A recent picture of Adam Bates... hope it inspires you all as much as it has me! Below is an article I found today. What a great story!!
ARMY RANGER FROM DEDHAM MAKES MARATHON PACT
By Edward B. Colby/Dedham Transcript
Dedham Transcript
Posted Apr 30, 2010 @ 11:24 AM
DEDHAM —
Justin Castellanos says that before he ran the 2010 Boston Marathon, he and Adam Bates made a pact of sorts.
“I made a deal, hey, if I run this marathon, I’ll give you my medal. You have to run one for me and give me a medal,” says Castellanos, 24, a Dedham native.
“We have a little deal,” agrees Bates, “that if he’s going to run a marathon for me, I’m going to run one for him.”
Sounds simple – except that Bates, who is also 24, lost both his legs above the knee in an IED explosion last November when they were serving together in Afghanistan with the Army Rangers. But Bates, who just started walking again using prosthetics, is determined to keep up his end of the bargain.
First he is taking on the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride, and planning to use an adaptive cycle to hand-pedal his way from Washington to Annapolis, Maryland between April 27 and May 2.
Bates, who is from Fairfield, Ohio, explains that before they deployed for Afghanistan, Castellanos was his team leader for about a week at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia, where the 1st Ranger Battalion is based. The private adds that even after he switched squads, Sgt. Castellanos was always in charge of him in some way or another.
“It was pretty funny because I really didn’t like him at all when I first got there,” says Bates, recalling that Castellanos was always yelling. “Never seen him nice. Even on his off-time, always expected him to be the meanest person I knew.”
They deployed in August, and Bates was hurt on Thanksgiving in southern Afghanistan.
“I stepped on a pressure plate while we were out on a mission one night,” he says.
But when he got injured, “he was calling me the most,” Bates says of Castellanos. “I’ve never been so wrong about somebody, and he’s actually probably the most supportive person in the whole battalion right now.”
Castellanos ran Boston to fundraise for the Lead the Way Fund, a nonprofit where “pretty much all the money goes to wounded guys who get hurt, to help them recover,” and to the families of Rangers for whatever they need help with, Castellanos says.
He graduated from Dedham High School in 2004, and was the football team’s quarterback in 2002 and 2003. His senior year was the last time the team was good, posting an 8-3 record.
He trained for Boston for 12 weeks, completing his first marathon in 3:35.
“I just kind of figured it wouldn’t be that bad. I wanted to get a good time, though, so I was happy with that,” says Castellanos. The race wasn’t that hard for him, though he did realize his legs were sore after he crossed the finish line and slowed down.
Castellanos is leaving the Army soon, and plans to return in September to Northeastern University, where he went for a year after high school. He has been with the Army Rangers for four and a half years, going to Iraq three times and Afghanistan twice.
Bates is an outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he gets physical therapy every day. He is still in the early stages of his recovery, and does about a half-hour of walking at most.
“We get weekends off, and that’s usually when my Ranger buddies will come down and visit,” he says. “I’ve met people and friends that I’ll never forget and I’ll probably never lose contact with, Justin being one of them.”
He says he wants to return to 1st Battalion and finish his enlisted contract, and has been told there will be a job for him when he’s ready.
And in 2011, he has something to do for Castellanos.
“I’m planning on running next year, the Army Ten-Miler. That’s the big goal,” Bates says. “That way I can definitely give him the medal.”
Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
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