thedrifter
10-09-07, 06:55 AM
Patrice O'Shaughnessy
Making a pitch for our warriors
Tuesday, October 9th 2007, 3:51 AM
On his second tour of duty in Iraq, Marine Captain Ray Lopes was in a fierce firefight in Haditha and took an AK-47 round to his right hip. He endured a year of grueling therapy and a hip replacement. He considers himself lucky he still has a right leg. While most of us would beg to differ, he doesn't consider himself a hero just because he has been on a battlefield.
But as he stood with the Yankees on their playing field, Lopes sure felt like one.
This past summer, Lopes spent a lot of time at the Stadium. He attended about 10 games, half of them as a guest of the team because Johnny Damon is national spokesman for the Wounded Warriors Project, an advocacy group for veterans who've lost limbs or suffered other devastating injuries.
"When you come home from the war you don't know what to expect," said Lopes, 45. "But the American people have been great. And the Wounded Warriors introduced me to a lot of people."
Lopes got to meet Damon and other Yankee stars. Before one game, he was standing with Damon at home plate in a crowded Yankee Stadium, hearing his name announced, seeing his picture on the jumbo screen. All Lopes could say was "Wow."
"They make you feel like a hero, they make you feel real special for serving," said Lopes. "I don't consider myself a hero, but when you're standing there you feel like one."
"When Johnny Damon came to New York he wanted to do something, and he knew about us," said Al Giordano, deputy executive director of the Wounded Warrior Project.
"He said whatever he can do he'll do."
The Yankees donated Stadium suites to the group about a dozen times this season, Giordano said.
"We've brought guys and gals right from Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] as well as vets who live in the area," Giordano said, adding that several players have visited maimed soldiers at Walter Reed.
Lopes said the team is always willing to help with little things, too.
"I got autographed balls from Damon, and I sent them to two Marine buddies who are still in Iraq; they're huge fans, season-ticket holders," he said. "And I sent them a picture of me in my dress blue uniform with Mariano Rivera, Chien-Ming Wang and Damon."
Lopes, who lives in Manhattan, was born and raised in Staten Island and got a bachelor's degree from St. John's University.
He became a Marine helicopter pilot and served in the Corps until 1998. He spent a year traveling, then in 2000, he started his own construction business.
He was in the Marine Reserves and, in December 2002, he got a letter informing him his duty was completed.
Then, three weeks later, he got another letter asking him to come back: "Your nation needs you."
He rolled into Iraq in the invasion in March 2003 with the 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines out of Garden City, L.I., and was in the seminal, bloody battle in Nasiriya. Then he was sent to Peru to train South American armies in riot control and nonlethal weapons.
Lopes came home for a while, and returned to Iraq with Ohio's 3rd Battaliom 25th Marines, to Haditha, a Sunni stronghold in Anbar Province. On May 25, 2005, he was shot in a firefight with insurgents.
"Sgt. David Wimberg, out of Louisville, Ky., ran into the house to get the gunman who shot me, and Wimberg was shot in the arm," Lopes said.
"He died next to me on the Medevac."
Lopes said he still clutched his 9-mm. pistol in his right hand when he was airlifted off the combat field. He was in a medically induced coma for 10 days. "When I woke up at Bethesda [Naval Hospital in Maryland], my right hand was holding my mom's hand. It was surreal."
He said he spent a year trying to stay in the Marines but they retired him last August; he couldn't run anymore.
He said that when he was in Iraq, he was with "the greatest Americans I've ever met, it was a priviledge and a gift. They were all young people, like 20 years old, who volunteered to go there."
He uses the word "greatest" to describe the Yankees, too, and says he was humbled to sit in the dugout with Alex Rodriguez, "on the bench where Ruth and Gehrig sat."
Giordano said that one group of vets got a complete tour of the Stadium and the new park under construction next door, "and the ironworkers were cheering for the vets."
Lopes said that a month ago he asked Damon if the Yankees would make the playoffs. "He looked me in the eye and said, 'I promise you we're gonna be in it.'
"Then when things were getting tight, I asked him again, 'Are you sure? Because I wrote to the guys in Iraq and told them the Yanks would make it.' And Damon told me, 'Ray, I guarantee it.'
"And they went to the playoffs!" laughed Lopes.
"It doesn't matter how far they go in the postseason," said Giordano. "They're champions in our book."
