Patriot Charities to help double amputee from 101st Airborne finally taste the skies by tandem parachute
By Karen Garloch
Posted: Friday, Nov. 02, 2012
After multiple surgeries and months of rehabilitation, Army Corporal David Bixler is able to stand without assistance on his X2 prosthetic legs. The X2 is a microprocessor-controlled device that reacts to subtle changes in terrain or the wearer’s gait, allowing Bixler to walk and even climb stairs.
Army Corporal David Bixler never got the chance to jump out of an airplane when he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division.
Friday, he’ll get his chance.
Bixler, who lost both legs while saving his platoon from an explosion in Afghanistan in 2010, will take part in a tandem skydive over Charlotte Latin’s football stadium.
“I want to show people what’s left for guys like me,” Bixler said in an interview from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland, where he is undergoing rehabilitation.
“Just because you’re busted up doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.”
Friday’s jump is sponsored by the Patriot Charities, a Charlotte-based nonprofit that supports wounded members of the military and their families from the Carolinas.
The group raised $3,500 to pay for Bixler’s jump with Mike Elliott, an Army veteran who has made more than 9,000 parachute jumps, including two tandem jumps with former President George H.W. Bush.
read more here
No comments:
Post a Comment
If it is not helpful, do not be hurtful. Spam removed so do not try putting up free ad.