Elias
Rojas was serving in the Marine Corps as a lance corporal at Camp Pendleton.
After a car accident while on active duty, Rojas was hospitalized for 10
months.
As he
started to recover, he started to look for a job. But over a two-year period of
searching; he saw firsthand how tough it was going to be find employment. “I
would interview for jobs and find out they didn’t have elevators orADA compliantbathrooms.
Bronx,
New Yorker Marlon Benn was injured while serving in the Navy during the first
Gulf War in the early 1990s, but he didn’t have a name for the resulting
medical condition until 2005, when an MRI revealed that he had syringomyelia.
The disease is characterized by cyst formation in the spinal cord.
After
leaving the military in 1993, Marlon became a police officer. The syringomyelia
gradually worsened, leading to paralysis in his right leg and other health
problems that prevented him from performing his law enforcement duties. He
retired in 2011.
Today's#VeteranOfTheDayis
Kirk Bauer of the U.S. Army. Kirk served in Vietnam as a combat infantryman
with the 9th Infantry Division. He lost his leg from a grenade explosion during
an ambush in the Mekong Delta. He was awarded the Bronze Star twice and a
Purple Heart.
Kirk has served as the executive director of
Disabled Sports USA for the past 30 years. He has summited Mount Kilimanjaro
and completed a 100-mile century bike ride to encourage other disabled Veterans
to get active.
Disabled Sports USA is one of many programs
working with VA to support adaptive sport activities for disabled Veterans.