Seeing

Jeb Phillips: The wounded soldiers arrived during the relay race yesterday morning. Three of them rolled on wheelchairs. The fourth walked with a cane and wore shorts, his prosthetic left leg shining blue.

The relay was part of the Tri-Service Olympics, a competition among Ohio State University's Navy, Army and Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps. They run, they do sit-ups, they have a tug of war in the French Field House for bragging rights.

The students who sprinted around the track might go to war. The guys with the wheelchairs and the cane had already been, and they had come to talk about it.

"Something you all know is that you all might be asked to serve, and you may be asked to pay the ultimate price," Lt. Col. Greg Gadson said to the students from his wheelchair.

"We were all where you are," he said.