Healing War's Wounds: The Pentagon is testing a new approach to mending the growing number of severely injured soldiers: extreme sports.

Sept. 11, 2006 issue - Hey, have any of y'all seen the crocodile that got my arm?" U.S. Army Maj. Anthony Smith hoists his prosthetic hook, tied to a paddle, as he floats down Idaho's Salmon River in a large blue raft, manned by a cackling crew of fellow amputees. Momentarily rattled, a group of rafters resting onshore stare as Smith's boat glides by, before someone on the beach points down the rapids and yells, "He went that-a-way." Smith, digging his paddle back into the water, growls with mock pirate glee. "You should see what happens when I'm in a restaurant and I say to the waitress 'Can you give me a hand?' "

He can laugh now. It's the surest sign yet of the progress he's made since April 24, 2004, when Smith, then a captain with an Arkansas National Guard unit stationed near Baghdad, was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. The three-foot-long missile lodged in his right hip, exploding as Smith's commanding officer rushed to help him. The blast cut Smith's rescuer in half. It blew off Smith's right arm and ripped open his abdomen, destroying one kidney and shredding his intestines, and shattering his femur and right hip. Heat from the explosion burned his retinas and melted his dog tags into his chest. As Smith staggered to his feet, insurgents opened fire, shooting him four times. By the time medics reached him minutes later, Smith had "flat-lined." Finding no pulse or respiration, they loaded him into a body bag and put his name on the list of those KIA, killed in action. Only as a soldier was preparing to zip shut the bag did she notice an air bubble in the blood oozing from Smith's neck wound. "They said, 'Hey, this guy's still alive'," Smith says.

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