Daniel Dudek suffered a spinal cord injury five years ago while serving in Iraq, so sports quickly took a backseat to survival. He was paralyzed below both of his knees as a result of an improvised explosive device that hit him in the back, killing one of his comrades.

At first, Dudek, a lieutenant colonel in the Army, could walk with crutches. Then he was confined to a wheelchair. Then came spells of never-ending pain, especially in his nerves.

When Dudek swung a golf club and muscled out a few shots, he started living again. A lot of the obstacles in front of me were just illusions I had put in front of myself, he said.

Accelerating the recovery process through the benefit of sports is the point of the Warrior Games, the third annual event for 200-plus wounded, injured and ill service members and veterans from all five branches of the U.S. military that kicked off Tuesday at Air Force.

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The Army-operated Warrior Transition Command features 10,000 soldiers at 29 locations across the country, most of whom are involved in adaptive sports during six-plus months of rehabilitation. Since 2007, there have been 22,000 soldiers sent back to the Army, with a majority having recovered from traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Warrior Transition Command head Darryl Williams, a brigadier general in the Army, tells recovering soldiers, Your life is upside down, but you need to get off the couch and get after it and focus on your ability. Williams dubbed the Warrior Games not some sorry story thats happening this week. This isnt a bad-news story. None of these soldiers want anybody feeling sorry for them. This is about them seizing the day and celebrating and being the best. They signed up to be Army soldiers, and they are still Army soldiers.

A Warrior Transition Command branch chief in charge of plans, policy and procedures, Dudek is competing in swimming and track and field at the Warrior Games, and he also has dabbled in cycling, skiing and triathlon. A lot of things that I used to do, I could still do, Dudek said. I could just do with an adaptive piece of equipment. Plus, Dudek has regained his confidence. We want everybody to excel with whatever injury they have, he said. But when theyre in the pool against me, its me who is going to get the gold.

Adaptive sports initially werent attractive for Jasmine Perry, an Army specialist whose left leg was amputated below the knee in 2006 following a 2005 training accident at Fort Carson. The word adaptive makes me feel different, and I didnt want to feel like I was different than my friends, said Perry, now stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.

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Warrior Games a platform for disabled military to speed up recovery

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