Courtesy Photo | U.S. Army Col. Daniel Dudek competes in a swimming event at the 2017 Department of...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Colonel Daniel Dudek, an artillery officer in the G3 training shop for Headquarters Support Company, I Corps, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, is looking forward to competing in the 2017 Invictus Games Sept. 23 to 30 in Toronto.
The event is expected to draw approximately 550 injured military service members and veterans representing 17 countries who are competing in 12 different sports. Dudek earned his spot through the Department of Defense’s Warrior Games last month in Chicago, where he won three gold, two silver and one bronze in swimming and handcycling events.
Dudek also has another eight medals — seven gold and one silver — from his appearances in the 2012 and 2013 Warrior Games. Through competitions like the upcoming Invictus Games, Dudek said sports was the catalyst for him finding a community of people who are also suffering from limited leg mobility like he has since 2007.
“It gets you out of that cloud of ‘woe is me,’ and you find people who are empathetic, not sympathetic, and they get you going,” Dudek said.
Dudek said he originally didn’t look for this community. It found him, and he was embraced by it and allowed to become part of it.
During a deployment to Iraq with the now inactive 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division July 19, 2007, the Stryker vehicle he was riding in was hit by an improvised explosive device that went through his friend, Cpl. Brandon Craig. Dudek was hit in the lower spine.
Within an hour’s time, he went from an IED strike to a firefight, followed by a helicopter ride to a nearby medical facility where he underwent surgery.
The medical staff was able to reduce the swelling, and some leg mobility was saved.
After a month at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Dudek spent the rest of the year at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle.
After being granted continuation on active duty, he spent four months working within his brigade and not wanting to have anything to do with the JBLM Warrior Transition Battalion.
“Instead of grieving, I dove into work,” Dudek said. “I needed to find a place to contribute; that was what my focus was on.”
Dudek went to work as an executive officer in 2008 for the JBLM WTB under former battalion commander Col. Karl Bolton. He took Dudek to one of the annual WTB conferences to meet the people who worked within the adaptive sports community.
“They’re just people who thrive and are happy and fun to be around,” Dudek said. “It’s a matter of being around the best people you ever work for.”
By June 2009, Dudek became the JBLM WTB commander and attended more conferences as time passed. By 2010, he was sending JBLM service members to a new event called the Warrior Games and continued to do so in 2011. He said he was jealous because he didn’t get a chance to try himself.
When he left to work with the Army Warrior Care and Transition Program near the District of Columbia in 2012, Dudek had his first chance to compete at the 2012 Warrior Games. He had an independent tryout at Fort Belvoir, Va., with a swimming coach who saw him beat gold medal times from the previous two years.
“The epiphany was that I’m an old guy, and I’m kind of big, but I can be competitive,” Dudek said.
He was competitive enough to win a total of 14 medals during three different Warrior Games. Dudek now hopes to win his first medal at the 2017 Invictus Games later this month.
He is scheduled to be in the time trial and criterium cycling events where he’ll complete as many 1-kilometer laps in 30 minutes as possible. Dudek will also do the 400-meter race in racing wheelchair and four swimming events: 50-meter freestyle, 50-meter backstroke, 50-meter breaststroke and 100-meter freestyle.
Competing in a sport with other athletes who understand and support their competitor and new friend in recovery is what makes the experience a more valuable treatment option for Dudek, he said.
“You can do a lot of medical treatments and therapeutic modalities,” Dudek said. “You can hear from a doctor what your injury is, but the doctor doesn’t really tell you how to live with that day-to-day.”
| Date Taken: | 09.01.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.01.2017 14:13 |
| Story ID: | 246947 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, WA, US |
| Hometown: | SKOKIE, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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