David davis provides the history of the first Wheelchair Basketball Team comprise a world war ii veterans. Its a great honor to be at bromance. I spent many evenings on the second floor listening to local authors speak about their the o really appreciate the invitation. What to say hi to everybody out there who i havent i have beeo see facetoface in person, so thank you for tuning in. Obviously doubly honored ron kovic has agreed to speak with me tonight about the book. Ron kovic, not kovac. Not go back. We were introduced by tom hobart, sports need a writer and ron has been very encouraging and helped me quite a bit with this book in terms of background 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 are just want to give you a little background before we start speaking. Before world war ii if you are paralyzed you were pretty much a dead ender, and no hope or as they were called. The average life span was a for someone wounded in world war i. World war ii was a game changer. The advent of penicillin, sulfa drugs. They had surgical units right behind the battlefield, right behind the front lines and they had better evacuation back to the mainland. By the end of world war ii you had a cohort of about 2500 u. S. Veterans who were paralyz who return home, and they had a chance at a normal life. This was the first cohort that was going to have this and it presented dilemma and a bit of an issue for the v. A. , veterans administration, and the government. In other wds, how do we take care of tse men. The four, basically they we immobilized in fullbodied plaster casts, shunted off to institutions or basically ift were a family they were in the family home and had no mobility. The crochet or the term confined to a wheelchair wasrue because you couldnt move around. Cliche. They were like living room furniture. That again was a game changer. Jennings were wheelchairs that were made locally and they were again change because they could fold. You can put them in the carnd then drive away go to a job, start a family and so forth. These 2500 paralyzedeterans were pioneers, and one of the key attbutes of rehabilitation, and rehabilitation medicine in the v. A. Hospitals was recreation. We are going to roll a clip now. You will see one of the first wheelchair basketball games ever played. It was at Madison Square garden in 1948, and you will see their using the Everest Jennings chairs which in todays world we would think of as just incredibly oldfashioned and not very maneuverable. But back then those were state of the art. This is a game featuring paralyzed veterans from critchett hospital in massachusetts. They came down the new york city to play against a team from staten island, and you can see again is very sort of crude. Theres not a whole lot of offense of place and things like that, but this is the first time that paralyzed veterans and paraplegics are displayed in front of crowds. You have 15,000 people admiring the pioneers, these veterans, who had managed to start a normal life, and sport was part of that. One of the key teams and we will see this in the next clip, but one of the key teams and by the way,his was sort of the result. You had media coverage. This was one of the players in that game, jack gerhard. He was wounded in normandy and here he is on the cover of newsweek. Every meeting outlet cover these guys from the communist in the worker to. Out here in Southern California there was a bastion of wheelchair basketball and this was out of the early ham v. A. Hospital in van nuys in the san fernando valley. This caught the attention of hollywood, and years Marlon Brando in his first hollywood movie star, and he plays a paralyzed veteran, and he is rehabbing and some of this was filled out in van nuys. These are some of the exercises and its one of the reasons why wheelchair basketball became so popular both for the veterans but also by the doctors how did it, was it did help with the chest, the arms, the shoulder muscles which are so important for paraplegics. For helping them to move around and to have the strength to be able to do this. Heres what i was mentioning about the Everest Jennings. Hes going into the car with his costar there. That holds up and goes right into the second seat, and he can drive away. The are speciallydapted cars for paraplegics. You will see the house that he is now walking in. These paralyzed veterans form the vba, which stirs this, the paralyzed veterans of america, when this team from birmingham would go on the road, they would stop in washington, d. C. And Lobby Congress for rights, for disability rights including adapted cars and a stipend to build aouse that had a rant and so forth. Here we see brando playing some wheelchair basketball, and playing sports. This was water polo that was shot at the pool there. 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 a streetcar namedesire and becing a star ron, of course youre not played by Marlon Brando. You were played by tom cruise. David, i just wanted to say, first of all its a pleasure to be participating with you today. My very first wheelchair was a Everest Jennings wheelair. You may be feel very old buty very first chair was a everest jenngs, and it was the first chair that i had and it worked for me back tn. It was 1968. I was shot january 20, 18 on my second tour of duty as United States marine in vietnam in the dmz area, and i was shot to the right shoulder and it went through my right lung and paralyd me for my mid chest down. Ive been paralyzed my mid chest down for the last, what is it, 52, 53 years . 