Personal tragedy hasn't shaken longtime dream for Iraq war veteran

By Clay Latimer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 3, 2008 at 11:44 p.m.

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Brian Lehmann © The Rocky

Melissa Stockwell, second from left, practices at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in advance of the Paralympics.

Photo by Brian Lehmann © The Rocky

Melissa Stockwell gets ready for some work in the pool at the Olympic Training Center. The former University of Colorado rower and diver's push to the Paralympics has inspired her admirers.

Photo by Brian Lehmann © The Rocky

Melissa Stockwell lost most of her left leg after a roadside bomb detonated as she was riding in a Humvee in 2004 in Baghdad.

Photo by Brian Lehmann © The Rocky

Melissa Stockwell, standing with while towel draped over her shoulders, takes a break with teammates, from left, Lantz Lamback, Erin Popovich, Cody Bureau, Rudy Garcia-Tolson and Amanda Everlove.

Only Melissa Stockwell would throw a party like this, on the anniversary of a day when, in an instant, her life changed forever -- a day that still sets others on edge.

But there she was, grinning and singing and slapping hands with dozens of friends and family members in Chicago, celebrating the fourth birthday of Little Leg -- the nickname for the 6 inches of bone and muscle that remain of her left leg, which was blown off by a roadside bomb April 13, 2004, in Baghdad.

"We invite everyone we know. There are games and drinks and we just have a good time. It's a celebration of life," she said.

But the bash this year was eclipsed by another remarkable event, one that surprised the 28-year-old former University of Colorado rower and diver as much as it inspired her admirers.

Though a virtual newcomer to competitive swimming, Stockwell smashed the American record in the women's 400-meter freestyle in the U.S. Paralympic swimming trials April 3 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, finishing in 5 minutes, 3.08 seconds.

That was the first step.

After enduring 15 surgeries, 20 blood transfusions and drifting to within breaths of death, Stockwell is preparing for the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, the culmination of a long journey that started when she was a little girl dreaming of the Olympics, a couple of decades before a bombing transformed her into the Iraq war's first female combat amputee. She is the first veteran of the war in Iraq to qualify for the Paralympics.

"I was a big gymnast growing up. I dreamed of going to the Olympics. Mary Lou Retton was my hero," Stockwell said between recent practices at the Olympic Training Center.

"When it comes down to it, I'm prouder to be a Para-Olympian than I would have been as an Olympian. I'm surrounded by people who've overcome so much. We still represent our country."

A sense of patriotism is deeply embedded in Stockwell, who'll celebrate the Fourth of July today with her typical fervor. As a child, she hung an American flag in her bedroom.

"Whenever someone asked me what I wanted to do, I said, 'Be in the Army,' " she said.

On her final day at CU, she wore her ROTC uniform underneath her graduation gown. Her first move in Iraq was to drape a flag over her trailer bed. Her enduring faith in America helped make life sustainable at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she joined the first wave of Iraq war casualties.

And during the Opening Ceremony at the Paralympics on Sept. 6, Stockwell will march with her American teammates through Beijing's National Stadium, making her way around the track on an artificial leg emblazoned with a miniature flag.

"When you're around Melissa, it's hard to not be proud of being an American," said Tiffany Meister, her college roommate and closest friend. "I never realized how lucky I was to live in the U.S. until I met her.

"When we were roommates, she used to go out and buy 10 empty videos and tape the entire Olympics, from Opening Ceremonies until the end. She was always trying to think of a way to get there. Could it be gymnastics? Could it be swimming? It was tied in with her patriotism.

"In Beijing, I'm sure she'll be saying, 'Dreams do come true.' "

Horrific moment

In May 2002, on college graduation day, Stockwell received her commission as a second lieutenant. A few months later, she married another CU ROTC student, Dick Stockwell, who's now a medical student at Loyola University Chicago.

In March 2004, the couple shipped off for Iraq, where Melissa's job was to lead supply convoys between U.S. installations. After safely completing nine trips, she was assigned a new route, one that led to and from the Green Zone, the fortified center of the Iraqi government and the U.S. diplomatic mission.

She called home the night of April 12 with the news.

"She was very upbeat and excited," her father, Dave Hoffman, said.

Stockwell made a test run the next morning, climbing into a doorless Humvee with four others. She sat behind the driver, dangling her left leg outside the vehicle so she could operate her rifle in an emergency. She also carried a camera she hoped to use as they passed historic sites.

But when the Humvee headed under a bridge 10 minutes into the route, there was an explosion.

"We hit an IED, we hit an IED," someone yelled.

The vehicle swerved, bounced off a guardrail and slammed into a house. Stockwell tried to unbuckle her seat belt, saw blood all over her pants, where her leg should have been, and yelled, "I think something happened to my leg."

After a medic put a tourniquet on her femur and began an IV, she was taken to an aid station, then to a U.S. hospital in Baghdad.

"Next thing I remember is waking up from surgery," she said. "I looked over and (Dick) was the first person I saw. I said, 'I think something happened to my leg.' "

Her husband reached for her hand.

"It's gone," he said.

Yet Stockwell found comfort in the moment.

"I was so happy to see him," she said. "That's all I could concentrate on. Things are always better when he's around."

From there, Stockwell was flown to Germany, where her father and an older sister were waiting, then on to Walter Reed in Washington five days later.

"She was stretched out on a gurney that was stacked three high, in the plane to Walter Reed," Hoffman said. "When you see a child you love, in the condition she was in . . ."

