Group offers barbecue, help to disabled vets

There were two reporters out there with us today. FOX was there too and the reporter was wonderful. Looking for his video but haven't seen it yet. Tomorrow I should have mine up.

Today was a really wonderful day. I had the chance to talk to Joshua Cope, a double amputee Iraq vet with a one week old baby and two other young children. I talked to Andrew Berry and Christopher O'Conner, both Iraq veterans wounded by IEDs. All of them have such great attitudes it makes you feel as if you shouldn't have a care in the world.

Ocoee Mayor Scott Vandergrift was there, as usual whenever there is anything going on for Veterans, he's sure to be there with his big smile and warmth. Cathy Haynes was there too. If you are involved with veterans in the area at all, you know who Cathy Haynes is. I think the woman works twice as hard as I do without a nap. (I need them daily)

It was wonderful to see so many young veterans spending time with, as Andrew Berry put it, older veterans with a lot to share. They understand that the DAV is there for them just as it had been for the "older" veterans when they came home around the same age as these new veterans. They also prove that one you're a veteran, you are for life and it is an outstanding family to belong to.

Group offers barbecue, help to disabled vets
Jim Sursely converses with another disabled veteran at a barbecue Sunday. Sursely lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam.
By Mark Jenkins, Reporter
Last Updated: Sunday, October 02, 2011 5:55 PM

ORLANDO --
Jim Sursely has spent the last 40 years confined to a wheel chair. He lost both his legs and an arm in a land mine explosion in Vietnam.

However, that doesn't slow him down.

"What's in my heart now is my willingness to want to come out and help and welcome these young guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan," Sursely said.

He's helping guys like Andrew Berry and Chris O'Conner. Both of them were injured in IED explosions.

"It blasted me 10 feet in the air, knocked me unconscious for like a minute," O'Conner said.

Berry suffered damage to his leg, lower back and head. O'Conner received a traumatic brain injury and multiple shrapnel wounds throughout his body. Even after being removed from the war zone, returning home isn't easy.
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