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thedrifter
04-19-08, 06:57 AM
Injured vets relay realism of war
Complacency, boredom also risks
Saturday, April 19, 2008 3:01 AM
By Jeb Phillips
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The wounded soldiers arrived during the relay race yesterday morning. Three of them rolled on wheelchairs. The fourth walked with a cane and wore shorts, his prosthetic left leg shining blue.

The relay was part of the Tri-Service Olympics, a competition among Ohio State University's Navy, Army and Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps. They run, they do sit-ups, they have a tug of war in the French Field House for bragging rights.

The students who sprinted around the track might go to war. The guys with the wheelchairs and the cane had already been, and they had come to talk about it.

"Something you all know is that you all might be asked to serve, and you may be asked to pay the ultimate price," Lt. Col. Greg Gadson said to the students from his wheelchair.

"We were all where you are," he said.

Gadson, 42, an artillery battalion commander from Fairfax, Va., lost both legs after a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Baghdad on May 7, 2007.

He is a friend of Lt. Col. Todd Miller, the commander of Ohio State's Army ROTC. They attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point together. And Gadson knows a receivers' coach for the NFL's New York Giants who used to work for Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel. With those connections, Gadson was invited to speak to the ROTC students, the Ohio State Football Coaches Clinic and the Ohio State football team.

Gadson is still in therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He had met three other soldiers there, all Buckeye fans, and when he was invited down, he asked whether they wanted to come along:

Cpl. Adam Poppenhouse, 22, of Cuyahoga Falls, a gunner with the 3rd Stryker Brigade, lost part of both legs to a roadside bomb in Taji, Iraq, on Dec. 3, 2006.

Spc. Mike Dinkel, 27, of Cincinnati, lost his right leg after a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Afghanistan. His mission was to clear roads of those bombs. He was the one who used a cane.

Sgt. 1st Class Matt Miles, 31, who was born in Painesville, lost a leg in Afghanistan too. He had been in the vehicle with Dinkel.

They wanted to see the spring football game today, they said, and share what they know.

"I like to share my experiences with people who are potentially going to be in the same situation I was, so they are more prepared," Miles said. "It's just a matter of time before you see something that you don't want to.

"It's motivational, too. This is not the end of the world," he said, nodding to his wheelchair.

Gadson spoke to the combined ROTC group about the leadership that would be expected of them; ROTC graduates enter the military as officers. They would be leading young enlisted troops into war, he said. Those troops will need them, and they will need the troops.

Later in the morning, Gadson and the others took questions from Army ROTC cadets, who wanted to know, what is the hardest part of being there?

None of the veterans talked about his injuries or what came after the injuries. They did not talk of their personal pain. They talked about what their fellow troops feel: homesickness, boredom, complacency that can turn into danger.

For example, it gets hot in Iraq, and soldiers might want to take off some of their protective clothing, thinking they're invincible, Gadson said. They'll say, "I saw another unit, and they weren't wearing that."

"Well, you're not in that other unit," Gadson said to tell those soldiers. "Put your (gear) on."

Of all the ROTC students, Brian Grygo, 23, who will graduate this quarter, spent the most time chatting with the wounded soldiers. He will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines. The conversations were mostly small talk, said Grygo, but he wanted to be around the soldiers as much as he could.

"It's one thing to hear from the media about wounded soldiers," he said. "It's another to see them."

jeb.phillips@dispatch.com

Ellie