Sit-ski is sailor's answer to roadside bomb

VAIL - Joe Worley lifted his ski pants to show the bullet scars on his only remaining leg.

He recounted the day when his fellow servicemen were hit with a roadside bomb in Fallujah, Iraq. When he didn't think twice about running across a bridge to save them. When he was hit by another bomb that blew off his leg. When he was then shot five times as he lay there - once in the ankle, once in the back of the knee, once in the right thigh and twice in the left thigh.

"Initially, it was a certainty that I was dying," he said.

But Friday was a much different day than Sept. 17, 2004. It was a bluebird day, and Worley was heading for China Bowl. Worley's was skiing on Vail Mountain as part of Vail Veterans Week, a program that has brought 24 amputee Iraq war veterans to Vail Mountain to ski for three days.

Worley, 24, a Naval petty officer third class from Dallas, Ga., skis in a sit ski with two outrigger poles. On Friday, he was skiing with his instructor, Jim Fleischer of the Vail Adaptive Ski School.

It was the second ski trip of Worley's life. He went skiing for the first time in January at Breckenridge.

"I didn't think (skiing) would be as cool as it was, but then I got out here and tried it, and 'Wow,'" he said.



The road back

On the mountain, Worley skis on his own, or sometimes on a tether that Fleischer holds. On Friday, Fleischer and Sarah Will, another instructor, were giving Worley some tips on balance as they skied down Poppyfields.

"It's like controlled chaos," Worley said of his skiing.

Adaptive sports are an important part of an amputee veterans' recovery, Worley said.

"This is something that definitely is needed to help veterans and wounded to help get them integrated back into normal life," he said.

Back in the Washington, D.C., area, where Worley is still recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he has a hand-pedal bike, and he's picking up basketball.

Worley signed up at the last minute for the Vail Veterans Week, so his wife, Angela, wasn't able to come. He also has a 20-month-old daughter back in Maryland. She was born while he was in Iraq, and he first saw her in the hospital after his injury when she was 3 months old.



'A definite purpose'

Worley had been in Iraq for seven months when he was injured. He was stationed in Fallujah, part of the "Sunni Triangle," was one of the most dangerous places in Iraq. He liked the camaraderie with his fellow troops when he was in Iraq, he said - joking around with the guys.

"War is a lot of waiting interrupted by extreme moments of adrenaline and the most extreme action imaginable," he said.

But every day was dangerous, and it was hard for him to comprehend the danger that was around him every day/ "The human mind doesn't allow you to acknowledge the full extent of your mortality at all times," he said.

On the day of his injury, he said, he instinctively went to save his fellow servicemen who were in peril. "They're like brothers," he said. "It's not that much of an option."

As he lay on the bridge, he could only hear a high-pitched hum, he said. He was evacuated by Humvee, and then taken to hospitals in Iraq, Germany, and finally to Walter Reed.

In Vail, he is in a wheelchair. He decided not to bring his prosthetic leg, which allows him to walk. Worley's active service will end in a few months. He wants to go to college and become a doctor.

Despite his personal toll, Worley does not question the U.S.'s role in Iraq.

"I believe in what we're doing over there," he said. "It has a definite purpose."



Staff Writer Edward Stoner can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 14623, or estoner@vaildaily.com.



Vail, Colorado