Guard members participate in Army Warrior Games training at Ft. Bliss

By Sgt. Valerie Lopez
1st Armored Division

FORT BLISS, Texas (1/24/2012) “Inhale,¦exhale, the sound of breathing in a small quiet room, then a sudden pop, as the pellet is shot from an air rifle into the target in a room filled with Soldiers taking their chance at tryouts for the National Warrior Games competition.

Twenty five wounded Soldiers, including Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Tracy J. Smith, gathered at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, to participate in the Warrior Games Shooting Training Camp, Jan. 11-14.

"This is our very first of three shooting clinics for selecting the 2012 Warrior Games Shooting team," said Army Master Sgt. Howard Day, an Army shooting coach for Warrior Transition Command and student at the United States Sergeants Major Academy. "We partnered with University of Texas El Paso, Warrior Transition Battalion, Fort Bliss, and Reps from Army Marksmanship in order to make this clinic happen."

The Warrior Games were created in 2010 as an introduction to Paralympics' sports for injured service members and veterans of all services – Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Special Operations. During this year's games, wounded service members and veterans will compete in seven sports: archery, cycling, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track and field, and wheelchair basketball.

"This year's mission is to bring home the gold, from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.," Day said.

During the clinic, there were three stations set up – mental, physical and range practice.

In the mental station, Lindsay Holtz, a performance enhancement specialist, assisted warriors with creating imagery scripts to do mental practice when they don't have a weapon.

"It's like a movie script that you play in your head to that helps you keep your patterns, muscles and mind prepared for when you go back out there," Holtz said.

The physical station had UTEP woman's shooting coach George Brenzovich and team member Andrea Vautrin, exchanging ideas with the warriors on different ways to deal with anxieties and the pressures of competing. They also demonstrated alternate positions for shooting pertaining to each person's disabilities or weaknesses.

The third station was an indoor air shooting range at the ROTC building where the warriors practiced shooting and received instructions from Day, who was the coach.

Despite their circumstances these warriors all come together to compete, said Day.

One warrior, Army Spc. James Darlington, then 19, was deployed with the 82nd Airborne when his group was hit with two rocket propelled grenades in July 2010 and his arm was struck. With nerve damage and muscle loss in his right arm, Darlington, now 21 years old, has his mom with him as his non-medical attendant.

"He did his job well," said Gery Darlington, "because everyone came home from that deployment. He's here alive, and we can deal with whatever happens with his arm."

“The Warrior Transition Battalion has great programs to help Soldiers transition back to their units, and other activities to keep us from getting down," Darlington said. "The shooting clinic helped us get better at shooting. I'm looking forward to getting [on] the team."

The Soldiers' injuries here run the full scope, said Day, from Traumatic Brain Injury, to Post Traumatic Stress, and amputations. Many have multiple injuries and other medical conditions that challenge them as well.

Army Staff Sgt. Tracy J. Smith, originally with 48th Brigade, Army National Guard, was deployed three times to Iraq and Afghanistan, survived mortar rounds, explosions and firefights. Now she's battling with TBI and PTS, three pins in her knee and 50 percent hearing loss.

"I was initially introduced to adaptive sports, and wanted to stay active and physically fit so I did archery, seated shot put, track and field events, power lifting, and now marksmanship," Smith said.

She said because of the TBI and the PTS, she was at first nervous to handle a weapon, but after watching someone use the air rifle it was not as "off-putting" and was almost therapeutic.

"It's … a very easy reintroduction into the basics of Soldiering, but also very different from what we are taught in marksmanship," she said. "I am doing this for those that can't, for my battle buddy who is partly paralyzed and unable [to], because he would have if our situations were reversed."

Of the 83 Soldiers that applied, "seventy-five were notified eligible for these clinics," Day said. "From these clinics the best [shooters] will be put together to form our Army team."

As a wounded warrior himself, Day said it is vital for Soldiers to recognize that the injuries are not the end of their career and definitely not the end of possibilities in life.

"This is nothing but a speed bump, a simple turn in the road," said Day. "There is a big bright future and lots of opportunities."