Healing wounded warriors at Brooke Army Medical Center

A skateboarder passes by the Center for the Intrepid (CFI), rehabilitation facility at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) on Aug. 9, 2012 in San Antonio, Texas. BAMC comprises the Center for the Intrepid, the San Antonio Military Medical Center, the largest inpatient medical facility in the Department of Defense, and several outlying clinics. The hospital is home to the Department of Defense's only burn center and Level 1 trauma center in the United States. Thousands of U.S. military war wounded, most suffering from amputations, burns and functional limb loss in Afghanistan and previously in Iraq, spend months, if not years, in outpatient care at the center.

U.S. Army Sgt. Ed Matayka, 34 and a double amputee, walks during a session with physical therapist Melisa Howard at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7. Matayka was serving as an Amy medic at Baghram, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device blew off his legs, severely injured his spinal chord and damaged his organs.

A U.S. Army soldier and leg amputee scales a two-story climbing wall at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7.

Occupational therapist Lisa Smurr Walters and prosthetist Ryan Blanck help injured Marine Lance Cpl. Sebastian Gallegos, 22, practice hand movements at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7. They were working to retrain Gallegos' nerves and muscles to control a new high-tech prosthesis for his amputated arm. He was injured by an improvised explosive device while on a foot patrol in Sangin, Afghanistan in 2010.

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Sebastian Gallegos, 22, swims with a specialized prosthetic arm at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7.

Certified prosthetist Robert Kuenzi holds a life-like sleeve for a prosthetic arm at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7. Artists paint the rubber covers, complete with custom tattoos, which slide over prosthetic arms and legs made at the center for military amputees.

A prosthesis liner is fitted onto the amputed leg of an U.S. Army soldier at the Center for the Intrepid rehabilitation on Aug. 7.

A wounded special operations soldier in physical therapy at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7. He was using a newly developed prosthetic brace called the Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis (IDEO), which allows injured servicemembers to use and strengthen severely injured legs. The device was invented at the center by prosthetist Ryan Blanck.

A wounded soldier's leg recovers in a fixed stabilizer at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7.

Spc. Bobby Bernier, 26, looks over his wounded hands at the U.S. Army burn center on Aug. 8, in San Antonio, Texas. Bernier, a U.S. Army artileryman, was severely burned on May 18, 2012 in Nangahar, Afghanistan when Taliban insurgents attacked his unit, wounding him and a comrade and killing two of his fellow soldiers. The facility, officially called the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center, has treated more than 930 military personel wounded during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2003.

Occupational therapist Jennifer Tucker puts a skin compression glove onto the burned hand of Spc. Bobby Bernier at the U.S. Army burn center on Aug. 8.

Spc. Bobby Bernier works out at the U.S. Army burn center on August 8.

Intern prosthetist Amy Gibson works to mold the socket of a prosthetic leg at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7. A team of prosthetists have made thousands of custom prosthetics at the center, most for wounded military servicemembers who have had combat-related amputations.

Prosthetist Del Lipe checks to make sure a soldier's hips are level after receiving artificial legs at the Center for the Intrepid rehabilitation center on Aug. 8.

Chief prosthetist John Fergason measures the residual limb of U.S. Army PFC Heath Clemons, 21, from Cameron, Mo., while fitting him for a leg prosthesis at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 8. Clemons lost both his legs when he stepped on an improvised explosive device in Maiwand, Afghanistan, on May 29, 2012.

Sgt. JD Williams, 25, and a triple amputee, flowboards on a wave machine at the Center for the Intrepid on Aug. 7. The wave therapy is designed to improve balance, coordination and strength for injured soldiers, most of whom have lost limbs in combat. Williams lost his legs and right arm in October 2010 when he stepped on an improvised explosive device while his unit was on a foot patrol in the Arghandab Valley of southern Afghanistan.

Kayak instructor and wounded war veteran Cody Wilson fishes on the Guadalupe River on Aug. 9, near Gruene, Texas. Wilson lost his leg to an improvised explosive device during an Army patrol in May 2008 in Samarra, Iraq. Now a volunteer for the Center for the Intrepid, he guides fellow wounded service members on weekly kayak fishing trips as part of their rehabilitation therapy.

Members of the Warrior Transition Battalion play a game of wheelchair baskeball on Aug. 8, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Many soldiers in the Army battalion are wounded and receiving treatment at the Brooke Army Medical Center located on the post.

Comedian and wounded Army veteran Bobby Henline, 40, performs at the "Humor For Heroes" charity event at the Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club on Aug. 9, in San Antonio, Texas. Henline was severely burnt when his Army vehicle ran over an IED in Iraq in 2007, killing the other four soldiers riding with him. Henline has received years of treatment at San Antonio's military burn hospital.

Audience members laugh as comedian and wounded Army veteran Bobby Henline performs at the "Humor For Heroes" charity event at the Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club on Aug. 9, in San Antonio, Texas.