Photo By Chief Petty Officer Patrick Gordon | CHICAGO (June 30, 2017) Leon Pierce, a Warrior Athlete with Team Marine Corps, pauses...... read more read more
Leon Pierce was on a clear path in the Marines. An infantryman, combat leader, and sergeant looking at promotion to staff sergeant, his goals were set.
"Everything in Life was going great," reflected the jovial Pierce. "But getting wounded again…."
The hard-charging Marine was not one to be held back. Even after being wounded in 2003 and partially losing sight in one eye, he would not accept defeat. Told he might not be able to reenlist due to his injuries, he trained hard to keep doing what he loved.
"I had to learn how to fight and shoot lefty because I was then blind out of my right eye from Iraq," said Pierce. "Once I learned how to shoot lefty I was able to reenlist and stay in the infantry field, but I had to switch from 0311, which is a rifleman, to an 0341 which is a mortarman. so it was a bit of an adjustment, but with the help of fellow Marines, and some awesome people in my life I was able to overcome it."
But when Pierce was wounded again in 2013 and told he could no longer stay in the Marine Corps, something changed.
"As a sergeant, it just broke me," said Pierce. "And when they sent me to Wounded Warrior Battalion, at the time there was an image of it to infantry Marines that Wounded Warrior Battalion was a black hole that you never come out of again."
The Wounded Warrior Regiment, which is comprised of Wounded Warrior Battalions East and West, provides leadership, support, recovery, and non-medical care of combat and non-combat wounded, ill, and injured Marines in order to maximize their recovery as they return to duty or transition to civilian life. Pierce, still at a loss for what to do, admitted he was not fully receptive to the help of the Wounded Warrior Battalion-West at first.
"Although I fought it in the beginning, they forced me to go to the transition classes and Hire Heroes helped me do a resume," said Pierce. "But in my mind, my life was over, so I didn't care about any of that."
But from there, a common theme emerged that Pierce would later notice among wounded warriors from the Marines and other services: Persistence. After leaving the Marine Corps, Pierce avoided many of the services that were set up to assist him. But their staffs had not forgotten him, nor would they allow him to give up.
"I got out and I disappeared for about six months," said Pierce. "But when you get out you get a case manager from the Wounded Warrior Battalion on the East Coast and she just kept emailing me, and one day she called like seven times in one day. So I finally answered and she got me to sign up for the Marine Corps trials. And going to the Marine Corps trials -- for me as a person -- it gave me the fuel to reignite that fire that was inside me; that went dim because I got depressed and I thought my life was over."
That fire was slow to light at first. Pierce said he was initially ambivalent to the Marine Corps trials for the Department of Defense Warrior Games because he was unsure of his abilities due to his injuries.
"That was the first time I tried to do archery, and after having both of my knees replaced at the age of 30 and being told I could never competitively run again, getting to the trials was kind of daunting because I thought 'I don't even know why I'm here because I can't do any of this stuff,’” said Pierce.
Slowly, though, the lessons he learned after his first combat injuries began to take hold again. He realized that these were Marines like him, willing to help each other be the best they could be.
"To meet these coaches and Marines was something. Like, one of the coaches, Coach [Michael] Pride, is an active duty Marine, a staff sergeant, he went to the Wounded Warrior Battalion and it wasn't a black hole for him. He actually got to go back to the fleet, and just to hear stories like his and these other Marines', it just made me check my ego at the door like, 'Why are you complaining when these Marines are still smiling and they had it much worse than you.'"
His attitude changed quickly when he encountered the high-paced environment of the Marine Corps Trials. Pierce said he had arrived to the trials with the plan of wandering from event to event to observe more than participate. That was not how it went.
"The nature of the Marine Corps Trials is to try to gauge which athletes are going to possibly compete at the Warrior Games," said Pride, Team Marine Corps track coach. "It's a high-paced environment because we also invite four or five of our allies from other countries to participate so we can get up to 200 or 250 athletes that are competing at the trials. There can be early mornings, late nights depending on what sports you compete in, so it can be a very high pace. A benefit of that is that the athletes are constantly engaged."
Thrown into trials from the start, Pierce said he was quickly immersed in the training environment. Working with the Marine coaches and advisers, a new goal for Pierce emerged: to compete.
"I've trained with him at least two years at the trials," said Pride. "He came in with limited experience at track, and since then with different coaching and advising with the other track coaches, he has obviously absorbed that information and his here at the Warrior Games and motivated."
Pierce's motivation was evident. He competed in two events at the Warrior Games, track and archery. During practices, he was constantly encouraging his fellow athletes of all teams. At the track competition, he bolted from the starting line each time, earning silver medals in both the men's 100-meter (visually impaired) and 200-meter (visually impaired) dashes. Competing in archery the next day, he took the gold in the individual (visually impaired) archery event, shooting blindfolded with the aide of a tactile sight.
And while he enjoys the competitive nature of the games, that competition revealed greater benefits of adaptive sports to Pierce.
"It's amazing what this program can do," said Pierce. "I never realized before that there was a direct correlation between physical fitness and mental fitness. I showed up to the Marine Corps trials weighing about 230, and that was about three or four months ago, and the coaches gave me a target weight of 185, which I reached last week. I wasn't trying to get better to make it to the Olympics, I was just trying to get better to compete with my fellow Marines. And just through doing that, I just got stronger all around. My marriage got better, my relationship with my kids got better."
Looking forward, Pierce said the adaptive sports of the DoD Warrior Games have spurred him to be better and to break previous barriers, which has him wanting to help others who were once in his position. Pierce said he doesn't want to see other veterans feel adrift due to their illness or injury the way he did, and he feels honored to be in the position to help.
"It's amazing just to be where I am and actually be in the position to start trying to mentor Marines and other service members," said Pierce. "When I got out I figured I didn't rate that anymore because I was injured, and to see these guys at the games and the motivation that they gave... I tell everybody, I'm in heaven right now."
For Pierce, and other warrior athletes like him, the adaptive sports of the DoD Warrior Games offer a new path, even if it was not part of their original plan. And for all, Pierce offers one piece of advice.
"Stop trying to fit in in this world, because nobody is put on this world to fit in, we're all here to stand out."
| Date Taken: | 07.06.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 07.06.2017 15:20 |
| Story ID: | 240298 |
| Location: | CHICAGO, IL, US |
| Hometown: | NORTHRIDGE, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 265 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 'Here to Stand Out' - Marine Renews Drive Through Adaptive Sports at Warrior Games, by CPO Patrick Gordon, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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