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North Potomac native T.J. Barbieri, 24, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, died in a fire fight south of Baghdad in 2006.

After his son's death, Thomas Barbieri got involved with the Achilles Freedom Team for Wounded Veterans, a group run out of Walter Reed Army Medical Center through Achilles International, an organization focused on helping people with disabilities become physically active. The Achilles Freedom Team helps wounded veterans train for marathons, running either using prosthetic limbs or hand crank wheelchairs, special racing devices operated by hand.

For Barbieri, a lacrosse coach at the Catholic University of America with a background in physical education, helping wounded veterans was a way he could honor his son.

Barbieri goes to Walter Reed several times a month to help veterans train.

"The one thing they would never want is for anybody to feel bad for them or feel that they're any different," Barbieri said. "I see tremendous drive with these guys."

According to Genna Griffith, who directs the Achilles Marathon Tour, wounded veterans are able to become active again using the hand crank wheelchair shortly after they are injured. "So many wounded veterans were active and athletic before their injuries," Griffith said. "Becoming active so soon after their injury, it helps with their stress, it helps with their recovery, it puts them in better spirits to know I can do what everyone else is doing…I'm not immobile."

With T.J.'s memory in mind, the lacrosse team at Catholic held a lacrosse tournament two years ago aimed at raising funds to donate a custom-made hand crank wheelchair to the Achilles Freedom Team for Wounded Veterans. The tournament sponsor, Clark Construction, donated the hand crank, which cost $2,500. It is inscribed with T.J. Barbieri's name, division and photograph.

Since the hand crank was dedicated, it's become a tradition that members of T.J.'s division ride the hand crank in every major race. Capt. Brian Jantzen, also of the 82nd Airborne Division, recently rode the hand crank wheelchair in Washington's Marine Corps Marathon.

Fellow 82nd Airborne Division soldier Matt Foster, a Freedom Team participant who had his right leg amputated below the knee as a result of an injury he sustained from an explosive device in Iraq, also rode in T.J.'s honor in the New York marathon last weekend. Foster did not know Barbieri, but described him as a "member of his extended family."

According to Thomas Barbieri, members of the 82nd airborne division share a unique bond. "The 82d airborne is a very close-knit unit…they feel the death of one of their own and feel for the family," Barbieri said.

Since T.J.'s death, Barbieri and his wife have formed close friendships with members of the division and those who ride the hand crank in their son's honor, he said.

"I have met his parents and they are wonderful people," Foster said. "You never move on from losing a child, but I think it helps them to cope to see the other 82nd guys remember their son and honor him the way we do with this bike."