"Amputee vets conquer Kilimanjaro; Sports challenges help to rebuild confidence" by Neely Tucker, Washington Post | August 15, 2010
WASHINGTON — When US Army Sergeant Neil Duncan got taken apart in the highlands of Afghanistan in 2005 — his vehicle ran over a buried explosive, and it “blew up right under me’’ — he really was not picturing life without his legs.
Five years later, the double amputee called from a hotel in Arusha, Tanzania. His arms ached; so did his stumps.
He and two other former soldiers, three men with one leg between them, had just come down from summiting 19,340-foot Mount Kilimanjaro.
You read correctly: Three soldiers, one leg, a mountain climb....
Its Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project began in 2003 and focuses on permanently disabled veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Participation in the program, — which uses donations to pay for fees, travel, and equipment for the veterans — is limited to soldiers who have lost limbs or eyesight or have suffered serious brain or spinal cord injuries. More than 3,000 have taken part.
“Sports is the tool to rebuild their confidence after they’ve been banged up and blown up,’’ said Kirk Bauer (62, lost one leg in Vietnam, lives in Ellicott City, Md.), executive director of Disabled Sports and overseer of the Warfighter Sports Challenge, a series of seven extreme events for permanently disabled veterans which began this year....
I know it's a little late now and I don't want to take away their fun; however, wouldn't it have been better to never have sent them?
