Team Navy/Coast Guard wins at Warrior Games

By Lt. Tom Gordy • May 19, 2011 9:04 am
Team Navy/Coast Guard march the walkway to begin opening ceremonies of the second annual Warrior Games at the Olympic Training Center. Warrior Games is a Paralympic-style sport event among 200 seriously wounded, ill, and injured service members. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Andre N. McIntyre/Released

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (NNS) — Team Navy/Coast Guard scored eight medals on the first day of the 2011 Warrior Games Tuesday.

The team took five silver medals and three bronze medals during the morning’s track and field events at the Gerry Barry Stadium.

U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Nathan R. DeWalt, Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Angelo Anderson, Explosion Ordnance Disposal 1st Class Patrick Woodruff, and Lt. Daniel B. Cnossen won individual medals during the first day of competition.

DeWalt was Team Navy/Coast Guard first medal winner, earning two silvers, one each for the men’s 800- and 100-meter wheelchair races.

“[Having won] the first medal — it feels good,” the York, Penn., native said after the 800-meter race. “When I crossed the finish line, I couldn’t breathe – I gave it 110 percent.”

Anderson also earned two medals, a silver in the 200-meter wheelchair race and a bronze in the 100-meter wheelchair race.

“It’s phenomenal to represent Team Navy/Coast Guard,” the Atlanta native said.”

Cnossen, a native of Topeka, Kansas, took bronze in the men’s 800-meter race for lower-body amputees.

Woodruff left the field as Team Navy/Coast Guard’s leading medal winner, earning individual silver medals in the men’s 100- and 200-meter races (lower-body amputee), and a team bronze medal in the mixed 4×100-meter relay. He also placed fourth in the men’s standing shot put event.

After learning that he had won his first medal, he said, “It feels good – I’m glad it helps my team. It feels great to be out here and competing again.”

Winning the bronze medal in the relay with Woodruff were:

• Retired U.S. Navy Lt. John C. Edmonston of San Jose, Calif. Edmonston, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a motorcycle accident, works for the Navy as a civilian mechanical engineer with the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash;

• Aviation Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Oswald Gould of Brooklyn, N.Y. Gould, a survivor of stage-four nasopharyngeal cancer, serves on active duty supporting the Fleet Readiness Center, Mid-Atlantic at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Va.; and,

• Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Aaron Heldreth of Barstow, Calif. Heldreth, who became a single lower body amputee resulting from an auto accident, continues to serve on active duty Underwater Construction Team Two at Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme, Calif.

The 2011 Warrior Games will continue through Saturday, with contests in cycling, archery, shooting, wheelchair basketball, seated volleyball, and swimming.