Earlier this month Jon Stewart delivered highly effective testimony on Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to approve well being care funding for 9/11 first responders and different victims of the assaults. Now the previous host of “The Day by day Present” is placing a highlight on one other deserving class: wounded service members.
This week Stewart is serving because the host and emcee of the 2019 Division of Protection Warrior Video games in Tampa, the place about 300 wounded, in poor health or injured active-duty and veteran athletes from america, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK are competing in 14 adaptive sports activities.
The annual occasion, now in its tenth 12 months, was established to assist promote the restoration and rehabilitation of wounded navy women and men and encourage others to do the identical.
“What you see right here, all these people that don’t permit their worst day to outline them,” Stewart advised Yahoo Information, “it’s simply unbelievable.”
Stewart, who has hosted the video games since 2016, mentioned the camaraderie transcends the competitors.
“Once you’re within the navy, look, it’s a really small share of our society, so it’s already considerably remoted,” he mentioned. “Then you definitely get harm. Now you’re remoted out of your unit, your platoon, your loved ones. And now, unexpectedly, you discover a neighborhood that’s experiencing the very same factor.”
Travis Dunn, a former Military Ranger, was shot within the higher torso throughout a six-hour firefight in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, on Dec. 2, 2014. The bullet traveled by means of his armpit, severed his spinal twine and left him paralyzed from the waist down.
“I didn’t come to the conclusion of it, uh, till a pair months later, ’trigger I used to be simply on the ache medicine,” Dunn mentioned. “After I used to be finished with all my rehab, that first most likely couple months, I began to kinda understand that, you understand, this was gonna be a without end factor. This was, this was the way it was, that is the way it was gonna be, you understand, for the remainder of my life.”
The 29-year-old found the Warrior Video games after shifting to Tampa together with his spouse, Kelley. The couple have a 15-month-old daughter, Sadie.
“I didn’t know what precisely I used to be gonna be able to after my damage,” Dunn mentioned. “It kinda opened my eyes that I can do lots of issues nonetheless.”
Dunn, who competes in archery, monitor and wheelchair basketball, mentioned the video games carry out the aggressive nature in every athlete.
“We’re going on the market, and dudes are simply crushing one another,” he mentioned. “Competitors brings out one of the best in everyone. ’Trigger no person needs to lose. Everyone goes to win.”
Stewart agreed.
“It’s intense competitors,” he mentioned. “However the true worth of it’s the brother- and sisterhood that evolves from it. The connections that they make with different folks.”
For Stewart, his participation within the video games is a no brainer.
“You need to display that in the event that they’re there for us, we’re there for them,” he mentioned. “It doesn’t matter what.”
Video produced by Sam Matthews and Brad Williams
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