Litscher, a U.S. Army veteran, was presented with the Purple Heart by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, in a ceremony Nov. 3 at the Lachmund-Cramer VFW Post 7694 in Prairie du Sac.

She and her husband, Nathan, own SP Fitness on Water Street in neighboring Sauk City, a gym and health facility they opened in 2017.

Litscher, whose maiden name is Orlowski, said her Purple Heart, which she received after injuries stemming from an incident on Mar. 30, 2003 in Kuwait, felt “long overdue.” She and 14 others were plowed into by a pickup truck at a military post exchange at Camp Udairi, just south of the country’s border with Iraq.

The incident happened shortly after her deployment in the Iraq War, Litscher, said. She and the others were a supply unit, in which she served as a fuel tank driver, slated to follow an infantry into Iraq.

“When we were there, we thought that we were safe,” Litscher said. “One of the hired contractors locked up his coworkers and decided to take his company vehicle and run over 15 soldiers, one of them being myself.”

A New York Times article from Mar. 31, 2003 indicated that the driver was a contract worker but said it was not known if he was a member of a death squad commissioned by then-Iraq president Saddam Hussein. Litscher said five of the 15 soldiers hit went under the truck following impact.

“During the attack, he hit me in the back and I went under the truck and got ran over,” she said. “At the tail end of that, (I was) trying to help other soldiers around me that were in the same situation try to get to safety and wait for the attack to be done.”

The injuries from the impact left Litscher on bedrest in a tent for roughly three weeks, she said, adding that her unit came together to take care of her during that time, including bringing her meals. After the bedrest period, she walked with crutches for roughly two more weeks before returning to fuel transportation.

Her tour lasted roughly 13 months after her recovery, with her unit returning to the United States in April of 2004. The unit, the 125-person 998th Quartermaster Co. from Junction City, was largely composed of U.S. Army Reserve soldiers and trained for one month at Fort McCoy.

“They really have become like brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles,” Litscher said of soldiers she served with. “I think when you go through something like that, you bring that home and continue to stay in each other’s lives.”

Litscher, who was raised in Wausau, enlisted in the Army Reserve in December of 2000 following her graduation from Wausau East High School. Following the Iraq tour, she was discharged. She re-enlisted once more before retiring from duty in 2009.

Family military history was a motivating factor for Litscher’s enlistment. She had two grandfathers in the military, and her father was in the National Guard.

After her military service, Litscher received an anthropology degree from UW-Oshkosh and worked as an archaeologist for the Wisconsin Historical Society.

She moved to Prairie du Sac in 2017 with her husband of 11 years, Nathan. They have two children, Owen, 8, and Jordan, 6. The Litschers lived in Black Earth prior to moving back to Nathan’s hometown.

“The more I learn about what happened, it just kind of drove home the point that she should have (a Purple Heart),” Nathan Litscher of his wife.

Litscher and her husband opened SP Fitness, a gym and wellness facility in Sauk City, in 2017. The physical fitness recovery regimen she had to go through to heal from the injuries stemming from the Kuwait attack motivated Rebecca to get into physical fitness for herself and her community, and she pivoted from her initial career in archaeology in 2007. She met Nathan that year.

Prior to opening SP Fitness, Rebecca worked as a Veterans Association billpayer and for Covance, now Labcorps, a pharmaceutical developer, but said she had to frequently visit doctors because of back issues from sitting that stemmed from her Kuwait injuries.

“I decided to join a gym,” she said, adding that she began working with a personal trainer and eventually became a bodybuilder. “After I had gotten that title and put some years into my own fitness, I knew that I could help other people turn their lives around, like how mine had been turned around from fitness.”

Along with gym equipment, SP Fitness offers fitness classes, nutrition coaching, physical therapy, youth training and programs, and nutrition products, including protein bars and smoothie bowls. More information on the facility is on the SP Fitness website, spfitnessandnutritionbar608.com.

“It really has become a health and wellness community within the community,” Litscher said. “A lot of people feel welcome and get the support that they need. We have clients as early as 10 (years old), all the way up to 89.”

The Purple Heart winner is one of three female members of the Lachmund-Cramer VFW Post, post commander Dick Nolden said, adding that the post is looking to add younger members, as well as female veterans.

“She is sure a welcomed addition,” Nolden said.

Litscher said joining the Sauk Prairie VFW is “being entered into another family.”

Litscher’s physical fitness endeavors since her service demonstrate her willpower and ambition, Nolden added.

“I’m glad that Sen. Baldwin got it done and helped her,” Nolden said of Litscher’s Purple Heart. “She definitely deserved it.”