Page 9 - Desert Lightning News, So. AZ Edition, Nov. 3 2017

Desert Lightning News November 2017 9

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From combat controller to paralympianFacebook.com/DesertLightningNews

by Staff Sgt. and they have a lot less function than I do.” (As a combat controller) you have these Staff Sgt. Desiree Palacios
MARESHAH HAYNES Halsted’s outlook about his prognosis of expectations,” Halsted said. “You can’t
accept sitting in your room. It took me a Sean Halsted gets strapped into a mono-
Defense Media Activity-San Antonio his injury wasn’t always so positive. while to get through that because I was ski outside The Silvertree Hotel for the
“When I got hurt it felt like, life was stuck in my room. I couldn’t do the level of 24th National Disabled American Veter-
Editor’s note: This article was first pub- stuff I used to do. The training really did ans Winter Sports Clinic March 30, 2010,
lished March 31, 2010. over. Good thing there’s the Internet; good help me because my expectations were a in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Halsted
thing there’s DVD players,” Halsted said. lot higher.” is an Air Force veteran and resides in
SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo. — In the “I’ll just be sitting in my room passing the Rathdrum, Idaho. The event is spon-
blink of an eye your life can change forever. time and looking on the Internet. I found Upon the urging of his physical thera- sored by the Department of Veterans Af-
out that’s not the case. Life goes on. Life pist and the staff at Veterans Affairs, fairs and Disabled American Veterans.
That’s exactly what happened to Sean is still there.” Halsted discovered a program that met his
Halsted when he fell 40 feet to the ground high physical expectations — the National
while fast roping from a helicopter dur- The Department of Veterans Affairs Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic.
ing a training mission at Hurlburt Field, staff helped Halsted see he had access
Florida. He went from an active-duty to programs to help him get back to liv- “I started at winter sports clinic in
combat controller to a U.S. Paralympian ing life. 2001,” he said. “It took three years to
in the 2010 Vancouver Games. get here because I thought, ‘Why would
“The VA is a great insurance company,” anyone want to put themselves through
“I don’t remember what happened,” he said. “We’ve got one of the best pro- that kind of gut check; to come up to the
Halstead said, a former combat controller grams that help you out with anything mountains and wheel around in the snow?’
stationed at then McChord Air Force Base, that you’ve got. It’s workman’s (compen- I thought, ‘What’s the point?’ Then I came
Washington. “I just know one minute I was sation) basically. I’ve met a bunch of guys and I was like, ‘Wow, I was such an idiot!”
reaching for the rope and the next I was who’s workman’s (compensation) gave up
on the ground with my back hurting and on them a long time ago and they had Once Halsted started attending the
the guys are telling me to lay still. We had to turn to the VA because they didn’t NDVWSC, he realized he had a passion for
some (pararescuemen) there too, and they know what was available to them. I was adaptive Nordic skiing versus the adaptive
were telling me to lay still and wiggle my just lucky I had the right people in the Alpine skiing he was doing before.
toes. It was just a simple training, and I right places that said no, you’re good to
fell off the rope.” go, you’ve got these support systems. It’s “I went with cross country skiing be-
there, don’t worry about. If things hap- cause I like that endorphin rush and it’s
As a result of the accident, Halsted pen it’s there. There are people to look fun being out in the woods and it’s fun
incurred a first lumbar vertebrae burst after you.” being on the slopes,” he said. “I was an
fracture that damaged his spinal cord. Alpine skier before. Racing Alpine just
The Washington State University isn’t my thing. I just wasn’t getting that
“That left me a pretty low (paralysis),” graduate said his physical training as a
he said. “As a paraplegic, that’s pretty good combat controller also helped him on his See Paralympian, Page 11
because there’s a lot of guys who have a road to recovery.
(paralysis) in the (thoracic vertebrae) level

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