Overcoming Adversity

SgtMaj Raymond Mackey 29 Years, 2 Legs, & Still Leading

Story by Lance Cpl. Chelsea Flowers, CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Sgt. Maj. Raymond Mackey has been in the Marine Corps for 29 years but will be the first to tell you he can still hang with even the youngest Marines on the basketball court. As he quickly maneuvers his wheelchair by other players to get open for a pass, puts up shots in the key and shouts directions to others on his team, it is easy to see that Mackey is a natural-born leader – as an athlete, a Marine and a Wounded Warrior. For the past two years, Mackey has mentored and inspired other injured Marines he met while at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. It is these Marines who are now playing and competing alongside Mackey because of his gentle prodding and unwavering example. With every step he takes on his prosthetic legs and every push of the wheels on his wheelchair, Mackey is showing them what it means to be a Wounded Warrior.

While deployed to Afghanistan with 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, in 2009 Mackey’s unit came under fire while on patrol. While returning fire and moving for cover through a ditch, the Marine directly in front of Mackey stepped on the trigger mechanism of an improvised explosive device, causing it to detonate. The IED explosion funneled in the ditch, spreading out instead of up, and hit Mackey harder than the Marines around him. Most of the Marines suffered class four concussions and shrapnel wounds. Mackey lost both of his legs. But this setback did not change Mackey’s desire to lead and mentor Marines. This same desire prompted Mackey to compete with more than 300 other wounded Marines, veterans and allies in the 2012 Marine Corps Trials.

Pictured: Sgt. Maj. Raymond Mackey lost both of his legs in an improvised explosive device blast in 2009. Now Mackey is stepping up to inspire and mentor other wounded Marines at the 2012 Marine Corps Trials and wherever else life may take them. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mark Fayloga)

LCpl Crump Competes for Archery in Wounded Warrior Games

by Cpl. Lucas Vega

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - At the archery range for the 2012 Marine Corps Trials, Lance Cpl. Christopher Crump straddles the firing line on a leg that once shattered, finds his natural respiratory pause with lungs that were once collapsed, sights in on his bow with an eye that was once dangling from its socket, and speaks and writes words that he could not temporarily say and scribe, due the tragic event of Aug. 16, 2011.

Crump, a field wireman with Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, had recently returned from a deployment in Afghanistan, where his mission was to help support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization train Afghan Police. He was not quite yet off mobilization orders, but was readjusting to life stateside just weeks following a seven-month Afghanistan deployment, when a tragic motorcycle accident changed his life forever.

Crump was part of a select group of Marines who left for Afghanistan ahead of the battalion and part of the advanced party that returned to Camp Pendleton. He and his fellow Marines were waiting on the rest of the battalion to return from the seven-month deployment.

Pictured: Lance Cpl. Christopher Crump, with Wounded Warrior Battalion East, evaluates his target down range just moments before sighting in during the 2012 Marine Corps Trials Feb. 16. Crump is a field wireman with Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment. On Aug. 16, 2011, just weeks after returning home from a deployment in Afghanistan, Crump was cruising on his motorcycle after a day at the beach with friends, when he was struck by vehicle that ran a red light in Oceanside, Calif. Crump suffered multiple, major injuries to his skull, fibula, tibia, lungs and ribs to name a few. This is Crump’s first year to come to the trials where he will be trying out for the air-rifle prone, archery and sitting volleyball teams. The Marine Corps Trials is a Wounded Warrior Regiment hosted event in which approximately 300 wounded, ill and injured Marines compete for a spot on the 50-athlete, All-Marine team roster. The selected athletes will go on to compete in the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, April 30 – May 6. The Games are a competition between all branches of service for wounded, ill and injured service members.