Not kovach. We were introduced i tom, local scribe here years ago and ron has been very encouraging and helped me quite a bit with this book in terms ofbackground and research and so forth. Ron of course was a vietnam veteran. Most of the book that i wrote is about world war ii veterans and i just wanted to give you background before ron and istart speaking. Before world war ii if you were paralyzed you were pretty much a dead end her, i know hope as they were called. Its the average lifespanwith 18 months for someone wounded in world war i. World war ii was the game changer. The advent of penicillin, they had surgical units right behind the battlefield, right behind the front line and they had better evacuation back to the mainland. So by the end of world war ii we do have a cohort of about 2500 us veterans who are paralyzed and returned home and they had a chance at a normal life and this was the first cohort that was going to have this and it presented a dilemma and a bit of an issue for the va, the Veterans Administration and the government. In other words how do we take care of these men. Before basically they were immobilized in fullbody plaster casts, shunted off to institutions or basically if they were a family they were in the family homeand had no mobility. The clichc or the term confined to a wheelchair was true because you couldnt move around. They were unwieldy wheelchairs, they were like living roomfurniture. And again everest and jennings were wheelchairs that were made locally and they were a game changer because they could fold. You could put them in the car and drive away and start a family and soforth. So these 2500 paralyzed veterans were pioneers and one of the Key Attributes of rehabilitation and the rehabilitation medicine in the va hospitals was recreation. And were going to roll a clip now, youre going to see one of the first wheelchair basketball games ever played. It was at Madison Square garden in 1948 and youll see theyre using that everest and jennings chairs which in todays world we would think of as just incredibly oldfashioned and not very maneuverable. In fact, then those were stateoftheart. This is a game featuring paralyzed veterans from pitching hospital, they came down to new york city to play against a team from staten island. And you can see the game is very of crude. Theres not a whole lot of ostensive plays and things like that but this is the first time that paralyzed veterans and paraplegics are displayed in front of huge crowds. You have 15,000 people admiring the pioneers, these veterans who have managed to start a normal life and the sport was part of that. One of the key teams and will see the thing in the next clip, one of the key teams and by the way this was sort of the result. You had Media Coverage this was one of the players in that game , jack ehrhardt. He was wounded in normandy and here he is on the cover of news event and every media covered these guys from the communist daily worker to popular mechanics. And out here in Southern California there was a bastion of wheelchair basketball and this was out of the early da hospital in van nuys in the San Fernando Valley and is caught the attention of hollywood and heres Marlon Brando in his first hollywood movie and he plays a paralyzed veteran and hes rehabbing and some of this was filmed out in van nuys and these are some of the exercises and its one of the reasons why wheelchair basketball became so popular both for the veterans but also why the doctors commented on it was because it did help with the arms, the shoulder muscles which are so important for paraplegics because for helping them to move around and to have the strength to be able to do this. Heres what i was mentioning about jennings. Hes going into the car with his costar there. That folds up and goes right into the second seat and he can drive away. These are specially adapted cars for paraplegics. And youll see the house that hes now walking in, these paralyzed veterans formed the pda which stirs this, the paralyzed veterans of america when this team from birmingham would go on the road, they would stop in washington dc and Lobby Congress for disability rights including adaptive colors and a stipend to build a house that was rampant so forth and here we see brando playing somewheelchair basketball. And playing sports. This was the shot at the pool their and one of the veterans who i write extensively about in the book was in this film as an extra. They used a bunch of extras who were paralyzed veterans as background actors. And again, you see obviously brando, this was a role that was very attractive to him. His first role after playing and becoming a fan, becoming a star i shouldsay. Ron, of course you were played by Marlon Brando, you were played by tom cruise. I just wanted to say first of all its a pleasure to be participating with you today. My very first wheelchair wasnt emerson jetting wheelchair. You made me feel old but my first chair wasnt Emerson Jennings and it was the first chairthat i had. It worked for me back then. It was 1968. I was shot january 20, 1868 on my second tour of duty as a United States marine in vietnam in the dmz area and i was shot through the right shoulder and it went through my right lung and paralyzed me but from my mid chest down ive been paralyzed for the last what is it, 52, 53 years. So i remember reading or looking yesterday and realizing that even after world war ii a lot of the paraplegics and quadriplegics were not living past a year or 18 months as you said. I mean, im just so grateful to be alive, still alive and ive lost many friends along the way. This is not an easy disability, and easy physical challenge to deal with. Its psychologically, emotionally, its a great challenge. Maybe you can tell us, tell the audience about that. When you came back you ended up at the bronx va as i recall. The bronx va which i recall was later investigated by life magazine. They did a frontpage, a front