If you thought the Marines were competitive to begin with, try them with home-field advantage and a championship to retake.
The Corps' team of 42 active-duty and veteran athletes are already training at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, ahead of the 2015 Warrior Games, which kick off there Friday this weekend. It's the first time since the event began in 2010 that the Defense Department is hosting the games, which previously was handled hosted by U.S. Paralympics. And the games y will have more than a little devil dog Marine Corps flair this year, beginning with Friday's opening ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico.
Marine Cpl. Gabariel Graves-Wake prepares to toss a shot put during a practice session ahead of the 2015 Warrior Games.
Photo Credit: Cpl. Owen Kimbrel/Marine Corps
"This is our turf. We're going to have the loudest cheering section out there," said Cpl. Gabariel Graves-Wake, an intelligence specialist competing in recumbent cycling and track and field. "If we get tired and need a lift, we're not going to have to worry about it."
In all, about 250 wounded, ill or injured athletes from across the Defense Department will compete in eight team and individual sports ranging from archery to wheelchair basketball. They'll also compete in mixed teams in a non-medaled rugby competition to conclude the event.
Though the competition emphasizes teamwork, camaraderie and healing, the Marine team does have a reason to feel extra competitive this year. After winning the Chairman's Cup trophy for four consecutive years, the Marines were unseated last year by the Army team, which turned out a big win. In the final count, the Army had 71 medals to the Marines' 54.
Marine veteran Sgt. Clayton McDaniel prepares to release an arrow during an archery practice session aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., ahead of the Warrior Games.
Photo Credit: Cpl. Owen Kimbrel/Marine Corps
"Last year's upset was definitely huge; I think we took that pretty hard," said Marine veteran Sgt. Clayton McDaniel, a three-time Warrior Games competitor and this year's Marine team captain. "It's an honor to be here on Quantico, Headquarters Marine Corps. I'm pretty excited."
For many, the games represent triumph after life-altering tragedy. Veteran Cpl. Ray Hennagir, a former combat engineer with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina C., loved competitive wrestling and hockey as a high school student and young Marine. But during his third deployment to Iraq in 2007, he stepped on an improvised explosive device that detonated, costing him both legs above the knee and four fingers from his left hand.
"I couldn't hold a [hockey] stick," Hennagir, 28, recalled.
During three years of rehabilitation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, therapists persuaded him to try wheelchair basketball as a way to stay active. After one practice with other troops at Walter Reed, Hennagir was hooked.
The team began training with a real coach and competing with other local teams. Their hard work would culminate with a 2009 invitation to the White House to demonstrate their moves to President Barack Obama. And their competitive drive, Hennagir said, would help to inspire the creation of the first Warrior Games event the next year.
This year, Hennagir's third as a competitor, he was chosen by his teammates to carry the Warrior Games torch for the Marine Corps at the opening ceremony.
"I felt ecstatic and a little overwhelmed at first" to be chosen for the honor, Hennagir said. "It gave me a moment of pride, that all the things I've done out here haven't gone unnoticed."
While he's holding the ceremonial torch, he said he'll "I'll "probably be thinking about that Chairman's Cup coming back into Marine Corps' hands, where it belongs."
The Warrior Games will be held June 19-28. The games are open to the public, and all events will be held at Quantico, except for the swimming events, which will be held at the Freedom Aquatic Center in nearby Manassas.
