‘I Want to Live for My Guys’

"It was painful, but I did it anyway," she says. "I'm starting to work out again. I have a personal trainer and I'm determined to get into the shape I was in before I got hurt. When my guys [in her unit] come home, I want to go up there [to Fort Lewis in Washington state] with a six-pack. And I'm not talking about beer."

Since the cover story, she says, she's recognized by case managers and others at the VA centers in upstate New York. "They look at me and say, 'Hey, you're the NEWSWEEK cover girl.' It's been a good experience overall. I remember reading about the soldier who was having problems with PTSD and came to a VA hospital saying he was suicidal and was placed on a waiting list. He went home and hung himself in his garage. I asked a case manager here about that, and she told me that after the NEWSWEEK story and some of the other coverage, things started to change. She said they've been hiring new social workers. She told me if that guy had come into their center, he would have been seen before the end of the day. I know every VA hospital is different, and I know problems do still exist, but for me it's been a good experience."

Strock, who's met several other women amputees from the war since she left active duty and says it is "always a positive bonding experience to talk to someone who's gone through what you've gone through," says her experience since entering the VA system has been much more positive than she expected. She'd heard stories from some of her fellow soldiers of bureaucracy and long waits and was concerned about making the often difficult transition from active duty to veteran. But she hasn't had any such problems.

There is still a long way to go. But signs of improvement in veterans' care are beginning to show, as the Bush administration acts on the recommendations of the commission led by former senator Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services secretary Donna Shalala. The commission, which probed the variety of problems service members face when returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, called for sweeping changes in the VA's bureaucracy. Currently service members are required to take two exams—one given by the Pentagon, the other by the VA—to determine disability. But the government just initiated a pilot program to require just one test. "Things have improved for veterans since your cover story ran. We're now finally seeing the Dole-Shalala recommendations implemented, and we finally have a new VA secretary nominee," says Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. "But there is still an unacceptable backlog of some 350,000 veterans waiting to receive care, and we still have not passed the new VA budget. There are fantastic doctors at Walter Reed and at VA hospitals nationwide, but they still need more resources and tools to deal with all the Marissa Strocks out there who've not appeared on the cover of NEWSWEEK."

Through e-mails, MySpace, and other online means, Strock keeps in close contact with the soldiers in her former unit, which returned to Iraq in May. But she doesn't watch the news. She doesn't want to hear about any more American soldiers getting hurt or killed. "It just bugs me," she says. "It hits too close to home. I don't think we should be over there anymore, but there really isn't any way for us to pull out now without horrible consequences."

Strock plans to enroll in college, probably in January at the State University of New York College at Oneonta, which is close to her family—but, she notes, "far enough away so that I can't call Mommy every time I think I need her." Her long-range goals include one she's had since before joining the military—working with animals—and a much newer one.