Profile in Courage: Mike McNaughton

Welcome to Profiles In Courage, a series of articles profiling the courage and honor from some of the many Wounded Heroes that Road 2 Recovery has come in contact with. It is an honor and privilege to have worked with these brave men and women who have been severely wounded and overcame both mental and physical injuries. They have sacrificed so much to defend our freedom.

It is a testament to their courage that each of them has not only overcome these wounds, but has gone beyond what most people thought was possible. Many of them have dedicated themselves to showing fellow wounded warriors the way as mentors, some have gone back to active duty to continue serving our country.

This week’s profile features someone who felt the Call to Duty twice…. once after 9/11 and then during Hurricane Katrina.

Mike McNaughton:

“We have an amputee!” Mike McNaughton heard the medics yelling. The wounded warrior knew better than to look at his injury. Army trainers had taught soldiers like him to turn away from their own injuries to lessen the intensity of shock reaction-but he understood from the frantic shouts that he had lost at least a limb to a land mine, and in that moment grasped that his life would never be the same.

Riding to the Coca-Cola 600

At the time of the explosion in January 2003, he was Platoon Sergeant in command of up to 35 army and National Guard mine clearers, or ‘sappers,’ as well as the logistics for several foreign teams on a heavily mined airbase in Bagram, Afghanistan. His orders were to free passage on specific trails at the Army compound located on the base; instead, Mike and his team had been working from dawn to dark to remove mines in a much larger area. “The colonel wasn’t happy about it,” he says. “I had a mission to keep my soldiers safe, but there were civilians all around us who were stepping on mines every day. These were human beings who were trying to make something of their already complicated lives, villagers who were starting to plant vegetables in areas that were less than 100 percent clear.”

Running with President Bush

Mike, originally from New York State, had enlisted in the Army at 18. He served in Bosnia and Kuwait before resigning in 2000 for a civilian job with an engineering company. Then came 9/11, and he reconsidered his decision to leave the service. “My being from New York, with a sister in Manhattan and a brother working across the street from the World Trade Center when it collapsed, I felt like I’d let down my family and the Army,” he remembers. He joined the Louisiana National Guard on December of 2001 and four months later was called up with the 769th Engineer Battalion, with his friend Larry Jester, and sent to Afghanistan.

Within seven months, his teams had cleared 150,000 anti-personnel mines and 47 anti-tank mines, and Mike was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions.

On January 17, just 8 days after the explosion that took most of his right leg and two fingers, President Bush was on one of his visitors to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. During their conversations, one topic of common interest of the two men was running. Bush wished McNaughton a speedy recover and told the soldier that when he felt up to it, to “give him a call and we’ll go running.”

McNaughton required 11 separate surgeries to repair damage and fit his new robotic prosthesis to help him walk. The physical therapy took months as well as dealing with the depression and despondency that comes along with such a serious injury.

In spring 2004, he took the president up on his offer and ran a mile with him. “I want you to know,” Bush said afterward, “just how proud I am of you.” McNaughton was floored. The Commander in Chief is proud of me? Me? McNaughton then trained for a marathon. It wasn’t easy. He fell. He got hurt. On Jan. 9, 2005 — two years to the day he lost his leg — he ran the Walt Disney World Half Marathon.

McNaughton says, “We’re changing a lot of perceptions these days.”

Riding with fellow amputee Patty Collins

Mike worked as a liaison to the state of Louisiana and helped coordinate emergency response during the hurricane season. His work in the aftermath of Katrina was also heroic, but Mike is too modest to talk about it.

In May of 2008, McNaughton, his wife Kim, and his friend Larry joined the Road 2 Recovery on its inaugural ride from Washington DC to the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR event. The 6-day, 480 mile ride was an uplifting experience that he was able to share with them.

Mike currently works for the VA in Louisiana. He remains active through cycling and provides mentoring services to vets across the country.

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