Recordpub.com - Wounded veteran returns to Southeast Marine gives speech at alma mater

By Diane Smith
Record-Courier staff writer
A Southeast High School graduate who was critically injured while serving in the military in Iraq got a standing ovation from students at the high school where he graduated.
Ryan Groves was the guest speaker at a rally at the school during its "Constitution Week" activities. In 2004, Groves, a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, lost his left leg above the knee and suffered a critical injury to his right leg.
He will return to the high school for a youth rally from 4 to 6 p.m. today, which is sponsored by the Southeast Ministerial Association and Friends of Southeast. During the rally, he will discuss his injuries and how his faith got him through the ordeal.
Principal Robert Dunn Jr., formerly boys basketball coach at the high school, introduced Groves, who he knew as a student and an athlete, as "one of my heroes."
"I believe true character comes out through adversity," Dunn said. "When I went to see him in the hospital, instead of making me feel sorry for him, he made me feel good about myself."
After Groves graduated from Southeast in 1999, he went to Mount Union College, but left Mount Union to join the Marines. After his injury, he underwent 42 surgeries.
He is set to graduate in December from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and plans to go to law school after graduation.
He lived in Charlestown during his high school days and his family now lives in Kent.
Groves, who described himself as a "class clown" during his high school days, said the teachers and administrators at Southeast told him everything he needed to know, he just didn't listen.
"Maybe the fact that I'm sitting here missing a leg because I went off to war will make you listen to me, I don't know," he said.
He encouraged students to listen to their "own constitution" to keep themselves balanced and succeed in life.
"When I was here, I wrote in everybody's yearbook, "If you can dream it, you can do it,' " he said. "I believe that now more than ever."