One Wounded Soldier’s Journey Back to Life

By Margaux Mange

In the middle of Antarctica, we sat down to have dinner with Prince Harry. We looked forward to bringing some American hospitality to the prince so we had our best freeze-dried food–chicken curry. We even had some salami appetizers.

There were four soldiers, an actor, two film crew guys and Harry crammed into a four-man tent to discuss the Warrior Games. Small world, but finally a topic I am comfortable talking about.

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In December 2006, I was hit by a roadside bomb while in the turret of my Humvee. I was knocked unconscious but, like many others, I stayed in country and continued my mission. In March, I witnessed my best friend, Ashly Moyer, and two other good friends, Brandon Parr and Michael Peek, die in another IED explosion. I blamed myself and my body gave up. After being diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a weakness in the muscles on one side of your face caused by nerve damage, I was sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for treatment.

There, I was told that I had severe nerve damage. My life of being a military police officer had ended and my life as a guinea pig had started. After eight months of outpatient care at Landstuhl, they sent me to Fort Carson, Colorado, where I could be closer to my family because my PTSD was so bad.

After several different treatments to help with the constant pain, I opted for brain surgery to get off all the medications, but the procedure was unsuccessful. So I took to my couch for three years. I did very well at that.

In 2011, I got an email from the Army Wounded Warrior Program asking if I would like to play sitting volleyball. I had no clue what it was or if I would like it, but I was sick of being in my house and I missed competing. I grew up playing soccer, so competition is in my blood.

I went to one of the camps and it was the happiest I had been in years. I was addicted.

I made the Army’s Warrior Games team, and the volleyball team took gold from the Marines that year. I had never felt more part of a team than I had since I was in the Military Police Corps. So I went back to the Warrior Games three more times, competing against other service members who were in the same position I was in—injured but wanting to compete. We never felt we were going to receive a blue ribbon for simply competing at the games. We were all giving it everything we had and it felt amazing. The Warrior Games also woke a part of me that was dormant for so long—the part that wanted to live.

So I started to live again. I signed up to go on Ride 2 Recovery challenges and Soldiers to Summits hikes and finally, after applying, I was accepted to go to the South Pole.

The Walking With the Wounded South Pole Allied Challenge was such a hard journey, but a rewarding one. During our acclimatization phase, we trained with one of the heavier pulks—a short sled we pulled behind us as we skied—and I had a meltdown in my mind. It was so heavy and my muscles were not ready for it. I doubted that I could get all the way to the South Pole with this much weight.

I was also worried about my face and head, where all the nerve damage was. The cold cut through the protective gear we wore and my plate (from the surgery) felt like it was freezing inside my brain. Of course time went on and my muscles got used to the weight and the little things that freaked me out in the beginning no longer mattered.

Walking through the coldest, windiest place on Earth, where no humans live, makes you ponder a lot of things. Am I going to get frostbite? What is for dinner? How long will my iPod battery last—that was a very serious issue that, if not taken care of, was going lead to some angry people. And I pondered a more serious topic. What am I going to do with my life?

I know that I can no longer sit around and hope to be accepted for the next trip or challenge. I want to be involved in the guiding and planning. I want to go to mountaineering school. That’s my starting point. From there, the future is all up to me.

It’s bittersweet that I will never get back to the South Pole, but I loved every minute of it—being out in the middle of nowhere and able to see the edge of the Earth.

It wasn’t a rivalry or a race with any of the guys or gals down there. It was a friendship, because we all knew where we had been and we all hope for the best in each other’s futures.

If you asked me four years ago about competing in the Warrior Games or going to the South Pole, I would have looked around, asked who you were talking to and gone back to my miserable life. But I gave someone a chance to help me. Now I’m trying to be that someone for the next veteran who needs it.

–Margaux Mange was medically retired from the Army after serving two deployments to Iraq as a military police officer.