Lt. Ed Salau

The National Resource Directory is honored to feature Lt. Ed Salau for his continuing dedication to fellow Veterans.

Lt. Ed Salau has come to the mountain hoping other soldiers will follow. He joined Camp Patriot, a non-profit organization that takes disabled Veterans on outdoor adventures and represents the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), an organization he first encountered when representatives delivered a backpack of toiletries to his bedside at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). Five weeks after arriving at WRAMC, Camp Patriot took him downhill skiing. "I didn't even have my prosthetic leg yet, and I was going fast," he says. "My kids looked at me and they were thinking, 'Hey, Dad's back!'"

The point, he says, is not just to take Veterans on a hike, but to help them re-engage the world. "I lost a leg, but I had an MBA and a job. I kept thinking of all these kids in my command, 19-year-olds who came straight from some small town or inner city, often from difficult circumstances, without the best academic background. They don't know what they're capable of in the first place; then they get hurt and suddenly they're back home looking in the mirror thinking they are less of a person. That's why I go to work."

While on a mission near Forward Operation Base Bernstein, Lt. Salau's platoon was ambushed in the Northern Sallah-Dinh Province near Tuz, Iraq. A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) hit the side of his Bradley Fighting Vehicle and blew off the armor plating. A second RPG hit the vehicle in the exact same location. The explosion seriously wounded Lt. Salau and he lost his leg. He spent 12 years as an Active Duty Marine, reaching the rank of Staff Sergeant. Upon leaving the Marine Corps, he wanted to continue his service to his country so he joined the North Carolina Army National Guard in 2000. He spent ten months in Iraq in 2004 serving with the 1st Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment (Mechanized), 30th Brigade Combat Team.

Lt. Salau follows his heart in his post-military career by helping others drive an evolution in military policy that is beginning to regard the wounded soldier not as a limited resource to be jettisoned but as someone uniquely prepared to serve the mission in other capacities. He lives in New Bern, NC to stay close to his son Ethan, 14, and daughter Kelli, 16.

Reprinted using excerpts from Shock and Awe, authored by Michael Perry and information from the Department of Defense - Photo by Gabe Rogel