Sept 14, 2009: Rocky Mountain Rehab

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not rehabing the mountains, rehabing soldiers, making cowboys out of them.

The Vail Veterans Program summer retreat is a program designed to help recently severely wounded U.S. military forces rehabilitate and rebuild confidence through outdoor activities, including rafting, fly fishing, skeet shooting and horseback riding. Most of the wounded are flown in from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Some 250 wounded troops have participated, both in the summer and winter programs since 2004.

Army Ssgt. Freddy De los Santos, 39, left, and Marine Lcpl. Jose Daniel Gasca, 22, both amputees from war injuries, speak on July 30, at Yarmony Lodge, near McCoy, Colorado. They were part of a group of a dozen war wounded and their families participating in the Vail Veterans Program summer retreat. De los Santos, a Special Operations soldier, was wounded when his humvee was struck by a rocket propelled grenade in Afghanistan Oct. 19, 2008, killing the other two American soldiers in his vehicle. Gasca was wounded when his vehicle hit an IED in Fallujah, Iraq Sept. 6, 2008.

An injured U.S. serviceman gazes upon a rainbow following an afternoon thunderstorm on July 31, at the Yarmony Lodge near McCoy, Colorado.

Lot's of pictures at the link, check them out.