LIVES CHANGED FOREVER
By:  Jake Vest, Infamous Trip Leader for Orlando Ski Club
 and Bob Kendall, Director of Bids, Florida Ski Council

            Members of the Florida Ski Council like to have fun. When you get a room full of them together, they like to laugh, party and tell tall tales about how deep the powder was they skied that season or how they got a hole in one.
             Sometimes it is hard to get them to listen.
             Jerry Shields and Luke Murphy left them speechless in June at the Florida Ski Council meeting at Mission Inn in central Florida.
             When these two extraordinary individuals stood behind the microphone, you could’ve heard a tear drop. They were there to thank the council for its contributions to the Florida ski team, money that helps finance that group’s participation in the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic.
                But when they stood behind the microphone it became clear to everyone in the room who had earned the thanks of us all.
               They were introduced by Doug Tuttle, who always seems to be as pumped up emotionally as he obviously is physically, stretching his signature red, white and blue golf shirt in all the right places. Tuttle, who is the Manager of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service at West Palm Beach Veterans Hospital, is the chairperson/coach of the ski team and the No. 1 cheerleader for the United States of America.
                It was a touching scene to see the 170 assembled council members, club leaders and ski resort representatives giving their rapt attention to the words of these heroes. But the words and the heroes both had it coming.
              Jerry was a helicopter crew chief with the Army National Guard during the first Gulf War. Ten years ago he suffered a stroke and remains paralyzed the full length of the right side of his body.
               But this eagle found another way to fly…on Kevlar wings. Seven years ago Tuttle gave him an opportunity to ski with the disabled vets from Florida and it reopened the door to a whole new set of challenges.
               “It was a life changing experience,” says Jerry, who, having conquered skiing now competes in rock-climbing, swimming, basketball, adaptive golf, trap-shooting, bowling and archery. He is also a certified SCUBA diver.
                By any accurate count, that puts him about nine sports ahead of Hank Rhawn and 10 ahead of the rest of us who don’t own tennis racquets.
               Jerry had his world class bow-and-arrows aimed for Beijing and was the first alternate at the Paralympics this year. His demonstration after our luncheon was better seen on your own than described, but I will give it a shot. He sets a 1-foot square target about 30 feet from the chair he shoots from, notches up an arrow, lifts the bow with his left arm and bites down on a small nylon tab stitched to the bowstring, pulls the bow away from himself, aims and fires away.
                Just doing it is an estimable accomplishment, doing it right is incredible, doing it as well as he does it is almost beyond belief. Eleven of the 12 arrows he shot hit bull’s-eyes. One missed by 1 inch.
                  Luke, 26 years old, was in the Army for seven years and held the rank of Staff Sergeant. His MOS is 11-B, ‘leven Bravo to us old timers, who recall it also standing for “bullet-stopper” and “bush-baby.” It means infantry. It means business.
                 While serving with 101st Airborne in Iraq the vehicle he was in was hit by a car bomb. To say his injuries were severe is to flirt with understatement. In his own words, his legs were “a mess.” The right one was amputated above the knee and the left leg is missing the calf muscle and half of the hamstring.
                 During his recuperation at Walter Reed Hospital Sandy Trombetta (VA National Director) told Luke he would be skiing the next week with other disabled vets in Snowmass, Colo. At the time Luke had not even gotten back into the habit of standing, let alone sliding, and thought Sandy was out of his mind.
                  Luke found himself in an adaptive ski sled, tethered to a volunteer ski instructor in Snowmass a week later. On his second day he was skiing without being tethered to anybody.
                      Luke said “It was a life changing experience”. He learned that he could do anything he set his mind to from his ski experience. Luke has a prosthetic leg on which he has learned to walk, is attending Indian River State College, and speaks at fund raisers for the West Palm Beach Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic to raise money to help other disabled vets.
                    By the way, when he skis these days, he skis the powder up at the top of the hills. Black diamonds. HOO-RAH!
                      This all began in 1981 when Sandy Trombetta took one disabled vet skiing. At the beginning it took 5 people to hold him up. “He was falling quite a bit and I was afraid he might hurt himself,” Sandy recalls. “When I suggested we stop he looked at me very intensely and said "no I can do this". That's when I realized it wasn't really about skiing but more about someone wanting to regain their physical lifestyle. At that moment I also realized if skiing could help him it just may be able to help others.”
                       Sandy knew what was happening and how it was giving hope and changing the  lives of veterans and continued working with them on his own time. Finally he had enough confidence and presented his idea it to officials in recreation therapy in Washington DC. and was approved.  That first year was pretty tough being a one-man band and on a mission to make this dream come true. He persuaded a small group of employees to take a chance with him their first time out in 1987.  They had 87 vets it was a total success and as they say the rest is history.
                     National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic promotes rehabilitation by instructing veterans with disabilities in adaptive Alpine and Nordic skiing, and introducing them to a number of other adaptive recreational activities and sports. For many newly injured OIF/OEF military service men and women, the Clinic offers their first experience in winter sports and gives them the inspiration to take their rehabilitation to a higher level.
                     In other words, it changes the lives of those who nearly gave theirs.
                     All veterans have one thing in common. At some time they have written a check, payable to the United States of America for the sum of “all that is called for.” Some pay more dearly than others. They shouldn’t have to worry about the bill for this.
                     It was the most they could do. The least we can do in payback is to help raise funds for the benefit of the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic.
                   Contact Information:  Doug Tuttle:  Douglas.Tuttle@VA.gov
                                                      Bob Kendall:  Srlabo@bellsouth.net