California amputee becomes member of SWAT team

From The Sun in San Bernadino, Calif.

Detective Jim Considine (pictured) knew his prosthetic leg wouldn't keep him from returning to duty and earning a coveted spot on a SWAT team.

In fact, the 48-year-old sheriff's veteran trained so rigorously that he broke his healthy leg and had to wait another year to show his colleagues that being shot four times with an assault rifle had only motivated him to work harder.

"I knew if they would have me, I could prove myself to come back," Considine said. "I was told I was crazy but I never thought twice about it."

Considine is the only amputee to make it through the county's SWAT school and possibly the only one in the state, officials say.

He completed the two-week course in late May, scoring higher marks than many of the much younger, military-trained men.

"Jim's biggest issue is I don't think anybody ever told him his leg was cut off," Sgt. Shannon Dicus, his SWAT team leader, said with a laugh.

Considine was wounded in the line of duty in September 1997 during a shootout with a suicidal man in Phelan. He tried to take cover behind a tree in the rural desert but was shot four times in his right foot and leg by an SKS semiautomatic rifle.

He underwent 20 plus surgeries but a damaged artery in his leg caused his bones to deteriorate, and eventually the bones had to be fused together. Considine learned to walk again, but it was with a limp.

After tiring of the constant pain and reliance on pain killers just to make it through the day, he decided to amputee his leg below the knee.

He worked various jobs as a salesman and polygraph examiner, but he just couldn't stay away from law enforcement work.

Considine returned to the Sheriff's Department in April 2006 and patrolled the streets of Yucaipa. But first, Considine had to prove himself.

At the training academy in Devore, he underwent a physical agility test that included dragging 165 pounds of dead weight, doing countless pushups, running 1.5 miles in less than 12 minutes and climbing a 6-foot wall.

"Most people would pack up and go home after what he's been through, but he's still out here serving the public," Dicus said.

It hasn't always been easy. But Considine found that a positive attitude and a sense of humor helped him overcome mostly everything.

He has no qualms about wearing shorts and has become accustomed to people staring. He jokes with his fellow detectives about putting his best foot forward. He even named his boat "One Foot in the Grave."

"I'm a little more proud now," Considine said. "Let them stare - look at what I've accomplished."

When Considine began training for the annual SWAT school last year, he had about three weeks to whip himself into shape. The constant bicycling and running wore down his left leg and he couldn't try out after breaking a bone.

So he took the extra year to put himself through strenuous preparation, working with the SWAT team and pushing his body during workouts.

He knew he was ready when he showed up for the first day of SWAT school with 24 others. Four dropped out the first day.

But not Considine.

He strapped the 65 pounds of gear on his back and never complained, even while using all of his strength to hang on to the submachine gun.

"We put him through the same grueling drills as everybody else and he was in the upper part of that class," said Sgt. Tim O'Connell, supervising instructor for the county SWAT school. "It was amazing."

Those closest to Considine say he has inspired everyone with his perseverence and big heart.

His wife, Sherry Considine, said she is incredibly proud of him even if she does worry about his safety from time to time.

"He had to prove to himself that he is not disabled. His way to deal with it is to overachieve," she said. Joining SWAT "was just the cherry on the sundae."

Considine hasn't been able to make entry on a SWAT callout since he joined the team, but he said he's eagerly awaiting that day.

He feels like he's more prepared to handle the violent nature of calls that SWAT responds to because he has already experienced and survived a shooting.

"I'd like to have a leg back but I wouldn't change getting shot," Considine said. "It made me who I am."