cover. Our forgotten wounded wasthe title. It really shook up the whole va. It was the story of neglect, of the young men coming back from vietnam with some of the most catastrophic injuries you can imagine. Paraplegics, quadriplegics. Young men paralyzed from the neck down. Some of the most you could imagine being neglected. Rats on the war, overcrowded conditions. Im sure many of you watching this right now i have seen this in the movie, tom cruise movie born on the fourth of july read all of that was true and thats how i began mylife at the age of 21. They really did know whether i was going to make it or not in the intensive care ward. I have never not felt grateful to be alive. Everything that they, about how hard it is got over the years and theres been some really difficult moments especially in the early years. Depressing moments, moments when i drank way too much, moments when i came close to giving up and leaving this world, way too early. There was a part of me that new that id made it out of there just barely. Ive somehow gotten out of there. I wish shot first in my right foot. The bullet went through my foot and blew out the back of my heel. I could no longer walk. I went into a pole position and it took a route to my right shoulder i couldnt move. My rifle was in the sand. My rifle wouldnt fire anymore. It was jammed. The first marine to come up from behind was shot in the heart right behind me he was killed instantly called right in the back of me. Another marine came back a few moments later, came up from behind, grab me, threw over his shoulder and maybe back under heavy fire and saved my life. Ive never forgotten that they and ive never forgotten how lucky i am to have survived. Even during the most difficult times, those early years were very, very difficult. Many of the admin severely wounded, paralyzed veterans, quadriplegics, those first two years were too much for them but some of us, some of us decided to go on. I remembered sitting in my room room in my wheelchair and massapequa long island all of the own and i remember having this feeling, thinking to myself how im according going to mako another day . I had just met we did some of the veterans of world war ii and korea coming to our room at the bronx v. A. And they were inspiring. Just to see these guys would bid in wheelchairs, five years, ten years, even longer. I couldnt believe it because i was just try to make it through every single day, was psychologically, emotionally, physically overwhelming. I had no idea how is going to live with this thing and how it was good to deal with it. I couldve never imagined, i couldve never imagined that i would have the future i eventually had, that is able to eventually addressed the Democratic National convention in new york, that is able to write a book, that became a bestseller and i was able to eventually have a movie made of my life. I feel very blessed. My life in many ways has been a blessing in disguise. Athleticism and you talk about the whole wheelchair basketball, well when i got out of the hospital, david, i decide through the g. I. Bill i had the opportunity, and it wasnt a great student believe me, i had to go to Summer School in Massapequa High School just to get a general diploma which was mailed to me, so i wasnt going to college and i had decided im going to join the marines, make mom and dad proud and it ended up coming home paralyzed. But i remember, it was just how did you get started in terms of after came out of the v. A. Hospital basketball yourself, how did that first of all i was able to go to college, even with, you know, my academic standing was not the best at the time. I was still able to go. They gave me the opportunity to go, and Hofstra University had a Basketball Team. It was called the rolling dutchman. I grew up wanting to play for the new york yankees, you know, Little League and basketball and football and wiffleball. If you came from new york, who were heavily into sports. We were in our neighborhood, and the yankees and Mickey Mantle and roger barris, i mean, all these dreams of being an athletic hero. I was very strong, very athletic. I was gymnastic in high school. Even before i join the rolling dutchman, the Wheelchair Basketball Team, which was quite an experience for me, i used to shoot baskets when i would have some time. There was a court just at the v. A. Just down the flow hilda solis basketball court. I would go agenda by myself for hours, two, three hours and i would just shoot and i loved it. I loved it and it did that by myself intel i found out that they had this organized Wheelchair Basketball Team at the university, and i decided to join. What led me to join was i had my First Political organization that i decided to join very interesting enough was called push, People United to support the handicap. I First Political organization, and as they use followed i i wd be involved in a lot of politics and a lot of protests, but this organization was made up exclusively paraplegics, quadriplegics. Not just veterans but cerebral palsy, the blind, site compared, you name it, we had it. Back then you have to understand it was a very tumultuous time. There were people in the streets, demonstrations, revolution was in the air. And even this group that met once a week at Hofstra University which eventually led me to join the Basketball Team, this group was filled with passion, filled with, you know, had a certain sense of rebellion. The school wasnt that way. The country was extremely polarized. Any of you who have lived during that time he had the good fortune of living through that extraordinary time and history with the vietnam war and the country was split, very similar in many ways to whats going on right now. But i have to say that this organization, push, that was the First Organization that gave me a certain confidence and in particular woman i met or chronically ship in a my high school. She eventually became an author later in life but