KANE'OHE — Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan Irving was about 10 minutes outside base on another foot patrol in Haditha, Iraq, when it felt like somebody whacked him hard on the leg with a baseball bat.

Only it wasn't a bat. Two 57mm rockets in a plastic bag on the roadside had been detonated by remote control about 20 feet away from him.

The Hawai'i Marine's ears were ringing, and his right leg was split open.

But Irving, 22, who was with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment out of Kane'ohe Bay, was the lucky one.

Lance Cpl. Matt Bradford, 20, bore the brunt of the blast. Bradford lost both legs and an eye, and suffered a ruptured bladder and injuries to his small intestine.

After the Jan. 18 explosion, Irving was in hospitals for five weeks, but for the past several months, he's been back at Kane'ohe Bay, living with other Marines, but still receiving the day-to-day medical care that he needs.

The "Wounded Warrior Barracks" is a middle ground on the road to recovery, an environment that isn't a hospital, but one where Marines going through rehabilitation can help one another out emotionally and with physical needs.

"It's probably the Marine Corps' best idea," said Lance Cpl. Daniel Renshaw, 21, who was shot in the chest last November in Haditha and now lives in the barracks.

In April, Marine Corps headquarters announced it had created a new unit, the Wounded Warrior Regiment, to track and assist Marines across the nation.

Outrage over veteran neglect at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has helped propel such recovery programs, and the Army has started its own "Warrior Transition Unit" at hospitals including Tripler Army Medical Center.

Each wounded warrior will be assigned a case manager at Tripler to help navigate the system.

"Now we're looking at a much larger group of folks that will have the same kid-glove care," said Col. Suzanne Martin, chief of the managed care division at Tripler.

Part of the goal is to smooth the transition from one medical care provider to another, streamline bureaucracy and provide more information about that care.

"We have made improvements," said Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. in announcing the program in June. "But (we) realize there is still work to be done. ... By no means is everything 'fixed,' but we are aggressively acting on what we can fix now."

EXPECTING A SURGE

Fewer than 100 service members are in the new Warrior Transition Unit at Tripler, but that number is expected to spike with the return of more than 7,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers from Iraq this fall.

The Wounded Warrior Barracks at Kane'ohe Bay has three floors and 60 rooms, but only the first floor is being used for 17 recovering Marines now living there.

There is a central courtyard with patio umbrellas and chairs and a lounge with couches, three flat-screen TVs, and a pool table and foosball.

Marines live one or two to a room with their own bathroom, refrigerator and microwave.

The first Marine in the program, Pfc. Gabriel Odum, was shot by a sniper on Sept. 26, four days after arriving in Iraq, said Staff Sgt. Dennis Gilbert, the senior enlisted adviser for the barracks.

The round tore through the pistol grip of Odum's rifle and punched through his body.

A big benefit of the Wounded Warrior Barracks is that Marines help other Marines.

"Marines recover better when they are around fellow Marines," said Sgt. Andrew Lowe, 22, whose legs were blown out from under him as he kicked in a door on Oct. 18 in Haditha, northwest of Baghdad.

The blast severed his femoral artery and he lost 70 percent of his blood.

The San Diego man's legs bear multiple scars, but he now gets around without the cane he used to use at the Wounded Warrior Barracks.

"This is my favorite one here, cause you can make it talk," he said, hiking up his pants to show a jagged scar around his ankle that grimaces when he flexes his leg muscles.

The main responsibility for getting to doctor appointments and therapy rests with the Marines, but they've got other wounded Marines, Gilbert, and a captain who is the commanding officer of the unit to make sure they stay on track.

"I'm the fail-safe," Gilbert said. "If it doesn't happen, I fix it."

If a wounded Marine is having problems but is reluctant to ask for help, fellow Marines in similar situations will discreetly pass word to the right people who can provide help.

NEVER GOT HIS BEERS

Renshaw, from Grand Junction, Colo., remembers looking forward to returning to base in Haditha on Nov. 13 because the Marine Corps birthday was being celebrated, and as part of that, every Marine was allowed two beers.

He never got the beers.

A sniper shot him in the chest just to the side of his protective bulletproof plate. The round hit his diaphragm, collapsed a lung, and came out his back. "It's not like in the movies where you're dazed," he said. "No, I got shot, and it was straight to the ground instantly."

He's been at the Wounded Warrior Barracks since January and rooms with Irving. The two were friends before the Iraq deployment.

"I drive him to all his appointments," Renshaw said of Irving, who still has problems with his foot and wears a soft-soled boot. Renshaw will be out of the Marines in less than a year and is taking classes through Hawai'i Pacific University.

Irving, of Elburn, Ill., goes to physical therapy two to three times a week, goes to Tripler once a week for his foot, has a general surgery checkup once a month, sees a Navy doctor on base once a month, and had pain medication meetings once every two weeks. Irving said he will be medically separated from the service probably in about a year.

The whole concept of the Wounded Warrior Barracks is good, he believes.

"It gives us time to go to appointments rather than having to go to work (with a regular unit) and having to miss work to go to appointments. We get a lot of help from the staff sergeant, and whatever we need, they'll do their best to get it for us." Irving said. "It's a good place to get better. That's the focus — you are here to get better."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.