Wounded veterans participate in program established to aid their recovery

Wounded veterans participate in program established to aid their recovery

By RICK MALWITZ • STAFF WRITER • July 10, 2008


EDISON —The last act John Wayne Walding did when he was perfectly whole was come to the aid of a fellow soldier shot in Afghanistan.
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"My buddy was shot. He said, 'Help me,' and gave his location, and then I got shot,'' said Walding, a 27-year-old U.S. Army staff sergeant from Waco, Texas.

Walding, who suffered a below-knee amputation of his right leg as a result of the attack, was asked if his buddy is recovering. "Yep. We all lived,'' he said.

"I'm fine,'' Walding said. "There's no remorse. I was doing my job.''

Iraq veteran gives back to soldiers

Iraq veteran gives back to soldiers
By Chris Foreman
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, July 4, 2008



Tim Boots pointed to the logo of the Wounded Warrior Project, a silhouette in which one soldier carries another to safety.

Three years ago, the Connellsville Area High School graduate was aided by a fellow Army National Guardsman after he was severely wounded in a car-bomb explosion in Bayji, Iraq.

"Now, I'm getting the chance to be the guy on the bottom, giving somebody else a hand," Boots said Thursday.

Boots is one of 16 wounded veterans serving as summer interns for the Jacksonville-based nonprofit organization. They are traveling the country to answer Iraq and Afghanistan veterans' questions about possible health and educational benefits and disability claims.

Docs at city hospital using new technique to save veteran's foot

Docs at city hospital using new technique to save veteran's foot
BY PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, May 25th 2008, 4:00 AM


Jeff Guerin and fiancee Jennifer Toteda at Hospital for Special Surgery where Afghan veteran had treatment.
It's been five years since major combat operations were declared over in Iraq, but the fighting continues. Troops went to war in Afghanistan weeks after 9/11. Thousands of wounded veterans battle long-term to recover from instantaneous carnage. Here is one soldier's story of pain - and the hope he found here in the city:

The toll of the war wounded exceeds 31,000, and the trademark of the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan is the vet who lost a limb. There are some 750 amputees, and many of these young men and women wear their prosthetic arms and legs proudly uncovered.

But onetime Army medic Jeff Guerin, wounded in Afghanistan 3-1/2 years ago, is fighting to keep his leg in a painstaking process developed by surgeons at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Troops pick up the pieces after injuries

Troops pick up the pieces after injuries

By: Meghan Cooke, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: State & National

Media Credit: Meghan Cooke
Cpt. Ray Baronie, a marine, lost a leg after a rocket struck his vehicle in Iraq in 2005. He now helps wounded soldiers as they recover.

CAMP LEJEUNE - While helping to move an Iraqi battalion across Ramadi in 2005, Marine Ray Baronie's vehicle suffered a rocket attack.Both his legs were crushed, and when he woke up in the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., he discovered he was facing amputation.Nearly three years and 46 operations later, Capt. Baronie serves as the executive officer of Wounded Warrior Battalion East at Camp Lejeune, where wounded Marines can share their experiences, build camaraderie and heal.

Wounded soldiers cycle to recovery in 7-day bike trip

Wounded soldiers cycle to recovery in 7-day bike trip
By Kristina Peterson
Bay Area News Group
Article Launched: 02/21/2008 01:34:42 AM PST



An hour before the first Soldier Ride in California departed from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Palo Alto Wednesday, Army Spc. Saul Martinez explained his basic hand-cycle strategy.

"You just sit down and start cranking. It's a good workout, needless to say," said Martinez, 23, a double amputee who traveled from the Naval Medical Center in San Diego to participate in the seven-day cycling trip.

Sponsored by the Wounded Warriors Project, the first regional Soldier Ride in California kicked off at the VA hospital and will finish next Tuesday in San Diego. A total of 25 veterans, including six from the Palo Alto hospital's brain trauma unit, are making the trek. Many are on bicycles adapted to their war injuries.

A wounded warrior

A wounded warrior

The Wounded Warrior Project helped him get back on his feet.

But then, one day in 2005, a Wounded Warrior Project representative visited him in his hospital room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to invite him on a ski trip. Nevins agreed, even though he thought it was "crazy."