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# Walter Reed patients take break at National Guard Bureau Picnic

By Sgt. 1st Class Erick StudenickaNational Guard Bureau

WOODBRIDGE, Va. - For one day at least, barbecue and baseball replaced recovery and rehabilitation on the schedule for 27 National Guard Wounded Warrior Program Soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center who attended the National Guard Bureau Annual Picnic here at Pfitzner Stadium on Aug. 15.

For many of the Wounded Warrior Program Soldiers, the picnic marked the first time since their respective injury-causing incidents that they could take a break from the tedium of doctors' appointments and physical therapy sessions, leave the hospital grounds and, *ahhh*, just relax with their family, friends and fellow National Guardmembers.

One Soldier making one of his first outings from the hospital grounds was Sgt. Luis Martinez, 38, of the Puerto Rico National Guard, who was wearing a baseball cap affixed with a small Purple Heart ribbon. Martinez had received the real version on July 27.

Martinez was wounded in Iraq on April 22 when an explosively formed penetrator went off three feet from his vehicle and sent hundreds of shards of window glass fragments into his extremities, torso and left eye. The cornea and lens in the eye were destroyed, and he now wears an eye patch as he awaits a future cornea transplant operation.

"Since I have had surgery in my eye, I have had to stay cool and down while the healing process has been occurring," said Martinez, who assisted in making sure all of the National Guard Soldiers at Walter Reed were identified and transported to the picnic. "Now that I'm feeling better and able to see more with my other eye, I've been going out."

Martinez said it was nice to be out at an event with his extended National Guard family.

"Here, it is one family together," Martinez said. "I feel comfortable here and its enjoyable getting with everyone in the National Guard."

Another Wounded Warrior glad to be in attendance was Staff Sgt. Luther Richardson from Tuscaloosa, Ala., who is an Alabama National Guardsman with the 81st Regional Support Command. He was on the Iraqi border working as a customs agent when a vehicle ran over his lower legs. Richardson, who has been recuperating at Walter Reed for more than two years, attended the picnic in a wheelchair and his legs remain in casts.

"Every time we get an outing like this, we look forward to it," Richardson said. "It lifts our spirits. The people at these events support us and love us. It's great to get out of the hospital."

Staff Sgt. Douglass Hall, who handles administrative issues for reserve component wounded Warriors at Walter Reed, said many of the National Guard Soldiers are recovering from traumatic brain injuries. Many of the injured were indiscernible from others who attended the picnic and did not use crutches or wheelchairs and did not have missing limbs or bandages. Hall said that the concussion from an IED will throw a Soldier around the inside of his vehicle, causing a head injury that may not readily appear for four to six weeks.

"These events are good for the Soldiers and gets them away from the monotony of medical care, the doctors, the prodding, and living in a hotel 24/7," Hall said.

Maj. Matthew Ritchie, the officer in charge of the event, said about 900 Soldiers and Airmen attended the picnic, which was held in conjunction with a Potomac Nationals baseball game for the first time. Sgt. 1st Class Phyllis Taylor, who works at the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Arlington, Va., threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the first inning of the game. Taylor's pitch proved to be one of the few highlights on the field during the day, however, as the Nationals lost to Wilmington, 8-1.

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