Each Soldier has to find a path to follow while in the Warrior Transition Brigade-National Capital Region (WTB), and one shared his returning-to-duty story at the Warrior Care Month kick-off event.
“The Warrior Transition Brigade – no matter how you draw up your career – this is the one unit you never expect to sign up to,” said keynote speaker Lt. Col. Matthew B. Smith at the Oct. 27 event in Memorial Auditorium. “And yet after you spend only a few minutes with the Soldiers who comprise it, you can’t help but set aside your own ailments, no matter how severe they are, and be inspired by those around you who are dealing with so much more.”
He said his long-term career plan that he and his wife, Megan Smith, would review every five years was shattered June 8, 2013 in the Paktika Province of Afghanistan when he was injured in an attack.
“Not only was the plan lost, but our whole peace of mind went with it,” Smith said. “Over the period of eight short days we lost close friends, my leg, and our house. The majority of our possessions we put in storage and we even had to give away our family dog.”
He said he arrived at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with his family without a long-term plan, but he quickly set a goal to recover faster than any other trans-femoral amputee.
“I spent eight hours a day, working through my recovery with my medical team, my family and my leaders in the Warrior Transition Brigade,” he said. “Six weeks later I took my first steps in a prosthetic leg – my prosthetist … he could tell you they weren’t pretty steps. Two months later, we enrolled our oldest son Patrick in a new school. Four months later, we moved out of Building 62 and in April 2014, I returned to duty as the Executive Officer for the Operation Enduring Freedom Study Group.”
The WTB helps wounded, ill and injured Soldiers and their families recover so the Soldiers can either return to active duty or become productive veterans. In November, the WTB is hosting a number of events for Warrior Care month, such as the Warrior Care Month Cup on Nov. 17 in the Naval Support Activity Bethesda gym.
WTB-NCR Commander Col. Brian J. Harthorn said while “every day here is Warrior Care Day, Warrior Care Week, Warrior Care Month, it is nice to take a little bit of time and pause and place a little more team emphasis on this event.”
Rear Adm. David A. Lane, National Capital Regional Medical Directorate director, said caring for wounded, ill and injured service members is a top priority for the Department of Defense.
“Let’s rededicate ourselves to making sure that we make care for Wounded Warriors our No. 1 priority,” said Adm. David A. Lane, director, National Capital Region Medical Directorate.
Smith said the sole purpose of the WTB is to help the wounded, ill and injured chart a new path.
“Your time here is sacred,” he said. “Unlike any other time spent in any other unit, whether you’re a seasoned general officer or a young private, this unit is collectively built for the individual needs so you can return to duty as soon as possible. The focus of the leadership is on you. The responsibility of the leaders is to you. Take this time and use the resources of this wonderful unit to think about what’s important to you.”
The path he chose in the WTB wasn’t perfect, Smith said, and he experienced unexpected pitfalls, but it helped him understand that he “didn’t really lose anything on June 8, 2013. Those material losses I outlined earlier were just that. As for my physical losses, I think about the people who were with me on June 8, who didn’t get the opportunity to see June 9 and I realized that for whatever reason, I was given the chance to return to duty with my own goals and my own priorities.”
| Date Taken: | 11.02.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.03.2017 11:08 |
| Story ID: | 254003 |
| Location: | BETHESDA, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 30 |
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