Wounded military members compete at Nellis Air force Base
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — More than 100 military members gathered at Nellis Air Force Base Friday for the opening ceremony of the 2024 U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps Trails.
The weeklong event is hosted by the U.S. Air Force Wounded Warrior Program. The trials are a Paralympic-style sports competition and act as a qualifying event for the Department of Defense Warrior Games in Florida in June.
Warrior Care support program manager, Shawn Sprayberry, explained the benefits for different abled athletes.
“The goal of this event is to showcase the power of adaptive sports as part of the recovery process for wounded, ill, and injured airmen, guardians, the US Marine Corp, Ukraine, Georgia,” Sprayberry said. “We’ve been told on multiple occasions throughout the years that adaptive sports have saved lives.”
There are 11 adaptive sports including wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, swimming, cycling, and powerlifting.
Retired Air Force member, Justin Wolfe. who lives with multiple sclerosis, is competing in the powerlifting category. He was diagnosed with the progressively debilitating illness six years into his career, at age 26, and retired at 32.
U.S. Air force Wounded Warrior Program hosts the 2024 U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps Trials at Nellis Air Force Base. (KLAS/Lauren Negrete) U.S. Air force Wounded Warrior Program hosts the 2024 U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps Trials at Nellis Air Force Base. (KLAS/Lauren Negrete)
“It gives me hope, coming to these things and realizing what I still have available to me, what I can still do,” Wolfe said. “The realization I can still have a team, I can still come together and learn new abilities that my body is not used to. That I am still with family and friends that are going through their own struggles. That we all adapt to whatever our abilities may be.”
The lighting of the torch lights a fire within these service men and women. Sprayberry said oftentimes at discharge or return to duty, service members are told about their limits and what they can’t do.
Through adaptive sports, these wounded warriors are given a new focus and sense of purpose.
“Our coaches say, ‘It’s not about what you can’t do, let’s find out what you can do,” Sprayberry said.
The trials at Nellis go through March 16 and they are competing for just 40 slots to represent each military branch at the Department of Defense Warrior Games in Florida.
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