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Security forces NCO selected for Warrior Games

  • Published
  • By Ann Patton
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFNS) --  Just before three mortar bombs exploded around Tech. Sgt. Crystal Lovato in Iraq, she was ordering winter coats online for her two children back home.

"It would have been the last thing I had done to show my kids I love them," she said.

Sergeant Lovato, a reservist with the 302nd Security Forces Squadron at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., will be among 20 athletes selected to compete in the Department of Defense's Warrior Games May 10 through 14 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Sergeant Lovato left active duty in 2006, but the memories of the bomb attack remain vivid, she said. 

As a radio traffic operator, she had just finished briefing the incoming shift operator in Kirkuk, Iraq. She stepped outside to await transportation when the explosives went off.
At first, she recalled hearing a "thump thump," as if a truck were navigating over potholes (most likely) or a bomb hitting the ground.

It was the latter. The first bomb exploded across the street from her, and another detonated just steps away from her location next to a parked Humvee. She said she can still see the flying wood chips, rocks and dirt as an explosion destroyed the nearby bus stop.

"I can still hear it as clear as day," she added, recalling the sounds of shrapnel pinging the vehicle.

A third bomb went off just on the other side of a wall where she had taken shelter. The attacks burned her uniform sleeve and damaged her right ear, resulting in some hearing loss, but her eardrum remained intact.

Back in Colorado, the frequent and often erratic changes in weather, plus shifts in altitude, caused her pain until the ear "popped," as she described it, equalizing the pressure inside and outside the ear.

Sergeant Lovato now has tubes in her ears, which has alleviated the discomfort, but she said she still has trouble hearing at times. 

She remains in treatment for the injured ear and related functions such as balance. However, like many returning wounded warriors, she has found reintegration hard.

"Coming home has been really tough; It's still a work in progress," she said, explaining the temperament of her world now seems different with dramatic changes.

During the games, she expects to participate in swimming, discus, and archery. Sergeant Lovato is especially enthusiastic about the archery competition.

"It's a quiet weapon I can shoot," she said.