http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4626234,00.htmlA state-of-the-art rehabilitation center opening next year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center seeks to return more amputee soldiers to a place once thought impossible: the battlefield.
Besides treadmills and stationary bikes, the $10 million Military Amputee Training Center will have weapons simulators, a climbing and rappelling wall and military vehicle simulators to help soldiers adapt their prosthetics to driving tanks and trucks.
``Our guys and gals, they don't want to just walk household distances, they want to be able to return to running, they want to be able to return to duty,'' Lt. Col. Jeff Gambel, clinical chief of the amputee clinic, said Friday at a groundbreaking ceremony. ``And if they don't return to duty, they want to be able to rock climb and do all those other things.''
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With advances in body armor that protects the torso and improved battlefield treatment, many soldiers who would have been killed in earlier wars now are surviving after losing limbs. Walter Reed has treated more than 900 battle casualties from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, including about 180 amputees.
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