By: Jonathan Martin

There are few better summer traditions than the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry and it’s always special when the rivals get together on July 4th.

Today, the clash will be even more notable not just because it’s Yankee Stadium’s final year due to who is throwing out the first pitch: Tony Odierno.

As an Army lieutenant, Odierno lost his left arm in Iraq during an RPG attack in 2004.

Now pursuing an MBA, Odierno, son of the soon-to-be-installed commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, is working as a summer intern for the Yankees.

The Times’s Jack Curry tells more about how Odierno landed the plum gig:

Tony Odierno said he had no regrets about the choices that led to him being a platoon leader. He looks forward, not backward.

“And, for me now, this is how it is,” Odierno said. “This is normal to me now.”

Normal to Odierno means finishing two standard-course triathlons, it means using a special prosthesis to shoot an 83 in golf and it means skiing, all accomplished since his left arm was amputated. Odierno credited the Wounded Warrior Project, which helps injured service members make the transition into civilian life, for renewing his affinity for sports. 

It was Odierno’s connection with the charity that led to him being hired by the Yankees. When the Yankees’ Johnny Damon won a community service award at the New York baseball writers’ dinner last January, it was in part because of his work with Wounded Warrior. Odierno, who played baseball in high school, presented the award.

On a dais crowded with star players, Odierno gave the most riveting speech of the night. He recalled how he woke up in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington after his injury and saw a backpack with Wounded Warrior by his bed. He said the pack filled with modest items reminded him that someone cared. Damon wept.

“He exemplifies someone who has done one of the greatest things you can ever do: serve your country,” Damon said. “He had a serious injury and he’s come back with so much pride and a smile.” 

Happy Independence Day.

 

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