53 years. I remember reading, looking yesterday and realizing that even up to world war ii a lot of the paraplegics and quadriplegics were not living past a year or 18 months as you said. Im just so grateful to be alive, still alive. I have lost many friends along the way. This is not an easy disability, in easy physical challenge to deal with. Its psychologically, emotionally, its a great challenge. A great challenge. Maybe you can tell us, tell me, tell the audience about that. When you came back you ended up at the bronx v. A. As i recall. The bronx v. A. Which ironically was later investigated by life magazine. They did a front cover, our forgotten wounded was a title, our forgotten wounded. It really shook up the whole v. A. It was a story of neglect of the young men coming back from vietnam with some of the most catastrophic injuries you could imagine. Paraplegics, quadriplegics. Young men paralyzed from the neck down. Some of the most severe injuries you could imagine being neglected, rats on the ward, overcrowded conditions. Im sure many of you who are watching this right now might have seen this in a movie born on the fourth of july. All of that was true and thats how i begin my life at the age of 21. I am in this place, not only was it even with paralysis, just the shock of having lost threequarters of my body, everything from my chest down, never be able to make children, just, but i must say, i must say from the moment i left the field of battle and and i received lt right from the Catholic Church because he didnt know whether its going to make it or not in the intensive care ward. I am so, i have never not felt grateful to be alive to every single day. The matter how hard it is got over the years and theres been some really difficult moments especially in the early years. Depressing moments come moments when i drank way too much, moments when i came close to giving up and leaving this world way too early. I was always, there was a part of me that new that i made it out of there just barely. Senator cotton out of there. After i was shot first in the front, 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 prone position and it took a round to my right shoulder, collapse my right lung and severed my spine from the mid chest down. I could move in my rifle was in the same. 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, killed right in back of me. And another marine came back a w moments later, came up from behind, grabbed me, through the over his shoulder and randy back under heavy fire and saved my life. I have never forgotten that date 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 young men severely wounded, paralyzed veterans, quadriplegics, those first figures were too much for them but some of us decided to go on. I remembered sitting in my room in my wheelchair in massapequa long island all alone. I remember having this feeling, thinking to myself, how am i going to make it through another day . I had just met we would at 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 who had been in wheelchairs for five years, ten years, even longer. I couldnt believe it because i was just trying to make it through every single day, was psychologically, emotionally, physically overwhelming. I had no idea how i was going to live with this thing and deal with it everyday. Every day. I could have never imagined, i could have never imagined that i would have the future i eventually had, that i was eventually able to address the Democratic National convention in your, that i was able to write a 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. When i got out of the hospital, david, i decided to 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 job diploma which was mailed to me. I wasnt going to college and i had decided im going to join the marines can make my mom and dad and proud you know and ended up coming home paralyzed. But i remember it was just how did you get started, ron, in terms of ask you came out of the v. A. Hospital wheelchair basketball yourself, how did that happen . First of all i was able to go to college, even with, you know, my academic standing was not the best at that time. I was still able to go. They gave me the opportunity to go at Hofstra University had a Basketball Team. Was called the rolling dutchmen. I grew up wanting to play for the new york yankees. Little league and basketball and football and wiffleball. If you came from new york you were heavily into sports. We were in our neighborhood, and the yankees and Mickey Mantle and roger maris. I mean, all these things up being an athletic ego. I was very strong, very athletic, i was a gymnast in high school. Even before i joined the rolling dutchmen, the Wheelchair Basketball Team,hich was quite an experience for me, i used to shoot baskets went i would have some time. There was a court just at the v. A. Just down this little hill, and will basketball court. I would go down there by myself for hours, two, three hours and i wou just shoot and i loved it. I did that by myself until i found out that they had this organize Wheelchair Basketball Team at the university. I decided to join. No what led me tooin was i had my First Political organization that i decided to join, very interestingly enough, was called push, People United to support the handicap. So my First Political organization, and as the years followed up would be involved in a lot of politics and a lot of protests, but this organization was made of exclusively paraplegics, quadrlegics, not just veterans but cerebral palsy, the bnd, site impaired, you nam it we had it. Back then you have to underand it was a vy tumultuous time. It with people in the streets, demonstrations, revolution was in the a. And even this group that met once the weak at Hofstra University which eventually led me to join the Basketball Team, this group was filled wit passion, filled with, you know, had a certain sense of