The Power of Positivity: Injured Marine Battles Back to Recon Status

By: Kipp Hanley
Posted on November 15, 2024

Staff Sergeant Harry Harth’s remark­able, pain-filled journey back to being a Reconnaissance Marine has come to a storybook conclusion.

On Sept. 25, 2022, Harth fell 100 feet off a beachside cliff on the night he was celebrating his rank promotion with a fellow Marine. The freak accident nearly killed him and left him with severe damage to his right foot and leg. But after countless hours rehabbing in the Wounded Warrior Battalion-West at Camp Pendle­ton, Calif., Harth passed his Reconnais­sance Physical Assessment Test on Sept. 27. He is now awaiting deployment with the 1st Recon Battalion, possibly to the Philippines.

For a boy growing up determined to serve his country, all the blood, sweat and tears were worth it in the end.

“People will tell you that you’re des­tined to live a certain way, or that you’re stuck in a certain situation,” SSgt Harth said. “They’re wrong, you are the master of your own fate, you can choose the ending of your own story.”

His mother Linda Harth put it more succinctly.

“Harry has been a positive force ever since he was conceived.”

The Fall
When Harth started his military career after high school, his goal was to be a Recon Marine. But he pushed himself too hard, too quickly. He ended up dislocating three disks in his back, which gave him permanent scoliosis and temporarily paralyzed him from the waist down. In 2016, the Marine Corps gave him an option of staying in for four years as a data administrator if he could pass a physical fitness test.

Harth not only passed the test, but he became a Recon Marine in 2021 thanks to his rigorous off-duty health and fitness routine. Unfortunately, all that hard work was soon put into jeopardy. During his free time away from a shooting package, Harth was celebrating his promotion to staff sergeant at a bar in Encinitas. After having a few beers, Harth stepped outside to relieve himself instead of waiting in a long line inside the bar. Before going to the bathroom, he noticed an inebriated fellow bar patron stumbling behind the building, so he helped the man arrange an Uber ride to get home.

A few minutes later, Harth decided to take a walk near a cliff further down the road instead of going back inside the crowded establishment. Eventually nature called, and when he stopped to urinate, the section of ground he was on gave way. He started sliding down a bluff.

On his initial descent he broke his tail bone on a tree root. But instead of the tree breaking his fall completely, he continued going. Seconds later, he was clinging to a clump of pickleweed, 100 feet above the beach. He could not manage a firm grip on the vegetation and eventually plunged to the coastline below.

The fall shattered Harth’s right femur, broke every metatarsal in his right foot, tore up his right knee and opened up his femoral artery. To complicate matters, he was out of cell phone range and the tide was coming in. The next few hours were agonizing for Harth, dragging his mangled leg behind him as he crawled along the sand. He finally got a hold of emergency responders after multiple calls and immediately passed out from the pain.

He was rushed to the emergency room where hospital staff considered amputat­ing his leg due to the severity of the in­jury. Doctors then considered removing his foot when they discovered that necro­sis was turning his appendage black. Harth said the only reason he lived was due to the compression shorts he was wearing that night. The snug shorts helped prevent him from bleeding out from his femoral artery.

After several emergency surgeries, Harth recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital. He moved in with his Marine friend, SSgt Nicholas Reid, and his wife Chelsea. The couple had become fast friends since they met at a local gym after Nicholas was stationed at Camp Pendleton. In fact, texts from Harth late at night became so commonplace that they almost didn’t respond to his text from the hospital.

“During one of my feeding times with my [infant] son, I look over and my phone is blowing up,” Chelsea said. “And [it’s] Harry again. We just had this discussion [about him texting]. So, I just ignored it and finally I heard my husband’s phone going off the hook. So, I was like, ‘there is something going on.’ ”

After a few weeks of Harth mostly being immobile on their couch, the Reids went out of town for a brief vacation and were concerned about whether their friend would need assistance while they were gone. Not only did he refuse any sort of help, but by the time they got back, Harth was hopping around on one crutch.

The Road Back
For nearly two years, Harth has dealt with daily pain. But each day, the 27-year-old Marine pushed his physical limits on his reconstructed leg. Each day, he trained. Each day he found a way to better both himself and others around him.

Whatever it took to be a Reconnaissance Marine again, Harth was willing to do.
His drive and passion to regain his elite fighting group status is partly why the Virginia native was named the Wounded Warrior Regiment’s Recovering Service Member of the Year. The regiment honored Harth on May 1 for his contri­butions during an awards lunch hosted by the Marine Corps Association.

“The Marine Corps Association is proud to recognize the incredible achieve­ments of Marines through our awards program,” said Colonel Tim Mundy, USMC (Ret), the Vice President of MCA’s Foundation. “Marines like SSgt Harth, who have wounds or injuries, but over­come them to continue to serve certainly deserve recognition.”