Ellie
Making a pitch for our warriors
Tuesday, October 9th 2007, 3:51 AM
On his second tour of duty in Iraq, Marine Captain Ray Lopes was in a fierce firefight in Haditha and took an AK-47 round to his right hip. He endured a year of grueling therapy and a hip replacement. He considers himself lucky he still has a right leg. While most of us would beg to differ, he doesn't consider himself a hero just because he has been on a battlefield.
But as he stood with the Yankees on their playing field, Lopes sure felt like one.
This past summer, Lopes spent a lot of time at the Stadium. He attended about 10 games, half of them as a guest of the team because Johnny Damon is national spokesman for the Wounded Warriors Project, an advocacy group for veterans who've lost limbs or suffered other devastating injuries.
"When you come home from the war you don't know what to expect," said Lopes, 45. "But the American people have been great. And the Wounded Warriors introduced me to a lot of people."
Lopes got to meet Damon and other Yankee stars. Before one game, he was standing with Damon at home plate in a crowded Yankee Stadium, hearing his name announced, seeing his picture on the jumbo screen. All Lopes could say was "Wow."
"They make you feel like a hero, they make you feel real special for serving," said Lopes. "I don't consider myself a hero, but when you're standing there you feel like one."
"When Johnny Damon came to New York he wanted to do something, and he knew about us," said Al Giordano, deputy executive director of the Wounded Warrior Project.
"He said whatever he can do he'll do."
The Yankees donated Stadium suites to the group about a dozen times this season, Giordano said.
"We've brought guys and gals right from Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] as well as vets who live in the area," Giordano said, adding that several players have visited maimed soldiers at Walter Reed.
Lopes said the team is always willing to help with little things, too.
"I got autographed balls from Damon, and I sent them to two Marine buddies who are still in Iraq; they're huge fans, season-ticket holders," he said. "And I sent them a picture of me in my dress blue uniform with Mariano Rivera, Chien-Ming Wang and Damon."
Lopes, who lives in Manhattan, was born and raised in Staten Island and got a bachelor's degree from St. John's University.
He became a Marine helicopter pilot and served in the Corps until 1998. He spent a year traveling, then in 2000, he started his own construction business.
He was in the Marine Reserves and, in December 2002, he got a letter informing him his duty was completed.
Then, three weeks later, he got another letter asking him to come back: "Your nation needs you."
He rolled into Iraq in the invasion in March 2003 with the 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines out of Garden City, L.I., and was in the seminal, bloody battle in Nasiriya. Then he was sent to Peru to train South American armies in riot control and nonlethal weapons.
Lopes came home for a while, and returned to Iraq with Ohio's 3rd Battaliom 25th Marines, to Haditha, a Sunni stronghold in Anbar Province. On May 25, 2005, he was shot in a firefight with insurgents.
"Sgt. David Wimberg, out of Louisville, Ky., ran into the house to get the gunman who shot me, and Wimberg was shot in the arm," Lopes said.
"He died next to me on the Medevac."
Lopes said he still clutched his 9-mm. pistol in his right hand when he was airlifted off the combat field. He was in a medically induced coma for 10 days. "When I woke up at Bethesda [Naval Hospital in Maryland], my right hand was holding my mom's hand. It was surreal."
He said he spent a year trying to stay in the Marines but they retired him last August; he couldn't run anymore.
He said that when he was in Iraq, he was with "the greatest Americans I've ever met, it was a priviledge and a gift. They were all young people, like 20 years old, who volunteered to go there."
He uses the word "greatest" to describe the Yankees, too, and says he was humbled to sit in the dugout with Alex Rodriguez, "on the bench where Ruth and Gehrig sat."
Giordano said that one group of vets got a complete tour of the Stadium and the new park under construction next door, "and the ironworkers were cheering for the vets."
Lopes said that a month ago he asked Damon if the Yankees would make the playoffs. "He looked me in the eye and said, 'I promise you we're gonna be in it.'
"Then when things were getting tight, I asked him again, 'Are you sure? Because I wrote to the guys in Iraq and told them the Yanks would make it.' And Damon told me, 'Ray, I guarantee it.'
"And they went to the playoffs!" laughed Lopes.
"It doesn't matter how far they go in the postseason," said Giordano. "They're champions in our book."
Ellie