thedrifter
06-03-09, 07:49 AM
Mountain-Climbing Marine Inspires From Thousands Of Miles Away
By Josh Green, NBC17, 14 hours, 11 minutes ago
Updated: Jun. 2 8:08 pm
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA/DURHAM, NC
It was New Years Day 2005 when Durham native Jon Kuniholm's body changed forever; yet his "can-do" attitude, as his friends put it, didn't.
Kuniholm, now 37, was on patrol with his Marines when Iraqi insurgents ambushed them near the Euphrates River.
Jon lost his right arm.
"When you deal with adversity and disability ... sometimes things that should be very easy or used to be very easy are hard," he said this week in Alaska. "But that doesn't mean really hard things aren't still possible."
Add climbing North America's tallest mountain to the list of big obstacles Kuniholm plans of overcoming. He joined Operation Denali Monday as a team of six climbers and three guides headed up Mt. McKinley.
"People have said stuff to me like ... have you talked to your mother about this," he said in an interview with KTUU, the NBC affiliate in Anchorage.
Operation Denali is a non-profit that gives wounded servicemen and women from the Global War on Terrorism the chance to overcome devastating combat injuries and summit the 20,320 foot peak now called Denali.
Kuniholm's trek into the frigid Alaskan temperatures doesn't surprise some of his friends back here in North Carolina. His service in the Marines proved that he was a warrior on several levels, they said.
"There are people out there who make it so that we can just go about our business and do what we're doing," said Luke Graysmith, one of Kuniholm's high school friends. "Once they have finished their mission, they're still that person inside. Even if they're harmed, they're still that person inside. They can get up. They can rise up. They can overcome whatever harm was done to them."
But it's the work the Marine has done these last four years that truly inspires this group of friends.
"He has stated to me that he's got the same equipment that they had in World War I for a wounded arm," Graysmith said. "I'm not his wife. I'm not his kid. I'm not his dad. Maybe he shows frustration in other circumstances, but to me it's always sort of matter of fact. This is the way it is. But maybe it could be better."
So Kuniholm, a Bio-mechanical engineer pursuing a doctorate now at Duke, worked with the DARPA Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program at Johns Hopkins University to come up with an arm suitable for scaling McKinley. Graysmith said Kuniholm wants to continue improving a vision to improve the way the brain "talks" to prosthetic arms.
"He's going to be fighting to make this arm ... he's going to make it work," Kuniholm said. "And when he does, there might be a lot of people who feel like they'd be better off dead who will rethink that because now they can shake a hand or pour a glass of wine or play an instrument."
"It's a question of time but it's not just time. Technology marches steadily on but it's because of people who give a damn make it happen. And Jon is somebody who gives a damn ... that's for sure."
Video
http://durhamcounty.mync.com/site/durhamcounty/news/story/35809/mountain-climbing-marine-inspires-from-thousands-of-miles-away
Ellie
By Josh Green, NBC17, 14 hours, 11 minutes ago
Updated: Jun. 2 8:08 pm
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA/DURHAM, NC
It was New Years Day 2005 when Durham native Jon Kuniholm's body changed forever; yet his "can-do" attitude, as his friends put it, didn't.
Kuniholm, now 37, was on patrol with his Marines when Iraqi insurgents ambushed them near the Euphrates River.
Jon lost his right arm.
"When you deal with adversity and disability ... sometimes things that should be very easy or used to be very easy are hard," he said this week in Alaska. "But that doesn't mean really hard things aren't still possible."
Add climbing North America's tallest mountain to the list of big obstacles Kuniholm plans of overcoming. He joined Operation Denali Monday as a team of six climbers and three guides headed up Mt. McKinley.
"People have said stuff to me like ... have you talked to your mother about this," he said in an interview with KTUU, the NBC affiliate in Anchorage.
Operation Denali is a non-profit that gives wounded servicemen and women from the Global War on Terrorism the chance to overcome devastating combat injuries and summit the 20,320 foot peak now called Denali.
Kuniholm's trek into the frigid Alaskan temperatures doesn't surprise some of his friends back here in North Carolina. His service in the Marines proved that he was a warrior on several levels, they said.
"There are people out there who make it so that we can just go about our business and do what we're doing," said Luke Graysmith, one of Kuniholm's high school friends. "Once they have finished their mission, they're still that person inside. Even if they're harmed, they're still that person inside. They can get up. They can rise up. They can overcome whatever harm was done to them."
But it's the work the Marine has done these last four years that truly inspires this group of friends.
"He has stated to me that he's got the same equipment that they had in World War I for a wounded arm," Graysmith said. "I'm not his wife. I'm not his kid. I'm not his dad. Maybe he shows frustration in other circumstances, but to me it's always sort of matter of fact. This is the way it is. But maybe it could be better."
So Kuniholm, a Bio-mechanical engineer pursuing a doctorate now at Duke, worked with the DARPA Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program at Johns Hopkins University to come up with an arm suitable for scaling McKinley. Graysmith said Kuniholm wants to continue improving a vision to improve the way the brain "talks" to prosthetic arms.
"He's going to be fighting to make this arm ... he's going to make it work," Kuniholm said. "And when he does, there might be a lot of people who feel like they'd be better off dead who will rethink that because now they can shake a hand or pour a glass of wine or play an instrument."
"It's a question of time but it's not just time. Technology marches steadily on but it's because of people who give a damn make it happen. And Jon is somebody who gives a damn ... that's for sure."
Video
http://durhamcounty.mync.com/site/durhamcounty/news/story/35809/mountain-climbing-marine-inspires-from-thousands-of-miles-away
Ellie