she since passed away. Connie white dedicated board on the fourth of july 2, i remember leaving the v. A. One day going to hofstra, i the day off. They allowed me to go there so i could meet the dean who was going to allow me to go to the school. I concerned member his name, dean cedar. I went into the office and there was this girl in the office in a wheelchair, connie with a severe disability that had occurred at birth. She said you looked familiar i think. Did you go to Massapequa High School . I said yet. She said i used to watch you with your varsity sweater walking past me in the hallway. I said i remember you. You were the only disabled person in the wheelchair and our entire school back then. She said yes. And she said, i started to drive her home because she needed a try phone when she said she did. But i would drive her home and she was not far from my town. I would drop her off. I catch you know her parents. One thing led to another. She asked to join this People United to support the handicap for everything from curb cuts but you must of at Hofstra University was really at the forefront back then, it prided itself in the fact that was tailoring to that was welcoming the disabled, welcoming is a big change in the early 70s which eventually to the americans with disability act. But she was the one who led me to the First Political organization of physically challenged people and then from there she said you know, we have a Wheelchair Basketball Team here at Hofstra University. She said what you go down and, i know that youre an athlete in high school and you are arrested, varsity wrestler and you love sports. Why didnt you go down and see . I went down and they allowed me to the accepted me. My level of entry was pretty high come still is. I have no balance but it was thrilling. It really was. It was exciting to be with other young men like myself with very similar disabilities and to be competing, to be actually competing and there was a feeling of transcending, transcendence wherefore moment you forgot, for a moment you were not thinking of being paralyzed, for a moment you shooting a basket, you are trying to make the hook shot. It was exciting. Was great, it was wonderful. You felt great inside physically. Whatever depression you mightve had a whatever doubts or feelings, i mean, i was getting with a lot of not just physical, but because of what i have gone through during my second tour of duty, after dealing with a lot of psychological trauma from what i had gone through during that second tour. I was struggling with it. I was struggling with whether i had a right to stay alive or to give up. I felt a tremendous amount of survivors guilt and up wondered if i deserved to be alive because others have died and ai had survived and people i been responsible for who i i had led into battle had been killed, and yet i was still alive. Even though i was paralyzed, i felt terrible guilt. I live with that for a long time. It was a long journey to move through that come yet to emerge from that and be able to forgive myself and also forgive those who mightve sent me to that war. Im sorry for going on. Thats quite all right. I wanted to circle back of something you mentioned and previously about when you were in the v. A. And you had i guess in a sense the support of world war ii and korea war veterans. What was the experience like for you, for the veterans are gone through all of this . I am laying there in my bed, you know, and you have these guys come in here with this cocky very positive attitude. How you doing . Hows it going . Collis rodriguez, you know. One of the real inspirations one of the founders come early founders of paralyzed veterans of america and a real character and a half and a mover and shaker, had that sick new york bronx accent or whatever, how you doing . Whats going on . How can we help you . What can we do . You know, how long have you been in a wheelchair i said to them, you know . I had a difficult it and wondered if i could make it through that night. He said that been a wheelchair, what, 11, 12 years, wounded in korea. These guys were an inspiration. It would come into our rooms. They were very, very important to us back then. I was across from willie who had been paralyzed so severely that he had come he was paralyzed from the neck down, if you can imagine, and there was a hole in his throat with the court on it. I wrote about in born on the fourth of july. One day dont allow the court and put a tube in their and i would have to listen to this and all the rest of the guys in my room, the one owe three for others, it would be suctioning the flynn out of his lungs so it wouldnt get pneumonia. I heard that every single day. It was just just so moving, you know . I felt so lucky to be alive and yet here was a guy across three who is just trying to live with a head. All he had was a head, you know. How could these people not inspire you. Then people like the world war ii vets and korean vets. Telling you, you can do something with your life. Your life is not over. For a long time i remember a guy would come in. He was recruiting paraplegics to work for the Bulova Watch Company. He wanted me to make watches, to work on watches. Thats where a lot of the guys were sent, to the watchmaking company. I used to say to myself, thats not me. I always had big dreams as a kid. Maybe its not a good thing to dream so big, but i always thought that my life could have much greater meaning, and im not knocking people working in a watch company or for having a job, but i just wanted to do more. I wanted my life to really count, to really stand for something. Even before i was paralyzed had been inspired by john f. Kennedy, adam wanted to be like john f. Kennedy. I wanted to be like john wayne. Maybe it was unhealthy. Maybe it was maniacal but thats who i was and i was an american. Thats very much having grown up in a convoy in this country, having dreams beyond all dreams and believing you could