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    Veteran uses the power of charm to aid wounds

    Wounded Warrior Pacific Invitational

    Photo By NAVCENT Public Affairs | Retired Master-at-Arms Seaman Steven Hancock watches Retired Master-at-Arms 3rd Class...... read more read more

    HONOLULU, HI, UNITED STATES

    01.10.2014

    Courtesy Story

    U.S. Indo-Pacific Command         

    By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Kenneth R. Hendrix, U.S. PACOM Joint Intelligence Operations Center

    HONOLULU - At 'Iolani School’s Dillingham Pool, Team Navy reaffirmed their dominance by taking first place for the eighth straight meeting during the Wounded Warrior Pacific Invitational (WWPI) swim meet, Jan. 9.

    Out of the 15 freestyle and backstroke events, Team Navy also took second place seven times and third place four times. The swimming heats are grouped by illness, and injury.

    Making a splash in and out of the pool, medically retired Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Nathan DeWalt, 25, of York, Pa., swam the 100m spinal cord injury freestyle race in 3:09.24 to claim the third-place slot.

    “Today was not my best swim day, but I always try to do my best,” DeWalt shared. “It is exhausting, but I’m always happy with my performance.”

    On July 11, 2008, while riding his motorcycle, a taxicab stuck him after running through a stop sign, leaving DeWalt’s spinal cord severed at the T3 vertebrae.

    “I woke up in the hospital two weeks later after my injury to find out that I was paralyzed from my chest down,” DeWalt explained. “And, fortunately this has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. It has given me a lot of opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

    DeWalt has fought back with a motivating amount of self-confidence and courage. Using a wheelchair, he actively took part in four events during the WWPI – swimming, wheelchair basketball, cycling, and track and field.

    “I feel like I’m out here for moral support for some of the other teammates; the new members who haven’t had the opportunity to participate yet,” DeWalt said. “This is my fifth year doing the Warrior Games with this team. As a veteran, I do not feel obligated to doing this, but it’s something that I enjoy doing and in being able to help and inspire others.”

    To the average service member or spectator, the sights of seeing DeWalt will his body around a pool and basketball court tends to be mind-boggling, if not emotional. But DeWalt explained that he is an extremely self-assured individual.

    “I’ve always been a pretty highly motivated individual,” DeWalt shared. “When I woke up and I had family standing around bedside cheering me on, to be brutally honest, my motivation came from inside me.”

    DeWalt recalled the days of being in the hospital and going through rehabilitation, as a means of taking the initiative to better him as quickly as possible.

    “The most important thing to me was trying to be normal and to not really associate myself as someone who is in a wheelchair or as someone who is paralyzed,” DeWalt explained. “I feel blessed that I was given this opportunity to come and do events like this, because my injury was really intensive, but I made such a quick turnaround.”

    In the years after his injury, DeWalt said he has made it a personal goal of his to give back as much as he can to other individuals and be an inspiration to them.

    “I had a gentleman tell me that I saved his life,” DeWalt explained. “He was on suicide watch for about a month. He was newly injured like me, but he kind of gave up on himself at that point. It stuck with me and now I do other outreach recreational activities outside of the Warrior Games.”

    Erica Cepko, DeWalt’s girlfriend of two years, shared the happiness she witnesses in seeing how much everyone loves to be around him through their smiles and the laughs of joy on their faces.

    “He makes time to speak to every single person individually,” Cepko said. “He doesn’t leave anyone out and I feel like people are comfortable around him so they can tell their stories and they are not afraid to hold back.”

    After the swim meet, striding up and down alongside the pool in his wheelchair, DeWalt congratulated all of his teammates for their performance with high-fives and fist bumps.

    “No matter what happens at the end of the day, we are all friends and family,” DeWalt emphasized. “We might get a little bitter when we are exhausted from training 10 hours-a-day, but these guys have all left a mark on me. I’m sure they would say the same about me leaving a mark on them as well.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 01.10.2014
    Date Posted: 01.10.2014 23:26
    Story ID: 119045
    Location: HONOLULU, HI, US
    Hometown: YORK, PA, US

    Web Views: 107
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN