Army Sgt. Robert Price (left) hands the torch to retired Marine Lance Cpl. Chuck Sketch (right) pushed by Gunnery Sgt. Marcus Wilson at at the opening ceremonies of the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, Colo., May 10, 2010.
By Petty Officer Second Class William Selby
Each one of these athletes I’ve had the pleasure to meet and interview have all been beyond amazing.
I don’t want to minimize what these men and women have been through, and overcome, but when you meet someone like retired Marine Lance Cpl. Chuck Sketch, you realize that you truly are speaking to one of a kind.
Sketch is a medically retired U.S. Marine who lost his sight in August 1997 from a brain tumor, and then had to be amputated from the waist down in January of 1998 due to complications from the same tumor.
This week Sketch is here in Colorado Springs, Colo. to compete in the inaugural Warrior Games with team “Semper Fi”. If that’s not enough to impress you, how about the fact that he competes as a swimmer. Yes, you just read that.
Watch the Pentagon Channel interview with Sketch as he explains his excitement about Warrior Games. Visit Defense.gov, to view the photo essays featuring Sketch.
Read the Defense.gov story “Marines Roll Away with Wheelchair Basketball Gold.”
Not only is Sketch competing in swimming this week, he also had the honor of carrying the torch for the Marines during the opening ceremonies.
“It was an absolute adrenaline rush from the moment we got here,” he said. “It’s such an honor.”
During my short time with Sketch I felt as if I got to know him pretty well. He spoke of religion, talked about his future, and even told me several jokes about his disabilities.
If you closed your eyes while speaking with him, you would never imagine someone with such extreme disabilities. What stood out the most though was his amazing sense of humor, his faith, and his outlook on life.
Sketch said that for the first two years or so after his amputation, he never left the house, but then he found his faith in Christianity, and then things began to fall in place.
“I started getting involved in sports and it gave me something to strive for,” Sketch said.
Sketch then said he wished all of the people with disabilities would get involved with sports because, “it’s the greatest thing to start your life again.”
He doesn’t let his disabilities get in the way of doing whatever it is that he wants to do either. In fact, he speaks of his disabilities as if they are just another bump in the road.
Above everything I learned from these amazing people this week, Sketch taught me to only see the positive things. In many ways, he has better vision than anyone I’ve ever met.
For example, Sketch said, “I don’t get tired when the sun goes down, because I can’t see it.”
In the future, Sketch said he hopes to be able to try out for the Paralympics in London in 2012, and then in Sochi in 2014.
“Hopefully I can continue to play sports, because that’s what has kept driving me for all these years.”
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