Photo By Master Sgt. Nathan Hutchison | American 300 Everest group pose with some of the attendees, including Col. Marc...... read more read more
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AFGHANISTAN - “Playing catch with an [improvised explosive device] is not advised,” Hoffmeister said, as he showed the crowd the scarred and concaved area on his left forearm.
Col. Marc Hoffmeister, an Army engineer and Alaska resident currently deployed from Carlisle Barracks, Pa., was not a scheduled speaker at the event, but after hearing his story, Robi Powers, founder of American300.org, asked that he share his experience with the group.
American 300, a group well known for resiliency mentorship and Armed Forces Entertainment events, sent their group of Mount Everest climbers to visit with the service members and civilians at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.
They shared their experiences and willingness to overcome adversity, but they also found inspiration in the IED survivor's adventure to summit Denali, the highest peak in North America, with a team of other wounded warriors and his wife.
Hoffmeister was a major when the attack happened, serving as a maneuver trainer on a Military Transition Team in Iraq. The team had already suffered casualties even before his patrol was ambushed.
Hoffmeister’s injuries are not visible in his uniform. Today, no one would know he had the physical scars or limitations from his injury, and they would never suspect the emotional hurdles he had overcome.
“I was definitely depressed,” Hoffmeister said. “I was a major; the Army was all I knew, and suddenly the future was unknown.
“I wasn’t certain if I would be allowed to continue to serve with my injury or do the things I’d loved to do in the past.”
A month after his 13th surgery - a pivotal point for both physical and mental healing - his wife told him she was climbing Denali with or without him. As a supportive wife, Gayle Hoffmeister knew that to encourage her husband she had to challenge him, and she was right.
“I was filled with self-doubt and fear about climbing Denali. I’d never felt that way before, it challenged who I thought I was,” he said. “You can’t focus on what knocked you down; you have to reshape and redefine your new normal.”
Hoffmeister thought other people in similar or worse situations could benefit from this experience.
“We decided we would climb, but not alone,” Hoffmeister said. “We would bring other wounded warriors who needed a chance to rediscover what they were capable of.”
Hoffmeister and his wife recruited a group of wounded warriors, raised more than 70,000 dollars to equip the team, brought the team to Alaska, completed a two-week mountaineering course, and then brought them back to Alaska for a summit bid after a full year of training and conditioning.
The wounded warriors included Hoffmeister, a leg amputee, an arm amputee, and a Soldier who had sustained a collapsed lung, a severed carotid artery and major face and chest scarring from an IED blast.
“The team I picked needed this climb, we all needed to redefine who we were despite our injuries. To prove it didn’t matter that we were missing an arm or leg, we could still pursue and achieve our dreams.” Gesturing with his hand, Hoffmeister added, “It was about bringing people from down here, dealing with self-doubt and depression to up here- to the summit.”
In the end, three of the six made it to the summit, the average success rate on Denali for fully able-bodied climbers. High altitude illness and frost bite turned three climbers around, but not their combat injuries.
As a result of the climb, Hoffmeister was selected as the 2009 National Geographic Reader’s Choice Adventurer of the Year. With his assistance in resourcing sponsors and climbing support, two of the three climbers who didn’t summit on the first attempt summited in the next two years.
“When we get the chance to meet someone like [Hoffmeister], who has the same passion for climbing, it makes the trip so much more meaningful,” said Chris Klinke, one of the Everest climbers. “The fact that he has actually put together a climb with other wounded warriors on one of the toughest mountains just makes his story that much better.”
Powers said American300.org was designed to share experiences and find people like Hoffmeister to really make the connection between their organization and the troops.
“We just want to connect with everyone who has a story,” Klinke said. “We all have experiences that help us relate to one another- loss, separation from family, overcoming struggles- and we can grow and heal through those bonds.”
| Date Taken: | 03.12.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.17.2016 11:58 |
| Story ID: | 192698 |
| Location: | AF |
| Web Views: | 809 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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