Battle-Wounded Warriors Focus on Recovery at Camp Pendleton

He was asleep when the first mortar round whistled into Camp Geronimo, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine regiment’s forward operating base located on the outskirts of Nawa City in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.

Sgt. David McCreary barely stirred in his rack the morning of Aug. 30, 2009, thinking he was just dreaming.

“I heard one of my Marines yell ‘Incoming!’ ” McCreary told Patch. “That’s when I knew it was no dream.”

Seconds later, the mortar round exploded and gunfire burst into the camp. As McCreary scrambled to get his gear, two AK-47 rounds struck him from behind. 

“One tagged me in the back, right near my left shoulder and exited just in my left armpit,” said McCreary.  “The other one struck me in the left knee, destroying my left knee, needing multiple reconstructive surgeries.”

The 1/5 Marines were tasked with disrupting Taliban drug traffic, thus cutting the organization’s money flow.

“[We had to] push in, make a stronghold, meet and greet with the locals, then find out who is Taliban and clean up the area,” said McCreary.

The two nights before he was shot, McCreary led H&S Company Logistical Convoy Team 2, a 14-vehicle recovery convoy, outside of Camp Geronimo to pick up airdropped supplies. Both nights, McCreary’s convoys were hit by improvised explosive devices.

McCreary was restricted to Camp Geronimo and monitored for traumatic brain injury. “The [Marine Expeditionary Brigade] order was that after two direct exposures to IEDs, you had to remain off the road for medical monitoring,” said McCreary. But he had not suffered a concussion and was cleared to return to the recovery of night air deliveries. The next morning, after a getting little sleep, he was awakened by the sound of the gunfire that would wound him.

Once returned to his command after taking two bullets, McCreary found that keeping up with the training tempo and making it to all of his medical appointments was too difficult.

“I inquired about Wounded Warriors and I got sent here so I could focus solely on my recovery and my medical process,” McCreary said.  “I’ll never be able to run again and my leg’s going to hurt constantly, but at least I can take stairs normally and walk without a significant limp.”

Started by the Marine Corps in 2007 to help the influx of war-wounded Marines from battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Wounded Warrior Regiment is comprised of a west and east battalion, one at Camp Pendleton and the other at Camp Lejeune, NC. 

For McCreary, his wounds will be relatively visible for much of his life. For Lance Cpl. Camilo Rojas, an infantry Marine who served in Afghanistan and was assigned to the Wounded Warriors Regiment in March for PTSD, there are no visible scars.

“We were coming back from a patrol and we got caught in a complex ambush by the enemy,” said Rojas. “They basically threw whatever they had at us.”

Rojas doesn’t remember much about the incident, just that he had been in close proximity to a roadside bomb blast.

“They brought me to Wounded Warriors because I was going to go through quite a few process groups, things to help me regain my feet as far as trying to lead a normal life with the conditions I had,” said Rojas. “You have a real good support system here.”

Marines who have PTSD may want to isolate themselves from others, said Rojas. At Wounded Warriors, this is unacceptable. The injured Marines encourage one another to socialize and so spend less time feeling alone and depressed. 

“There are so many organizations that help us out, that sponsor us,” said Rojas. “The Semper Fi Fund — they leased three horses to us, so anytime we want we can go to the stables over here on base and go take a horse out for a ride. They offer surfing ... a hunting club, a fishing club. ... It's impossible to want to just sit in the barracks.”

The activities are part of The Semper Fi Fund’s Team Semper Fit, a 230-member collective.

“It's recovery through sports,” said Karen Guenther, founder and president of The Semper Fi Fund. “We have two trainers who give the Marines [riding] lessons.”

Guenther, the wife of an active-duty Marine lieutenant colonel, has worked to raise some $50 million for Marines and sailors since the start of The Semper Fi Fund in 2004.

“You don't know that we're there until someone is wounded,” said Guenther. “I feel like we've been in a sprint for seven years, and it feels like we're busier now than when we first started with all the wounded from Afghanistan.”

Chief among the tools used for warrior recovery is family support. Melinda Willett is the family readiness officer assigned to the Wounded Warrior battalion at Camp Pendleton.

“Any problems that come up, we can try to address them so that the spouse doesn’t have to go to the husband and say ‘I don’t have any money, I’m stressed about this, the kids are having trouble in school.’ ” Willett said. “Any of those problems we can address to allow the Marine to concentrate on his recovery.”

The unit’s barracks at Camp Pendleton can house up to 200 mentally and physically injured Marines who are looking to make a recovery.

“Our current commandant, Gen. [James F.] Amos — one of his guiding tenets was that we keep faith with our Marines, and I really think that’s the largest benefit we provide to the Marine Corps,” said Lt. Col. Greg Martin, commanding officer of Wounded Warrior Battalion West.

“Young Marines know they’re going to be taken care of if they’re wounded warriors, and we as leaders feel good that we’re putting these resources in to taking care of our wounded warriors either getting them back to the fight or helping them with that successful transition and carrying on as a Marine in the civilian world and being successful there.”

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