Amputees get fighting chance

[NVMojo]

Training center will have high-tech weapons and terrain simulators
By SAM HANANEL
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A 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.

In addition to 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 at last month's 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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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2930808