Working with Wounded Warriors

Working with Wounded Warriors

It is without a doubt one of the highest honors I have ever been given. The opportunity to assist America's best and bravest in their recovery from serious battlefield injury is the most emotionally challenging and spiritually rewarding things I've ever done. Emotionally because when you believe in something with all your heart, absolutely everything you have you cannot help but get choked up. When you see a guy who two years ago was the quarterback hero of his hometown High School football team and is now missing a hand and a leg. Or maybe he was a delinquent kid with too much energy and not enough guidance who found his way via the leadership, pride and motivation of wearing the uniform of a U.S. Serviceman. His wife, incredibly heroic in her own right goes home from the hospital to a mountain of bills and often an infant child. I see the pain. I look in their eyes and I see it. And I am there to help in any way I can.

To be looked upon as a mentor for these guys (and girls) or even just a friend they can trust, is humbling at the very least.  Seeing how these individuals who have survived what should have been un-survivable and keep going, keep driving forward gifts me with inspiration to take on challenges I may not ever have done. For those that do not know,  I am a volunteer for the incredible organization "Semper Fidelis Health and Wellness" (SFHW.ORG). We present healthy living and superfood dieting to the Wounded Warrior hospital's in Camp Lejeune and Walter Reed. Our clients are recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury, Amputation, burns, you name it. Some of them are not even 20 years old. Others have spent a lifetime in service to our great nation. We are, compared to the more household name org's, tiny. However we take great pride in making as big an impact as we can, based on our very limited budget.

My work:

I am currently running a Jiu-jitsu for Vets only program out of my gym. 3 days a week we get together, roll out the mats and practice Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. All of the men had a little training in this when they served and now they get the chance to learn more of the technical side of it from me. We currently have just a few guys training but already bonds are forming among us. These guys roll HARD. They are absolutely every bit the warrior they were when they served. The friendly combat and camaraderie gives them a good stress relief if even for just a few hours a week. Some of these guys have been out for a few years and due to the heavy physical therapy schedule have been unable to work or really start their life as civilian. Jiu-jitsu gives them the chance to be among warriors and train in empty hand combat that is extremely effective. If you don't know what Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is, it is a martial art that hails from Rio de Janeiro Brazil via Japan. It was the empty hand combat system of the Samurai.  It is a grappling combat system that employs highly effective use of leverage for joint manipulation and choking. Basically, beating the ever loving shit out of someone.
The guys love it. To be able to take something I spent years learning and give it away- absolutely priceless.

The Dog.
I met Tyler at his welcome home party in Concord NC in December of 2012. He had just lost both his legs to an IED while serving as point man in an Infantry unit in Afghanistan. Tyler was an E-4 but volunteered to man the metal detector as his squad executed a middle of the night patrol. He was blown up by a remote detonated IED. Lost both his legs. 23 years old. Star baseball player in his hometown, newspapers gave him the nickname Captain Hook for his nasty curveball. Tyler wheeled himself up the table I was at with fellow volunteer Alvaro Matta and we got to doing what Soldiers do which is drink beer and talk shit.  I asked Tyler if he had considered getting a service dog. His reply was yes but that he didn't like wimpy dogs. I agreed and showed him a picture of my 95 lb red Dobermann "Zulu". Tyler fell in love. He had never seen a European Dobermann before. The box head, the stocky frame all of this was more than he could handle. So then i got to thinking...

 Long story short, with the help of some very generous people I should be delivering Tyler a fully trained, bad to the bone, big as hell red european Dobermann Pinscher by mid June of this year. The dog is from the best kennel in my opinion in the U.S. and has a strong working Serbian bloodline. He is an absolutely regal, solid and magnificent specimen of a Dobermann.  A Soldier's dog for sure. Now why you may ask would I want to bestow such a responsibility on Tyler? Well, #1 my boy Zulu makes me smile at least a hundred times a day. If I can give that gift to this young man I HAVE to do it. You just have to think like I do to understand.
#2 From a fitness and wellness standpoint this dog will require a lot of walking and outdoor time. It will require Tyler to go outside and get fresh air and be in nature many times a day. The Dobermann is too intelligent a breed to merely be let into the backyard to relieve himself. He wants to explore. He will demand that Tyler,as his alpha leader be adventurous and expand their pack boundaries on a daily basis.
This is all the happy pill he will need.

Now that I have told my story. What will be yours?