Lake Orion Marine Helps Get Wounded Veterans on the Ice

The Canadians beat the United States in the first Wounded Veterans Hockey Classic, 7-2, but a Lake Orion Marine – MSgt. Craig LaPine – felt like a winner anyway.

The USA Warriors and Canadian Armed Forces Soldier On Hockey Team faced off last week at Comerica Park in the classic, which features players who suffered injuries or developed injuries while serving in the military.

The USA Warriors Ice Hockey Program is a 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit organization based out of Rockville, MD that uses the sport of ice hockey as a rehabilitative tool for combat-wounded and service-disabled veterans.

“Many of our guys and gals are still patients at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and their involvement with the USA Warriors is excellent rehab – for the body and the mind,” LaPine wrote on the nonprofit’s web site.

The program was implemented in 2008 with “just a handful of guys,” said LaPine, who is still on active duty with the Marine Corps and works at the Pentagon. But now the active roster includes more than 60 players who “love hockey and have overcome just about every obstacle you can think of to get back on the ice.”

“The camaraderie and physicality of hockey help all of us in our recovery more than I can explain in words,” he wrote.

>>> Read more about LaPine here.