By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
The young, and sometimes not-very-patient Marine spent three months at Bethesda before being allowed to go home for a month. They released him in a wheelchair with promises of re-teaching him how to walk when he returned.
But, one night, sitting on the couch in his father's Pittsburgh condominium, Kachmar decided to try walking on his own. It was late, he couldn't sleep, and he needed to use the bathroom. Kachmar said he didn't want to crawl up the stairs.
Kachmar said it "hurt like hell" at first, and his muscles were shaky, but his legs held and he worked his way up the steps.
"I think I rushed it too much, but it was empowering," Kachmar said. "Four months [before] I was laying in the middle of the street bleeding and [then] I'm teaching myself to walk, and I'm doing it on my own."
As it turns out, it was just the shot in the arm Kachmar needed. Before he returned to Pittsburgh, Kachmar went to Camp Lejeune to welcome his Marines back from Iraq. Then he went to the funeral of a longtime buddy who was killed in Iraq.
"It was pretty demoralizing. I was like, 'I need to do something positive,'" he said. "I look back now and that was exactly what I needed."
So, Kachmar walked back into the hospital on his own accord after his 30 days of leave, much to the chagrin of the hospital staff.
Kachmar said the days were long at the hospital. When he got bored, Kachmar would hijack one of the wheel chairs and "go run off and raise hell."
A New Beginning
During that time, a girl from his hometown called to see how his recovery was going. One conversation led to another and a romance brewed. Kachmar made his move with the speed of a Marine infantryman securing his target.
"I came home, and I saw her and we hooked up, got married and now we're making babies," Kachmar said, laughing.
Marine Staff Sgt. Daniel Kachmar and his daughter, Annabella, rub the pregnant belly of his wife, Jessica. Jessica has since given birth to twins, Madison and Sophia, born June 20, 2008. Kachmar married his wife while still recovering from a bomb blast in Iraq in 2005.
DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III Hi-Res
The two were married in June 2006. Already, they have a 19-month-old girl, and twins, born this month.
The expeditious Kachmar didn't want to waste time in therapy in the hospital either. He was ready to get back to work and said he felt that he could work the muscles even more outside the hospital as part of a normal day.
"I was doing occupational therapy for my hand and physical therapy for my leg and you go and you sit in a room with a bunch of therapists and they make you squeeze a ball … and walk and ride a bike. I can do all this stuff on my own by going about my normal day-to-day business. And that's what I do," Kachmar said. "Whenever I was doing occupational therapy, I would baby my hand and only work it when I was in therapy. And now I'm just like, 'Do it. Figure out a way.' I don't feel sorry for myself. I don't feel sorry for my hand. Suck it up and do it."
Now he works here at the headquarters of the Wounded Warrior Regiment, about 45 miles south of the Pentagon.
Still A Marine
Although Kachmar is back at work, he said he still considers himself in recovery and is working his body hard to get his abilities back to where they were before.
So far, Kachmar estimated he is about 70-percent physically capable of performing what he once was.
"I used to be a stud," Kachmar said. "I can barely do anything (now). It's kind de-motivating, but at the same time it's motivating. You look back on where you were and where you are at and it's like 'I've really got to get my butt in gear.' It gives you a goal."
He can now run and do pull-ups and is working on the Marine fitness test. Before the IED explosion, he had scored at the top of the test. Now, he figures he can pass it, just not with the scores he wants.
The side of his hand is still "super" sensitive on the back side of his palm, Kachmar said. He can't hold a remote control, or a butter knife. It is hard to hold a hammer, and tools, but he is becoming ambidextrous. For the most part he can "adapt and overcome," Kachmar said.
He can write with a pen, and still types with a "two finger punch." He never could type much before.
More importantly, Kachmar can still shoot a rifle and pistol.
When it came time for the young Marine to decide to stay in the service or get out, Kachmar opted to stay in. He is in waiting now for the ruling on a limited duty request.
Marine Staff Sgt. Daniel Kachmar prepares to sprint around a track at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. Kachmar is a seriously injured Marine who chose to stay on active duty after recovering from injuries in Iraq in 2005.
DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III Hi-Res
In the other services, if a servicemember is found unfit for duty, they are discharged, although the services are working to retain combat wounded warriors who want to stay in. But in the Marine Corps, many Marines actually want an unfit for duty rating because it allows them to stay in, but receive assignment consideration for their injuries and resulting recoveries.
Recovery is a long, and sometimes confusing process, especially in its first few weeks, Kachmar said. Now he is there to help other Marines who are flown in. His job is educating other Marines on the process and their rights.
"When Marines get hurt, they're swamped with so much information that they don't take anything in," Kachmar said. "All they care about is 'Am I going to walk again? Am I going to use my arm again? Is my brain going to function? That's all they care about."
Kachmar tries to ease the pressure on the Marines by encouraging them to not make any decision too quickly.
"You've got a 20-year-old kid who's married, and hasn't known anything but the Marine Corps since high school, and now he's got an injury … he just doesn't know," Kachmar said. "He has all these people telling him … 'This is what you need to do, this is what you need to do.'"
"For me as another wounded Marine to come there and say, 'Look, take a step back. Don't be in any rush to make any decision. There is no point to it," he said.
For Kachmar, though, the decision is made. He said that deep down inside, he feels he can still recover to the point where he can stay in the infantry,
Now, his sights are set on the rigorous sniper school. To get into the school, he will have to work harder to improve his physical conditioning, Kachmar said.
"I don't want to just go through the school. I want to … excel. If I'm going to do it, I want to do it right," Kachmar said.
If he can't be a sniper, Kachmar is convinced there will be another career opportunity in the Corps.
That's because, Kachmar said, he has "leadership, experience" to bring to the fight.
"That's all any Marine really needs, is leadership," Kachmar said.
