drawing is something she did out of a sudden act of inspiration,” he said.

Deirdre Johnson remembers watching her father draw murals of veterans on business walls in Freer to remind people of his wartime struggles. While her husband was deployed, she doodled at her kitchen table. A religious picture her father drew of hands forming a heart shape stuck in her mind, she said.

“It’s the power of the image that kept coming back to me,” she said.

The drawing has had such an impact that it was turned into a banner for the Home Sweet Home Campaign’s Web site, said Beth Ann VanHoose, founder of the Mesa, Ariz.-based organization. “Everybody quickly identifies with it.”

VanHoose sent one of the T-shirts to Michael Johnson.

“I hope Deirdre’s image inspires others to help support the troops,” he wrote. “There are a lot of military personnel who need help from this war, and I pray that it is another facet for their assistance.”

The military spouse is by far one of the hardest jobs that one could have, he said.

“I have seen families fall apart due to deployments, but Deirdre and I stand strong together,” wrote the sailor stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad. “No matter how hard things are or how tired or frustrated we’ve been while being apart, she keeps my spirits high and encourages me to keep pushing.”

T-shirts 4 soldiers

What: Personalized T-shirts for loved ones

Who: Home Sweet Home Campaign at www.oursoldiers.org

Benefits: USA Cares Warriors Treatment Today program

How: go to www.oursoldiers.org

1. Purchase a blank T-shirt and provide recipient’s name and address

2. Send your design

3. They print and mail your personalized T-shirt

Goal: Raise $1 Million for USA Cares

Funds raised: $2,090.00 as of Sept 15, 2009

Need: USA Cares has received more than 17,000 requests for assistance and given more than $6,000,000 in support

Information: www.usacares.org

Source: www.oursoldiers.org