Amputees from the War Hit the Slopes

Wounded Soldiers vow Never to Quit

WINDHAM, New York — Sgt. Andrew Butterworth was up on skis for the first time since losing a leg in Iraq. And almost just as quickly, he was down.

“You still want to go?” his instructor asked, helping the 25-year-old National Guardsman from Durham, North Carolina, out of the snow after he lost his balance.

“You bet!” Butterworth replied, rejoining nine other soldiers making their way down the beginners’ hill Friday at Windham Mountain in the Catskills.

The men, most of whom lost legs in Iraq or Afghanistan, are getting a three-day free pass to ski and stay in the Catskills under a program that’s part rehab, part “thank you” and part rigorous R&R.

“We don’t quit,” …………………

said 1st. Lt. Jeffrey Adams, who lost his left leg. “If we quit, we’d be in the hospital crying, and that’s kind of useless.”

The soldiers came up from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, many of them healing from grenade attacks or roadside explosions. A local chapter of Disabled Sports USA, the Adaptive Sports Foundation, helped raise $16,000 to cover the soldiers’ flight, food and lodging.

Most of the men are in their 20s. Some had skied before their injuries. Others, like Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native Adams, hit the slopes for the first time.

“A one-legged guy from Louisiana trying to ski,” he said. “It’s going to be fun.”

Adams, 25, lost his left leg about eight inches below the hip in November from a roadside improvised explosive device — or IED — in Baghdad.

Butterworth lost his right leg above the knee in November when a rocket propelled grenade hit a gap in the armor of his Bradley near Kirkut. “Kind of a lucky shot,” he said.

Both men were fitted for one boot, one ski and two outriggers, which look like crutches with small skis at the bottom. Disabled skiers use them for balance and braking.

Most of the soldiers have been wounded within the past year, which adds to the challenge of skiing, said ASF executive director Cherisse Young. Not only must they find their balance, but they are relying on limbs that have yet to fully strengthen to compensate for the loss, she said.

“You’re also going to deal with more of the emotional issues as well … depression, the ‘Why me?’ scenario. ‘I can’t do what I used to do,’ that kind of stuff,” Young said. “Really, what our program does is show them that they can still do it.”

Young said the long weekend is a way of saying thanks to the soldiers. And they responded with gusto, chowing down all-you-can-eat home chili and roast beef sandwiches under a banner reading “Welcome Wounded Warriors” — and getting ferried around by a cadre of New York City firefighters volunteering their time.

“It’s just to give something back. These guys have been putting everything on the line for us,” said Mike Laffan of Engine 231 in Brooklyn.