A Grand Canyon trip for 23 wounded Marines…and TSO
Bobo sends us a link from the Arizona Republic about the progress of 23 wounded Marines and our own TSO, you know if wounded Marines don’t have enough problems already;
Raising the money took almost two years. Along the way, [Hank] Detering and the river runners won the backing of the American Legion and the Marine Corps, which helped select the men who went. The group set out Friday with the good wishes of many, including, via Twitter, U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Organizers were still working out a few logistics late last week (how do you charge the battery on an artificial leg in the wilderness?) but it was all coming together for a group that had become the Grand Canyon Warriors.
Whether the trip will change their lives, Detering couldn’t predict. No two people come off the river with exactly the same experience, he said, but just getting these men on the river achieved one of his goals. If the trip makes a difference in their lives, all the better.
[…]
“I’ve been to the Grand Canyon about 20 times, but always saw it from the rim,” said [Benjamin North, a sergeant currently stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., with the wounded warrior battalion], who served a tour in Afghanistan. “This will be a different perspective.”
“It’s just been on my bucket list,” said Levi White, a staff sergeant who was deployed and wounded in Iraq. “I’ve never had a chance to do it.”
Patrique Fearon, a sergeant who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, listened to his buddies and then admitted he wasn’t too excited about the idea at first.
“I kinda had to be forced into it,” he said. ‘Then I took it on and I started researching it and I figure it’ll be something I can put on my ‘been there, done it’ list. Not a lot of people can say they’ve done this.”
They all deserve this chance, even TSO, I’m more than a little jealous of this opportunity.
Category: Veterans in the news
The Grand Canyon is an incredible place. Even during the summer, morning temperatures along the north rim can approach freezing, while down at the bottom, 110 degrees isn’t uncommon.
Enjoy, TSO. Fill us in when you get a few.
While they are out there, they should try to hit the other parks in “the Grand Circle”. Zion won’t be too far (depending on which side of the Grand Canyon they are on) and it is worth the time and effort of a side trip just by itself-to say nothing of Bryce Canyon or somewhere a little farther like Arches.
For charging batteries in the canyon, there are a number of good small solar chargers out there that fold up flat…one is on the “Desert” internet magazine site…
There are also a number of hand-cranked chargers available.
HELLO ? WHO THE HELL IS TSO? Not really dumb just ignorant ?
Great news from the home state
Awesome to see this and know that there are people out here willing to donate time to give these warriors much needed R&R
HOOOOAH
🙂
Sounds like a fun time to be had, just make sure the EPA isn’t tinkering with anything upstream before you go!!
I hope they all had a good time doing that. I think they’ve been through enough bad stuff.
TSO already submitted his VA paperwork for PTMS(post traumatic marine syndrome) in preparation of the amount of pushing he’ll be dong during this.
Hey now. Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children are pretty well behaved. Mostly. Just be careful to keep your hands and feet clear when chow is served and you’ll be fine.
Mostly.
Nice. Well deserving for all. Can we get a full report at some time TSO?
A great big thank you to TSO for setting all this up and following through with it to help out a few of our nation’s finest bunch of cutthroat killers, homewreckers and heartbreakers !!!
These memories will be the things they look back fondly on as they grow old. They will make great stories for the grandfather’s to tell to the grandkids when they as about their adventures in the military. Just like mine are right now !!!
I’ve been to the Grand Canyon a few times, for us it’s a great trip because it’s so different from what we are used to here in New England…
I wish these men well and hope this trip become a marker in time for good things that have happened in their lives. It’s a wondrous place and possesses some of the most interesting geography in the nation.
Loved hiking there when out in AZ.
Hope TSO doesn’t have too hard a time keeping up with those jarheads. 😉
Wonderful for our boys. I wish I would of known to donate. Really, I’m not stupid, but who the hell is TSO. Also, if others who do these things for our wounded warriors, please give me websites OR names so we can donate. I need a name of a poster who can’t donate to TAH, so we can in your name for your service to our country. By all means we’re not rich, but we use my WC Settlement from 1985 to donate and buy blankets, one man tents, jackets, backpack ?,etc for off the grid veterans.