Photo By Michael Bottoms | Retired Lt. Cdr. (SEAL) Scott Terry competes in the swim meet June 29, 2024, during...... read more read more
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On a winter’s night in December of 2019, Lt. Cdr. (SEAL) Scott Terry was on a tactical boat monitoring fellow SEALs swimming during a cold-water training mission in Kodiak, Alaska when the disaster struck. A Coast Guard cutter rammed into Terry’s boat destroying it and severely injuring him.
“I was driving the Navy boat and the Coast Guard hit me,” said Terry. “I was staring at the screen observing the swimmers and then it happened. I am told I was completely covered in debris to include a 150-pound chair.”
The Naval Academy graduate would be in a coma for two and half months and had extensive injuries with long-term traumatic brain injury. He began his road to recovery, and he had to relearn how to walk and talk. His mother and caregiver Evelyn helped him to regain his confidence and his ability to move again.
“He was at Palo Alto for over two years and then transferred him to a hospital called Casa Colina where they taught him how to walk again,” said his mother Evelyn.
The Richmond, Virginia native has always been into physical fitness and wanted to be a Navy SEAL since childhood.
“He told us very early on he wanted to be a SEAL and always has been in into physical fitness,” said his mother.
The U.S. Special Operations Command’s Warrior Care Program (Care Coalition) encouraged Terry to participate in adaptive sports and to compete in the Warrior Games to satisfy his desire for physical challenges. He would go on and compete in archery, indoor rowing and swimming.
“I love the Warrior Games. I get to be with fellow warriors and experience the camaraderie and it is like being on a team again,” Terry said.
“It is great therapy for him, he is with people who understand what he is going through because they have gone through it too,” his mother said.
The Department of Defense Warrior Games this year took place June 21-30, in Orlando, Florida featuring more than 200 wounded, ill, and injured active-duty and veteran service members competing in adaptive sports.
The DoD Warrior Games serves to enhance the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded warriors by providing them exposure to adaptive sports. Participation in the Warrior Games represents the culmination of a service member’s involvement in an adaptive sports program and demonstrates the incredible potential of wounded warriors through competitive sports.
This year marks the 14th anniversary where athletes from the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and U.S. Special Operations Command as well as the Australian Defence Force come to compete in the adaptive sports competition.
Terry was medically retired in 2022, but the Care Coalition continues to help him navigate his care. The command’s Warrior Care Program was established in 2005 to provide special operations forces (SOF) wounded, ill, or injured servicemembers and their families advocacy after life changing events to navigate through recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration as quickly as possible, strengthening SOF readiness. The program will try to bring the service member back to operational status or move into a different field or transition into veteran status.
| Date Taken: | 06.30.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.30.2024 19:46 |
| Story ID: | 475247 |
| Location: | ORLANDO, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 691 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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