Injured Vets take to the PA Slopes...

Sitting on a mono-ski as an instructor straps him on, Spc. Reddi Parker wondered if the designer of the device went a little overboard.

"How many straps do you need to strap over your waist?" asked Parker, 26, of Jonesboro, Ark.

The apparent answer is three.
Parker and seven other injured soldiers and Marines from Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington hit the slopes at Liberty Mountain Resort in Adams County this weekend as part of a program sponsored by the Wounded Warrior Project of Jacksonville, Fla., and Disabled Sports USA of Rockville, Md.

"I just wanted to get out of the hospital and have some fun," Parker said. "I wanted to repay my sister for staying with me while I was injured. Plus, I like to ski."

The Arkansas National Guardsman lost part of his right foot Jan. 2 while serving as the gunner on a RG-31, a heavily armored vehicle that looks like a sport utility vehicle on steroids. His unit was driving through a marketplace about 10 miles north of Baghdad.

"Some children came out, threw some anti-tank grenades at us, and one of them managed to make it down through the gun turret, landed on my foot and took about half of it off," he said.

Parker hopes to hit the slopes next year on regular skis. Doctors at Water Reed Medical Center, Washington, D.C., have told him he should regain full use of his leg and ankle.

Volunteer instructors from Blue Ridge Adaptive Snow Sports, a chapter of Disabled Sports USA, and Marines assigned to Camp David, Md., hit the slopes with the injured veterans. The outing was paid for by donations to the two sponsor organizations.

Parker made his first run down the slope connected by a tether to an instructor behind him. By his third run he was handling the mono-ski on his own, and was ready to move on to a more difficult slope.

Kyleen Davis of Disabled Sports USA organized the trip. The Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project helps injured veterans adapt to their disabilities and participate in sports.

"Most of the men and women in the service are predisposed to be athletic. They led very active lifestyles prior to their injury, so we want to kind of give them that piece of their lifestyle," Davis said.

The program also helps them take part in sports they had never tried. Marine Cpl. Kenny Lyon, 21, of Crisfield, Md., was a big fan of sledding, but he never skied before his injury, so trying out the bi-ski -- a seat with two skis attached -- was a new experience.

"I love the snow. I can't think of anything better to be doing right now," he said.
An armored vehicle mechanic, Lyon was working inside a small, temporary base when his unit was hit by a rocket or mortar attack.

"We were taking a break from doing missions all morning long and were sitting down to rest. I was working on the vehicles and just 'boom,'" he said.

The blast destroyed the knee and lower part of his left leg, the teeth on the lower right side of his jaw and took a piece of his skull about the size of a silver dollar above his right eye. Lyon also suffered nerve damage to his left hand. A titanium bar holds his jaw together.

While skiing in a chair may seem more like sledding, the bi-ski was a challenge that required a lot of finesse, he said.

"You tilt just a hair too much and you're going over. There's no saving you," Lyon said.

When his instructor was strapping him into the chair, Lyon had joked about how he would probably end up "eating snow." That happened several times, particularly as he got more confident.

"The next thing you know, I get cocky and get that one degree off of the tolerance, and I'm in the snow," he said with a laugh.

Liberty Mountain was the second skiing trip for Cpl. Sam Floberg, 29, of Fargo, N.D. A member of the North Dakota Army National Guard, Floberg lost his lower right leg during an ambush in Afghanistan on Nov. 23.

An insurgent fired four rocket-propelled grenades at his crew's Humvee. The fourth one penetrated the armor, destroyed Floberg's lower leg and killed the vehicle's driver, Cpl. Nathan Goodiron, 25, of Mandaree, N.D.

Floberg volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan because he joined just as his unit was returning from a deployment. He didn't want to go another five to six years before seeing combat service. He said he has no regrets.

"Stuff happens, and you just have to step up to the plate and deal with it," he said. A journeyman electrician, Floberg hopes to become proficient enough to just throw a mono-ski in the back of his truck and go skiing whenever he wants.
"Instead of just saying, 'Aw, I'm disabled' and just sit on the sidelines, you can actually get out and play again," he said.

Brian Bowling can be reached at bbowling@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7910


Sam Floberg, 29, of Fargo, N.D., who lost his leg while serving with the North Dakota Army National Guard in Afghanistan, zips down the slope Saturday at Liberty Mountain Resort on a mono-ski. Floberg was at the Adams County resort as part of the Wounded Warrior Project, which teaches soldiers who have been disabled how to participate in athletic activities. Andrew Russell/Tribune-Review


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way to go, Hero! *hugs*
Miss B...