I entered the United States Army on May 30, 1988 two days after graduating high school and three days after my eighteenth birthday. Although I am very proud to have served, I thought I would share with you what happened because it has a dramatic effect on my life and who I am today.

I attend basic training at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama. This was great and I was made a platoon leader after two weeks and in charge of Delta company of the 95th Military Police Battalion. It was a wonderful learning experience and I had a blast getting in shape, learning discipline and about the art of military strategy. After basic training I went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina to complete my airborne training which was even more exciting and fun. I was taught how to jump out of airplanes and combative techniques that make the airborne one of the elite units of the Armed Forces today. This training was a blast and I still enjoy a good "jump" from an airplane occasionally today. After my Airborne training, and a 2 week leave for vacation I was stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky to complete Ranger training.

I was excited to be there and to undergo the training as I had always wanted to be a member of elite special forces and this was just one more step to attain acceptance in to the Green Berets. During the third week of training we were out on maneuvers with some new guys and while were clearing some pathways in the brush areas I was struck by a Humvee. For those of you that do not know what a Humvee is it is the same vehicle as the Hummer that everyone loves to drive around today except it is rougher and not as nice.

The HV, for short hit me in the lower spinal column and shot me down a 24 foot deep ravine which messed me up really good. I woke up two days later in the hospital in traction with my spine elongated. The pain was all over my body and they explain that I had a fracture in my L2 vertebra and several pinched nerves, but I was lucky. I was lucky because I had no injury to my spinal cord but it was twisted pretty bad.

A few months later they took me out of the traction and I began a long road to recovery. Imagine not being able to pick up your legs and your feet do not work. When you try to pull your big toe back it feels like someone took a knife and cut you from your Achilles tendon all the way to your tailbone. Imagine standing up to only fall down over and over again and you will have just a brief sketch of what I was going through. I had to begin by learning to use my toes and work my way up through a series of exercises and physical therapies that caused nothing but intense pain for the next 8 months.

Eventually I was able to walk again but had a common problem known as foot drop. This is where you will be walking along and all of the sudden your foot will drag because it forgot to pick up the toe to step and you fall down. All this was acceptable but what came next was not something I would be willing to live with.

After I had recovered enough to be released from the hospital I met with my doctors and they all told me I would never be able to run at full sprint again nor could I do "any" sports. This was not going to happen and I was irate as martial arts was as much a part of my life as was the Army at this point. Then they told me I would be honorably discharged on a medical release from the Army in two months. Neither of these were acceptable to me as this was all I had ever dreamt about in my life. The Army thing was a legal issue and I went to the JAG lawyers to fight that. I will get back to that later.

On the side of martial arts, they released me and I came home and went right back to classes. I was determined that I would recover and keep fighting to do so. Each morning I had to wake up and stretch out for around 20 minutes. Then I would go outside and walk, at first until I was able to run one mile. I spent six days a week in karate classes focusing rebuilding my muscles and skills. This only took me 8 months and I entered my first tournament. Needless to say I got my butt kicked because I had no confidence but it was wonderful to be back in the ring fighting again...and I did score two points...WITH MY KICKS!

It was around a year later that I found out they were still going to do an honorable discharge for me from the Army but I was able to keep my GI Bill monies for college and my life/medical insurance. I accepted this offer and even recruited for them for one year after I was released to earn extra GI Bill monies for college. Eventually I was given a GS classification and put on assignments for certain agencies which I can not go into, but it was a wonderful experience.

Eventually I began to win in tournaments again and sent a picture to the main doctor that I had who told me I could never do this again. It was a picture of me jump kicking a guy in the head at a tournament where I had grand champion. I sent the same picture to my Lieutenant in my division. Last year I got a call from my lieutenant and he told me he was retiring this year (as a Captain) and he always kept the picture I had sent him to tell my story to those "kids" that didn't think they could hack it in the Rangers. This made me so proud...as I am that I proved them all wrong...

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