Star-Journbal Editor
With encouragement from his wife, baby daughter, and parents, along with surprise visits from his youth pastor, National Guard recruiter, and a former Tabor College teammate, Army Spc. Peter Richert has made the transition from inpatient status at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to outpatient status at one of the world's newest and most advanced rehabilitation centers in San Antonio, Texas,
According to his wife, Krista, Richert was flown to Texas on Saturday by Air Force medical ambulance. He began physical therapy Monday at the Center for the Intrepid. The $50 million facility opened in January adjacent to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston.
"It was very long day, but they were very nice, and they took care of us very well," said Krista, who added that she had been "holding up very well" as primary caregiver since her wounded husband returned Feb. 27 from Iraq.
"Pete makes it pretty easy," she said. "The hardest part is just not having [nine-month-old daughter] Lindsey here. She's going to come down next week. My parents [Jeff and Kathy Owen of Cherryvale] are bringing her down here."
Pete was scheduled to meet his new physical therapist Monday. Soon he will begin a daily regimen to regain his strength, and eventually, learn how to use his prosthetic leg, Krista said.
Until Saturday, the 23-year-old Hillsboro native had been undergoing treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., recovering from wounds he received Feb. 21 in a roadside bombing in Iraq.
The military humvee on which Richert was riding was hit, killing Staff Sgt. David Berry of Wichita, and wounding several others, two of them critically. Richert was listed in serious but stable condition following emergency surgeries to amputate his right leg just below the knee, and later, just above the knee.
At Walter Reed, an additional surgery was performed to remove the leg to mid-thigh.
According to his mother, Phyllis, who returned March 18 from a two-week vigil at her son's bedside, Peter's transfer to Fort Sam Houston was delayed by a surgical procedure this past week to clean his wounds and remove stitches from shrapnel wounds suffered to both legs.
Phyllis and her husband, Ed, saw their son March 3 for the first time after the attack.
After two soldiers in desert fatigues met them at Reagan National Airport, the couple was whisked directly to Walter Reed by limousine. (All expenses related to their trip except food and incidentals were paid for by the military).
At the hospital, the couple was escorted up to the fifth floor. Mom didn't know what to expect as she entered her son's room, just after 11 p.m.
"He was awake, so we got to talk to him," she said. "He was in a room with a roommate, so we had to be quiet. It was a very quick thing. I was just glad to see him. You don't know what you're going to see, or how you're going to react. But he looked pretty much like himself."
The Richerts were housed on the hospital grounds, within walking distance of the hospital.
In the light of the following day, they reentered a medical facility filled with the casualties of war. Phyllis had a mixed reaction to what she saw.
"You'd think it would be very discouraging, and it was," she said. "But it was also very encouraging, in terms of all of the amputees that I saw out shopping on the street.
"Of course, it's hurtful, and the sympathy that you feel that somebody's gone through. But it was very encouraging to be able to see the way they move around so easily.
"But to see that all of these people going on with their lives, and that they can still move, and they can be active and athletic, that was encouraging."
Soon Richert was feeling up to seeing visitors, including politicians such as former Sen. Bob Dole and present Kansas Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson.
Some two- and three-star generals stopped in, as did the leader of the Kansas National Guard, his mother said.
But Peter was most happy to see his friends from back home, such as National Guard recruiter, Roger Sinclair of Hillsboro and others from his guard unit.
His spirits also were lifted by visits from his youth pastor, and his teammate, roommate, and best buddy from Tabor College.
"Our youth pastor from [Ebenfeld Mennonite Church], Vaughn Jost, came and it was so good for Pete, because he and Vaughn are pretty close," Phyllis said.
Jost was Pete's youth pastor through high school, and helped him learn to play the guitar. They also biked across Kansas together one summer.
His teammate, Will Higerd, who ran cross country and track at Tabor with Richert, and who introduced Peter to his future wife, Krista, also was there.
"They were roommates twice and are very close friends," Phyllis said. "Will is in the Army Reserve, so they have a lot in common."
Just days after his second surgery, Peter began lifting weights to regain strength in his arms and upper body.
Jost and Higerd were there to cheer Peter on during one of his physical therapy sessions. So was his nine-month-old daughter, Lindsey, who visited for a few days with Krista's parents from Cherryvale.
