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thedrifter
09-30-08, 06:08 AM
Wounded Warrior team aims to rise above wounds

PORTSMOUTH

They've fought in wars and come home injured. This weekend, they'll get another chance to see what they're made of.

Six service members and veterans from the naval medical centers in Portsmouth and Bethesda, Md., will participate in the eighth annual Wilderness Challenge, to be held this weekend in Fayetteville, W.Va.

The two-day event, which is sponsored by the Navy mid-Atlantic region's morale, welfare and recreation department, features an 8K mountain run, a 14-mile mountain bike race, a 14-mile hike, a 13-mile whitewater raft race, a half-mile river swim and a seven-mile kayak race.

Teams from all five service branches compete. This year there are teams from around Virginia, including 20 from Hampton Roads.

Many teams include people who train at a much higher tempo than the medical center group, said Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jason Goebel.

The wounded warriors have been training for about two months and aren't "in it to win it," he said, but rather to finish as a team.

Missy Marshall is a team member and retired Marine gunnery sergeant who now works with wounded veterans at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.

She said her team will have half a dozen people including her husband, Navy Chief Warrant Officer Mike Marshall. There will be some switching out for different events, depending on each person's strengths. Under the event rules, these substitutions mean the team can't compete to win, but that doesn't concern them.

"When we come back and have stories and pictures, something really good to show the young Marines who are used to being out and doing things... it gives them something to work for," she said.

Marine Cpl. Aaron Foster, another team member, jumped at the chance to join the group and start training again. He had been in Iraq for less than two months when he was shot one evening about a year ago.

He was treated in the Middle East and Germany before ending up in Portsmouth, where he now works as a Marine liaison at the hospital.

"We're expecting to finish together strong," he said. "I'd like to think people would look at it as inspirational."

Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com

Ellie