Added Stockwell: "(My parents) had no military background. They were wary about me going into the Army in the first place. I'm their youngest daughter, and I lose my leg. That has to be a parent's worst nightmare."

At Walter Reed, Stockwell woke up and discovered everything had grown much worse. Infections quickly led to more operations. Her body rejected blood transfusions.

"It was obviously in the back of our heads that she might die," said Meister, a nurse who lives in Highlands Ranch. "She was lucky she lived long enough to get to Walter Reed just because of the amount of blood loss.

When the operations were over, only a fragment of Stockwell's leg remained. Even during the worst moments, though, she found comfort in her belief tomorrow would be a better day. That didn't surprise her friends, who long had marveled at Stockwell's infectious exuberance.

"She loves life," Meister said. "She packs her calendar with as many things as possible because she doesn't want to miss a thing."

All her life, Stockwell had been a hard worker; now she found herself working on basics, learning to walk a second time, one halting step after another.

"Of course I had my bad days. But at Walter Reed, you're surrounded by people who've lost both their legs, three limbs, people who don't have their minds through brain injuries. You think how lucky you are instead of how unfortunate you are," she said.

"It's easy to look back and say (what if?). But I didn't. It happened. It is what it is. It's pointless to dwell on it."

Starting over

In April 2005, after finishing rehabilitation, Stockwell received a medical discharge. Her husband also was discharged that spring and the couple moved to Minneapolis, where Melissa trained to become a prosthetist and joined the Twin Cities Swim Team, which trains at the University of Minnesota.

Removing her artificial limb, she plunged into a new life.

"The most difficult thing was learning to balance (her body) without the leg," said Jim Andersen, the team's coach. "She knew how to swim but didn't know much about competitive swimming. She learned pretty much from ground zero."

When they moved to Chicago so Dick could start med school, Melissa continued to train at Northwestern University, where her progress intrigued U.S. Paralympic coaches, who invited her to train at the Olympic Training Center beginning in January. It was a tough call for Stockwell, who was reluctant to leave her husband.

"After I got hurt, we said we'd never be apart again. Then this came up. It's such a big dream of mine. I couldn't pass it up," she said.

Despite Stockwell's nervy determination, the odds of her making the Paralympic team at first seemed remote. Although she had competed in the Bolder Boulder and New York City Marathon after leaving Walter Reed, keeping up with her new OTC teammates was a stretch.

"When she came in, people asked, 'Is she going to make it?' " U.S. coach Jim Flowers said. "I was saying, 'She's a long shot.' About a month and a half later, she'd gone from a long shot to a shot. She knew what she wanted."

Added Stockwell: "I knew when I got there I had 12 weeks until the trials. So every practice counts."

But Stockwell suffered a setback at a meet at the University of Denver -- it was a dress rehearsal for the trials -- when she failed to match her practice times.

"She was like, 'What's going on?' " Flowers said. "She was as sad as I've seen her. Totally bummed."

Nothing was guaranteed when Stockwell arrived at the University of Minnesota, where dozens of friends and relatives formed a loud cheering section. But as soon as she climbed atop the blocks for the 400 freestyle, she was ready to roll.

"I felt so good," she said.

Stockwell went out fast -- too fast, it seemed. If she had stopped after 200 meters, she would have broken an American record at that distance. But as the race drew to an end, Stockwell found a burst of energy, touched the wall, checked her time and was in a daze as she pulled herself out of the pool and turned to friends.

"Normally, you just kind of die at the end," she said. "But I just felt so good. The crowd was just going crazy. I said, 'Are they cheering for me?' I just gave it all I had.

"I looked at the clock and did a triple take. I didn't believe that was my time. Then they announced it was an American record. I didn't believe that either. I was ecstatic. I wish I could live in that moment forever."

More was going on beneath the surface, as others discovered when the U.S. Paralympic team was announced three days later.

"I don't think I've ever seen my dad that happy," she said. "When I made the team, he had tears in his eyes, and I don't see my dad with tears in his eyes that much. I think we were all very emotional. . . . I'm like bawling. I look over and my husband is trying to keep it in."

Dream come true

Stockwell is winding up a morning practice at the Olympic Training Center, pushing off the far wall and resuming the smooth stroke that could earn her a Paralympic medal to go with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart she received in Iraq.

After catching her breath, she makes her way to the locker room on crutches. Emerging several minutes later, she is walking with the help of a computerized artificial leg, the one with the American flag that will carry her through Beijing, and beyond.

"I have to kind of pinch myself. 'Is this really real?' " she said. "I don't think it's going to hit me until I'm there, walking into the stadium in the Opening Ceremonies. I wouldn't have dreamed that this is how far I'd come, that I'm actually going to Beijing.

"I couldn't have dreamed for a better outcome."

• July 4, 2008

  2:25 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  coastiehero writes:

  Way to go Melissa! My hat is off to you on your quest to become
  an Olympic champion! Take care and may God bless and help you
  in your pursuit of fulfilling your life long dream. I enjoyed
  reading your story and it is truly motivating to hear what you
  have accomplished so far. I just finished up a career in the
  Coast Guard and am now retired and waiting on a contractors
  job in Iraq. Good luck to you and your whole team.

• July 4, 2008

  1:07 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  mountainman29725 writes:

  You rock, Melissa!!! Keep up the good work!

• July 5, 2008

  11:51 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  aRe writes:

  Awesome!!!

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