Many of the recovering servicemembers never go back to active duty, their lives permanently changed due to a traumatic injury or a terminal illness. But that didn’t stop Harth from being a positive influence in their lives.
“I tell them, ‘You’re not forgotten when you came here, you are still part of this organization, you are just in a weird transitional period,’” Harth said. “You are still a Marine.”

According to fellow Wounded Warrior Regiment RSM Ashley Christman, there are times when you are lacking confidence during your rehabilitation and all it takes is one person to help you get over that obstacle. On many occasions, that person was Harth.

“He is constantly encouraging others, constantly there for others,” said Christman, who is battling neuroen­docrine cancer. “He has been a reliable and important part of my support system, which I appreciate his brotherhood and have really benefitted from his brother­hood, and support and encouragement.”

Harth even motivated the regiment staff. His athletic trainer at Wounded Warrior, Nick Tavoukjian, wakes up at 2:30 every morning and commutes 100 miles to get to work. Getting to see Harth every day was one of the highlights of his job.

“He motivates me to get into work every day, to get him going,” Tavoukjian said.

Harth’s daily workouts varied from weightlifting to rucking to even surfing. He also stuck meticulously to a healthy diet and even quit drinking alcohol altogether, even though it had nothing to do with his accident. Physical therapist Patrick Everett said Harth’s ability to recover quickly is quite unusual com­pared to the average person.

“He’s been one of the most insane healers in terms of his own body working and repairing itself,” said Everett, who runs Cuirim Sports Recovery in Costa Mesa, Calif. “He has broken every time­line, every expectation. … In fairness, for what he’s done and how hard he’s pushed himself, [his healing] doesn’t make sense in terms of by-the-book medicine.”

Destined to Be a Marine
Harth’s commitment to serve started at a young age. Long before he could run long distances or hold a rifle, Harth was fascinated with the Armed Services. His brother Zechariah Blatz, served in the Army and a family friend, Sean Callahan, was serving in the Corps when he tragically lost his life in an IED blast in 2011. Harth’s father had taken Callahan under his wing when Harry was around 9 years old, and the older teenager quickly became Harry’s idol.

“I remember when we were around 8, and Harry had this little soldier’s uniform and he would wear it around all the time,” sister Kerry said. “That’s what he wanted to do even before he really knew what he wanted to do. … So, Sean was like a hero to him.”

“When he [Callahan] died, I made the decision to go honor his legacy,” Harth said.

As a teenager, Harth participated in the Young Marines program while wrestling and swimming for Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, Va. Harth joked that the only reason he made varsity as a senior was because the swim coach felt sorry for him. But when Harth joined the Marine Corps after high school, he immediately began pushing himself to his physical limits, even off duty.

Harth remembers passing a sign-up for a marathon near a mall in Carlsbad, Calif., and remarking how cool it would be to finish it. The race was the next day, but he decided to pull over and sign up despite never having run more than 10 miles in his life.

Finishing that race gave Harth a jolt of confidence, and he went on to complete 65 half-marathons and another marathon as a Marine. Post fall, Harth continued to compete. He was a member of the 2024 Marine Corps’ Department of Defense Warrior Games team and is scheduled to participate in the international Invictus Games in 2025. In the DOD Games this June, Harth won a gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle in swimming and the bronze medal in the 100-meter dash in track.

Early in Harth’s recovery, there were moments of self-doubt once the realiza­tion of what happened to him kicked in. Harth’s ankle can’t move the same way as a normal one due to the fact that two of his foot bones—the talus and the navicular—are fused together. This has forced him to run with an unusual stride. It also puts more stress on his left leg. He’s also had multiple surgeries since his emergency surgeries after the accident.

“I have no mobility in my ankle, it’s kind of locked in one spot,” Harth said. “Running on that, which I do every day, creates its own set of problems.”
But Harth did not let his physical ailments distract him from his ultimate goal.
“I came back from such a debilitating [back] injury back then that I just thought there has to be a way around this,” Harth said. “It is a daily struggle. [I ask] Am I going to make it? What happens if I don’t? Am I doing this for nothing? … But I have never said I am going to give up or take the easy way out.”

And his family remains amazed at what he has accomplished.

“I felt like I was just hoping that he would be able to compete in the Invictus games in February, but he has, again, way exceeded my hopes and expectations,” Linda said. “I’m still amazed that he can walk. … Harry is truly inspiring.”
“Was this a sign that maybe he should do something different,” Kerry asked herself after her brother’s accident. “But I truly believe that Harry is, by far, the most determined person. I honestly didn’t think he’d be able to walk or run again. … But if anybody can do it, to have that much of a 180 [degree] recovery story, it’s Harry.”

Author’s bio: Kipp Hanley is the deputy editor for Leatherneck and resident of Woodbridge, Va. The award-winning journalist has covered a variety of topics in his writing career including the mil­itary, government, education, business and sports.