Disabled vets find freedom underwater

From the San Antonio Express-News:

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Life on land for wounded Iraq war veteran Shane Heath is one where every step with the prosthetic leg can bring jolts of pain, every attempt to reach for something a reminder of the human arm that's no longer there.

Life in the water has been his liberation.

As a member of Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba, Heath, 29, has found himself able to explore the depths of the sea unfettered by his disabilities.

He's dived the waters of Guantanamo Bay, Puerto Rico, St. John, the Bahamas, North Carolina and Honduras, to name a few. Saturday, he made his 80th dive, into the cobalt blue waters off the coast of South Padre Island, becoming one of the newest aficionados of the sunken Texas Clipper, a World War II attack transport.

“All the aches, all the pains in your joints and everything, just go away,” he said after his first of the day's two dives more than 65 feet below the surface. “I can go down there and see all these amazing things, and I can do it by myself. I don't have to have someone to take care of me.”

Heath got turned on to the program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he has been undergoing rehabilitation since a makeshift bomb shattered two of his limbs in 2007.

Three other wounded veterans from the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio joined him on the trip.

“I guess I just love the marine life aspect of it,” said Danny Acosta, a 25-year-old Air Force veteran. The swimming, he said, was “almost like being a dolphin.”

SUDS is the brainchild of John Thompson, a diving instructor who found himself stationed with his National Guard unit at Guantanamo. He taught fellow military the sport in his off hours until he got transferred to Walter Reed.

“As soon as you walk in the door of Walter Reed, you see all these guys like this, missing arms, missing legs,” he said. “I wanted to try to somehow get involved.”

His background made him a natural choice for the Center for the Intrepid's aquatic therapy pool, but Thompson decided he could take it another step.

“I thought ... I'm a dive instructor, here's a swimming pool and here's all these injured guys. Let's see if we can use scuba diving as a physical therapy tool.”

He got the green light, and in February 2007 the program became a chapter of the Wounded Warrior disabled sports project.

The program is run on donations, such as the boat and crew provided for this weekend's dive by American Diving of South Padre. Families near dive spots often offer free food and lodging.

The program has since expanded to Bethesda Naval Hospital.

About the same time as Thompson, dive instructor John Duggan was starting a similar program at the Center for the Intrepid.

The two are now working jointly. One of the goals is to bring veterans with similar disabilities into contact with each other as both a support network and source of companions for a lifetime of deep-sea dives.

Thanks to their discipline, love of activity and can-do attitude, Thompson has found the veterans to be his best students.

“Shane may have more difficulty getting around above water, but he can dive better than anybody I know,” Thompson said. “It's just a really cool sport and it levels the playing field. Water is the great equalizer.”