Injured as a Marine, former T.F. track star flourishing

By Cassidy Friedman  http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2008/06/09/news/local_state/138297.txt
Staff writer-
In many ways, Travis Greene is back.

The double amputee who turns 27 this month has returned to Idaho from a naval center in San Diego and in May bought a house in Boise near his best friend since junior high. He is completing his childhood dream of becoming a high school teacher and track coach by earning top marks studying political science and secondary education. Meanwhile, the athlete he once was has, with a little help and counseling, re-emerged. And yes, there's a girl at the finish line waving him in.

"He decided he wanted to go back to school and get on with his life," his mother, Sue Greene, said. "He is a lot better than he was when he was in San Diego."

In December 2005, Marine Cpl. Travis Greene - a 1999 Twin Falls High School graduate and star hurdler on the Bruins' track team - lost both his legs when a roadside bomb exploded underneath a 7-ton truck during a routine night mission in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. In the fall of 2006, he traded Walter Reed Army Medical Center's outpatient program in Washington, D.C., for a program at the Naval Medical Center in sunnier San Diego, not far from Twentynine Palms, which is home base for the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment Lima Company.

As Greene says, the financial aid he receives from the federal government could provide for an early retirement. Instead, he decided to reclaim his old life.

"I could be retired," Greene said. "I don't have to do anything if I don't want to. It's just nice to have something to occupy your time."

And Greene, who was ambitious before the accident, is following quite the same course one might have imagined had he returned from Iraq with both his legs.

In Spring 2007 - when he was still primarily focused on adjusting to his prosthetics in San Diego - Greene entered the Los Angeles Marathon. Part of his motivation came from another amputee from the Navy who, like Greene, ran track in high school. Since the sailor suffered his injury in a motorcycle crash more than seven years ago, he'd rediscovered sports - without legs - and told Greene he could do the same.

After training for only about a week, Greene found himself seated in a handcycle at the starting line of his first marathon with dozens of miles of paved raceway stretched ahead of him. He went the distance but "the marathon killed me," he said.

"I couldn't really sit for a long time without it hurting so I tried to finish the race as fast as possible," he said. "I don't know what it was, whether it was the nerves getting used to it."

Acute pain mixed with pride - that same potent solution that fueled his drive through track and field at Boise State University. One taste of it and he was hooked all over again.

"It's kind of a love-hate sort of thing," he said. "I love killing my body. It's like running track - you're pushing your body to the limit but you're glad when done."

From there, Greene went on to compete in the Boston Marathon in April.

He and a couple dozen others on handcycles led the world's best known race at the starting line and finished before the foot racers. He finished in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 38 seconds, seventh-best among handcyclists.

The pain was nowhere near as severe. Still, his arms and shoulders burned from tugging the handles. His girlfriend, whom he met chatting online on Yahoo! Messenger, snapped photos from the sideline. He's visiting her this week in Vermont.

Soon, she'll come to Boise for a month. She's already met Mom.

Greene remains in monthly contact with a sailor and two marines - spread between South Dakota, Wisconsin and Seattle - who were caught in the same blast. Of a fifth survivor who was traveling with the group although not in Greene's platoon, he says, "We kind of lost contact �- and even in the hospital he went off on his own."

Sometimes they call. Other times they chat on MySpace.com. They keep the conversation in the present tense, no longer needing to address the horror they withstood together in Iraq and their later struggles at Walter Reed.

"I think everybody is pretty much over that," Greene said. "I don't think that anybody does any reminiscences about that."

The men are close and so are their families.

Tony Bullene, the sailor from South Dakota, outfitted a Harley Davidson with a third wheel to fit a wheelchair, Sue Greene said. Bullene and his parents plan to ride around southern Idaho in July with Greene's family. Greene, who doesn't ride, won't miss the chance to see his friend.

Another survivor, U.S. Marines Sgt. Jordan Pierson, now works for Wounded Warriors, an organization that helps wounded veterans during early stages of hospitalization.

And U.S. Marines Cpl. Neil Frustaglio recently had a child after building a home in Wisconsin.

Both Bullene and Frustaglio - "Frag," they call him - have also returned to school.

These days, you can find Greene lifting weights, swimming and riding his handcycle around Boise most days of the week. It's not so different an image than before he left for Iraq.

His family's involvement in the military presses on without him.

His 20-year-old brother Christopher - Greene is one of four sons - joined the Marines in January and was deployed in May along the Syrian border. He chose combat engineering, which in his mother's words means, "he goes in front of infantry and if they need something blown up, he blows it up."

"It's like, 'God, couldn't' you have found something a little more dangerous?" she said. "Kids know it all. They do what they want to do. We asked him, 'What do we do if you're injured?' He said, 'If I am missing a limb, let me live. If it's a brain injury, let me go."

Cassidy Friedman can be reached at 208-735-3241 or cfriedman@magicvalley.com