When Spc. Craig Carpenter deployed the first time in 2007, he injured his lower back by packing too much weight.

In 2008, the 27-year-old deployed a second time and his pre-existing condition worsened.

"I didn't realize that I had an injury," said Carpenter, who is a member of the National Guard. "It had gone undiagnosed.  My back hurt, but I did the Army thing and sucked up the pain.  When I got back from my second deployment, my range of motion was very limited."

His diagnosis was a bulging herniated disc.  He went through several programs and they helped a little, but not enough, he said.  Then he learned about the Amazing Warrior Adaptive Sports Program (AWAS), an initiative started in 2008 for soldiers with a disability who can still engage in some level of activity.

Through AWAS, which is a Warrior Transition Battalion program, soldiers can attend sessions in archery, aquatics, modified basketball, sit volleyball and spinning. 

Plans are underway to start disc golf this summer.  Also, through community partnerships, adaptive rowing, scuba and horseback riding are offered.

The AWAS program was put on a short hiatus in December 2008, so that positive profiles - an assessment that lists what a soldier can do rather than what they cannot do - could be completed for participating soldiers.  The program was restarted around March 2009.  Currently, there are 55 warriors participating in adaptive sports, according to Suzanne Ovel, a public affairs specialist for the Warrior Transition Battalion.

On a recent afternoon, Carpenter and Spc. Daniel Marmom attended an AWAS aquatics session designed to allow soldiers to exercise and gain strength and endurance in the water.

The program allows soldiers to find activities that they can engage in at high levels, said Sean Smith, a certified occupational therapy assistant who works with soldiers who participate in the program.

"The soldiers who participate in this program gain conditioning by engaging in rigorous activity," Smith said. "This program is for soldiers that find other activities too hard on their muscular skeletal system."

Carpenter, who was very limited on what physical activities he could engage in, has already seen a recognizable difference, he said.

"I'm getting back my range of motion," Carpenter said. "Six months ago I could not run past 300 meters.  My pain level is improving, and I have seen a gradual increase of flexibility. This program is helping me gain my strength back. It allows me to eat like a linebacker but exercise so I don't gain a lot of weight."

Marmon injured his tibia stateside, while walking down a gangway to get on a landing craft. As a result of the injury, he spent about a month in Madigan Army Medical Center, had four surgeries and walked on crutches for almost four months.

"My femur went through my tibia and my leg atrophied," said Marmon, who is assigned to the 709th Transportation.  "My range of motion wasn't there.  The amount of trauma I suffered was pretty extreme, but the doctors at Madigan put my leg back together very well.  After the surgeries they didn't know how much of my leg use I would regain."
But Marmon had no intention of giving up.  He started out in the aquatics program at Madigan, and then he transferred to the AWAS program.

"I was able to do a lot more in the water," he said. "I could walk around in the pool with a cane before I could walk out of water.  Today I have mobility, and I have regained 95 percent of my range of motion."

Although it is up to the soldiers when they leave the program, they usually leave with more self-confidence, Smith said.

"Our hope is that when they do leave, they take with them a greater sense of performance," Smith said. "They also leave with more self-confidence about their ability to achieve their physical goals." 

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