FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) — Three of Spc. Jeffrey Sigerson’s fingers are curled, the result of his right hand being crushed in the door of a Humvee during an ambush in Iraq last year while he was on a convoy-security mission.

On top of that, his entire torso twitches frequently after an accident in basic training left him with dislocated vertebrae and damaged nerves.

But as Sigerson rowed himself around American Lake on Thursday, the Fort Lewis soldier found peace on the choppy waters.

“I thought it would be a lot harder to do,” the 40-year-old Tacoma resident said after 30 minutes on the lake. “But I found out that it’s something I can do. It was relaxing. It’s freedom on the water.”

Sigerson and 14 others from Fort Lewis’ Warrior Transition Battalion, a unit for soldiers with complex or long-term health concerns, rowed and played sitting volleyball during a camp run by the U.S. Paralympic Team.

Another 15 veterans or active-duty military personnel from other bases also participated in the camp, which began Tuesday and concluded Friday.

Sports are growing in popularity as a way to help wounded and injured service members; proponents say they encourage physical activity after a traumatic event and provide a sense of calm. One local nonprofit, the Wounded Warrior Adaptive Golf Project, helps link disabled soldiers and veterans with mentors on the links.

Many of the participants in the rowing session Thursday rode in adaptive double scull boats, in which the rower sits higher in the boat and is buckled into the seat. Several had lost their legs or some use of them, and the modifications allowed them to row using only the power of their upper body. Sculls usually have a sliding seat, putting an emphasis on leg power.

Roger Neppl, the director of military programs in the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Paralympic Division, said the camps receive funding from the Department of Defense as part of a larger effort to rehabilitate injured service members.

If an athlete excels at one of the camps, there’s an opportunity to train and try out for a national team. But Neppl cautions against seeing the events as a series of on-post farm systems.

“The primary goal is to let them get back in the game of life,” he said. “I’d be perfectly happy if someone becomes well enough to take a Sunday bike ride with their family.”