MM_072017

mokenamessenger.com news
the Mokena Messenger | July 20, 2017 | 5
Semper Fi: Marine faithfully helps fellow wounded veterans
Jon DePaolis
Freelance Reporter
The grenade hurled by an
insurgent in Iraq couldn’t
stop Mike Mendoza. So,
a Guinness World Record
should be a walk in the park
— or, rather, a 70.3-mile
swim, bike, run in the park.
Mendoza, a Mokena resident
and veteran of the United
States Marine Corps, is attempting
to break the record
for most completed half Ironman
races in a single year —
all while raising money for
the Semper Fi Fund, a program
that provides financial
aid to wounded veterans.
It’s something that means
quite a bit to the Purple Heart
and Navy Cross recipient.
After all, he too is a wounded
veteran.
Trouble arises in a combat
zone
From a very young age,
Mendoza knew he wanted to
serve his country.
“That seed was planted in
my head a long time ago,”
he said. “It could have been
from watching “Rambo”
movies or playing G.I. Joe in
the backyard.”
Mendoza joined up in
1997, attending boot camp
and School of Infantry. He
became “a grunt,” an infantryman
and deployed to Okinawa
and then to Thailand
all before his 19th birthday.
During those first few years,
Mendoza enjoyed visiting
and learning about other
countries and cultures.
But his time in the Marines
changed dramatically after
9/11. For troops, it stopped
being about just training to be
proficient at their jobs. Added
to the mix was now being
able to execute missions.
“Lives were now on the
line,” Mendoza said.
In 2004, he was deployed
on his first combat tour —
sent to Fallujah, a city in
the province of Al Anbar
in Iraq. He stayed there for
nine months. After returning
home, he trained a reserve
unit in Chicago for deployment.
Then, he redeployed to
Fallujah in 2006 — this time
as a sniper. It was on that tour
that his injury was sustained.
Despite it being more than
a decade later, he remembers
it vividly. He was on
the outskirts of Fallujah on
a mission to find and counter
improvised explosive devices
and other bombs, as well as
“finding bad guys.”
At about 2 a.m., his unit
was engaged by insurgents.
“During the middle of the
firefight, as a lot of bullets
were flying, a grenade happened
to land right next to
me,” Mendoza recalled. “It
exploded and hit me and two
other Marines.”
In the immediate aftermath
of the explosion, Mendoza
didn’t know he was hurt.
“All I felt was the concussion
of the grenade,” he said.
“You feel the pressure. I was
in a two-story building, and
the noise just bounced off
the walls. But I really didn’t
know I was hurt. I was in a
daze.”
But minutes later, he started
having difficulty breathing.
Mendoza went to his
radio operator and called for
a quick reaction force, shortened
to a QRF, and noted two
wounded in action — a WIA.
Soon after, the radio operator
looked at Mendoza and
said, “You got blood on you,
bro.”
Mendoza didn’t think it
was his own, but he grabbed
a flashlight, took off his shirt
and saw that he was bleeding
from his left side. The grenade
blast and shrapnel had
penetrated his skin and done
serious internal damage.
Mendoza said he went
Mike Mendoza finishes a leg of one of his half Ironman
races. The Mokena resident plans to complete 25 half
Ironman races, which would break the current Guinness
World Record of 23, in an attempt to raise $25,000 to
donate to Semper Fi Fund, which helped his family when he
was wounded in Iraq. Photo Submitted
back on the radio and updated
the situation — there were
now three WIA.
When the unit was extracted,
Mendoza was taken
to a casualty aid station to
determine the extent of his
injuries.
“I remember them putting
like an ultrasound over my
chest and my stomach, kind
of like they have for babies,”
he said. “The [doctor] pointed
at the screen and at some
dark spots. He said, ‘That’s
all pooling up. You’re bleeding
inside somewhere.’”
Next, Mendoza was put
on a helicopter and taken to
Baghdad for emergency surgery.
“By then, I was really having
trouble breathing, and
they were having trouble
intubating me,” Mendoza
recalled. “I remember even
praying for myself. I kept
saying, ‘I couldn’t breathe, I
couldn’t breathe.’ And I was
trying to calm myself down,
because if I could slow my
heart rate down, I wouldn’t
struggle as much.”
In those moments, his
mind focused on two things.
First, he remembered a former
captain of his getting hit
in the same spot he was hit
— right underneath the armpit
on the side. The captain
didn’t survive.
Second, Mendoza remembered
his friend, Eddie, who
also had been seriously injured
on a mission. Eddie
said he was able to relax and
calm his heart rate, and he
lived.
“There’s nothing much
you can really do,” Mendoza
said of that moment. “I can
slow my heart rate down and
think of positive things. But I
also put my trust into the surgeons.
That’s all you can do,
pretty much.”
Mendoza survived, but his
journey was just beginning.
Helping heal others’ wounds
Today, most would not
know that Mendoza is a
wounded veteran — certainly
not anyone watching
him complete Ironmans and
marathons.
But under the surface,
Mendoza does have his challenges.
He still has shrapnel
inside of him.
“Every once in a while, I
will feel something,” he said.
“It feels like a cramp on my
left side, but it’s not a cramp.
It’s the shrapnel, which is
surrounded by scar tissue
— rubbing against my diaphragm
and rib cage.”
But Mendoza said he feels
grateful, because some of
his friends and other veterans
sustained injuries much
worse than his own.
Mendoza also benefits
from possessing a personality
trait that doesn’t just let him
sit around. For Mendoza, it’s
all or nothing — whether that
is his dedication to his service
or his family, or how he
approaches a sport or activity.
That led him to success
in high school as a threesport
athlete (cross country,
wrestling and track) at Rich
South. Most recently, it has
helped in his pursuits with
the half Ironman races.
He started doing those in
2016 after a friend named
Steve introduced him to the
races. His first was in Chicago.
“I ended up actually winning
my age group,” said
Mendoza, who also placed in
the Top 10 overall. “Not bad
for being a rookie.”
And from that success
came an idea. While recovering
from his injuries in 2007,
Mendoza was introduced to
the Semper Fi Fund. The organization
set up his wife and
children with money to help
with costs, as well as housing
near the hospital.
Even after he left the hospital,
Mendoza said Semper
Fi Fund checked in on him.
“Even now, I remember
getting a couple of Christmas
ornaments [from them],”
he said. “There is no way to
explain the gratitude on my
end.”
Over the years, Mendoza
reached out to the Semper
Fi Fund to try and give back.
Now, he had a way. The organization
set up a webpage
that he could use to raise
money for the organization.
“Every penny that is donated
will go to a service member,”
Mendoza said.
And to help raise that money,
Mendoza decided to go to
the extreme. He was sitting
at home one night last year,
and he wondered aloud to his
wife, Kelly, what the record
was for most completed half
Ironman races in a single year.
It was 23. In order to raise
money for Semper Fi Fund,
he plans to complete 25.
As of the interview, Mendoza
had completed 12 races.
His goal is to raise $25,000
— an amount that sounds like
a lot, but in terms of the cost
for athletic appendages or cycling
chairs for wounded veterans
is actually quite small.
Those devices can cost tens
of thousands of dollars.
“I always try to put myself
in my buddies’ shoes,” he
said. “I was very active when
I was younger. If I lost one or
both of my legs, I would still
want to run.”
For those interested in donating
and following along
with his quest to break the
world record, Mendoza’s
webpage is www.thepatrio
tracer.com.