Sept 14, 2009: Rocky Mountain Rehab

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

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.

Thanks for the hopeful message this morning Bruce.

Exactly my thoughts too. I know my day will be better now. God bless the American soldier. And those who endeavor to better their lives.

Check out the pics at the link of these guys doing stuff.;)

cowboy up! great :thumb:

Dang it Bruce, that brought a tear to my eye. No, no I'm not crying..I just yawned. :sniff::)

this image got me a little bit.

that's what holding hands is for those two now.

:: cries like a bitch::

That is my neck of the woods. I hear about the Vail Vets Program all the time. It has a lot to do with the fact that Vail owes its existence to veterans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vail,_Colorado

History

The town of Vail was incorporated in 1966, four years after the opening of Vail Ski Resort. The ski area was founded by Pete Seibert and the local rancher Earl Eaton in 1962, between the town of Eagle and Vail Pass. The pass was named after Charles Vail, the highway engineer that routed U.S. Highway 6 through the valley in 1940.
Seibert, a New England native, served in the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division during World War II, which trained at Camp Hale, just southeast of Vail. He was seriously wounded in Italy and was told he should become a professional skier when he recovered. He was noticed as the best skier in the world for a short time.

I love living here. Here are a couple of pictures I took this 4th of July.

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That's where I wanna live

Nobody wants to eat the IOTD? Sheldon?

Shouldn't those guys get inside before they rust?

Notice the photo of the man cutting his steak while holding a knife in his pincers. It won't be long before he just replaces the pincers with a custom-made permanent blade (or two). Muggers beware.

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Looks like Lcpl. Gasca (right, in the IOTD pic) has the right idea. Ya don't need no legs to enjoy a nice cold tallboy.

:beer: to all those guys!!

I saw a girl walking her dog tonight with an artificial leg like those in the picture. She was wearing a little white sundress and the knee joint was allowing her a pretty natural gait, and i though how awesome it is that these days the important thing about prosthetic limbs is what they can do, not what they look like. It wasn't always that way.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

Aimee Mullins and her 12 pair of prosthetic legs. A self empowering perspective on disability.

Hubba hubba, I wonder if she's got a pair that would hook over my shoulders? :blush:

footfootfoot;595075 wrote:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

Aimee Mullins and her 12 pair of prosthetic legs. A self empowering perspective on disability.

Very cool footfootfoot. Those are some great legslegslegs*4.

footfootfoot;595075 wrote:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

Aimee Mullins and her 12 pair of prosthetic legs. A self empowering perspective on disability.

Footx3: I found this video (and the ideas in it) very interesting, thanks.

I've never seen a Ted Talk video I wasn't fascinated by.

Excellent. thanks. At first I thought "But it's still a bummer having to pick the legs for the most important activity of the day and having to "make-do" with them or change for other activities" ...and then I realized it's no different from choosing which shoes to wear. Some days I have so many different activities schedules I end up chucking several pairs of shoes in the car. And none of them make me 6 inches taller.