Marine fills aching void after PTSD, TBI and amputation

Keeping hands busy with automotive work helps disabled Marine heal
Toiling on cars and motorcycles fills the aching void in his life left when his war wounds stripped him of the ability to be a combat Marine. He will be a mechanic for the Dakar Rally race.
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
January 1, 2013

Marine Cpl. Tim Read struggles to tighten a bolt beneath his car at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot hobby shop garage in San Diego. (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times / January 1, 2013)

SAN DIEGO — Marine Cpl. Timothy Read, who lost a leg in Afghanistan and has been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, is applying some Rustoleum to a new drive shaft for his prized 2003 Mustang Mach 1.

It's more than just a hobby. Working on cars and motorcycles, Read said, fills the aching void in his life left when his war wounds stripped him of the ability to be a combat Marine.

"My hands are meant to be dirty," he said. "I'm meant to be busting my knuckles, doing a man's work."

With other injured Marines, Read souped up a custom-made motorcycle for last summer's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

Next month, he'll travel to Peru to be a ride-along mechanic for a Land Rover Discovery for a team of wounded U.S. and British military personnel during the 6,000-mile Dakar Rally. The team is sponsored by an organization called Race2Recovery, supported by the royal family.

And when he's not busy in San Diego at therapy appointments or other things, Read spends time working on his car at the auto center at the Marine boot camp. Other wounded Marines are doing the same on their cars.

"They're putting their cars back together, but what they're really doing is putting their lives back together," said Richard Siordian, assistant manager of the auto center and a retired Navy corpsman.
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