For some wounded and disabled Iraq veterans, recovery can be a long road.
A pilot program in the North Country is trying to shorten that trip.
It puts vets behind the wheel of a car and teaches them to drive rally races.
But as NHPR correspondent Chris Jensen reports, the program also gives them far more.
On a Saturday morning in Dalton, not far from Littleton, spinning tires are flinging mud, cars are sliding sideways.
For a change the world is a fun and satisfying place for a small group of disabled Iraq-war veterans.
They’re attending a pilot program at the Team O’Neil Rally School and Car Control Center.
For Tampa, Florida native Corey McGee it is a supernatural return to the world of the mobile.
“I was shot in the neck and was a quadriplegic for about a month and then I was a paraplegic for about a year.”
McGee, 28, is a former Army Ranger and sniper.
He is quiet, polite and the antithesis of the swaggering snipers portrayed by movie tough guys.
He can walk now but his activities are limited.
That is why he is so excited to be participating in this program, aimed at helping vets get more comfortable with driving again.
And at the same time they learn a bit about the sport of rally driving.
Sean Long was with the Georgia National Guard.
At 39, he has a sturdy build.
It looks like he was modeled after one of the armored trucks he drove.
Or maybe the other way around.
For him this is a chance to get more comfortable with driving after losing full use of his left leg in a friendly fire incident in Iraq.
“Another solider panicked and spun a fifty caliber machine gun on me. One hit me in the thigh, picked me up and throwed me over the seat. The other one caught me in the calf. My artery was slinging blood everywhere.
The Wounded Warriors Project, of Jacksonville, Florida put this program together.
They work with Disabled Sports USA to help disabled veterans overcome their problems, in part by getting back into sports.
Team O’Neil donated the instruction and use of the vehicles at his 600-acre facility, which includes six miles of private roads.
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Now, McGee, Long and two other vets are wearing helmets and racing seat belts eager to learn how to control a vehicle in different kinds of skids.
These are the building blocks for rally racing.
They’re learning how to race down forest roads dealing with surprise turns, slippery surfaces and ever-so-close trees and cliffs.
In this exercise they drive faster and faster in a huge, muddy circle learning how to use the brakes, the steering and the gas to remain in control as the nose or maybe the tail of the vehicle loses grip and slides.
Instructor Chris Komar coaches Sean Long.
“Go, go, go. Aggressive. Ride the brakes a little bit. See, lifting off the gas helps doesn’t it. Let’s settle that wheel down. Look where you want to go. Adding the brake sends a little more steering home, doesn’t it? With the weight on those front tires it really wants to turn. Look up. Go, go, go. Lift a little.”
Nobody is expecting the vets to take up rally racing.
But the hope is they’ll still benefit from the two-day course.
Tim O’Neil, a former national rally champion, owns the school.
“Sometimes when you are depressed or stressed you got to do something completely different than you used to. I don’t know scientifically what it is all about or psychologically whatever but I feel that somehow teaching them to drive and skid and do some of this other fun stuff will help them adjust and be happier.”
At the end of the program the men are doing well handling skids.
They’ve gained confidence and clearly had a great time.
Sean Long:
“When you go from being shot and you used to have a career and do certain things and now you don’t have that limb like you used to. So, you know, you start thinking I can’t do nothing, I can’t function, nobody wants me. Blah, blah, blah.”
But Sean says the day’s program has shown him that he is not as limited as he thought.
He can do things he never tried before.
“It is like, wow. I can do something and not only can I do something, I’ve done something I thought I would never do. It is very uplifting.”
For Corey McGee it was fabulous to be sliding a car around when it wasn’t long ago he couldn’t move his arms and legs.
“I can’t really do too many sports. I can’t run. I can barely walk as it is. To be able to do something where I can compete and feel exhilarating and feel competition, it is amazing. You feel the adrenaline pumping again and it has been a long time since I felt that. ”
The idea of the vets attending the rally school came from Geoff Krill, who heads up the White Mountain Adaptive Ski Program at Loon Mountain.
With luck, he says, this will be the first of many sessions at Team O’Neil and other advanced driving schools around the country.
“I think it has been amazing for them. Just look around at how they are smiling.”
For NHPR News, this is Chris Jensen.
