On Sunday, October 7th, 2007, a team of 30 military amputees will run in the 23rd Army Ten-Miler in Washington, D.C. The amputees’ team is named “Missing Parts in Action” (MPIA), and most of the runners were injured only eight to 18 months prior to the race. The team captain is Maj. David Rozelle, administrator for the Amputee Care Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (and featured in the July 30 issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD). On June 21, 2003, Rozelle was commanding a cavalry troop in Hit, Iraq, when he lost his right foot in a land mine. But within 18 months, he became the first amputee in recent history to return to the battlefield. He now rehabilitates amputees at Walter Reed–and will run an eight-minute mile on Sunday. During a DoD Bloggers Roundtable yesterday, Rozelle spoke about why he runs–and why he returned to Iraq after his injury. He says running is part of the overall healing process. “When you get severely injured, and you look down and you’re missing your foot, or your leg, or your arm, you think that your life is going to be very different,” he says. “But you can’t let that slow you down. You’ve gotta go back and you’ve gotta normalize and you’ve gotta find those things that you did before and figure out how to do them again.” The amputees’ running also sends a message to the world that these “American warriors” won’t be beat down. And as for returning to Iraq? “This is what I do: serving my country, being an Army officer,” he simply said. “What makes me happy is serving my country and taking care of soldiers. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. My oath of office didn’t have an expiration date on it, and I wanted to continue to serve no matter what.” Rozelle is inspired by his fellow amputees, who he says are most concerned about getting “back in the fight.” He also noted that his favorite statistic is ZERO–denoting the number of amputees who have committed suicide since 9/12/01. I asked him what he would say to Americans who are skeptical of what the troops are doing in Iraq. “Those feelings that some people have back at home, you know, I’m sorry but [amputees] don’t share that with you. We’re very proud of what we’re doing, we’re very engaged with this. There are some really wonderful things going on.”
