Finding Adventure After Service with Veteran @dcwriley
For more of Daniel’s adventures, follow @dcwriley on Instagram.
Daniel Riley (@dcwriley) doesn’t feel disabled — at least not when he’s running a marathon, surfing, skydiving, skiing or riding a mountain bike. But Daniel is a double amputee; he lost both legs as a 25-year-old Marine, in a bomb blast in Afghanistan. He had served one tour in Iraq when he volunteered to go to Helmand province to join one of the infantry units that had lost troops as combat intensified.
“The guys in my squad and platoon were professionals,” Daniel says. “I served with some of the hardest and toughest men on the planet. And on the morning of December 16, 2010, that professionalism saved my life.”
In the wake of more than 20 surgeries, sports — and the freedom of being outdoors and active — became a critical part of Daniel’s recovery. “Waking up in a hospital bed and looking down at bandaged bloody stumps, it was easy to say my life was over. However, trying — even when failing miserably — all these sports has led me to do more than I had ever done with legs.”
Now a 30-year-old college student in Colorado, Daniel reflects on coming home from war. “My generation of veterans struggles with being heard. I deployed to combat twice, but that’s not unique. I have many friends who served two, three — and even seven deployments. I sustained life-altering wounds, but again I’m not unique and others have sustained worse. None of this was done for fame and glory, and we would do it all over again. All we ask is that you don’t forget about us.”
areudirty
gamechangershow
tangentwithtanner
turnnoffyourmind
2087
titsay
izzy806
