thedrifter
04-25-08, 07:05 AM
Wounded Marines ready for high-energy BMW training in SC
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, The Associated PressFriday, April 25, 2008
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Two years after losing his left leg in Iraq, Marine Cpl. Kenneth Lyon is preparing to put his rehabilitation behind him and skid a sporty BMW around the automaker’s high-performance driving course in South Carolina.
“I want to come and have some fun!” the 22-year-old Marine mechanic said. “It’s been a long road, but I’m coming toward the end.”
Lyon, of Crisfield, Md., will be among 30 wounded, but recovering veterans from around the country attending the BMW driving school near Spartanburg on Monday. Costs for the outing are being shared by BMW and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, a privately funded support group that works to get Marines out of hospitals and back into communities.
“I’ve been a fan of BMW’s since I was 8 years old,” Lyon said in a telephone interview. “When I heard about this, I was thrilled.”
The luxury automaker has retrofitted five 650i two-door coupes with special hand grips and other controls so vets who have lost the use of their legs can hone their driving skills on a specially configured two-mile course. Those who don’t need the special controls will drive sporty 335i sedans or the high-performance M3, M4 and M5 coupes and sedans.
Drivers will practice safety tips as they zip through skid paths, lane changes and mini-waterfalls at speeds of up to 55 mph, said course director Dan Gubitosa.
“What you learn here can save your life one day,” Gubitosa said. “We will be challenging them. ... The whole point is that they can learn to do the same things that any other driver can do, and get to drive some really cool cars in the process.”
The instruction normally carries a $695 per-person daily price tag. It’s being paid for in part by the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, a group that has given out $20 million since it was founded four years ago to assist injured vets and their families, said its founder and executive director Karen Guenther.
“Our focus, when we began as a group of military spouses, was to help the wounded and their families through their recovery,” said Guenther. “But what we have found is that many of our servicemen and women will need our support for the rest of their lives.”
Getting them away from hospitals and back in their communities is key, said Guenther, the wife of a Marine Corps officer.
“This is something where they will have a lot of fun, and show them that people really care about them,” Guenther said.
Lyons agreed, saying he’s been slowly breaking out of his environs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he’s been living as an outpatient and undergoing prosthetic training. He had been well enough to go home, but fell out of bed and injured his leg again, setting his recovery back, he said.
In a quirky twist, an adviser who was trying to get Lyons to go to college learned they both shared a fascination with BMWs. Instead of getting him to college, the adviser helped him wrangle an intern slot two days a week at a BMW dealership located in the shadow of the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
“I didn’t want to go to college. I wanted to be an auto mechanic,” he said. “By coming here and working, it helped me realize that there is still a working world out there.”
Lyon said BMW Arlington was the only firm that would take him when informed of his disability.
“In all honesty, it’s just part of my therapy,” Lyon said of his work. “I kinda just needed to get away from the hospital. For a time, it was all I had known.”
Ellie
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, The Associated PressFriday, April 25, 2008
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Two years after losing his left leg in Iraq, Marine Cpl. Kenneth Lyon is preparing to put his rehabilitation behind him and skid a sporty BMW around the automaker’s high-performance driving course in South Carolina.
“I want to come and have some fun!” the 22-year-old Marine mechanic said. “It’s been a long road, but I’m coming toward the end.”
Lyon, of Crisfield, Md., will be among 30 wounded, but recovering veterans from around the country attending the BMW driving school near Spartanburg on Monday. Costs for the outing are being shared by BMW and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, a privately funded support group that works to get Marines out of hospitals and back into communities.
“I’ve been a fan of BMW’s since I was 8 years old,” Lyon said in a telephone interview. “When I heard about this, I was thrilled.”
The luxury automaker has retrofitted five 650i two-door coupes with special hand grips and other controls so vets who have lost the use of their legs can hone their driving skills on a specially configured two-mile course. Those who don’t need the special controls will drive sporty 335i sedans or the high-performance M3, M4 and M5 coupes and sedans.
Drivers will practice safety tips as they zip through skid paths, lane changes and mini-waterfalls at speeds of up to 55 mph, said course director Dan Gubitosa.
“What you learn here can save your life one day,” Gubitosa said. “We will be challenging them. ... The whole point is that they can learn to do the same things that any other driver can do, and get to drive some really cool cars in the process.”
The instruction normally carries a $695 per-person daily price tag. It’s being paid for in part by the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, a group that has given out $20 million since it was founded four years ago to assist injured vets and their families, said its founder and executive director Karen Guenther.
“Our focus, when we began as a group of military spouses, was to help the wounded and their families through their recovery,” said Guenther. “But what we have found is that many of our servicemen and women will need our support for the rest of their lives.”
Getting them away from hospitals and back in their communities is key, said Guenther, the wife of a Marine Corps officer.
“This is something where they will have a lot of fun, and show them that people really care about them,” Guenther said.
Lyons agreed, saying he’s been slowly breaking out of his environs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he’s been living as an outpatient and undergoing prosthetic training. He had been well enough to go home, but fell out of bed and injured his leg again, setting his recovery back, he said.
In a quirky twist, an adviser who was trying to get Lyons to go to college learned they both shared a fascination with BMWs. Instead of getting him to college, the adviser helped him wrangle an intern slot two days a week at a BMW dealership located in the shadow of the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
“I didn’t want to go to college. I wanted to be an auto mechanic,” he said. “By coming here and working, it helped me realize that there is still a working world out there.”
Lyon said BMW Arlington was the only firm that would take him when informed of his disability.
“In all honesty, it’s just part of my therapy,” Lyon said of his work. “I kinda just needed to get away from the hospital. For a time, it was all I had known.”
Ellie