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Wounded warrior wins games, defeats depression
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
BOARDMAN
The Army’s Warrior Transition Unit and U.S. Paralympic Warrior Games pulled Staff Sgt. Erin Nicole Layko out of her deepening depression and anxiety disorder and gave her back her life.
“The anxiety started about a month after I arrived in Iraq. I tried to fake that I was OK, but I just continued to get worse. I stopped wanting to do anything other than sleep. I would go to work, but I was late constantly, and at work I was not really talking to anyone. I would sit behind the computer and do work so I didn’t have to deal with people,” said Layko, a former Youngstown State University student.
Her low point came when she was relieved of duty for medical reasons while deployed to Iraq and sent to the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Campbell, Ky.
“It was extremely difficult. I fought to stay there with my unit since we had just 30 days left in-country. But the doctors and my command felt that it would be better if I was sent back. It was a very emotional day, and I still feel that I let people down by leaving,” she said.
Even with counseling at Fort Campbell, the depression and anxiety brought on by chronic pain from a back injury suffered while deployed to Kosovo left her struggling to get back to her former self.
But once she started to train for the U.S. Paralympic Warrior Games, she found something to work toward and, in the process, made new friends.
“It forced me to go to aquatics for training. I started making plans with people and getting out of my room more. I also think it happened at the right time. I believe God creates a path for us to lead us out of turmoil,” she said.
Layko ended up winning two gold medals in swimming at the Colorado Springs, Colo., event in May, and her Fort Campbell team earned eight medals. Some 187 wounded and injured service members participated in the Olympic-style games.
Layko, who had participated in athletics at Mount Vernon High School, said her involvement in the U.S. Paralympic Warrior Games was pivotal in her recovery as well as being very motivational and inspirational.
“I met people with all different types of injuries and illnesses. It was incredible to be in such a positive atmosphere and meet people that I will never forget,” she said.
For example, her roommate at the games, who had a single-leg amputation under the knee from a motorcycle accident, rehabilitated herself and was deployed to Iraq. She plans to become a pilot for the Oklahoma Army National Guard.
There was Chuck, “the celebrity of the Warrior Games,” who represented the Marines. He had brain cancer, which led to blindness and a double-leg amputation at the hip. He nonetheless competed in the 100-meter freestyle, she said.
Originally, Layko joined the Ohio Army National Guard to get a college education, but while she was deployed to Kosovo, she realized she wanted a career in the military.
“I wanted to continue to serve my country. Also, the camaraderie in the military is very strong. You become very close to those in your unit, and when you deploy, you develop bonds with so many people,” she said.
It was in March 2005, the last month of her deployment there, that she sprained her ankle and fell on her back, landing on her weapon slung across her back while walking down a gravel hill to her living quarters.
Within a few hours the pain in her back made it difficult to walk, and from that point, she has suffered chronic lower back pain. She returned home to Reserve status and received treatment through the Department of Veterans Affairs. An MRI was done in 2008, and the results were taken to a spine specialist.
“I was told I had a healthy back and was cleared for deployment to Iraq in 2008. Now I have two disc bulges in my lower back, but the exact cause has not been determined,” she said.
It was a long, tough haul, but she was released back to duty in June to her unit, Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 137th Aviation Regiment, at Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Columbus, where she is an assistant operations noncommissioned officer.
And the rest of her life appears to be back on track too.
She studied exercise science at YSU for several years in the early 2000s and now plans to attend American Military University majoring in sports and health sciences while working full time for the Ohio Army National Guard under the Active Guard Reserve. Her ultimate goal is to complete the Army physical-therapy program, become a commissioned officer, pursue a doctoral program at Baylor University and complete her Army career on active duty as a physical therapist.
Layko said her parents have always supported her in whatever she’s been involved in. But because of her depression, she said, she did “push my family away for awhile, but we slowly regained our relationship.”
She also is an inspiration for her parents.
“Erin has always known what she wanted to be. From as early as we can remember, she said she wanted to be a physical therapist,” her mother, Nancy, said, adding, “When she left for basic training, it was a tough time for all of us. My baby was gone.
“But when she came home, the little girl that left for basic was gone, and there, standing in front of us, was a young woman. Instead of ‘yeah’ or ‘I guess’ and ‘whatever,’ it was ‘Yes ma’am’ and ‘No sir.’”
“We use Erin and her road to recovery as motivation in our lives. Ron and I are so proud of Erin and her determination to recover so that she could return to her unit. Most of all, we are so very proud of the warrior – the woman – the daughter that she is today.”