Photo By Senior Airman Morgan St Marks | U.S. Air Force 2025 DoD Warrior Games seated volleyball team chants in Colorado...... read more read more
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FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- The crowd was deafening – a roar so intense it drowned out her thoughts. Her heart pounded in her chest, the rhythm quickening with each passing second. Palms slick with sweat, she stepped up to the starting blocks, anxiety clinging to her like a second skin.
“You got this,” came a voice behind her. Steady. Familiar.
Her eyes locked onto the water ahead. The crowd faded. The noise softened. For a moment, it was only her and the pool – nothing else mattered. The starting light flashed. And she dove.
“It felt like my first 25 meters flew by, and suddenly I was on the last stretch, giving it everything I had,” Yates recalled. “I was thinking about how proud my coach was going to be. He believed in me and pushed me outside my comfort zone because he knew I could do it.”
Yates shaved 20 seconds off her trial time from March to her final swim in June, setting a personal record.
The DoD Warrior Games, a Paralympic-style competition for wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans, bring together athletes from across the U.S. military and allied nations. While competition is fierce, the focus is on recovery, resilience and camaraderie.
This year, two Fairchild Airmen represented Team Air Force, competing side by side in swimming and seated volleyball.
For Bergdorf, the 2025 games were a long-awaited second chance. He first competed in 2016, excited to win a medal, but left empty-handed.
“I was really hungry to get a medal in 2016 and then walked away with nothing,” Bergdorf said. “Ever since then, I’ve wanted to go back. I want to take something. I know I can do this.”
Bergdorf joined the Air Force in 2006 from his hometown in Ohio, looking for a better career. He and his wife, high school sweethearts, weathered every challenge together. In 2012, the challenge became personal: a diagnosis of testicular cancer.
“Once I had chemotherapy, I gained about 40 pounds, and I was looking for a way to lose weight,” he said. “One of the guys in my shop rode a bike to work every single day, so I asked him about it. I ended up falling in love with it. Then the Wounded Warrior Program introduced me to the competitive side of it.”
This year, Bergdorf returned to his cycling roots, also competing in track, swimming and seated volleyball.
Yates’ road to the Games was shaped by service and sacrifice. Inspired by her father, a former Air Force crew chief from 1955 to 1959, she joined to carry on a legacy he couldn’t finish after his passing in 2000. Over her career, she served at multiple bases and deployed several times receiving experiences that left both visible and invisible scars.
“I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2013, and during a rocket attack, I blew out my ACL trying to take cover and was saved by my partner from adversary fire,” Yates said. “I’ve struggled with PTSD from that, and I didn’t take care of myself the way I should have.”
More than a decade after her injury, she entered the Air Force Wounded Warrior program, competing in the Warrior Games for the first time. In addition to swimming and seated volleyball, she tried recumbent biking, shot put, and discus, both brand-new sports for her.
“Competing wasn’t so much about medals or where you placed,” Yates said. “It was about doing your best that day, stepping outside your comfort zone, and being supported by those around you. We all cheered for each other because we’re all at different points, dealing with different things and just being there was a win.”
For both Yates and Bergdorf, the 2025 DoD Warrior Games were more than a competition. They were a testament to resilience, teamwork and the unbreakable bonds forged through shared challenges. All proof that sometimes, the greatest victories aren’t measured in medals at all.
| Date Taken: | 08.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.18.2025 13:49 |
| Story ID: | 545866 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 38 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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