An
article and pictures by great friends and volunteers for Heroes on the
Water author Aaron Reed and photographer Joe Winston. Both have been
part of Heroes on the Water from the beginning in 2007.
Summer issue of "Healthier Living for Texas Veterans"
--On
a Thursday morning in May, Sgt. 1st Class Marc Dervaes did something
he wasn't completely sure he'd ever do again: he hopped into a plastic boat,
shoved off from the rocky shore and paddled down the Guadalupe River.
The
event, which passed unnoticed by the world at large, was a tribute to the
inventiveness of a prosthetist at the Center for the Intrepid. More, it was a
tribute to the indomitable will of a soldier. The opportunity came courtesy of a
relatively new non-profit that has introduced more than 3,100 wounded warriors
to the therapeutic benefits of kayak angling over the last three
years.
Heroes
on the Water, the major program of the all-volunteer Kayak Anglers Society of
America (KASA), was the brainchild of a group of Veterans who believed that all
of the things that made their time on the water so much fun might add up to more
than just a good time for someone recovering from the physical and mental wounds
of war.
"It's
incredibly therapeutic for them. We don't understand, because we haven't been
there, but it's amazing that we're able to help someone with something as simple
as what we do," said Jim Dolan, the Dallas-based national director of HOW.
"It's so much more than just recreation. You're providing physical, mental and
occupational therapy at the same time, and that's pretty powerful
stuff."
Dervaes
wears his in his sleeve. The platoon sergeant was injured Sept. 12, 2009, as he
raced with his men to assist a logistics convoy that had come under fire in
Kunor Province, Afghanistan. Before they could reach their objective, the
soldiers from Troop C, 3rd Squadron, and 61st Cavalry were ambushed.
The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle Dervaes was riding in was hit
by small arms fire and four rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
It
wasn't the first time Dervaes had been shot - he survived a round to the helmet
during one of two earlier tours in Iraq - but the RPG destroyed his right arm at
the elbow, ending his Afghanistan deployment at the four-month mark.
"My
first thought was that I wasn't going to be able to ride a motorcycle or drive a
stick anymore," he said.
It
took Dervaes just three days to get to Brooke Army Medical Center and the Center
for the Intrepid in San Antonio, where he would spend the next seven months
undergoing treatment and therapy. By the time he saw someone with a Heroes on
the Water t-shirt and asked about the program, he had five different prostheses,
including one slotted to hold a kayak paddle.
"I've
kayaked for a number of years, mostly whitewater stuff, so I was anxious just to
find out what the possibilities were," Dervaes said.
After
the kayak fishing expedition, he got some one-on-one coaching from an Olympic
paddler, and even got his roll back.
"Because
my right arm was dominant, I always used to roll right," he said, of the
procedure in which a capsized kayaker flips the boat right-side-up without
leaving the cockpit. "They got me in a lot of pool sessions and I was able to
get my roll back and roll left."
Dervaes,
who recently bought a new kayak and will soon retire from the Army to his
Colorado Springs home with his wife of 11 years, says newly injured service
members shouldn't rule out anything.
"The
prostethists down there at the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio are
miracle workers," he said. "My prosthetist even made me a mountain biking arm;
it has a shock absorber in it. My prosthetist told me before I left that I
brought several challenges to his table that he'd never done before. He now has
the knowledge to put some of that stuff together."
Will
that same arm work on a motorcycle? Turns out it's a moot point.
"My
wife - and she's been incredibly supportive and protective of me from the moment
I got hurt - has an opinion about that," said Dervais. "She said if I get in an
accident and lose my other arm, she's not going to wipe my @#$ for me the rest
of my life."
Heroes on the Water helps wounded warriors relax, rehabilitate, and reintegrate
through kayak fishing and the outdoors.
