"When you get home, you're lost in the civilian world"

Iraq War veteran aims to leave no Utah veteran behind 
KSL.com
Jed Boal
January 2, 2015

"In the military, you had a purpose," he said. "In war you have a purpose. When you get home, you're lost in the civilian world."

PARK CITY — A Utah veteran who served in Iraq continues to fight for his fellow veterans. Retired Marine Sergeant Josh Hansen came home with serious physical and emotional scars of war, but found hope and healing through exercise.

"By forcing myself to do it and getting out, I started feeling better," Hansen said, while enjoying a cross-country skiing workout at the White Pine Nordic Center in Park City.

In battle, Hansen lost six of his men in combat. Back at home, four more took their own lives. Now, he's on a mission to leave no veteran behind.

"After I had a few of my fellow veterans take their own lives, I said, 'OK, I led guys in the war, it's time to lead them here at home,'" he said.

So he and Laura Cantin, an adaptive sports specialist, founded Continue Mission "No Veteran Left Behind" with the objective to integrate the veterans back into civilian life to "get the vets out of the house, and get them into activities," Hansen said.

The co-founders know the healing power of rigorous exercise like cross-country skiing.

"We have a passion for what we do, and we want to share that," said Cantin. "We don't want our veterans to be stuck at home and not enjoy the camaraderie that they did in the service."

In Iraq, Hansen hunted for improvised explosive devices in support of the 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Expeditionary Forces in and around Fallujah. During his second tour, his vehicle sustained eight direct hits by IEDs, which caused multiple injuries over a seven-month period before he was flown out of Iraq on March 15, 2007.
read more here

The fight back from PTSD

From The Times
January 5, 2008
by Martin Fletcher
The fight back
Times Online - UK

On the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan, British soldiers are losing legs or arms, their sight – but the loss that each sustains goes far beyond the physical. On the ski slopes of Colorado, they begin rebuilding their shattered lives

Watch the audio slide show of British soldiers skiing
Adam Nixon pauses briefly to admire the breathtaking view of the Colorado Rockies, with their icy peaks and forested flanks. Then the young British soldier launches himself down the mountainside, carving long arcs in the snow. He is not the most graceful skier, but no matter. Joy lights up his face, and with good reason.

In March 2004, in the heat and dust of faraway Iraq, a pipe bomb exploded during a riot in Basra. Fourteen British soldiers were injured, but none as badly as Nixon. A week later, he regained consciousness in Birmingham’s Selly Oak hospital to find both legs shattered. He spent the next two years in hospital, undergoing more than 20 operations. His doctors finally amputated his left leg in May 2006, and they are still fighting to save his right one. Nixon, 24, once ran ultra-marathons of 70 miles or more; now he is in a wheelchair and constant pain. He suffers from flashbacks, panic attacks and insomnia – classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He plies himself with painkillers and anti-depressants, had a breakdown earlier this year and has, at times, been suicidal.

In skiing, however, Nixon believes he has finally found salvation. Strapped into a bucket seat spring-mounted on a mono-ski, he has discovered that anything is possible if he is sufficiently determined, and that life is worth living again. He has reached a turning point, he says. “This is the most fun I’ve had in years. Until now, I’ve pretty much been a bum. I’ve just stayed at home and festered, but I’ve had enough of dwelling on the past. I want to get going.”

click above for the rest