thedrifter
03-15-08, 07:16 AM
Posted on Sat, Mar. 15, 2008
Disabled Marines vow to go distance in Miami triathalon
BY LINDA ROBERTSON
When Marine Cpl. Dan Lasko stared in horror at his blackened foot, damaged by a bomb in Afghanistan, his first thought was that he would never walk again.
Yet on Sunday, Lasko will swim, bike and run 32 miles in the Miami International Triathlon. Four years after his left leg was amputated below the knee, Lasko competes for Team Semper Fi, a group of Marine veterans who have not allowed their disabilities to slow them down.
Lasko uses two different prosthetic legs for the cycling and running portions of triathlons. He swims without one. His transition time of 55-60 seconds is faster than that of many able-bodied athletes.
''I don't want to worry about something falling off or getting rusty in the water,'' Lasko said. ``As I come to the end of the swim, usually my wife is there with my running leg. I put that on and sprint to my bike. Then I put on my biking leg, which has a shoe attached, and I'm pedaling onto the road pretty quick.''
Lasko hopes to finish the race in two hours, 50 minutes. The 0.9 mile swim begins at Miami Marine Stadium, the 24.8-mile bike course is along Rickenbacker Causeway and the 6.2-mile run finishes at the stadium.
Lasko's teammates include other amputees and Marines with spinal cord and brain injuries. The team was formed by John Szczepanowski of the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, which has provided $17 million in grants to 2,000 soldiers who have come home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lasko, 25, was injured in 2004, when the ''seven-ton monster truck'' in which he was riding hit an improvised explosive device near Tariwinkowt, Afghanistan.
''I had surgery in Germany, then while flying back to the U.S. an infection set in and they had to go higher on the leg,'' he said. ``When they first mentioned a prosthetic leg, I envisioned a clunky wooden thing.''
Lasko wears $15,000 carbon fiber prosthetics for racing. He and his teammates have completed a variety of endurance events, including a half-Ironman triathlon in Virginia (1.5-mile swim, 55-mile bike, 13-mile run) and the Real Deal three-day adventure race in Colorado, which consisted of mountain biking, white-water rafting and trail running, and two nights camping in tents.
''My hope is to motivate other injured soldiers by showing them you can still do incredible things,'' said Lasko, who lives in Bethlehem, Pa.
Sgt. Joe Gonzalez plans to run the Marine Corps Marathon this year despite back and elbow injuries he sustained when his Humvee was rammed by a car bomber in Iraq in 2005.
''It's painful, but I like challenges,'' Gonzalez said. ``I'm very fortunate. Four Marines in my platoon were killed. I think about them daily.''
Gonzalez, 23, is now Marine Liaison at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he counsels soldiers undergoing rehabilitation.
''My first-hand experience helps me talk to them when they think nobody else understands,'' he said. ``You see awful stuff in war movies, but you never think you'll be in the middle of it. If you survive, the only way to truly move on is to live life to the fullest.''
Another team member, Eric Frazier, said he ''felt a calling'' to enlist when he watched on TV the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. He returned from his tour in Iraq unscathed only to be shot in the back in 2005 by his father, also a Marine, during an argument.
''He left me for dead, and I had to crawl down three flights of stairs to get help,'' Frazier said. ``I should have bled to death. Instead, I woke up two days later, and they told me I was a paraplegic. It would have been easier to deal with if it had happened in Iraq. Where's the glory in being shot by your own father?''
Like Lasko, who played volleyball, and Gonzalez, who played football and baseball, Frazier had been an athlete. They said their backgrounds in sports helped them recover faster. They relished taxing physical therapy and embraced new goals.
''I know people who have been stalled in the VA hospital for 10 years, and it only took me two to get to this point,'' Frazier said.
He was a wrestling champion in high school, college and on a Marine squad. Team Semper Fi enabled him to buy a hand cycle and a racing wheelchair last year. He has finished two marathons and the 110-mile Gettysburg to Washington ride. The Miami event will be his second triathlon. He's doing two-thirds of the race; a teammate will swim for him.
''When Marines come back, the bills pile up, the family suffers and they can't get the wheelchairs and prosthetics they need,'' said Frazier, 24, a retired sergeant who coaches a high school wrestling team in Virginia Beach, Va. His wife is a Marine. ``Marines look after one another.''
Lasko, Gonzalez and Frazier said they expected the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq to have ended by now. But they also said they'd go back if they could, to relieve Marines on duty.
''I thought being in the Marines would be a blast -- no pun intended,'' said Lasko, who enlisted as a high school senior. 'I was scheduled to leave for boot camp on Sept. 11, 2001. I thought, `Whoa, what am I getting into?' But you really develop a tight bond, and now I want to raise awareness and raise funds.''
Always faithful, Team Semper Fi members have found a new way to demonstrate their spirit.
''I'm going many, many miles under my own power again,'' Frazier said. ``I can beat able-bodied people on racing bikes. That's my Marine side coming out. Never give up.''
