MCCOY, Colorado — It seems that — for the moment — war, injuries, operations and treatments are far from Sgt. Luis Rosa-Valentin’s mind. He is simply doing what he loves most: target shooting.

“I’m having loads of fun,” he says as he takes a break from firing off rounds at a paper target in the sagebrush of a ranch near McCoy. “These revolvers, turns out, they shoot pretty high, so I’m aiming lower, and I’m hitting the bulls eye a lot more.”

Less than four months ago, Luis Rosa-Valentin was seriously injured by an improvised bomb as he patrolled the streets outside of Sadr City, Iraq. He was left without both legs, one arm, almost all of his hearing and some of his eyesight.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“That one has a pretty good kick,” he tells his best friend, Josh Hubbell, who sits beside him.

Rosa-Valentin switches between guns: a Colt 3840, a Colt .45, a .22 automatic.

“I’m gonna shoot the .22 real quick,” he says, exposing the American flag tattoo — which memorializes a fellow soldier killed by a suicide bomber — on his only forearm as he aims the gun.

No regrets

The 25-year-old Maryland native has come from Walter Reed Medical Center to Eagle County as part of the Vail Veterans Program, which brings amputees who fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to fish, raft, ride horses and simply hang out in the Rocky Mountains.

Writing on the dry erase board that people use to talk to him, a visitor asks Rosa-Valentin why he signed up to come to Colorado.

“Just to get out see what I can do,” he says. “Because it’s only been three months since my injury. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be out here doing anything. Three months, that’s nothing. Nothing.”

Rosa-Valentin is still recovering at Walter Reed. He speaks of his time in the Army with no regrets.

“I was born for it, really, I loved every second of it,” he said. “Despite my injuries, I still don’t care, I love it. I love the infantry, I love the life that I led. I wouldn’t trade a second of it for anything else.”

Ready to return to Iraq

Re-learning how to ride horses

Back at the Yarmony Creek Lodge, Dave Underwood of Harrison, Ark., is learning what he can do with one arm.

The Army major led some 200 Army soldiers — as well as 300 Iraqis soldiers and civilians — in Iraq’s so-called “Triangle of Death” last year. During his second tour, an improvised bomb tore into his lower arm, leaving him an amputee.

“That’s the first time I’ve ridden a horse with one arm,” he said Friday. “Yesterday was the first time I’d shot a gun with one arm. ... Like I’ve told people in the past, it’s a life-altering thing, not a life-ending thing.”

Underwood — now convalescing in San Antonio, Texas — will continue his almost-20-year military career. His next goal is to achieve the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Upstream on the Colorado River that morning, 2nd Lt. Daniel Luckett of Norcross, Ga., stands on the banks at State Bridge, ready to go on a fly-fishing float trip. Luckett lost his lower left leg on May 11 when a bomb hit his truck in Baghdad. Despite his injuries, he wants to return to Iraq to lead his platoon again.

“That’s the goal,” he said. “It’s not like, ‘Hey, I’m going to stay on the sideline and take as long as I can to recover.’”

Three weeks ago, he was outfitted with prosthetic leg, which he was wearing with his sneaker Friday. A longtime outdoorsman, Luckett jumped at the chance to visit Colorado.

“I’m not going to let this knock me out of enjoying what I love to do,” he said. “I’ve been on the leg for three weeks now. It’s still to the point where I haven’t gotten the balance quite right yet. Still learning. And that’s one thing that these activities give you a chance to do, is learn by trial and error.”

Luckett stepped in the boat and was handed a fly rod. The group pushed off, and Luckett cast his rod as the boat circled in the water and later meandered down the river.

How to help

The Vail Veterans Program brings recovering amputee soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to Eagle County, both in the winter and summer. The program relies on contributions. For information about giving, go to www.vailveteransprogram.com.



Staff Writer Edward Stoner can be reached at 748-2929 or estoner@vaildaily.com.