Barbara Wiggins

BY STEPHEN FALESKI STAFF WRITER

Retired Army record-keeper Barbara Wiggins of Smithfield never found herself deployed to a war zone during her 20-year military career.

But there’s a strong chance that had she not retired when she did in 1999 she would have been killed in the line of duty.

She’d been assigned to the General Officer Management Office in Pentagon Room No. 1E440 in 1998, where she managed the training and educational records of officers who were candidates for promotion to the Army’s general ranks.

On Sept. 11, 2001, two years after Wiggins retired, Al Qaeda terrorists highjacked and crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, killing all 64 people on the plane and another 125 in the Pentagon.

“It actually came through my office at the helipad, which was just outside of my office at 1E440,” Wiggins said. “If I had not retired when I did, I probably would have been in that office on that day.”

She’d joined the Army in 1979, inspired by friends in the military stationed at Langley Air Force Base. She spent the entirety of her 20 service years in record-keeping, which she called “a very special mission.”

Keeping soldiers’ records up to date for the purpose of promotions, adverse actions, insurance and family care plans is as essential a job as any, she explained, noting both Army reservists and Virginia National Guard units “had to always be ready to mobilize when called to do so.”

Though she never saw combat, “I was trained on the firing range like any other soldier to be prepared,” Wiggins said.

While assigned to Fort George G. Meade in Maryland she earned associates and bachelors degrees from Florida-based Saint Leo College. She’s since earned a doctorate in Christian counseling from Grace Bible College & Theological Seminary in Saluda.

During her tour at the Pentagon, she published a children’s book titled “The Giant Dust Monster” and a poetry anthology titled “Mama Knows.” The Pentagon’s book store carried both during her time there, but the store closed shortly after she retired.

“All in all, my time in the military was very gratifying, because it allowed me to travel all over the United States, as well as being able to travel outside of the USA,” Wiggins said.

After retiring at the rank of sergeant first class, Wiggins relocated to Smithfield, where she’s worked since 2001 to secure housing for Isle of Wight County’s low-income and homeless population.

In 2000 she met Brian Hicks, a contractor who’d been assisting Main Street Baptist Church with building affordable housing.

“After he asked me a couple of times for assistance, I agreed to work with him for three months to help set up his office, to interview prospective clients and train them for homeownership,” Wiggins said.

Within that three-month period, Wiggins said, she received a call from a mother of two children who’d become homeless and was staying at what is now the EconoLodge in Carrollton.

“She had a job, but she had been evicted, because she could not afford the apartment after her husband left her. … She was my first encounter with homelessness in Smithfield,” Wiggins said.

It took Wiggins five days to find a landlord who was willing to rent to the woman and to give her a break on the deposit.

By 2001, she’d incorporated Providential Credit Care Management, which was awarded nonprofit status in 2002.

Isle of Wight County and Smithfield didn’t

SUBMITTED PHOTO Sgt. 1st Class Barbara Wiggins of Smithfield served her final tour of duty at the Pentagon as a personnel non-commissioned officer. She retired Nov. 1, 1999 with 20 years of service.

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Barbara Wiggins

have its own redevelopment and housing authority, like some of Hampton Roads’ bigger cities, and so PCCMI “became a one-stopshop” to assist low-income and homeless families with first-time homeownership, financial literacy training and credit repair, to include Isle of Wight’s homeless disabled veterans.

Wiggins, in a past interview with The Smithfield Times, said one of her “worst-case scenarios” came in February 2021 when she encountered an elderly veteran lacking any form of identification or proof of his military service.

“The homeless crisis hotline, no one would touch him until I had proof,” Wiggins said.

In 2007, a group of area churches joined forces to create Isle of Wight’s Mission of Hope, where each church would take turns providing temporary shelter to the county’s homeless population during the winter months. The shelter shuttered in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to restart.

PCCMI, however, is still very much active.

“The work still has to be done wherever the need arises,” Wiggins said. “Times has drastically changed when it comes to working with individuals in our community who may find themselves homeless. I have seen a huge shift in safety factors that we did not encounter before the Pandemic, such as excessive use of drugs, and drug overdoses, domestic violence and abuse.”

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