Ellie
Disabled Marines vow to go distance in Miami triathalon
BY LINDA ROBERTSON
When Marine Cpl. Dan Lasko stared in horror at his blackened foot, damaged by a bomb in Afghanistan, his first thought was that he would never walk again.
Yet on Sunday, Lasko will swim, bike and run 32 miles in the Miami International Triathlon. Four years after his left leg was amputated below the knee, Lasko competes for Team Semper Fi, a group of Marine veterans who have not allowed their disabilities to slow them down.
Lasko uses two different prosthetic legs for the cycling and running portions of triathlons. He swims without one. His transition time of 55-60 seconds is faster than that of many able-bodied athletes.
''I don't want to worry about something falling off or getting rusty in the water,'' Lasko said. ``As I come to the end of the swim, usually my wife is there with my running leg. I put that on and sprint to my bike. Then I put on my biking leg, which has a shoe attached, and I'm pedaling onto the road pretty quick.''
Lasko hopes to finish the race in two hours, 50 minutes. The 0.9 mile swim begins at Miami Marine Stadium, the 24.8-mile bike course is along Rickenbacker Causeway and the 6.2-mile run finishes at the stadium.
Lasko's teammates include other amputees and Marines with spinal cord and brain injuries. The team was formed by John Szczepanowski of the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, which has provided $17 million in grants to 2,000 soldiers who have come home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lasko, 25, was injured in 2004, when the ''seven-ton monster truck'' in which he was riding hit an improvised explosive device near Tariwinkowt, Afghanistan.
''I had surgery in Germany, then while flying back to the U.S. an infection set in and they had to go higher on the leg,'' he said. ``When they first mentioned a prosthetic leg, I envisioned a clunky wooden thing.''
Lasko wears $15,000 carbon fiber prosthetics for racing. He and his teammates have completed a variety of endurance events, including a half-Ironman triathlon in Virginia (1.5-mile swim, 55-mile bike, 13-mile run) and the Real Deal three-day adventure race in Colorado, which consisted of mountain biking, white-water rafting and trail running, and two nights camping in tents.
''My hope is to motivate other injured soldiers by showing them you can still do incredible things,'' said Lasko, who lives in Bethlehem, Pa.
Sgt. Joe Gonzalez plans to run the Marine Corps Marathon this year despite back and elbow injuries he sustained when his Humvee was rammed by a car bomber in Iraq in 2005.
''It's painful, but I like challenges,'' Gonzalez said. ``I'm very fortunate. Four Marines in my platoon were killed. I think about them daily.''
Gonzalez, 23, is now Marine Liaison at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he counsels soldiers undergoing rehabilitation.
''My first-hand experience helps me talk to them when they think nobody else understands,'' he said. ``You see awful stuff in war movies, but you never think you'll be in the middle of it. If you survive, the only way to truly move on is to live life to the fullest.''
Another team member, Eric Frazier, said he ''felt a calling'' to enlist when he watched on TV the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. He returned from his tour in Iraq unscathed only to be shot in the back in 2005 by his father, also a Marine, during an argument.
''He left me for dead, and I had to crawl down three flights of stairs to get help,'' Frazier said. ``I should have bled to death. Instead, I woke up two days later, and they told me I was a paraplegic. It would have been easier to deal with if it had happened in Iraq. Where's the glory in being shot by your own father?''
Like Lasko, who played volleyball, and Gonzalez, who played football and baseball, Frazier had been an athlete. They said their backgrounds in sports helped them recover faster. They relished taxing physical therapy and embraced new goals.
''I know people who have been stalled in the VA hospital for 10 years, and it only took me two to get to this point,'' Frazier said.
He was a wrestling champion in high school, college and on a Marine squad. Team Semper Fi enabled him to buy a hand cycle and a racing wheelchair last year. He has finished two marathons and the 110-mile Gettysburg to Washington ride. The Miami event will be his second triathlon. He's doing two-thirds of the race; a teammate will swim for him.
''When Marines come back, the bills pile up, the family suffers and they can't get the wheelchairs and prosthetics they need,'' said Frazier, 24, a retired sergeant who coaches a high school wrestling team in Virginia Beach, Va. His wife is a Marine. ``Marines look after one another.''
Lasko, Gonzalez and Frazier said they expected the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq to have ended by now. But they also said they'd go back if they could, to relieve Marines on duty.
''I thought being in the Marines would be a blast -- no pun intended,'' said Lasko, who enlisted as a high school senior. 'I was scheduled to leave for boot camp on Sept. 11, 2001. I thought, `Whoa, what am I getting into?' But you really develop a tight bond, and now I want to raise awareness and raise funds.''
Always faithful, Team Semper Fi members have found a new way to demonstrate their spirit.
''I'm going many, many miles under my own power again,'' Frazier said. ``I can beat able-bodied people on racing bikes. That's my Marine side coming out. Never give up.''
Ellie