thedrifter
11-18-08, 09:27 AM
Surfing Veterans
Posted: 10:19 PM Nov 17, 2008
Last Updated: 10:19 PM Nov 17, 2008
Email Address: news@wctv.tv
For the thousands of us soldiers wounded in the Iraq war...sometimes the best way to heal is to do something unusual.
Instead of putting on their camouflaged uniforms, some vets are now putting on their wet suits.
Jeffery Hacket is legally blind. "When you lose your sight or a disability you start losing your self-confidence. And I got to where, 'who's gonna marry a blind guy?' And things like this, it builds your self-confidence, you feel like you can do things," says Hacket
It's all a part of the VA's effort to get disabled vets out of the clinics...and into the world.
Dana Cummings of the Association of Amputee Surfers says, "They're 22 years old, all of a sudden they're in a wheelchair, they feel trapped.
there's a huge loss going on in their life. We get them out here on a surfboard, they feel the freedom of the ocean."
Every year 5-and-a-half million vets seek medical care from VA hospitals.
But these vets say the waves provide a kind of healing that goes beyond modern medicine.
Carl Berquist says, "They have been thru some terrible stuff, stuff that people don't even know..."
As a field medic, Carl Berquist treated Marines in Iraq. Then he got hit.
"I saw the stars and saw the tunnel vision coming in and then I knew exactly what was going on. When i woke back up ...I asked how's my Marines doing and uh ...I took a deep breath, I'm breathing, I'm alive it's a good day..."
IED's are the road side bombs that have left so many servicemen with brain injuries. Others suffer post traumatic stress.
Sandy Trombetta, Director of the Veterans Sports Clinic says, "we call those invisible disabilities, you can see them walking down the street, you wouldn't even recognize it, but there are stress-related problems and this gives them little baby steps to practice, to learn to deal with different things."
Many of them have never surfed before, but since they're military men, they don't give up.
Ellie
Posted: 10:19 PM Nov 17, 2008
Last Updated: 10:19 PM Nov 17, 2008
Email Address: news@wctv.tv
For the thousands of us soldiers wounded in the Iraq war...sometimes the best way to heal is to do something unusual.
Instead of putting on their camouflaged uniforms, some vets are now putting on their wet suits.
Jeffery Hacket is legally blind. "When you lose your sight or a disability you start losing your self-confidence. And I got to where, 'who's gonna marry a blind guy?' And things like this, it builds your self-confidence, you feel like you can do things," says Hacket
It's all a part of the VA's effort to get disabled vets out of the clinics...and into the world.
Dana Cummings of the Association of Amputee Surfers says, "They're 22 years old, all of a sudden they're in a wheelchair, they feel trapped.
there's a huge loss going on in their life. We get them out here on a surfboard, they feel the freedom of the ocean."
Every year 5-and-a-half million vets seek medical care from VA hospitals.
But these vets say the waves provide a kind of healing that goes beyond modern medicine.
Carl Berquist says, "They have been thru some terrible stuff, stuff that people don't even know..."
As a field medic, Carl Berquist treated Marines in Iraq. Then he got hit.
"I saw the stars and saw the tunnel vision coming in and then I knew exactly what was going on. When i woke back up ...I asked how's my Marines doing and uh ...I took a deep breath, I'm breathing, I'm alive it's a good day..."
IED's are the road side bombs that have left so many servicemen with brain injuries. Others suffer post traumatic stress.
Sandy Trombetta, Director of the Veterans Sports Clinic says, "we call those invisible disabilities, you can see them walking down the street, you wouldn't even recognize it, but there are stress-related problems and this gives them little baby steps to practice, to learn to deal with different things."
Many of them have never surfed before, but since they're military men, they don't give up.
Ellie