Everyone was there for the physical therapy session, including a reporter from a national media service, who embellished the details a little in the article that was published over the weekend in newspapers across the country, including the Wichita Eagle.
Under the headline, "Despite Scandal, Troops Heal at Walter Reed" the story begins:
Before he joined the Army and left for Iraq, Pete Richert was probably the best cross-country runner on his school team. He was planning to compete professionally once his service was over.
But that dream was shattered last month when a bomb blast south of Baghdad tore off the lower part of his right leg and peppered his body with shrapnel.
Most people would be devastated. But not Richert. Surrounded by loved ones, including nine-month-old daughter Lindsey, the 23-year-old Hillsboro native was recuperating Friday in the occupational therapy ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, learning how to move on with his life.
His daughter sat on a table in front of him, playing with a candy wrapper, as Richert, seated in a wheelchair, lifted hand weights, trying to regain upper body strength. He grimaced as he went through the repetitions. His wife, Krista, and other relatives stood nearby.
For the record, Pete wasn't grimacing during his workout. And, that was a piece of candy Lindsey was playing with, not a wrapper. But then, when it comes to the recent articles about Walter Reed, why mess up a good story with facts?
Following widespread reports in the media about unsanitary conditions and low-quality care at Walter Reed, Phyllis Richert's opinion of the national media had already dropped considerably.
Those negative reports bear little resemblance to what she witnessed firsthand, or the testimonies she heard from other patients at Walter Reed.
"You hear the reports in the media and then you look around you there, and you wonder what they're talking about," she said.
"I sat in the family room one night for awhile, and there was a group of [recovering soldiers] in there and they were talking about the news. They were very, very angry. They thought Walter Reed was being given a bad name. Their care had been so good that they were mad.
"Krista and I were talking about it and we thought the treatment there was very good," she added. "The care 95 percent of the time was really genuine, and it didn't seem to be only because of the [media] attention."
The news has been nothing but positive about the Center for the Intrepid, however.
According to military sources, the 65,000 square-foot facility provides amputee patients with techniques and training to help them regain their ability to live and work productively.
Much of the technology found in the new center can't be found anywhere else in the world.
Even so, the road to recovery will be long, with several mile markers along the way.
"It's a lengthy process," Phyllis said. "He'll go through a number of prosthetic legs, and he'll end up with more than one. Some will be specialized for different activities.
"I was afraid they would give him just a basic leg, but from the sound of it, they'll give him everything he needs."
To be a patient patient will be hard for Pete, who isn't the patient type, she said.
"When you think of Peter's energy level, he needs a lot of activity to burn it off," she said. "But he'll be more active in his physical therapies."
If there are any lingering emotional wounds from his ordeal, it's knowing that his sergeant was killed in the blast he survived, and that the two others who were wounded (also recuperating at Walter Reed) are in worse shape than he is.
There's also the anguish Richert feels about leaving his comrades in Iraq.
"They only have each other, so they really become a family," Phyllis said. "Pete wishes very much to be back there and feels bad that he is away from them."
Whenever Richert returns to Hillsboro, they'll be lots of people waiting to welcome him, including the congregation at the Ebenfeld Mennonite Church, which pitched in to give his parents money to travel on; his friends from Hillsboro High School and Tabor College; and his fellow veterans at the American Legion.
The Legionnaires plan to have the Freedom Riders motorcycle group escort Richert from the airport back to Hillsboro.
The sentiment of gratitude that the Legionnaires and other townsfolk are eager to express to Richert was described at the dedication of the Center for the Intrepid in January, when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter M. Pace told the crowd of injured service members that their efforts were by no means in vain.
"There are those who speak about you who say, 'he lost an arm, he lost a leg, she lost her sight.' I object. You gave your arm. You gave your leg. You gave your sight. As gifts to your nation. That we might live in freedom. Thank you. And to your families. Families of the fallen and families of the wounded. You sacrificed in ways that those of us who have not walked in your shoes can only imagine."
Krista Richert says that after Pete learns to use his new high-tech prosthetic, her husband, the American hero, will be out running along the streets of Hillsboro.
"He's very tough," she said.
