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FORT BLISS, Texas – Walk upon a group of strangers and ask them
what brought them together and they'll all point to one person.
The 'glue' ... the one they look up to when they're down, because
she's up cheering.
Sgt. Madeleine Morales hurts from
post-traumatic stress disorder, delayed onset after a rough
deployment to Iraq. Lots of people in tight spaces makes her
anxious, nervous, but in this tight space, surrounded by people
she's making everyone calm.
Now assigned to the Fort Hood,
Texas Warrior Transition Unit, Morales fights and treats her PTSD
with her Army family. One part of the fight, the cheering part, is
the Army Trials at Fort Bliss, Texas, where she's competed in events
from track to seated volleyball.
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Wounded warrior athletes practice before a game of seated volleyball during the Army Trial, Fort Bliss Texas, April 1, 2015. The Army Trials showcase the resilient spirit of wounded, ill and injured Soldiers and veterans. Participants in Army Trials include athletes with spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, visual impairments, serious illnesses and amputations. The results of the games help determine which Army athletes compete on the Department of Defense level Army competition team. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Marcus Fichtl)
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“These games matter, inside and outside of the Army,”
said Morales. “There's cliques there's a lot of people who
are outsiders, you get PTSD, you get depression, you get
called crazy.”
But she's not crazy, she's a Soldier,
a human being.
And with a daughter back in her
hometown in Waipahu, Hawaii, it makes her a mother. It's her
daughter who's central to her fight against PTSD, it's what
her coach at the Army Trials calls ... an apple, a
reason to push forward, to break the limit.
The
Army Trials held on Fort Bliss, Texas from March 29 to April
2, are just that, a reaffirmation of being, while a
competition for ill, wounded and injured service members, it
doesn't focus on what's missing, it focuses on what's there.
Each Other
“Some of us have the same illness, same pains, having them
and having the support, makes us feel like one team, we push
each other it's a family,” said Morales.
For Sgt.
Craig Netter also from Warrior Transition Unit, Fort Hood,
Texas, affectingly calls Morales his sister and she puts a
smile on his face every day.
“She's an uplifter, she
doesn't let us see her down,” said Netter.
Her
actions on the track brought that daily smile to Netter's
face.
Morale's foot had been giving her pain
throughout the Army Trials, but instead of stopping and
taking the easy way out, she pushed through. She watched her
fellow wounded warriors, some with prosthetic legs, get up,
fall and then get up again to finish their races. She
watched Netter have a tough time with his races. She wasn't
going to let them down.
“I came to the middle of the
100 meter and [my ankle] collapsed on me,” said Morales. “My
daughter, my teammates immediately came to me, I had to
finish.”
She finished the 100 meter and then she got
up again and finished the 200 meter.
“She not the one
who wants to be number one, she's the one who's happy to
part of the team, if she's first or sixed, and she's been
like that as long as I've known her,” said Netter.
A
few hours later her she competed, ankle now wrapped, in
seated volleyball.
A game of volleyball with a
smaller, lower net and the players in a seated position on
the court's floor.
The busted ankle gave Morales
teammates just another rallying cry.
Yelling,
cheering, one only needs to watch the intensity in Morales'
eyes to understand the movement of the game.
Points
and sideouts lead to high fives, huddles. Her teammates look
to her, she thinks of her apple, her daughter.
It's
the semifinal game, Morales' team takes the lead, they lose
the lead, they tie it back up, finally the game reaches its
break point.
The opposing team needs only one score
to win.
The ball sails over the net, over the
defending team's outstretched arms, but also over court's
boundary. The ref whistles, game over. Morales' team loses,
it's silent on her end of the court, but she gets up, dusts
herself off and limps on her busted ankle toward her
teammates. They huddle one last time, they yell on last
time.
By U.S. Army Sgt. Marcus Fichtl
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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