Past and present members of all five military branches were part of the United States contingent at the XII Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. Among the competing athletes was Casey Tibbs, the first active member of the military to compete in the Paralympic Games.

Tibbs, 24, is on leave from active duty as an E-5 Petty Officer 2nd Class in the Navy. He is a below-knee amputee who was injured three years ago in a San Antonio motorcycle crash. A year after his accident, he read an article about the Paralympic Games and knew then he wanted to get involved in track and field.
Tibbs won silver in the pentathlon and was on the gold medal 4x100m relay team.

Former Marine Chuck Lear, 58, also made his Paralympic debut in Athens. A double amputee (left below-knee and left above-elbow) as a result of the Vietnam War, Lear has participated in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in seven of the last eight years. He started shooting archery at those Games in his third year and has taken the gold medal every time he’s competed.

Lear, who received the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, reflected on the thousands of wounded veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq and advises: “I know where you are. Nothing’s going to make your limbs grow back. Move on. You can live an extremely normal life.”

Lear called the Athens Games “an awesome and humbling experience,” adding that the elite international competition showcases “superior athletes, not just in terms of physical shape but also mindset.”

Joining Lear on the archery team was 43-year-old Kevin Stone, who served with the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry Division. He sustained traumatic brain injury and a spinal fracture when his jeep went off a cliff in 1985. He went on to pursue vocational and physical training, and is now a freelance commercial artist as well as a world-class athlete.

Like Lear, Stone joined the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in 1996. In 2002, he made what he called an “overwhelming and staggering” transition to national competition by training at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. He is now ranked 36th nationally among all archers, able-bodied and disabled. Stone came into the Athens Games ranked tenth among all disabled archers and earned a bronze medal in the team event.

To all the veterans with disabilities, he says, “There’s no obstacle you can’t overcome. The only disability you have is the limitation you place upon yourself. You can carry on what others perceive is a normal lifestyle.”

Theodore Bridis, a triple amputee (bilateral above-knee, right below-elbow), competed in the 800m, 1500m, and 5k events with the track and field squad. Bridis, 58, is a former member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As a 1st Lieutenant platoon leader, he was injured in a 1970 mortar attack in Vietnam.

Another former soldier, Gabriel Diaz de Leon, competed in the shot put and discus throw. In 1984, as a corporal in the U.S. Army’s military police, his spinal cord was shattered when he came under fire in Honduras.

He initially became involved in Paralympic sports in 1986, training in archery. But in the 1988 Paralympic Games, he won his first medal, a bronze, in the shot put. A five-time Paralympian, Diaz de Leon has had a respectable Paralympic career, having earned a medal in each competition he entered during the Sydney Games.

Commenting on Athens, he said “Medals are important but not like they were when I was younger. Now when I throw, it’s not so much about competing against other people as it is about competing against myself, because I know what I’m capable of doing.”

Other military veterans on the U.S. squad include: Runner Joseph Aukward (Bethesda, MD), 44, a budget
analyst for the Navy who is blind due to Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Two-time Paralympian Jon McCullough (Washington, DC), 38, a soccer player who sustained traumatic brain injury at age 19 while serving with the U.S. Coast Guard.

30-year-old Will Groulx (Portland, OR), a wheelchair rugby competitor who served in the U.S. Navy (1995-2001) as a nuclear electricians mate aboard submarines. He was medically discharged because of a spinal cord injury he received when he lost control of his motorcycle on a wet interstate on-ramp in 2000. Groulx and his teammates secured the bronze on September 25.

Wheelchair fencer Mario Alberto Rodriguez (Houston, TX), 45, an amputee (right hip disarticulation hemi-pelvectomy) who was honorably discharged and medically retired from active duty in the Air Force in 1985.

Women’s goalball coach Ken Armbuster (Colorado Springs, CO), with 26 years in the U.S. Air Force (1966-1992). His women’s team won a silver medal.

Goalball team leader John Potts (Colorado Springs, CO), 47, in the Air Force for 28 years and now working in personnel at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The men’s goalball team earned a bronze.