Tracy Press

The mother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq plans to ask companies that have profited from the war to help fund a $25 million retreat center for veterans.

Nadia McCaffrey, whose son Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey died in 2004, is sending requests for funding to about 10 companies, including Halliburton, Bechtel and Dyncorp.

The center would help veterans settle back into their lives through counseling and activities such as art and massage, said McCaffrey, 61, of Tracy.

“I think they should think about it seriously, if they haven’t yet,” she said.

McCaffrey proposes to house the 200-acre retreat center in Asheville, N.C. Members of the Asheville Chapter of Veterans for Peace are working to raise money for the project, which would offer temporary housing to 195 veterans.

Halliburton receives thousands of requests for donations each year and nearly 10 percent of the $143 million the company awarded to charities and nonprofits last year went to U.S. military-related causes, a spokeswoman said.

McCaffrey said she also plans to hold a celebrity benefit in Los Angeles and to start an Internet-based fund drive through her nonprofit, the Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey Foundation.

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