rebellion. The schoolas that way, the country wasxtremely polarized. Any of you who hav lived during that time hadhe good fortune of living through that extraordinary time in history where the vietnam war and the country was split very solid in many ways to whats going on right now. I have to say that this organization pus people uted to support the handicap, that was the First Organization that gave me a certain confidence. Aarticular woman i met who ironically she had been in my high school. She eventually became an author later in life but she has since passed away. Conn panzer reno who i dedicated bo on the fourth of july to, i remember leavinghe v. A. One day going to hofstra come have a date ill pick allowed me to go there so i could meet the deanho is going to allow me to go to the school. I concernedember his name, dean cedar. I went into the office and there was a girl in the office in a wheelchair, connie, with a severe disability that had occurred at birth. She said t me, you look familiar i think. Did you go to Massapequa High School . She said i use to wat you with your varsity sweater walking past me in the hallway. I said i remember you pick you were the only disabled person in a wheelchair and our entire school back then. She said yes, and she said that i started to ride her home because she needed a try phone or she said she did. But i would drive her home and she was not far fm my template i would drop her o. I got to know her peers. E thing led to another. She asked me to join the people he nudges up with the handicap for evething from curb cuts but you must know that Hofstra University was really at the forefront back then, it prided self in the fact that it was tailoring it was welcoming the disabled, welcoming physically handicapped if this was a big chae in the early 70s which eventually led to the americans with disability act. But sheas one who led me to this First Political organization of the cyclic challenge people, and then from ere she said w have got a wheelchair bketball team here at Hofstra University. She said, why dont you go down, i know you are a athlete in high school and you were a wrestler, a varsity wstler and you loved sports. Why dont you go down and see . I went down and they allowed me to be, the accepted me. My level of injury was pretty high. It still is. I no balance but it was thrilling. It really was. It w exciting to be with other young men like myself with very similar disabilities and t be competing, to be actually competing. There was a feeling o transcending, transcendence where, for a moment you forgot co for a moment you were not thinking of being paralyzed, f a moment you shouldnt the basket, you were trying to make the hook shot. It was eiting. It was great, wonderful. You felt great inside phically. Whatever depression you might have had for whatever doubtsr feelings, i i mean, i was dealg with a lot not just physical but because of what i had gone through during my second tour of duty, i was dealing wh a lot of psycholical trauma from what i had gone through durg that second tour. I was struggling with i i was struggling with wther i i had a right to stay alive or to gi up. I felt a tremendous amount of survors guilt and i wondered if i deserve to be alive because others have died and i had survived the people i had been responsible for who i had led into battle had been killed, and yet i was still alive. Even though i was paralyzed i felt a terrible guilt. I lived with that for a lg time. It was a long journey to move through that toe able to emerge from that and to beble to forgive myself and t give those who might forgive me forgive those who mightve hurt me and for those who sent me to work. I wanted to circle back on something y mentioned previously about whenou in the v. A. And you had in a sense the support of world war ii and korean war vetans. What was that experiee like for you, for the veterans who had gone through all of this . I am laying there in my bed, and you have these guys come in here with this cocky, very positive attitud you know, how you doing . Hows it going . Call as rodriguez, you know. One of the real inspirations, one of the founders, early founders of pva and a real character and a half and a real mover and shaker, had that thick w york bronx accentr whatever. I get doing . Whats going on . How can we help you . What can we do . And how long have you been in a wheelchair, i said to them, you know . I had a difficult day and wondered if i could make it to the neck. He said ive been in a eelchair 12 years, wounded in korea. These guys were a inspiration. They would come into our rooms. Ey were very important to us back then. Of course i was aoss from willie who had been paralyzed so severely that he had h was paralyzed from the neck down, if you can imagine. There was a hole in his throat with a little cork on it. I wrote about in born on the fourth of july. Once the day they would pl out the cork and put aube in and i would haveo listen to this, and all the rest of the guys in my room, three or four others, they would be suctioning the phlegm out of his lungs so we wouldnt get pneumonia. I heard thatvery single day. It was just just so movg, you know. I felt so lucky to be alive, and yet it was a guy right across from me who was justrying to live with a head, all he had was a head. How could these people not inspire you . And then people like the world war ii vets and korean vets coming into your room and telling you, you can do something with your life. Your life is not over. For a long time i remember a guy wouldome in. He wasecruiting paraplegics to rk for the bulovaatch company. He wanted me to make watches come to wor on watches. Thats where lot of the guys were sent, to the watchmaking compan